Twilight Time Discussion Thread

[bwdowiak]

I picked up:

Man Hunt
The Man From Laramie
All The King's Men
Experiment in Terror

had an inkling to see the last 2 for some time now... saw that the first two are well liked around here and reviewed well, too.

I forgot to grab Violent Saturday, although I'm turned off by no subtitles.

the new Truffaut is an absolute must have for me, but I'll wait to see if I can get a copy on eBay for a few bucks less. it isn't selling out, I don't think.

[JoeDeM]

Wow I had a really hard time picking, finally settled on

sale:
Brannigan
Violent Saturday
The Secret of Santa Vittoria
Dogs of War
Drums Along the Mohawk
Flaming Star

non-sale:
Stormy Weather

I'm actually more excited about Stormy Weather, this is a fantastic gem, with it's all African American cast and amazing musical numbers.

[RiderNation]

Thanks to many members' recommendations, I ordered Rapture, along with Crimes and Misdemeanours, The Man From Laramie, and Birdman of Alcatraz. I pre-ordered Zardoz separately with Man Hunt, Two Rode Together, and The Mechanic. Being in Canada, a great sale like this helps to soothe me over the exchange rate and shipping costs (multiple titles per order is definitely the way to go)!

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I buy movies that I like enough to watch more than once, and I blindly buy movies that I think that I will like enough to watch more than once. So far, I've had a 100% success rate with my collection.

I won't deny that there is a compulsive element to collecting movies this way, I won't deny that my collection is a commitment in terms of storage space, although I purposely go out of my way to buy the simplest editions of most Blu-rays, and I certainly will not deny that this is an expensive compulsion.

I do not feel a need to own every single movie that I have ever liked, though. There are quite a few flicks that I love and hold in high esteem, but simply have no desire ever to watch more than once. My Girl (1991) and 12 Years a Slave (2013) are a couple of examples that come to mind.

I do tend to buy all movies from the 1980s that even remotely intrigued me when I was younger. I have a lot of fond memories from that decade, and the cinema from that era is like bottled-up doses of happy nostalgia, even with regard to the horror movies or bleak drama films. I suppose that this seems pretty weird to most people, but, hey, that's how I roll, and it is what it is.

Great post, man.

I think some people are taking my post as an insult and getting defensive, but it wasn't intended that way. The fact I would love to own every sci-fi film ever made, even the bad ones, is certainly a compulsion. I own Supernova for god's sake! I can't judge. We all have our thing, and I share your 80's love as well.

All I am saying is if your compulsions and re-watchable movies span far and wide enough to get 100 Twilight Time titles, well... that's a lot. I don't know whether I envy that or am scared of it but either way more power to you, do what you like.

Me personally, I can't re-watch a movie like Heaven and Earth over and over again, despite loving it, and I can't afford to buy movies I won't re-watch. I wouldn't think anyone would buy a movie they know they only want to watch once or twice in a lifetime, but maybe they do.

[noirjunkie]

Originally Posted by jmclick

I consider Experiment in Terror to be highly underrated. It's really not so much a noir, at least not in the classic sense; it's more a cat-and-mouse suspense thriller with a bit of mystery and a dash of horror thrown in for good measure. Lovely Lee Remick gives a great performance (she and Helen Chandler had the most beautiful eyes in the history of cinema) and Glenn Ford and Ross Martin are both very effective. The cinematography is excellent (this is one of those black-and-white films that wouldn't have worked as well in color), and Blake Edwards' direction is sure-handed.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I have over the years!

It's still amazing to me that this and Rapture haven't sold out yet.

[jetthead]

Originally Posted by noirjunkie

It's still amazing to me that this and Rapture haven't sold out yet.

Indeed. They are both terrific films.

[cakefactory]

For many years, I had been under the false impression that Experiment in Terror was a very well known, popular movie. I think it was based on that Fantomas album where they did movie themes, and many of the others were like Rosemary's Baby and The Godfather and Charade and much more popular things. I guess having the theme covered by Fantomas was not a good indicator of future blu-ray popularity. Also, I guess that album had stuff like The Devil Rides Out, Investigation of a Citizen Under Suspicion and Fire Walk With Me so it certainly wasn't all mega-popular stuff.

