THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD On Blu-ray From Kino

 

Kino provides another rare early 1930s Universal production with a home video release. THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD (1934) has been branded as a "sort of" horror thriller, but it's really a melodrama set during World War One that details how one man's earnest creativity can be used for nefarious ends. 

The Man of the title is Paul Verin (Claude Rains). Paul is a French pacifist writer and a social misfit who takes up penning editorials and articles for publisher Henri Dumont (Lionel Atwill) in order to improve his family's financial standing. The articles go out under Dumont's name, which doesn't bother Paul, who believes the more socially-connected publisher will be able to influence public opinion and help shape a better world. When World War One breaks out, the ambitious Dumont is convinced by a group of powerful arms dealers to change his tune. The resultant rush to war sweeps Verin into the army, while Dumont attempts to seduce the writer's beautiful wife Adele (a very young and blonde Joan Bennett). The various crises cause Verin to go past the breaking point and leave the front in order to retrieve his "mind". 

The main story of THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD is told in flashback by a distraught Paul. This flashback takes up the rest of the film. Claude Rains gives another of his outstanding performances as the lead character, although the audience's sympathy for Paul is tempered by the fact that he's too modest and committed to his beliefs to realize he's being used. (One also wonders how a person like Paul was able to marry the much younger and attractive Adele.) 

The number one reason to see this movie is to watch greats like Rains and Lionel Atwill act opposite one another. Atwill's Dumont isn't so much an out and out villain as he is a clever, suave opportunist. One can even understand why Adele might be swayed by the outwardly charming Dumont. It's intriguing to think of an alternate version of this film where Rains and Atwill switched roles. 

Universal horror fans will recognize such supporting actors as Lawrence Grant, Gilbert Emery, Edward Van Sloan, and Harry Cording. (Valerie Hobson is also in this as well, but you'll have to really pay attention to get a glimpse of her.) Director Edward Ludwig and cinematographer Merritt Gerstad provide a number of expressive sequences and shots. 

Kino's Blu-ray of THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD looks and sounds great, with a very nice black & white transfer. Two new audio commentaries are provided. One features Troy Howarth, and he gives plenty of detail and interesting analysis about every aspect of the film. The other commentary is by David Del Valle, which I haven't listened to. 

I had never actually seen THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD before, but I had certainly read about it over the years. Despite having plenty of Universal Monster-style elements, it is definitely not a horror film, and I wouldn't even call it very thrilling. It is a well-done drama, a bit heavy-handed at times, and it is worth seeing mainly for Claude Rains and Lionel Atwill alone. Kino has thankfully released a number of early 1930s Universal films that have seemingly fallen through the cracks, and hopefully they have more on the way in the future. 

TREASURE ISLAND (1990)

 

This is another DVD I purchased at a discount from Edward R. Hamilton. This version of Robert Louis Stevenson's venerable story was first shown on the American TNT TV cable network in January 1990. I remember seeing commercials for it, but for whatever reason I didn't catch its original broadcast, and I never saw it until last night. 

One would assume that since this TREASURE ISLAND stars Charlton Heston and was written, produced and directed by his son Fraser C. Heston, it is nothing more than a vanity project. That's far from the case, however--it is a well-mounted production that was released in theaters overseas. Some reviews I've read online state that it is the best overall version of the classic adventure story. 

The 1990 TREASURE ISLAND gets off to a rousing start with the likes of Oliver Reed as a supremely rugged Billy Bones and Christopher Lee as a particularly loathsome Blind Pew. A teenage Christian Bale is Jim Hawkins, and even at this early stage in his career the actor is showing his "Look how intense I am" performance style (this Jim is not a wide-eyed youngster). 

Charlton Heston was in his sixties when he played Long John Silver here, but he puts his all into the role, and he seems to be enjoying himself immensely. He also makes Silver a decidedly nasty fellow who isn't as likable as other versions of the character. As a matter of fact, this TREASURE ISLAND is a bit darker and more realistic than other adaptations, with a group of cutthroats and scalawags who are much more brutal than quirky or entertaining. 

The supporting cast is a fine one, with Julian Glover as Dr. Livesey and Richard Johnson as Squire Trelawney. (Isla Blair, Julian Glover's real-life wife, plays Jim Hawkins' mother.) The art direction and production design is very impressive, and the movie is helped immeasurably by location shooting on the coast of England, and Jamaica. 

