Universal Catalog Titles on Blu

[knives]

It was included in that very cheap DVD box set from a few years ago.

[domino harvey]

This is the Night and the Big Broadcast of 1938 added to next month’s slate

[starmanof51]

This is the Night and the Big Broadcast of 1938 added to next month’s slate

Forced to admit I'm an outsized fan of This is the Night, and will be picking it up

[domino harvey]

I love it too!

[domino harvey]

April:

Three more WC Fields vehicles:
International House
Million Dollar Legs
Mississippi

Here Comes Cookie
the Private War of Major Benson

[domino harvey]

May:

the Black Shield of Falworth
the Phantom President
Romanoff and Juliet - Fun fact: this is, I believe, the only film I’ve watched without finishing in the last twenty years
Three Smart Girls

[Aunt Peg]

May:


Romanoff and Juliet - Fun fact: this is, I believe, the only film I’ve watched without finishing in the last twenty years

Another fun fact: It was in the Main Competition at Berlin in 1961 and Peter Ustinov was nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award in 1962. To be fair the DGA at 19 nominee's for 18 films (Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins were nominated and won for West Side Story) but still it's a shock to see something so bad get a nomination over much better films. The next year the DGA went down to 9 nominee's and then the year after that to 5.

I saw Romanoff and Juliet as part of a project I have been undertaken to see all the films in the Main Competition at Berlin, Cannes & Venice over the years. It's been a very mixed experience with R&J being one of the lowest points.

[denti alligator]

It looks like only the Dracula Legacy set has made it to UHD. Does anyone know if the others are planned for upgrade, too? You'd think Frankenstein would be a no-brainer.

[Tuco]

Where oh where is SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, at least on blu-ray, as a single disc? I know there was one from Elephant Films in France, but it appears to be out of print. OK, enough whining, back to searching for the 8 hour GREED...

[domino harvey]

Curious about Skylark and Zaza, if anyone can recommend

I’ll give a minor recommendation to Skylark, Past Me. The set up and characters here prepare us for a great screwball which never materializes, no surprise given that this was based on a book by Samson Raphaelson (and no surprise it doesn’t reach his level considering he didn’t write the script). But there are aspects of this film which are fantastic. Most notably is that it is beautifully shot, which might undermine the comedy if this were funnier but works in the current iteration. Colbert gives a surprisingly loose, fun performance here as the defeated wife who always seems like she’s coming out on top regardless. But the biggest strength and eventual weakness here is Brian Aherne. The first fifteen minutes of his character give great promise that the film never delivers, but whew he’s a fully credible charming cad while it lasts (great line upon Colbert introducing herself to him: “No woman who’s been married five years wants to meet me.”). But bizarrely, once he’s served this purpose, he’s rendered completely useless as the film struggles rather unsuccessfully to realign audience sympathies with Ray Milland’s rather deserving dumpee. This culminates in a prolonged physical comedy set piece for Colbert which is never amusing for an instant and yet keeps going and going and it’s somehow the finale of the movie. This cast and these characters in this story could easily have been a classic, but it’s not.