HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL: Castle's Classic Creepfest

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL Limited Edition (Blu-ray)

1959 / 75 min

Film Masters

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Josey, the Sudden Cat🙀

Wasn’t it great being little, when damn near everything scared you, like skeletons dangling from tethers? 

I wasn’t around when cinema’s greatest carnival barker, William Castle, was turning schlock into gold with such gimmicks as theater seat buzzers, fright insurance policies and, of course, “Emergo,” which was used to help turn House on Haunted Hill into one of his biggest hits. This was where a red-eyed skeleton would ‘float’ over the audience on a wire. Cheap and tacky, to be sure, but it put butts in seats.

Still, I remember the onscreen (also tethered) skeleton scaring me as a kid when I first watched this on TV, along with other ghostly figures lurking in dark closets. Then there was that dreaded pool of acid, which was used to destroy the bodies of murder victims, though one poor sap gets thrown in alive. Back then, acid ranked just behind lava and quicksand on my list of the most horrible ways to die and it seemed like a lot of horror villains had a vat of the stuff in their basement.

But who is the actual villain in House on Haunted Hill? When revisiting the film years later, I appreciated how the narrative’s surprising twists kept the viewer guessing, an aspect that elevated this one above the usual tacky treasures Castle was making at the time. And despite some imagery that’s still kinda spooky, one could even argue that it isn’t really a horror movie at all. The story itself unfolds more like a Scooby Doo mystery…with booze…and guns.

"Sounds like the couple upstairs have made up again."

The movie remains very entertaining, though perhaps aesthetically quaint compared to the bloody-but-joyless 1999 remake. The great Vincent Price shines as Frederick Loren, a cynical millionaire who invites a group of carefully chosen strangers to spend the night at a supposedly haunted mansion, offering $10,000 to each who takes him up on the offer. The house, of course, has a dark past, as ominously explained by its owner, Watson Pritchard (Elisha Cook Jr). That’s when the fun begins.

House on Haunted Hill is William Castle’s one true classic. In addition to atmospheric direction, an engaging story and interesting characters, the overall performances are quite good for a film of this type (though all that’s really required of Carolyn Craig is to scream every ten minutes). Even without “Emergo,” it remains one of the better haunted house movies of the 1950s. Having been released on Blu-ray before (most notably, in one of Shout Factory’s Vincent Price collections), I don’t know if this new edition from Film Masters is a significant technical upgrade, but the overall video/audio quality is pretty good. Kinda light on bonus material, though.

EXTRA KIBBLES

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By Heath Holland.

SUPPLEMENTAL BOOKLET - Includes an essay by Jason A. Ney.

A Big Batch of ERROL FLYNN

6-FILM COLLECTION: ERROL FLYNN (Blu-ray)

1938-1948 / 709 min (6 movies)

Warner Archive Collection

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Mr. Paws😺

Is this a collection of Errol Flynn’s greatest work? Not by a longshot, nor is it intended to be. Instead, this set gathers six Blu-ray titles that were previously released separately. So while we might scream “What?? No Captain Blood??” (there’s still no Blu-ray for that one), this does offer a varied selection of movies Flynn did during his tenure at Warner Brothers. 

Of course, it would have been a crime not to include The Adventures of Robin Hood, which many feel is his greatest film. While I’m not inclined to agree, it remains the definitive telling of the mythical Saxon outlaw. Filled with action, humor, romance and Flynn at his most charismatic (all in beautiful Technicolor), it’s impossible not to be swept along, even 87 years later. Since we don’t get Captain Blood, at least there’s 1940’s The Sea Hawk, which I do think is Flynn's greatest film. Released at the height of his popularity, The Sea Hawk is an epic adventure with Flynn as sea captain Geoffrey Thorpe, England's most infamous privateer, defending his country against enemies through piracy. The final showdown remains one of the greatest sword fights ever filmed.

Yet another collaboration with director Michael Curtiz, 1940’s Santa Fe Trail is a historical drama that plays fast and loose with history, with Flynn as confederate general Jeb Stuart and Raymond Massey as abolitionist John Brown. While not a great film, it’s certainly watchable, though I personally think Flynn is miscast. Flynn fairs much better in 1943’s Edge of Darkness, though he’s just one part of a uniformly excellent cast. Aptly titled, the film is somber in tone and occasionally infuriating when depicting injustice against a Norwegian town at the hands of the Nazis, but this leads to a stunning - and surprisingly violent - final act once they've been pushed too far. This one ranks among Flynn’s best films.

"Yo, Guy! Read between the lines!"

If you’ve seen Northwest Passage with Spencer Tracy, then you’ve seen 1945’s Objective, Burma!, which tells the same story, with Flynn leading his squad as Captain Nelson. Though I doubt anyone would argue that Flynn’s a better actor than Tracy, this one is ultimately more entertaining (though a little too long). Rounding out the set is 1948’s Adventures of Don Juan, and who better to take the role of the world’s most famous womanizing swordsman? Considering his own reputation and behavior, he’s arguably just playing a version of himself. And that’s just fine, because the movie’s a hell of a lot of fun.

