*** DVD CORNER ***

[BruceH]

Excited about this one, which came out this week... both for Peter Lorre and the cinematography (THANK YOU, MR. MOTO in particular was said to be an influence upon the look of CITIZEN KANE):

Mr. Moto V. 1

Thanks for the info, ghost. I've been curious about the Mr. Moto films for years, not least because the title character is played by a young Peter Lorre. Provided the name for a great surf-instrumental, too.

[kinuta]

Any other fans of Cracker? British crime procedural at it's darkest and most fascinating.

Fans of happy endings stay well away.

[kinuta]

Wire In The Blood is another excellent series.

[kinuta]

Here's another

[kinuta]

A first rate series. Ian Richardson is outstanding!

I think so too.

You would probably like this one , Mr Weizen. It's little known but recommended.

[BERIGAN]

How many Oscar winners have gone on to have real sucess, a sitcom???

Never saw this show in syndication, was shocked to find out it was a 60's show, not from the 50's. I think they changed up the box art a bit from what I saw in the stores, but may be wrong.

[BruceH]

Any other fans of Cracker? British crime procedural at it's darkest and most fascinating.

Fans of happy endings stay well away.

I'm a big fan of the show. Recently I re-watched the whole series on DVD and it stands up quite well.

[Matthew]

Someone gave me all three seasons of these guys as a gift....

I'm enojying it, especially junior...

[BruceH]

Here's another

Yes, a very good series. Saw the whole thing on video some years ago.

[ghost of miles]

Excited about this one, which came out this week... both for Peter Lorre and the cinematography (THANK YOU, MR. MOTO in particular was said to be an influence upon the look of CITIZEN KANE):

Mr. Moto V. 1

Thanks for the info, ghost. I've been curious about the Mr. Moto films for years, not least because the title character is played by a young Peter Lorre. Provided the name for a great surf-instrumental, too.

My wife & I have watched the first two films over the past couple of nights & enjoyed them very much. Don't expect great plots, but there's some good dialogue for Moto, and the films look wonderful (the cinematography in THANK YOU, MR. MOTO is indeed impressive, and I can see how it influenced CITIZEN KANE). Also, Peter Lorre is fantastic in the title role... I went to the IU library this afternoon and checked out the 2005 Lorre bio, THE LOST ONE, and look forward to reading it.

I have to think that these movies influenced the Indiana Jones series... and that they may have also influenced, in a weird way, Peter Sellers' Inspector Closeau (accent, use of disguises, etc.).

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

You would probably like this one , Mr Weizen. It's little known but recommended.

Yes, most definitely! Coincidentally, we watched this one during the the last week of July!

Tonite it's disc 3 of the 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' and we get to find out who the 'mole' is -- At this point I'm guessing that it's the foppish Toby Esterhase.

[Soulstation1]

anybody pick up this dvd?

[BruceH]

anybody pick up this dvd?

I haven't picked it up (yet) but I've heard that the second disc only has a 1973 TV movie version with Richard Crenna. Hardly seems necessary.

[sidewinder]

Tonite it's disc 3 of the 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' and we get to find out who the 'mole' is -- At this point I'm guessing that it's the foppish Toby Esterhase.

Currently being repeated on BBC4 and on in about 1 hr from now. Last time I saw this was about 30 years ago !

[Kalo]

anybody pick up this dvd?

I haven't picked it up (yet) but I've heard that the second disc only has a 1973 TV movie version with Richard Crenna. Hardly seems necessary.

Absolutely true. Could win an award for most superfluous DVD extra.

They should put the Crenna Double Indemnity on the same disc as the Mark Harmon Shadow of a Doubt and Gus Van Sant's Psycho re-do.

Then you could shitcan them all in one go.

[BruceH]

"Mark Harmon Shadow Of A Doubt"??

[ejp626]

In Region 2 land, a new collection of the films of Louis Malle is coming out. In fact, it is split over 2 box sets, though I am renting the ones I am interested in to see if I will buy the whole thing (either one): Louis Malle set1

I was particularly intrigued by Zazie in the Metro, which is not available in the US currently. This is based around a novel by Raymond Queneau and was considered unfilmable. I find it pretty interesting, particularly seeing shots of 1960s Paris in vivid technicolor, though it is a fairly frantic film with a lot of surrealistic touches and not to everyone's taste. Maybe you should just mix uppers and downers, watch a bit of Zazie, then a bit of Tati's Mon Oncle to take the edge off.

