ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (4K): A Time to Forgive?

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (4K UHD)

1975 / 133 min

Warner Bros

#InPartnershipwithWB

Review by Mr. Paws😸

While Jaws has gotten a lot of attention this year, another little film celebrated its 50th Anniversary as well. It also swept the Oscars back in 1975, winning every major category, including Best Picture. I distinctly remember being 12 years long and staring drop-jawed in the front the TV when the final award of the night was announced, incredulous that it beat the greatest movie ever made. It didn’t matter that Jaws was the only nominated film I’d actually seen at the time.

I still haven’t quite forgiven the Academy for that, but after finally watching One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest about a decade later - old enough to better appreciate its themes, distinctive characters and rich performances - I had to concede it was a pretty great film. Better than Jaws? Hell no, but perhaps I’d change my tune if Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) had met her demise in the mouth of a great white.

Even without any sharks, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest remains supremely rewatchable. Perhaps even more so today, because while revisiting the film in 4K, I was reminded of how many famous character actors got their first big break here, including Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Will Sampson and Brad Dourif. But of course, the whole movie still belongs to Jack Nicholson as rebellious asylum inmate R.P. McMurphy and Louis Fletcher as his cold blooded foil, Nurse Ratched. The Oscars they received for those performances are well-deserved. 

Jack sits on a tack.

I was also reminded of how subtly affecting the movie is, especially the scenes in which McMurphy endears himself to the other inmates. My favorite moment would have to be the one where McMurphy commandeers a fishing boat and takes his new friends on a real adventure, a sequence that’s both funny and heartwarming. Elsewhere, his friendship with silent, hulking “Chief” Bromden sets up a climax that remains poignant and haunting, no matter how many times I’ve seen it. 

50 years later, the film arguably remains the career highpoint for a lot of people on both sides of the camera, including director Milos Forman. So while One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest still no Jaws, maybe I should finally consider forgiving the Academy for thinking it was. After all, it ain’t like they gave the Best Picture statue to Barry Lyndon.

Finally remastered in 4K, both the picture and sound have been given significant upgrades from previous Blu-ray editions. The details, textures and color palettes are sharper and more accurate, while two audio tracks are offered, including an impressive DTS-HD Master Audio mix. The disc also comes with a few interesting new bonus features (outlined below), along with an archival feature-length retrospective documentary. But I gotta say...whoever designed the terrible new cover should be fired.

EXTRA KIBBLES

FEATURETTES - Conversations on Cuckoo: Group Therapy and Conversations on Cuckoo: Moviemaking Memories are a couple of new Zoom discussions featuring producer Michael Douglas and actors Christopher Lloyd, Brad Dourif and Danny Devito. 

COMPLETELY CUCKOO is a feature length retrospective documentary featuring a ton of interesting interviews that include producers Michael Douglas & Saul Zentz, Kirk Douglas (who originally optioned the film with the hope of playing the lead role), actors Louise Fletcher, Christopher Lloyd, Danny DeVito & Vincent Schiavelli, director Milos Forman and original author Ken Kesey.

5 DELETED SCENES

DIGITAL COPY

Revisiting THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN in 4K

THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (4K UHD)

1957 / 83 min

Warner Archive Collection

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Josey, the Sudden Cat🙀

Over the years, Warner Archive has done a fine job resurrecting and restoring classic & obscure WB and MGM titles on Blu-ray. Lately, they’ve been throwing their hat in the 4K ring, with impressive results. Both The Searchers and Get Carter recently got great video/audio facelifts. However, they were really only of interest for videophiles seeking technical upgrades, since neither included any new bonus material.

1957’s The Curse of Frankenstein is different matter altogether. The classic that put Hammer Films on the map has been beautifully restored for 4K in all its gothic glory, and has never looked or sounded better. But the icing on the cake is the sheer abundance of new and archival bonus material. Additionally, three versions of the film are offered, each presented in a different aspect ratio. Warner Archive, working closely with recently-resurrected Hammer Films, really pulled out all the stops for this one. For fans, this release is well-worth the upgrade, no matter what previous version you own.

As for the movie itself, The Curse of Frankenstein remains wonderfully entertaining all these years later. A loose adaptation of Mary Shelley’s perennial classic, this may not be the greatest Frankenstein film, but it’s still a lot of ghoulish fun (and pretty gruesome for its time). And at the center is Peter Cushing’s star-making performance as the titular character. Stopping just short of camp, he effortlessly conveys the mad doctor’s cold-blooded obsession that eventually drives him to murder in order to bring his creation to life.

"How 'bout we get a few fish for this thing?"

Elsewhere, Christopher Lee is (unintentionally?) amusing as ‘The Creature,’ which was one of his first prominent roles and paved the way for him to become one of Hammer’s go-to horror stars. Speaking of which, The Curse of Frankenstein isn’t the first Hammer film, but unquestionably the one that introduced the aesthetic template that served the studio well for the next 20-or-so years. In that respect, the film has considerable historic importance, which every self-respecting horror fan should experience at least once.

