23 Paces to Baker Street

Another Fox pan and scan!
This great Cinemascope film is another issue from Fox in pan and scan. Why they keep doing this is of course beyond
any one's comprehension.
I thankfully have Fox's official Spanish release in all its 2.35 widescreen glory.
As I have remarked in previous reviews, why do Fox keep on issuing 2.35 films in 1.33 pan and scan?
The 5 stars are of course for the film itself.
I have just found out that it has been issued in the U.K. in 2.35 ratio and is available from
Amazon.co.uk This is obviously the one to buy.

More pan & scan awfulness from News Corporation
I can't believe I fell for it again-- maybe because I love anything Van Johnson and Vera Miles are in and I've wanted this movie for years. It's nice of News Corporation (multimedia conglomerate owner of the proud 20th Century Fox film library) to include the original poster art-- with "CinemaScope" blaring across the cover. But push play and sure enough it's Pan & Scan. Absolutely no respect for its customers, after all the complaints about previous DVD issues in this series. They should be boycotted. But I want these movies so badly I'll probably buy pre-widescreen era releases-- I just refuse to buy anything that's widescreen era from this joke of a company. Long live Warner Archive-- and News Corp can go to you know where.

Underrated Suspense Film Noir.
Excellent Hitchcockian mystery thriller about an emotionally volatile & embittered mystery writer (Van Johnson) who is blind and overhears a partial conversation he believes is related to the planning of a kidnapping. Due to the skepticism of the authorities he becomes obsessed with trying to solve the case by himself. Complicated characters with an unconventional villian and targeted victim. Filmed on location there is a wonderful 1950s London ambience to the picture.
Great cast and exciting entertainment. Directed by film noir master Henry Hathaway--also underrated.

"23 Paces To Baker Street" is the perfect film to watch on a long rainy afternoon, so pour yourself a cup of tea (or whatever) and enjoy this neglected gem.

Sorry, but I cannot vouch for the print quality of this film. Buyer beware.

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Travel to France

How to really travel in France
What a great video..it really shows France up close and personal. If you travel the world while sitting in your arm chair..this video is for you... do not miss seeing it.





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A Message to Garcia

Mediocre DVD transfer for a So-So Movie
The DVD release of this 1936 20th Century Fox Film is mediocre. It is grainy in some places...but acceptable. Its not bad but not good either. So, also, for the movie. Wallace Beery is an acquired taste. John Boles, a handsome leading man of the 1930's is fine as the hero. But poor Barbara Stanwyck.....even with her brilliant acting skills she is straining credibility as a Cuban Senorita. She has been photographed beautifully with false eye lashes and lip gloss galore. There are even a couple of stunning close-ups of her. But she is miscast in this so-so melodrama. It is exciting in some places but the mediocre DVD transfer distracts considerably.

If the DVD transfer had been better the film would have been much more enjoyable. That said, it is always a treat to watch Stanwyck, even when she is miscast. She always brings things up to her level which is first class. Stanwyck's work has always been first class, even when applied to material that is not. This is...

Typical 1930's action adventure....
The story line is a young Army officer (John Boles) is hand picked to deliver a personal message from the US president to a guerilla leader in Cuba who is trying to overthrow the Spanish gov't. He has all sorts of problems along the way and meets a girl (a VERY young Barbara Stanwyck) and an old Marine deserter (Wallace Berry).....after fighting Spanish troops, spies, the Cuban jungle, bandits, and others, he eventually delivers the message....and is the "hero"......pretty good story with lots of action.......was probably a hit when released....



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Special 26 (Hindi Movie / Bollywood Film / Indian Cinema - DVD) 2013

It is not only difficult to catch Ajay Vardhan... it's impossible
More or less based on true events, SPECIAL 26 tells of a rash of fake raids conducted by an audacious band of thieves passing itself off as CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) agents or Income Tax inspectors across the breadth of India back in the mid-1980s. That these con jobs went unreported is indicative of the mastermind's acuity in selecting his victims, most of whom were shady businessmen or politicians whose loss of ill-gotten gains wasn't near as detrimental as the resulting negative publicity would've been should they had brought in the proper authorities. These thieves never resorted to flashing guns. Instead they wielded a tool that was even more intimidating, that of governmental authority.

When asked how many such raids had been executed, one accomplice reluctantly admits to half a century. So, given that sheer number and that, it turns out, thirteen such cases had been detected in the past two years, perhaps it's inevitable that, at some point, the real CBI...

DVD does not work
I was looking forward to see this movie, heard that Akshay Kumar acually "acts" in this movie. However, the DVD does not work. Tried it on multiple devices.

Good movie
A true story very well done in a timely manner, It happened a long time ago. Their may be a second one soon.