I was particularly struck by this weird scene, practically out of Benny Hill, where this buxom blonde (looking a bit like a low-rent Marilyn Monroe) is being bothered by a horndog cop. She runs into a kiosk with a poster of Sachel Distel on the door! Then when the door opens a man emerges and there is a bit of guitar on the soundtrack, presumably by Sachel. So I went to look for info on the soundtrack and can't find confirmation of this, but I did learn that Sachel Distel had an uncredited cameo in the movie. And sure enough when I watched it again, it is Sachel Distel standing right next to his poster. Weird.

By the way, is anyone else excited about the new Criterion edition of Playtime? I think it will be pretty cool and it should be the best transfer of the lot, though I would like to read some reviews once it is out. So far it is the only thing on my Xmas wish list.

[Kalo]

"Mark Harmon Shadow Of A Doubt"??

TV Movie from the early '90s with Harmon in the Joseph Cotten role. Check it out on imdb. I actually watched the original broadcast back then and it was terrible, even worse than you can imagine.

Edited September 4, 2006 by Kalo

[Kalo]

By the way, is anyone else excited about the new Criterion edition of Playtime? I think it will be pretty cool and it should be the best transfer of the lot, though I would like to read some reviews once it is out. So far it is the only thing on my Xmas wish list.

I am.

Might be my all-time favorite movie. I'll definitely be getting it. Greg Erickson just reviewed the new edition favorably on DVDSavant.com.

[BruceH]

TV Movie from the early '90s with Harmon in the Joseph Cotten role. Check it out on imdb. I actually watched the original broadcast back then and it was terrible, even worse than you can imagine.

I can imagine pretty bad.

[Kalo]

TV Movie from the early '90s with Harmon in the Joseph Cotten role. Check it out on imdb. I actually watched the original broadcast back then and it was terrible, even worse than you can imagine.

I can imagine pretty bad.

It's even worse than that.

The final confrontation on the train, so terse and surprising in the original, seemed to last about 20 increasingly pointless minutes of chasing from car to car...

Oh yeah, and Tippi Hedren's in it too.

[BruceH]

By the way, is anyone else excited about the new Criterion edition of Playtime? I think it will be pretty cool and it should be the best transfer of the lot, though I would like to read some reviews once it is out. So far it is the only thing on my Xmas wish list.

I am.

Might be my all-time favorite movie. I'll definitely be getting it. Greg Erickson just reviewed the new edition favorably on DVDSavant.com.

I'd like to get this too, AND the new edition of The Seven Samurai. Both among my favorite movies of all time.

[ghost of miles]

Mr. Moto V. 2 out this past week. My copy should be showing up early next week... my wife & I blew through the V. 1 films the first couple of weeks that we had them.

And some Larry Sanders fans are unhappy about this. I'm inclined to go along with the "better-than-nothing" line of thinking, having waited years for Season 2 to emerge on DVD... LS was a show I made time for when I'd stopped doing such things for the most part regarding TV.

[BruceH]

Mr. Moto V. 2 out this past week. My copy should be showing up early next week... my wife & I blew through the V. 1 films the first couple of weeks that we had them.

And some Larry Sanders fans are unhappy about this. I'm inclined to go along with the "better-than-nothing" line of thinking, having waited years for Season 2 to emerge on DVD... LS was a show I made time for when I'd stopped doing such things for the most part regarding TV.

That is sad news indeed. I watched the entire Larry Sanders series in just a few months back when Bravo was showing an episode-per-day. One of my favorite shows of all time. 56 Emmy nominations and they can't just put the complete series on DVD? Pathetic. I'd gladly take it with NO extras, none at all, just the damn episodes, that would be fine. Oh well, at least I've got Freaks & Geeks.

You're making me more and more curious about Mr. Moto...I've always been a fan of Peter Lorre. Box #2 should include at least a dozen versions of the surf instrumental as an audio extra, just for the heck of it.

[Aggie87]

Picked up a couple of DVD box sets at FYE today:

Oliver Stone Collection (14 discs; includes Salvador, Platoon, Wall Street, Talk Radio, Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors, JFK, Heaven and Earth, Natural Born Killers, Nixon, U-Turn, Any Given Sunday, and Oliver Stone's America)

X-Men Trilogy (for my son )

Both were $9.99 apiece! Well, they will be after I receive the mail-in rebates. But I have patience, and thought both were worth it at that price.