For those that like French films and Noirs, Kino Lorber has assembled a trio of French Noir films for a Blu-ray release, called the French Noir Collection, which houses Speaking of Murder, Back to the Wall and Witness in the City. This is their first French Noir set offering on Blu-ray from Kino as far…
Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things UHD / Blu-ray review
The 1972 horror flick known as Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things is one of the weirdest zombie movies out there. It’s every bit as chilling as Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, at least during the last half hour of the movie. The film was directed by Bob Clark (Black…
Fancy Pants Blu-ray review
Comedy icons Bob Hope and Lucille Ball team-up in the 1950 Technicolor film Fancy Pants, directed by George Marshall, where Bob gets in over his head with some crazy impersonation shenanigans. The film is a musical version of Ruggles of Red Gap. Fancy Pants was the second pairing of the two icons, as in 1949…
Peking Express Blu-ray review
For those who have seen Shanghai Express, Peking Express is a remake of that film. It is actually a second remake, as Night Plane from Chungking was made in 1943. Peking Express is a 1951 crime action thriller with a great director and a marvelous cast. Doctor Michael Bachlin (Joseph Cotton, Shadow of a Doubt,…
Detective Story Blu-ray
Detective Story is a 1951 classic crime drama directed by William Wyler and starring screen icon Kirk Douglas and host of screen legends in William Bendix, Craig Hill, Cathy O’Donnell, George Macready, and Gerald Mohr. It’s the story of a day in the life of a few criminals, officers, and detectives, but on this day,…
The Diamond Wizard Blu-ray review
The Diamond Wizard aka The Diamond is a 1954 British film noir crime film starring Dennis O’Keefe, Margaret Sheridan and Philip Friend. It is based on the 1952 novel Rich Is the Treasure by Maurice Procter. There seems to be an issue as to who directed The Diamond Wizard. According to the British Film Institute…
The Blood Beast Terror Blu-ray review
I remember reading John Stanley’s Creature Features movie guide where Peter Cushing calls the 1968 horror movie The Blood Beast Terror his worst film. While it may not be his best, I really don’t think it’s his worst. I don’t even think he was ever in a truly bad movie but that is for viewers…
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931 film)
Rouben Mamoulian’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from 1931 which stars Frederic March in the lead roles to me is the best adaptation and most definitive of Robert Louis Stevenson’s story. While the 1941 edition of the film directed by Victor Fleming with Spencer Tracy as Jekyll and Hyde isn’t bad at all and well-acted,…
Mark of the Vampire Blu-ray review
Tod Browing’s Mark of the Vampire is a short one-hour horror drama that features Bela Lugosi playing a vampire, a role he was mostly known for after he was Dracula. The film’s other cast members include legendary actors Lionel Barrymore, Lionel Atwill and Elizabeth Allan. The story begins with Sir Karell Borotyn (Holmes Herbert, The…
The Ambush Blu-ray review
The film known as Al Kameen in Arabic but for American audiences it’s known as The Ambush is a war-drama movie from 2021 directed by Pierre Morel, who was the man behind classics such as Taken and District 13. Marwan Abdulla Saleh, Khalifa Al Jassem and Omar Bin Haider are among the stars of the…