I like the movie a lot (it was the first TT title I got, and I didn't wait for a sale!), but people going into it should be aware it's more of a style exercise than anything. It's got VERY flourishy camera-work/lighting and incredibly over-the-top acting and plotting, and it's all by design of course, but I think people going in for some kind of gritty, intelligent noir might be disappointed. It's instead like a really dark, over-the-top thriller that is aiming for style over "substance." Not a criticism, it's just the style IS the substance. :P The plot also is very straightforward so if you're expecting some complex Diabolique-influenced thing, it is definitely not that!

[benbess]

Picked up Inherit the Wind. Saw it in HS 35 years ago and I still can't get it out of my mind. The film seems to have gotten better over the decades for me....

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I think some people are taking my post as an insult and getting defensive, but it wasn't intended that way.

Well, to be perfectly honest, it was the following comment that I found off-putting:

However I know some people collect labels and buy films they don't love just to complete a collection, and I hope that person isn't doing that. Not healthy behavior.

Categorizing someone who chooses to "complete a collection" as exhibiting "non-healthy behavior" can be insulting. I consider strapping two pieces of polished wood to your feet and throwing yourself down the side of a mountain at high velocity to be "unhealthy behavior" -- quite literally, if you end up breaking bones in the process -- but I know several people who are (otherwise) fairly sane and well-adjusted who like to ski. That's their lookout.

All I am saying is if your compulsions and re-watchable movies span far and wide enough to get 100 Twilight Time titles, well... that's a lot. I don't know whether I envy that or am scared of it but either way more power to you, do what you like.

Me personally, I can't re-watch a movie like Heaven and Earth over and over again, despite loving it, and I can't afford to buy movies I won't re-watch. I wouldn't think anyone would buy a movie they know they only want to watch once or twice in a lifetime, but maybe they do.

I don't buy movies because I want to re-watch them over and over, just as I don't buy books because I want to re-read them over and over. With both, there are some cases in which I do and some in which I don't. The reason I buy them is because I want to have them directly to hand if I should have a hankering to watch them. And it might not even be the entire movie. I've probably watched The Little Mermaid only five or six times straight through from beginning to end, but have watched selected scenes/musical numbers dozens of times.

And the real question is not whether I have an interest in watching something over and over again, but whether I have the time to watch something over and over again. But when I do have the time, I have the disc over there on the shelf.

It's not just that other people might have different tastes than you, it's also that other people have a different sense of priorities than you.

[Blu Titan]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Well, to be perfectly honest, it was the following comment that I found off-putting:



Categorizing someone who chooses to "complete a collection" as exhibiting "non-healthy behavior" can be insulting. I consider strapping two pieces of polished wood to your feet and throwing yourself down the side of a mountain at high velocity to be "unhealthy behavior" -- quite literally, if you end up breaking bones in the process -- but I know several people who are (otherwise) fairly sane and well-adjusted who like to ski. That's their lookout.



I don't buy movies because I want to re-watch them over and over, just as I don't buy books because I want to re-read them over and over. With both, there are some cases in which I do and some in which I don't. The reason I buy them is because I want to have them directly to hand if I should have a hankering to watch them. And it might not even be the entire movie. I've probably watched The Little Mermaid only five or six times straight through from beginning to end, but have watched selected scenes/musical numbers dozens of times.

And the real question is not whether I have an interest in watching something over and over again, but whether I have the time to watch something over and over again. But when I do have the time, I have the disc over there on the shelf.

It's not just that other people might have different tastes than you, it's also that other people have a different sense of priorities than you.

Some people have more disposable income then others...or others might not have much income but have few expenses. Thus, their disposable income is higher. I would be the last to brag...I am not rich, but spending a couple of hundreds in movies is really not a big deal for me.

[joey cusack]

Originally Posted by Aclea

Well, she is a very impressive woman...



