Twilight Time Discussion Thread

[Hoke Moseley]

Very good month...

I'm in for the three westerns.

[Aclea]

Excellent month - even the weakest of them is good (Oklahoma Crude's ending is a bit disappointing) and it's great to be getting Antony and Cleopatra:



Barely seen since it opened in 1972, Charlton Heston's Antony and Cleopatra is one of the handsomest and most vividly cinematic Shakespeare adaptations - this is first and foremost a film, and one whose epic scale often belies its surprisingly modest budget with judicious use of leftover sets from 50s and 60s epics, some well chosen Spanish locations, a bit of stock footage from Fox's Cleopatra and an impressive supporting cast. If anything the supporting cast are almost too impressive, often showing up actor-director Heston's weaknesses with the Bard's verse. While his co-stars generally favor a more naturalistic style, at times Heston goes for the kind of declamatory style that values the sound of the words rather than the meaning, a common pitfall with Shakespeare films. In his favor, Heston has the epic stature and presence to convince as a superstar of the ancient world whose fool for love act is revealing feet of clay that at first dismays and then sets his fans against him with fatal consequences, and his performance improves as he uses it against himself to expose the character's increasingly obvious flaws.

A labor of love for Heston (who apparently included use of stock footage from Cleopatra in his deal to make Beneath the Planet of the Apes), there's some real imagination in the staging - he sets Antony and Octavian's first meeting against a gladiatorial combat, while the aftermath of the battle of Actium is played out amid the wreckage on the beach - and great visuals - Heston really understands the scale of the story and the value of real locations as well as the occasional need for the kind of movement and energy that's so often missing from Shakespeare films. Not everything works (there's some flashcut inserts in a couple of scenes that are probably better as ideas than in execution), and it does tend to drag a bit in the last third, but then so does the play, yet there's more than enough here to mark Heston out as a more intelligent and imaginative director than he was ever given credit for.

It's also surprisingly well cast. Despite attracting much critical derision, Hildegard Neil is a convincingly mercurial Cleopatra, John Castle makes his Octavian equally disappointed and ruthless and there's strong support from Julian Glover, Douglas Wilmer, Jane Lapotoire, Peter Arne, Roger Delgado, John Hallam, Joe Melia and Fernando Rey (surprisingly well dubbed by Richard Johnson, who also dubs Aldo Sambrell and Juan Luis Galiardo). Even serial overactor Freddie Jones is kept under control for once as Pompey. But the film's outstanding performance is easily Eric Porter's Enobarbus, easily the finest Shakespeare performance I've ever seen on screen, managing at once to bring the verse to life without ever losing sight of the human being beneath it: his rapturous ode to "the barge she sat in" paints a far more spectacular and magical picture in the mind than anything in Joseph Mankiewicz's 1963 epic (though some of the footage from the Battle of Actium does turn up in the battle scenes). Equally worthy of star billing is John Scott's remarkable score, one of the best and most sadly overlooked of the 70s, and a thing of real beauty in its own way too. Given a rough ride by critics in its day and now extremely hard to find again, it's well worth a look.

[MassiveMovieBuff]

Originally Posted by Grimfrost

Making a purchase through SAE and noticed they have Runaway Train from TT. Anyone own that disc? Hows it stack up? This will be a blind buy, it looks amazing. I found out about the film after watching Electric Boogalo the Cannon films documentary. Cheers

Get the Arrow if you are region free. Along with having more special features on the Arrow, the TT release has a couple bad encoding glitches early in the film. I'm not positive if Arrow's doesn't have them but I would say not.

[Brad1963]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

Antony and Cleopatra was released on DVD by Warner. Does this mean there’s a deal with Warner or does another company own it now?

I believe it is controlled by the Heston estate. Warner only distributed the DVD as they did with Mother Lode.

[belcherman]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

The True Story of Jesse James is the one that really jumps out at me, but I'm all in for The Iron Horse as well.

Ditto that.

[RCRochester]

Aclea, do you have a write up on Oklahoma Crude? I’d never heard of it before but a 70s movie with George C. Scott is enough to pique my interest.

