Blu-ray Review--HORROR CLASSICS VOLUME ONE From Warner Bros. Featuring Hammer Films

If you have read even only a few entries on this blog, you'll know that I am a long-time fan of Hammer Films. I belong to a few Hammer groups on Facebook and I try to keep up with anything Hammer-related on the rest of the internet.

One thing I have noticed about Hammer fans on the internet over the past couple years is how...ahem, passionate they have become. When I say "passionate" I mean that just about any major discussion concerning the company on social media lately has wound up resulting in a full-blown cyber argument.

If you want to really get Hammer fans going, mention a Blu-ray release of a Hammer movie...any Blu-ray release. Chances are half of the replies will say the particular Blu-ray in question is a magnificent piece of work, and the other half will say that the makers of the Blu-ray screwed up big time.

For many Hammer lovers the home video releases of the company's product are a source of frustration, especially so for American fans. It took years for several Hammer titles to get even a decent DVD release, and now film buffs are clamoring for those titles in HD. Most of the Hammer Blu-rays are Region B, and many in the U.S. either can't afford or just don't want to get a region-free Blu-ray player. There's a few Hammer Region A Blu-rays out there....a couple years ago Millennium brought out two fine Region A releases with FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN and DRACULA PRINCE OF DARKNESS. This led to hopes that Millennium would follow up with more Hammer product geared for the American market, but so far they have not.

Even if you live in North America and you do own a region-free player, you may still be mystified in trying to figure out what Hammer Blu-rays to get. Ask any five self-styled "experts" on Hammer movies about a certain Blu-ray and you will likely get five different answers. You'll also probably get five different opinions on the visual quality of the disc, and on whether the aspect ration is correct (I've actually seen people threaten one another on the internet over the "proper" aspect ration of a certain Hammer film). What gets me about these experts is that many of them were not even born when most of the Hammer product was released in theaters.

Warner Brothers owns the U.S. home video rights to several of Hammer's most famous and greatest films. For years fans have hoped that Warners would start putting out this Hammer product on Blu-ray. Finally Warners has with the recent release of HORROR CLASSICS VOLUME ONE, a set featuring THE MUMMY, DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE, TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA, and FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED.

I have a long time personal relationship with these films. DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE and FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED I first saw on Svengoolie in the mid 1980s. THE MUMMY and TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA I first saw on the American TV network TBS--back in the 1980s TBS would actually show Hammer movies in prime time.

I taped these movies off of TV broadcasts--and of course they were edited, and the prints looked horrible, and they were not in widescreen. I bought all of these films on VHS...and when each of them came out on DVD, I bought them again. The Warner Hammer DVDs hold up rather well--some say that these DVDs still look better than some of their Region B Blu-ray counterparts. The Warner Hammer DVDs are also still widely available, due to the fact that Warners has re-released and re-packaged them almost as many times as Universal has re-released all their classic monster movies. I bet if you go over to your local WalMart or Target you can find a cheap Warner Hammer DVD set.

How do the four films look on this Blu-ray set? In my opinion THE MUMMY looks the most impressive, despite the fact that it is the oldest of the quartet. (I think that has to do more with the cinematography of Jack Asher and the staging of director Terence Fisher more than anything else.) DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE looks brighter than I have ever seen it before, and that might be a plus for some, and a minus for others (the supposed nighttime scenes in this movie don't look very night -like). Both FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED and TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA look a bit better than the DVD versions...but not, I feel, especially so. (Once again, I must point out this is my personal feeling on the matter. I don't presume to know how these movies are supposed to look.)

As for the aspect ratios, the framing appears fine to me for the most part...there's some scenes here and there in the entire set that look a bit tight, but overall I don't believe it is a big problem. What I really took most from this set was how much better the movies sounded. The audio quality on all four is fuller and richer than I've ever heard any of them being before. I noticed background noises such as, for example, the rustle of Veronica Carlson's skirts in FMBD. (By the way, my FMBD DVD had a slight static noise on the main soundtrack. That is eliminated on the FMBD Blu-ray.)

