Invaders from Mars may have appeared at first glance to be just another cheesy, cheap sci-fi B-movie made during the 1950s. It was, after all, a time when the genre was booming and both major studios and independent film producers started churning out shockers about alien invasions and giant insects at an alarming rate. But thanks to a dedicated cult following and some dogged technical detective work, a brand new 4K Ultra HD restoration of 1953’s Invaders from Mars has finally surfaced to re-introduce us to a surreal classic that had a profound effect on a generation of filmmakers who later gave us little films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Gremlins, and Star Wars, among many others.
“It really turned my world around,” says Steven Spielberg in the booklet accompanying the new 4K Blu-ray release of the movie from Ignite Films. “It certainly touched a nerve in all...
“It really turned my world around,” says Steven Spielberg in the booklet accompanying the new 4K Blu-ray release of the movie from Ignite Films. “It certainly touched a nerve in all...
- 1/22/2023
- by Don Kaye
- Den of Geek
The disc of the year has finally arrived and it’s 1000 worth the wait. William Cameron Menzies’ flight into schoolboy paranoia now really looks like it ought to hang in the Louvre; the entire show is inspired Modern Art. When Martians conduct a brain-snatching takeover of Middle America little David MacLean must save the day, with an assist from an astronomer buddy and a sexy city nurse. The review is mostly concerned with how the new Ignite release looks and sounds. The rejuvenation of this fantasy masterpiece will turn fans of the 1950s sci-fi boom back into delighted ‘Gee Whiz’ kids.
Invaders from Mars
Blu-ray
Ignite Films
1953 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 81 min. / Street Date September 27, 2022 that was the plan … delivery expected . . . ? / Available from Ignite Films / 55.00
Starring: Helena Carter, Arthur Franz, Jimmy Hunt, Leif Erickson, Hillary Brooke, Morris Ankrum, Max Wagner, William Phipps, Milburn Stone, Janine Perreau, Barbara Billingsley, Peter Brocco, Richard Deacon,...
Invaders from Mars
Blu-ray
Ignite Films
1953 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 81 min. / Street Date September 27, 2022 that was the plan … delivery expected . . . ? / Available from Ignite Films / 55.00
Starring: Helena Carter, Arthur Franz, Jimmy Hunt, Leif Erickson, Hillary Brooke, Morris Ankrum, Max Wagner, William Phipps, Milburn Stone, Janine Perreau, Barbara Billingsley, Peter Brocco, Richard Deacon,...
- 12/17/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Sorry, this is not for a new disc. From 23 years ago, this was the first article that convinced me that there might be a real audience for my review page, then called DVD Savant. It’s about time that the illustrated essay was brought up to date and moved to CineSavant. It probes the ‘primitive sophistication’ and weird appeal of William Cameron Menzies’ most accomplished job of direction: the paranoid nightmare that haunted our childhood dreams. It’s slightly rewritten and has improved images. There’s so much to talk about: Near-experimental visuals! Strange editing choices! The idea for the essay is the same as ever, to inspire somebody to properly remaster the show . . . it’s not like we’re going to live forever.
A two-part examination of a Sci-fi classic that, at least
in Savant’s opinion, should be showing in the Louvre.
Alas and alack! As of 12.16.21, there...
A two-part examination of a Sci-fi classic that, at least
in Savant’s opinion, should be showing in the Louvre.
Alas and alack! As of 12.16.21, there...
- 12/21/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
ClassicFlix comes forward with an entire 26 original episodes of the comic duo’s 1952 TV show, all fully remastered by the 3-D Archive people. That’s 13 + hours of Abbott and Costello comedy, looking better than new — even the original opening logos have been restored. The repeating leads are fully attuned to A&c’s style of comedy — Sid Fields, Hillary Brooke, Gordon Jones, etc.. The full set comes with numerous audio commentaries and featurettes.
The Abbott and Costello Show Season 1
Blu-ray
ClassicFlix
1952-1953 / B&W / 1:33 flat / 676 min. / Street Date December 14, 2021 / Available from ClassicFLix / 49.99
Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Sid Fields, Hillary Brooke, Gordon Jones, Joe Besser, Joe Kirk, Bobby Barber, Joan Shawlee, Veda Ann Borg, Elvia Allman, Virginia Christine, Bingo the Chimp; Iris Adrian, Glenn Strange.