Again, none of the Blu-rays in this collection are new. The restorations and transfers (generally pretty excellent) are identical to previous releases, as are the bonus features. Quantity and quality of the content varies, running the gamut from loaded (Robin Hood) to bare-bones (Santa Fe Trail). Robin Hood, Don Juan and The Sea Hawk also include “Warner Night at the Movies” as a great viewing option, with a cartoon, newsreel, short subject and trailers preceding the feature, just like the ol’ days. While the set isn't definitive, it's worth grabbing if you don't already have most of these particular titles.

The Good, Bad & Ugly of PATTERNS

PATTERNS (Blu-ray)

1956 / 83 min

Film Masters

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Mr. Paws😺

The boutique label, Film Masters, is mostly known for releasing older films that have been largely forgotten. Many are low budget - sometimes really low budget - obscurities that’ll never be mistaken for lost masterpieces. But whether it’s an overlooked gem or Corman-cranked cheapie, these discs generally boast great restorations and bonus material that’s often more informative and entertaining than the movies themselves…

…which makes this release of 1956’s Patterns a little perplexing. Written by Rod Serling (based on his teleplay for a Kraft Television Theatre episode that aired a year earlier), it’s a genuinely great film. And if all you know of Serling are his classic, genre-bending series, The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery, it’s something of a revelation. Instead of a sci-fi tinged allegory or creepy slice of horror, the film is a compelling drama of corporate greed and office politics. 

But atypically, this Blu-ray is just a bare-bones disc with no bonus material or even a supplemental booklet that usually accompanies Film Masters releases (which I’ve always enjoyed). Considering Patterns is the work of one of the 20th Century’s most influential screenwriters, surely it’s deserving of some retrospective analysis and/or appreciation (if even just an audio commentary). Additionally, the actual video transfer isn’t quite up to snuff. For most of the running time, the picture and sound quality is decent, if unremarkable, until the key final scene, which suddenly turns noticeably murky and muddy, almost as if someone forgot to finish the job.

Bad vibes only.

Still, Patterns is a film worth discovering, with Van Heflin as Fred Staples, the newest executive at Ramsey & Company, a powerful industrial corporation. He’s initially hired to work alongside longtime vice president Bill Briggs (Ed Begley), whose compassion for others is the polar opposite of the company’s ruthless president, Walter Ramsey (Everett Sloane), relentlessly driven by profit and expansion, which leads to considerable conflict with Briggs. But Ramsey’s conniving agenda all along has been to push Briggs out by making him miserable enough to resign, then replace him with Staples as the new VP. This puts Staples in a moral quandary since he and Briggs have become close friends and partners. 

Though Fielder Cook’s direction is merely perfunctory, Sterling’s story and screenplay crackle with sharp dialogue and complex characters, bolstered by excellent performances from Heflin, Begley and Sloane, the last of whom is wonderfully hateful. Even devoid of a music score or much in the way of melodramatic flourishes, Patterns is a consistently engaging film that holds up to repeated viewings, even if it hasn’t yet gotten the Blu-ray release it deserves.

The Substance of SUNSET BOULEVARD (4K)

SUNSET BOULEVARD (4K UHD)

1950 / 110 min

Paramount

Review by Mr. Paws😻

Well, I finally got to scratch this one off my List of Shame…that mental checklist of classics I should have seen by now, but for one reason or another, just never got around to it. There are a lot of films on my list, and if you call yourself a movie lover, so do you. While I’ve always been aware of Sunset Boulevard, but it wasn’t until I heard and read it being described as film noir that it truly piqued my interest. 

Fairly late in the game, I’ve grown to love film noir, checking many of them off my List of Shame, and seldom have I been disappointed. While I wasn’t disappointed in Sunset Boulevard either (it certainly deserves the praise it’s gotten over the years), I don’t know if I’d consider it true noir. Far be it from me to disagree with the likes of Eddie Muller (who ranks it at #3 on his list of the genre’s all time best), but by and large, it’s more of a compelling drama - with black comedy thrown in - about the dark side of Hollywood stardom.

Sure, there are elements that could easily support the whole “noirgument.” You’ve got your cynical protagonist and narrator in Joe Gillis (William Holden), a down-on-his-luck screenwriter who stumbles upon an job opportunity to polish a terrible screenplay written by has-been silent movie star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). Of course, his financial dire straits force him to forsake his principals. And yeah, his ultimate fate - foreshadowed in the prologue - looks and plays like classic noir. Finally, it’s deftly directed by the great Billy Wilder, responsible for the greatest film noir ever made (in my opinion), Double Indemnity.

Call me crazy, but while watching this, the film that kept coming to mind was the recent body horror masterpiece, The Substance. Though obviously hailing from different eras and genres, I found some interesting thematic similarities between the two. Both films are a condemnation of an industry that tends to use people until they’ve outlived their value. Both feature a female main character going to extremes to maintain her beauty, youth and relevance. Both have a key scene where the public is horrified at what she’s become. Both conclude with the haunting image of the character’s face, still in denial that she’s now a monster. 

