This post contains spoilers for "Metropolis" and Tim Burton's "Batman."
The colossal Gotham Cathedral, which stands more than 800 feet tall and towers over every other skyscraper in Gotham, is turned into a battleground towards the end of Tim Burton's "Batman." The director's distinct, often eccentric visual aesthetic directly informs the film's moody, noir-tinted visuals, the atypical camera angles and editing choices adding more palpable depth to the climactic Gotham Cathedral confrontation between Batman (Michael Keaton) and Joker (Jack Nicholson).
The cathedral's massive gargoyles, traditional symbols of warding off evil, take on new meaning as Joker toys with journalist Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger), who is forced to climb the rickety steps and play along with Joker's twisted game. There are many reasons why this scene feels singular — be it Batman stumbling over the pews and knocking them in his weakened, vulnerable state or the Joker dropping Vicki's shoe down the...
The colossal Gotham Cathedral, which stands more than 800 feet tall and towers over every other skyscraper in Gotham, is turned into a battleground towards the end of Tim Burton's "Batman." The director's distinct, often eccentric visual aesthetic directly informs the film's moody, noir-tinted visuals, the atypical camera angles and editing choices adding more palpable depth to the climactic Gotham Cathedral confrontation between Batman (Michael Keaton) and Joker (Jack Nicholson).
The cathedral's massive gargoyles, traditional symbols of warding off evil, take on new meaning as Joker toys with journalist Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger), who is forced to climb the rickety steps and play along with Joker's twisted game. There are many reasons why this scene feels singular — be it Batman stumbling over the pews and knocking them in his weakened, vulnerable state or the Joker dropping Vicki's shoe down the...
- 5/27/2024
- by Debopriyaa Dutta
- Slash Film
Clockwise from top left: Modern Times (screenshot), Newsies (screenshot), Norma Rae (20th Century Fox), Sorry To Bother You (Annapurna Pictures)Graphic: The A.V. Club
Just in time for Labor Day 2023, The A.V. Club has pulled together a rundown of the best films that celebrate the proletariat. Presented with all working class heroes in mind,...
Just in time for Labor Day 2023, The A.V. Club has pulled together a rundown of the best films that celebrate the proletariat. Presented with all working class heroes in mind,...
- 9/1/2023
- by The A.V. Club
- avclub.com
Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster director Thomas Hamilton on his upcoming series Horror Icons on interviewing Roger Corman: “He not only worked with Vincent Price, he worked with Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Lon Chaney.” Photo: Thomas Hamilton
Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Conrad Veidt, Maria Ouspenskaya, George Zukor, Paul Wegener, Emil Jannings, Brigitte Helm, Gale Sondergaard, Gloria Holden, Claude Rains, Fay Wray, Duane Jones, Max Schreck, Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Lon Chaney Sr., Lon Chaney Jr, Fw Murnau’s Faust and Nosferatu, Arthur Lubin’s Phantom of the Opera, Rowland V. Lee’s Son of Frankenstein, George Waggner’s The Wolf Man, James Whale’s The Invisible Man, Lambert Hillyer’s Dracula’s Daughter, Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Paul Wegener and Henrik Galeen’s The Golem, Hanns Heinz Ewers and Stellan Rye’s The Student Of Prague, and George Romero’s Night Of The Living Dead...
Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Conrad Veidt, Maria Ouspenskaya, George Zukor, Paul Wegener, Emil Jannings, Brigitte Helm, Gale Sondergaard, Gloria Holden, Claude Rains, Fay Wray, Duane Jones, Max Schreck, Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Lon Chaney Sr., Lon Chaney Jr, Fw Murnau’s Faust and Nosferatu, Arthur Lubin’s Phantom of the Opera, Rowland V. Lee’s Son of Frankenstein, George Waggner’s The Wolf Man, James Whale’s The Invisible Man, Lambert Hillyer’s Dracula’s Daughter, Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Paul Wegener and Henrik Galeen’s The Golem, Hanns Heinz Ewers and Stellan Rye’s The Student Of Prague, and George Romero’s Night Of The Living Dead...
- 4/1/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The movies have helped to propel our fascination (especially kids) with mechanical men. And women, since one of cinema’s most iconic fantasy images comes from the silent era, namely the female facsimile of Maria played by Brigitte Helm in the Fritz lang classic Metropolis, which in turn inspired the look of C-3Po in the Star Wars franchise. In those fifty years in between, there was the clunkier Tin Man of The Wizard Of Oz, countless slow-moving metal menaces in cheesy sci-fi and horror flicks and serials. leading to the more whimsical Robby the Robot in Forbidden Planet (who’s a not-too-distant relation of the Robot from TV’s “Lost in Space”). And there are countless more human-looking “artificials” in Westworld and the many Terminator incarnations. We’re not quite there, though there have been “bot-building” contests and competitions for teens over the last thirty years. That’s the...
- 3/17/2022
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
When does a silent classic really become a classic? When we can see a reconstituted full original version, which in this case meant decades spent waiting. G.W. Pabst’s celebrated 1927 jeopardy-soap has romance, treachery, murder, a revolutionary war and a score of terrific characters embodied by Brigitte Helm, Sig Arno, Vladimir Sokoloff and the weird Fritz Rasp. But our hearts are stolen by the wistful lady in the title role, Édith Jéhanne, whose natural performance resonates with innocence and devotion. The rambling narrative barely holds together, but this romantic winner is graced with some of the best-directed scenes from silent cinema.
The Love of Jeanne Ney
Blu-ray
Kino Classics
1927 / B&w / 1:33 Silent Ap / 106 min. / Street Date April 21, 2020 /
Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Édith Jéhanne, Uno Henning, Fritz Rasp, Brigitte Helm, Adolf E. Licho, Eugen Jensen, Hans Jaray, Siegfried Arno, Hertha von Walther, Vladimir Sokoloff,...
The Love of Jeanne Ney
Blu-ray
Kino Classics
1927 / B&w / 1:33 Silent Ap / 106 min. / Street Date April 21, 2020 /
Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Édith Jéhanne, Uno Henning, Fritz Rasp, Brigitte Helm, Adolf E. Licho, Eugen Jensen, Hans Jaray, Siegfried Arno, Hertha von Walther, Vladimir Sokoloff,...
- 5/2/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
What, another docu about Nazis? Rüdiger Suchsland’s show tells the entire story — with many rare clips and interesting actor and filmmaker profiles — of the hundreds of state-produced German films made during the Third Reich. It’s the most thorough, informative and eye-opening show on the subject I’ve yet seen. It comes with revelations about some surprising names, like Douglas Sirk and Ingrid Bergman.
Hitler’s Hollywood
DVD
Kino Lorber
2017 / Color & B&W / 1:78 enhanced widescreen / 105 min. / Street Date July 10, 2018 / Hitlers Hollywood: Das deutsche Kino im Zeitalter der Propaganda 1933 – 1945 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Narrated by Udo Kier
With film clips of Hans Albers, Heinz Rühmann, Zarah Leander, Ilse Werner, Marianne Hoppe, Gustaf Gründgens, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Alfred Abel, Lída Baaroví, Willy Fritsch, Gustav Fröhlich, Lilian Harvey, Johannes Heesters, Brigitte Helm, Paul Henreid, Margot Hielscher, Emil Jannings, Pola Negri, Magda Schneider, Kristina Söderbaum, Anton Walbrook.
Film Editor: Ursula Pürrer
Produced by Gunnar Dedio,...
Hitler’s Hollywood
DVD
Kino Lorber
2017 / Color & B&W / 1:78 enhanced widescreen / 105 min. / Street Date July 10, 2018 / Hitlers Hollywood: Das deutsche Kino im Zeitalter der Propaganda 1933 – 1945 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Narrated by Udo Kier
With film clips of Hans Albers, Heinz Rühmann, Zarah Leander, Ilse Werner, Marianne Hoppe, Gustaf Gründgens, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Alfred Abel, Lída Baaroví, Willy Fritsch, Gustav Fröhlich, Lilian Harvey, Johannes Heesters, Brigitte Helm, Paul Henreid, Margot Hielscher, Emil Jannings, Pola Negri, Magda Schneider, Kristina Söderbaum, Anton Walbrook.
Film Editor: Ursula Pürrer
Produced by Gunnar Dedio,...
- 7/3/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Never underestimate the power of a title to deceive you. I have dreamed of many films that never were because their namesakes, stirred around for years in the acid vat that is my brain, lead my imagination in other directions. What was I expecting? Abwege. The Devious Path. Or literally, Astray … I wandered into this strange and beautiful film from 1928, projected onto the dull, towering multiplex screen before me—a novel sight in itself—expecting to encounter something wretched and all-encompassing, something Stygian, wicked. A black-hearted vision of a moralist’s underworld perhaps. Abwege. I nestle into my seat, a throne clearly designed for the passive consumption of blockbusters. The cupholder alone is awesome in its scale; those nearby sit vacant. Then the film, accompanied by Richard Siedoff’s fine live piano soundtrack, begins. Fade in. Two women chat with each other on a loveseat, picking away at a plate...
- 2/22/2018
- MUBI
Broadway’s delightful — but wickedly accurate — satire of big business was brought to movie screens almost intact, with the story, the stars, the styles and dances kept as they were in the long-running show that won a Pulitzer Prize. This is the place to see Robert Morse and Michele Lee at their best — it’s one of the best, and least appreciated movie musicals of the 1960s.
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1967 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 121 min. / Street Date March 14, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Robert Morse, Michele Lee, Rudy Vallee, Anthony Teague, Maureen Arthur, Sammy Smith, Robert Q. Lewis, Carol Worthington, Kathryn Reynolds, Ruth Kobart, George Fennemann, Tucker Smith, David Swift.
Cinematography: Burnett Guffey
Film Editor: Allan Jacobs, Ralph E. Winters
Original Music: Nelson Riddle
Art Direction: Robert Boyle
Visual Gags: Virgil Partch
From the play written by Frank Loesser, Abe Burrows,...
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1967 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 121 min. / Street Date March 14, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Robert Morse, Michele Lee, Rudy Vallee, Anthony Teague, Maureen Arthur, Sammy Smith, Robert Q. Lewis, Carol Worthington, Kathryn Reynolds, Ruth Kobart, George Fennemann, Tucker Smith, David Swift.
Cinematography: Burnett Guffey
Film Editor: Allan Jacobs, Ralph E. Winters
Original Music: Nelson Riddle
Art Direction: Robert Boyle
Visual Gags: Virgil Partch
From the play written by Frank Loesser, Abe Burrows,...
- 3/25/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
How the robots of ‘Metropolis’ and ‘Ex Machina’ chart our changing perspectives towards artificial intelligence.Ex Machina (dir. Alex Garland, 2015).
The title of Alex Garland’s 2015 thoughtful psychological thriller Ex Machina derives its name from the ancient Greek phrase deus ex machina, meaning ‘god from the machine.’ By omitting the deus from the film’s title, it’s clear Garland wants his audience to question both the roles of God and man. There’s the godly referencing and positioning of Oscar Isaacs’s secluded genius, Nathan, the creator of Ava, a robot with consciousness played by Alicia Vikander. And Ava’s emotional existence itself goes against the idea of the natural in God, since she is a manmade creation. Meanwhile, the natural world of Ex Machina — the trees that blend Nathan’s perfectly rectangular home into the forest — acts as a direct juxtaposition to the technological imagery that fills the rest of the film.
The...
The title of Alex Garland’s 2015 thoughtful psychological thriller Ex Machina derives its name from the ancient Greek phrase deus ex machina, meaning ‘god from the machine.’ By omitting the deus from the film’s title, it’s clear Garland wants his audience to question both the roles of God and man. There’s the godly referencing and positioning of Oscar Isaacs’s secluded genius, Nathan, the creator of Ava, a robot with consciousness played by Alicia Vikander. And Ava’s emotional existence itself goes against the idea of the natural in God, since she is a manmade creation. Meanwhile, the natural world of Ex Machina — the trees that blend Nathan’s perfectly rectangular home into the forest — acts as a direct juxtaposition to the technological imagery that fills the rest of the film.
The...
- 3/16/2017
- by Sinéad McCausland
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Jim Knipfel Jan 17, 2017
We take a look back at the enduring legacy of the world’s first cinematic sci-fi epic, Fritz Lang's Metropolis.
