Remember watching parts of Duel At Diablo on NBC Saturday Night At The Movies. Watched the entire film on blu-ray for the first time.
Just watched the new Kino-Lorber blu-ray of the excellent 1966 Ralph Nelson-directed western, Duel At Diablo, which starred James Garner, Sidney Poitier, Bibi Anderssen, Bill Travers, and Dennis Weaver. Garner plays a vengeance-driven scout looking for the man who murdered his Comanche wife. He comes to the aid of a woman abducted by the Apaches, and a troop of cavalry soldiers under siege by them. Garner is backed up by ex-army sergeant-turned Gambler, Poitier, who is very good in his first western. As the group is slowly being picked off one by one, the film reminded me a bit of the classic Bogart WWII film, Sahara.
Poitier and Garner play off each other nicely. Weaver effectively plays a slimy racist who cares more about what townspeople think, than caring for his violated wife. Considered a violent film for 1966, it's pretty tame by post-Peckinpah standards, but still effective in a few scenes. Garner has a nice brawl with a couple of would-be rapists. Interesting score by Neal Hefti (The Odd Couple). Bill Travers character sure takes a lot of punishment in this film. They wisely used the gorgeous poster art by the great illustrator, Frank McCarthy for the booklet.
The K-L anamorphic blu-ray is a marginal step up from the old non-anamorphic MGM DVD. The source print seems a bit faded to me. Scenes shift from sharp and clear in some scenes, to a soft image in others. It's watchable, but considering it's a blu-ray, the quality should be better than a standard DVD. The 2.0 soundtrack is very good. I'm sure this would have been of a higher standard if Olive Films or Twilight Time had released it. I'm hoping when I get to my Kino-Lorber BD of The Scalphunters, that will be better.
Remember watching parts of Duel At Diablo on NBC Saturday Night At The Movies. Watched the entire film on blu-ray for the first time. Thumbs up!
Greg Espinoza
Can't you write reviews like this? can't ya'? huh? bruce
ps i always wondered if the producers had seen the Leone westerns before shooting this. They had yet to be released in the US (FISTFUL debuted in Jan '67) It certainly has the feel and sound
My recent purchase of the Music Box CD of Georges Garvarentz' score, made me want to see this 1967 European adventure film, The Corrupt Ones (A.K.A. The Peking Medallion). The film stars Robert Stack, Elke Sommer, (unfortunately dubbed) Christian Marquand, (who would direct the infamous all-star sex romp, Candy) and Nancy Kwan (Flower Drum Song). Sommer, Kwan, and European actress Heidy Bohlen, make for some great eye-candy.
Stack plays a two-fisted photographer in Macao who comes into possession of an ancient medallion that is the key to a hidden treasure, caught between two criminal organizations trying to get it. The film is a mix of James Bond and Indiana Jones, with a dash of Terry And The Pirates, with Kwan playing a Dragon Lady-like villain. Werner Peters plays an amusingly corrupt police official reminiscent of Sydney Greenstreet and Claude Rains in Casablanca.
Directed by James Hill who made Born Free and A Study In Terror, written by Brian Clemens who created the Avengers. I love Garverantz' score and Dusty Springfield sings the fun Bond-like main title theme. Surprisingly brutal in spots considering this film was made by a guy who made quite a few family-friendly films; A vicious opening fight in a train car reminds one of the fight between Robert Shaw and Sean Connery in From Russia with Love. There are several scenes of torture, by acid and blow torch, as well.
This film was only ever released on out-of-print VHS, no DVD release. Warner originally distributed this film and hopefully they will see fit to release this as a Warner Archive title.
UPDATE: (8/26/2014) Warner Archive just informed me they no longer have the rights to this film.
Excellent film. This film is one of three that feature Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet in the leads. It's well worth the purchase if you are in the mood for something different from classic cinema.
While you are at it, go ahead and pick up Three Strangers also staring Peter and Sydney in the leads. It was my favorite of the 3, with "Mask... coming in a close second. Lorre gives a standout performance in this and may well blow your mind seeing him in such a role.
The third film is called The Verdict and is, in my opinion also worth buying, even if it is not as good as the other two, it's well worth seeing these two giants paired together again.
