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The Palm Springs area will live up to its reputation for seediness under the cover of never-ending nights — irony intended — as the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival returns to town for its 22nd annual marathon of vintage crime dramas this weekend. Leonard Maltin and TCM “Noir Alley” host Eddie Muller will be among the guest hosts joining festival curator Alan K. Rode for a four-day deep dive into the dark that kicks off Thursday night with the 1949 Nicholas Ray film whose title pretty much says it all about the genre being celebrated: “They Live by Night.”

That opening night will be preceded Wednesday by a fundraising performance by frequent festival guest Victoria Mature, daughter of Hollywood golden-age icon Victor Mature, dubbed “Victoria/Victor Mature Cabaret, an Evening of Memories and Music,” to be held, as with the festival proper, at the Palm Springs Cultural Center. Mature will also be on...

As 2021 mercifully winds down, the Criterion Channel have a (November) lineup that marks one of their most diverse selections in some time—films by the new masters Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Garrett Bradley, Dan Sallitt’s Fourteen (one of 2020’s best films) couched in a fantastic retrospective, and Criterion editions of old favorites.

Fourteen is featured in “Between Us Girls: Bonds Between Women,” which also includes Céline and Julie, The Virgin Suicides, and Yvonne Rainer’s Privilege. Of equal note are Criterion editions for Ghost World, Night of the Hunter, and (just in time for del Toro’s spin) Nightmare Alley—all stacked releases in their own right.

See the full list of October titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.

300 Nassau, Marina Lameiro, 2015

5 Card Stud, Henry Hathaway, 1968

Alone, Garrett Bradley, 2017

Álvaro, Daniel Wilson, Elizabeth Warren, Alexandra Lazarowich, and Chloe Zimmerman, 2015

America, Garrett Bradley, 2019

Angel Face, Otto Preminger, 1953

Angels Wear White,...

Takeshi Kovacs can’t smile. That’s just a fact or, better put, a defining facet of “Altered Carbon’s” lead character. After watching the first 10 hours of Netflix’s sci-fi adaptation — about a future where a person’s brain can be digitized into a portable “stack,” and then swapped into a new body to achieve immortality — it was clear the 300-year-old Envoy played (mostly) by Joel Kinnaman can fight well, shoot even better, and have remarkably nimble sex for a three-times-over centenarian.

But following that first season, my own digitized stack can only produce images of an angry Kinnaman, a sad Kinnaman, and, the most popular version, a confused Kinnaman, who’s blank face offers only the faintest hint of curiosity. The actor known for similarly hard-edged action roles in “Robocop” and “Suicide Squad” could dutifully perform Kovacs’ functions, just like his military-trained interstellar warrior, but he cannot smile.

Now that October is officially underway, that means we have a big week of Blu-ray and DVD releases to get excited for, and there are some great genre-related titles coming out on Tuesday. Universal Studios Home Entertainment is unleashing both Tales from the Hood 2 and The First Purge on multiple formats, and for fans of action cinema, Death Race: Beyond Anarchy races home this week, too. Kino Lorber is giving both The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler the limited edition treatment, and for those who enjoy indie horror, Feral, Housewife,and Blood Fest are certainly all worth your time.

Other notable releases for October 2nd include Extremity, Molly, The Legend of Halloween Jack, The Evil Dead in 4K, Sleep No More, and West of Hell, with Rob Zombie’s Halloween getting a Steelbook release as well.

The First Purge

Blumhouse Productions welcomes you to the movement that began as...

Before the influential Kolchak: The Night Stalker series aired on ABC in the mid-’70s, Darren McGavin brought the titular investigative reporter to life for the first time in the 1972 TV movie The Night Stalker, which is getting a 4K restoration Blu-ray release from Kino Lorber this October, along with its 1973 sequel, The Night Strangler.

Announced on Facebook and Twitter, The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler Blu-rays will be released on October 2nd in the Us. Each release will come with a new 4K restoration, a new audio commentary with film historian Tim Lucas, and other new special features.

Below, we have the announcements from Kino Lorber, as well as a look at the new cover art by Sean Phillips. Let us know if you'll be adding these releases to your home media collection, and in case you missed it, read Scott Drebit's It Came From the Tube column...

Robert Siodmak’s superb noir classic pits two graduates of Little Italy against one other: a crook who can deceive relatives and seduce strangers into helping him, and the cop who wants to put him out of business. Starring the great Richard Conte, with Victor Mature in what might be his best role.

Cry of the City

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1948 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 95 min. / Street Date November 15, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring Victor Mature, Richard Conte, Fred Clark, Shelley Winters, Betty Garde, Berry Kroeger, Tommy Cook, Debra Paget, Hope Emerson, Roland Winters, Walter Baldwin, Mimi Aguglia, Kathleen Howard, Konstantin Shayne, Tito Vuolo.