In an interview with Peter Bogdanovich shortly before his death in 1976, Fritz Lang said of Metropolis, “You cannot make a social-conscious picture in which you say that the intermediary between the hand and the brain is the heart. I mean, that's a fairy tale – definitely. But I was very interested in machines. Anyway, I didn't like the picture – thought it was silly and stupid – then, when I saw the astronauts: what else are they but part of a machine? It's very hard to talk about pictures - should I say now that I like Metropolis because something I have seen in my imagination comes true, when I detested it after it was finished?”
See related Peter Ramsey interview: revisiting Rise Of The Guardians
Lang wasn’t...
We take a look back at the enduring legacy of the world’s first cinematic sci-fi epic, Fritz Lang's Metropolis.
In an interview with Peter Bogdanovich shortly before his death in 1976, Fritz Lang said of Metropolis, “You cannot make a social-conscious picture in which you say that the intermediary between the hand and the brain is the heart. I mean, that's a fairy tale – definitely. But I was very interested in machines. Anyway, I didn't like the picture – thought it was silly and stupid – then, when I saw the astronauts: what else are they but part of a machine? It's very hard to talk about pictures - should I say now that I like Metropolis because something I have seen in my imagination comes true, when I detested it after it was finished?”
See related Peter Ramsey interview: revisiting Rise Of The Guardians
Lang wasn’t...
- 1/10/2017
- Den of Geek
Jim Knipfel Jan 10, 2019
We take a look back at the enduring legacy of the world’s first cinematic sci-fi epic, Fritz Lang's Metropolis.
In an interview with Peter Bogdanovich shortly before his death in 1976, Fritz Lang said of Metropolis, “You cannot make a social-conscious picture in which you say that the intermediary between the hand and the brain is the heart. I mean, that's a fairy tale – definitely. But I was very interested in machines. Anyway, I didn't like the picture – thought it was silly and stupid – then, when I saw the astronauts: what else are they but part of a machine? It's very hard to talk about pictures—should I say now that I like Metropolis because something I have seen in my imagination comes true, when I detested it after it was finished?”
Lang wasn’t alone back in 1927 when the film was first released. Critics applauded...
We take a look back at the enduring legacy of the world’s first cinematic sci-fi epic, Fritz Lang's Metropolis.
In an interview with Peter Bogdanovich shortly before his death in 1976, Fritz Lang said of Metropolis, “You cannot make a social-conscious picture in which you say that the intermediary between the hand and the brain is the heart. I mean, that's a fairy tale – definitely. But I was very interested in machines. Anyway, I didn't like the picture – thought it was silly and stupid – then, when I saw the astronauts: what else are they but part of a machine? It's very hard to talk about pictures—should I say now that I like Metropolis because something I have seen in my imagination comes true, when I detested it after it was finished?”
Lang wasn’t alone back in 1927 when the film was first released. Critics applauded...
- 1/4/2017
- Den of Geek
The new branded line Shout Selects chooses Buckaroo for special-special edition treatment, with a long making-of docu just like the ones from the heyday of DVD. And this oddest of oddball sci-fi pictures has a backstory worth documenting. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension Blu-ray Shout Select 1984 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 102 min. / Street Date August 16, 2016 / 34.93 Starring: Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Lloyd, Lewis Smith, Rosalind Cash, Robert Ito, Pepe Serna, Ronald Lacey, Matt Clark, Clancy Brown, Carl Lumbly, Vincent Schiavelli, Dan Hedaya, Bill Henderson, Damon Hines, Billy Vera Cinematography Fred J. Koenekamp Production Designer J. Michael Riva Art Direction Richard Carter, Stephen Dane Film Editor George Bowers, Richard Marks Original Music Michael Boddicker Written by Earl Mac Rauch Produced by Sidney Beckerman, Neil Canton, W.D. Richter Directed by W.D. Richter
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Not content with its already well appointed special Blu-ray editions,...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Not content with its already well appointed special Blu-ray editions,...
- 8/2/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Nazis can't even keep the National Socialist propaganda out of a simple science fiction fable. Hans Albers is the Aryan King Midas as a scientist, and gorgeous Brigitte Helm the Englishwoman who thinks he's peachy keen. The climax is pure Sci-Fi heaven, an unstable 'Atomic Fracturing' installation, wa-ay deep down in a mineshaft under the ocean. Gold (1934) Blu-ray Kino Classics 1934 / B&W / 1:33 flat Full Frame / 117 min. / Street Date June 14, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Hans Albers, Friedrich Kayßler, Brigitte Helm, Michael Bohnen, Ernst Karchow, Lien Deyers, Eberhard Leithoff, Rudolf Platte. Cinematography Otto Baecker, Werner Bohne, Günther Rittau Art Direction Otto Hunte Film Editor Wolfgang Becker Original Music Hans-Otto Borgmann Written by Rolf E. Vanloo Produced by Alfred Zeisler Directed by Karl Hartl
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The Hardy Encyclopedia of Science Fiction still teases Sci-fi fans that want to see everything listed in its pages. Thankfully, videodisc companies catering to collectors make possible the sale of titles that might never show up on some (authorized) streaming service. Video disc has brought us the original Der Schweigende Stern and Alraune from Germany, and I hope to someday see good copies of Kurt Siodmak and Karl Hartl's F.P. 1 Does Not Answer and the Harry Piel Sci-fi trilogy An Invisible Man Roams the City, The World Unmasked (an X-ray television camera) and Master of the World (a robot with a death ray). I've read about Karl Hartl's 1934 Gold for at least fifty years, since John Baxter's Science Fiction in the Cinema told us (not quite correctly) that its final reel had been borrowed for the conclusion of Ivan Tors' 1953 Sci-fi picture The Magnetic Monster. As it turns out, Kino is releasing both movies in the same week. Sometimes referred to as the Nazi Metropolis, Hartl's Gold is a follow-up to the director's very successful F.P.1. Does Not Answer, a spy thriller about a fantastic airport in the mid-Atlantic called Floating Platform One. Both pictures were filmed in simultaneous foreign versions to maximize the box office take. The German original of F.P. 1 starred matinee idol Hans Albers (The Blue Angel) Sybille Schmitz (Vampyr) and Peter Lorre, while a concurrent French version used Charles Boyer, Danièle Parola and Pierre Brasseur. A third English version starred Conrad Veidt, Jill Esmond and Donald Calthrop. The French version starred Brigitte Helm in the same role, but star Hans Albers reportedly rebelled at making two movies for the price of one. According to reports, the exceedingly expensive Gold was in production for fifteen months. We can see the cost immediately in the enormous main set for the 'atomic fracturing' machine built to transmute lead into gold. Otto Hunte and Günther Rittau designed and filmed special effects for Metropolis and the impressive set is very much in the same style. Off the top of my head I can't think of any technical apparatus quite so elaborate (and solid-looking) built for a film until the 1960s and Ken Adam's outlandish settings for UA's James Bond films. Writer Rolf E. Vanloo had worked on the silent classic Asphalt and is the sole writer credited on the popular Marlene Dietrich vehicle I Kiss Your Hand, Madame. His screenplay for Gold is tight and credible, even if its theme is even more simplistic than -- and somewhat similar to -- that of Thea von Harbou for Metropolis. Scientist Werner Holk (Hans Albers) aids the visionary Professor Achenbach (Friedrich Kayßler) in testing what looks like an electric atom smasher. The experiment: to turn lead into gold. The 'Atomic Fracturer' explodes, killing the old genius, whose work is discredited. Holk barely survives, thanks to a blood transfusion from his faithful girlfriend Margit Moller (Lien Deyers). When agents for the fabulously wealthy Englishman John Wills (Michael Bohnen) contact Holk, he realizes that the experiment was sabotaged. Werner allows himself to be taken to a fabulous yacht and from there to a Scottish castle, where, hundreds of feet under the ocean, Wills has constructed his own, far larger atom smasher with plans stolen from Achenbach. Split between his need for revenge and a desire to prove the dead Achenbach's theories, Holk goes through with the experiment. Wills' daughter Florence (Brigitte Helm), a gorgeous playgirl, is attracted to the German visitor, Holk finds that the workers' foreman, Schwarz (Rudolf Platte) is of a like mind on economic issues. But Wills' engineer Harris (Eberhard Leithoff) is jealous of Holk's talent, and cannot be trusted. Gold begins by repeating the 'big money hostile takeover of science' theme from Fritz Lang's Frau im mond: a pioneering German scientific exploit is siezed by an unscrupulous international business entity. The unspoken message is that the weakened Germany is being cheated in the world economy because it lacks the resources to exploit its superior technology. The avaricious John Wills makes big financial decisions all day long. There's no gray area in this conflict, as Wells murders, steals and spies on people to get what he wants. We've seen his ruthless agents wreck Achenbach's original, modest experiment. This 'England plays dirty' theme mirrors Germany's bitterness toward England for at least the better part of a century of colonial, naval and financial competition. Versailles and WW1 aren't mentioned, but that had to be on the minds of the audience as well: Germany innovates and works hard, but is consistently handed a raw deal. The scenes with the sleek, fascinating Brigitte Helm would be better if they went somewhere; her Florence does what she can to entice Herr Holk but withdraws when he declares his love for his faithful girl back home, the one whose life blood now flows in his veins. 'Das Blut' cannot be dishonored, even if Holk is half convinced that Wills is going to have him murdered after the giant machine starts turning out Gold by the ton. Act Two instead becomes a conflict between Big Capitalism and the lowly-but-virtuous Working Man. Down in the underground warren of tunnels (another Metropolis parallel) Wills' Scottish workforce of sandhogs and technicians side with Holk against their boss. After a preliminary test yields a tiny bit of gold, we get the expected montages of worldwide economic panic, standard material in socially oriented sci-fi as diverse as La fin du monde and Red Planet Mars. Wells plans to grow rich by flooding the world with his artificially produced gold, a strategy that will have to be explained to me. Gold is the world's standard of value precisely because it's rare; it can't be printed up like money. Thirty years later, the surprisingly sophisticated scheme of Auric Goldfinger is to increase the value of his stash of gold bullion by rendering America's gold reserves radioactive, and therefore worthless. If scarcity raises the value of the element, making more should do the opposite. (On the other hand, what about artificial diamonds? Is there any correspondence there?) [I'm acutely aware that discussing the subject matter of movies mainly points up how much I don't know, about anything but movies.] The Incredible Holk convinces the mob of workers that he represents their interests better than the greedy John Wills. The idea that rich English capitalists need to be rejected in favor of honest German morality is the only real message here. It's as simple as the 'heart mediating between the hands and the brain' slogan of Metropolis, but with a slightly arrogant nationalism added. The lavishly produced Gold was filmed on a series of truly impressive sets, including Wills' enormous Scottish mansion. But the giant setting for the climax, deep in a mine under the ocean floor, is the stuff of core Sci-fi. Millions of volts of electricity are harnessed to transmute lead into Gold. That's got to be a heck of an electricity bill; factor in the other enormous overhead costs and we wonder if Wills will ever turn a profit. The special effects for this sequence are sensational. The enormous apparatus is suspended on huge oversized porcelain insulators. The giant glass tubes atop the specimen stage are apparently visualized with mattes and foreground miniatures. But the camera pans and trucks all over the hangar-sized set; it all looks real, with bolts of electricity flashing like crazy. It's a dynamic special effect highlight of the 1930s. The actors sell the conflict well. Beefy Hans Albers sometimes looks like George C. Scott. He exudes personal integrity and a calm force of will. Lien Dyers is as wholesome here as she was wantonly sexualized six years earlier in Fritz Lang's Spies. Michael Bohnen is more than convincing as a powerful man trying to corner all business on an international scale. Although mostly in for decoration, Brigitte Helm is a sophisticated dazzler. Those penciled eyebrows remind us that she had become the Marlene Dietrich that didn't go to Hollywood. Although she did have offers, Helm wanted to stay in Germany. The Nazification of the film industry and the appalling political climate motivated her to leave for Switzerland in 1935, abandoning her career. Although the gist of Gold fits in with Josef Goebbels' National Socialist propaganda aims, the movie doesn't attack England directly. Ufa may have held hopes of foreign distribution. The one man in Scotland that Holk knows he can trust is the captain of Wills' yacht, a fellow German. Nine years later, Josef Goebbels' anti-British version of Titanic would make a German the single ethical person in authority on the doomed ocean liner. The fellow is