William Lustig Presents: The Seventies - Buried Treasures

We’re somehow not on NYC’s Anthology Film Archives email distribution list, but luckily we found out this amazing event anyway. Both as a filmmaker (Maniac, Vigilante, Maniac Cop) and a DVD entrepreneur with his Blue Underground label, William Lustig has been one of the most important figures in the exploitation world. in just the last few years, Blue Underground has been responsible for bringing some of the best Grindhouse epics from America (whoever thought Fight for Your Life would ever be on DVD, much less uncut and looking luminous) and Europe (releasing Emanuelle in America uncut in spite of the number of stores that would refuse to stock a disc with hardcore material) to domestic DVD for the first time.

A mainstay of the NYC repertory scene, we first met Bill at the much lamented The Screening Room off Canal St for a rare screening of Billion Dollar Brain well over a decade ago. We recognized his voice from the Laserdisc commentary tracks he participated in and enjoyed a long talk with this amazingly gracious man (You want stories? He’s got stories.) Since then we’ve ran into Bill several more times at various screenings and conventions (where he was nice enough to introduce us to Luigi Cozzi!) and never miss the chance to say hello. Anyway, enough fawning – here’s Anthology’s into to the festival:

August 7-13 Ever since William Lustig came to Anthology last summer to present his MANIAC COP films as part of our New York City Vigilantes series, we�ve been hoping to bring him back in the guise of guest-curator. Undersung filmmaker and founder of the indispensable Home Media label Blue Underground, Lustig is a veritable fountain of wisdom on the subject of the cinema�s unsavory margins. This summer, Lustig will be turning his attention to the subversive genre films of 1970s Hollywood, unearthing a handful of treasures that have been languishing in studio vaults for decades. Unavailable on DVD, and very rarely shown, these films are itching to explode back onto the screen. Homicidal Vietnam vets, escaped convicts, crime syndicates, and a treasure-trove of seventies character actors �Joe Don Baker, Timothy Carey, Karen Black, Rip Torn, Stacy Keach, Angie Dickinson, James Caan, and many more � will be storming Anthology come August. Prepare yourself! Very special thanks to William Lustig; and to Caitlin Robertson (20th Century Fox), Ross Klein (MGM), Jared Sapolin & Grover Crisp (Sony), Marilee Womack (Warner Brothers), and Adam Lounsbery.

For those to lazy to clicky - here's the impressive rundown:

FREEBIE AND THE BEAN
by Richard Rush
1974, 113 minutes, 35mm. With James Caan and Alan Arkin.
“In retrospect [FREEBIE AND THE BEAN] seems like the missing – and absolutely essential – link between the gritty potboilers of the 1970s, such as THE FRENCH CONNECTION, and the glib, profane thrillers of the 80s and 90s…. [Starring] Alan Arkin as a Hispanic detective (i.e., ‘The Bean’), and James Caan as his determined-to-be-corrupted partner (hence ‘Freebie’)…it’s an amazing, explosive, almost self-destructive exercise in action, comedy, racism, and property damage, not necessarily in that order.” –Todd Gilchrist, CINEMATICAL
–Sunday, August 9 at 6:15 and Wednesday, August 12 at 9:00.

WELCOME HOME, SOLDIER BOYS
by Richard Compton
1972, 91 minutes, 35mm. Archival print courtesy of 20th Century Fox. With Joe Don Baker.
Four battle-fatigued and well-armed Vietnam vets, driving cross-country, accidentally kill a woman before heading to their hometown. Disillusioned with their homecoming, the four vets unleash their fury in a blood-crazed rampage that has to be seen to be believed. In its down-and-dirty way, this film lays bare the uncomfortable truth of the damaged psyches left in the wake of the Vietnam war.
–Saturday, August 8 at 9:30 and Tuesday, August 11 at 7:00.

ROLLING THUNDER
by John Flynn
1977, 95 minutes, 35mm. With William Devane, Tommy Lee Jones, and Dabney Coleman.
Among the very greatest – and most disturbing – revenge flicks, ROLLING THUNDER stars Devane as a Vietnam vet determined to track down the men who killed his wife and child. Written by a young Paul Schrader, it’s a classic of its kind.
“Working from another intelligent script from Schrader, Flynn spins his yarn…with an impossibly steady hand, turning what could have been yet another DEATH WISH knock-off into an authentically understated work of gritty 70s cinema.” –THE FILM FIEND
–Saturday, August 8 at 7:00 and Tuesday, August 11 at 9:00.