As for the extras...well, there are no extras (except a trailer for each particular film). One of the main highlights of the Region B Hammer Blu-rays is the copious amount of extra material for each disc. The Warner Hammer DVDs didn't have any extras either, and one would assume that as an incentive to get fans to double-dip, the Blu-rays would have featured something. I have to consider this a sore spot. Veronica Carlson, who plays the female lead in half the films on the set, regularly graces movie conventions with her presence, and I'm sure she would have been more than happy to take part in an audio commentary, or at least a ten-minute on-camera interview. The four films on this set are some of the most famous Hammer ever made--they should have been put into some sort of historical perspective.

Now, the big question is....is this set worth buying? I got the set for about $40, which averages out to $10 a disc. If you don't own any of these films already, I would say definitely go ahead and buy it. If you know someone who is just discovering Hammer, or you know someone who you want to discover Hammer, this is a perfect starter set. It contains two appearances by Peter Cushing, three appearances by Christopher Lee, two appearances by Veronica Carlson, three appearances by Michael Ripper, and two directorial efforts by Terence Fisher.

If you are a Hammer fanatic, you no doubt own all of these films already, and you more than likely have bought them in multiple formats. Overall, this set is an upgrade. It's a nice set....but, I wouldn't say you have to drop everything and get it. It's not like the Warner Hammer DVDs were of subpar quality. There are some who might just choose to wait and see if they can get it later at a lower price....and that's fine.

On the other hand, if Warners had included some informative commentaries, or some interviews with surviving cast members, then I would have said it was a must buy. These are cult genre films with a specific core fandom, and that fandom expects something more than the usual bare-bones release.

I have to mention that all four of these films are also available separately on Blu-ray. If you want to limit yourself to a single title, I would purchase THE MUMMY before any of the others.

Once again, I'd like to point out that I am not saying you should not buy this set. It is a worthy purchase--I just think it could have been even better. I've seen some bloggers say that if you criticize this set in any way, Warners won't come out with a HORROR CLASSICS VOLUME TWO--in other words, the fans "owe" it to Warners to support this set wholeheartedly. I find that kind of thinking ridiculous--I don't owe any home video company anything, except my honest opinion. Of course I want to see a Volume Two with THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and HORROR OF DRACULA. But consider this.....the name of this Blu-ray set is not HAMMER HORROR CLASSICS....it is HORROR CLASSICS. If there is a Volume Two, it may not contain any Hammer films whatsoever.

WE BELONG DEAD--Christopher Lee Special Tribute Edition

With the passing of Sir Christopher Lee earlier this year, one expects several tributes to come in honor of the legendary screen icon. Eric McNaughton's WE BELONG DEAD magazine more than capably fills the definition of a tribute in the form of a 100-page special edition fully dedicated to the man and his films.

Edited by McNaughton and designed by Steve Kirkham, WE BELONG DEAD #17 is a full-color spectacular, with numerous movie stills, poster images, and Lee-inspired artwork. The articles within reflect upon the entire length and breadth of Lee's magnificent career. Thankfully not all the movies discussed are the "usual suspects"--we get looks at such titles as NIGHT OF THE BIG HEAT, TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER, and THE TERROR OF THE TONGS. Even the controversial JINNAH is examined with Tony Earnshaw's interview with director Jamil Dehlavi.

Troy Howarth contributes an informative (and much needed) essay on Christopher Lee's Continental (European) horrors, a group of films I feel has not been given enough analysis. Matt Gemmell Robertson shares what it was like for a Lee aficionado to actually meet the Great Man. And Darrell Buxton writes a small summary of Lee's musical output.

The issue features an eclectic and wide-ranging series of articles, and that makes it all the more impressive. Combined with the superb layout of stills and posters, and the fine artwork (check out the photos of the front and back covers in this post), WE BELONG DEAD #17 winds up being a worthy keepsake for any admirer of Christopher Lee. The issue is so well done that I can't help but feel that there should be further WBD special issues in the future (the possibilities are endless).