constantly badmouthing the craven captain and the venal English ship owner. When Hans Albers finishes this movie with a ten-cent moral about love being the only real treasure, the show seems plenty dumb. But that amazing special effect set piece is too good to dismiss so easily. Gold is a classic of giddy '30s science fiction. The Kino Classics Blu-ray of Gold (1934) is a good encoding of the Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung's best copy of this once-rare item. The print we see is intact and with has good audio, but the contrast is rough. It shifts and flutters a bit, especially in some scenes in the middle. I did notice that the final special effects sequences looked better than much of the rest of this surviving print. But the parts of the movie repurposed for The Magnetic Monster look better on that 1953 science fiction film than they do here. In his book Film in the Third Reich David Stewart Hull explains that when the occupation forces reviewed the recovered German films, they ordered this one destroyed. They were concerned that the Alchemy / Atomic Fracturing machine might have some connection to Germany's wartime nuclear program. So how could Ivan Tors have bought the footage from Ufa, if the U.S. Army had seized it? I have a feeling - just idle speculation -- that it might have been obtained in a special deal made through government connections. Since the image looks much better on The Magnetic Monster, Ivan Tors might even have cut up Gold's only existing printing element to make his movie. After finally seeing Gold, one more thing impresses me besides the grandiose special effects. It's sort of a 'brain-drain' movie. In the '30s, Germany had a reputation for the best precision engineering in the world. Werner Holk is semi-kidnapped to serve John Wills' greedy science project, which was pirated from Germany in the first place. Also in awe of German scientific prowess is Brigitte Helm's Florence. The playgirl finds Werner Wolk's brilliance and clarity of mission irresistible. He's both smarter and more ethical than her father. Holk just stands there looking like he's posing for a statue, and Florence is carried away. Ms. Helm is terrific, but it would be nice if her character had a more central role to play in the story. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Gold (1934) Blu-ray rates: Movie: Very Good Video: Fair + This may be a rare surviving print. Sound: Good - Minus Supplements: none Deaf and Hearing Impaired Friendly? Yes; Subtitles: English Packaging: Keep case Reviewed: June 10, 2016 (5137)
Visit DVD Savant's Main Column Page Glenn Erickson answers most reader mail: [email protected]
Text © Copyright 2016 Glenn Erickson...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The Hardy Encyclopedia of Science Fiction still teases Sci-fi fans that want to see everything listed in its pages. Thankfully, videodisc companies catering to collectors make possible the sale of titles that might never show up on some (authorized) streaming service. Video disc has brought us the original Der Schweigende Stern and Alraune from Germany, and I hope to someday see good copies of Kurt Siodmak and Karl Hartl's F.P. 1 Does Not Answer and the Harry Piel Sci-fi trilogy An Invisible Man Roams the City, The World Unmasked (an X-ray television camera) and Master of the World (a robot with a death ray). I've read about Karl Hartl's 1934 Gold for at least fifty years, since John Baxter's Science Fiction in the Cinema told us (not quite correctly) that its final reel had been borrowed for the conclusion of Ivan Tors' 1953 Sci-fi picture The Magnetic Monster. As it turns out, Kino is releasing both movies in the same week. Sometimes referred to as the Nazi Metropolis, Hartl's Gold is a follow-up to the director's very successful F.P.1. Does Not Answer, a spy thriller about a fantastic airport in the mid-Atlantic called Floating Platform One. Both pictures were filmed in simultaneous foreign versions to maximize the box office take. The German original of F.P. 1 starred matinee idol Hans Albers (The Blue Angel) Sybille Schmitz (Vampyr) and Peter Lorre, while a concurrent French version used Charles Boyer, Danièle Parola and Pierre Brasseur. A third English version starred Conrad Veidt, Jill Esmond and Donald Calthrop. The French version starred Brigitte Helm in the same role, but star Hans Albers reportedly rebelled at making two movies for the price of one. According to reports, the exceedingly expensive Gold was in production for fifteen months. We can see the cost immediately in the enormous main set for the 'atomic fracturing' machine built to transmute lead into gold. Otto Hunte and Günther Rittau designed and filmed special effects for Metropolis and the impressive set is very much in the same style. Off the top of my head I can't think of any technical apparatus quite so elaborate (and solid-looking) built for a film until the 1960s and Ken Adam's outlandish settings for UA's James Bond films. Writer Rolf E. Vanloo had worked on the silent classic Asphalt and is the sole writer credited on the popular Marlene Dietrich vehicle I Kiss Your Hand, Madame. His screenplay for Gold is tight and credible, even if its theme is even more simplistic than -- and somewhat similar to -- that of Thea von Harbou for Metropolis. Scientist Werner Holk (Hans Albers) aids the visionary Professor Achenbach (Friedrich Kayßler) in testing what looks like an electric atom smasher. The experiment: to turn lead into gold. The 'Atomic Fracturer' explodes, killing the old genius, whose work is discredited. Holk barely survives, thanks to a blood transfusion from his faithful girlfriend Margit Moller (Lien Deyers). When agents for the fabulously wealthy Englishman John Wills (Michael Bohnen) contact Holk, he realizes that the experiment was sabotaged. Werner allows himself to be taken to a fabulous yacht and from there to a Scottish castle, where, hundreds of feet under the ocean, Wills has constructed his own, far larger atom smasher with plans stolen from Achenbach. Split between his need for revenge and a desire to prove the dead Achenbach's theories, Holk goes through with the experiment. Wills' daughter Florence (Brigitte Helm), a gorgeous playgirl, is attracted to the German visitor, Holk finds that the workers' foreman, Schwarz (Rudolf Platte) is of a like mind on economic issues. But Wills' engineer Harris (Eberhard Leithoff) is jealous of Holk's talent, and cannot be trusted. Gold begins by repeating the 'big money hostile takeover of science' theme from Fritz Lang's Frau im mond: a pioneering German scientific exploit is siezed by an unscrupulous international business entity. The unspoken message is that the weakened Germany is being cheated in the world economy because it lacks the resources to exploit its superior technology. The avaricious John Wills makes big financial decisions all day long. There's no gray area in this conflict, as Wells murders, steals and spies on people to get what he wants. We've seen his ruthless agents wreck Achenbach's original, modest experiment. This 'England plays dirty' theme mirrors Germany's bitterness toward England for at least the better part of a century of colonial, naval and financial competition. Versailles and WW1 aren't mentioned, but that had to be on the minds of the audience as well: Germany innovates and works hard, but is consistently handed a raw deal. The scenes with the sleek, fascinating Brigitte Helm would be better if they went somewhere; her Florence does what she can to entice Herr Holk but withdraws when he declares his love for his faithful girl back home, the one whose life blood now flows in his veins. 'Das Blut' cannot be dishonored, even if Holk is half convinced that Wills is going to have him murdered after the giant machine starts turning out Gold by the ton. Act Two instead becomes a conflict between Big Capitalism and the lowly-but-virtuous Working Man. Down in the underground warren of tunnels (another Metropolis parallel) Wills' Scottish workforce of sandhogs and technicians side with Holk against their boss. After a preliminary test yields a tiny bit of gold, we get the expected montages of worldwide economic panic, standard material in socially oriented sci-fi as diverse as La fin du monde and Red Planet Mars. Wells plans to grow rich by flooding the world with his artificially produced gold, a strategy that will have to be explained to me. Gold is the world's standard of value precisely because it's rare; it can't be printed up like money. Thirty years later, the surprisingly sophisticated scheme of Auric Goldfinger is to increase the value of his stash of gold bullion by rendering America's gold reserves radioactive, and therefore worthless. If scarcity raises the value of the element, making more should do the opposite. (On the other hand, what about artificial diamonds? Is there any correspondence there?) [I'm acutely aware that discussing the subject matter of movies mainly points up how much I don't know, about anything but movies.] The Incredible Holk convinces the mob of workers that he represents their interests better than the greedy John Wills. The idea that rich English capitalists need to be rejected in favor of honest German morality is the only real message here. It's as simple as the 'heart mediating between the hands and the brain' slogan of Metropolis, but with a slightly arrogant nationalism added. The lavishly produced Gold was filmed on a series of truly impressive sets, including Wills' enormous Scottish mansion. But the giant setting for the climax, deep in a mine under the ocean floor, is the stuff of core Sci-fi. Millions of volts of electricity are harnessed to transmute lead into Gold. That's got to be a heck of an electricity bill; factor in the other enormous overhead costs and we wonder if Wills will ever turn a profit. The special effects for this sequence are sensational. The enormous apparatus is suspended on huge oversized porcelain insulators. The giant glass tubes atop the specimen stage are apparently visualized with mattes and foreground miniatures. But the camera pans and trucks all over the hangar-sized set; it all looks real, with bolts of electricity flashing like crazy. It's a dynamic special effect highlight of the 1930s. The actors sell the conflict well. Beefy Hans Albers sometimes looks like George C. Scott. He exudes personal integrity and a calm force of will. Lien Dyers is as wholesome here as she was wantonly sexualized six years earlier in Fritz Lang's Spies. Michael Bohnen is more than convincing as a powerful man trying to corner all business on an international scale. Although mostly in for decoration, Brigitte Helm is a sophisticated dazzler. Those penciled eyebrows remind us that she had become the Marlene Dietrich that didn't go to Hollywood. Although she did have offers, Helm wanted to stay in Germany. The Nazification of the film industry and the appalling political climate motivated her to leave for Switzerland in 1935, abandoning her career. Although the gist of Gold fits in with Josef Goebbels' National Socialist propaganda aims, the movie doesn't attack England directly. Ufa may have held hopes of foreign distribution. The one man in Scotland that Holk knows he can trust is the captain of Wills' yacht, a fellow German. Nine years later, Josef Goebbels' anti-British version of Titanic would make a German the single ethical person in authority on the doomed ocean liner. The fellow is constantly badmouthing the craven captain and the venal English ship owner. When Hans Albers finishes this movie with a ten-cent moral about love being the only real treasure, the show seems plenty dumb. But that amazing special effect set piece is too good to dismiss so easily. Gold is a classic of giddy '30s science fiction. The Kino Classics Blu-ray of Gold (1934) is a good encoding of the Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung's best copy of this once-rare item. The print we see is intact and with has good audio, but the contrast is rough. It shifts and flutters a bit, especially in some scenes in the middle. I did notice that the final special effects sequences looked better than much of the rest of this surviving print. But the parts of the movie repurposed for The Magnetic Monster look better on that 1953 science fiction film than they do here. In his book Film in the Third Reich David Stewart Hull explains that when the occupation forces reviewed the recovered German films, they ordered this one destroyed. They were concerned that the Alchemy / Atomic Fracturing machine might have some connection to Germany's wartime nuclear program. So how could Ivan Tors have bought the footage from Ufa, if the U.S. Army had seized it? I have a feeling - just idle speculation -- that it might have been obtained in a special deal made through government connections. Since the image looks much better on The Magnetic Monster, Ivan Tors might even have cut up Gold's only existing printing element to make his movie. After finally seeing Gold, one more thing impresses me besides the grandiose special effects. It's sort of a 'brain-drain' movie. In the '30s, Germany had a reputation for the best precision engineering in the world. Werner Holk is semi-kidnapped to serve John Wills' greedy science project, which was pirated from Germany in the first place. Also in awe of German scientific prowess is Brigitte Helm's Florence. The playgirl finds Werner Wolk's brilliance and clarity of mission irresistible. He's both smarter and more ethical than her father. Holk just stands there looking like he's posing for a statue, and Florence is carried away. Ms. Helm is terrific, but it would be nice if her character had a more central role to play in the story. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Gold (1934) Blu-ray rates: Movie: Very Good Video: Fair + This may be a rare surviving print. Sound: Good - Minus Supplements: none Deaf and Hearing Impaired Friendly? Yes; Subtitles: English Packaging: Keep case Reviewed: June 10, 2016 (5137)
Visit DVD Savant's Main Column Page Glenn Erickson answers most reader mail: [email protected]
Text © Copyright 2016 Glenn Erickson...
