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Let’s shout our approval of this foursome of vintage noirs, all of which have been scarce since Eddie Muller was old enough to rob candy stores. Three Paramounts and one Universal give us four notable directors and a gallery of attractive stars, including a swoon-worthy array of actresses: Marta Toren, Loretta Young, Susan Hayward, Gail Russell, Frances Farmer and Marina Berti. The selection includes one of the key ‘just prior to the official style’ titles, a thriller with supernatural overtones, a ‘woman in jeopardy’ story and a gangster tale reportedly inspired by Lucky Luciano.

Kino Noir Times Four

Blu-ray

Among the Living, Night Has a Thousand Eyes, The Accused, Deported

Kl Studio Classics

1941-1950 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / Street Date November 16, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / Separate Purchases / 24.95 each

Starring: Albert Dekker, Susan Hayward; Edward G. Robinson, Gail Russell; Loretta Young, Robert Cummings, Wendell Corey; Jeff Chandler, Marta Toren.

Directed by Stuart Heisler,...

Never heard of Wake Island? Its fall terrified Americans at Christmas of 1941. The war’s just begun, we’re definitely not winning, and the assignment was to make a movie about a tragic defeat that might be the first of many tragic defeats for the U.S.A.. Paramount’s careful morale-builder doesn’t exaggerate or sentimentalize the brutal fall of a tiny atoll in the Pacific, and stands as an example of filmmaking reaching for hope in the face of disaster.

Wake Island

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1942 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 88 min. / Street Date August 18, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Brian Donlevy, Robert Preston, Macdonald Carey, William Bendix, Albert Dekker, Walter Abel, Mikhail Rasumny, Rod Cameron, Bill Goodwin, Damian O’Flynn, Frank Albertson, Hugh Beaumont, Barbara Britton, Hillary Brooke, Dane Clark, Frank Faylen, Mary Field, Alan Hale Jr., Richard Loo, James Millican, Jack Mulhall, Keith Richards, Phillip Terry, Mary Thomas,...

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By John M. Whalen

Do the names Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci, Frank Kramer, Sartana, Sabata, Tuco or Trinity mean anything to you, amigo? If they do, it’s probably because you’ve seen a few too many Spaghetti Westerns. "Spaghetti Western," for those tenderfoots that might not know, is the name given to a host of western films made in Italy and Spain during the sixties and seventies featuring an international cast usually headed by an American actor who had seen better days. Cowboy actors like Rod Cameron, Edd Byrne, and Guy Madison went to Europe after their TV and film careers petered out to battle outlaws, rustlers and ruthless killers who looked more like they just stepped out of a pizzeria in Palermo than a saloon in South Texas. These movies are wild, violent, and weird, but there was a certain something...

Dennis Hopper’s legendary follow-up to Easy Rider ended his Hollywood directing career for at least fifteen years. Barely seen again after brief premiere bookings, it hasn’t built up a reputation as a suppressed masterpiece. So what is it exactly? A new spotless restoration gives a dazzling rebirth to Hopper’s Perú- filmed deconstruction of Hollywood. The astonishing number of notables in the cast list may in itself demand a viewing.

The Last Movie

Blu-ray

Arbelos

1971 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 108 min. / Street Date November 13, 2018 / 39.99

Starring: Dennis Hopper, Stella García, Tomas Milian, Don Gordon, Julie Adams, Donna Baccala, Sylvia Miles, Rod Cameron, Severn Darden, Sam Fuller, Peter Fonda, Henry Jaglom, Michelle Phillips, Kris Kristofferson, Dean Stockwell, Russ Tamblyn, Clint Kimbrough, John Phillip Law, James Mitchum, Richard Rust, Toni Basil, Michael Anderson Jr.

Cinematography: László Kovács

Production design: Leon Ericksen

Film Editors: David Berlatsky, Antranig Mahakian, Dennis Hopper, [Alejandro Jodorowsky]

Original Music: Severn Darden,...

'The Pink Panther' with Peter Sellers: Blake Edwards' 1963 comedy hit and its many sequels revolve around one of the most iconic film characters of the 20th century: clueless, thick-accented Inspector Clouseau – in some quarters surely deemed politically incorrect, or 'insensitive,' despite the lack of brown face make-up à la Sellers' clueless Indian guest in Edwards' 'The Party.' 'The Pink Panther' movies [1] There were a total of eight big-screen Pink Panther movies co-written and directed by Blake Edwards, most of them starring Peter Sellers – even after his death in 1980. Edwards was also one of the producers of every (direct) Pink Panther sequel, from A Shot in the Dark to Curse of the Pink Panther. Despite its iconic lead character, the last three movies in the Pink Panther franchise were box office bombs. Two of these, The Trail of the Pink Panther and Curse of the Pink Panther, were co-written by Edwards' son,...

Chicago – With the release of “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” there is a reminder of all the films in cinema history that dared to challenge something, within an existence that sometimes has trouble getting out of bed. Here are ten such films, filling in the holes of and taking on the mantle of (Blank) vs. (Blank).

Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

Kramer vs. Kramer

Photo credit: Columbia Pictures

This weeper did take on some pretty lofty issues in a post feminist society where gender roles – while loosening up considerably – were still pretty rigid. Meryl Streep does her usual scene stealing as Joanna Kramer, a frustrated wife and mother who shakes up circumstances by leaving her husband Ted (Dustin Hoffman) and their young boy Billy (Justin Henry).

Ted is forced to care for a child he’s barely known, and goes through a transition of his own. This Academy Award winning Best Picture...