A week or so ago, when Herbert Marshall was the star of the day in TCM's August "Summer Under the Stars" series, I stumbled into the middle of a film I didn't recognize, nor had I even heard of, called UNDERWORLD STORY, filmed in the early Fifties. There were several reasons why it grabbed me, starting with a lot of interesting characters having all kinds of conflicts and social issues, dramatized with excellent, insightful dialogue. The first scene I saw involved Mary Anderson, who sadly had recently passed away, with whom I'd fallen in love a million years ago when I first saw LIFEBOAT but had never seen in another movie. Still more intrigue lay in the fact that the other characters were addressing her as a "negro," so apparently we were in PINKY territory.
Compounding the cinematic interest for me was the varied and talented cast. Apparently Marshall was playing an important part but not the lead, which honor went to Mr. Noir, Dan Duryea. The leading lady wasn't Mary Anderson but Gail (MY LITTLE MARGIE) Storm in a non-comedic role. Best of all the casting was the multiplicity of supporting players. Yes, this was still golden age Hollywood, where one expected to see a lot of great character actors, but it really seemed like this particular movie was an embarrassment of such riches. Every time somebody walked through a door or the scene switched to another location, I saw another beloved bit player. (I'd never seen Edward van Sloan in any movie later than 1933, but suddenly there he was as the minister delivering a funeral eulogy.) *
Finally, there was the look of the whole thing, arrayed before me on my 66" HD screen. It was black and white, with an incredibly sharp, high contrast image, especially considering the film's vintage, with masterful, shadowy lighting in scene after scene, including a lot of theatrical-seeming interior-for-exterior settings. The great shadows and the slightly unreal look couldn't help but remind me of my favorite movie, and when I looked up the credits at IMDB -- Sure enough! It was shot by Stanley (THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER) Cortez!
I've now ordered the DVD so I can watch the whole thing.
###
* I'm reminded of the story Raymond Massey related about shooting McKENNA'S GOLD in the company of Edward G. Robinson, Burgess Meredith, Anthony Quayle, Lee J. Cobb, Eli Wallach, Keenan Wynn... Sitting around between shots, Robinson mused aloud, "I wonder what all the other movies are doing for character actors?"
The K-L anamorphic blu-ray is a marginal step up from the old non-anamorphic MGM DVD. The source print seems a bit faded to me. Scenes shift from sharp and clear in some scenes, to a soft image in others. It's watchable, but considering it's a blu-ray, the quality should be better than a standard DVD. The 2.0 soundtrack is very good. I'm sure this would have been of a higher standard if Olive Films or Twilight Time had released it.
Kino, Olive and Twilight Time all simply use transfers provided by the licensing studio, so the quality would have been exactly the same, except Twilight Time would have used a higher bit rate.
The K-L anamorphic blu-ray is a marginal step up from the old non-anamorphic MGM DVD. The source print seems a bit faded to me. Scenes shift from sharp and clear in some scenes, to a soft image in others. It's watchable, but considering it's a blu-ray, the quality should be better than a standard DVD. The 2.0 soundtrack is very good. I'm sure this would have been of a higher standard if Olive Films or Twilight Time had released it.
Kino, Olive and Twilight Time all simply use transfers provided by the licensing studio, so the quality would have been exactly the same, except Twilight Time would have used a higher bit rate.
I do understand that. But when the quality is poor, and the only discernable upgrade is that it's anamorphic, not cool whan Kino-Lorber is charging (roughly) $25. for it. If the DVD had been anamorphic in the first place, I wouldn't be upgrading.
I've purchased some Olive Blu-rays, and I just watched Assault On A Queen, which was VASTLY superior in quality.
I watched Rififi the other morning via the miracle of Netflix. What a great film! Plus the subtitles allow early morning viewing without waking the rest of the house. Beautifully acted and directed, some aspects of this almost accidental film have passed into film lore; the half hour heist scene with no dialogue or music, the fate of the safe cracker mirroring the director's response to his blacklisting...
And a great Auric score. I knew the main theme from a Geoff Love compilation but would very much like to have the whole score, unusual for me with a golden age film.
Old, classic and just watched for the first time, rather than a discovery, but it fits the spirit of the thread.
Here's hoping you'll continue to discover ever more golden age scores you enjoy. Remember Duke Ellington's dictum: "There's only two kinds of music -- the good kind, and the other kind."
Here's hoping you'll continue to discover ever more golden age scores you enjoy. Remember Duke Ellington's dictum: "There's only two kinds of music -- the good kind, and the other kind."