Cinematography: George Robinson
Art Director: Mac Capps
Film Editor: Gene Fowler Jr., Fred R. Feitshans Jr.
Original Music: Raoul Kraushaar
Written by Sid Fields,...
The Abbott and Costello Show Season 1
Blu-ray
ClassicFlix
1952-1953 / B&W / 1:33 flat / 676 min. / Street Date December 14, 2021 / Available from ClassicFLix / 49.99
Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Sid Fields, Hillary Brooke, Gordon Jones, Joe Besser, Joe Kirk, Bobby Barber, Joan Shawlee, Veda Ann Borg, Elvia Allman, Virginia Christine, Bingo the Chimp; Iris Adrian, Glenn Strange.
Cinematography: George Robinson
Art Director: Mac Capps
Film Editor: Gene Fowler Jr., Fred R. Feitshans Jr.
Original Music: Raoul Kraushaar
Written by Sid Fields,...
- 12/18/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Never heard of Wake Island? Its fall terrified Americans at Christmas of 1941. The war’s just begun, we’re definitely not winning, and the assignment was to make a movie about a tragic defeat that might be the first of many tragic defeats for the U.S.A.. Paramount’s careful morale-builder doesn’t exaggerate or sentimentalize the brutal fall of a tiny atoll in the Pacific, and stands as an example of filmmaking reaching for hope in the face of disaster.
Wake Island
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1942 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 88 min. / Street Date August 18, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Brian Donlevy, Robert Preston, Macdonald Carey, William Bendix, Albert Dekker, Walter Abel, Mikhail Rasumny, Rod Cameron, Bill Goodwin, Damian O’Flynn, Frank Albertson, Hugh Beaumont, Barbara Britton, Hillary Brooke, Dane Clark, Frank Faylen, Mary Field, Alan Hale Jr., Richard Loo, James Millican, Jack Mulhall, Keith Richards, Phillip Terry, Mary Thomas,...
Wake Island
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1942 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 88 min. / Street Date August 18, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Brian Donlevy, Robert Preston, Macdonald Carey, William Bendix, Albert Dekker, Walter Abel, Mikhail Rasumny, Rod Cameron, Bill Goodwin, Damian O’Flynn, Frank Albertson, Hugh Beaumont, Barbara Britton, Hillary Brooke, Dane Clark, Frank Faylen, Mary Field, Alan Hale Jr., Richard Loo, James Millican, Jack Mulhall, Keith Richards, Phillip Terry, Mary Thomas,...
- 8/4/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Abbott & Costello perform at full strength in this very good, very silly jungle safari comedy. It’s definitely for kids and nostalgic fans — with equal parts slapstick, cornball repetitive vaudeville gags, and Lou Costello’s weirdly endearing infantile schtick. An impressively beautiful restoration has pulled it back from the pit of Public Domain ugliness. Plus ClassicFlix & the 3-D Archive appoint this 2-D movie with a tall stack of creative, relevant extras.
Africa Screams
Blu-ray
ClassicFlix
1949 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 79 min. / Special Limited Edition / Street Date June 30, 2020 /
Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Clyde Beatty, Frank Buck, Max Baer, Buddy Baer, Hillary Brooke, Shemp Howard, Joe Besser, Burt Wenland, Charles Gemora, Arthur Hecht, Bill Walker, Martin Wilkins.
Cinematography: Charles Van Enger
Film Editor: Frank Gross
Original Music: Walter Schumann
Written by Earl Baldwin
Produced by Edward Nassour
Directed by Charles Barton
I can’t say that I was one of the zillion...
Africa Screams
Blu-ray
ClassicFlix
1949 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 79 min. / Special Limited Edition / Street Date June 30, 2020 /
Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Clyde Beatty, Frank Buck, Max Baer, Buddy Baer, Hillary Brooke, Shemp Howard, Joe Besser, Burt Wenland, Charles Gemora, Arthur Hecht, Bill Walker, Martin Wilkins.
Cinematography: Charles Van Enger
Film Editor: Frank Gross
Original Music: Walter Schumann
Written by Earl Baldwin
Produced by Edward Nassour
Directed by Charles Barton
I can’t say that I was one of the zillion...
