The Criterion Collection

[SeanJoyce]

Originally Posted by KJones77

Here's a list of films Criterion has licensed from WB.

There should be about one or two every few months.

That list needs Amadeus (I'll take The Bad and the Beautiful too.)

[miller_time22]

I was just thinking about WB and Criterion in hopes that After Hours might see a 2019 release from Criterion.

[edmoney]

Originally Posted by Kyle15

We could, but I won't, cuz I don't see the point? I was making an observation as to why I feel there is a general consensus when you said there isn't. lol

And I was clarifying that the consensus on Ambersons applies to critics only (which you selectively focused in on), and specifically critics of the past. There's no consensus when counting all film viewers today.

Originally Posted by Kyle15

So there's your general consensus.

Only on the #1 spot. Not for the #2, #3, etc. spots.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by belcherman

Except for the minor detail of Charlton Heston being cast as a Mexican

All the great actors have played a Mexican at least once

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

All the great actors have played a Mexican at least once

Seems like it.
IMG_0696.JPG

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by muchogris

Those are my exact thoughts. I wonder what you think of The other side of the wind. I despised it entirely as it didnt look like anything from the director.

I'll have to rent that one some day and see.

[KentConn]

Originally Posted by KJones77

Here's a list of films Criterion has licensed from WB.

There should be about one or two every few months.

Thanks for the info man.

From Warner on Criterion I would like to see the following Blu-rays:

-The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
-After Hours
-The Bad and the Beautiful

...and many more that I can't think of right now (but I'll take those three in 2019)

[Rzzzz]

Originally Posted by KentConn

Thanks for the info man.

From Warner on Criterion I would like to see the following Blu-rays:

-The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
-After Hours
-The Bad and the Beautiful

...and many more that I can't think of right now (but I'll take those three in 2019)

After Freaks, my most wanted Warner Criterion is The Lost Patrol (1934). I would love for this to be their next John Ford release.....

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by KentConn

Thanks for the info man.

From Warner on Criterion I would like to see the following Blu-rays:

-The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
-After Hours
-The Bad and the Beautiful

...and many more that I can't think of right now (but I'll take those three in 2019)

Originally Posted by KentConn

I too would like to see The Heart is a Lonely Hunter get a Blu release, either from Warner or Criterion, but preferably the latter.

Originally Posted by KentConn

As far as literary-adaptation movies, I'd like to see Criterion give Carson McCullers a nod from her first novel "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" with a nice Blu release.

I know the film is owned by Warner Brothers, but this type of film would be right up Criterion's alley.

Originally Posted by THE TUNNEL

THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL is in my top 5 of all time...I especially love the score by David Raksin !!

Originally Posted by THE TUNNEL

And I agree with you about The Bad and the Beautiful. Why, the score alone (by David Raksin) is worth its weight in Blu !!

Originally Posted by THE TUNNEL

The Bad and The Beautiful has an incredibly gorgeous score by David Raksin...I've got the CD Soundtrack and it's worth having the movie just to hear the score !!

oops

[senseabove]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

oops

You mean there aren't two different people who incessantly announce their desire for The Heart is a Lonely Hunter to get a BD release?

[Show spoiler]

[tatterdemalion]

Originally Posted by belcherman

Except for the minor detail of Charlton Heston being cast as a Mexican

Being that wasn't the part Heston was originally cast to play I think he did about as good a job as he could. Orson Welles stole his part!

[theater dreamer]

Originally Posted by hoytereden

Seems like it.

[Show spoiler]Attachment 213576

Why yes, it does.

vivazapata.jpg

[RCRochester]

And sometimes Mexicans play Arabs...



...or Asians

[belcherman]

Originally Posted by tatterdemalion

Being that wasn't the part Heston was originally cast to play I think he did about as good a job as he could. Orson Welles stole his part!

I thought Heston did a great job considering. I just had a hard time getting past the incongruity of the casting.

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by Rzzzz

After Freaks, my most wanted Warner Criterion is The Lost Patrol (1934). I would love for this to be their next John Ford release.....

[Show spoiler]

This and The Informer are my two favorites from his '30s RKO films. Another reworking of The Lost Patrol plot I'd like to see in the collection would be Sahara ('43). IMO, one of the best WWII films that kind of flies under the radar when films about the war are mentioned. The whole cast shines with J. Carrol Naish (Oscar nominated) and Rex Ingram especially good.

[MJD64]

Just got an Email from B&N that the 50% Criterion sale is back and will run till Sunday...though it is online only.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by MJD64

Just got an Email from B&N that the 50% Criterion sale is back and will run till Sunday...though it is online only.

OMG! That's awesome. Thanks!

[RojD]

Originally Posted by mrjohnnyb

I am truly hoping for a classic film-noir. I have been most impressed with Criterion's Collection of this genre. Detour would be a dream-come-true!