And the history lesson doesn’t stop with the movie. The numerous bonus features cover most of the movie’s production and cultural impact, as well as people on both sides of the camera whose best known work would be with Hammer. My only quip - and it’s a minor one - is that these are needlessly spread out across all three discs. For the sake of convenience, it might have been preferable to stick all of them on one disc, with all the cuts of the film on the other two. But that’s probably nitpicking, because other than that, this is an essential pick-up for classic horror lovers.

EXTRA KIBBLES

3 VERSIONS OF THE FILM - UK 1.66:1 theatrical aspect ratio version; 1.37:1 open matte aspect ratio version; US 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio version.

FEATURETTES (spread out over over all three discs) - Beside the Seaside is an affectionate look at the life of Peter Cushing, as told to actress Madeline Smith by author Wayne Kinsey (this is my favorite of the bonus features); Reviving The Curse of Frankenstein is a look at the restoration process; Recreating the Creature shows a few modern make-up artists recreating Christopher Lee’s monster make-up; A Fitting Vocation focuses on costume designer Molly Arbuthnot; Topped and Tailed is an interview with actor Melvyn Hayes (young Victor); Good or Tuesday? is about screenwriter Jimmy Sangster; Painting with Fine Brushes is a feature about cinematographer Jack Asher; A Gothic Tribute to Frankenstein is a look at Mary Shelley’s novel and its screen history; Frankenstein Reborn is a retrospective making-of featurette; Life with Sir is a tribute to Peter Cushing; The Resurrection Men has horror publisher discussing the movie’s impact on the genre; Hideous Progeny features historian Christopher Frayling discussing the history of gothic horror; Torrents of Light is another tribute to cinematographer Jack Asher; Diabolus in Musica is an appreciation of composer James Bernard.

4 AUDIO COMMENTARIES - 1) By Kim Newman, Barry Forshaw & Stephen Jones; 2) By Marcus Hearn & Jonathan Rigby; 3) By Heidi Honeycutt & Toby Roan; 4) Dr. Steve Haberman & Constantine Nasr. These commentaries are available on specific versions of the film.

ALTERNATIVE EYEBALL SCENE 

8MM CUT DOWN - Back in the day, fans could buy truncated versions of movie an 8mm film, to be shown with home projectors. Here’s one for The Curse of Frankenstein, trimmed down to 10 minutes.

IMAGE GALLERY - Posters, lobby cards, stills, etc.

TRAILER

UK CENSOR CARD - Originally appeared on-screen before the movie.

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.

ULTIMATE GANGSTERS COLLECTION is Essential Viewing

ULTIMATE GANGSTERS COLLECTION: CLASSICS (Blu-ray)

1931-1949 / 357 min (4 movies)

Warner Bros (of course)

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Mr. Paws😸

During Hollywood’s classic era, MGM was synonymous with musicals, while Universal was renowned for its monsters. Warner Bros chose a darker path, establishing itself as the premier purveyor of gangster films. This indispensable five-disc set, originally released in 2013, collects four of their most iconic examples with generally excellent restorations and a slew of entertaining bonus features. Now that it’s back in print, it’s a must-grab for gangster fans who might’ve missed it the first time around.

Kicking things off is 1931’s Little Caesar, which is pretty much the movie that started it all (once talkies took over, anyway). It also turned Edward G. Robinson into a star. His oft-imitated (and parodied) turn as ruthless rising gangster Rico Bandello remains one of his most memorable, and the movie itself, while comparatively quaint, established the template for what was to come (it’s hard to imagine either version of Scarface without it). 

That same year brought The Public Enemy, which did for James Cagney’s career what Little Caesar did for Robinson’s. He’s electrifying as ambitious career criminal Tom Powers, who, along with childhood buddy Matt Doyle (Edward Woods), achieve wealth and power as prohibition era bootleggers. Though not nearly as violent as its reputation suggests, this is a dark film with tragic underpinnings, as exemplified through Powers’ tumultuous relationships with his disapproving brother, Mike (Donald Cook) and doting mother (Beryl Mercer). The revenge-driven final act is still a stunner. Then, of course, there’s that classic grapefruit scene.

While Humphrey Bogart is best remembered for playing antiheroes and romantic leads, he made his first big splash as a cold-blooded villain. He doesn't actually have the lead role in 1936’s The Petrified Forest, but he lights up the screen and steals the entire movie from his bigger (at the time) co-stars. Set mostly in a remote diner where on-the-lam killer Duke Mantee holds assorted patrons hostage, the movie is occasionally stymied by melodrama, but it’s obvious Bogey was destined for greater things.

Cody welcomes his new neighbors.

While all the films in this collection are classics, 1949’s White Heat is an inarguable masterpiece. As psychotically unstable gang leader Cody Jarrett, James Cagney makes Tom Powers appear downright benevolent. Yet at the same time, despite his violent and vindictive nature, Jarrett is a complex character whose dependence on his domineering mother (Margaret Wycherly) has disturbing undertones and renders him somewhat sympathetic. The compelling story is tension filled, fast moving and comes to one of the most memorable climaxes in movie history. Featuring an excellent supporting cast, tough, violent action and strong direction by Raoul Walsh, this ranks among the greatest gangster movies ever made.