- 6/14/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Ivan Tors and Curt Siodmak 'borrow' nine minutes of dynamite special effects from an obscure-because-suppressed German sci-fi picture, write a new script, and come up with an eccentric thriller where atom scientists behave like G-Men crossed with Albert Einstein. The challenge? How to make a faceless unstable atomic isotope into a worthy science fiction 'monster.' The Magnetic Monster Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1953 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 76 min. / Street Date June 14, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Richard Carlson, King Donovan, Jean Byron, Leonard Mudie, Byron Foulger, Michael Fox, Frank Gerstle, Charles Williams, Kathleen Freeman, Strother Martin, Jarma Lewis. Cinematography Charles Van Enger Supervising Film Editor Herbert L. Strock Original Music Blaine Sanford Written by Curt Siodmak, Ivan Tors Produced by Ivan Tors Directed by Curt Siodmak
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
How did we ever survive without an "Office of Scientific Investigation?" In the early 1950s, producer Ivan Tors launched himself with a trio of science fiction movies based on that non-existent government entity, sort of an FBI for strange scientific phenomena. As of this writing, Kino has released a terrific 3-D Blu-ray of the third entry, 1954's Gog. The second Tors Osi mini-epic is the interesting, if scientifically scrambled Riders to the Stars, which shows up from time to time on TCM but has yet to find its way to home video in any format. The first of the series, 1953's The Magnetic Monster is considered the most scientifically interesting, although it mainly promotes its own laundry list of goofy notions about physics and chemistry. As it pretends that it is based on scientific ideas instead of rubber-suited monsters, Tors' abstract threat is more than just another 'thing' trying to abduct the leading lady. Exploiting the common fear of radiation, a force little understood by the general public, The Magnetic Monster invents a whole new secret government bureau dedicated to solving 'dangerous scientific problems' -- the inference being, of course, that there's always something threatening about science. Actually, producer Tors was probably inspired by his partner Curt Siodmak to take advantage of a fantastic special effects opportunity that a small show like Magnetic could normally never afford. More on that later. The script plays like an episode of Dragnet, substituting scientific detectives for L.A.P.D. gumshoes. Top-kick nuclear troubleshooter Dr. Jeff Stewart (Richard Carlson) can't afford to buy a tract home for his pregnant wife Connie (beautiful Jean Byron, later of The Patty Duke Show). He is one of just a few dauntless Osi operatives standing between us and scientific disaster. When local cops route a weird distress call to the Osi office, Jeff and his Phd. sidekick Dan Forbes (King Donovan) discover that someone has been tampering with an unstable isotope in a room above a housewares store on Lincoln Blvd.: every metallic object in the store has become magnetized. The agents trace the explosive element to one Dr. Serny (Michael Fox), whose "lone wolf" experiments have created a new monster element, a Unipolar watchamacallit sometimes referred to as Serranium. If not 'fed' huge amounts of energy this new element will implode, expand, and explode again on a predictable timetable. Local efforts to neutralize the element fail, and an entire lab building is destroyed. Dan and Jeff rush the now-larger isotope to a fantastic Canadian "Deltatron" constructed in a super-scientific complex deep under the ocean off Nova Scotia. The plan is to bombard the stuff with so much energy that it will disintegrate harmlessly. But does the Deltatron have enough juice to do the job? Its Canadian supervisor tries to halt the procedure just as the time limit to the next implosion is coming due! Sincere, likeable and quaint, The Magnetic Monster is nevertheless a prime candidate for chuckles, thanks to a screenplay with a high clunk factor. Big cheese scientist Jeff Stewart interrupts his experimental bombardment of metals in his atom smasher to go out on blind neighborhood calls, dispensing atom know-how like a pizza deliveryman. He takes time out to make fat jokes at the expense of the lab's switchboard operator, the charming Kathleen Freeman. The Osi's super-computer provides instant answers to various mysteries. Its name in this show is the acronym M.A.N.I.A.C.. Was naming differential analyzers some kind of a fetish with early computer men? Quick, which '50s Sci-fi gem has a computer named S.U.S.I.E.? The strange isotope harnesses a vague amalgam of nuclear and magnetic forces. It might seem logical to small kids just learning about the invisible wonder of magnetism -- and that understand none of it. All the silverware at the store sticks together. It is odd, but not enough to cause the sexy blonde saleswoman (Elizabeth Root) to scream and jump as if goosed by Our Friend the Atom. When a call comes in that a taxi's engine has become magnetized, our agents are slow to catch on. Gee, could that crazy event be related to our mystery element? When the culprit scientist is finally tracked down, and pulled off an airliner, he's already near death from overexposure to his own creation. We admire Dr. Serny, who after all managed to create a new element on his own, without benefit of a billion dollar physics lab. He also must be a prize dope for not realizing that the resulting radiation would kill him. The Osi troubleshooters deliver a stern lesson that all of us need to remember: "In nuclear research there is no place for lone wolves." If you think about it, the agency's function is to protect us from science itself, with blame leveled at individual, free-thinking, 'rogue' brainiacs. (Sarcasm alert.) The danger in nuclear research comes not from mad militarists trying to make bigger and more awful bombs; the villains are those crackpots cooking up end-of-the-world scenarios in their home workshops. Dr. Serny probably didn't even have a security clearance! The Magnetic Monster has a delightful gaffe in every scene. When a dangerous isotope is said to be 'on the loose,' a police radio order is broadcast to Shoot To Kill ... Shoot what exactly, they don't say. This line could very well have been invented in the film's audio mix, if producer Tors thought the scene needed an extra jolt. Despite the fact that writer-director Curt Siodmak cooked up the brilliant concept of Donovan's Brain and personally invented a bona fide classic monster mythology, his '50s sci-fi efforts strain credibility in all directions. As I explain in the Gold review, Siodmak may have been the one to come up with the idea of repurposing the climax of the old film. He was a refugee from Hitler's Germany, and had written a film with director Karl Hartl. Reading accounts in books by Tom Weaver and Bill Warren, we learn that the writer Siodmak had difficulty functioning as a director and that credited editor Herbert Strock stepped in to direct. Strock later claimed that the noted writer was indecisive on the set. The truly remarkable aspect of The Magnetic Monster comes in the last reel, when Jeff and Dan take an elevator ride way, way down to Canada's subterranean, sub-Atlantic Deltatron atom-smasher. They're suddenly wearing styles not worn in the early 'fifties -- big blocky coats and wide-brimmed hats. The answer comes when they step out into a wild mad-lab construction worthy of the visuals in Metropolis. A giant power station is outfitted with oversized white porcelain insulators -- even a set of stairs looks like an insulator. Atop the control booth is an array of (giant, what else) glass tubes with glowing neon lights inside. Cables and wires go every which-way. A crew of workers in wrinkled shop suits stands about like extras from The Three-Penny Opera. For quite some time, only readers of old issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland knew the secret of this bizarre footage, which is actually from the 1934 German sci-fi thriller Gold, directed by Karl Hartl and starring Hans Albers and Brigitte Helm. Tors and Siodmak do their best to integrate Richard Carlson and King Donovan into this spectacular twenty-year-old stock footage, even though the extravagant production values and the expressionist patina of the Ufa visuals are a gross mismatch for The Magnetic Monster's '50s semi-docu look. Jeff's wide hat and David Byrne coat are there to make him look more like Hans Albers in the 1934 film, which doesn't work because Albers must be four inches taller and forty pounds beefier than Richard Carlson. Jeff climbs around the Deltatron, enters a control booth and argues with the Canadian scientist/turnkey, who is a much better match for the villain of Gold. Jeff changes into a different costume, with a different cap -- so he can match Albers in the different scene in Gold. The exciting climax repurposes the extravagant special effects of Otto Hunte and Günther Rittau, changing the original film's attempted atomic alchemy into a desperate attempt to neutralize the nasty new element before it can explode again. The matching works rather well for Jeff's desperate struggle to close an enormous pair of bulkhead doors that have been sabotaged. And a matched cut on a whip pan from center stage to a high control room is very nicely integrated into the old footage. The bizarre scene doesn't quite come off... even kids must have known that older footage was being used. In the long shots, Richard Carlson doesn't look anything like Hans Albers. A fuel-rod plunger in the control room displays a German-style cross, even though the corresponding instrument in the original show wasn't so decorated. Some impressive close-up views of a blob of metal being bombarded by atomic particles are from the old movie, and others are new effects. Metallurgy is scary, man. The "Serranium" threat establishes a pattern touched upon by later Sci-fi movies with organic or abstract forces that grow from relative insignificance to world-threatening proportions. The Monolith Monsters proposes giant crystals that grow to the size of skyscrapers, threatening to cover the earth with a giant quartz-pile. The Sam Katzman quickie The Day the World Exploded makes The Magnetic Monster look like an expensive production. It invents a new mineral that explodes when exposed to air. The supporting cast of The Magnetic Monster gives us some pleasant, familiar faces. In addition to the beloved Kathleen Freeman is Strother Martin as a concerned airline pilot. Fussy Byron Foulger owns the housewares store and granite-jawed Frank Gerstle (Gristle?) is a gruff general. The gorgeous Jarma Lewis has a quick bit as a stewardess. The Kl Studio Classics Blu-ray of The Magnetic Monster is a fine transfer of this B&W gem from United Artists. Once hard to see, it was part of an expensive MGM-Image laserdisc set twenty years ago and then an Mod DVD in 2011. The disc comes with a socko original trailer that explains why it did reasonably well at the box office. Every exciting moment is edited into a coming attraction that really hypes the jeopardy factor. At that time, just the sight of a hero in a radiation suit promised something unusual. Nowadays, Hazardous Waste workers use suits like that to clean up common chemical spills. The commentary for The Magnetic Monster is by Fangoria writer Derek Botelho, whose name is misspelled as Botello on the disc package. I've heard Derek on a couple of David del Valle tracks for Vincent Price movies, where he functioned mainly as an Ed McMahon-like fan sidekick. His talk tends to drift into loosely related sidebar observations. Instead of discussing how the movie was made by cannibalizing another, he recounts for us the comedy stock footage discovery scene from Tim Burton's Ed Wood. Several pages recited from memoirs by Curt Siodmak and Herbert Strock do provide useful information on the film. Botelho appreciates actress Kathleen Freeman. You can't go wrong doing that. Viewers that obtain Kino's concurrent Blu-ray release of the original 1934 German thriller Gold will note that the repurposed scenes from that film look much better here, although they still bear some scratches. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, The Magnetic Monster Blu-ray rates: Movie: Good + Video: Very Good Sound: Excellent Supplements: Commentary with Derek Botelho, Theatrical trailer Deaf and Hearing Impaired Friendly? N0; Subtitles: None Packaging: Keep case Reviewed: June 8, 2016 (5138magn)
Visit DVD Savant's Main Column Page Glenn Erickson answers most reader mail: [email protected]
Text © Copyright 2016 Glenn Erickson...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