Cinematography Lloyd Ahern

Original Music Alfred Newman

Written by Richard Murphy from the novel The Chair for Martin Rome by Henry Edward Helseth

Produced by Sol C. Siegel

Directed by Robert Siodmak

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Perhaps because of a legal or rights issue, Robert Siodmak...

In this episode of Off The Shelf, Ryan and Brian take a look at the new DVD and Blu-ray releases for the first three weeks of November, 2016.

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Links to Amazon

November 1st

Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders Battle of the Sexes Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze I Wake Up Screaming Neighbors Star Trek Beyond Stripes: Theatrical Cut

November 8th

Bubba Ho-Tep Daredevil: The Complete First Season I, the Jury Lone Wolf and Cub Private Property

November 15th

Akira Kurosawas Dreams Better Call Saul: Season 2 Boomerang Breathless Citizen Kane: 75th Anniversary Coffee & Cigarettes Cry of the City Dead Ringers Death Of A Salesman Finding Dory Game of Thrones: The Complete Sixth Season Hannie Caulder J’Accuse The Jungle Book Macbeth Punch-Drunk Love Star Trek Animated Time After Time Credits Ryan Gallagher (Twitter / Website / Wish List) Brian Saur (Twitter / Website / Instagram / Wish...

Yes, it is a perfect title for a horror picture, but it belongs to an early film noir -- or as we discover, a murder thriller that previews the classic '40s noir visual look. Victor Mature is the man on the spot for a killing, Betty Grable and Carole Landis are a pair of sisters in danger, and Laird Cregar is the creepiest police detective in the history of the force. I Wake Up Screaming Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1941 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 82 min. / Street Date November 1, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Carole Landis, Laird Cregar, William Gargan, Alan Mowbray, Allyn Joslyn, Elisha Cook Jr. Cinematography Edward Cronjager Art Direction Richard Day, Nathan Juran Film Editor Robert L. Simpson Original Music Cyril J. Mockridge, Harold Barlow Written by Dwight Taylor from the novel by Steve Fisher Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

My,...

By John M. Whalen

It’s night and a ship moves in the water through a dark curtain of fog. We see George Raft as Captain Johnny Angel on the bridge peering out into the pea soup as another vessel looms ahead suddenly in the darkness, abandoned and drifting in the water. Raft sounds the foghorn but there’s no response. He boards the derelict with several of his crew to search for clues as to what happened. They go below to the captain’s quarters and finds it wrecked. A picture lies on a desk in a shattered frame. Raft picks it up and we see it is a picture of him as a younger man standing next to an older one. A crew member enters the cabin and says there is blood below, and water in the hold, but no signs of life.

“Maybe your father’s okay,...

In this episode of Off The Shelf, Ryan and Brian take a look at the new DVD and Blu-ray releases for Tuesday, May 24th 2016.

Subscribe in iTunes or RSS.

Follow-Up Keaton shorts collection Bill & Ted News Warner Archive: Unsinkable Molly Brown, They Were Expendable, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Victor / Victoria Kino Lorber: I Wake Up Screaming,Battle of the Sexes, Fritz Lang’s Western Union, Destiny Grindhouse Releasing: Fulci’s A Cat in the Brain Disney Movie Club: The Boatniks Signal One upcoming releases Universal: Patch Adams BFI: Carmen Jones (Released by Fox in the Us), The Crying Game, Cry of the City (Coming in September from Kino in the Us) Kickstarter: RoboDoc Links to Amazon 54 Director’s Cut Buster Keaton: The Shorts Collection 1917–1923 The Chase Devlin (1974): The Complete Series French Postcards Iphigenia Killer Dames: Two Gothic Chillers King & Four Queens Manhunter A Married Woman Mystery Science Theater 3000...

Lock your doors! Hulking menace Victor Buono gets the full-on psycho treatment, based (very) roughly on early reports of The Boston Strangler. The 'baby doll' killer also prefigures the fiendish Richard Speck. Burt Topper's film is routine but ex- Baby Jane star Victor Buono's performance is decidedly not. The Strangler DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1964 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 89 min. / Street Date November 10, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Victor Buono, Diane Sayer, Davey Davison, Jeanne Bates, Ellen Corby, Mimi Dillard, Selette Cole, David McLean, Baynes Barron, Michael Ryan, Russ Bender, Wally Campo, Byron Morrow, John Yates, James Sikking, Robert Cranford. Cinematography Jacques R. Marquette Film Editor Robert S. Eisen Original Music Martin Skiles Written by Bill S. Ballinger Produced by Samuel Bischoff, David Diamond Directed by Burt Topper

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

The old-time independent producer Edward Small gravitated to United Artists in the 1950s, while his counterpart...