"Never hit a man when he's down. He may get up."

Despite the enduring popularity of George Macdonald Fraser's novels, the exploits of Harry Flashman, the school bully who made Tom Brown's schooldays such an ordeal and whose subsequently chronicled military career saw him popping up across the globe at historically propitious moments, didn't have much luck with the big screen. An attempt to film Flashman, the first novel, with John Alderton as the bounder and Richard Lester directing was cancelled only days before shooting was scheduled to start in 1970 and even after Lester and Macdonald were coming off the success of The Three and Four Musketeers, 1975's Royal Flash came almost as close to being cancelled before a last-minute change of studios saved the day only for the film's box-office failure to kill off all hope of sequels. Which is a shame, because it's a wonderful comedy adventure spin on The Prisoner of Zenda (the novel's conceit is that it was Anthony Hope who stole the idea after Flashman told him of his exploits) which just happens to involve real historical figures like Otto Von Bismarck (a coldly pompous Oliver Reed), Lola Montes (Florinda Bolkan), King Ludwig of Bavaria and even bare-knuckle boxer-turned-Member of Parliament John Gully (`Our `Enry' Copper, dubbed by Norman Rossington).

Flashman's certainly a wonderful comic hero for an increasingly cynical and disillusioned age. The hero of Afghanistan is almost the British Empire incarnate in all its self-righteous self-serving cynicism, a shamelessly xenophobic exploiter who wraps himself up in all the great British values he doesn't hold but who still constantly ends up doing some good by complete accident and bad luck while trying to fill his boots. He's not exactly a complete coward, though he always tries to manipulate the odds in his favour ("Come on down and fight like a man." "Don't be ridiculous!"), he's certainly a braggart and a bigot and the kind of person who is always absolutely guaranteed to let you down and steal your girlfriend and your last five pounds in the process, yet, as Big George Webley says in one of the DVD and Bluray's accompanying featurettes, you still want to be his mate.

While Fraser's first choice for the role, Errol Flynn, was too dead and his second, David Niven, too old, Malcolm McDowall makes a very pleasing and surprisingly acrobatic substitute even if the surface emphasis shifts from charm to selfishness, and he's surrounded by an excellent supporting cast - Alan Bates on wonderfully witty form and an excellent foil for McDowall in the Rupert of Hentzau role, Britt Ekland cast against type as a frigid duchess, Alastair Sim (not given much to do in one of his last roles), Lionel Jeffries, Tom Bell, Joss Ackland, Christopher Cazenove (who could have made a decent Flashman himself had his profile been higher), Michael Hordern, Bob Hoskins and David Jason. It's given top notch production values too, from cinematography by Geoffrey Unsworth to production design by Terence Marsh and some excellent location work in Bavaria. All of which would just be window dressing if it weren't for the film's wickedly entertaining sense of fun that at once manages to debunk period swashbucklers while celebrating them, with Lester throwing in some wonderful sight gags (one with a bored maid washing the floor at an especially dramatic moment in the story is a particular gem) without losing sight of the story. As the TV spot included on the disc says, it's `A terribly funny film with absolutely no redeeming social value,' and one which definitely seems to have improved with age.

Like Fox's DVD release, Twilight Time's limited edition region-free Blu-ray of the general release version doesn't offer any of the deleted scenes (the film was trimmed after previewing badly, losing Arthur Lowe and Roy Kinnear's scenes) but does have the same satisfying extras package, pride of place going to an enjoyable audio commentary with McDowall affectionately looking back on the film (he's particularly good on his warm relationship with Bates and how they had to rewrite the script to appeal to his admitted vanity and on Sim's tendency to sputter his lines causing him to despair of having to dub his lines). Also included are two featurettes featuring Fraser and both his admirers and some of those who worked on the film, one on the making of the film, the other on the Flashman books, and isolated music and effects track and a booklet (a different one to that included on Fox's DVD). The impressive transfer is a noticeable improvement over the DVD version, though like many 70s films it does occasionally have a deliberately diffused look.

