Twilight Time Discussion Thread

[DukeTogo84]

I do wonder how many Fox titles remain with Twilight Time.

[SeanJoyce]

Originally Posted by Aclea

And it's not just anyone he perforates - it's one of cinema's greatest badasses.

I've always loved the "two-man" game between Marvin and Borgnine; they were terrific that same year harassing one-armed Tracy at Ryan's behest and then, in a weird cosmic twist, having fun at the expense of a stuffy Ryan in The Dirty Dozen.

Marvin of course exacted his revenge on Borgs later on in the mighty Emperor of the North, probably my favorite of their collaborations.

Still have yet to see The Stranger Wore a Gun and the D12 sequel.

[Page14]

Originally Posted by Aclea

[Show spoiler]English. And it is truly a thing of wonder:



"Everywhere you go you just commit mayhem, man... This is Australia, mate, not 55 Days at Peking!"

Ah, Australia in the 70s - where films were cheap but life was cheaper. The Man From Hong Kong (released in the US as The Dragon Flies), George Lazenby's second-finest hour, is truly a thing of joy - an essential Ozploitation movie that does what it says on the label even if Jimmy Wang Yu doesn't exactly burn up the screen as `the tough Hong Kong cop who learned every trick in the book - then threw the book away.' Unlike Lazenby. Where else can you see a film where they set a former James Bond on fire - for real - and he just goes on fighting? Roger, Shir Sean and Pierce would never have done that in a million years. Not only is he `the ruthless czar of international evil' but he's racist with it - "I've never met a Chinese yet that didn't have a yellow streak!" - and even has Frank Thring on the payroll, sneering disdain as only he could at a hero who can only speak English in a badly dubbed American accent ("We like to bounce our customers, not to break them"). Thring at least lasts longer than Sammo Hung, who choreographed the fight scenes and has a supporting role billed as Hung Kam Po before taking an early shower before he can show up the star too much ("A master of kung fu, he used his art for an evil purpose, but he fought well. I will like to meet the man who employed him.").

Wang Yu is never more than adequate - Lazenby still looks like he could beat him in a fair fight, even when on fire - but the film is so much fun and such an intoxicating mixture of car chases, outrageous action movie stunts, gratuitous hang gliding and. in at least one sequence, literally pant-splittingly good fight scenes that it doesn't matter. This is the kind of movie where stuntmen get kicked off racing motorcycles or thrown through very solid objects and stage terrific car chases on back roads without bothering to tell the local police, who probably wouldn't understand why they needed to destroy quite so much property in the process. Indeed, director Brian Trenchard-Smith's original pitch was a bulldozing cop who causes more collateral damage than the villain he takes down ("This country's got a small population, and he's getting through them very fast!"). That tends to get lost until the big car chase near the end of the film, but there's plenty of choice locking of cultural horns between him and the recently departed Hugh Keays-Byrne's hip local detective en route ("I don't want to be rude, man, but no torture, no thumbscrews. This is Australia. We're not allowed to get into that sort of thing, mate."). There's even room for the odd love scene with the two leading ladies, and boy is Wang Yu a charmer:

"Do you think you've recovered enough for me to make love to you?"
"I think I could stand the pain."
"That was nice."
"What did you expect - acupuncture?"

And that's not mentioning the infectiously catchy title song, Sky High (

[Show spoiler]Jigsaw - Sky High (1975) The Man From Hong Kong - YouTube

. Ah, they don't make 'em like they used to...

Trenchard-Smith's audio commentary, while not as explicit as some of the comments made on the documentary Not Quite Hollywood, is worth a listen, detailing just what an arrogant xenophobic sexist nightmare Jimmy Wang Yu was to deal with during the shoot (when the director cameoed as a thug in a fight in a lift, Wang Yu didn't pull any punches, and that was one of his better days). The compression sucks on the overstacked Australian Blu, so hopefully this should be an improvement.

The Man from Hong Kong - Trailer (1975) - YouTube

Sold!

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

I've always loved the "two-man" game between Marvin and Borgnine; they were terrific that same year harassing one-armed Tracy at Ryan's behest and then, in a weird cosmic twist, having fun at the expense of a stuffy Ryan in The Dirty Dozen.

And if Peckinpah had his way they would have co-starred with Ryan in The Wild Bunch as well.

[SeanJoyce]

Originally Posted by Aclea

And if Peckinpah had his way they would have co-starred in The Wild Bunch as well.

Was it more Marvin just tired of doing westerns and wanting to try something different (Paint Your Wagon), or did he really feel it was too similar to his role in The Professionals? Both?

Speaking of Peckinpah, do you know how much of the finished script for Emperor of the North is his?

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

Was it more Marvin just tired of doing westerns and wanting to try something different (Paint Your Wagon), or did he really feel it was too similar to his role in The Professionals? Both?

I believe a combination of money, Peckinpah still being unrehabilited after the Major Dundee and Cincinnati Kid fiascos and the fact that the film was very obviously designed by Warners as a ripoff of the hottest script of the year, The Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy (past their time outlaws are chased across the border by posse after failed robbery and die in shootout with local troops) when they wouldn't meet the $400,000 asking price for William Goldman's script because it would set a bad precedent. Peckinpah took it in a different direction, but Marvin was a hot property and Wild Bunch was a lukewarm project with a script co-written by a stuntman, a National Geographic documentary maker and a commercially unproven director with a toxic reputation on a shitty location that even William Holden thought was just another oater until his first day on set where he saw how Peckinpah was handling the opening shootout and prompty went back to his trailer to study the script because he realized he was going to have to up his game on this one.

