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We love this Fritz Lang western even though it’s not particularly good; only in hindsight do we realize that the brilliant director’s intentions may have been compromised. High-key lighting does Marlene Dietrich no favors, but she scores good scenes performing with Arthur Kennedy (revenged crazed cowpoke) and Mel Ferrer (tranquilized gunslinger). Lang fans will be impressed by the gaudy, over-bright restored Technicolor, and we can always blame Howard Hughes.

Rancho Notorious

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1952 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 89 min. / Available at Amazon.com / General site Wac-Amazon / Street Date January 10, 2023 / 21.99

Starring: Marlene Dietrich, Arthur Kennedy, Mel Ferrer, Lloyd Gough, William Frawley, Jack Elam, George Reeves, Frank Ferguson, Dan Seymour, John Doucette, Dick Elliott, Russell Johnson, Charlita.

Cinematography: Hal Mohr

Production Designer: Wiard Ihnen

Dietrich’s wardrobe designed by: Don Loper

Editorial Supervisor: Otto Ludwig

Original Music: Emil Newman

Written by Daniel Taradash, Silvia Richards

Produced by Howard Welsch

Directed...

Wow! Fritz Lang's second western is a marvel -- a combo of matinee innocence and that old Germanic edict that character equals fate. It has a master's sense of color and design. Robert Young is an odd fit but Randolph Scott is nothing less than terrific. You'd think Lang was born on the Pecos. Western Union Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1941 / Color /1:37 flat Academy / 95 min. / Street Date November 8, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Randolph Scott, Robert Young, Virginia Gilmore, Dean Jagger, John Carradine, Chill Wills, Slim Summerville, Barton MacLane, Victor Kilian, George Chandler, Chief John Big Tree, Iron Eyes Cody, Jay Silverheels. Cinematography Edward Cronjager, Allen M. Davey Original Music David Buttolph Written by Robert Carson from the novel by Zane Grey Produced by Harry Joe Brown (associate) Directed by Fritz Lang

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Darryl Zanuck of 20th Fox treated most writers well, was good for John Ford...

Savant uncovers the true, hidden ending to this Fritz Lang masterpiece. The moral outrage of Lang's searing attack on lynch terror hasn't dimmed a bit -- with his first American picture the director nails one of our primary social evils. MGM imposed some re-cutting and re-shooting, but it's still the most emotionally powerful film on the subject. Fury DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1936 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 92 min. / Street Date August 2, 2016, 2016 / available through the WB Shop / 17.99 Starring Sylvia Sidney, Spencer Tracy, Walter Abel, Bruce Cabot, Edward Ellis, Walter Brennan, Frank Albertson, George Walcott, Arthur Stone, Morgan Wallace, George Chandler, Roger Gray, Edwin Maxwell, Howard C. Hickman, Jonathan Hale, Leila Bennett, Esther Dale, Helen Flint. Cinematography Joseph Ruttenberg Film Editor Frank Sullivan Original Music Franz Waxman Written by Bartlett Cormack, Fritz Lang story by Norman Krasna Produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz Directed by Fritz Lang

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Just...

Last year marked the 40th anniversary of the Us release of Five Fingers Of Death, the movie that began the martial arts film craze in America (buoyed also by the surprise TV hit of 1972, “Kung Fu” starring David Carradine). For a short time in the mid 70′s, a flurry of hastily dubbed and edited Eastern action programmers filled drive-ins and urban neighborhood grind house theatres. From this film frenzy a cinema icon emerged: Bruce Lee. After the low-budget sensation Fists Of Fury, Hollywood snapped him up for the martial arts epic Enter Of The Dragon. Lee’s untimely death struck a blow to the booming “kung fu fightin’” flicks. Sure there was Jackie Chan and Jet Li, but Lee’s shadow still looms large over this genre. There have even been several film biographies of Lee, the best of which may be the twenty year-old Us made Dragon: The Life Of Bruce Lee.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment is letting you decide what classic films they will release on Blu-ray for the first time.

That’s right, your vote counts. Fans vote for their favorite classic titles through the “Voice Your Choice” campaign.

Click Here To Vote

Here is an portion the news release:

Los Angeles (January 15, 2013) – Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment announced today its partnership with the ultimate film discussion website, Home Theater Forum, for a one-of-a-kind campaign, Voice Your Choice, allowing film enthusiasts to decide which classic films they would like to see digitally restored and transferred to Blu-ray for the very first time. The program celebrates Fox’s most notable films from the 1930’s thru the 1960’s featuring performances by famous actors such as Henry Fonda, Shirley Temple, Paul Newman, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, John Wayne and more. Throughout the campaign, fans will also have the opportunity to write in and submit additional titles.