I'm a fan of the Flashman books having read most of them after I read about George MacDonald Frasier and the character after GMDF's death. That being said I think this is definitely a case of the books being better than the movie especially with all the historical references to real events and people in the books (in Royal Flash - Otto Bismarck, Lola Montez, etc) and explanations in the books' indices. I do think Malcom Mcdowell plays a pretty good Flashman and I think it's worth a view ( Maybe a double feature with Criterion's Lola Montez ) but I don't know if it's worth more than one view unless you're a fan of the character who is quite a scallywag or Mr. Mcdowell.

[Mughi]

Very nice review, Aclea! I was less taken with Royal Flash myself, having enormous expectations for it given my appreciation of both Malcolm McDowell and the novels...the slapstick falls oddly flat for me. But since I was first drawn to the novels by the movie connection, I can't complain too much!

While many attempts have been made to bring more Flashman to the screen over the years, the latest sounds very promising indeed, having none other than Ridley Scott attached to it. He has the chops for the period setting and the action...I just hope the humor doesn't elude him.

This conversation brings something else to mind...while most of the major gaps in tentpole cinema releases have been filled in by Blu-Ray at this point, The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers are still oddly missing. Now that I realize that, I want them badly...

[polterclown]

agh the musketeer films are available here in europe ( not sure if they locked )
and lets not forget the third one in the series :
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ilmPoster.jpeg

[CRSearle]

Originally Posted by jamboree

I don't buy movies because I want to re-watch them over and over, just as I don't buy books because I want to re-read them over and over. With both, there are some cases in which I do and some in which I don't. The reason I buy them is because I want to have them directly to hand if I should have a hankering to watch them. And it might not even be the entire movie. I've probably watched The Little Mermaid only five or six times straight through from beginning to end, but have watched selected scenes/musical numbers dozens of times.

And the real question is not whether I have an interest in watching something over and over again, but whether I have the time to watch something over and over again. But when I do have the time, I have the disc over there on the shelf.

It's not just that other people might have different tastes than you, it's also that other people have a different sense of priorities than you.

jamboree your explanation nails exacly why I collect.

[tcdrek]

Does anyone know what brand of blu-ray case that twilight time uses for most of their releases? I have one twilight time bd (Sexy Beast) that came in a Viva Elite case, but all of the others I've ordered come in a case that has more squared-off corners (especially on the spine) and feels heavier and sturdier than a Viva Elite, but has a blu-ray insiginia that seems more cheaply applied to the case. Unfortunately, there is no writing on this type of case which makes locating a vendor that might sell them difficult. Any help would be appreciated.

[Deep]

Originally Posted by tcdrek

Does anyone know what brand of blu-ray case that twilight time uses for most of their releases? I have one twilight time bd (Sexy Beast) that came in a Viva Elite case, but all of the others I've ordered come in a case that has more squared-off corners (especially on the spine) and feels heavier and sturdier than a Viva Elite, but has a blu-ray insiginia that seems more cheaply applied to the case. Unfortunately, there is no writing on this type of case which makes locating a vendor that might sell them difficult. Any help would be appreciated.

Older releases used Viva Elite cases but early last year they switched to the cases with squared-off corners (which Olive Films have always used). These are generic cases made by Octave Systems (I think).

-D

[Sho-Nuff]

Originally Posted by AgentOrange

It's somewhat of a recent phenomenon, really. Amazon is the first I recall adjusting the price on the fly automatically, but that only applies if the item hasn't shipped. If it's already shipped, not so much. (their CS would almost certainly do it after the fact, but they consider it a negative customer service event). Now some big box retailers give you like 14 days, and they do this to compete with Amazon, but I'd hardly say it's "customer service 101".

Most businesses will just laugh at you if you say you want a price adjustment AFTER you already agree and paid for a deal. Big Box Retail is really the only place it happens IMO.

Just about every store I've purchased from tells me to bring in that receipt for a price adjustment or call the customer service number if I purchased online and they will adjust the price if it's within their return policy.