[x5gb]

Originally Posted by MassiveMovieBuff

Get the Arrow if you are region free. Along with having more special features on the Arrow, the TT release has a couple bad encoding glitches early in the film. I'm not positive if Arrow's doesn't have them but I would say not.

German bluray has better picture quality than both, Scream has encoding errors and Arrow has some filtering going on.

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by x5gb

German bluray has better picture quality than both, Scream has encoding errors and Arrow has some filtering going on.

What does Scream have to do with "Runaway Train"? Do you mean TT?

[belcherman]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

Aclea, do you have a write up on Oklahoma Crude? I’d never heard of it before but a 70s movie with George C. Scott is enough to pique my interest.

Oklahoma Crude is a movie I've always confused with Comes a Horseman. The plots are very similar. A fiercely independent woman in the "new" west frontier (Faye Dunaway, Jane Fonda) tries to make a go of a (oil rig, ranch) with the help of a hired hand (George C. Scott, James Caan) against the elements and the interests of big business (Jack Palance, Jason Robards).

Both films are good, not great. Oklahoma Crude has the benefit of George C. Scott, who is always worth watching.

[Doctor Jack]

Being a Cleopatra but, I have to get Antony and Cleopatra. I’ve never ordered a new release from Twilight Time. How exactly does it work? What time do they usually go on sale?

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

Aclea, do you have a write up on Oklahoma Crude? I’d never heard of it before but a 70s movie with George C. Scott is enough to pique my interest.

As it happens...



One of many nostalgic throwbacks that came about as major studios desperately struggled to lure audiences back to the cinemas in the 70s by offering the kind of films that used to do the trick in the 30s, albeit with somewhat looser morals, Oklahoma Crude quickly sank into obscurity along with director Stanley Kramer’s other box-office misfires that decade (Columbia didn’t even bother to include it on their Stanley Kramer DVD boxed set), but it’s not at all bad even if it never really lives up to the excellent first half. Faye Dunaway’s the hard-faced humourless wildcat oil driller trying to defend her rig from the big conglomerates and their local enforcer, Jack Palance, rejecting the help of her long absent father John Mills but reluctantly accepting that of George C. Scott’s unemployed drifter who he hires on her behalf. Although the set-up hints at an African Queen-style romantic comedy in a turn-of-the-century western setting, the film never really goes down that route, Dunaway too stubborn to admit she needs anybody while Scott sticks around for reasons even he’s not entirely sure of.

Despite the odd bit of sexual politics (though Dunaway has as little time for women as she does for men), there’s no big message for Kramer to hammer home this time, leaving him to concentrate on the characters. Despite their love of a good juicy bit of scenery to get their teeth into, Scott and Palance both underplay highly effectively even when Scott’s urinating on him while Dunaway dispenses with all her usual mannerisms – no near hyperventilation or stumbling breathlessly over her words here – and is all the better for it, while Mills offers excellent support. It’s a handsome looking picture too thanks to Robert Surtees’ Scope cinematography and Alfred Sweeney’s production design. The sparks never really fly, but the characters stay true to their own natures en route to a rather disappointing but typically 70s ending – it’s less what happens so much as how little it changes things. Still, it’s not a bad way to pass a couple of hours even if Kramer never strikes it big.

Curiously even though they had a good widescreen master (which I believe only came out as a regular DVD release in Spain as Oklahoma Ano 10), Sony didn't even give it an MOD release until 2012, but this should be a good looking disc given their track record.

[MassiveMovieBuff]

Originally Posted by x5gb

German bluray has better picture quality than both, Scream has encoding errors and Arrow has some filtering going on.

