Month: August 2010

Hollywood Round-up, 8/18

Rooney Mara, newly of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"

By Jason Apuzzo. • Several important industry sites (including Anne Thompson’s blog and The Wrap) are suddenly making the point today of how overlooked Angelina Jolie is as an action star, and how we should welcome having more female action stars, even explicitly comparing the box office performance of Salt to The Expendables. Glad to see people getting on board with this one.

In the meantime, buzz is already starting to build about the possibility of a ‘Salt 2′ (which would be the perfect Cold War title, btw).  Apparently everybody’s ready to go on that, including Jolie and director Phillip Noyce.  All Sony’s waiting for is to see Salt’s overseas performance, and to that end Jolie just premiered the film in London and in Paris.  I must say, I haven’t seen a star do this kind of world tour (Moscow, Tokyo, London, Paris, even Comic-Con) in quite a while … let’s hope it pays off.

To Libertas readers who haven’t seen Salt yet, go see it!  Everybody’s all but saying that if the box office on this film goes a little bit higher, there will be a sequel … which we can presume will feature Angelina Jolie hunting communist infiltrators here in the U.S.  And we want that, right? It’s likely to be better than whatever Stallone’s planning for his next Expendables.  [I was glad to see, by the way, that my colleague Kyle Smith didn’t like The Expendables, either.]   In related Jolie news today, Jolie is urging people to continue donating aid relief to Pakistan, and denying rumors that she will soon be playing Marilyn Monroe.  She apparently has a full schedule.

• David Fincher’s Girl With the Dragon Tattoo adaptation has been cast, and the lead’s going to be played by newcomer Rooney Mara (who’s in Fincher’s The Social Network). Daniel Craig co-stars. I haven’t commented on this project yet because I’m still figuring out what I think about it. Beyond that, I know little about Ms. Mara, other than that she’s part of the wonderful Mara family that owns football’s New York Giants. Stay tuned for more on this subject later.

Rose Byrne in talks for "X-Men: First Class."

• Obama apparently just alienated half of Los Angeles yesterday, including a healthy portion of his elite Hollywood donor base.  This was due to his motorcade bringing most of West Los Angeles’ traffic to a complete standstill, the ultimate no-no out here.  Heavy-hitter industry columnists like the LA Times’ Patrick Goldstein and The Wrap’s Hunter Walker felt compelled to chastise Obama on this whole mess, and there are even calls for an investigation.  Plus, we’re now learning that Barbra Streisand and Jeffrey Katzenberg were no-shows at the Obama fundraiser that was the pretext for The President’s visit, even though Streisand and Katzenberg were co-hosts for the fundraiser itself.  Unreal.  [If you want to read more about the fundraising dinner, see here and here.]

Here’s what’s happening: Obama is looking weak, unaccomplished and self-absorbed right now.  And it’s all catching up to him.  I also notice very few younger people among the guests listed for this event.  Obama’s even weaker out here than I thought.

• Fox is apparently planning to recycle some of its excess film prints and trailers into polyester clothing – which seems just about right to me. I volunteer to be on the selection committee picking out the films on that one.  Tooth Fairy, anyone?

• I was very disappointed not to catch Gareth Edwards’ indie alien invasion flick Monsters when it showed at the recent LA Film Festival.  Part of the problem was that they didn’t even have a trailer for it at that time.  Well, some new trailers are now available for the film, including this one below:

This is looking pretty interesting, although I’m not seeing anything especially fresh or original here – just good execution of a simple idea.  We’ll keep an eye on this one – it’s already looking better than Skyline.  By the way, Monsters was made largely using only a 5-person crew. Fantastic.

• Examples of films with no heat around them right now: Oliver Stone’s Wall Street 2 (see here), and geek films like Scott Pilgrim (see here).  Glad to see this.  Another film that has no heat with me personally, although a lot of other people seem excited about it (including The Venice Film Festival, where it’s debuting) is the Darren Aronofsky/Natalie Portman ballet thriller, The Black Swan.  A new trailer came out today for that film and … how do I put this politely? … Ms. Portman still can’t act.  I’m sorry but Natalie Portman at this point is really looking like a pretty face who’s given chance after chance but still can’t quite put a compelling character over.