William Friedkin's 1975 interview with Fritz Lang

If you happen to be in the market for Fritz Lang Christmas ornaments, they do exist, though they don't come cheaply. At any rate, much of the third issue of Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism (the successor to Movie, the print journal Ian Cameron edited from 1962 to 2000) is given to the second part of its Fritz Lang dossier featuring — and I should mention before you start clicking that these are PDFs — Stella Bruzzi on Fury (1936), Vf Perkins on You Only Live Once (1937), Edward Gallafent on The Return of Frank James (1940), Adrian Martin on Scarlet Street (1945), Peter William Evans on The Big Heat (1953), Deborah Thomas on Human Desire (1954) and Peter Benson on Moonfleet (1955).

Also in this issue: Christian Keathley on Otto Preminger's Bonjour Tristesse (1958), Alex Clayton on Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) and Gus Van Sant's 1998 remake and John Gibbs on Jamie Thraves's...

Actor Jackie Cooper, the man who played Clark Kent's newspaper boss in the first four Superman films, has died. He was 88.

A former child star, Cooper was one of only two young stars to win a Best Actor/Actress Oscar nomination before his 18th birthday for his role in 1931's Skippy. He was nine.

He also appeared in Treasure Island as Jim Hawkins and 1940's The Return of Frank James before turning his attention to TV as a regular and, in his later years, directing dramas like M*A*S*H* and The White Shadow.

But he's best known by movie fans as Perry White, the editor of the Daily Planet, where Superman's alter-ego Clark Kent worked in 1978's Superman and its three sequels.

He was also a true American hero - Cooper served in the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific towards the end of World War Two and became a leading naval recruitment officer in the Naval Reserve.

In the mid-1970s, just before he took on the role in the Superman film, he was promoted to a Captain.

According to IMDb.com, the Navy proposed a period of active duty at the Pentagon for Cooper in 1980, which would have resulted in a promotion to Rear Admiral - but he declined the offer so he could concentrate on his directing dreams.

Only one other celebrity, James Stewart, has held a higher military rank.

Flowers were placed on Cooper's Hollywood Walk of Fame star on Wednesday afternoon.

Actor Jackie Cooper, the man who played Clark Kent's newspaper boss in the first four Superman films, has died. He was 88.

A former child star, Cooper was one of only two young stars to win a Best Actor/Actress Oscar nomination before his 18th birthday for his role in 1931's Skippy. He was nine.

He also appeared in Treasure Island as Jim Hawkins and 1940's The Return of Frank James before turning his attention to TV as a regular and, in his later years, directing dramas like M*A*S*H* and The White Shadow.

But he's best known by movie fans as Perry White, the editor of the Daily Sentinel, where Superman's alter-ego Clark Kent worked in 1978's Superman and its three sequels.

He was also a true American hero - Cooper served in the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific towards the end of World War Two and became a leading naval recruitment officer in the Naval Reserve.

In the mid-1970s, just before he took on the role in the Superman film, he was promoted to a Captain.

According to IMDb.com, the Navy proposed a period of active duty at the Pentagon for Cooper in 1980, which would have resulted in a promotion to Rear Admiral - but he declined the offer so he could concentrate on his directing dreams.

Only one other celebrity, James Stewart, has held a higher military rank.

Flowers were placed on Cooper's Hollywood Walk of Fame star on Wednesday afternoon.

A former child star, Jackie Cooper was one of only two young stars to win a Best Actor/Actress Oscar nomination before his 18th birthday for his role in 1931's "Skippy". He was nine.

He also appeared in "Treasure Island" as Jim Hawkins and 1940's "The Return of Frank James" before turning his attention to TV as a regular and, in his later years, directing dramas like "M*A*S*H*" and "The White Shadow".

But he's best known by movie fans as Perry White, the editor of the Daily Sentinel, where Superman's alter-ego Clark Kent worked in 1978's "Superman" and its three sequels.

He was also a true American hero - Cooper served in the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific towards the end of World War Two and became a leading naval recruitment officer in the Naval Reserve.

In the mid-1970s, just before he took...

(1951, PG, Optimum)

Optimum's latest valuable tranche of six western classics ranges in time from The Return of Frank James (1940, Fritz Lang's first western and first colour movie) to Butch & Sundance: The Early Years (1979), Dick Lester's witty prequel to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The major release, however, is Rawhide, an intense, monochrome, chamber western set on a remote stagecoach station where an outlaw gang holds the residents captive to steal a consignment of gold bullion. The whole cast are 20th Century Fox performers, the crooks led by Hugh Marlowe, customarily a solid citizen, backed by wall-eyed Jack Elam in one of his first notable roles. Opposing them are Tyrone Power and Susan Hayward. They're directed by veteran Henry Hathaway, here bringing together his command of the western and the noir thriller. The script is by one of Hollywood's most distinguished writers, Dudley Nichols, whose credits include Bringing up Baby,...