Speaking of Peckinpah, do you know how much of the finished script for Emperor of the North is his?

No: I'd guess very little because the story was he dropped out over the money on offer, but I believe Garner Simmons' book is the one that goes into it in the most detail.

[klauswhereareyou]

The Man From Hong Kong is a very enjoyable 70's exploitation film. I already have it though. Might have to look up some stuff on Venom. I might get it if it sounds like something I'd like.

[broganreynik]

It looks like the spine on Venom isn’t the traditional Twilight Time spine. I know it’s not a huge deal, but that would’ve been a nice touch to stay uniform with the rest of the series.

[jstxanothrxstory]

Any recommendations for the Twilight Time titles SAE has in stock on their website? Thinking of picking up a few with the new titles.

[bsend]

Glad to see Twilight Time back

[thatguamguy]

Originally Posted by mrmikefern

And as for Universal, they're releasing more of their classics in Spain than in the US: Trouble In Paradise, To Each His Own, The Story Of Dr. Wassell, The Emperor's Waltz, North West Mounted Police, and Written On The Wind have received quality region-free releases from Universal in Spain before the US. So I'd rather see Twilight Time mine the depths of the Universal vaults to rescue what Shout and Kino choose to ignore.

'Trouble in Paradise' is going to be released by Criterion when there is a good master of it, but it seems a little premature to say that the Spanish release is "quality" when it doesn't get released until February. I hope it's good, but the reason it hasn't received a blu-ray up until now is that they don't/didn't have a good source to work from. As of 2018, Criterion couldn't find anything they felt they could use, and I wouldn't expect much got found in the archives in 2020, but hopefully I'm being pessimistic and something was found.

I'd bet "The Emperor's Waltz" comes from Kino.

[thatguamguy]

Originally Posted by DavidRoylance

If people are paying 100+ on ebay then TT would make money on a short "encore" run of these. Let's hope relationships are still in place and that they might consider.

The previous owners said they weren't going to do any further encore editions, it will be interesting to see if Screen Archives sticks to that. I never had a problem with it myself, but some people felt it was disrespectful to the customers or even flagrant false advertising to do reprints. But if they got the "Flint" movies back or "The Blue Max", I'd buy 'em.

[thatguamguy]

Originally Posted by xochipilli

Well, that's a nice Christmas surprise! The only slight damper on this is the Fox/Disney thing. If they're only going to be pulling from the Sony and Universal catalogs, I can't see that many titles that wouldn't be also picked up by Indicator or Eureka. My favorite thing about TT was their relationship with Fox, and unless they suddenly decided to get their head out of their ass(doubtful), I'm hoping they still had a couple of leftover titles from the last Fox deal.

Seems like they should still have the rights to John Ford's "The Iron Horse" which was announced and then delayed.

[Matt89]

Speaking of Written on the Wind, why the hell has that taken so long to hit blu-ray in North America? I'm surprised Criterion or even Arrow/Eureka haven't put it out yet. Of all the classic Sirk films from that era, it must be the only one yet to be released on HD.

Yes I know there's a French/Australian release, but it needs a proper remastered special edition like All That Heaven Allows received. Honestly when Criterion first announced that, I expected Written on the Wind to not be far behind, yet here we are six and a half years later and nothing. Honestly what's the deal? It's one of Sirk's best films.

~Matt

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by Matt89

Speaking of Written on the Wind, why the hell has that taken so long to hit blu-ray in North America? I'm surprised Criterion or even Arrow/Eureka haven't put it out yet. Of all the classic Sirk films from that era, it must be the only one yet to be released on HD.

Yes I know there's a French/Australian release, but it needs a proper remastered special edition like All That Heaven Allows received. Honestly when Criterion first announced that, I expected Written on the Wind to not be far behind, yet here we are six and a half years later and nothing. Honestly what's the deal? It's one of Sirk's best films.

Criterion take their sweet time with their licenses (Richard Lester's first two "Musketeer" films, probably former TT release "Lenny") or just sit on them for years despite more recent-ish remasters existing for years at this point for some titles ("Le Trou", "Pickup on South Street", "Thieves Highway", and "Unfaithfully Yours").

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by Dailyan

[Show spoiler]

Nice to see The Man From Hong Kong released, but I just got the Umbrella release a few months ago so I will have to pass on that, but I'm glad to see their back and what deals they have.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by Dailyan

Received this as well, it appears the slight change to the final package is in reference to the SAE logo on the disc and the non-black/standard font spine.

[BluPat]

This is great to hear. Even though I feel they charged too much at first, it's always good for physical media to stick around. So I'm happy for them.

[mja345]

TT's going Fast Eddie Felson on us...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpAkEnpRHC8

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by thatguamguy

The previous owners said they weren't going to do any further encore editions, it will be interesting to see if Screen Archives sticks to that. I never had a problem with it myself, but some people felt it was disrespectful to the customers or even flagrant false advertising to do reprints. But if they got the "Flint" movies back or "The Blue Max", I'd buy 'em.

I would like to see them do more Encore editions too. I was never a huge fan of the Limited Edition aspect of their business model.

If you're just after the movies themselves on blu-ray, the Flint movies and The Blue Max have both been released in Europe. I have the French release of The Blue Max which was put out by Fox themselves.