Cheers,
PNJ
Hi Preston
Thanks for your thoughtful response. Perhaps I should look more into Jules Dassin, because another of my favourite golden age scores is Rozsa's The Naked City.
And if it's any consolation, whilst my film music interests are largely silver age, the wisdom of the golden-agers plays a disproportionate role in keeping me interested in this side of the message board.
A week or so ago, when Herbert Marshall was the star of the day in TCM's August "Summer Under the Stars" series, I stumbled into the middle of a film I didn't recognize, nor had I even heard of, called UNDERWORLD STORY, filmed in the early Fifties. There were several reasons why it grabbed me, starting with a lot of interesting characters having all kinds of conflicts and social issues, dramatized with excellent, insightful dialogue. I've now ordered the DVD so I can watch the whole thing.
Well, I appreciate being reminded of this. I just read about it on another site and I'll be picking it up when WAC has another bundle sale.
This might be the first Hollywood film to explore the Nazi regime's heinous racial policies. Strangely, the word "Jew" is never mentioned. Instead, persecuted Jews are referred to as "Non-Aryans". A scene in a concentration camp shows a prisoner with a 'J' armband. And, none of the lead actors are Jewish! If, they were trying not to offend the Germans it didn't work; Goebells banned the film in 5 countries.
The mawkish "Golden Age" score and trite love triangle tried mightily to turn the film into a standard Hollywood melodrama, but it survives as a pretty powerful testament to the rise of the Third Reich.
Kino, Olive and Twilight Time all simply use transfers provided by the licensing studio, so the quality would have been exactly the same, except Twilight Time would have used a higher bit rate.
.... If the DVD had been anamorphic in the first place, I wouldn't be upgrading.
Greg Espinoza
You'd better damn well not!!!!! I wouldn't want to have to tell Mrs.Riotengine.....
I saw THE MORTAL STORM so long ago that I can barely remember anything about it, except that Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan end the film with a big chase scene fleeing the Nazis on skis. (But I probably remember the ski chase partly because Stewart used to tell a hilarious story about how he filmed that sequence.)
I certainly don't remember the music, but your disparagement of it got me curious about its authorship. Seems the score was credited to Edward Kane, whom I've never heard of, but he had the uncredited assistance of two very fine composers, Bronislau Kaper and Eugene Zador. I have no idea if I'll like this particular score when I finally hear it, but I gather you think all Golden Age (no need for quote marks) scores are "mawkish" by definition. To each his own.
I have no idea if I'll like this particular score when I finally hear it, but I gather you think all Golden Age (no need for quote marks) scores are "mawkish" by definition. .
Pretty much , yeah The way they wrote for strings is so syrupy I wanna reach for the insulin jar. Except for Bennie Herrmann I find these scores hurt the films more than they help - esp. wal-to-wall jobs.
How could I possibly hate anyone who wittily references Dimitri Tiomkin in one post, and then reveals he has two copies of a Tiomkin score in another post?
Just wondering: Where do you stand on the music of the golden age -- which spanned a few centuries -- of classical music? Those guys used a lot of violins too.
I'm a sucker for different versions of Seven Samurai/The Magnificent Seven type of story. I saw that The Invincible Six was on YouTube, and had to watch it. Made on the cheap in Iran in 1969 by faded Hollywood director, Jean Negulesco. Good cast, with Elke Sommer, Stuart Whitman, Curt Jurgens, Ian Ogilvy, (Return Of The Saint) and James Mitchum as the main baddie.
The idea of it is a nice variation on a sturdy theme with a group of criminals on the run who protect a village from bandits. Wish the execution had been better. Elke Sommer is pretty fiery in her part and great to look at. Whitman and Ogilvy are fine, and Jurgens gets the more amusing lines. One of the leads is Behrouz Vossoughi, considered a legendary actor in Iran. Mitchum as the bandit leader is a stock villain who will make no one forget Eli Wallach, or John Saxon for that matter.
Negulesco is a LONG way from the types of well-regarded films he made at Fox, like Titanic, How To Marry A Millionaire, Three Coins In The Fountain, Daddy Long Legs, and Boy On a Dolphin, among other films. Score by Manos Hatzidakis has an ethnic feel to it, but the producers should have ponied up the money and hired Elmer Bernstein. I read about this film years ago and misremembered it as taking place in South America.