How did we ever survive without an "Office of Scientific Investigation?" In the early 1950s, producer Ivan Tors launched himself with a trio of science fiction movies based on that non-existent government entity, sort of an FBI for strange scientific phenomena. As of this writing, Kino has released a terrific 3-D Blu-ray of the third entry, 1954's Gog. The second Tors Osi mini-epic is the interesting, if scientifically scrambled Riders to the Stars, which shows up from time to time on TCM but has yet to find its way to home video in any format. The first of the series, 1953's The Magnetic Monster is considered the most scientifically interesting, although it mainly promotes its own laundry list of goofy notions about physics and chemistry. As it pretends that it is based on scientific ideas instead of rubber-suited monsters, Tors' abstract threat is more than just another 'thing' trying to abduct the leading lady. Exploiting the common fear of radiation, a force little understood by the general public, The Magnetic Monster invents a whole new secret government bureau dedicated to solving 'dangerous scientific problems' -- the inference being, of course, that there's always something threatening about science. Actually, producer Tors was probably inspired by his partner Curt Siodmak to take advantage of a fantastic special effects opportunity that a small show like Magnetic could normally never afford. More on that later. The script plays like an episode of Dragnet, substituting scientific detectives for L.A.P.D. gumshoes. Top-kick nuclear troubleshooter Dr. Jeff Stewart (Richard Carlson) can't afford to buy a tract home for his pregnant wife Connie (beautiful Jean Byron, later of The Patty Duke Show). He is one of just a few dauntless Osi operatives standing between us and scientific disaster. When local cops route a weird distress call to the Osi office, Jeff and his Phd. sidekick Dan Forbes (King Donovan) discover that someone has been tampering with an unstable isotope in a room above a housewares store on Lincoln Blvd.: every metallic object in the store has become magnetized. The agents trace the explosive element to one Dr. Serny (Michael Fox), whose "lone wolf" experiments have created a new monster element, a Unipolar watchamacallit sometimes referred to as Serranium. If not 'fed' huge amounts of energy this new element will implode, expand, and explode again on a predictable timetable. Local efforts to neutralize the element fail, and an entire lab building is destroyed. Dan and Jeff rush the now-larger isotope to a fantastic Canadian "Deltatron" constructed in a super-scientific complex deep under the ocean off Nova Scotia. The plan is to bombard the stuff with so much energy that it will disintegrate harmlessly. But does the Deltatron have enough juice to do the job? Its Canadian supervisor tries to halt the procedure just as the time limit to the next implosion is coming due! Sincere, likeable and quaint, The Magnetic Monster is nevertheless a prime candidate for chuckles, thanks to a screenplay with a high clunk factor. Big cheese scientist Jeff Stewart interrupts his experimental bombardment of metals in his atom smasher to go out on blind neighborhood calls, dispensing atom know-how like a pizza deliveryman. He takes time out to make fat jokes at the expense of the lab's switchboard operator, the charming Kathleen Freeman. The Osi's super-computer provides instant answers to various mysteries. Its name in this show is the acronym M.A.N.I.A.C.. Was naming differential analyzers some kind of a fetish with early computer men? Quick, which '50s Sci-fi gem has a computer named S.U.S.I.E.? The strange isotope harnesses a vague amalgam of nuclear and magnetic forces. It might seem logical to small kids just learning about the invisible wonder of magnetism -- and that understand none of it. All the silverware at the store sticks together. It is odd, but not enough to cause the sexy blonde saleswoman (Elizabeth Root) to scream and jump as if goosed by Our Friend the Atom. When a call comes in that a taxi's engine has become magnetized, our agents are slow to catch on. Gee, could that crazy event be related to our mystery element? When the culprit scientist is finally tracked down, and pulled off an airliner, he's already near death from overexposure to his own creation. We admire Dr. Serny, who after all managed to create a new element on his own, without benefit of a billion dollar physics lab. He also must be a prize dope for not realizing that the resulting radiation would kill him. The Osi troubleshooters deliver a stern lesson that all of us need to remember: "In nuclear research there is no place for lone wolves." If you think about it, the agency's function is to protect us from science itself, with blame leveled at individual, free-thinking, 'rogue' brainiacs. (Sarcasm alert.) The danger in nuclear research comes not from mad militarists trying to make bigger and more awful bombs; the villains are those crackpots cooking up end-of-the-world scenarios in their home workshops. Dr. Serny probably didn't even have a security clearance! The Magnetic Monster has a delightful gaffe in every scene. When a dangerous isotope is said to be 'on the loose,' a police radio order is broadcast to Shoot To Kill ... Shoot what exactly, they don't say. This line could very well have been invented in the film's audio mix, if producer Tors thought the scene needed an extra jolt. Despite the fact that writer-director Curt Siodmak cooked up the brilliant concept of Donovan's Brain and personally invented a bona fide classic monster mythology, his '50s sci-fi efforts strain credibility in all directions. As I explain in the Gold review, Siodmak may have been the one to come up with the idea of repurposing the climax of the old film. He was a refugee from Hitler's Germany, and had written a film with director Karl Hartl. Reading accounts in books by Tom Weaver and Bill Warren, we learn that the writer Siodmak had difficulty functioning as a director and that credited editor Herbert Strock stepped in to direct. Strock later claimed that the noted writer was indecisive on the set. The truly remarkable aspect of The Magnetic Monster comes in the last reel, when Jeff and Dan take an elevator ride way, way down to Canada's subterranean, sub-Atlantic Deltatron atom-smasher. They're suddenly wearing styles not worn in the early 'fifties -- big blocky coats and wide-brimmed hats. The answer comes when they step out into a wild mad-lab construction worthy of the visuals in Metropolis. A giant power station is outfitted with oversized white porcelain insulators -- even a set of stairs looks like an insulator. Atop the control booth is an array of (giant, what else) glass tubes with glowing neon lights inside. Cables and wires go every which-way. A crew of workers in wrinkled shop suits stands about like extras from The Three-Penny Opera. For quite some time, only readers of old issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland knew the secret of this bizarre footage, which is actually from the 1934 German sci-fi thriller Gold, directed by Karl Hartl and starring Hans Albers and Brigitte Helm. Tors and Siodmak do their best to integrate Richard Carlson and King Donovan into this spectacular twenty-year-old stock footage, even though the extravagant production values and the expressionist patina of the Ufa visuals are a gross mismatch for The Magnetic Monster's '50s semi-docu look. Jeff's wide hat and David Byrne coat are there to make him look more like Hans Albers in the 1934 film, which doesn't work because Albers must be four inches taller and forty pounds beefier than Richard Carlson. Jeff climbs around the Deltatron, enters a control booth and argues with the Canadian scientist/turnkey, who is a much better match for the villain of Gold. Jeff changes into a different costume, with a different cap -- so he can match Albers in the different scene in Gold. The exciting climax repurposes the extravagant special effects of Otto Hunte and Günther Rittau, changing the original film's attempted atomic alchemy into a desperate attempt to neutralize the nasty new element before it can explode again. The matching works rather well for Jeff's desperate struggle to close an enormous pair of bulkhead doors that have been sabotaged. And a matched cut on a whip pan from center stage to a high control room is very nicely integrated into the old footage. The bizarre scene doesn't quite come off... even kids must have known that older footage was being used. In the long shots, Richard Carlson doesn't look anything like Hans Albers. A fuel-rod plunger in the control room displays a German-style cross, even though the corresponding instrument in the original show wasn't so decorated. Some impressive close-up views of a blob of metal being bombarded by atomic particles are from the old movie, and others are new effects. Metallurgy is scary, man. The "Serranium" threat establishes a pattern touched upon by later Sci-fi movies with organic or abstract forces that grow from relative insignificance to world-threatening proportions. The Monolith Monsters proposes giant crystals that grow to the size of skyscrapers, threatening to cover the earth with a giant quartz-pile. The Sam Katzman quickie The Day the World Exploded makes The Magnetic Monster look like an expensive production. It invents a new mineral that explodes when exposed to air. The supporting cast of The Magnetic Monster gives us some pleasant, familiar faces. In addition to the beloved Kathleen Freeman is Strother Martin as a concerned airline pilot. Fussy Byron Foulger owns the housewares store and granite-jawed Frank Gerstle (Gristle?) is a gruff general. The gorgeous Jarma Lewis has a quick bit as a stewardess. The Kl Studio Classics Blu-ray of The Magnetic Monster is a fine transfer of this B&W gem from United Artists. Once hard to see, it was part of an expensive MGM-Image laserdisc set twenty years ago and then an Mod DVD in 2011. The disc comes with a socko original trailer that explains why it did reasonably well at the box office. Every exciting moment is edited into a coming attraction that really hypes the jeopardy factor. At that time, just the sight of a hero in a radiation suit promised something unusual. Nowadays, Hazardous Waste workers use suits like that to clean up common chemical spills. The commentary for The Magnetic Monster is by Fangoria writer Derek Botelho, whose name is misspelled as Botello on the disc package. I've heard Derek on a couple of David del Valle tracks for Vincent Price movies, where he functioned mainly as an Ed McMahon-like fan sidekick. His talk tends to drift into loosely related sidebar observations. Instead of discussing how the movie was made by cannibalizing another, he recounts for us the comedy stock footage discovery scene from Tim Burton's Ed Wood. Several pages recited from memoirs by Curt Siodmak and Herbert Strock do provide useful information on the film. Botelho appreciates actress Kathleen Freeman. You can't go wrong doing that. Viewers that obtain Kino's concurrent Blu-ray release of the original 1934 German thriller Gold will note that the repurposed scenes from that film look much better here, although they still bear some scratches. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, The Magnetic Monster Blu-ray rates: Movie: Good + Video: Very Good Sound: Excellent Supplements: Commentary with Derek Botelho, Theatrical trailer Deaf and Hearing Impaired Friendly? N0; Subtitles: None Packaging: Keep case Reviewed: June 8, 2016 (5138magn)
Visit DVD Savant's Main Column Page Glenn Erickson answers most reader mail: [email protected]
Text © Copyright 2016 Glenn Erickson...
- 6/14/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Kino Lorber continues its crusade to release spectacular HD versions of obscure motion pictures culled from around the planet. Today, Kl announced its plans to release Gold, a rare and eye-filling German science fiction future-shock film from 1934 starring the great Brigitte Helm (Metropolis) and directed by Karl Hartl. Gold has been…
The post Kino Lorber Announces Release of Rare 1934 German Sci-Fi Film Gold appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.
The post Kino Lorber Announces Release of Rare 1934 German Sci-Fi Film Gold appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.
- 5/26/2016
- by Chris Alexander
- shocktillyoudrop.com
An exercise in dizzy disorientation, this Cornell Woolrich crazy-house noir pulls the rug out from under us at least three times. You want delirium, you got it -- the secret words for today are "Obsessive" and "Perverse." Innocent Robert Cummings is no match for sicko psychos Peter Lorre and Steve Cochran. The Chase Blu-ray Kino Classics 1946 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 86 min. / Street Date May 24, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Robert Cummings, Michèle Morgan, Steve Cochran, Peter Lorre, Lloyd Corrigan, Jack Holt, Don Wilson, Alexis Minotis, Nina Koschetz, Yolanda Lacca, James Westerfield, Shirley O'Hara. Cinematography Frank F. Planer Film Editor Edward Mann Original Music Michel Michelet Written by Philip Yordan from the book The Black Path of Fear by Cornell Woolrich Produced by Seymour Nebenzal Directed by Arthur D. Ripley
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
As Guy Maddin says on his (recommended) commentary, the public domain copies of this show were...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
As Guy Maddin says on his (recommended) commentary, the public domain copies of this show were...
- 5/7/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Guns! Bombs! Assassinations! Blackmail! Fritz Lang invents the escapist super-spy thriller! To seize a set of political documents the evil Haghi dispatches the seductive agents Kitty and Sonya to neutralize a Japanese security man and our own top spy No. 236. (that's 007 x 33,714.2857!) It's a top-rank silent winner from the maker of Metropolis. Spies (Spione) Blu-ray Kino Classics 1928 / B&W /1:33 Silent Aperture / 150 min. / Street Date February 23, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Gerda Maurus, Lien Deyers, Willy Fritsch, Lupu Pick, Hertha von Walther, Fritz Rasp, Craighall Sherry, Hans Heinrich von Twardowsky, Gustl Gstettenbaur. Cinematography Fritz Arno Wagner Art Directors Otto Hunte, Karl Vollbrecht Set Designer Edgar G. Ulmer (reported) Original Music Werner R. Heymann (original) Neil Brand piano score on this disc. Written by Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou from her novel Produced by Erich Pommer Directed by Fritz Lang
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
How did Fritz Lang...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
How did Fritz Lang...
- 3/19/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
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We celebrate a century of huge and expensive film sets, from historical epics to sprawling fantasies and sci-fi action movies...
The advent of cinema saw the art of set design gradually spread its wings from the relative confines of the theatre. As movies established their own language and became ever more ambitious in the early part of the 20th century, so set designers were called on to create increasingly expansive and more detailed backdrops.
As the list of movies below proves, the construction of huge sets has been a major part of cinema for the past century. And with scale comes expense, as the recreation of ancient landmarks, futuristic cities or doomed ocean liners takes hundreds of artists, designers and crafty types months of labour to plan and construct. Often, these sets are on the screen for a few scant minutes before they're torn down and largely...
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We celebrate a century of huge and expensive film sets, from historical epics to sprawling fantasies and sci-fi action movies...
The advent of cinema saw the art of set design gradually spread its wings from the relative confines of the theatre. As movies established their own language and became ever more ambitious in the early part of the 20th century, so set designers were called on to create increasingly expansive and more detailed backdrops.