Good to see your comment about noir on Criterion. Did I miss something about Ride the Pink Horse? Aside from a couple of compelling shots, I was pretty underwhelmed.

[Rich Pure Doom]

Originally Posted by RojD

Good to see your comment about noir on Criterion. Did I miss something about Ride the Pink Horse? Aside from a couple of compelling shots, I was pretty underwhelmed.

You didn't miss anything. It's extremely mediocre.

[MifuneFan]

Counter-point: two people who actually know a thing or two about film noir on here:

Originally Posted by oildude

Here is the user review I wrote for Ride the Pink Horse almost two years ago. For me, Ride the Pink Horse has been one of the best discoveries I have made in the Criterion Collection:



OK, I love film noir, but I have to confess that prior to Criterion's announcement of Ride the Pink Horse I had never heard of it. Shame on me. As of last night, that mistake has been remedied. There is a line of dialogue early on where the moll of a New Mexican gangster, referring to the anti-hero lead character played by Robert Montgomery, says "I'm afraid that Mr. Gagin cannot be seduced". I can attest that the same assessment does not apply to this film. Ride the Pink Horse seduces, wraps itself around you, pulls you in, and does not let you go. Welcome to film noir done Southwestern style, and I am here to tell you, amigos, this dark little tale of money, murder, and mayhem, as well as a haunted man accidentally rediscovering his humanity, is muy muy bueno.

We know we are in for a different noir experience right from the opening credits, when we see a bus approaching the camera along a panoramic New Mexican highway to the uplifting strains of Latin-infused orchestral music. Robert Montgomery does double duty here as star and director, and he handles both roles superbly. Prior to this film, I only knew Montgomery as the father of Elizabeth Montgomery, future star of classic 1960’s sitcom Bewitched. Here, Montgomery plays a disillusioned tough-as-nails WWII vet named Lucky Gagin on a mission to find a New Mexico gang lord named Frank Hugo, an oddity of a mob boss with a hearing aide and a gift for gab. What exactly that mission is doesn’t become clear until later in the film. The bus deposits Gagin in a city named San Pablo (a fictional name representing Santa Fe). The air surrounding him is electric, filled with music and laughter as hordes of tourists flock the streets to celebrate the annual Fiesta, all of which appears lost on Gagin.





Gagin comes out of nowhere and remains a mystery, what we see is what we get…..a lot of anger and rude behavior with little indication of his background, where he came from or where he is going. All we know is that he had a war buddy best friend who is now dead, and that somehow Hugo is involved. As the plot unfolds, he comes into contact with the local New Mexican culture and his softer side begins to appear. He is befriended by Pancho, the poor operator of an antique carousel, played outstandingly by Thomas Gomez whose performance in this role earned him the first ever Oscar nomination for a Hispanic American. Another local who crosses paths with Gagin and proves integral to the story is a girl named Pila (an 18-year old Wanda Hendrix, future wife of Audie Murphy). Pila is a Native American from a pueblo many miles away who has recently moved to San Pablo and is experiencing the big city for the first time. As it turns out, this dichotomy of Gagin’s character - one foot in the world of the Anglos where gangsters, dreams of money as the ticket to the good life, and the increasing threat of violence are ever present, and the easy-going culture of New Mexican Hispanics and Native Americans where, as movingly explained by Pancho, friendship is more important than money and that as long as a man has his pride and strong back there is no shame in being poor – becomes one of the central themes of the film.





Because the viewer is never sure where things will go, the story creates the suspense that anything can happen at any moment. The bus in the opening scene could be taking Gagin on a road to rebirth and redemption that isn’t clearly marked, either a ticket to hell or a way out that may be just beyond reach. Gagin is damn tough, as events will reveal, but is that enough? Is he in over his head? Is he a walking corpse and just doesn’t know it? What is the meaning of a check he places in a bus station locker at the beginning of the film? Is Hugo’s moll Marjorie a kept woman looking for a way out through Gagin? And what does it mean for Pila, who attaches herself to Gagin like a lost puppy and in one of the film’s eerie moments gives him a talisman to protect him because she has had a vision of his pale dead face.





Ride the Pink Horse delivers the goods. It is as multi-layered and as dark and deadly as any classic noir. Yet there is something hopeful in its fabric like the effigy of the god of bad luck burned at the climax of the Fiesta. What makes the film so watchable is how it doesn’t play to expectations. Just when we think we understand what is about to happen, it goes in unexpected directions. There is a lot of symbolism in the story, represented most obviously by the fairy tale world of Pancho’s old carousel going round and round with its assortment of multi-colored horses, one of which is pink (or so we are told; it is a black and white film after all). There is a key scene when, after a night of drinking in a local saloon, Gagin convinces Pancho to open his carousel after-hours so that Pila can experience a childhood thrill for the first time in her life. The meaning of this small kindness represents something deeper that only becomes clear later. Gagin is experiencing new things too. We learn that he suffers from post-traumatic stress from years spent fighting in the steaming jungles of the South Pacific, that he still carries the war in him and is doing battle with himself as much as with the outside world, and that cervezas and tequilas with friendly locals can lead an angry man down paths he never thought for himself to travel.