For ordering information go to www.webelongdead.co.uk

CAPTAIN APACHE On Blu-ray

A number of films starring cult Western legend Lee Van Cleef have been released on home video in the last few years--films such as THE BIG GUNDOWN, DAY OF ANGER, and BARQUERO. Now Kino has come out with two more movies featuring the gaunt-faced gunman. According to the outstanding DVD Drive-In website, these titles--CAPTAIN APACHE and BAD MAN'S RIVER--were both produced by the same team behind the great Peter Cushing-Christopher Lee Euro-horror flick HORROR EXPRESS. Let's first look at CAPTAIN APACHE.

CAPTAIN APACHE shows its strange cinema credentials from the very beginning. The title song is sung by none other than Lee Van Cleef!! Well, actually, he talk-sings it...which makes me wonder what Van Cleef could have done as Henry Higgins in MY FAIR LADY. Anyway, while this "song" is going on, we see a montage of scenes from the movie itself--it's like watching a trailer for the film, during the film.

After this auspicious start we are introduced to Van Cleef as Captain Apache. Van Cleef's character is never really given a proper name in the story, unless I missed it somehow. Most of the other characters here give the Captain the rather politically incorrect sobriquet of "Red Ass"--and they do it to his face, no less. Apparently this is supposed to be some type of running gag, which tells you much about the quality of this film.

Why Captain Apache is an officer in the U.S Cavalry is never explained--the screenwriters must have felt that having a Native American inhabit this role would be interesting, but this isn't the type of movie that would take advantage of such a dichotomy. To make him look more "Indian", Van Cleef is fitted out with a bad toupee and what looks like about a gallon of spray-on tan. The actor is also without his usual mustache.

The Captain is investigating the murder of a prominent Indian Commissioner. The only lead is the Commissioner's last words--"April Morning". Just about everyone who knows something about the phrase winds up getting killed off soon after the Captain encounters them. Eventually the Captain uncovers a conspiracy of national proportions.

Despite the expectations one would have, CAPTAIN APACHE is not a typical Lee Van Cleef spaghetti western. Van Cleef spends more time questioning people here than shooting them--he doesn't rack up nowhere near the body count he usually does in his other films. Not only does Van Cleef get to sing, he also gets to have a kind-of romance with Carroll Baker, who plays a mysterious dance hall madam. At one point Van Cleef even strips down to a loincloth and gets to show that even though he was 46 when this film was made, he was still in fantastic shape. In both CAPTAIN APACHE and BAD MAN'S RIVER Van Cleef plays the opposite of his usual "Colonel Mortimer" roles, and that may be the main reason the actor decided to star in the two films (I certainly hope he didn't pick them for their scripts).

At 94 minutes, CAPTAIN APACHE is a bit too long for its rather thin plot. A lot of the scenes appear to be nothing more than padding--whenever Van Cleef picks up a new lead, it winds up being a dead end. There's one off-the-wall sequence in which the Captain is forced to take a potion concocted by an old native witch, and this causes him to have a "vision" concerning the Indian Commissioner's death. Among the supporting cast are veterans such as Stuart Whitman (who goes out of his way to make sure everyone in the audience knows he's the bad guy), and Percy Herbert, who is a long way here from his roles in THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI and MYSTERIOUS ISLAND.

During the end credits Van Cleef gets to sing again--and this time it's not talk-singing. The song is "April Morning", referring to the plot of the film. Those interested should go on YouTube and experience Van Cleef's CAPTAIN APACHE set list for themselves--there's no way I can do them justice by attempting to describe them. ("I've gotta daaaaaatttteeee with an April Morning.....")

CAPTAIN APACHE was co-written by longtime Hollywood screenwriter Phillip Yordan and directed by Alexander Singer, who had a long career in American television. Needless to say, Sergio Leone didn't have much to worry about from this film.

Kino's Blu-ray of CAPTAIN APACHE is presented in 2.35:1 widescreen. The picture quality is decent at best, but considering the number of public domain copies of this title floating around, it is doubtful there is a better transfer available. There are no extras, except a couple trailers for other Kino releases featuring Lee Van Cleef.