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Wilson

An invitation to better histories of this important era
Lavish biodrama on the life and times of President Woodrow Wilson (and therefore the US's involvement in the First World War, which traditionally is called the Great War, of course, and in its time and for some years was called The World War). This film seems to be getting discovered lately, though it has been available on tape since the 1980s. Some of it is even accurate, no small thing for a 1940s biodrama dealing with human complexities. Alexander Knox in the title role is differently shaped and less serious-looking than his namesake, but he does capture well the habit of lecturing everybody.

There's an intense sequence in the middle around the entry of the US into the war. In the actual events, late on January 31, 1917, Ambassador Count Johann von Bernstorff notified the US State Department that Germany would resume submarine warfare against neutral (i.e., US) vessels in blockade areas (a policy, by the way, that Bernstorff himself had lobbied against vigorously with his...

Had to have it!
Alexander Knox's portrayl of President Woodrow Wilson was spot on-right down to the pince-nez glasses. If you are a fan of presidential movies, you will surely want this one added to your collection. I just wish that they would put this out on DVD.

wilson: Why isn't this on DVD?
Why isn't this movie on DVD? Despite its flaws, it is a very thought provoking portrayal of on of our five greatest presidents.

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Lisa

heartwarming
I first saw this film many years ago when I was a teenager and instantly fell in love with it. Over the years it could be seen on tv quite frequently but then as so often happens the powers that be stopped making it available.
As the film begins we see Stephen Boyd's charactor hunting Lisa as though she were some sort of criminal, but then the unthinkable happens and he begins to see how deeply she longs to return to her homeland and begins a long and illegal journey with her to make her dream come true making himself a wanted man himself in the process.
I don't want to give away what happens but suffice it to say that as the story progresses the viewer is drawn in and begins to want that happy ending we all hope each film has. In it's own way it does happen here but only with a great deal of love and sacrifice.
For those who are looking for a film with integrity, a good story, good acting and a few twists and turns to keep your attention, then this is it.

Unforgettable
I saw "Lisa" exactly one time, many decades ago, when I was a kid. I watched it on a black and white TV, late at night, interrupted by many annoying commercials. I've never forgotten "Lisa": Dolores Hart played a Holocaust survivor determined, by any means necessary, to get to Palestine at a time when the British were interdicting such arrivals. Ruggedly handsome Stephen Boyd was Inspector Jongman. He began by hindering Lisa's pilgrimage and ended up helping her. For comic relief, there was Hugh Griffith, a smuggler who used a tennis racket in his ongoing battle with the bats that invaded his exotic Tangiers apartment at dusk.

Most importantly, I never shook the feeling that the film aroused in me - this film literally made me sick, and terrified, but it also moved and inspired me.

In the intervening years, I read somewhere that "Lisa" was an early attempt to depict the Holocaust in a mainstream Hollywood movie. That just increased my curiosity. Some kind soul...

Holocaust Survivor
I saw "Lisa" many years ago and forgot both the name of the movie and the stars, but I never forgot the emotional impact of the story. Today I stumbled across it on TV and watched it again, finding the same emotional impact. We must never let the world forget the Holocaust and the survivors all have a story that is important for us to remember. Palestine and its beginnings are part of this story.

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Tender is the Night

Erratic adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic
A psychiatrist (Jason Robards) in a Swiss clinic on the verge of a brilliant career falls in love with one of his patients, an heiress (Jennifer Jones) with schizophrenic tendencies. Against his better judgement, he marries her and it proves his undoing. Directed by Henry King and based on the celebrated novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the film only glosses over the complexities and layers of Fitzgerald's work. Actually, if there had been no Fitzgerald's TENDER IS THE NIGHT, the film might have been more impressive. To the film's credit, it doesn't shy away from the incest theme which may have seemed too provocative for 1962 audiences. Indeed, the film is quite frank including a sequence of a father taking his gay son to Robards' psychiatrist to be "cured" of his homosexuality. The fragile Nicole seems like the role Jennifer Jones was born to play, so it's a pity that it happened about 15 years too late. Jones looks smashing in her 1920s garb and bobbed hair but she's clearly a matron...

Glossy CinemaScope reduced to a 4:3 stream.
F. Scott Fitzgerald isn't the best basis for a glossy 50's CinemaScope soap opera, but that doesn't mean you won't get a trashy melodrama that is definitely worth the wallow. Jennifer Jones and Jason Robards almost play themselves here, and the location work is impressive. The sassy and uber sexy Jill St. John is a plum asset, and there is a moody Bernard Herrmann score that's better than the picture. Hardly a waste of time, but sadly, this streaming version is a worthless 4:3, pan-and-scan version, albeit with fine DeLuxe color and the original 4-track stereo mix.

Don't Buy This DVD-R
This wonderful film has an old transfer - it is Panned and Scanned with a 4:3 aspect ratio.
It is outrageous for Fox Archives to publish this movie without a good widescreen transfer.
Contrast this release with Warner Bros. Archives: I have dozens of their titles, all correctly
transferred.

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