As usual, Criterion has done a masterful job with the transfer of a black and white film that, for many years, was apparently not easy to find. The cinematography by Russell Metty is outstandingly stylish and evocative, with Gagin often shot over-the-shoulder and some scenes done in one long continuous take that accentuates the menace of the moment. In one chilling scene, a brutal beating is witnessed from the point of view of children riding the carousel; the viewer is therefore a trapped witness, circling repeatedly past the violence and unable to get off. If the name Russell Metty doesn’t ring any bells, then a partial sampling of his many other films will give you some idea of what to expect here, films like Touch of Evil, Magnificent Obsession, Written in the Wind, Arch of Triumph, Spartacus, and The Misfits.

And what great noir would be complete without some chewy dialogue so important to driving the narrative. Ride the Pink Horse has lots of that. Gagin delivers a particularly juicy monologue on the evils of women wearing diamonds, who are man-traps and have “a dead fish where her heart ought to be”. I could watch this film over and over just to relish the well written screenplay and roll around in all that dialogue like a man on a bed full of money. Wearing a fedora, of course. As it should be.

Note: all images above are taken from the internet and not the actual disc. The transfer is amazing, rich, and beautiful.

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I'll ride oildude's coattail, and share my own User Review of Ride the Pink Horse...

Robert Montgomery's 1947 film noir, Ride the Pink Horse, was released only a few months after his fascinating POV-style take on Raymond Chandler's Lady in the Lake, and, although it employs more conventional visual techniques than that previous film for the most part, it is still graced with innovative flourishes that, thankfully, serve to accentuate the storytelling instead of merely calling attention to themselves. The movie opens with a three-plus minute tracking shot that observes Lucky Gagin, played by Montgomery himself, stepping off of a bus in San Pablo, New Mexico, walking into the bus station, hiding a gun under his coat, placing an item in a locker, and coldly asking a local for directions to the La Fonda Hotel. This sequence, which seems almost effortless in its narrative efficiency and which also predates the amazing tracking sequence that would open Orson Welles's Touch of Evil over a decade later, conveys volumes of exposition to show Gagin as a stranger who does not grasp the cultural vibe of a strange land, but is nonetheless heading confidently into possible danger for which he may or may not be prepared. Later in the film, the camera eye rotates along with children on a merry-go-round as a man is being beaten within an inch of his life just mere feet away, as if to symbolize how we all more through the world while atrocities and crimes happen just outside of our path.

On visual and thematic terms, I would place Ride the Pink Horse squarely into classic film noir territory. We observe the trauma and world-weariness of a World War II veteran as he struggles to make his way in the world amid the alienating economic atmosphere of postwar America. We see villains, heroes, and antiheroes alike scrambling, in the style of The Maltese Falcon (1941), for a plot "MacGuffin" in the form of a canceled check. We have a sexy femme fatale, played by Andrea King, who brilliantly exudes ambiguous character intentions as she watches an act of violence. In ways that elicit comparisons to other classic-era noir movies like Border Incident (1949), we see the greed of postwar America shown in harsh contrast to more relaxed, and possibly wiser, mindsets of foreign cultures. Most of all, we have fedoras aplenty, most prominently shown in rear camera views of Montgomery himself that recall the sporadic mirror reveals of his Philip Marlowe in Lady in the Lake.

It would be a disservice to a prospective viewer to discuss the ways that Ride the Pink Horse strays from the noir aesthetic, but I love how this film veers in risky directions and never misses a step. The character of Pancho, played by the underrated Thomas Gomez, who played John Garfield's brother in another classic noir, Force of Evil (1948), shines as his true nature is revealed through the course of the film. The beautiful teenager, Pila, played by Wanda Hendrix, serves as a barometer to gauge Gagin's humanity in this offbeat setting. A final interaction in the film makes me want to cheer out loud, because a key relationship that might have been given a schmaltzy resolution in a lesser movie is handled with the utmost integrity and intelligence.

This Criterion Blu-ray looks great, and the level of detail in this black-and-white film allows us to appreciate the tracking shots and subtle visuals in terms of how they guide us through the story. The audio quality is spot-on, and this is most evident during sequences that take place while a crowded fiesta is going on in the background.

A 20-minute supplementary interview with Imogen Sara Smith, author of In Lonely Places: Film Beyond the City, is one of the most enjoyable Criterion extras in recent memory, thanks in no small part to the fact that so many incredible classic-era noir movies are referenced by still shots. A commentary track by Alain Silver and James Ursini, who co-wrote The Film Noir Encyclopedia, also goes a long way toward noting this movie's place in the genre.

Ride the Pink Horse is a cool film, through and through, and it's a pleasant surprise for this enthusiast of classic noir. I give it high marks across the board.