I bought both CAPTAIN APACHE and BAD MAN'S RIVER from Amazon at $11.50 each, which is around what these Blu-rays should be worth. I certainly wouldn't get them at a price over $20. These movies are for hard-core Lee Van Cleef fans, or people like me who spend too much money on weird obscure cinema.

"Hey, That Chair Moved!"--Continuity Errors In Movies

In my last post I discussed ROOM 237. One of the main points in this feature was that the continuity errors in Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING were not just mistakes--they had some sort of "meaning". I wasn't all that impressed with that argument, but I was surprised to learn about some of the errors in THE SHINING, especially the fact that some of them are rather blatant.

I've never been very good at catching continuity errors and gaffes in movies and TV shows. The main reason is simple--I'm actually trying to pay attention to the story. I realize that in the 21st Century that concept is a bit difficult to grasp. I've always felt that if you are watching a movie and you are constantly picking out mistakes and flubs, the movie must be really bad or really boring, or....you are not watching what you are supposed to be watching.

If you are reading this you probably know someone who is good at the "catching flubs" game. You know what type of person I'm talking about--the person who will start jumping up and down whenever they spot a "mistake". The mistake is usually so minor that 99.5% of all viewers would never notice it, but the flub spotter invariably acts as if he or she has discovered a giant horde of lost Nazi gold.

These flub spotters also like to brag about their findings, as if their special talent makes them more clever than the talent involved in making the film. I've come to find that those who are flub spotters are usually not true film buffs. A film buff is concerned about more important things than if a scratch on an actor's arm moved half an inch between scenes.

If you are someone who appreciates film, you know that watching something with a flub spotter is a painful experience--almost as painful as viewing a movie with someone who has no imagination. ("That looks fake!!" Well, guess what, genius....movies are fake.) Knowing about film flubs, in my opinion, doesn't give you some sort of secret knowledge...it just helps ruin the suspension of disbelief.

I'll give you an example. Last year a woman and I were watching VERTIGO on Blu-ray. During one of the scenes in Scotty's apartment, my lady friend said, "His TV is in a different place than before!" Now, I've seen VERTIGO dozens of times, enough times that I almost know it frame by frame. I never noticed that Scotty's TV moved--and quite frankly, I didn't want to know that it moved. This information did not impress me--it annoyed me, because I know that the next time I watch VERTIGO, I'll be keeping an eye on the TV set. And that does nothing to help my appreciation for the film.

There are hundreds of web sites dedicated to pointing out movie flubs. I've never been on them, because...what's the point? Finding out movie flubs is kind of like finding out how stage magic ticks are done. You may feel smarter for having this knowledge, but it also severely lessens whatever entertainment value you might get.

Just about every time a big blockbuster movie comes out, an article will appear on the internet detailing the "many flubs" in the picture. These articles seem to suggest that because there are mistakes, the big blockbuster movie isn't as great as people think it is. Fact is, if you had enough time on your hands, you could go through any movie and pick out numerous errors. Movies are made by human beings, and human beings makes mistakes. The bigger and more expensive the movie, the more people will be hired to work on it. Some productions have a crew member list running into the thousands. The more people that are involved, the more chances there are of an error. This doesn't mean the movie is bad, or sloppily made. The original STAR WARS had mistakes, THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy has mistakes--does that take away from the greatness of the product?

A person who watches a movie just to pick out mistakes is like a person reading a novel for the sole purpose of finding incorrect sentence structure. I realize that some movie errors are so obvious you can't help but notice them--such as the urban legend of all those supposed sword & sandal epics that have extras wearing wristwatches. But if you come out of a theater and the only thing that is on your mind is a continuity gaffe, you're not seeing the forest for the trees. It takes creativity and imagination to make films--and I believe it takes creativity and imagination to appreciate them as well.

ROOM 237

ROOM 237 is not so much a documentary as it is an examination of the supposed "meaning" of Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of THE SHINING. The result is a fascinating exercise--a film geek's dream, if you will--but there were a couple times I couldn't help but laugh out loud.