THE OUTSIDE MAN / UN HOMME EST MORT
by Jacques Deray
1972, 104 minutes, 35mm. With Jean-Louis Trintignant, Ann-Margret, Roy Scheider, and Angie Dickinson.
This Melville-inspired thriller stars Trintignant as a French hit man sent to Los Angeles to whack a mob kingpin. Once the job is finished, though, he finds himself trapped in an early-1970s nightmare of strip clubs, Jesus freaks and Star Trek re-runs, chased by muscle-car driving assassin Roy Scheider and helped by friendly go-go girl, Ann-Margret.
–Saturday, August 8 at 2:45 and Monday, August 10 at 7:00.

THE OUTFIT
by John Flynn
1973, 105 minutes, 35mm. With Robert Duvall, Karen Black, Joe Don Baker, Robert Ryan, Elisha Cook Jr., and Timothy Carey.
“Excellent adaptation of a novel by Richard Stark (Donald Westlake), who also provided the source material for POINT BLANK…and Godard’s MADE IN USA. A taut, grim thriller, it sees Duvall, just out of prison and with revenge burning in his heart for the murder of his brother, taking on the Syndicate with the help of heavy, Joe Don Baker. [I]t’s a cool, exciting thriller in the Siegel tradition, paying more than passing reference to classic film noir with its host of character actors [including the great Timothy Carey], a cruel performance from Ryan as the mob leader, and its vision of people caught up in a chaotic, confused and treacherous world.” –Geoff Andrew
–Friday, August 7 at 9:30, Sunday, August 9 at 4:00, and Thursday, August 13 at 7:00.

THE STONE KILLER
by Michael Winner
1973, 95 minutes, 35mm. With Charles Bronson and Martin Balsam.
In this pre-DEATH WISH collaboration between Charles Bronson and director Michael Winner, Bronson is a pitiless cop who uncovers an unlikely plot by a Mafia don (Balsam) to avenge a decades-old attack by using Vietnam veterans to eliminate the heads of the major mob families. This is Bronson in his prime, and features one of Hollywood’s finest uses of a free-falling dummy (for more information, consult the November 7, 2007 post at www.destructibleman.com).
–Friday, August 7 at 7:00 and Thursday, August 13 at 9:15.

SITTING TARGET
by Douglas Hickox
1972, 93 minutes, 35mm. With Oliver Reed, Jill St. John, and Ian McShane.
Though it wasn’t meant as high praise, the NEW YORK TIMES description of this film pretty much sums it up: “This is brutal, garish pulp stuff, with a repulsively sadistic Oliver Reed busting out of prison and snaking into London for the sole purpose of killing his unfaithful wife, played by a bug-eyed Jill St. John.” Brutal, garish, pulp, Oliver Reed? What’s not to like?
–Saturday, August 8 at 5:00 and Monday, August 10 at 9:15.

Oh, we will see you there.

Buzz Aldrin's Punch-Out

What better way is there to celebrate the anniversary of what may be mankind’s single greatest achievement then by watching one of those intrepid explorers (who will turn 80 next year) giving one of those irritating conspiracy nuts a paste up the snoot? Now, we like conspiracies as much as the next black helicopter-watching fella, but the smug way these people have about them is simply cringe inducing. And just listen to the way this dude confronts Aldrin – you want to see him get socked so badly you can taste it.

It's A Disaster!

Brilliant, brilliant fan-made trailer for 2012. Major disaster kudos to creator Garrison Dean!

More Giallo News...

Thanks to the folks at Bloody Disgusting for posting what’s being called an “official” trailer for Dario Argento’s newest, though it bears a strong resemblance to the promotional trailer that has been around for months now. Many are commenting on the fact that Giallo doesn’t exactly look like a Giallo, at least in the traditional sense. This is likely due to the title referencing not the genre, but the unusual skin pigment of the film’s killer (though we’d be willing to bet that there will be numerous hat tips to films from Argento’s salad says of the 70s.

We’re really, really pulling for this one; with a bigger name cast than he’s had in a while, this film has a real shot at finding a wide audience. Unfortunately, we’ve heard some disquieting stories about the American financiers freezing Argento out of the editing and scoring process and the iffy reaction that the film received during its debut screening at the Edinburgh Film Festival. Next stop will be the UK Fright Fest in August.

You Say You Want a Revolution?

While it doesn’t have the name recognition of a Heaven’s Gate or Ishtar, 1985’s Revolution was one of the most notable flops of the decade. The careers of nearly all major players were derailed to varying degrees; major studios quickly stopped knocking on Nastassja Kinski door and director Hugh Hudson, a hot property after Chariots of Fire and Greystoke, was unable to get work for years afterwards, and only then in low profile, barely-released projects. Even Pacino found himself out of work until Harold Becker’s ugly Sea of Love in 1989. It was actually Pacino who bore the brunt of the film’s negative notices, with his mumbled dialog filtered through an odd, supposedly historically accurate accent. After 23 years, Warner Bros has decided to give Hudson the chance to recut the film to his initial specifications before being rushed to meet a studio mandated release date. Having recently viewed the new DVD, here are our off-the-cuff impressions, presented in the Scribe’s famously disjointed style.

