Tales of Long Gone Hot Summers
With early October temperatures still floating in the high teens and low 20s, it seems fitting to buck the trend for fall-themed movies in favour of two steamy sexually provocative tales set in the sweltering, southern U.S. summertime.
Sommer Einz: Heisse UND Lange !
Twilight Time’s mined one of my favourite dramas for a Blu-ray release: Martin Ritt’s 1958 film version of William Faulkner’s The Long, Hot Summer, which launched the teaming of power couple Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.
The pair are surrounded by Lee Remick, Tony Franciosa, and Orson Welles, plus Angela Lansbury and Richard Anderson. Jerry Wald’s production just glows – among Fox’s stellar producers, Wald knew how to package sex, drama, and gorgeous visuals into a CinemaScope production, and this is surely one of many that deserve to be seen on the big screen, with its stereophonic sound delivering provocative and witty dialogue, and Alex North’s sultry score.
Sommer Zwei: Plotzlich UND Zaftig !
TT also released one of the stranger Tennessee Williams adaptations, the Gothic drama (or emotional horror tale) Suddenly, Last Summer (1959).
The powerhouse cast features Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, Katherine Hepburn, Mercedes McCambridge, and Albert Dekker. Suddenly has its flaws, but director Joseph L. Mankiewicz managed to balance the cast’s egos, their brooding personal problems, Gore Vidal’s raw script, and the looming persona of producer Sam Spiegel into a magnetic drama.
Taylor’s great, but Hepburn is amazing playing an ice cold manipulative mother plotting to have memories of her son’s death carved out of her daughter-in-law’s brain.
Coming shortly are reviews of the Tom Cruise dud The Mummy (2017) and its superior counterpart Tutankhamun / aka The Mummy of Tutankhamun (2016), and I’m finishing up on the first podcast tied to Video Store Day. There will be some bitching, some candor, some ranting, and some chiding, but also details on how you’ll be able to see my experimental documentary BSV 1172: Your Friendly Neighbourhood Video Store for free in the days leading up to VSD.
Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com
Category: EDITOR'S BLOG
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