Twilight Time Discussion Thread

[klauswhereareyou]

My copy of Two For the Road (1967) arrived the other day. Great movie and the PQ is excellent. Didn't know much about it before watching it, but I'm glad I blind bought this.

[Shanghai Express]

Are there rumors of more new announcements coming?

[slop101]

Originally Posted by klauswhereareyou

My copy of Two For the Road (1967) arrived the other day. Great movie and the PQ is excellent. Didn't know much about it before watching it, but I'm glad I blind bought this.

I've seen 2ftR before, recalling that I liked it, but watched it recently with my wife, and she F-ing hated it, pointing out what an abusive jerk the Albert Finney character was, from verbal abuse to gaslighiting, though the movie treats him not as the villain that he is. It made her actually cry, and she's not over-emotional or anything, but the abuse reminded her of similar abuse she'd gotten years ago. Again, not that she's adverse to seeing abuse depicted, it's that the movie treated it as normal stuff.

[klauswhereareyou]

Originally Posted by slop101

I've seen 2ftR before, recalling that I liked it, but watched it recently with my wife, and she F-ing hated it, pointing out what an abusive jerk the Albert Finney character was, from verbal abuse to gaslighiting, though the movie treats him not as the villain that he is. It made her actually cry, and she's not over-emotional or anything, but the abuse reminded her of similar abuse she'd gotten years ago. Again, not that she's adverse to seeing abuse depicted, it's that the movie treated it as normal stuff.

I think from my interpretation from watching it was he needs her a lot more than she needs him, but then again they may both be happier if they were not married.

[Bradsdadg]

From Screen Archives:

Twilight Time Movies Low Quantity Alert!
Bound for Glory
Boston Strangler
Doctor Dolittle
Alamo Bay
Appassionata
Two For The Road
Gran Bollito
Valachi Papers
The Happy Ending
Rapid Fire
The Panic In Needle Park
Rollerball

[ilenewoodsfan99]

Got four new blu rays from SAE



Already have seen I Want to Live before, but I am looking forward to the others!

[blurayisnice]

Originally Posted by Bradsdadg

From Screen Archives:

Twilight Time Movies Low Quantity Alert!
Bound for Glory
Boston Strangler
Doctor Dolittle
Alamo Bay
Appassionata
Two For The Road
Gran Bollito
Valachi Papers
The Happy Ending
Rapid Fire
The Panic In Needle Park
Rollerball

The Panic In Needle Park is a great film!

This round, I only got 3:

The Hospital
Sunshine
Pretty Poison

[scohenmarinetech]

Anyone selling a copy of Sexy Beast for a reasonable price?

[nitin]

Jonathan Demme’s Melvin and Howard is a delightful and underrated gem from his 1980’s output.

I am not from the US so wasn’t particularly aware of the underlying true story that this was loosely based on but considering the nature of that story, it was a pretty ballsy move from Demme and screenwriter Bo Goldman to focus the majority of their film on the day to day life of Melvin Dummar rather than his (alleged) interaction with Howard Hughes and the resultant media and legal trials that ensued after the discovery of the Mormon will (with those aspects forming essentially the prologue and epilogue of the film, respectively).

And apart from being a ballsy move, their choice just results in a flat out fun film about ‘milkman of the month’ Melvin’s dreamer character who is always hoping for a quick score and his ongoing interactions with his hilarious and sweet wife/ex-wife played by Mary Steenburgen in a delightfully quirky but never less than real performance. Props also to the casting people too because Paul Le Mat nails the Melvin role without ever toning down his flaws and Jason Robards’ Howard Hughes performance lingers over the whole film despite it constituting maybe 10 min of screen time.

He sang my song indeed. (And speaking of songs, the film features another brilliantly curated soundtrack from Demme).

Twilight Time’s blu is unfortunately from an old Universal master that has above average detail and noticeable DNR and EE throughout. The biggest problem however is in the opening 10 minutes which are set at night and in a lot of darkness. I am not sure if it’s the encode or the master (if I had to guess, I would say it’s mainly the master) but these 10 min are almost unwatchable as attempts have been made to brighten parts of the image for clarity but that tinkering has introduced very bad banding and macroblocking as a side effect. However, unless someone decided to pay for a new master and re-release the film, the TT release might be the best we get.