About a half-dozen theories are presented on what THE SHINING is really about. Among the theories are one claiming that Stanley Kubrick was commenting on the United States' wars against the Native Americans, another claims that THE SHINING is a metaphor for the Holocaust, and another says that the movie is Kubrick's way of admitting that he was involved in creating fake Moon landing footage for NASA!

The faces of the theorists are never shown on camera, but director Rodney Ascher allows us to hear their voices as they state their cases. You may disagree with the commentators, but those involved are serious in their beliefs, and they do make a number of intriguing points and observations. They also manage to point out a number of things about THE SHINING that I personally never would have noticed on my own.

I do have to say, however, that one reason I wouldn't have noticed some of those "things" about THE SHINING is because I wouldn't have been looking for them. I'm not one of those people who go out of their way to look for hidden motifs or continuity errors. That's because I'm actually trying to watch the movie. A number of continuity gaffes are brought up in ROOM 237, and the commentators insist that these gaffes have to have some sort of meaning, simply because Stanley Kubrick was Stanley Kubrick. A brilliant filmmaker like Kubrick wouldn't have allowed such mistakes to happen now...would he?? No matter how much money, or talent, is involved in making a film, human beings are going to make mistakes.

The constant obsession over continuity errors, or over what may be hanging on a wall in the corner of a set, seems more to me like overreaching than exhaustive analysis. There's an old expression--"If you look for something hard enough, you'll find it." In other words, if you are convinced that a movie has a "special meaning", you will interpret everything you see to fit your assertions. Film geeks are notorious for over-analyzing content to the point of exhaustion--I'm as guilty of this myself as much as anybody. Any film, whether it be THE SHINING or the latest Adam Sandler feature, can be looked at a million different ways by a million different people.

Fact is, you could easily give the ROOM 237 treatment to every movie ever made. If I wanted to, I could come up with all sorts of subtexts for even the most boring of pictures--but that wouldn't mean that what I came up with had any merit.

My personal feeling is that the theories advanced in ROOM 237 are just that--theories. The one that I would automatically dismiss out of hand is the "Kubrick made fake moon footage for NASA" theory. I don't buy that at all for one simple reason--Kubrick was the ultimate iconoclast. There's no way I could imagine him helping the U.S. government lie, even if they offered him a bunch of money to do it.

If you are a Kubrick aficionado, or you love THE SHINING, you should see ROOM 237. There is so much footage from THE SHINING in ROOM 237 that it is kind of like seeing a alternate version of the Kubrick picture. ROOM 237 also uses scenes from just about every other Stanley Kubrick production, along with movies such as John Ford's DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK and F. W. Murnau's FAUST. Whether you will look at THE SHINING in a new way after seeing ROOM 237 is totally up to you. Sometimes a missing chair is just a missing chair, and a picture on a wall is just a picture on a wall.

One of the reasons that Stanley Kubrick is considered such a legendary filmmaker is that all of his movies--2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, BARRY LYNDON, LOLITA, etc.--can endlessly be debated and discussed. There's no real right or wrong way to define a Kubrick film, including THE SHINING. If ROOM 237 reminds us of anything, it is that Stanley Kubrick left a body of work that will be studied and argued about for years to come.

HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS On Blu-ray

This year Kino Lorber has released a couple of films on Blu-ray featuring great horror star team-ups (THE CRIMSON CULT, MADHOUSE). Now the company has brought out another release with a Master of Menace-filled lineup--HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS.

English director Pete Walker made his reputation in the mid-1970s with a series of brutal contemporary horror films. As Walker tells it on an audio commentary for this Blu-ray, he was all but retired when producers Menahem Golan & Yoram Globus of Cannon Films asked him to make an "old-fashioned" horror movie. Why Golan & Globus approached Walker for the project is unclear--Walker's work was about as far away from old-fashioned horror as you could get--but the director took on the job. Walker and screenwriter Michael Armstrong decided to remake the mystery novel Seven Keys To Baldpate, and they also decided to cast as many classic horror film stars as they could.