I'm not sure what businesses you shop at where "they laugh at you" AFTER you agree and paid for the price at the time...... I've been shopping many many years and NEVER experienced that....as long as if you have the receipt and its within their return policy......even during a big sale the price is usually adjusted..... excluding black Friday sales

So I completely disagree.....It's basic customer service 101.

[nitin]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Well, to be perfectly honest, it was the following comment that I found off-putting:



Categorizing someone who chooses to "complete a collection" as exhibiting "non-healthy behavior" can be insulting. I consider strapping two pieces of polished wood to your feet and throwing yourself down the side of a mountain at high velocity to be "unhealthy behavior" -- quite literally, if you end up breaking bones in the process -- but I know several people who are (otherwise) fairly sane and well-adjusted who like to ski. That's their lookout.



I don't buy movies because I want to re-watch them over and over, just as I don't buy books because I want to re-read them over and over. With both, there are some cases in which I do and some in which I don't. The reason I buy them is because I want to have them directly to hand if I should have a hankering to watch them. And it might not even be the entire movie. I've probably watched The Little Mermaid only five or six times straight through from beginning to end, but have watched selected scenes/musical numbers dozens of times.

And the real question is not whether I have an interest in watching something over and over again, but whether I have the time to watch something over and over again. But when I do have the time, I have the disc over there on the shelf.

It's not just that other people might have different tastes than you, it's also that other people have a different sense of priorities than you.

good post. All I would add is that rewatching the same stuff over and over isnt exaclty everyone's cup of tea either.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by jayembee

I don't buy movies because I want to re-watch them over and over, just as I don't buy books because I want to re-read them over and over. With both, there are some cases in which I do and some in which I don't. The reason I buy them is because I want to have them directly to hand if I should have a hankering to watch them. And it might not even be the entire movie. I've probably watched The Little Mermaid only five or six times straight through from beginning to end, but have watched selected scenes/musical numbers dozens of times.

And the real question is not whether I have an interest in watching something over and over again, but whether I have the time to watch something over and over again. But when I do have the time, I have the disc over there on the shelf.

It's not just that other people might have different tastes than you, it's also that other people have a different sense of priorities than you.

I must not be writing my points correctly because you're taking something much different away from my posts. I obviously collect as well. Like I said I want every sci-fi movie ever made, that's certainly a collector mindset. The point is more that I focus on sci-fi, spy movies and 80's action because you have to focus on something.

There are millions of movies out there. If you buy any that you like on any level or buy them just to have them then it seems like an unattainable and unfocused goal. There's too many movies to just buy anything. So my point is more that I hope others similarly try to put a focus on things like I do, to keep their collecting realistic. Unless you're uber-rich and have no budget at all on purchasing then every time you buy one thing you're not buying another. It helps to have guidelines and genre styles you want to focus on. So when I say "wow 100+ TT titles" I just mean that seems pretty scattershot, pretty broad.

[baheidstu]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I must not be writing my points correctly because you're taking something much different away from my posts. I obviously collect as well. Like I said I want every sci-fi movie ever made, that's certainly a collector mindset. The point is more that I focus on sci-fi, spy movies and 80's action because you have to focus on something.

There are millions of movies out there. If you buy any that you like on any level or buy them just to have them then it seems like an unattainable and unfocused goal. There's too many movies to just buy anything. So my point is more that I hope others similarly try to put a focus on things like I do, to keep their collecting realistic. Unless you're uber-rich and have no budget at all on purchasing then every time you buy one thing you're not buying another. It helps to have guidelines and genre styles you want to focus on. So when I say "wow 100+ TT titles" I just mean that seems pretty scattershot, pretty broad.

You're making your point fine but you don't seem to get that not everyone has the same approach to collecting as you do. If you want to focus on certain genres and put a certain limit on your spending budget, than that's fine if that fits your personality, lifestyle and income. Other people have different interests, approaches, incomes, etc. and to make a comment like that does come across as somewhat judgmental and condescending, even if that was not the intent.