• There’s a ton of sci-fi news today.  First of all, James Cameron does a lengthy interview (see here) in which he discusses Avatar: Special Edition, the remastering of Aliens, and Battle Angel (a potential forthcoming project).  He also discusses working with Guillermo del Toro on adapting Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness (see here for that segment).  He also does another interview today in which he discusses what he learned from screening Avatar to native tribesmen in the Amazon.  So what did he learn?  Apparently down in the Amazon they favor non-violent resolutions to their problems, rather than Cameron’s preferred bloodbath approach (as when American soldiers get shot to pieces at the end of Avatar).  Isn’t that perfect?  The natives apparently aren’t all that restless.  The irony is so thick there you can cut it with a chainsaw.

Brooklyn Decker of "Battleship."

The weirdest sci-fi news of the day: because the guys behind the aliens-invade-LA thriller Skyline also did visual effects for Sony’s aliens-invade-LA thriller Battle: Los Angeles … Sony may sue them for conflict of interest.  Amazing.  I think this is a bad idea that Sony’s floating – they should retract this plan immediately, because it’s going to really alienate potential fans.  So to speak.  It’s a classic David vs. Goliath situation that Sony will inevitably lose, much like the alien invaders in their film.

Finally, some photos have leaked of some of the new vehicles in the forthcoming Mad Max: Fury Road, The Thing remake has a new poster, Rose Byrne is in talks to appear in X-Men: First Class, and the cast of Piranha 3D does a hilarious (if somewhat raw) video today explaining why their film should be in Oscar contention.  I must say: the marketing for this cheeky little fish thriller has been perfect.  Can’t wait to see it.

• Are you a fan of JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater?  I certainly am.  He’s being offered a reality TV series, apparently, and has already hired a publicist … and in his honor you’ve got to read this list from the College Crunch people of “The Top 10 Greatest Movie Meltdowns Ever.” My only quibbles with this list are that Howard Beale in Network isn’t #1 … and where’s Al Pacino in And Justice For All?  “No, you’re out of order!!!”  Another favorite of mine is Michael Douglas’ Falling Down, and the Paddy Chayefsky/George C. Scott masterpiece The Hospital.

• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … Victoria’s Secret model, actress and wife of Andy Roddick Brooklyn Decker has just been cast in Universal’s huge new adaptation of Battleship.  She’ll apparently be playing the film’s love interest, a character described as being able to “surf, fight, dance and crush the NY Times crossword puzzle.”  The character has also apparently “driven a motorcycle around the world twice.”  It’s amazing what gals need to have on their resumé nowadays just to be a love interest.  I would think her other attributes would’ve more or less closed the deal on this one.

And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood.

Posted on August 1tth, 2010 at 8:57pm.

Classic Movie Update + Happy 90th Birthday Maureen O’Hara!

The lovely Maureen O'Hara.

By Jason Apuzzo. • Today is the great Maureen O’Hara’s 90th birthday, and Turner Classic Movies is showing films of hers all day.  Many congratulations to this delightful, feisty redhead! This lovely star was once dubbed The Queen of Technicolor due to her lustrous red locks.  I am particularly enamored of the films she did with John Wayne (she was probably The Duke’s best co-star), but also of some of her earlier work in the pirate genre … including such classics as The Black Swan, The Spanish Main, Against All Flags and so many others.  Long before Angelina Jolie, Maureen O’Hara was the first great action star among the ladies – a fiery and sexy swashbuckler (check her out in At Sword’s Point or Flame of Araby).  Our very best wishes to her on this day; she was born 90 years ago today Ranelagh, County Dublin, Ireland, and has been a gift to the world ever since.

Kim Novak has a new box set.

• The great Ray Bradbury is also turning 90 this week! Congratulations to Ray; I met him for the fist time a few years ago, and my signed copy of The Martian Chronicles is now a cherished possession.  There are all sorts of activities around Los Angeles this week honoring Ray (see the LA Times for the full breakdown), and Ray is also in the news today because he recently declared that he is against big government, and that “our country is in need of a revolution.” Here, here!  He’s also pushing President Obama to take us back to the moon, and on to Mars – which would seem to make sense, as that appears to be where Obama’s head is these days anyway.

