Mike Clark
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Detour’ and ‘Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?’
Detour Street Date 3/19/19 Criterion, Drama, $29.95 DVD, $39.95 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake. 1945. Seeing director Edgar G. Ulmer’s absorbing Detour after its restoration is an entirely fresh experience, though “fresh” is not necessarily how you feel after spending a blistering hour-and-a-quarter with its cast of mostly misfits. Extras: A … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Detour’ and ‘Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Year of the Dragon’ and ‘The Return of Frank James’
Year of the Dragon Available via Warner Archive Warner, Drama, $21.99 Blu-ray, ‘R.’ Stars Mickey Rourke, John Lon, Ariane. 1985. A handsome-plus howler whose saturated colors synch keenly with its Blu-ray presentation, the late Michael Cimino’s violent camp-fest Year of the Dragon remains an ideal culinary companion for the viewing demographic seeking just the right … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Year of the Dragon’ and ‘The Return of Frank James’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Detour’ and ‘Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?’
Detour Street Date 3/19/19 Criterion, Drama, $29.95 DVD, $39.95 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake. 1945. Seeing director Edgar G. Ulmer’s absorbing Detour after its restoration is an entirely fresh experience, though “fresh” is not necessarily how you feel after spending a blistering hour-and-a-quarter with its cast of mostly misfits. Extras: A … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Detour’ and ‘Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Year of the Dragon’ and ‘The Return of Frank James’
Year of the Dragon Available via Warner Archive Warner, Drama, $21.99 Blu-ray, ‘R.’ Stars Mickey Rourke, John Lon, Ariane. 1985. A handsome-plus howler whose saturated colors synch keenly with its Blu-ray presentation, the late Michael Cimino’s violent camp-fest Year of the Dragon remains an ideal culinary companion for the viewing demographic seeking just the right … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Year of the Dragon’ and ‘The Return of Frank James’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Desert Fury’ and ‘My Name Is Julia Ross’
Desert Fury Kino Lorber, Drama, $19.95 DVD, $29.95 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Lizbeth Scott, John Hodiak, Burt Lancaster, Wendell Corey, Mary Astor. 1947. The revisionist word has gotten around on this once critically drubbed Technicolor potboiler. The movie is heavier than it needs to be on people standing around and talking to each other, though, to … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Desert Fury’ and ‘My Name Is Julia Ross’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Sammy Davis, Jr. — I’ve Gotta Be Me’ and ‘Beat the Devil’
American Masters: Sammy Davis, Jr. — I’ve Gotta Be Me Street Date 2/19/19 PBS, Documentary, $24.99 DVD, NR. Featuring Kim Novak, Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg, Norman Lear, Jerry Lewis. 2019. Neatly dividing its subject’s life into chapters that reflected the dimensions of his career (singer, dancer, social progressive, social regressive, etc.), Sam Pollard’s documentary hits … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Sammy Davis, Jr. — I’ve Gotta Be Me’ and ‘Beat the Devil’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘La Verite’ and ‘Men Must Fight’
La Verite (The Truth) Street 2/12/19 Criterion, Drama, $29.95 DVD, $39.95 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Brigitte Bardot, Paul Meurisse, Charles Vanel, Sami Frey. 1960. A structurally lumpy yet intriguing 128-minute portrayal of murder-trial brutality spun off of tragic events we see played out in extensive flashbacks, Henri-Georges Clouzot’s La Verite is the movie that proved Brigitte … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘La Verite’ and ‘Men Must Fight’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘The Heroes of Telemark’ and ‘Reap the Wild Wind’
The Heroes of Telemark Sony Pictures, Drama, $24.99 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Kirk Douglas, Richard Harris, Ulla Jacobsson, Michael Redgrave. 1966. This movie about resistance fighters in Norway plotting to destroy the Nazi program to develop heavy water for an atomic bomb plays out in ways that one pretty well expects, and the result is a … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘The Heroes of Telemark’ and ‘Reap the Wild Wind’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Forty Guns’ and ‘The Blue Dahlia’
Forty Guns Criterion, Western, $29.95 DVD, $39.95 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, Dean Jagger, Gene Barry. 1957. Director Samuel Fuller’s action-packed Western features Barbara Stanwyck doing her own stunts as a ruthless landowner seeking to keep her drunken brother out of trouble when lawmen ride into town in search of a gunman under … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Forty Guns’ and ‘The Blue Dahlia’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Panique’ and ‘The Last Command’
Panique Criterion, Drama, $29.95 DVD, $39.95 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Viviane Romance, Michel Simon, Paul Bernard, Max Dalban. 1946. Director Julien Duvivier’s Panique, a French-language adaptation of a Georges Simenon novel just after the end of World War II, features Michel Simon playing an anti-social man of mystery residing in a Paris suburb and rendered a target … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Panique’ and ‘The Last Command’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘The Atomic Cafe’ and ‘The Glenn Miller Story’
The Atomic Cafe Kino Lorber, Documentary, $24.95 DVD, $29.95 Blu-ray, NR. 1982. An artful assemblage of Cold War propaganda films about dealing with the atomic age and potential nuclear war, The Atomic Cafe’s near-singular mix of solemnity and gonzo remains as relevant as ever. The new Blu-ray restoration makes the film look and sound as … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘The Atomic Cafe’ and ‘The Glenn Miller Story’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Brewster McCloud’ and ‘Distant Voices, Still Lives’
Brewster McCloud Available via Warner Archive Warner, Comedy, $21.99 Blu-ray, ‘R.’ Stars Bud Cort, Sally Kellerman, Shelley Duvall, Michael Murphy, William Windom. 1970. Sandwiched between two of its era’s landmark screen achievements — MASH and McCabe and Mrs. Miller — Robert Altman’s Astrodome fantasy Brewster McCloud is an oddball even by his standards, which indeed … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Brewster McCloud’ and ‘Distant Voices, Still Lives’”