Criterion Newsletter

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#851 Post by **domino harvey** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 8:53 pm

Another great newsletter clue: I love it when they tip us onto a movie no one anticipated!

#852 Post by **kinjitsu** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 8:54 pm

Jeff wrote:Correctamundo.

A no-brainer if there ever was one. I haven't seen this in several decades so have little recall as to its political incorrectness, but can easily imagine.

#853 Post by **Jeff** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 9:00 pm

kinjitsu wrote:I haven't seen this in several decades so have little recall as to its political incorrectness, but can easily imagine.

Roger Ebert's contemporaneous review sums up what I gather was the critical consensus:

...the film itself remains pure fantasy. Sure, it's nice to think you could outrun half a dozen hand-picked African warriors simply because you'd been to college and read Thoreau, but the truth is they'd nail you before you got across the river and into the trees.

#854 Post by **domino harvey** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 9:03 pm

Roger Ebert wrote:you can bet your biltong

This should have caught on

#855 Post by **kinjitsu** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 9:11 pm

In other words, Ebert knows from biltong (boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, boom).

Dave Kehr's capsule in Chicago Reader:

Cornel Wilde stars in and directs this neat variation on "The Most Dangerous Game": he's a white hunter who's captured by a hostile tribe, stripped of his clothes and weapons, and sent back out into the bush to be tracked down for sport. Moderately pretentious, though very well filmed, this was the sort of thing teenage boys throve on in the dark ages Before Spielberg.

Robert Alden of The New York Times loathed it.

"THE NAKED PREY" is a poor and tasteless motion-picture entertainment, redeemed somewhat by its authentic African setting and its effective use of tribal drums and native music as the accompaniment for a primitive jungle chase.

Tribe · #856 Post by **Tribe** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 10:05 pm

I know nothing at all about this movie, but from what I'm reading it sure looks like its crap. I wonder if this would be paired with The Most Dangerous Game in a re-issue...'cause, and I sure could be wrong, this one doesn't appear to even have Ed Wood appeal.

Tribe

#857 Post by **domino harvey** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 10:14 pm

It certainly sounds like another release in the vein of Equinox or RC on Mars.

eez28 · #858 Post by **eez28** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 10:15 pm

I'm totally with you Tribe. This just means more money saved for me. I'm not even sure if I would even rent it from the library. However, I do have to applaud Criterion for bringing forth another film that probably would never have seen the light outside of a studio vault.

Matango · #859 Post by **Matango** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 10:17 pm

I wonder if they'll include something along the lines of that laughably unecessary disclaimer about not condoning Apartheid that appeared on the Zulu laserdisc.

indy81 · #860 Post by **indy81** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 10:39 pm

I'm surprised to see no love for The Naked Prey. This is a Holy Grail DVD release in certain circles - it's rated 7.6/10 on IMDB. It's definitely not art cinema, and politically/ideologically it's very problematic, like all Western "jungle" movies. But it's an exciting film and Wilde is a underrated director. It will be great to see it in Scope. Give it a chance, you might like it. Of course, I love Most Dangerous Game and Robinson Crusoe on Mars too, so...

Matango · #861 Post by **Matango** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 10:45 pm

I really like TNP, it's a great adventure yarn with sensational comeuppance for those Whites that disrespect the natives, and great atmosphere. Wilde's chase is realistic enough, but I can't imagine Ebert getting far, even with a loincloth. A cracking yarn all in all.

Cinephrenic · #862 Post by **Cinephrenic** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 11:38 pm

Funny I was looking at unreleased Paramount titles and somehow saw this as a possible Criterion.

Matango · #863 Post by **Matango** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 5:39 am

Yes, it's a real surprise..so much so that I'm wondering if we might be wrong on this one, even though TNP did spring to mind immediately. I was all ready to be the first to post on this earlier today, then saw that I'd been beaten to it by a few.

#864 Post by **domino harvey** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 6:17 am

Wait a minute, I just remembered that I told you all about this already last March

Matango · #865 Post by **Matango** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 6:22 am

That's some serious hunchin' right there.

gordonovitch · #866 Post by **gordonovitch** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 9:39 am

I so don't want the latest clue to point to The Naked Prey that I'm hoping the release will be 1940's Thief of Bagdad. Sabu goes around in something that might be called a loincloth, and doesn't there have to be a snake charmer in that film somewhere?

Gordon Thomas

#867 Post by **kinjitsu** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 9:51 am

Matango wrote:That's some serious hunchin' right there.

If you believe that, then I suggest you eat another mushroom.