• Turner Classic Movies will also be doing a festival in honor of the great Patricia Neal on Monday, September 13th.  See here for the full schedule and details.  We’ve had a few other passings in the classic movie world recently, including Alfred Hitchcock’s production designer Robert Boyle at age 100, noted screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz (many of the Bond and Superman films), star Bruno S (who appeared in several Werner Herzog classics) and producer David Wolper (Roots, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory).  Our condolences to their families.

• On the festival/screenings front, there’s a lot happening.  New York’s Film Forum is doing a great-looking 50’s 3D film festival right now (see here, here and here); LA’s LACMA theater is doing a series on the great Sam Fuller’s films; and on September 1st the Academy will be screening one of the recently discovered early John Ford films, Upstream.  We also just had the 30th anniversary of Airplane!; likely it’s our colleague David Zucker’s best film, and Turner Classic Movies recently showed it.

• On the book front, there’s a new book out on the Charlie Chan character; also a new book on San Francisco’s classic movie theaters (I’ve been in many of them; they’re uniquely wonderful); and another new book out on the great silent star Rudolph Valentino (a personal favorite of mine) called, Rudolph Valentino, The Silent Idol: His Life in Photographs.

A scene from "Psycho," now on Blu-ray.

• On the classic DVD front, DVD Beaver reviews the new Blu-ray of Psycho (MUBI also has a review here); the Gene Tierney classic Sundown is finally getting a decent DVD release; some early Kurosawa films are finally coming to DVD; the classic James Mason/Ava Gardner film Pandora and the Flying Dutchman is coming to DVD and Blu-ray; The New York Post’s estimable Lou Lumenick takes an in-depth look at the new Errol Flynn and Kim Novak box sets (also see The New York Times on the Flynn set and on The Kim Novak set); plus, a passel of Elvis Presley classics are now available for download (some for free) at iTunes.

• On the retrospective front, Greenbriar Pictures shows takes a look back at the two major film versions of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World (see here and here); The New Yorker is running the last interview done with François Truffaut; New York Times critic A.O. Scott (a Libertas reader) takes a look back at Alfred Hitchcock’s magnificent Foreign Correspondent; The Film Experience takes a look back at the extraordinary career of one of my favorites, actor Sterling Hayden; and Movie Morlocks’ R. Emmet Sweeney takes a look back today at one of my all-time favorite directors, Raoul Walsh.

I’m now out of breath!  And that’s what’s happening today in the world of classic movies …

Posted on August 17th, 2010 at 2:20pm.

The Cinema of Forgery

By David Ross. Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock? (2006) is a lively little documentary about Teri Horton, a feisty, gravel-voiced grandma who embodies every red state stereotype. She purchased a large drip painting for $5 in a thrift shop in San Bernardino. Somebody naturally mentioned Jackson Pollock, of whom she had never heard, and she took it into her head that she’d purchased a lost masterpiece worth tens of millions. There ensued an epic battle as Horton pestered the skeptical and obnoxiously condescending mandarins of the art world, demanding the canonization of her painting. The whole business might have been filed under the heading “crank makes a pest of herself,” except that Horton had an ace up her sleeve: the forensic art expert Peter Paul Biro claimed to have found a fingerprint on Horton’s painting that matched a fingerprint he had lifted from Pollock’s studio. At this point the controversy becomes fascinating, as it pitches curatorial instinct against forensic evidence and raises basic questions about art authentication and even more basic questions about epistemology. The film, of course, is interested in none of this, at least not in a serious way; it unhesitatingly sides with the feisty granny against the insufferable Ivy League boors, liking the entertainment value of its own populist narrative.

Having watched the film and weighed its evidence, I was torn and confused. A fingerprint is a fingerprint. On the other hand, I’ve spent time among collectors, curators, and scholars, and I know that the aesthetic eye is not a myth; what seem like snap or arbitrary judgments are a matter of the brain instantly acting on tens of thousands of hours of looking and thinking and comparing. There really are experts in this sense. Thomas Hoving, a former director of the Metropolitan Museum, is an example. He appears in the film as the chief witness for the prosecution, calling Horton’s painting laughable and ridiculing Horton’s right even to hold an opinion on the matter, in what must be one of the most uninhibited displays of pomposity ever captured on film. But Hoving’s personality does not, as the film seems to insinuate, invalidate his judgment. Nobody should doubt that a director of the Met knows incalculably more than a former truck driver, and that this knowledge is substantive and meaningful.

Oja Kodar, in Orson Welles' "F for Fake."