- 7/4/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Gee whiz, sci-fi sure was simple in the early ‘50s, wasn’t it? Slap a little Red Scare subtext here, a damsel in distress there, scientists, the military, and of course aliens rounding out the films that beamed from every drive-in on a Saturday night. One of the earliest (and best) of the bunch is Invaders from Mars (1953), which sets itself apart by employing a unique viewpoint and having spectacular and surreal production design. Don’t write this off as a cheap time waster, you whippersnappers.
Distributed by Twentieth Century Fox near the end of April, this independent production received some favorable notices and made a swift return on its $290,000 budget, for good reason – seen through a child’s eyes, it captures that imagination and runs with it for 78 minutes, shoddy getups and all. Invaders from Mars is told with the fervor of an excited youth playing catch up with an exploding imagination.
Distributed by Twentieth Century Fox near the end of April, this independent production received some favorable notices and made a swift return on its $290,000 budget, for good reason – seen through a child’s eyes, it captures that imagination and runs with it for 78 minutes, shoddy getups and all. Invaders from Mars is told with the fervor of an excited youth playing catch up with an exploding imagination.
- 10/12/2019
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
Fritz Lang’s third wartime anti-Nazi film is an Alfred Hitchcock-type spy chase taken from a psychological novel by Graham Greene, with the psychology angle transferred mostly to physical threats — ticking clocks, a mystery cake, and German bombs in the Blitz. Ray Milland is cool and collected for a man just released from a mental asylum, and proves up to the task of defeating a Nazi conspiracy.
Ministry of Fear
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1944 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 86 min. / Street Date August 27, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £14.99
Starring: Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond, Hillary Brooke, Percy Waram, Dan Duryea, Alan Napier, Erskine Sanford, Byron Foulger.
Cinematography: Henry Sharp
Film Editor: Victor Young
Original Music: Victor Young
Written by Seton I. Miller from the novel by Graham Greene
Produced by Seton I. Miller
Directed by Fritz Lang
Why do we go for certain Region B Blu-ray imports, even...
Ministry of Fear
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1944 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 86 min. / Street Date August 27, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £14.99
Starring: Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond, Hillary Brooke, Percy Waram, Dan Duryea, Alan Napier, Erskine Sanford, Byron Foulger.
Cinematography: Henry Sharp
Film Editor: Victor Young
Original Music: Victor Young
Written by Seton I. Miller from the novel by Graham Greene
Produced by Seton I. Miller
Directed by Fritz Lang
Why do we go for certain Region B Blu-ray imports, even...
- 8/28/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
It’s a promising project for Allied Artists: William Cameron Menzies does a spooky horror movie in 3-D! Something creepy’s going on in a mysterious Scottish castle, something to do with problems in the lineage to a Barony. It’s also a 3-c epic: Candles, Cobwebs and Corridors. Add a frightened, shivering heroine in a nightgown and the horror recipe is complete. It’s another restoration treat from the 3-D Film Archive.
The Maze
3-D Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1953 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 80 min. / Street Date April 24, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 34.95
Starring: Richard Carlson. Veronica Hurst, Katherine Emery, Michael Pate, John Dodsworth, Hillary Brooke, Stanley Fraser, Lillian Bond, Owen McGiveney, Robin Hughes.
Cinematography: Harry Neumann
Film Editor: John Fuller
Original Music: Marlin Skiles
Written by Daniel B. Ullman, from a novel by Maurice Sandoz
Produced by Richard V. Heermance, Walter Mirisch
Production Design and Directed by William Cameron...
The Maze
3-D Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1953 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 80 min. / Street Date April 24, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 34.95
Starring: Richard Carlson. Veronica Hurst, Katherine Emery, Michael Pate, John Dodsworth, Hillary Brooke, Stanley Fraser, Lillian Bond, Owen McGiveney, Robin Hughes.
Cinematography: Harry Neumann
Film Editor: John Fuller
Original Music: Marlin Skiles
Written by Daniel B. Ullman, from a novel by Maurice Sandoz
Produced by Richard V. Heermance, Walter Mirisch
Production Design and Directed by William Cameron...