The cast Walker gathered was indeed impressive--Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and John Carradine. (Walker also tried to get Elsa Lanchester, but her health problems prevented her from taking part.) Like most monster mash-ups, however, HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS just doesn't live up to the pedigrees of the legends starring in it.

The real star of the film is Desi Arnaz Jr. as a young American novelist on a book tour in England. Desi and his publisher make a bet on whether the writer can complete an entire new novel in 24 hours. The publisher sends the writer to a deserted large house in Wales called Baldpate Manor. Desi thinks he will have plenty of peace and privacy to write, but strange people keep turning up, and soon the novel gets forgotten as the bizarre Grisbane clan hold a weird family reunion. (A real British manor house, Rotherfield Park, was used for Baldpate Manor, and this is a major highlight of the production.)

HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS is very much a "old dark house" type of story, with all the requisite cliches present. If Cannon wanted an "old-fashioned" type of horror picture, they certainly got one. The movie is rated PG, and not only does it look tepid compared to all the other horror product of the early 1980s, it appears weak alongside most of the horror outings of the 1960s. It is a treat to see the Fearsome Foursome--but the reality is they don't have a lot to do here (Desi Arnaz and Julie Peasgood, who plays the leading lady role, get the majority of the screen time). Price is his typical grandiloquent self, and Lee plays another of his uptight upper-class Englishmen. Peter Cushing gets a chance to do something different with his role of the cowardly (and tipsy) Grisbane brother--Cushing even uses a Elmer Fudd-type accent! Poor John Carradine's acting was obviously limited due to his health. Shelia Keith, a veteran of many Pete Walker films, actually just about steals the film playing the role of the Grisbane sister.

Almost everyone who has commented on HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS goes out of their way to disparage Desi Arnaz Jr. I'm no fan of him myself, but to be fair, he's stuck with the "David Manners" role here, and that is one of the worst roles any actor can be saddled with. Desi's part is also not written very well--he's a cocky American writer, and it is insinuated that he's not even a very good writer. But it has to be said that Arnaz doesn't do much to make his character interesting, or likable to the audience.

If one has to discuss HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS, one has to mention the movie's double-twist ending. I'm not going to tell you exactly how the movie ends--I've probably given away too much by even mentioning that there is a double-twist ending--but suffice to say that some viewers may by annoyed by it (even Pete Walker admits in the commentary that the climax disappointed several people). Looked at today by those familiar with it, I guess you could say that in a way it's kind of cute--but I know that when I first saw HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS on home video in the mid-1980s, I was rather ticked off by it.

This movie was released on DVD-R by MGM a couple years ago, and the reviews on the disc's picture quality were so uniformly terrible, I didn't even bother to get it. This Kino Blu-ray makes the film look as good as a low-budget production from the 1980s can. As already mentioned, Pete Walker takes part in an audio commentary moderated by British horror film expert Derek Pykett. This is definitely worthy of a listen, as Walker (unlike some filmmakers I could name) has a total recall of all the events surrounding the production, and he shares some fine anecdotes about the members of the cast. There's also another commentary from David Del Valle, who has contributed talks on just about every Blu-ray I have bought this summer. There's also a short on-camera interview with Pete Walker.

For a long time I had a lot of bad feelings about HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS--Desi Arnaz Jr. hogging all the screen time, the trick ending, etc. Looking at it now, I can't say I've totally changed my mind about it, but I would say I respect it a bit more. It takes a long time to get going, and at 100 minutes the movie is too long for its type of material--but it is a nice little film, and seeing Price, Lee, Cushing, and Carradine together on screen at the same time is a true cinema history moment. It should have been more than what it turned out to be, but let's give Pete Walker and Cannon credit for giving these four gentlemen this opportunity. And let's remember this fact--HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS is the very last official Peter Cushing--Christopher Lee film.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT (1935)

One of the latest additions to my movie collection is a DVD of 1935's CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, starring Peter Lorre and directed by Josef von Sternberg. I had never seen this film--in fact, I don't ever remember it being shown on TV within my knowledge--but I just couldn't pass up a movie that teams Peter Lorre and von Sternberg.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT is based on the famous novel by acclaimed Russian writer Feodor Dostoyevsky. The movie was produced by Columbia Pictures, Studio head Harry Cohn had scored a great coup by bringing over Peter Lorre from Europe to the United States, and it was Lorre who wanted to appear in Dostoyevsky's story. (One can only imagine Cohn's response to the project.) The result is one of the most "art for art's sake" movies ever made at any major studio during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

