Quote:
Originally Posted by CoopFilm
Wow, thank you for that  . I haven't seen either of those films, but looked over their reviews just now and they sound very interesting to me. |
Almost
no one had seen
Rapture before TT's Blu-ray edition
CoopFilm...it really was that obscure to begin with, and 'lost in the vault' for several decades...apparently even to the director of the film, John Guillermin. In fact, during one of Nick Redman's visits to the "
Twilight Time Schedule" thread he shared the following little anecdote:
Quote:
|
"Several times in the past year I've received a late-night phone call--at the other end of the line is a crusty British voice, usually well-oiled by a few stiff ones. The conversation goes something like this: 'Nick, John Guillermin here. Had some friends round. We ran Rapture again. It looks f***ing marvelous. Can't believe this bloody film is on Blu-ray.' Click."
|
So
Rapture ends up being a blind buy for almost everyone
CoopFilm, but I don't know many who have taken a chance on it regretting the purchase. If nothing else, it's one of the finest Blu-ray transfers to date of B & W 'Scope.
At the other end,
The Big Heat is just a flat out Noir classic with one of the best female performances I've ever had the pleasure of seeing (Gloria Grahame). Unlike some of TT's more esoteric catalogue choices, this title doesn't require any gamble whatsoever for a blind buy. I hate fatuous fan statements like the following, but enough of it is true in this case that I'll say it anyway... "Anyone who doesn't like Fritz Lang's Noir masterpiece, just doesn't like moooovies."
Experiment in Terror is classic too, but in different kind of way. Cat-and-mouse suspense thrillers like this weren't routinely tackled by A-list studio talent back in the early 60s. Although Hitchcock's
Psycho kind of opened up the range of possibilities for awhile, genre scripts like this typically landed in the laps of the 'B' producers or hungry up and comers. But just look at what you get with some top drawer talent on board:
What's interesting about this scene is that for almost the first half of its running time, it is completely stripped of dialogue with only modest incidental sounds - in effect, nothing of importance right up until we first hear the 'old woman's' asthmatic breathing. And then, except for a single line question by Lee Remick, the villain does all of the talking! Essentially, the whole thing is just exposition for plot advancement, but how many lesser directors would have taken a more mundane approach, including all sorts of idle restaurant chatter, the waitress taking an order, even a cross-cut to Remick excusing herself from her tablemate, etc? I suppose including all of that would have been more realistic, but movies aren't reality, and for something like this, Edwards' expressionist approach worked so much better. Although the guy was better known for his comedic works, he sure knew how to build an effective sequence...in this case leaving its biggest shock for the end, which was an otherwise harmless action at that.
Slick, savvy stuff, which is why
Experiment in Terror has been on my TT wish list since day one. Now that Criterion will no longer be doing Nicholas Ray's
In a Lonely Place, I hope that Noir classic is back on TT's radar too.
All countries
Argentina
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Colombia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
India
Latvia
Lithuania
Malaysia
New Zealand
Norway
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
Experiment in Terror (1962) (Limited Edition to 3000) - SOLD OUT
). Thanks to Arkadin for making me aware of this. 
Linear Mode
