Mike Clark
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Mike’s Picks: ‘My Man Godfrey’ and ‘The Last Hunt’
My Man Godfrey Street Date 9/18/18 Criterion, Comedy, $29.95 DVD, $39.95 Blu-ray, NR. Stars William Powell, Carole Lombard, Gail Patrick, Alice Brady, Eugene Pallette. 1936. With My Man Godfrey’s light-touch treatment of a serious underlying subject (the Depression) and a cast of characters that “loopy” doesn’t even begin to describe, there are about a dozen … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘My Man Godfrey’ and ‘The Last Hunt’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Tucker: The Man and His Dream’ and ‘Village of the Damned’
Tucker: The Man and His Dream Lionsgate, Drama, $14.99 Blu-ray, ‘PG.’ Stars Jeff Bridges, Martin Landau, Joan Allen, Frederick Forrest. 1988. Aptly and often characterized as a screen biography with direct applications to its director’s own life and psyche, Francis Ford Coppola’s Tucker: The Man and His Dream feels totally fanciful, but a consistent directorial … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Tucker: The Man and His Dream’ and ‘Village of the Damned’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘My Man Godfrey’ and ‘The Last Hunt’
My Man Godfrey Street Date 9/18/18 Criterion, Comedy, $29.95 DVD, $39.95 Blu-ray, NR. Stars William Powell, Carole Lombard, Gail Patrick, Alice Brady, Eugene Pallette. 1936. With My Man Godfrey’s light-touch treatment of a serious underlying subject (the Depression) and a cast of characters that “loopy” doesn’t even begin to describe, there are about a dozen … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘My Man Godfrey’ and ‘The Last Hunt’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Tucker: The Man and His Dream’ and ‘Village of the Damned’
Tucker: The Man and His Dream Lionsgate, Drama, $14.99 Blu-ray, ‘PG.’ Stars Jeff Bridges, Martin Landau, Joan Allen, Frederick Forrest. 1988. Aptly and often characterized as a screen biography with direct applications to its director’s own life and psyche, Francis Ford Coppola’s Tucker: The Man and His Dream feels totally fanciful, but a consistent directorial … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Tucker: The Man and His Dream’ and ‘Village of the Damned’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Trapeze’ and ‘Never So Few’
Trapeze Street 9/25/18 Kino Lorber, Drama, $19.95 DVD, $29.95 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Gina Lollobrigida, Katy Jurado, Thomas Gomez. 1956. Trapeze was a big deal at the time for boomer kids who wanted to see real stars, plus kinetic scenes where the mechanics of flying are explained. Extras: Includes a very strong … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Trapeze’ and ‘Never So Few’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Irma La Douce’ and ‘Strait-Jacket’
Irma La Douce Kino Lorber, Comedy, $29.95 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Lou Jacobi. 1963. As both the most commercially successful movie Billy Wilder ever enjoyed and, paradoxically, the last box office hit of his career, Irma La Douce seems like something of a benchmark oddity when viewed from 55 years of perspective. Extras: The … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Irma La Douce’ and ‘Strait-Jacket’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘I, Jane Doe’ and ‘Black Peter’
I, Jane Doe Kino Lorber, Drama, $19.95 DVD, $24.95 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Ruth Hussey, John Carroll, Vera Ralston, John How. 1948. Even by the standards of shaky ‘A’-picture melodramas, Republic Pictures’ I, Jane Doe is a whopper packed with wall-to-wall coincidences and improbabilities right up to its final courtroom histrionics. Read the Full Review Black … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘I, Jane Doe’ and ‘Black Peter’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘A Matter of Life and Death’ and ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’
A Matter of Life and Death Criterion, Fantasy, $29.95 DVD, $39.95 Blu-ray, NR. Stars David Niven, Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey, Raymond Massey. 1946. You can watch Matter multiple times and always see something new or be affected by a shot or minor detail that didn’t make a direct hit previously. Extras: In addition to Stephanie … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘A Matter of Life and Death’ and ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘I Walk Alone’ and ‘If I Had a Million’
I Walk Alone Street 7/24/18 Kino Lorber, Drama, $19.95 DVD, $24.95 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Lizabeth Scott, Wendell Corey. 1947. The first Burt Lancaster-Kirk Douglas teaming, I Walk Alone captures a special moment in marquee-name time and is thus worth a look by those for whom modest fun is enough. Extras: Includes … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘I Walk Alone’ and ‘If I Had a Million’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Let’s Make Love’ and ‘The Colossus of Rhodes’
Let’s Make Love Available via ScreenArchives.com Twilight Time, Drama, $29.95 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Marilyn Monroe, Yves Montand, Tony Randall. 1960. Five months before her final film The Misfits’ release, Marilyn Monroe starred in Let’s Make Love, the last completed pure MM “vehicle.” Basically a rack on which to hang a full array of hats, the script concerns an Old … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Let’s Make Love’ and ‘The Colossus of Rhodes’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘The Curse of the Cat People’ and ‘2 Weeks in Another Town’
The Curse of the Cat People Shout! Factory, Horror, $22.99 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Simone Simon, Ann Carter, Kent Smith, Jane Randoph. 1944. Even viewers without the slightest idea of who producer Val Lewton was have stumbled into The Curse of the Cat People while channel surfing and found this haunter about a lonely young girl and … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘The Curse of the Cat People’ and ‘2 Weeks in Another Town’”
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Mike’s Picks: ‘Designing Woman’ and ‘My Sister Eileen’
Designing Woman Available via Warner Archive Warner, Comedy, $21.99 Blu-ray, NR. Stars Gregory Peck, Lauren Bacall, Dolores Gray, Mickey Shaughnessy. 1957. Directed to the hilt with his own designer’s eye by Vincente Minnelli and boasting an Oscar-winning story and screenplay by George Wells, this cosmetically gorgeous old-school romantic comedy showed off — and for just … Continue reading “Mike’s Picks: ‘Designing Woman’ and ‘My Sister Eileen’”