The brilliant young student Raskolnikov (Lorre) graduates from his university with high honors. He soon has a paper on criminology published, but he is not even granted a byline. The young writer is arrogant and proud, and he believes that extraordinary men (such as himself) have the right to commit crimes that an ordinary man would not. Raskolnikov is also very poor, and his frustrations over his financial plight lead him to murder a greedy old pawnbroker. The writer is convinced that his superior mind will enable him to get away with the crime, but he underestimates the abilities of Inspector Porfiry (Edward Arnold). The two men engage in a cat-and-mouse game for the rest of the story.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT is without doubt one of Peter Lorre's best showcases. The role of Raskolnikov allows Lorre the opportunity to give an acting tour de force. At one moment Lorre is fearful and anxious, the next haughty and confident. Raskolnikov goes through so many mood swings you can't help but wonder if he is a manic-depressive. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT is one of the rare times in 1930s Hollywood where an off-beat character actor gets the lead role, and Lorre makes the most of it.

Even though Lorre does have the lead role, it is Edward Arnold who is listed first in the credits (Lorre gets special billing as "The Great European Star"). Arnold holds his own as the more humanistic Inspector, whose surface affability covers a determined sense of justice. Watching Arnold constantly chuckling over Lorre's antics reminded me of Peter Falk's Columbo--Raskolnikov may be the "genius", but the Inspector has him sized up the moment he first sees him. Porfiry notices that Raskolnikov has pictures of Napoleon and Beethoven in his cheap apartment, and the Inspector makes mention of how much the writer even looks like the French emperor.

The other major role in CRIME AND PUNISHMENT is that of Sonya, a poor young woman who attracts Raskolnikov's attention. Sonya is played by Marian Marsh, the Princess of Pre-Code herself. Because this is not a Pre-Code film, it is not blatantly stated that Sonya has been reduced to being a streetwalker, but it is made rather obvious to the viewer. Marsh as usual is all sweetness and innocence, and she is drawn to Raskolnikov due to his act of generosity toward her. That being said, Peter Lorre and Marian Marsh have to be one of the strangest romantic couples in movie history.

What I really took away from CRIME AND PUNISHMENT was how much it reminded me of a true film noir. It isn't set in 1940s America--the film tries to be vague about where and when it actually is set--but almost all of the classic film noir elements are here. An anti-hero down on his luck, haunted by guilt; an urban setting, drenched in claustrophobic shadows; and the presence of fate hanging over the story. Marian Marsh as Sonya may be more fallen angel instead of hard-boiled dame, but she fits the noir atmosphere as well (just look at the publicity photo of her at the end of this post). I've never heard of this version of CRIME AND PUNISHMENT being called an early noir, but I believe it should be.

Whenever you watch a film directed by Josef von Sternberg, you are going to be treated to a visual feast. In CRIME AND PUNISHMENT von Sternberg, and cinematographer Lucien Ballard, fill the screen with staircases, window frames, and those ever omnipresent shadows. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT does not rise to the wild excesses that von Sternberg's films with Marlene Dietrich did--and in this case that is a good thing, for it allows Lorre to dominate the screen.

This new DVD of CRIME AND PUNISHMENT has been released by Mill Creek Entertainment. Mill Creek is known for putting out inexpensive product (some would say cheap--I got this for $7 from Amazon). The transfer used on this DVD looks great, but there are no extras whatsoever.

Peter Lorre is one of the great cult actors, and Josef von Sternberg is one of the great cult film directors. I'm surprised that this version of CRIME AND PUNISHMENT hasn't more of a reputation. It's worth seeing just for Lorre's performance alone, and I would love to know what hard-core film noir fans would think of it.

Marian Marsh in CRIME AND PUNISHMENT