As the list of movies below proves, the construction of huge sets has been a major part of cinema for the past century. And with scale comes expense, as the recreation of ancient landmarks, futuristic cities or doomed ocean liners takes hundreds of artists, designers and crafty types months of labour to plan and construct. Often, these sets are on the screen for a few scant minutes before they're torn down and largely...
- 2/9/2016
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
There's one ironclad rule for mad scientist movies: if you show a monstrous caged ape-creature in the first act, that ape-creature must absolutely break loose and wreak havoc before the end of Act III. Just ask George Zucco or John Carradine, they'll tell you. It makes no difference if the film is being made on Gower Gulch, or at Germany's prestigious UfA Studios. Alraune Region 2 Pal (Germany) DVD Arthaus 1952 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 87 min. / Unnatural, Mandragore, Vengeance / Street Date July 6, 2007 / Available at Amazon.de / Eur 16,90 Starring Hildegard Knef, Erich von Stroheim, Karlheinz Böhm, Harry Meyen, Rolf Henniger, Harry Halm, Hans Cossy, Gardy Brombacher, Trude Hesterberg, Julia Koschka, Denise Vernac. Cinematography Friedl Behn-Grund Film Editor Doris Zeitman Costume Designer Herbert Pioberger Original Music Werner R. Heymann Written by Kurt Heuser from the novel by Hanns Heinz Ewers Produced by Günther Stapenhorst Directed by Arthur Maria Rabenault
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson...
- 9/8/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Glenda Jackson: Actress and former Labour MP. Two-time Oscar winner and former Labour MP Glenda Jackson returns to acting Two-time Best Actress Academy Award winner Glenda Jackson set aside her acting career after becoming a Labour Party MP in 1992. Four years ago, Jackson, who represented the Greater London constituency of Hampstead and Highgate, announced that she would stand down the 2015 general election – which, somewhat controversially, was won by right-wing prime minister David Cameron's Conservative party.[1] The silver lining: following a two-decade-plus break, Glenda Jackson is returning to acting. Now, Jackson isn't – for the time being – returning to acting in front of the camera. The 79-year-old is to be featured in the Radio 4 series Emile Zola: Blood, Sex and Money, described on their website as a “mash-up” adaptation of 20 Emile Zola novels collectively known as "Les Rougon-Macquart."[2] Part 1 of the three-part Radio 4 series will be broadcast daily during an...
- 7/2/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Tis I, Jason from Mnpp, here, with another week's new edition of our "Beauty vs Beast" series. So over the next several days The Film Experience is going to be diving into the cinematic realm of Artificial Intelligence (known as "A.I." to people in a hurry and Haley Joel Osment fans), and to get the ball rolling I figured we'd make ourselves like science-fiction and hop in the way-back machine to the year 1927, when a little chap who went by the name Friedrich Christian Anton Lang, known to his friends as Fritz, made a little movie called Metropolis. In case you don't know the story, it goes like this: Boy meets Girl, Girl Gets Clones Into Evil Robot, Dystopian Nightmare Explodes, and a Kiss, The End. Somewhere in there dancing happens, and it is crazy awesome.
But thanks to a ferocious performance from actress Brigitte Helm you really couldn't get...
But thanks to a ferocious performance from actress Brigitte Helm you really couldn't get...
- 4/20/2015
- by JA
- FilmExperience
Director Niell Blomkamp’s new sci-fi epic Chappie opened this weekend. The film tells the story of a robot who is given artificial intelligence by his inventor, but he must learn the ways of the world just like a child. However, his innocent mind is being molded by gangsters and violent criminals.
Photos: 'Pacific Rim' and 7 Giant Robot/Monster Mashes
It’s still to be seen if Chappie will go down as a classic in the robot sci-fi genre, but if it whetted your appetite for artificial intelligence movies and android action scenes, here are nine of the best robotic heroes and nine of the craziest robotic villains in cinematic history.
Robo-Heroes
9. Gigolo Joe from A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Played by: Jude Law
This is one of Law’s greatest roles. Gigolo Joe is a mechanical male prostitute on the run from authorities after being framed for murder. Joe is a highlight...
Photos: 'Pacific Rim' and 7 Giant Robot/Monster Mashes
It’s still to be seen if Chappie will go down as a classic in the robot sci-fi genre, but if it whetted your appetite for artificial intelligence movies and android action scenes, here are nine of the best robotic heroes and nine of the craziest robotic villains in cinematic history.
Robo-Heroes
9. Gigolo Joe from A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Played by: Jude Law
This is one of Law’s greatest roles. Gigolo Joe is a mechanical male prostitute on the run from authorities after being framed for murder. Joe is a highlight...
- 3/9/2015
- Entertainment Tonight
Simone Simon: Remembering the 'Cat People' and 'La Bête Humaine' star (photo: Simone Simon 'Cat People' publicity) Pert, pretty, pouty, and fiery-tempered Simone Simon – who died at age 94 ten years ago, on Feb. 22, 2005 – is best known for her starring role in Jacques Tourneur's cult horror movie classic Cat People (1942). Those aware of the existence of film industries outside Hollywood will also remember Simon for her button-nosed femme fatale in Jean Renoir's French film noir La Bête Humaine (1938).[1] In fact, long before Brigitte Bardot, Annette Stroyberg, Mamie Van Doren, Tuesday Weld, Ann-Margret, and Barbarella's Jane Fonda became known as cinema's Sex Kittens, Simone Simon exuded feline charm – with a tad of puppy dog wistfulness – in a film career that spanned two continents and a quarter of a century. From the early '30s to the mid-'50s, she seduced men young and old on both...
- 2/20/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Metropolis (entire movie, above), the 1927 silent film directed by Fritz Lang, is regarded as one of the most important and influential films of all time. The world’s first epic science fiction movie, it continues to serve as inspiration for countless films, and forced humanity to look critically at it’s increasingly complex relationship to industrial and technological growth. In cinematic terms, evidence of its influence can be seen everywhere from to Soylent Green to Snowpiercer.
Aesthetically, it's influence is still present in popular culture, with contemporary artists like Guy Maddin and Tim Burton liberally borrowing stylistic elements from Metropolis is also a film that contains serious cultural and political messages. For example, the dystopian society it portrays was direct commentary on the possible result of the industrial revolution. Metropolis has also proved itself to be prophetic, as many of the themes it explored almost a century ago are as relevant,...
Aesthetically, it's influence is still present in popular culture, with contemporary artists like Guy Maddin and Tim Burton liberally borrowing stylistic elements from Metropolis is also a film that contains serious cultural and political messages. For example, the dystopian society it portrays was direct commentary on the possible result of the industrial revolution. Metropolis has also proved itself to be prophetic, as many of the themes it explored almost a century ago are as relevant,...
- 7/12/2014
- by Brandon Engel
- www.culturecatch.com
Robots have been a part of cinema since its creation and still make for intriguing on-screen presences. With RoboCop set for a Limited Edition Blu-ray Steelbook, DVD and Blu-ray release on 9th June 2014 from Studiocanal, we count down the most memorable movie cyborgs to have graced our screens.
Evil Maria – Metropolis (1927)
Fritz Lang’s classic sees an inventor, who has created a robot to resurrect his deceased wife, apply the likeness of a popular female worked named Maria (played by Brigitte Helm) in an attempt to ruin her reputation amongst her peers. Once completed, the robot is an evil incarnation of Maria and wreaks havoc in the dystopian future depicted by Lang.
R2-D2/C-3Po – the Star Wars series (1977-2005)
Not only are these two of the most beloved robots in cinematic history, but one of the most revered fictional filmic double acts to adorn the screen. R2-D2 (played by...
Evil Maria – Metropolis (1927)
Fritz Lang’s classic sees an inventor, who has created a robot to resurrect his deceased wife, apply the likeness of a popular female worked named Maria (played by Brigitte Helm) in an attempt to ruin her reputation amongst her peers. Once completed, the robot is an evil incarnation of Maria and wreaks havoc in the dystopian future depicted by Lang.
R2-D2/C-3Po – the Star Wars series (1977-2005)
Not only are these two of the most beloved robots in cinematic history, but one of the most revered fictional filmic double acts to adorn the screen. R2-D2 (played by...
- 6/8/2014
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
Imitation of Life: James’ Sci-Fi Thriller Plumbs Dark Recesses of A.I.
While its ingenious ideas are sometimes marred by obvious budgetary limitations, director Caradog W. James’ second feature, The Machine is a highly enjoyable and brooding sci-fi flick in the philosophical vein of Blade Runner, with a smattering of other similarly minded or styled classics, such as Lang’s Metropolis heavy on its mind. Even though it sometimes looks like a film that seems tailor made for the Syfy Channel, James still manages to create an appropriate atmosphere with its cavernous, dimly lit underground bunkers. An arresting and ambient score reminiscent of Vangelis and early John Carpenter is complimentary to its simple yet hypnotic spell.
In the not too distant future, the UK seems to be languishing in the throes of the preapocalypse as the Western world is heavily engaged in a Cold War with China. The government...
While its ingenious ideas are sometimes marred by obvious budgetary limitations, director Caradog W. James’ second feature, The Machine is a highly enjoyable and brooding sci-fi flick in the philosophical vein of Blade Runner, with a smattering of other similarly minded or styled classics, such as Lang’s Metropolis heavy on its mind. Even though it sometimes looks like a film that seems tailor made for the Syfy Channel, James still manages to create an appropriate atmosphere with its cavernous, dimly lit underground bunkers. An arresting and ambient score reminiscent of Vangelis and early John Carpenter is complimentary to its simple yet hypnotic spell.
In the not too distant future, the UK seems to be languishing in the throes of the preapocalypse as the Western world is heavily engaged in a Cold War with China. The government...
- 4/21/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
What’s difficult about making this list is finding a balance between a successful Kubrickian film that either predates or pays homage to Kubrick and, for lack of a better term, is a ripoff. Now that we’ve hit the apex, it’s clear that these are, regardless of influence, quality films. What sets them apart is their ability to evoke Kubrick’s greatness (or inspire it), while delivering a stand-alone masterpiece. If Kubrick took the helm for any of these films, the result wouldn’t delineate too much. Still. Kubrick is a genius because he always kept us guessing.
courtesy of theweeklings.com
10. Fitzcarraldo (1982)
Directed by Werner Herzog
What makes it Kubrickian? It’s a film about extreme obsession and the unreasonable lengths a man will go to when consumed by it. Fitzcarraldo is the story of Brian Sweeny “Fitzcarraldo” Fitzgerald (Klaus Kinski) and his entry into the rubber industry.
courtesy of theweeklings.com
10. Fitzcarraldo (1982)
Directed by Werner Herzog
What makes it Kubrickian? It’s a film about extreme obsession and the unreasonable lengths a man will go to when consumed by it. Fitzcarraldo is the story of Brian Sweeny “Fitzcarraldo” Fitzgerald (Klaus Kinski) and his entry into the rubber industry.
- 4/1/2014
- by Joshua Gaul
- SoundOnSight
When you’re on a role you’re on a role! Once again here is a list of ten actors who achieved cult movie villainy on the strength of one movie. Some of the actors faded into obscurity while others continued their careers without scaling the heights of their defining cinematic performance. Perhaps I should do a one for heroes! Nah! Villains are much more fun!
[Spoilers follow]
Rudolph Klein-Rogge (Metropolis – 1927)
Although dated, Fritz Lang’s utopian masterpiece still has the unique power to fascinate. Not only did the film make a star of Brigitte Helm, it introduced the father of all mad scientists, C A Rotwang, played with eye rolling relish by Lang’s favourite actor Rudolph Klein-Rogge. The Austrian born star specialised in villainous roles so he was a natural for playing the nutty inventor who creates the legendary female robot used to impersonate Helm’s freedom fighter. With his exaggerated mannerisms and facial expressions,...
[Spoilers follow]
Rudolph Klein-Rogge (Metropolis – 1927)
Although dated, Fritz Lang’s utopian masterpiece still has the unique power to fascinate. Not only did the film make a star of Brigitte Helm, it introduced the father of all mad scientists, C A Rotwang, played with eye rolling relish by Lang’s favourite actor Rudolph Klein-Rogge. The Austrian born star specialised in villainous roles so he was a natural for playing the nutty inventor who creates the legendary female robot used to impersonate Helm’s freedom fighter. With his exaggerated mannerisms and facial expressions,...