Highly Recommended as a film/Recommended as a blu.

[GeoffOliver]

Picked up Pretty Poison new from an eBay seller for $30. Decent film from that era if you’re into teen crime, and I always enjoy Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld (though Perkins was sort of an obvious choice for his character, it actually makes the film less predictable since you expect him to repeat Norman Bates). The disc looks decent, and there’s a couple commentaries on the disc, along with script pages for a deleted scene (and a separate audio snippet of director Noel Black talking about it).

[Jope]

Originally Posted by GeoffOliver

Picked up Pretty Poison new from an eBay seller for $30. Decent film from that era if you’re into teen crime, and I always enjoy Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld (though Perkins was sort of an obvious choice for his character, it actually makes the film less predictable since you expect him to repeat Norman Bates). The disc looks decent, and there’s a couple commentaries on the disc, along with script pages for a deleted scene (and a separate audio snippet of director Noel Black talking about it).

this is a great movie and strangely funny. anthony perkins plays a terrific part. i love how he winkingly plays "against" type in this. he's so lighthearted and boyish, even though he's deeply troubled and disturbed.

[Dailyan]

New titles available to pre-order: "Messalina" and "Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye"

https://www1.screenarchives.com/titl...ERATRICE-1960/


https://www1.screenarchives.com/titl...EL-GATTO-1973/

[brainofj72]

Not that I have anything against any of the four new movies, but I must say these titles aren’t inspiring a lot of enthusiasm for the revived TT in me. This just seems like stuff other boutiques could be doing, and it’s not what I think of when I think of why I loved TT.

[dwk]

I suspect that the new TT doesn't have the studio connections that the old TT had and that is why they are releasing these types of titles and not the deep studio catalog.

[Katatonia]

Originally Posted by dwk

I suspect that the new TT doesn't have the studio connections that the old TT had and that is why they are releasing these types of titles and not the deep studio catalog.

There also haven't been any of the Isolated Music Tracks on the discs, which TT used to utilize on the majority of the older releases.

[repulsed]

I'm very interested in an the new releases, though I do have The Man From Hong Kong from Umbrella, but not at 60 or so bucks for each pair.

[DukeTogo84]

I’m getting both. CatsEye is great and I’m a sucker for sword and sandal films so I’m interested in Messalina.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by dwk

I suspect that the new TT doesn't have the studio connections that the old TT had and that is why they are releasing these types of titles and not the deep studio catalog.

Yeah, they're under new management, they don't have the studio connections and contracts that Brian Jamieson and Nick Redman did, they're trying to rebuild the brand. As long as they put out quality product during this rebuilding phase, it's possible they could re-establish the label's reputation and connect with some of the bigger studios down the road.

[Monterey Jack]

Originally Posted by Katatonia

There also haven't been any of the Isolated Music Tracks on the discs, which TT used to utilize on the majority of the older releases.

Shame, as those were a major attraction to getting TT titles.

[Beckford]

Good news about "Messalina". It's a quality peplum. And the Anita Ekberg-like Belinda Lee is indeed excellent casting. An added bonus: the film features an early appearance from future spaghetti western superstar Giuliano Gemma. He's a young would be assassin Messalina gleefully seduces, then dispatches to a memorable fate. As it happens, I recently rewatched my Region 2 DVD from Germany and the picture quality was topnotch. So I'm expecting the Twilight Blu to look darn good.
Hope this sells enough to encourage Blu-rays on some of the other good femme fatale peplums. I suppose "Le Legioni di Cleopatra"(Legions of the Nile) with Linda Cristal and sword and sandal stalwarts Ettore Manni and Georges Marchal is off the table as I believe it's controlled by Fox/Disney. But maybe we can hope for "Il Sepolcro dei Re"(Cleopatra's Daughter) with Debra Paget & Ettore Manni or "Il Leone di Teba"(The Lion of Thebes) where genial muscleman Mark Forest guides Helen of Troy (the wonderful Yvonne Furneaux) through a series of post Trojan War adventures in Egypt.