By Jason Apuzzo. • If you’ve been looking for reasons to move to Blu-ray, you now have them: both Ray Harryhausen’s Jason and the Argonauts and Francis Coppola’s Apocalypse Now Redux (see here and here) are coming to Blu-ray. For what it’s worth, Jason and the Argonauts was the first movie I ever owned on DVD – it’s what sold me on the format, actually, and this is the first digital upgrade of that film since the 1990s. [Footnote: check out Greenbriar Picture show’s fine recent post on the great Ray Harryhausen here.]
On the Apocalypse front, Lionsgate will be releasing the film along with a variety of other American Zoetrope classics in a new deal struck by the two companies. The best news here is that Hearts of Darkness, the behind-the-scenes documentary by Eleanor Coppola on the making of Apocalypse, will also be included in one of the new Blu-ray sets.
Govindini and I had the pleasure years ago of sitting in on the editing and remixing by Walter Murch of Apocalypse Now Redux – and what an education that was! I’ve never learned so much about sound mixing in such a brief, concentrated period of time. As a sound and picture experience, Apocalypse is easily one of the greatest films ever. So whatever hesitations you’ve had about Blu-ray, jettison them now. The classics are truly now arriving on this format.
• A new DVD box set, The Kim Novak Collection, is coming out … and the lovely Ms. Novak has a long interview up today over at The New York Post. What a star! We’re so glad she’s still around and looking so lovely.
• Some of the very best Errol Flynn action pictures from the World War II period are finally coming to DVD in a new box set. What took so long? I’ve owned most of these for years – recorded off Turner Classic Movies – but it’s a shame it’s taken so long to get Desperate Journey, Edge of Darkness, Northern Pursuit, and Uncertain Glory to DVD (another film in this set, Raoul Walsh’s Objective Burma, has already been out for a while). I’m a lifelong, confirmed Flynn fanatic, for those of you who don’t know. [Side note: we showed a pristine print of Desperate Journey, featuring Flynn and Ronald Reagan, at the 2004 Liberty Film Festival.] This box features some neglected Flynn classics – Desperate Journey and Northern Pursuit in particular are really crackling pictures, while Objective Burma is already widely regarded as one of the great World War II action spectacles. Most of Flynn’s greatest films finally now have decent DVD releases … although there are still a few left that should get better treatment (such as Against All Flags with Maureen O’Hara).
• A handsome new coffee table book about Duke Wayne is being released, called John Wayne: True Grit American. Click on over and check that one out.
• Several of director Clarence Brown’s movies are just coming to DVD, including Conquest with Greta Garbo, and The Gorgeous Hussy with Joan Crawford.
• Chuck Heston’s early noir thriller Dark City is finally getting a DVD release – it was his first major starring role – along with the underrated Warner Brothers World War II thriller Background to Danger, starring Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet in an adaptation of the Eric Ambler novel. The film was directed by a favorite of mine, Raoul Walsh, and otherwise stars the lovely Brenda Marshall from The Sea Hawk (who was also at that time Mrs. William Holden).
• Kimberly Lindberg’s has a great piece over at TCM’s Movie Morlocks on photographer Julius Shulman, who was so influential in defining the ‘L.A. modern look.’ Check that out. I really love Lindberg’s writing.
• On the book front, a new biography is coming out on Josef von Sternberg, the LA Times has a review of the new book Furious Love about the Burton-Taylor romance, and a great-looking new book called Confessions of a Scream Queen is coming out, featuring interviews with (among others) Carla Laemmle, Coleen Gray, Kathleen Hughes, Karen Black, Ingrid Pitt, and Adrienne Barbeau! Fabulous. Govindini and I met Carla and Coleen a few years back, and I would love to meet the others – especially Ingrid Pitt! She played Heidi the Barmaid in Where Eagles Dare. Yowza.
• New York Times film critic and Libertas reader A.O. Scott takes a look back at the Jean-Luc Godard classic, Contempt this week. It’s one of my favorites from Godard – possibly my all-time favorite. Or is this simply my overreaction to Bardot? Tough to say. One thing’s for sure: Palance is quite a crack-up in that film. Makes me laugh every time. I also love how the limp, pitiful husband is a Communist.
• The great Italian writer Cecchi d’Amico has died at age 96 in Rome. She wrote the screenplays for The Bicycle Thief and The Leopard, among many other classics. Our condolences to her family, and to the Italian film community.
And that’s what’s happening today in the world of classic movies …
Posted on August 2nd, 2010 at 2:38pm.
I loved the Kim Novak interview. She looks great for 77. She should get back in front of the cameras and make some more movies!! Her fans miss her and would welcome her back.
Flynn was part of that last generation that could convincingly play both literary romantic heroes and modern day men of action. The actors today can do the latter, but they are so poorly educated that they definitely cannot do the former. The only exception are the English stage-trained actors, who seem to be the only ones today who can handle any kind of intelligent literary dialogue.