- 12/22/2013
- Shadowlocked
Think silent films reached a high point with The Artist? The pre-sound era produced some of the most beautiful, arresting films ever made. From City Lights to Metropolis, Guardian and Observer critics pick the 10 best
• Top 10 teen movies
• Top 10 superhero movies
• Top 10 westerns
• Top 10 documentaries
• Top 10 movie adaptations
• Top 10 animated movies
• More Guardian and Observer critics' top 10s
10. City Lights
City Lights was arguably the biggest risk of Charlie Chaplin's career: The Jazz Singer, released at the end of 1927, had seen sound take cinema by storm, but Chaplin resisted the change-up, preferring to continue in the silent tradition. In retrospect, this isn't so much the precious behaviour of a purist but the smart reaction of an experienced comedian; Chaplin's films rarely used intertitles anyway, and though it is technically "silent", City Lights is very mindful of it own self-composed score and keenly judged sound effects.
At its heart,...
• Top 10 teen movies
• Top 10 superhero movies
• Top 10 westerns
• Top 10 documentaries
• Top 10 movie adaptations
• Top 10 animated movies
• More Guardian and Observer critics' top 10s
10. City Lights
City Lights was arguably the biggest risk of Charlie Chaplin's career: The Jazz Singer, released at the end of 1927, had seen sound take cinema by storm, but Chaplin resisted the change-up, preferring to continue in the silent tradition. In retrospect, this isn't so much the precious behaviour of a purist but the smart reaction of an experienced comedian; Chaplin's films rarely used intertitles anyway, and though it is technically "silent", City Lights is very mindful of it own self-composed score and keenly judged sound effects.
At its heart,...
- 11/22/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
Unheimliche Geschichten (Uncanny Tales) is a remake... except it isn't. And it's an anthology film... except it isn't. Richard Oswald, Austrian movie master, made a film of that title in 1919, a horror film which blended stories by Poe, Stevenson and others into a single overarching narrative with Conrad Veidt as central character.
In 1932, four years before the Jewish Oswald was forced to flee the country, he made another Unheimliche Geschichten, a comic compendium that used some of the same source stories, including Poe's The Black Cat and Stevenson's The Suicide Club, but added a new one and used a different overall story to tie it all together. The film was intended as a parody of the whole German expressionist horror school, and if it lacks somewhat in the laughter department, it is nonetheless a fascinating summation of German silent cinema in the early sound era.
Oswald alternated between comedy and sometimes horror-tinged melodrama,...
In 1932, four years before the Jewish Oswald was forced to flee the country, he made another Unheimliche Geschichten, a comic compendium that used some of the same source stories, including Poe's The Black Cat and Stevenson's The Suicide Club, but added a new one and used a different overall story to tie it all together. The film was intended as a parody of the whole German expressionist horror school, and if it lacks somewhat in the laughter department, it is nonetheless a fascinating summation of German silent cinema in the early sound era.
Oswald alternated between comedy and sometimes horror-tinged melodrama,...
- 11/2/2012
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
Metropolis original poster Who says silent movies don't make money? Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist has grossed more than $100 million worldwide, in addition to winning a total of five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (Jean Dujardin). And now comes an original poster of Fritz Lang's 1927 Ufa classic Metropolis, which you can buy now for $850,000 at Movie Poster Exchange. The information below is from Mpe: Posters from this all-time classic science-fiction film are the rarest of the rare and this, the most famous image ever associated with the film is no exception. Created by art deco artist Heinz Schulz-Neudamm, this poster depicts the classic image of the automation Maria and the fantastic cityscape of Metropolis itself. There are four copies of this poster known to exist. Two of them are in permanent museum collections (Museum of Modern Art and the Austrian National Library Museum) while...
- 3/13/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has unveiled its list of 10 Most Influential Silent Films in celebration of Michel Hazanavicius’ ode to the silent era, The Artist, which won three Golden Globes® Sunday night, including Best Picture . Musical or Comedy, Best Actor . Musical or Comedy for Jean Dujardin and Best Original Score. The Artist also picked up 12 British Academy Film Award nominations. The Weinstein Company will expand its release of The Artist nationwide on Friday.
TCM’s list of 10 Most Influential Silent Films spans from the years 1915 to 1928 and features such remarkable films as D.W. Griffith’s groundbreaking (and controversial) The Birth of a Nation (1915), which revolutionized filmmaking techniques; Nanook of the North (1922), a film frequently cited as the first feature-length documentary; Cecil B. DeMille’s epic silent version of The Ten Commandments (1923); Sergei Eisenstein’s oft-imitated Battleship Potemkin (1925), which took montage techniques to an entirely new level; and Fritz Lang’s...
TCM’s list of 10 Most Influential Silent Films spans from the years 1915 to 1928 and features such remarkable films as D.W. Griffith’s groundbreaking (and controversial) The Birth of a Nation (1915), which revolutionized filmmaking techniques; Nanook of the North (1922), a film frequently cited as the first feature-length documentary; Cecil B. DeMille’s epic silent version of The Ten Commandments (1923); Sergei Eisenstein’s oft-imitated Battleship Potemkin (1925), which took montage techniques to an entirely new level; and Fritz Lang’s...
- 1/18/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Hitting movie theaters this weekend:
Happy Feet Two - Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Pink
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 - Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
Movie of the Week
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1
The Stars: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
The Plot: The Quileute and the Volturi close in on expecting parents Edward and Bella, whose unborn child poses different threats to the wolf pack and vampire coven.
The Buzz: The only drawback to having to choose a movie of the week becomes apparent on weeks such as this one, wherein I have absolutely zero interest in any of the new releases. First of all, I hated what I saw of the first Happy Feet, and the trailer for Happy Feet Two advertises a film which looks to be about as bearable as swallowing a glass full of shards of glass. And so, the...
Happy Feet Two - Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Pink
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 - Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
Movie of the Week
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1
The Stars: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
The Plot: The Quileute and the Volturi close in on expecting parents Edward and Bella, whose unborn child poses different threats to the wolf pack and vampire coven.
The Buzz: The only drawback to having to choose a movie of the week becomes apparent on weeks such as this one, wherein I have absolutely zero interest in any of the new releases. First of all, I hated what I saw of the first Happy Feet, and the trailer for Happy Feet Two advertises a film which looks to be about as bearable as swallowing a glass full of shards of glass. And so, the...
- 11/16/2011
- by Aaron Ruffcorn
- The Scorecard Review
In honor of Paramount’s latest Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the movie that is doing better overseas but could break these July 4th holiday box office records and following our Xomba friends too, we offer you a list of some of the most amazing robots and robettes who’ve entertained us through the years.
10. Teddy
It’s been a good long time since the movie A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) was released (2001). Amazing is how Teddy, the robotic teddy bear in the story was made real using motion-capture technology and other ingenious mechanical special effects by the Stan Winston Studios. Charming, soft, and animated, it was a toy that movie-goers wanted to have. Just look at that walk!
Most memorable quote: I am not a toy.
9. Bender
A character in the animated television series Futurama referred to as Bender could be considered as a robot prototype for Homer Simpson. Despite his...
10. Teddy
It’s been a good long time since the movie A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) was released (2001). Amazing is how Teddy, the robotic teddy bear in the story was made real using motion-capture technology and other ingenious mechanical special effects by the Stan Winston Studios. Charming, soft, and animated, it was a toy that movie-goers wanted to have. Just look at that walk!
Most memorable quote: I am not a toy.
9. Bender
A character in the animated television series Futurama referred to as Bender could be considered as a robot prototype for Homer Simpson. Despite his...
- 7/3/2011
- by Nick Martin
- Filmofilia
Die Liebe Der Jeanne Ney / The Love Of Jeanne Ney (1927) Direction: G. W. Pabst Cast: Edith Jehanne, Uno Henning, Fritz Rasp, Brigitte Helm, Adolf Edgar Licho, Eugen Hensen, Sig Arno, Vladimir Sokoloff Screenplay: Ladislaus Vajda, Rudolf Leonhardt; from a novel by Ilja Ehrenburg Uno Henning, Edith Jehanne, The Love of Jeanne Ney G. W. Pabst's Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney / The Love of Jeanne Ney is a real mystery. And I mean that in the truest sense of the word. The entire film is a puzzle. The opening title card introduces the story: "After the Russian Revolution, civil war rages in the Crimea, bringing in its wake chaos and misery and unscrupulous men." After that, you're on your own. The first character introduced is simply named Mr. Khalibiev (Fritz Rasp), the first of many "unscrupulous men" who inhabit this complex tale. A more unctuous, repellent individual could not be [...]...
- 5/3/2011
- by Danny Fortune
- Alt Film Guide
Each week within this column we strive to pair the latest in theatrical releases to the worthwhile titles currently available on Netflix Instant Watch.
This week Ghost Face returns to theaters to square off against a nebbish parrot, an accused traitor and a daring documentary about the war on terror. You can take the thrills home with our suggested batch of features that include psycho slashers, notorious courtroom theatrics, harrowing tales of war, and award-winning animation!
—
Scream 4
It’s been 10 years since a serial killer has reeked havoc on lip-quivering heroine Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell), and now Ghost Face has returned to up the ante, cashing in and criticizing the latest in horror conventions. Wes Craven directs.
Take the fear home with a trio of terrifying tales:
The Last House on the Left (1972) Before Craven was serving up self-aware cinema, he was crafting some of the most deeply disturbing entries in the horror genre.
This week Ghost Face returns to theaters to square off against a nebbish parrot, an accused traitor and a daring documentary about the war on terror. You can take the thrills home with our suggested batch of features that include psycho slashers, notorious courtroom theatrics, harrowing tales of war, and award-winning animation!
—
Scream 4
It’s been 10 years since a serial killer has reeked havoc on lip-quivering heroine Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell), and now Ghost Face has returned to up the ante, cashing in and criticizing the latest in horror conventions. Wes Craven directs.
Take the fear home with a trio of terrifying tales:
The Last House on the Left (1972) Before Craven was serving up self-aware cinema, he was crafting some of the most deeply disturbing entries in the horror genre.
- 4/14/2011
- by Kristy Puchko
- The Film Stage
Horst von Harbou, still photographer on the set of Metropolis (1927) and brother of screenwriter Thea von Harbou, and so, brother-in-law to Fritz Lang, made that photograph up there in 1925 during a break between takes on a day that Lang was filming the flooding of the workers' city, one of the sequences in Metropolis that, for decades, we all thought we'd never see as Lang intended. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. First, from the left: Cinematographer Günther Rittau, Lang, Brigitte Helm, American theater-owner Samuel L Rothapfel, an unidentified fellow, cinematographer Karl Freund and his assistant, Robert Boberske.
- 11/23/2010
- MUBI
Starring: Alfed Abel, Gustav Frolich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Brigitte Helm
Director: Fritz Lang
The Scoop: (1927) Lang’s masterpiece has long been considered one of the greatest movies in the history of cinema. Now this ode to the futures — and the dangers of technology — gets updated for Blu-ray, with nearly 30 min. of previously unseen footage carefully restored. The result is a grander look at not just how Fritz predicted today’s problems, but how he shaped the cinema of tomorrow as well.
Special Features: Extended version, feature-length doc, behind-the-scenes interview
Unrated, 153 min. | Watch the trailer...
Director: Fritz Lang
The Scoop: (1927) Lang’s masterpiece has long been considered one of the greatest movies in the history of cinema. Now this ode to the futures — and the dangers of technology — gets updated for Blu-ray, with nearly 30 min. of previously unseen footage carefully restored. The result is a grander look at not just how Fritz predicted today’s problems, but how he shaped the cinema of tomorrow as well.
Special Features: Extended version, feature-length doc, behind-the-scenes interview
Unrated, 153 min. | Watch the trailer...
- 11/23/2010
- by NextMovie Staff
- NextMovie
Brigitte Helm in Fritz Lang's Metropolis (top); Jack Holt, Fay Wray in Frank Capra's Dirigible (middle); Walter Huston, Barry Fitzgerald, Roland Young, Louis Hayward, Judith Anderson in René Clair's And Then There Were None (bottom) London's BFI Southbank will be screening several Frank Capra efforts today and on Saturday, in addition to films based on Agatha Christie's works and the restored Metropolis. Most notable among those screenings is probably a 1986 British television production named Shades of Darkness: Agatha Christie’s The Last Séance. Directed by June Wyndham-Davies, the 50-minute show stars Jeanne Moreau in a "suitably spooky, at times surreal" supernatural tale about spiritualism. Frank Capra will be represented with Dirigible (1931), an early adventure tale set in the South Pole that features Fay Wray sandwiched between popular late-'20s players Jack Holt and Ralph Graves; The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1932), an overbaked interethnic romance-drama-tragedy starring...