- 4/10/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Turner Classic Movies continues with its Gay Hollywood presentations tonight and tomorrow morning, June 8–9. Seven movies will be shown about, featuring, directed, or produced by the following: Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Farley Granger, John Dall, Edmund Goulding, W. Somerset Maughan, Clifton Webb, Montgomery Clift, Raymond Burr, Charles Walters, DeWitt Bodeen, and Harriet Parsons. (One assumes that it's a mere coincidence that gay rumor subjects Cary Grant and Tyrone Power are also featured.) Night and Day (1946), which could also be considered part of TCM's homage to birthday girl Alexis Smith, who would have turned 96 today, is a Cole Porter biopic starring Cary Grant as a posh, heterosexualized version of Porter. As the warning goes, any similaries to real-life people and/or events found in Night and Day are a mere coincidence. The same goes for Words and Music (1948), a highly fictionalized version of the Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart musical partnership.
- 6/9/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
By Tim Greaves
As British noir crime dramas of the Fifties go, The House Across the Lake (1954) is probably as good an example as you could hope to dip into. The tale unfolds in flashback, related by our main protagonist to another character (precisely who is not revealed until the final reel), is embroidered with expositional narration and, though clichéd and not in the least unpredictable, delivers atmosphere by the barrel.
The film is an early entry on the CV of writer-director Ken Hughes (the arguable highpoints of whose career, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Cromwell, remain perennial favourites, whilst his latter-day offerings, Night School and Sextette, are best brushed under the proverbial carpet). Hughes scripted The House Across the Lake from his own source novel, “High Wray”, and also commandeered the director’s chair. Nowadays understandably marketed as a Hammer film, it’s actually the fruit of the company’s earlier incarnation Exclusive Films.
As British noir crime dramas of the Fifties go, The House Across the Lake (1954) is probably as good an example as you could hope to dip into. The tale unfolds in flashback, related by our main protagonist to another character (precisely who is not revealed until the final reel), is embroidered with expositional narration and, though clichéd and not in the least unpredictable, delivers atmosphere by the barrel.
The film is an early entry on the CV of writer-director Ken Hughes (the arguable highpoints of whose career, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Cromwell, remain perennial favourites, whilst his latter-day offerings, Night School and Sextette, are best brushed under the proverbial carpet). Hughes scripted The House Across the Lake from his own source novel, “High Wray”, and also commandeered the director’s chair. Nowadays understandably marketed as a Hammer film, it’s actually the fruit of the company’s earlier incarnation Exclusive Films.
- 9/4/2014
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
The Woman in Green
Written by Bertram Millhauser
Directed by Roy William Neill
USA, 1945
The Woman in Green begins with a mystery Scotland Yard cannot solve. Several women have turned up murdered around London, all with a finger severed off. Stumped by who the killer could be, Inspector Gregson (Matthew Boulton) calls on Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) to solve the case. Holmes and Watson soon discover that the deaths are far more than the work of a lone serial killer, but part of a diabolical plot involving hypnotism and the ever-evil Professor Moriarty (Henry Daniell).
Part of a series of 14 Sherlock Holmes films produced between 1939 and 1946 (by 20th Century Fox and then Universal), The Woman in Green plays with hypnotism as a way for Moriarty to gain control. Moriarty’s partner-in-crime is Lydia (Hillary Brooke), a hypnotism enthusiast. Together, they hypnotize wealthy men to believe...
Written by Bertram Millhauser
Directed by Roy William Neill
USA, 1945
The Woman in Green begins with a mystery Scotland Yard cannot solve. Several women have turned up murdered around London, all with a finger severed off. Stumped by who the killer could be, Inspector Gregson (Matthew Boulton) calls on Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) to solve the case. Holmes and Watson soon discover that the deaths are far more than the work of a lone serial killer, but part of a diabolical plot involving hypnotism and the ever-evil Professor Moriarty (Henry Daniell).
Part of a series of 14 Sherlock Holmes films produced between 1939 and 1946 (by 20th Century Fox and then Universal), The Woman in Green plays with hypnotism as a way for Moriarty to gain control. Moriarty’s partner-in-crime is Lydia (Hillary Brooke), a hypnotism enthusiast. Together, they hypnotize wealthy men to believe...
- 11/5/2013
- by Karen Bacellar
- SoundOnSight
Lana Turner movies: Scandal and more scandal Lana Turner is Turner Classic Movies’ "Summer Under the Stars" star today, Saturday, August 10, 2013. I’m a little — or rather, a lot — late in the game posting this article, but there are still three Lana Turner movies left. You can see Turner get herself embroiled in scandal right now, in Douglas Sirk’s Imitation of Life (1959), both the director and the star’s biggest box-office hit. More scandal follows in Mark Robson’s Peyton Place (1957), the movie that earned Lana Turner her one and only Academy Award nomination. And wrapping things up is George Sidney’s lively The Three Musketeers (1948), with Turner as the ruthless, heartless, remorseless — but quite elegant — Lady de Winter. Based on Fannie Hurst’s novel and a remake of John M. Stahl’s 1934 melodrama about mother love, class disparities, racism, and good cooking, Imitation of Life was shown on...
