I’m thrilled that the good folks at Arbelos Films have released a 4K restoration of this bleak gem of a movie. At 95 minutes, it felt like a Béla Tarr short, and might serve as the perfect gateway to his slow, ponderous and disturbing masterpieces.
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The Harder They Fall 1956
The Harder They Fall gets a bit heavy-handed at times in its sermonizing about the utter corruption, greed, and exploitation that permeated professional boxing in the 1950s. But it still tells an engaging story of a washed up sportswriter (Humphrey Bogart) wading into that cesspool and eventually finding the moral clarity and strength of character to fight the system. And bonus points for casting the great Jersey Joe Walcott as George, the boxing trainer.
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Black Christmas 1974
This is an annual holiday season watch for me, and once you've seen a movie 4 or 5 times, it's the little things that you start to notice. This time I noticed how stylized the murder scenes were, particularly the one with Barb (Margot Kidder). It had the brutal beauty of a giallo kill, with the quick cuts and the close ups on the glass figurines, ending with the bloody hand knocking them over. And while this mayhem is occurring,…
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Design for Living 1933
Design for Living just might be the quintessential pre-Code Hollywood film. It has the requisite risqué theme (by 1930s standards): a free-spirited woman is openly having affairs with two friends simultaneously, unable to choose between them, with the playful suggestion of a ménage à trois ever-present. It’s also a great example of the “Lubitsch touch” – a unique mix of style, sophistication, wit, and clever sexual innuendo. Add some top-notch performances (especially the spectacularly sexy and sassy Miriam Hopkins) and…