Mike Clark
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Mike’s Picks: ‘King Creole’ and ‘Destry Rides Again’
King Creole Paramount, Musical, $29.99 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Elvis Presley, Carolyn Jones,Walter Matthau, Dolores Hart, Dean Jagger. 1958. King Creole was, like most of Elvis’ pre-army screen outings, shot in black-and-white. But there was nothing stingy about the production, and the New Orleans locales that producer Hal Wallis sprung for add immeasurably to the ambience … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘King Creole’ and ‘Destry Rides Again’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Tin Cup’ and ‘The General Died at Dawn’
Tin Cup Available via Warner Archive Warner, Comedy, $21.99 Blu-ray, ‘R’ for language and brief nudity. Stars Kevin Costner, Rene Russo, Cheech Marin, Don Johnson. 1996. A golf-backdropped romantic comedy directed and co-written by Ron Shelton, Tin Cup was about as popular at the box office as the filmmaker’s breakthrough Bull Durham, yet it isn’t talked … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Tin Cup’ and ‘The General Died at Dawn’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘King Creole’ and ‘Destry Rides Again’
King Creole Paramount, Musical, $29.99 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Elvis Presley, Carolyn Jones,Walter Matthau, Dolores Hart, Dean Jagger. 1958. King Creole was, like most of Elvis’ pre-army screen outings, shot in black-and-white. But there was nothing stingy about the production, and the New Orleans locales that producer Hal Wallis sprung for add immeasurably to the ambience … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘King Creole’ and ‘Destry Rides Again’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Tin Cup’ and ‘The General Died at Dawn’
Tin Cup Available via Warner Archive Warner, Comedy, $21.99 Blu-ray, ‘R’ for language and brief nudity. Stars Kevin Costner, Rene Russo, Cheech Marin, Don Johnson. 1996. A golf-backdropped romantic comedy directed and co-written by Ron Shelton, Tin Cup was about as popular at the box office as the filmmaker’s breakthrough Bull Durham, yet it isn’t talked … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Tin Cup’ and ‘The General Died at Dawn’”
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Mike’s Picks: “Murder, He Says” and “Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project”
Murder, He Says Street Date 4/7/20 Kino Lorber, Comedy, $24.95 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Fred MacMurray, Helen Walker, Marjorie Main, Jean Heather, Porter Hall. 1945. Fred MacMurray gives what may be the top comic performance of his long and still underrated career in Murder, He Says, a twisted Hollywood comedy that gets a 4K spiff-up for … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: “Murder, He Says” and “Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project””
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Beau Brummell’ and ‘Canyon Passage’
Beau Brummell Available via Warner Archive Warner, Drama, $21.99 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Stewart Granger, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Ustinov, Robert Morley. 1954. A flop at the time, this superbly cast costume drama has picked up a cult following who should be pleased by the Blu-ray’s 4K scan off the original negative that pays off with such … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Beau Brummell’ and ‘Canyon Passage’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘A Little Romance’ and ‘Salesman’
A Little Romance Available via Warner Archive Warner, Drama, $21.99 Blu-ray, ‘PG.’ Stars Laurence Olivier, Diane Lane, Thelonious Bernard, Sally Kellerman, Arthur Hill. 1979. It was spring of 1979 when 12-year-old Diane Lane made the cover of Time magazine back when that really meant something — ostensibly as part of a cover story on “Hollywood’s … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘A Little Romance’ and ‘Salesman’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘The Day of the Dolphin’ and ‘X … the Unknown’
The Day of the Dolphin Kino Lorber, Drama, $19.95 DVD, $29.95 Blu-ray, ‘PG.’ Stars George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Paul Sorvino, Fritz Weaver. 1973. When I first saw The Day of the Dolphin, my reaction was akin to that of so many other film folk in that we couldn’t quite figure out what the … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘The Day of the Dolphin’ and ‘X … the Unknown’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Cimarron’ and ‘Jungle Fever’
Cimarron Available via Warner Archive Warner, Western, $21.99 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Glenn Ford, Maria Schell, Anne Baxter, Arthur O’Connell, Russ Tamblyn. 1960. MGM’s large-scale remake of the 1931 Best Picture Oscar winner looks so impressive on a big screen TV that I pleasurably breezed through its 2 hour, 38 minutes in one sitting, though without … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Cimarron’ and ‘Jungle Fever’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Black Angel’ and ‘Kitten With a Whip’
Black Angel MVD/Arrow, Mystery, $39.99 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Dan Duryea, June Vincent, Peter Lorre, Broderick Crawford. 1946. The big takeaway from Angel, at least speaking personally, is just how much of a visual stylist director Roy William Neill apparently was. Extras: Alan Rode provides a voiceover commentary, and there’s also an on-camera interview with British … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Black Angel’ and ‘Kitten With a Whip’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘The Great McGinty’ and ‘Watergate’
The Great McGinty Kino Lorber, Comedy, $29.95 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Brian Donlevy, Muriel Angelus, Akim Tamiroff, William Demarest. 1940. It’s a little surprising that it took Hollywood until 1940 to attack the subject of political corruption as directly head-on as in The Great McGinty. However comparably minor it might be compared to the enduring Preston Sturges … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘The Great McGinty’ and ‘Watergate’”
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Mike’s Picks: “House by the River” and “Five Graves to Cairo”
House by the River Kino Lorber, Drama, $19.95 DVD, $29.95 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Louis Hayward, Lee Bowman, Jane Wyatt, Dorothy Patrick. 1950. When a gothic late 19th-century murder melodrama is titled House by the River, it can really get off on the wrong foot if the river itself doesn’t look very sinister when it predictably … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: “House by the River” and “Five Graves to Cairo””