This technically may have been a Cable-TV movie, but it feels and looks like a theatrical feature, and it is better than most films made around this period. My favorite TREASURE ISLAND is still the Disney live-action version, but the Hestons should have been proud of what they accomplished with their adaptation. 

THE MERCILESS TRAP

 

This is a 1961 noir film made by Japan's Toho Studios. I discovered it on the Internet Archive, in an English-dubbed version with English main titles. Very few non-Kaiju Toho films were given the status of an English-language version. I assume THE MERCILESS TRAP got this distinction due to its being very much like the gritty low-budget American crime films of the 40s and 50s. (The original Japanese title of this movie is NASAKA MUYO NO WANA.) 

Makato Sato plays Ninomiya, an ex-con who makes his living driving a dump truck. Ninomiya is under suspicion of having murdered the call girl he was with the night before. A sympathetic inspector (Ichiro Nakatani) takes Ninomiya to the morgue and shows him the woman's corpse, but the truck driver is shocked to find that it is not who he spent the night with. Ninomiya knows that the police will doubt his story, so he goes off to find the actual woman (Kumi Mizuno)--a woman he happens to be infatuated with, even though he knows almost nothing about her. That woman, named Masako, happens to have plenty of troubles of her own....and both she and Ninomiya are pawns in a criminal game they know nothing about. 

THE MERCILESS TRAP has plenty of noir-like features, with its grimy, working-class settings, stark black & white photography, ex-con protagonist suspected of a crime he didn't commit, and a mysterious woman who holds the protagonist's fate in her hands. Toho giant monster fans will appreciate THE MERCILESS TRAP for its acting lineup of Kaiju veterans, such as Akihiko Hirata playing the role of Ninomiya's boss and Mie Hama in a small role. Director Jun Fukuda would go on to helm many Godzilla adventures himself. 

Makato Sato also showed up in plenty of Kaiju features, usually as a gangster or a bad guy. Here he gets the lead role, and I must say he's rather over-exuberant in it. One can understand why he's so emotional, but if anything it makes his character look even more guilty. Cult legend Kumi Mizuno gives a great performance as Masako, a young woman who has important reasons for being mysterious. 

Watching THE MERCILESS TRAP makes one realize how easily film noir could be transferred to another country. This is a Japanese film, but it has an urban feel and plenty of characters trying to get through life the best way they can. The jazzy, soulful music score by Kenjiro Hirose adds to the atmosphere. 

Noir and Kaiju fans will appreciate THE MERCILESS TRAP. It is a fine showcase for Kumi Mizuno, proving that she could hold her own in a mainstream drama that didn't have any genre elements. 

KRONOS

 

The 1957 science fiction film KRONOS stands out for its title "monster", a giant metallic machine from outer space that accumulates massive amounts of energy and is invulnerable to man-made weapons. 

The giant machine grows out of a flying saucer that lands in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico. The saucer is believed to be an asteroid, but Dr. Leslie Gaskell (Jeff Morrow) has his doubts. Gaskell works at a scientific research center called LabCentral along with his girlfriend-lab assistant Vera (Barbara Lawrence) and buddy-co-worker Dr. Arnold Culver (George O'Hanlon). The trio go to Mexico to investigate the strange craft, while an alien intelligence has taken over the mind of Dr. Hubbell Eliot (John Emery), the head of LabCentral. As the giant Kronos machine makes its way up the West Coast, Gaskell tries to figure out how to stop it, while fending off the possessed Dr. Eliot's devious intentions. 

KRONOS certainly has a novel premise--the title character is the true star of the film, and its design is unique and intriguing. (It is not a robot, by the way.) One wishes that the production had a bigger budget to make more of such a premise. It's no coincidence that the giant machine pops up next to a desolate stretch of Mexico (no major cities or landmarks to deal with). It appears that Gaskell and his two companions are the only people investigating the landing of the strange object, and they also appear to be the only scientists that are trying to come up with a plan to destroy Kronos. (Gaskell gives the giant machine its moniker after a character in Greek mythology.) 

The movie starts out much like a Jack Arnold-Universal sci-fi movie (I'm sure this wasn't a coincidence either). A working-class guy is driving a pickup on a lonely stretch of desert highway when he sees the strange object land and emit a beam that possesses him. The man then drives to LabCentral, forces his way in, and the alien force transfers itself to Dr. Eliot. We then are introduced to the other main characters at the base. It's a nice way to start off the story, but it takes a while for Kronos to get going and do his thing. 