One could easily list other great Warner Bros gangster movies that are just as worthy for including in this collection, but it’s hard to argue with the choices here. All of them are exemplary films of the genre, featuring iconic performances by three legendary tough guys. The video and audio transfers are excellent, though I’m assuming that Little Caesar’s workprint was a bit too old and worn for a pristine restoration. It’s a minor quip over an otherwise must-own collection for gangster movie fans.

EXTRA KIBBLES

PUBLIC ENEMIES: THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE GANGSTER FILM - Made in 2008, this is an outstanding feature-length look at gangster film origins and the classics Warner Bros built its reputation on. Loaded with clips, analysis and appreciation by a variety of critics and historians. Included on a bonus DVD.

MOB OF GANGSTER-THEMED CARTOONS - 4 classic Looney Tunes shorts: I Like Mountain Music; She Was an Acrobat’s Daughter; Racketeer Rabbit; Bugs and Thugs. Included on a bonus DVD.

WARNER NIGHT AT THE MOVIES - Each disc includes the option to view the movie as experienced back in the day, with a preceding newsreel, live-action short, cartoon short and a trailer for another film. Introduced by Leonard Maltin.

FEATURETTES - Each disc includes a 15-20 minute appreciation by various historians, critics and the one-and-only Martin Scorsese.

AUDIO COMMENTARIES - Little Caesar, by Richard B. Schull; The Public Enemy, by Robert Sklar; The Petrified Forest, by Erix Lax; White Heat, by Dr. Drew Casper.

GULF SCREEN THEATER BROADCAST - Radio broadcast of The Petrified Forest from 1940.

1954 RE-RELEASE FORWARD - This was used when Little Caesar and The Public Enemy were re-released as a double feature.

Revisiting LETHAL WEAPON in 4K

LETHAL WEAPON (4K UHD)

1987 / 110 & 117 min (2 versions)

Warner Bros

#InPartnershipwithWB

Review by Mr. Paws😺

Lethal Weapon isn’t the first buddy-cop action film (1974’s Freebie and the Bean might hold that distinction), nor is it the best (I’ll still throw my hat in the ring for the original 48 Hrs). However, it is arguably the quintessential one.

For better or worse, its influence on the action genre was far-reaching and can still be felt today. The list of films obviously inspired by Lethal Weapon runs longer than the Magna Carta. including Tango & Cash, Red Heat, Renegades, Alien Nation, The Hard Way, Midnight Run, The Rookie, Double Team, Bad Boys, The Last Boy Scout, Loose Cannons, Money Train, Ride Along, Rush Hour, Cop Out, The Nice Guys, The Heat…you get the idea. There are literally hundreds more.

Mel Gibson plays Martin Riggs, a psychotic cop whose suicidal tendencies make him fearless during stand-offs; Danny Glover is Roger Murtaugh, his beleaguered new partner and a straight-arrow family man on the verge of retirement. Like every similar movie which followed in its wake, they hate each other at first, but during the course of the story, become best friends while taking down a nefarious crew of heroin dealers.

Of course, the movie is to police work what Star Wars is to space travel. If the movie truly reflected reality, we'd be sitting through Internal Affairs hearings and psychological examinations of Martin Riggs, both conducted to get this psycho-with-a-badge off the streets. But Lethal Weapon was never about plot and plausibility. I’d even be willing to wager many of you reading this probably forgot the plot.

Mel didn't ask how hot dogs were made, but Danny told him anyway.

However, Richard Donner’s humorous approach to the mayhem and the lightning-in-a-bottle chemistry between Gibson & Glover is unforgettable, sustaining the franchise through three sequels (though only the second film really measured up to the first, and actually surpasses it in some aspects). The main protagonists’ personalities and banter are so well-conceived and cleverly written that the story itself almost never matters. It’s also an approach that screenwriter Shane Black would practically base his entire career on (with a surprising amount of continued success).

All this makes Lethal Weapon a landmark action film. Along with Die Hard, it has had a bigger impact on the genre than anything else released in the 1980s. A couple of years shy of its 40th anniversary, the movie is being given a 4K facelift with a disc that features a better overall picture than previous Blu-rays or DVDs, as well as two audio options, a new Dolby Atmos track and DTS-HD 2.0, which preserves the original theatrical mix. Speaking of which, the disc includes both the original and director’s cut, that latter of which is only offered in Dolby Atmos. There are couple of brief new retrospective bonus features, but none of the substantial extras available on previous editions are included. Of course, Lethal Weapon deserves to be in any action collection, but the primary appeal of this 4K edition are the technical upgrades.

EXTRA KIBBLES

THEATRICAL & DIRECTOR’S CUTS - The director’s cut runs about seven minutes longer, and while it’s not necessarily an improvement, one particular scene offers a little more insight on the mindset of the Martin Riggs character.

FEATURETTES - Both of these are new and look like they were put together at the same time, featuring the same cast & crew interviewees. A Legacy of Inspiration pays tribute to the late Richard Donner; “I’m Too Old for This…” takes a look at casting the film.

DIGITAL COPY