- 8/11/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The St. Louis Globe-Democrat is a monthly newspaper run by Steve DeBellis, a well know St. Louis historian, and it’s the largest one-man newspaper in the world. The concept of The Globe is that there is an old historic headline, then all the articles in that issue are written as though it’s the year that the headline is from. It’s an unusual concept but the paper is now in its 25th successful year! Steve and I collaborated recently on an all-Vincent Price issue of The Globe in 2011 and he has asked me to write a regular monthly movie-related column. This month’s St. Louis Globe-Democrat is written as if it’s 1949, the year Joe Besser starred with Abbott and Costello in the comedy Africa Speaks. We are publishing several Joe Besser articles in this issue to help promote the upcoming Joe Besser Film Festival which will...
- 5/31/2013
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Fritz Lang aficionados can rejoice this month with Criterion’s release of his 1944 title, Ministry of Fear, the first time it sees a DVD transfer. Long regarded as a minor entry in Lang’s prestigious filmography, the last of a successive trio of anti-Nazi themed films from the German émigré is finally available for rediscovery. Though it may never escape its current status in the pantheon of its director’s legacy, it certainly stands out as an oddly constructed creature, a fussy war time noir whose sinister narrative is occluded by a stagnant paranoia that stirs the proceedings into a twisty nightmare.
Stephen Neale (Ray Milland) has just been released from Embridge Asylum in England while World War II rages on. He’s been put away for two years and insistently plans on traveling directly to London, even though it’s being bombed continuously. On the way there, he innocently stops at a village fair,...
Stephen Neale (Ray Milland) has just been released from Embridge Asylum in England while World War II rages on. He’s been put away for two years and insistently plans on traveling directly to London, even though it’s being bombed continuously. On the way there, he innocently stops at a village fair,...
- 3/19/2013
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
In the golden age of classic film and television, few comedians could match the success and popularity of legendary comic duo Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. The pair was successful in almost every medium, including stage, radio, film, cartoon, and television. Toward the end of their career, the duo had already hosted the Colgate Comedy Hour and decided to do a TV series that would utilize their classic gags while still reaching a newer, younger audience. The result was The Abbott and Costello Show.
Premiering in 1951, The Abbott and Costello Show was a short-lived success. Although it ran only two seasons, it showcased the pair’s reliable repertoire of routines which they had originally done in vaudeville and reintroduced to new generations of film and TV fans. You don’t have to be an Abbott and Costello fan to have heard of their routines, which were usually based on Costello...
Premiering in 1951, The Abbott and Costello Show was a short-lived success. Although it ran only two seasons, it showcased the pair’s reliable repertoire of routines which they had originally done in vaudeville and reintroduced to new generations of film and TV fans. You don’t have to be an Abbott and Costello fan to have heard of their routines, which were usually based on Costello...
- 4/3/2010
- by Rob Young
- JustPressPlay.net
In the golden age of classic film and television, few comedians could match the success and popularity of legendary comic duo Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. The pair was successful in almost every medium, including stage, radio, film, cartoon, and television. Toward the end of their career, the duo had already hosted the Colgate Comedy Hour and decided to do a TV series that would utilize their classic gags while still reaching a newer, younger audience. The result was The Abbott and Costello Show.
Premiering in 1951, The Abbott and Costello Show was a short-lived success. Although it ran only two seasons, it showcased the pair’s reliable repertoire of routines which they had originally done in vaudeville and reintroduced to new generations of film and TV fans. You don’t have to be an Abbott and Costello fan to have heard of their routines, which were usually based on Costello...
Premiering in 1951, The Abbott and Costello Show was a short-lived success. Although it ran only two seasons, it showcased the pair’s reliable repertoire of routines which they had originally done in vaudeville and reintroduced to new generations of film and TV fans. You don’t have to be an Abbott and Costello fan to have heard of their routines, which were usually based on Costello...
- 4/3/2010
- by Rob Young
- JustPressPlay.net
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