Oh good to know. Thanks. Do you know if the German is region free? I might just pick that up if it is

[Richard--W]

Originally Posted by Aclea

Excellent month - even the weakest of them is good (Oklahoma Crude's ending is a bit disappointing) and it's great to be getting Antony and Cleopatra:



Barely seen since it opened in 1972, Charlton Heston's Antony and Cleopatra is one of the handsomest and most vividly cinematic Shakespeare adaptations - this is first and foremost a film, and one whose epic scale often belies its surprisingly modest budget with judicious use of leftover sets from 50s and 60s epics, some well chosen Spanish locations, a bit of stock footage from Fox's Cleopatra and an impressive supporting cast. If anything the supporting cast are almost too impressive, often showing up actor-director Heston's weaknesses with the Bard's verse. While his co-stars generally favor a more naturalistic style, at times Heston goes for the kind of declamatory style that values the sound of the words rather than the meaning, a common pitfall with Shakespeare films. In his favor, Heston has the epic stature and presence to convince as a superstar of the ancient world whose fool for love act is revealing feet of clay that at first dismays and then sets his fans against him with fatal consequences, and his performance improves as he uses it against himself to expose the character's increasingly obvious flaws.

A labor of love for Heston (who apparently included use of stock footage from Cleopatra in his deal to make Beneath the Planet of the Apes), there's some real imagination in the staging - he sets Antony and Octavian's first meeting against a gladiatorial combat, while the aftermath of the battle of Actium is played out amid the wreckage on the beach - and great visuals - Heston really understands the scale of the story and the value of real locations as well as the occasional need for the kind of movement and energy that's so often missing from Shakespeare films. Not everything works (there's some flashcut inserts in a couple of scenes that are probably better as ideas than in execution), and it does tend to drag a bit in the last third, but then so does the play, yet there's more than enough here to mark Heston out as a more intelligent and imaginative director than he was ever given credit for.

It's also surprisingly well cast. Despite attracting much critical derision, Hildegard Neil is a convincingly mercurial Cleopatra, John Castle makes his Octavian equally disappointed and ruthless and there's strong support from Julian Glover, Douglas Wilmer, Jane Lapotoire, Peter Arne, Roger Delgado, John Hallam, Joe Melia and Fernando Rey (surprisingly well dubbed by Richard Johnson, who also dubs Aldo Sambrell and Juan Luis Galiardo). Even serial overactor Freddie Jones is kept under control for once as Pompey. But the film's outstanding performance is easily Eric Porter's Enobarbus, easily the finest Shakespeare performance I've ever seen on screen, managing at once to bring the verse to life without ever losing sight of the human being beneath it: his rapturous ode to "the barge she sat in" paints a far more spectacular and magical picture in the mind than anything in Joseph Mankiewicz's 1963 epic (though some of the footage from the Battle of Actium does turn up in the battle scenes). Equally worthy of star billing is John Scott's remarkable score, one of the best and most sadly overlooked of the 70s, and a thing of real beauty in its own way too. Given a rough ride by critics in its day and now extremely hard to find again, it's well worth a look.

Thanks for this fair appraisal, Aclea. I remember an interview with Heston where he talks about how he'd always wanted make this film after doing the play on stage. I think more highly of his performance than you do. It was one of the more memorable movies for me that year. I thought the DVD was an excellent transfer, so the upgrade should look spectacular.

Originally Posted by Aclea

As it happens...



One of many nostalgic throwbacks that came about as major studios desperately struggled to lure audiences back to the cinemas in the 70s by offering the kind of films that used to do the trick in the 30s, albeit with somewhat looser morals, Oklahoma Crude quickly sank into obscurity along with director Stanley Kramer’s other box-office misfires that decade (Columbia didn’t even bother to include it on their Stanley Kramer DVD boxed set), but it’s not at all bad even if it never really lives up to the excellent first half. Faye Dunaway’s the hard-faced humourless wildcat oil driller trying to defend her rig from the big conglomerates and their local enforcer, Jack Palance, rejecting the help of her long absent father John Mills but reluctantly accepting that of George C. Scott’s unemployed drifter who he hires on her behalf. Although the set-up hints at an African Queen-style romantic comedy in a turn-of-the-century western setting, the film never really goes down that route, Dunaway too stubborn to admit she needs anybody while Scott sticks around for reasons even he’s not entirely sure of.