#868 Post by **Matt** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 10:17 am

gordonovitch wrote:I so don't want the latest clue to point to The Naked Prey that I'm hoping the release will be 1940's Thief of Bagdad. Sabu goes around in something that might be called a loincloth, and doesn't there have to be a snake charmer in that film somewhere?

Yeah, and there's that cameo by the decayed corpse of Oscar Wilde. It's a perfect fit!

starmanof51 · #869 Post by **starmanof51** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 11:42 am

Matt wrote:Yeah, and there's that cameo by the decayed corpse of Oscar Wilde. It's a perfect fit!

Well, inevitably the first Wilde that flashed through my mind was Oscar, not Cornel (apologies to Cornies' mum). Upon seeing the clue, I wasted a second trying to figure out where there might be a loincloth in the '48 version of "An Ideal Husband".

Granted, it might have made a fun playsuit for Lord Goring, but it's just not in the text...

ltfontaine · #870 Post by **ltfontaine** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 12:53 pm

souvenir wrote:Is the clue possibly for Salome?

I'm still holding out hope that souvenir is on the right track, because this would be much more fun than The Naked Prey.

Narshty · #871 Post by **Narshty** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 1:07 pm

If they've got The Naked Prey, can Cobra Woman be far behind?

HerrSchreck · #872 Post by **HerrSchreck** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 6:31 pm

eez28 wrote:I'm totally with you Tribe. This just means more money saved for me. I'm not even sure if I would even rent it from the library. However, I do have to applaud Criterion for bringing forth another film that probably would never have seen the light outside of a studio vault.

What other films are you talking about? There are plenty of "underground" type labels, and rarities-driven labels releasing stuff that literally will sell maybe 200 copies over a period of years, that should be applauded for their guts and avant sensibility (like Koch's Epoch label releasing the early Chinese classics)... but I don't see many titles like that in CC (anyone say the word "Silents"?).

I suspect this to be a halfhearted release that was a contingency to acquire CRUSOE ON MARS from Paramount... ie "you want one we could have made a few good bucks on ourselves, you haveta take one we didn't really know how to handle." The nearly back to back timing of the two hints at--since we know CC & Paramount have dealt w each other virtually never-- their simultaneous acquisition.

eez28 · #873 Post by **eez28** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 7:24 pm

What I had in mind were:

Under the Volcano
Mala Noche
Cria
Ace in the Hole
Overlord
Monsters and Madmen set
Symbio.....
Clean, Shaven
and a few others I would never picture being released on dvd by a studio

These films I have in my mind as being a little gutsy and could easily be skipped over by many as not being worth a dvd release but Criterion sees them as important enough and instead of letting them sit around they take the time and effort to give them a worthy dvd. With the Naked Prey, while I personally do not have an interest, I can see that many do, it also falls into the above catalogue of being a film skipped upon by the studio but I can honestly say that it does make me smile to see it given a dvd release (and I bet it will probably be a good one).

So while those other "underground" type labels you speak of may do a fine if even excellent job of getting out stuff that would never see the light of day, I feel that they should be justly applauded in their rightful thread, but it just won't be by me because I just don't have the funds to take on collecting stuff from more labels. I didn't mean to put them down or anything, I just never would have seen the need to give them props in the Newsletter thread.

HerrSchreck · #874 Post by **HerrSchreck** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 7:51 pm

It may be a language thing, but I'm not clear on the distinction you're making in the last paragraph. But suffice to say I get your point, and I really try to avoid going around pooping on other folks' enthusiasms. Most of the time, my joy is that it's CC that's putting something out, not the fact that the thing is coming out at all. In this dvd glut, studios are rampaging their refrigerators for every piece of kitch or schlock, or bad performance by a half-name that hasn't been put out to cull them into some kind of "the XXXX signature collection", or by some category (see WB's Cult Camp, etc) just to keep the dvd release ball rolling.

Wilder, Huston, van Sant, sci fi by Richard Gordon, Suarez'-- these are all well known and globally celebrated names & titles. They're either known and well celebrated masterpieces, or titles with a pre-existing large audience that's well-known to be slavering.. The thing that really made me stand up and cheer was the Eclipse Bernard... that's a real deal move, that was done with the knowledge that for approx 95% of the R1 buyers, the buy would be blind and with no foreknowledge of the contents. That's guts.

Person · #875 Post by **Person** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:04 pm

I love The Naked Prey - pure Cinema, kinetic, great music. I have a pan and scan DVD-R and the hunters are almost always cut off, so seeing it in 2.35:1 anamorphic is going to be amazing, I'm sure. Hard to see what kind of extras we'll see, though. January is looking great for me, so far, ie. Heart is a Lonely Hunter - another damn-hard-to-see film.