Master of (shadow) Puppets.

Beyond their themes, Sunset Boulevard and The Substance both feature knock-out performances by actors who’d been more-or-less written-off as past their prime, only to earn Oscar nominations for playing similarly marginalized characters (along the way, Ms. Swanson turned Norma Desmond into one of the most iconic and parodied movie characters of all time). While I’m grasping straws, I might as well go ahead and suggest Sunset Boulevard even dips a toe into body horror. Specifically, the montage where she subjects herself to a variety of bizarre facial and body treatments in a vain effort to look young. It may not be gruesome or graphic, but contextually, the sequence is still a little unnerving…and morbidly funny.

Or maybe someone simply spiked my coffee while I was writing this. Whether Sunset Boulevard is considered noir, drama, satire or horror, what ultimately matters is that it’s a great film, one of the best of the 1950s and well worth revisiting from time to time for its rich performances (Holden is every bit Swanson’s equal), great dialogue and Wilder’s typically brilliant direction. 

Since the film is new to me, I won’t make any technical comparisons between this 4K restoration and previous versions. However, the overall picture is excellent, nicely showcasing John F. Seitz’ beautiful black & white cinematography. It also features two audio options, a brand new Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track an a more traditional mono mix. There are no new bonus features, but this set includes the 2012 Blu-ray version, which is loaded.

EXTRA KIBBLES

4K, BLU-RAY & DIGITAL COPIES

SUNSET BOULEVARD FEATURETTES - Sunset Boulevard - The Beginning; Sunset Boulevard - A Look Back; The Noir Side of Sunset Boulevard (Okay, FINE It’s noir! Happy now?); Sunset Boulevard Becomes a Classic; Two Sides of Ms. Swanson; Stories of Sunset Boulevard; Mad About the Boy - A Portrait of William Holden; Recording Sunset Boulevard; Franz Waxman and the Music of Sunset Boulevard; The City of Sunset Boulevard.

PARAMOUNT PICTURES FEATURETTES - Behind the Gate - The Lot; Edith Head - The Paramount Years; Paramount in the ‘50s.

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By Billy Wilder biographer Ed Sikov.

PROLOGUE SCRIPT PAGES

HOLLYWOOD LOCATION MAP

DELETED SCENES

GALLERIES

TRAILER

INVASION U.S.A. and the Propaganda Machine

INVASION U.S.A. and ROCKET ATTACK U.S.A. (Blu-ray)

1952-1960 / 136 min (2 movies)

Film Masters

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Mr. Paws😼

With this release, Film Masters unearths a big batch of Cold War propaganda with two silly slabs of budget-conscious buffoonery and some great bonus material for historical context. The overall quality of both films is kinda chuckleworthy, but considering today’s polarizing political climate, the blatant nationalism on display doesn’t feel quite as archaic as it should.

Of the two, 1952’s Invasion USA features better performances and production values. Still, it’s mostly a paranoid patchwork of stock footage and isolated scenes of its main characters’ reactions to a full scale attack by an unnamed communist enemy (though obviously the Soviet Union). America is getting her ass handed to her for most of the running time, at least until a final scene reveals the entire film to be a cautionary (and heavy-handed) call to action. But despite the dumb denouement, it’s still better than Chuck Norris’ braindead debacle with the same title and premise.

"We're here to stop you from decorating any more rooms."

Invasion USA is a Palme d’or contender compared to 1960’s Rocket Attack USA, depicting an American spy’s attempt to thwart Russia’s plans to nuke New York City. Hampered by shoddy production design, amateur-night performances and muddy camerawork, this is an interminable endurance test that feels much longer than its hour-long running time. On the plus side, the movie is made more watchable with the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode included as a bonus feature. It ain’t Joel and the robots at their best, but it sure beats enduring the film without them.

Speaking of which…as with many Film Masters Blu-ray releases, the additional supplemental material might be the real treasure here. Not only do they provide historical context, they are generally more interesting than the movies themselves. Jf nothing else, this two-disc set serves up a look back at an era of American propaganda that, if we’re lucky, will remain history.

EXTRA KIBBLES

FEATURETTES - Better Dead Than Red: Hollywood vs. Communism in the 1950s looks back at how the “Red Scare” affected people in the movie business; A Matter of Minutes: Remembering Gerald Mohr is an interview his the actor’s son.

AND A VOICE SHALL BE HEARD - A short film that was shown with Invasion USA.

8 ATOMIC ERA PROPAGANDA SHORTS - Spread out over both discs, these are fascinating.

MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 EPISODE - Rocket Attack USA and the short, The Phantom Creeps.

AUDIO COMMENTARY - Invasion USA, by Jason A. Ney; Rocket Attack USA, by C. Cortney Joyner and Mark Jordan Legan.

SUPPLEMENTAL BOOKLET - Features a couple of essays by Don Stradley and Toby Roan.

TRAILERS

STILL GALLERY