Despite the odd bit of sexual politics (though Dunaway has as little time for women as she does for men), there’s no big message for Kramer to hammer home this time, leaving him to concentrate on the characters. Despite their love of a good juicy bit of scenery to get their teeth into, Scott and Palance both underplay highly effectively even when Scott’s urinating on him while Dunaway dispenses with all her usual mannerisms – no near hyperventilation or stumbling breathlessly over her words here – and is all the better for it, while Mills offers excellent support. It’s a handsome looking picture too thanks to Robert Surtees’ Scope cinematography and Alfred Sweeney’s production design. The sparks never really fly, but the characters stay true to their own natures en route to a rather disappointing but typically 70s ending – it’s less what happens so much as how little it changes things. Still, it’s not a bad way to pass a couple of hours even if Kramer never strikes it big.

Curiously even though they had a good widescreen master (which I believe only came out as a regular DVD release in Spain as Oklahoma Ano 10), Sony didn't even give it an MOD release until 2012, but this should be a good looking disc given their track record.

I think that documenting on film how wildcatters were forced -- as in against their will -- to surrender their oil rigs to conglomerates is Kramer's message here, Aclea. It was a time when poor people had a chance to strike it rich, and the larger corporations would use legal maneuvering and dirty tricks, not to mention assassination, to take their hopes away. There is a larger message in that, about how corporations stripped individuals of their property, their rights and legal recourse while waging political war against the rise of unions that working people formed to protect themselves. Kramer was old enough to remember the oil pumps thump-whacking along the streets of Los Angeles and Burbank in the 1920s and 1930s and newspaper stories of individuals fighting to keep them and occasionally strike it rich.

Further, I like how the action plays out in the third act and the resolution which almost, but not quite, brings us back to the beginning. The ending may have signaled a deepening pessimism in Kramer's idealism. Also, I interpreted Dunaway's disparagement of men as a withdrawal from romantic entanglements in order to pursue business rather than as lesbianism or disinterest in sex. This was actually perfectly clear, in my view. Anyhow ... Albert Whitlock's scenic matte enhancements contribute to the handsome look of the film.

The bluray is long overdue for this outstanding sleeper film.

[drb124]

I have the Indicator release of The New Centurions. I am considering the TT release since it is on sale for the exclusive commentaries. Any word on their quality.

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by drb124

I have the Indicator release of The New Centurions. I am considering the TT release since it is on sale for the exclusive commentaries. Any word on their quality.

The quality is equal to Indicator. They use the same master.

[tomkatholic]

He's asking about the quality of the commentaries, ie is it worth him double-dipping for them

[drb124]

Yeah, there is a good making of featurette on the Indicator release, but I would double dip if the commentaries are worthwhile.

[KJones77]

How often does TT hold sales such as this one?

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by KJones77

How often does TT hold sales such as this one?

They seem to be having the 15/15 sales once a month or once every other month nowadays. There should also be a bigger sale on all their Sony licenced titles some time in the next couple of months.

[oildude]

Pre-order date: Wednesday, September 5th at 4 pm EST


Directed by John Ford (Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, The Quiet Man, Mister Roberts, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Searchers, and many, many more of the greatest movies ever made).

Starring:

Spencer Tracy (Judgment at Nuremberg, Inherit the Wind, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Bad Day at Black Rock, Broken Lance)

Jeffrey Hunter (The Searchers, King of Kings, No Down Payment)

Dianne Foster (The Kentuckian, Drive a Crooked Road, and many 1950s and 1960s TV shows....The Last Hurrah is one of her few films)

Basil Rathbone (The Sherlock Holmes film series, The Mark of Zorro)

Cinematography by Charles Lawton Jr. (The Lady from Shanghai, 3:10 to Yuma, Jubal, Cowboy, Miss Sadie Thompson, A Raisin in the Sun, and many more - one of the great directors of photography)

Special Features: Isolated Music Track / Audio Commentary with Film Historians Lem Dobbs, Julie Kirgo, and Nick Redman