Like Hoving, I had the sense that the painting was off. I am not an expert on Pollock, but I know what one is supposed to feel in the presence of a great painter’s work – a certain flood of beauty and meaning, a sense of intricacy too great to be immediately digested. I was feeling none of it. The painting seemed to lack drama, presence, rhythm. It occurred to me that if the painting struck my dull eye as dubious, it must be very dubious indeed. Could the painting have been authentic, but for some reason botched? Could Pollock’s seminal energies have been dammed by a migraine or a hangover or a tiff with the wife? Perhaps he knew the painting stunk and dispatched it to the dump or gave it to the milkman. This would explain why the painting is unsigned, and begins to explain how it wound up in a thrift store in San Bernardino. In sum, I didn’t know what to think.

The New Yorker has thankfully rescued me from my uncomfortable cognitive dissonance. In a superb piece of investigative reporting (see here), David Grann brought a different kind of skepticism to the controversy, assailing the fingerprint evidence and finding plenty in Biro’s past to raise the possibility that he is an outright charlatan. The article does not merely supplement the film, but supersedes it entirely. Skip the film – read the article.

Those who enjoy the whodunit aspect of art authentication should have a look at Hoving’s False Impressions: The Hunt for Big-Time Art Fakes (1997). Hoving’s brashness plays better on the page than it does on film, lending a humorous derision to his many anecdotes of stupidity, arrogance, and low cunning. The book is a very useful prophylactic; anybody who reads it will be cured of the fantasy of the lost masterpiece. You can take it for granted that the thing’s a fake.

O'Toole & Hepburn in "How to Steal a Million."

While on the subject of art authentication, let me note the documentary F for Fake (1973), Orson Welles’ last and least celebrated directorial effort, and by far the strangest and most problematic of his films.  It is a postmodern phantasmagoria on the theme of fakery, centered – precariously – on the activities of the Elmyr de Hory (see here), one of the premier art forgers of twentieth century, and his equally shady biographer Clifford Irving, author of a fraudulent autobiography of Howard Hughes (see here). Elmyr is a whirl of joie de vivre as he whips up Matisses and airs his laissez-faire philosophy (“I don’t feel bad for Modigliani – I feel good for me”), but the interesting question is why Welles felt drawn to his subject matter. Does the great director conceive the great forger as a fellow illusionist or as an object lesson in the temptation of shortcuts, partial mastery, pastiche? Or is the motive ironic – a commentary on the world’s tendency to muff the distinction between true art and fake art, with the implication that Welles himself has been the victim of this incompetence? Students of Welles will find much to consider in this barmy, brilliant experiment in documentary, as well as much to enjoy: particularly a lascivious segment that provides more than an eyeful of Oja Kodar, Welles’ lover for the last twenty-four years of his life and a woman clearly born to be a Bond girl.

Finally, let us not forget William Wyler’s How to Steal a Million (1966), starring Peter O’Toole and Audrey Hepburn, a heist/forgery flick that has the distinction of being the least gritty crime film ever made. If any film is made of spun-sugar and Givenchy finery, this is it. It includes several charming witticisms on the subject of forgery:

Charles Bonnet: Don’t you know that in his lifetime Van Gogh only sold one painting? While I, in loving memory of his tragic genius, have already sold two.

And:

Charles Bonnet: I doubt very much if Van Gogh himself would have gone through so much trouble.
Nicole Bonnet: He didn’t have to. He was Van Gogh!

And:

Charles Bonnet: What have I done? I’ve given the world a precious opportunity of studying and viewing the Cellini Venus.
Nicole Bonnet: Which is not by Cellini!
Charles Bonnet: Ahh, labels, labels. It’s working with the Americans that’s given you this obsession with labels and brand names.

It’s interesting that all of these films and books slip into a kind of merriment. Forgery, it seems, is very close to comedy and the carnivalesque. It makes asses of those in authority, jumbles categories, upends assumptions. The forger is very much like the court jester or the Shakesperean fool, and even those like Hoving, who have millions of dollars at stake, cannot help but smile.

Posted on August 17th, 2010 at 10:36am.

Hollywood Round-up, 8/17

Jolie too much for Stallone & Co.

By Jason Apuzzo. • As you probably know by now, The Expendables was tops at the box-office this past weekend … yet still didn’t have quite as as big an opening weekend as Angelina Jolie’s Salt (we posted below on this comparison here).

