a few words about

  1. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about…™ Nightmare Alley – in Blu-ray

    Nightmare Alley may be Tyrone Power's darkest film. The 1947 Fox production, directed by Edmund Goulding, definitely falls within noir parameters. Criterion's new Blu-ray - and I'm complaining, as I'm thrilled to have it - is a wonderful example of something that I've discussed in the past -...
  2. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about…™ Lust, Caution – in Blu-ray

    Ang Lee's 2007 outing, in Chinese with English sub-titles won't be for everyone. We'll lose a large percentage of the audience because of those sub-titles, as many people don't like to read, and another group, based upon the NC-17 rating and tasteful, but matter-of-fact nudity. And yet, another...
  3. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about…™ Doctor X – in Blu-ray

    As most are aware, very few two-color Technicolor films survive, and those that do are usually not based upon original elements. "Doctor X," which has been restored from a unique studio nitrate print, is no exception. Preserved in the analogue world a number of years ago, it has now received a...
  4. Robert Harris

    UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about…™ Soul - in 4k UHD

    Soul, a computer animated product from Disney and Pixar, is a gorgeous 4k Blu-ray, with detail upon detail. How often can one delineate the bits of fur (or is it hair) sticking out of an angora sweater? First time for me in the animated world. And a delicate warning to angoraphobics. It's a...
  5. Robert Harris

    UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about…™ Love and Monsters - in 4k UHD

    Shot in Austrailia, with an international cast, Love and Monsters is precisely what one might expect, and it's a fun outing. A nice 4k, without 4k trappings, it looks fine, and HDR plays well with projectors. Will it appear more highly resolved than the Blu-ray, via a 4k up-rez? Especially from...
  6. Robert Harris

    UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about…™ Wonder Woman 1984 - in 4k UHD

    Quite properly, I presume, as a WB DC production, Wonder Woman 1984 is huge. Big music, big effects, beautifully photographed, edited... And it's a gorgeous 4k Blu-ray, filled brimming with real 4k resolution and obvious pictorial detail. I just wish it had a better script. As it is, there...
  7. Robert Harris

    UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about…™ The Ten Commandments (1956) - in 4k UHD Blu-ray

    Updated 4/2/21 Cecil B. DeMille's second epic consideration of that trek across the desert, and all the surrounding hoopla has made it to 4k, with its VistaVision look intact. The new release appears to be derived from the same restorative efforts performed c. 2008, and while 4k does add some...
  8. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about…™ The Greatest Show on Earth – in Blu-ray

    Gee, Brad, it's not as bad as all that. Some contemporary reviews really liked it. Mr. DeMille's 1952, 152 minute circus extravaganza, The Greatest Show on Earth finally arrives from Paramount, as one of the hold-out Best Pictures to hit Blu-ray as spine number 16. It just doesn't stand that...
  9. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about…™ Best Picture Essentials 10-Movie Collection – in Blu-ray

    The new Best Pictures Essentials 10-Movie Collection from Paramount is a great buy, no matter how one slices the facts. For those uninterested in 4k, and toward the beginnings of gathering a cinema library, it's a gift from the gods. Some titles didn't originate with Paramount, being either...
  10. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about…™ Battle Hymn – in Blu-ray

    During a career at Universal directing what became known as "weepers," Douglas Sirk created a specific genre of melodramas for which he is known. Between 1953 and 1959, there were eight or nine of them, dependent upon how one perceives the films. Battle Hymn, starring Rock Hudson as "the...
  11. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about…™ Isle of the Dead – in Blu-ray

    After his time with David Selznick, Val Lewton, one of the finest creators of atmospheric horror, began a career at RKO, where he created a series of delicate little horror films that has never been equalled. Back in 2005, a wonderful set of 9 films was released by Warner on DVD, and over the...
  12. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about…™ Crossfire – in Blu-ray

    Warner Archive is releasing Crossfire, a 1947 RKO production, directed by Edward Dmytryk, in their normal boring quality, which means virtually perfect. Lush black and white, with a patina of film grain give the impression that one is viewing a nitrate 35mm print. The only digital oddity that...
  13. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about…™ Damn Yankees – in Blu-ray

    George Abbott and Stanley Donen's Damn Yankees finally arrives on Blu-ray, courtesy of Warner Archive, and it's a welcome addition for musical and Broadway fans. Starring Tab Hunter and Gwen Verdon in her first starring role - she'd been seen in a dozen or so films beginning at age 11, as an...
  14. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about…™ The Great Caruso – in Blu-ray

    I've never been a Mario Lanza fan. His personal story, however, is epic. Born in Philadelphia, with a desire to be the greatest opera singer, lured to Hollywood, and made his breakthrough as a star in 1951's The Great Caruso, one of the box-office champs of the year. In 1954, his career fell...
  15. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about…™ Love Story – in Blu-ray