One positive aspect of KRONOS is the fact that its lead character is played by Jeff Morrow. Morrow was in a number of 50s sci-fi movies, and he always elevated them by his steady presence, no matter how the rest of the film's elements turned out. Barbara Lawrence gets stuck with the girlfriend of the hero role, and the script manages to get her into a swimsuit and gives her a chance to scream. George O'Hanlon is the comic relief buddy, and he would later go on to provide the voice of George Jetson (every time O'Hanlon said a line of dialogue, I couldn't help but think of that cartoon). Genre veteran Morris Ankrum also appears, but this time as a doctor instead of a military official. 

KRONOS was produced and directed by Kurt Neumann, who made the original THE FLY, and the widescreen photography was provided by Karl Struss. The movie comes off fairly well, and the special effects are decent for the most part. At various times Kronos can move about by the use of giant piston-like legs, an animated effect that thankfully isn't used too much. 

I'm certainly no fan of remakes and reboots, but the premise of KRONOS is one that could easily be expanded upon. Just imagine an entire army of Kronos machines landing on Earth, and the global war that would result. What if Toho Studios had made their own version of KRONOS, with their expertise in miniatures and giant monsters?? Or how about a KRONOS set in today's world, with an all-star cast and multiple locations?? Knowing how the present-day entertainment conglomerates operate, they'd still find a way to screw it up. 

DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1973)

 

In my last blog post, I mentioned that I had finished reading FROM THE MOMENT THEY MET IT WAS MURDER: DOUBLE INDEMNITY AND THE RISE OF FILM NOIR by Alain Silver and James Ursini. The book discusses an actual official remake of DOUBLE INDEMNITY that was produced by Universal for the ABC television network and first shown on TV in 1973. 

I had almost forgotten that I had this TV remake on home video. Earlier in this century I purchased a two-disc DVD special edition of the original DOUBLE INDEMNITY. The second disc contained the TV remake--and I had never watched it. I thought at the time, "How can a 1970s TV movie in any way compare with one of the greatest film noirs??" The very idea of remaking DOUBLE INDEMNITY seemed ridiculous to me. (Of course, that's how I feel about nearly every remake and reboot that comes down the pike.) 

After finishing Silver & Ursini's book, I decided to dig out the DOUBLE INDEMNITY DVD and finally view the TV remake. I was a kid in the 70s, and I spent plenty of time watching TV from that era, including many movies made for TV. The TV DOUBLE INDEMNITY was about what I expected (which wasn't much.) 

The 1973 DOUBLE INDEMNITY is an almost exact remake of its renowned predecessor, but it does not take place in 1938, as the movie does. It is contemporary all the way--and that includes the costumes and the interior design (if you were around in the 1970s, you won't be surprised that the dominant colors are brown and tan). Instead of the original's black & white heavy atmosphere, the TV version has a flat, dull, overly bright generic look common to American television at the time. 

The TV version is only 73 minutes long (it was made to fit into a 90-minute time slot with commercials), but at times it feels lengthier than the original 107 minute version. The pacing is slow, especially during the many dialogue scenes. One of Billy Wilder's greatest strengths as a director was how he handled snappy dialogue sequences (and it was he himself that was responsible for most of that dialogue in his movies). The '73 version uses much of Wilder's and Raymond Chandler's dialogue from the original film, but the timing of it is off, and it doesn't have the effect that is intended. 

Richard Crenna plays Walter Neff in the TV version. Fred MacMurray's original Neff had a cynical, hard-bitten quality about him that made you believe he'd get hooked up with a devious dame in a murder plot. Crenna's Neff drives around in a Mercedes convertible, lives in a fancy apartment that looks down on a marina, and he also wears fashionable suits. One doubts that this Neff would get involved with a shady lady and wind up killing someone. Crenna was a consummate pro as an actor but his Neff is too normal. 

Barbara Stanwyck created one of the most iconic roles of all time when she played Phyllis Dietrichson in the original DOUBLE INDEMNITY. Any actress would have trouble living up to Stanwyck's indelible portrayal. Samantha Eggar had the thankless job of playing Phyllis in the TV remake. Eggar is certainly attractive, but her Phyllis is much more low-key--she lacks Stanwyck's cold deviousness. Eggar's Phyllis is also much more anxious and nervous, and she doesn't get a lot of screen time (in the main credits Eggar is listed as "guest starring"). 

Samantha Eggar and Richard Crenna in the 1973 TV version of DOUBLE INDEMNITY

Lee J. Cobb takes over Edward G. Robinson's role as claims manager Barton Keyes. Cobb is about the best thing in the remake, but he's still competing with a performance that should have gotten Robinson a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. 