Perhaps the real secret to Revolution’s 1985 failure is the seeming lack of sympathy for any of the film’s characters. Hudson and writer Robert Dillon see Colonists as a filthy, uneducated rabble and the British as little more than lisping, pedophilic sadists. It’s certainly true that many more “volunteers” in the war were acquired like Tom (Pacino) and his son Ned (played as a child by Sid Owen and as a teenager by Dexter Fletcher) forced at bayonet point to fight for one side or the other when the outcome would have little effect on their lives, but in the patriotic wave that was just starting to crest in 1985 it’s easy to imagine that the film-going public weren’t interested in a revision of that particular history. Tom feels nothing for either side of the struggle for Independence, but understandably has little but distain for the Colonialists, who conscript his only son and confiscate his possessions. As a result, he is always attempting to run away from battle (again, understandably so) but it doesn’t exactly inspire to see them moping through history; we want desperately to see this amazingly recreated period of history through their eyes, only to have them retreat from the action onscreen time and time again. And what a recreation; the film’s 1776 Manhattan is a stunning creation, realistically brought to life in a ‘warts and all’ fashion that runs starkly against popular shows like the popular musical 177 (though we wished the film had spent more time in the wealthy homes of New York’s Royalist families, as the photography of their candlelit rooms are gorgeous to behold.)

Another major issue – and one that the film will carry into any time period – is the jarring British location photography. We could care less if a film about the American Revolution was shot on the dark side of the moon as long as an area that resembled New York State circa 1776 was found there. But once the film leaves the immensely impressive Manhattan sets, the terrain becomes so distinctly British that it’s almost laughable. Tom and his son seem more likely to run into Withnail and Marwood on their way to Monty’s cabin, or Jack and David backpacking through the moors than the Hudson River or Brooklyn Heights. The costumes, like the sets, look authentic and expensive, though Pacino’s hair seems about 210 years too late, making him look more like a keyboardist for The Tubes than an 18th century fur trader.

Donald Sutherland’s performance makes one yearn for the subtitles of one of Tim Curry’s villainous turns (his character could easily be an ancestor to his Attila from 1900.) It’s remarkable to think that Pacino’s accent caused even a ripple in the same movie as Sutherland’s linguistic chaos. Though it’s also possible that his weak character is a victim of the editing; his Sergeant Major is set up early on as the main antagonist, only to be completely forgotten about for the majority of the film until an anticlimactic finale on a beach. Kinski is fine, but she trapped in a role driven by narrative contrivance. Her revolutionary fervor seems born of little more than a few leaflets being tossed in her carriage during the opening scenes. Perhaps sensing the lack of chemistry between the two stars, no attempt is made by Hudson to foster any romantic entanglements – making her underwritten role that much more of a mystery

Warner’s new DVD finally allows us to see the film in its original 2.40x1 ratio for the first time since the film’s theatrical release. The film’s naturalistic, hand-held photography are wonderfully preserved, making us wish the film had been released on Blu-Ray as well. We can’t be sure about Hudson’s changes to this version, but one major change discussed in the 23min featurette is the removal of a moment at the end of the film in which Pacino finds Kinski once again amidst a crowded New York street (a moment that can be glimpsed in the theatrical trailer on the disc.) Minor reservations aside, we strongly recommend that people give the new DVD a spin.

Just Released Artwork...On The Left!!!

Universal just sent out a press release with the DVD and Blu-Ray artwork for their superior Last House on the Left remake, which we are happy to pass on to you. The film has several particularly strong performances, especially Garret Dillahunt coming off two memorable seasons on HBO’s late, lamented Deadwood and a great supporting turn in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Extras listed include deleted scenes, a production featurette and a digital copy of the film (no word on how much longer the "unrated" version is)

The artwork for the DVD and Blu-Ray are below, and both are set to street on August 18th.

The Importance of Being Titled

Christopher Lee has had many fictional titles through the years, but a very real one was added to that list today as Lee's name was on the Queen's birthday honors list announced today.

It’s a dazzlingly impressive achievement for anyone who has dwelled in the ghetto of horror as long as Lee has to be knighted, and we’re hard pressed to think of many more artists from that world to be so honored. I think that Lee will wear Knighthood with tremendous style (not like those long-haired Beatles.)

He's been a Prime Minister...



A King...

A Captain...

A Lord...

A Count...

A Doctor...

And a Professor...

...has anyone carried a title with more style?