The two films are worth comparing because one features a nasty, anti-CIA plotline featuring Eric Roberts as an ex-CIA drugrunner who waterboards women; Jolie’s film paints a much more flattering picture of the CIA and our intelligence services in general, besides being completely pro-American.

What’s more, The Expendables was supposed to be the film that revived the male action genre that – so the argument goes – has been stolen away, or something, by gals like Jolie.  Yet Jolie on her own managed to outgross Stallone & his many friends (Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Statham, et al) … which effectively puts the nail in the coffin on that argument, at least among men who are secure enough in their own masculinity to enjoy watching women do action movies.  Ahem.

This is also a major wake-up call on the whole matter of who the real stars actually are, nowadays.

Another interesting footnote to the weekend was how badly Scott Pilgrim did (only $10 mil).  Nerdy fanboy fare not playing well these days due to extreme over-saturation in the marketplace.

A deleted scene from "Return of the Jedi."

• The other big news out of the weekend is that Star Wars – the entire film series – is finally coming to Blu-ray in the fall of 2011. [See here and here.]  The Star Wars films will apparently be coming out all at once, in one big set featuring “extensive special features – including documentaries, vintage behind-the-scenes moments, interviews, retrospectives and never-before-seen footage from the Lucasfilm archives.”

This is great news – exactly what Blu-ray was made for.  The announcement was made in Orlando this weekend at Star Wars Celebration V, where George Lucas also showed something really delightful: a deleted scene/moment from Return of the Jedi, in which we see Luke building his new lightsaber … as Vader tries to lure him to the dark side.  It was apparently supposed to be the first image we see of Luke in the film, but was cut from Jedi at the very last minute.  Judging from the audience’s reaction to the clip at Celebration, I think George perhaps should have kept it in!  It certainly gives Luke a darker edge, and echoes nicely in Hayden Christensen’s characterization in the prequel trilogy.  Here’s the clip:

[UPDATE: YouTube has taken the clip down, citing a Lucasfilm copyright claim.  I saw the clip before it was removed: it was wonderful.  Looking forward to the Blu-ray.]

• In somewhat related news, Variety has an article out today about how 3D may save Blu-ray, a medium that many people believe has only had a so-so debut.

To the extent that Blu-ray is having a problem right now, I think it has more to do with two factors: 1) asking the public to undertake a major format shift during a bad econony; 2) the lack of blockbuster films (see directly above) on the Blu-ray format to motivate such a shift.  Blu-ray is still basically a medium for aficionados, but there really aren’t enough movies for aficionados being released at the moment.  Star Wars will be filling one gap in that area, but we need a lot more classics of that variety before people start to switch en masse.

You know what sold me on Blu-ray?  The Searchers.

• In other sci-fi news, James Cameron will (appropriately) be spending his birthday underwater in a Russian lake, he’ll also be helping to plant a million trees for Earth Day, and the new trailer is out for the forthcoming Avatar: Special Edition.  Cameron’s life seems to be a blur of rain forests, digital creatures, underwater dives and green activism nowadays.  Can you imagine how envious Gore must be right now?

• Speaking of which, Obama’s in Hollywood right now looking for campaign money.  [See here and here.]  I’m actually surprised, reading about his visit, how relatively few industry players – particularly of the younger variety – are showing up to see him.  It’s interesting how people are cooling out here right now toward The One, without saying it out loud …

• In what may have been her final interview, actress Patricia Neal lauded Ronald Reagan as a “generous” actor and a “very good” President.  Neal was a class act, and I think The Gipper was her kind of guy – not unlike other strong, masculine co-stars of hers like The Duke and Gary Cooper.  She was the coolest.  She’ll be missed.

Has Brian Wilson's approval.

• I had a very interesting debate in the comments section recently with a reader named Mr. Rational on the subject of Christopher Nolan and his films.  In light of that debate I wanted to mention an interesting piece over at MUBI comparing Nolan’s Inception to the Anthony Mann/Kirk Douglas classic, The Heroes of Telemark.  [The two films share something unusual in common.]  The writer, Doug Dibbern, comes down very much in favor of Mann’s film.  In somewhat related news, we wanted to wish Kirk Douglas’ talented son Michael the very best as he begins treatment for a tumor.

• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … the verdict is in.  Legendary Beach Boy Brian Wilson has come down in favor of Katy Perry’s “California Gurls,” which riffs (to some extent) off The Beach Boys’ original classic, “California Girls.”  Btw, the New York Post has a big feature on Perry today, covering her early career struggles in the Christian music scene.  She was actually temping just a few years ago, so good for her.

And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood …

[UPDATE: Special thanks to our friend Patrick Goldstein at The LA Times for linking to this piece.]

Posted on August 16th, 2010 at 2:51pm.

It’s Official: Jolie’s Pro-CIA Salt Beat Stallone’s Anti-CIA Expendables at the Box Office

Jolie in Moscow.

By Jason Apuzzo. Isn’t this funny, as well as satisfying. In a head-to-head comparison of their opening weekend totals (see here and here), Angelina Jolie’s pro-American, anti-communist Salt beat Sly Stallone’s CIA-trashing/women-waterboarding The Expendables by the slender margin of $36 million (Salt) to $35 million (Expendables).

Fabulous.

In box office terms, that means that Sly Stallone, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Steve Austin and a nasty storyline weren’t worth quite as much as Angelina Jolie and a little patriotism.

How refreshing.  [And by the way, Salt did that against much tougher competition.]

To celebrate, I’ve picked out one of the tastier pictures of Jolie from the Moscow Salt premiere (there are many).  She’s certainly a lot better to look at than Stallone, isn’t she?

If any of you think I enjoy knocking Stallone by the way, I most certainly don’t.  But when you trash your own country – and portray our intelligence agents as drug peddling, waterboarding torturers of women – then that’s the treatment you’re going to get here at Libertas.  We’re not Hollywood star/celebrity suck-ups here.  You can find enough of that on other sites.

I’d like Stallone to explain his depiction of the CIA in The Expendables to the widow of CIA agent and former Atlanta narcotics detective Scott Roberson, who was killed earlier this year in Afghanistan while working for the Agency.  [Roberson was one of seven CIA agents killed in the same bomb blast in January.] The timing of his death was deeply tragic; the 39 year-old Roberson never got to meet his child, born in February to his surviving wife Molly, who now lives in Knoxville, Tennessee.  You can hear more about Roberson’s life here.  In its own way, Roberson’s life was a quiet and elegant rebuke to the hateful image Stallone is peddling in his film.

Posted on August 16th, 2010 at 10:38am.

Classic Cinema Obsession: Edge of Darkness, New on DVD

By Jennifer Baldwin. Which is the higher value: Peace or Freedom? Can there be true peace without freedom? Is freedom worth dying for? Is freedom worth killing for? What are we willing to do for our freedom – not just the soldiers, sailors, and marines—but all of us, what are we willing to do?

Few movies today wrestle with these questions, probably because they’ll bring up answers that the Hollywood establishment doesn’t want to face. The independent films we champion here at LFM are different, of course. They’re not afraid to face the issue of freedom. Freedom-loving films are out there; they’re just not the mainstream movies that garner all the press.

But that wasn’t always the case. As any movie fan with a passing knowledge of Hollywood in the 1940s knows, movies about freedom and fighting tyranny were turned out half a dozen a week back in those days, all in service to the war effort and the fight against the Nazis and Imperial Japan.

Edge of Darkness is one such movie. It has a message about freedom that is essential, even for us today, in understanding the sacrifices and requirements necessary for liberty. It also has lots of guns.

Edge of Darkness is a great film if you like the following things: Piles of dead Nazis; a religious minister mowing down Germans from a bell tower; and Ann Sheridan toting a big, honking machine gun. And boy, does she tote it!

This is a movie about the importance of firearms. I can’t recall the last movie I watched that showed just how much having freedom depends on having guns. Everybody is packing in this one – from the little old ladies, to gray-haired doctor Walter Houston, to the town preacher.

Needless to say, Errol Flynn handles a gun, but it’s Ann Sheridan striking a pose for firearms and freedom that really gets the film going.

These are the pleasures of Edge of Darkness. It’s a relatively unknown gem only recently released on DVD. It’s director is the underrated Lewis Milestone, director of one of my favorite films noir, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. Milestone was no stranger to war movies, either, having directed All Quiet on the Western Front in 1930. Continue reading Classic Cinema Obsession: Edge of Darkness, New on DVD