The '73 DOUBLE INDEMNITY was directed by Jack Smight and written by Steven Bochco, both long-time industry veterans. As mentioned before, much of the dialogue from the original film is used, but it mostly falls flat. "Flat" would be an apt description for the entire production--the setup, story, and characters are there, but there's no life or spark to them. 

Taking one of the ultimate 1940s film noirs and putting it in a generic 1970s setting was a terrible idea (as was remaking the movie in the first place). The best film noirs have a timeless quality, mainly because they are set in their own "universe", much like a Gothic horror film or a classic Western. Almost nothing has aged as badly as 1970s fashions and culture--this remake took DOUBLE INDEMNITY and turned it into a mediocre Murder Mystery of the Week. The TV version of DOUBLE INDEMNITY is a curiosity, nothing more. 

APOLOGY FOR MURDER

 

I recently finished reading a book titled FROM THE MOMENT THEY MET IT WAS MURDER: DOUBLE INDEMNITY AND THE RISE OF FILM NOIR by Alain Silver and James Ursini. The book carries the Turner Classic Movies label, and it takes a deep dive into the making of DOUBLE INDEMNITY, the talent involved in it, and the history and use of the term "film noir". 

One subject the book covers is a 1945 film made by the Poverty Row company PRC called APOLOGY FOR MURDER. Authors Silver and Ursini state that the PRC production is an unofficial remake of DOUBLE INDEMNITY. I had no idea that APOLOGY FOR MURDER even existed, so I decided to track it down and see for myself (APOLOGY FOR MURDER can be found on YouTube and the Internet Archive). 

Without doubt APOLOGY FOR MURDER is a cheap knockoff of DOUBLE INDEMNITY. It uses nearly every element of Billy Wilder's classic film, but it makes slight variations on the material. It's almost fascinating from a film geeks standpoint to watch DOUBLE INDEMNITY and APOLOGY FOR MURDER one after the other to see how PRC pulled this off, and avoided getting sued in the bargain. (Apparently PRC was planning to call their film SINGLE INDEMNITY--I find it hard to believe that even they would have gone that far. Maybe they should have called the film APOLOGY TO PARAMOUNT.) 

In APOLOGY FOR MURDER, the two scheming lovers are played by Hugh Beaumont and Ann Savage. Beaumont's Kenny Blake is a newspaper reporter, and he meets Savage's Toni Kirkland when he goes to interview her husband Harvey Kirkland (Russell Hicks), a rich businessman who is much older than his wife. In literally just a few minutes, Kenny and Toni start up an affair, and it isn't much longer than that when Toni brings up the idea to murder her husband before he divorces her and leaves her with nothing. Kenny is first shocked by the idea, but he's so obsessed with Toni he goes ahead with it, sealing the couple's ultimate doom. 

Needless to say, APOLOGY FOR MURDER can't in any way compete with DOUBLE INDEMNITY. APOLOGY doesn't have anywhere near the budget, talent, or the running time (it lasts just a little over an hour). There's no subtlety or nuance in APOLOGY. In DOUBLE INDEMNITY Fred MacMurray is a cynical guy with a chip on shoulder, while Hugh Beaumont comes off as a dope way over his head. Ann Savage's Toni doesn't have the layers of villainous complexity that Barbara Stanwyck had in the Wilder classic. Toni is just plain greedy. 

In DOUBLE INDEMNITY the killing of the lead female's husband is carried out at night, and a stretch of lonely railroad track is used to dump the body. In APOLOGY FOR MURDER the killing happens in broad daylight, at the side of a dirt road out in the country. The seedy atmosphere of ordinary Los Angeles locations prevalent in DOUBLE INDEMNITY is nowhere to be found in APOLOGY FOR MURDER. 

APOLOGY FOR MURDER's equivalent of the Edward G. Robinson character in DOUBLE INDEMNITY is Ward McKee (Charles D. Brown), the editor at Kenny's newspaper. Like Robinson in the earlier film, McKee has a sixth sense that Harvey Kirkland was murdered, and he has a running gag with Kenny concerning them lighting the other's smokes. Brown isn't as ingratiating as Robinson is, but to be fair, the script doesn't allow him to be. 

Low budget maven Sam Newfield directed APOLOGY FOR MURDER. Newfield certainly wasn't in Billy Wilder's class (although he did wind up making hundreds of films and TV shows). APOLOGY does come off a bit better than the usual PRC product (which isn't saying much), but if it didn't have the DOUBLE INDEMNITY rip-off tag, it wouldn't generate any interest whatsoever. Many Poverty Row features from the 1940s have fallen off the face of the earth, and I now wonder what other "remakes" PRC and similar companies whipped up that I have no knowledge of. 