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the reboot of the franchise that peaked in the 90s, resurrects the crime-fighting reptiles in a corrupt New York City.

Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello are back in action, rising up from the sewers to combat Shredder and The Foot Clan. The unlikely heroes are helped along in their mission by journalist April O’Neil (Megan Fox) and her cameraman Vernon Fenwick (Will Arnett). The film, produced by Michael Bay, had director Jonathan Libesman at the helm.

'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Reviews

Upon watching the summer’s latest big-budget blockbuster, critics have aligned to slam Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Complaints range from the film taking itself too seriously and not recreating the tone of the earlier movies to it having an incoherent plot and too much of Bay’s signature loud and meaningless action sequences. One critic laments the film ever being made at all.

Along with Sidney Lumet’s Making Movies and Andrei Tarkovsky’s Sculpting in Time, a book — an essay comprised of diary excerpts, actually — I recommend to all aspiring directors is Richard Stanley’s “I Wake Up Screaming.” It originally appeared in the 1994 third edition of the film anthology Projections, and it’s now published (with permission, the site claims) at the director’s unofficial website, Between Death and the Devil. “I Wake Up Screaming” documents Stanley’s attempt to make an ambitious Namibia-shot art horror-thriller called Dust Devil years after an earlier production fell apart. The movie Stanley went on to make instead, […]...

Along with Sidney Lumet’s Making Movies and Andrei Tarkovsky’s Sculpting in Time, a book — an essay comprised of diary excerpts, actually — I recommend to all aspiring directors is Richard Stanley’s “I Wake Up Screaming.” It originally appeared in the 1994 third edition of the film anthology Projections, and it’s now published (with permission, the site claims) at the director’s unofficial website, Between Death and the Devil. “I Wake Up Screaming” documents Stanley’s attempt to make an ambitious Namibia-shot art horror-thriller called Dust Devil years after an earlier production fell apart. The movie Stanley went on to make instead, […]...

Second #3760, 62:40

Jeffrey, having arrived later than expected to pick up Sandy after school, has just been spotted by Sandy’s boyfriend Mike, who is doing a variation of jumping jack exercises with the football team (in full uniform, including helmets) on a tennis court across the street in a scene that oddly predicts the “Do the Locomotion” scene in Inland Empire. We are back in the sunlight now, the deeply coded normalcy of high school, the girls in their long skirts recalling the teenage rebel movies of the 1950s. The frame captures no one looking at anyone. Dead gazes. A frame filled with people and trees and grass and a building and a car. The end of spring. The beginning of summer.

Sandy. The fact of Sandy. In her classic 1974 book From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies, Molly Haskell wrote:

In the penumbral world of the detective story,...

Ah, now isn't that something? The absolute simplicity is delicious; an actor, a prop and a light throwing shadows. Nearly effortlessly it expresses explorations in power, individual freedom, anger, fear, and hesitation in one frame of film. Can there ever be enough films with visual themes such as these? For me, hell no.

From I Wake Up Screaming (1941); directed by H. Bruce Humberstone; cinematography by Edward Cronjager.

Yes, you'll do right hiding your face in your hands. You couldn't Laird Cregar your way out of this sad remake of I Wake Up Screaming.

You may think it a shame that the best mise-en-scène in the picture has you out of the spotlight and your face obscured. However that's just the type of capture I like best. This viewer prefers to focus on architecture, lighting, composition and the way they all come together to tell the story. Sometimes they create a far more rewarding visual treat than the other elements of the film.

This is an peek at the way I view films—looking past the plot and the stars to what intrigues me about cinema.

From Vicki (1953); directed by Harry Horner; cinematography by Milton Krasner.

Cinema Club Presents: Two nights of film noir with film writer/noir expert Eddie Muller

Sunday July 11: The Prowler

Monday July 12: Cry Danger

The Cinema Club, Alamo’s premier venue for film discussion and appreciation, has brought some great films and greater guests to the theatre in the past few months: Ninotchka with host Charles Ramirez Berg; Bride Of Frankenstein with Thomas Schatz; and Night Nurse with Kim Morgan. In July, the Cinema Club continues its project of bringing nearly-forgotten classics to the big screen for past-due celebrations with a two day festival of film noir.

Eddie Muller, who is known in certain circles as the “Czar of Noir,” stands alone as the foremost expert on the genre. For those unfamiliar with the charismatic and erudite writer, Muller is the author of Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir, Dark City Dames: The Wicked Women of Film Noir,...