    For those counting, Love Story is Paramount's spine number 15 in their ongoing Paramount Presents series. An interesting concept. And it's a gorgeous example. For those who may not have either read Erich Segal's book, based upon his original screenplay, based upon an idea by, or been around to...
  16. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about…™ A Tale of Two Cities – in Blu-ray

    A Tale of Two Cities, based upon Dicken's work, would have made a perfect production for David O. Selznick, to be distributed by M-G-M. Two of the class acts in the motion picture trade. The nice thing, and it's obvious through every frame, is that it is a Selznick production, and his last...
  17. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about…™ The Underneath – in Blu-ray

    Had viewers not read reviews, they'd probably have no clue that Steven Soderbergh's 1995 erotic thriller, The Underneath, is based upon Criss Cross, the same novel that served as the basis of the 1949 production of the same title as directed by Robert Siodmak, and starring Burt Lancaster. Mr...
  18. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about…™ Wings of the Hawk – in Blu-ray & 3-D

    Budd Boetticher directed some interesting westerns. His 1953, Wings of the Hawk, filmed in 3-D, was not one of them. What does work, however, is the 3-D, which has been nicely handled, albeit slightly less dark than a bat's groin at midnight in projection, when viewed through the requisite...
  19. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about…™ The Court Jester – in Blu-ray

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  20. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About Wide Screen cinematography shot in camera...

    I realized that this post would not be found in the Frankenstein thread. Here it is, as a child might say... "by its ownself." If I can find an example from another 1962 production, it will be added. **************************** I only recall a couple of examples of hard-matting in camera...
  21. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about…™ Back to the Future: The Ultimate Trilogy - in 4k UHD Blu-ray

    Those of you who are aware of my penchant for quality audio, will understand when I state that Universal's new Back to the Future 4k set is worth the price of admission (currently street at $42) for the Dolby Atmos alone. I sampled the trilogy, and as expected, Universal has done a magnificent...
  22. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about…™ The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection - in 4k UHD Blu-ray

    For those unaware, Alfred Hitchcock was a filmmaker of (generally) thrillers, occasionally with a bit of humor thrown in, and one single comedy - Mr. and Mrs. Smith (the 1941 RKO version). For this 4k Hitchcock sampler of his productions either produced for or owned by Universal, of which there...
  23. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ Ghost Ship (2002) Redux -- in Blu-ray

    I don't recall if I reviewed Steve Beck's 2002 Ghost Ship here, but I thought it was a fun ride with some terrific effects, short of the WB logo, which is apparently derived from an original Edison cylinder. Scream Factory, has (bravely) licensed and re-issued the film on Blu-ray, with the same...
  24. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ Wedding Present -- in Blu-ray

    The third inclusion in Kino's new pack of Cary Grant films, and per Mr. Cooper, a likely candidate for the full-on arrival of the Grant persona. Short of checking out those that were released between the Ladies Should Listen, Big Brown Eyes (earlier in 1936) and Wedding Present, I tend to...
  25. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ Ladies Should Listen -- in Blu-ray

    I'd been attempting to track the Grant persona, as in when the actor known as Cary Grant, actually took on the Grant persona. HTF member, Dan Cooper opined that he thought it was Wedding Present, a 1936 Paramount, released as a part of Kino's three film set. Finally got around to viewing...
  26. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ Love Me Tonight -- in Blu-ray

    So many interesting angles of discussion with this film. The director, Rouben Mamoulian, was one of the geniuses of early sound cinema, and probably did more to advance the technology than any other filmmaker in moving the camera toward the freedom that it had in the silent cinema. His first...
  27. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ Havana -- in Blu-ray

    I'm a huge Sydney Pollack fan. Always have been. No matter what his function on a film, he was a class act. Initially, he was acting on TV - beginning in 1956 - Tales of Wells Fargo, Have Gun - Will Travel, The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents... In 1961, he directed episodes of...
  28. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ Five Graves to Cairo -- in Blu-ray

    One might wonder what Field Marshall Rommel might have thought of Austrian born Billy Wilder's second U.S. production, a 1943 WWII project, with Rommel played by in icy tones by Erich von Stroheim. Five Graves to Cairo was released between The Major and the Minor (1942) and Mr. Wilder's little...
  29. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ Evil Under the Sun -- in Blu-ray

    The final installment of the Bradbourne / Goodwin Christie's, Evil Under the Sun (1982) is a worthy addition to the Kino series, although some who have the earlier Blu-rays may be happy sticking with what they already own. Having not seen the earlier Blu, I can merely note that the Kino edition...
  30. Robert Harris

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ Roman Holiday -- in Blu-ray

    Based upon my displeasure with the To Catch a Thief disc, which premiered this series of studio Blu-ray releases, I had concerns while waiting for the initial images to arise on Roman Holiday. Those concerns dissipated with immediacy. Viewers should understand that without an original...
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