- 11/19/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Chicago – One of the cinematic highlights of my life happened earlier this year when I was lucky enough to see “The Complete Metropolis” on the big screen. Fritz Lang’s legendary film is not only riveting by virtue of being one of the most influential of all time but the story that developed after it was made is a historically fascinating one. Almost a century after it was released, we can now see “Metropolis,” recently released on Blu-ray, in a more complete manner than ever before.
Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0
The fact is that most early filmmakers and film watchers had no concept of where we would be today in terms of the longevity of the medium. Most historians estimate that a majority of the films released before 1930 are completely gone, likely destroyed and never to be found. Even the films we do have from that era are often truncated with whole reels lost to history.
Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0
The fact is that most early filmmakers and film watchers had no concept of where we would be today in terms of the longevity of the medium. Most historians estimate that a majority of the films released before 1930 are completely gone, likely destroyed and never to be found. Even the films we do have from that era are often truncated with whole reels lost to history.
- 11/18/2010
- by [email protected] (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Hitting movie theaters this weekend:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 – Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint
The Next Three Days – Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Olivia Wilde, Liam Neeson
Movie of the Week
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
The Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint
The Plot: Harry, Ron and Hermione set out on a treacherous quest to hunt down and destroy the secret to Voldemort’s immortality — the Horcruxes.
The Buzz: I am the least qualified to helm a discussion on the buzz surrounding Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. I’m the least qualified to discuss anything at all about Harry Potter, as I’ve read a mere ten pages of the first book, and only recently caught up with the films. That being said, having watched the first six films in swift succession, immersing myself in Rowling’s world, I...
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 – Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint
The Next Three Days – Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Olivia Wilde, Liam Neeson
Movie of the Week
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
The Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint
The Plot: Harry, Ron and Hermione set out on a treacherous quest to hunt down and destroy the secret to Voldemort’s immortality — the Horcruxes.
The Buzz: I am the least qualified to helm a discussion on the buzz surrounding Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. I’m the least qualified to discuss anything at all about Harry Potter, as I’ve read a mere ten pages of the first book, and only recently caught up with the films. That being said, having watched the first six films in swift succession, immersing myself in Rowling’s world, I...
- 11/17/2010
- by Aaron Ruffcorn
- The Scorecard Review
Fritz Lang, 1927
Although many sci-fi films followed, none have had the lasting, seemingly self-regenerating appeal of Fritz Lang's silent classic – perhaps because, after its Berlin premiere in 1927, it is arguable that no authoritative version of it has ever really been established.
Originally clocking in at two hours and 33 minutes, Metropolis has since become a movable feast, with new scenes and scores – Giorgio Moroder issued a derided, colour-tinted synth version in 1984 – that have kept Lang's epic current.
For its time, the film was a milestone, innovative miniatures and camera tricks to create its city of the future, taking two years to shoot and bankrupting its producers (in modern money, the budget was close to $200m). But the real key to its longevity is its thematic content: more a warning than a romance, it deals with issues of modernity that have never gone away. Class conflict is its main thread: when...
Although many sci-fi films followed, none have had the lasting, seemingly self-regenerating appeal of Fritz Lang's silent classic – perhaps because, after its Berlin premiere in 1927, it is arguable that no authoritative version of it has ever really been established.
Originally clocking in at two hours and 33 minutes, Metropolis has since become a movable feast, with new scenes and scores – Giorgio Moroder issued a derided, colour-tinted synth version in 1984 – that have kept Lang's epic current.
For its time, the film was a milestone, innovative miniatures and camera tricks to create its city of the future, taking two years to shoot and bankrupting its producers (in modern money, the budget was close to $200m). But the real key to its longevity is its thematic content: more a warning than a romance, it deals with issues of modernity that have never gone away. Class conflict is its main thread: when...
- 10/21/2010
- by Damon Wise
- The Guardian - Film News
Metropolis is a film that is often celebrated by critics for its importance in film history and also for being an incredibly effective and beautiful film too. This praise is entirely justified as Fritz Lang’s 1927 film is a true masterpiece for so many reasons and this week it returns to UK screens with a beautiful new print featuring approximately 25 minutes of previously missing footage.
The Metropolis of the title is a huge futuristic city run by the dictator like figure of Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel). The city is divided in two; the rich live high above where everything is plentiful and they are free to relax and enjoy life and below them is the lower level where the working class struggle for their lives, working long and arduous hours dominated by physical labour on the huge machines that run the city. Whilst frolicking in the gardens of the great city,...
The Metropolis of the title is a huge futuristic city run by the dictator like figure of Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel). The city is divided in two; the rich live high above where everything is plentiful and they are free to relax and enjoy life and below them is the lower level where the working class struggle for their lives, working long and arduous hours dominated by physical labour on the huge machines that run the city. Whilst frolicking in the gardens of the great city,...
- 8/26/2010
- by Craig Skinner
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The Fantasia Festival's 2010 edition, its 14th, was a resounding success, with more sellout screenings than ever and special events that can only be considered coups. One of those special events was The Complete Metropolis - Restored Original Cut that was screened before yet another sold-out crowd at the 3000-seat Place-des-Arts and featured a new score composed by renowned silent-film composer Gabriel Thibodeau and performed live by a 13-piece orchestra. Metropolis, with 25 minutes of previously lost footage and now as close to director Fritz Lang's original 1927 vision as ever, was a visual and aural treat to watch on the big screen with live musical accompaniment. Entire new sequences have been added back into the film and help make for a more complete experience, although even before this version came to light the film had been hailed as a sci-fi masterpiece ahead of its time, influencing such modern classics as Blade Runner,...
- 8/1/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
The Complete Metropolis Directed by: Fritz Lang Written by: Thea von Harbou Starring: Gustav Frölich, Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Rudolf Klein-Rogge Fritz Lang’s Metropolis was the first film I ever rented from Netflix. The (then) two-hour German expressionist science-fiction masterpiece carried an immediate appeal for me I know not many will share. Nevertheless, I was excited at the prospect of seeing the film again, and on the big screen this summer, now "complete" with 25 minutes of newly integrated footage uncovered in Buenos Aires in 2008. Other than that the experience was marred by a crummy digital projection, the new cut of the film is nothing short of revelatory for fans and cinephiles. The restored scenes, which were cut in 1927 following early criticism, expand the scope and breadth of the narrative, rounding out a much more human film. It’s a shame so little could be done to spruce up the supplemental material.
- 7/29/2010
- by Colin
- FilmJunk
Silent film fans rejoice. The 1927 classic Metropolis has gotten even better! One of the most ambitious movies of the silent era, Metropolis, which has often been called the first great science fiction film was last released theatrically in 2001 in a newly restored version but since then, 25 more minutes have been excavated, bringing the running time up to 148 minutes and now they.re calling it The Complete Metropolis. The sets, cinematography, art design, and special effects of Metropolis have influenced countless subsequent movies, and are still most impressive today. Metropolis is a futuristic city run by industrialist Fredersen (Alfred Abel), whose pampered son Freder (Gustav Frohlich) becomes interested in the welfare of workers after he becomes smitten with Maria (Brigitte Helm), a mysterious quasi-religious figure, and follows her into Metropolis’ subterranean depths where he discovers the army of slaves that really make Metropolis run. Meanwhile, Fredersen is plotting with deranged scientist...
- 7/23/2010
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Louise Brooks (center) in Diary of a Lost Girl (top); Fritz Lang‘s Metropolis (upper middle); George O’Brien (center) in John Ford‘s The Iron Horse (lower middle); Norma Talmadge in Sam Taylor and Henry King‘s The Woman Disputed (bottom) The San Francisco Silent Film Festival kicks off on July 15 with a screening of John Ford‘s The Iron Horse, at 7 p.m. at the Castro Theatre. The festival’s Opening Night Party will follow the screening. Starring George O’Brien (the male lead in F. W. Murnau‘s Sunrise) and popular silent-film actress Madge Bellamy, The Iron Horse is a grandiose 1924 Western epic about the building of the United States’ transcontinental railroad. Among the Sfsff’s other highlights are a screening of the restored version of Fritz Lang‘s Metropolis, starring Brigitte Helm; Louise Brooks in G. W. Pabst‘s Diary of a Lost Girl; and Benjamin Christensen...
- 7/8/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Rating: 5.0/5.0
Chicago – Not since the restoration of Orson Welles’s “Touch of Evil” has a butchered cinematic classic been brought to such startling new life as “The Complete Metropolis.” Though Fritz Lang’s 1927 masterpiece “Metropolis” may never be restored to its original cut, this latest theatrical re-release is as close as film preservationists have ever gotten to recreating the legendary science-fiction epic in its entirety.
The twenty-five minutes of new footage added to this cut of “Metropolis” are nothing short of miraculous, especially in light of how they were found. Two summers ago, a 16mm back-up copy of the film’s original 35mm nitrate print was discovered in Buenos Aires. Though the print was badly damaged, it offered a wealth of missing scenes, as well as a complete blueprint for the film’s editing. Despite its permanently scratched surface, the Murnau Foundation decided to add the new material into the...
Chicago – Not since the restoration of Orson Welles’s “Touch of Evil” has a butchered cinematic classic been brought to such startling new life as “The Complete Metropolis.” Though Fritz Lang’s 1927 masterpiece “Metropolis” may never be restored to its original cut, this latest theatrical re-release is as close as film preservationists have ever gotten to recreating the legendary science-fiction epic in its entirety.
The twenty-five minutes of new footage added to this cut of “Metropolis” are nothing short of miraculous, especially in light of how they were found. Two summers ago, a 16mm back-up copy of the film’s original 35mm nitrate print was discovered in Buenos Aires. Though the print was badly damaged, it offered a wealth of missing scenes, as well as a complete blueprint for the film’s editing. Despite its permanently scratched surface, the Murnau Foundation decided to add the new material into the...
- 6/3/2010
- by [email protected] (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Annette Bening (left) in Rodrigo Garcia’s Mother and Child (top); Brigitte Helm in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (bottom) Starring Academy Award nominees Annette Bening and Naomi Watts, the psychological family drama Mother and Child opened on Mother’s Day weekend to $44.4K in four theaters as per estimates found at Box Office Mojo. The film’s $11,100 per theater average isn’t bad, but it’s not all that fantastic for a movie playing at only four locations. For comparison’s sake, when Roman Polanski’s thriller The Ghost Writer opened in four theaters in February, its per-theater average was $45,752. Also debuting this weekend was Brooks Branch’s relationship drama Multiple Sarcasms, which grossed a weak $17.8K at 15 sites. Average per screen: a [...]...
- 5/10/2010
- by Michelle Hutton
- Alt Film Guide
The TCM Classic Film Festival closed out an incredible weekend last night with a bang, with the North American premiere of The Complete Metropolis, the definitive restoration of Fritz Lang’s science fiction masterpiece, incorporating footage discovered in Buenos Aires in 2008. Nearly a half an hour has been restored into the film, seen here (almost) complete for the first time since the film’s Berlin premiere in 1927.
Immediately after the premiere, German distributor Ufa re-cut the film from 153 minutes to 114 minutes, and it was this version that was distributed internationally, including American release through Paramount Pictures, who performed their own editing job on the picture, excising content to fit the film into a 90 minute slot as well as to tone down the political themes at the core of the film. This is the version that had been available to audiences for nearly 80 years. In 2001, Kino International released a superb restoration of what was then available,...
Immediately after the premiere, German distributor Ufa re-cut the film from 153 minutes to 114 minutes, and it was this version that was distributed internationally, including American release through Paramount Pictures, who performed their own editing job on the picture, excising content to fit the film into a 90 minute slot as well as to tone down the political themes at the core of the film. This is the version that had been available to audiences for nearly 80 years. In 2001, Kino International released a superb restoration of what was then available,...
- 4/26/2010
- by Jesse
- FamousMonsters of Filmland
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