THIS IS THE NIGHT On Blu-ray From Universal

 

The very lighthearted 1932 romantic comedy THIS IS THE NIGHT has been released on Blu-ray by Universal. (The film was made by Paramount, but Universal owns the rights to it.) Cary Grant made his feature film debut in this production. 

Grant and Thelma Todd are featured on the cover of the Blu-ray disc case, along with their names, but they are not the main stars of the film. The story concerns the amorous adventures of one Gerald Gray (Roland Young), a man of means living in Paris who is having an affair with the gorgeous (but married) Claire Mathewson (Thelma Todd). Claire orders two train tickets to Venice so she and Gerald can have a romantic getaway, but her husband Stephen (Cary Grant) finds out about the scheme. To avert suspicion, Gerald's best friend Bunny (Charles Ruggles) tells Stephen that Gerald is married--but Stephen decides to accompany his wife to Venice anyway. Bunny hires an out-of-work actress who calls herself Chou-Chou (Lili Damita) to pose as Gerald's "wife". Gerald isn't happy about this situation, especially when upon arriving at Venice, the personable Chou-Chou makes Claire jealous, while both Stephen and Bunny are attracted to Chou-Chou as well. Gerald himself starts to fall for Chou-Chou, while the young woman is tired of playing a wife instead of having a real relationship. 

THIS IS THE NIGHT has a very heavy Ernst Lubitsch influence, with all the romantic complications and misunderstandings, European locations, and wealthy main characters who are usually decked out in tuxedos and evening gowns. There's not a trace of the Depression in this movie. It has very little to do with real life, especially when one considers that the two main characters are a couple of anxious-looking, fussy, fidgety middle-aged men played by Roland Young and Charles Ruggles. 

One must remember that this was Cary Grant's movie debut, so he wasn't going to get the lead role, but I'm sure even audiences back in 1932 must have wondered why the two main women in the story were more interested in Roland Young than Grant. Cary acquits himself very well despite his inexperience, and already he's much more charismatic onscreen than Young and Ruggles are. 

As for Thelma Todd, once again she's the "other woman" who is a rival to the leading ladies' affections. Thelma does happen to be the main focus of the opening sequence, in which her dress is caught in a car door by Gerald's befuddled servant (Irving Bacon) and is ripped off. The result is a song called "Madame Has Lost Her Dress", which various Paris residents recite in glee as the camera shows one amused onlooker after another. There's a couple other sequences in the film where the music is synchronized to what is happening onscreen. It's a cute effect, and one that probably should have been used a bit more. 

Thelma gets her wardrobe torn off multiple times in the story after this (and this would happen to her throughout her too short movie career). Those with a 21st Century mindset might look upon this as an indignity, but this is a Pre-Code film, after all, and even Lili Damita at one point starts to disrobe when Gerald believes that she's not alluring enough to be his wife. (Damita is very cute here, but I must admit my preference leans toward Thelma by far). 

Needless to say, the nebbishy Gerald isn't the most perceptive guy in the world (one has to assume that he inherited all his money--there's no way a guy like him would have been able to earn it). The most frustrating aspect of watching THIS IS THE NIGHT from today's standpoint is that the most of the screen time is taken up by the very underwhelming Gerald and Bunny, while Thelma Todd and Cary Grant are pushed off to the side. One expects Cary to take off with both Thelma and Lili Damita and leave Young and Ruggles to themselves. (If this movie was made just a few years later, the casting would have been radically different.)

THIS IS THE NIGHT was directed by Frank Tuttle, who, of course, wasn't Lubitsch. The movie makes great use of the Paramount version of upper-class Europe, but from today's perspective it is Cary Grant and Thelma Todd that the viewer is interested in. 

The Blu-ray of THIS IS THE NIGHT looks fantastic, with very sharp picture quality. There are two options for viewing the film--one option is to watch the tinted version, which has a number of night scenes tinted a deep blue, a rather striking effect that gives the film an extra kick. The other option is a straight black & white version. 

There are no extras--if Kino had released this, they probably would have added an audio commentary by a classic film expert. Nevertheless, film geeks should be happy that Universal has released THIS IS THE NIGHT on Blu-ray, and that they made Cary Grant and Thelma Todd the prominent focus of the disc case, even though they're not the major stars of the film.