Twilight Time Discussion Thread

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by ParaOK

Just read the following in a blog post on TT's site:

"In 2016, look for Fritz Lang’s scalding The Big Heat (1953), starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame and Lee Marvin, to return to TT’s larcenous lineup following its initial sellout run."

http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/news/mass-mobsterism/

I'm personally looking forward to this as I missed it during the first run.

Of course that's one they'll reissue, because that's the one OOP title I got after the fact at a higher-than-list price. You're all welcome.

[filmmusic]

So, that concludes the re-issues?

[Blu2u]

I went to a Movie Trading Company and the employees were talking about exchanging copies of movies that had just come out in theaters. A bit short-sighted considering their job consists of renting/selling movies to people.

[The Great Owl]

This afternoon, I pulled another long-time-still-unwatched title from my stacks, and enjoyed my Twilight Time Blu-ray of Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation.

Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation is quaint at first glance, but I quite liked it in terms of, as the booklet states, a bridge between the 1950s family values and more cynical 1960s rebellion. James Stewart is the backbone that holds this film together, because his wisecracks and his voiceovers got the most chuckles out of me. All in all, this is a good early cinematic take on the idea that most associate with National Lampoon's Vacation, with regard to a family that goes through inane circumstances and somehow comes out on top.

The Blu-ray format has been quite good to Mareen O'Hara, and she has been drop-dead gorgeous in every film that I've seen in high definition. In Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation, she's certainly the hottest grandmother in history.

The disc sports a great color transfer, and impressive audio. All in all, it's a win that deserves more recognition.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

This afternoon, I pulled another long-time-still-unwatched title from my stacks, and enjoyed my Twilight Time Blu-ray of Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation.

Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation is quaint at first glance, but I quite liked it in terms of, as the booklet states, a bridge between the 1950s family values and more cynical 1960s rebellion. James Stewart is the backbone that holds this film together, because his wisecracks and his voiceovers got the most chuckles out of me. All in all, this is a good early cinematic take on the idea that most associate with National Lampoon's Vacation, with regard to a family that goes through inane circumstances and somehow comes out on top.

The Blu-ray format has been quite good to Mareen O'Hara, and she has been drop-dead gorgeous in every film that I've seen in high definition. In Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation, she's certainly the hottest grandmother in history.

The disc sports a great color transfer, and impressive audio. All in all, it's a win that deserves more recognition.

It's a fun movie - nothing groundbreaking but still genuinely enjoyable. It's a superior example of that all-but forgotten genre: the family comedy - a film both aimed at the whole family but also taking aim at the whole notion of family togetherness, even if it's not loaded for bear. Easing into the grandpa stage of his career, James Stewart is the centre of the storm, the grumpy family man who finds his wife (Maureen O'Hara) has taken a house on the coast with the idea of not only taking their two youngest children with them but also their two married daughters and their husbands. Naturally it's a recipe for disaster - the house looks like Norman Bates was renting rooms and nobody's bothered to clean it since he went away to that nice hospital, the Heath Robinson-style generator becomes Stewart's mortal enemy, his youngest daughter (Lauri Peters) won't leave the house because she's too embarrassed about her braces and his youngest son (Michael Burns) takes the TV on vacation with him so he doesn't have to see the family, one of the grandchildren hates Stewart so much he throws things at him whenever he sees him, one husband (Josh Peine) storms off after a row while the other (John Saxon's smug professor) takes an interest in Valerie Varda's glamorous neighbor, Reginald Gardiner's yacht club bigwig takes a shine to O'Hara and they find themselves having to accommodate Peine's prospective employer, the puritanically uninteresting bird-watching teetotaller John McGiver and his wife Marie Wilson as well... the usual family holiday nightmares that make the grownups count the days until they can get back to the safety of work.

Naturally everything eventually works out just as you expect it will, even if Stewart has to tell a few lies or bribe Fabian to date Peters, but there's a lot of fun to be had along the way. Like most vacations, it takes its time to get into the swing of things, and it's more an accumulation of gentle smiles and good humour than belly laughs, at least until McGiver memorably teaches Stewart the fundamentals of birdwatching in the film's funniest setpiece. But it's as sincerely likeable as many of Stewart's frustrations are all too recognisable from real life, keeping things for the most part focussed on sweating the small stuff to the maximum effect. It's well crafted by old studio hands like screenwriter Nunnally Johnson and director Henry Koster (who worked with Stewart on Harvey), with an easygoing score by Henry Mancini that initially takes its cue from Alain Roman's memorable theme for M. Hulot's Vacances before going off on its own direction. Very nice transfer, too.

[Quake1028]

Does TT or SAE ever have sales or free shipping or anything?

[Blu MacReady]

Originally Posted by Quake1028

Does TT or SAE ever have sales or free shipping or anything?

Yeah had a sale recently. Gave $5 off delivery recently too

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Quake1028

Does TT or SAE ever have sales or free shipping or anything?

They've had anniversary sales in March 2014 and 2015. In each case, it was a select number of titles -- presumably their slower-selling titles -- and they were mostly $10 off the SRP. It was a collaborative sale between TT and SAE. Now that TT has a separate site, and sells directly to customers, I'm not sure if there will be a sale next year, and if there is, whether it'll be from one site, the other site, or both.

[Ianzombie]

I'm looking forward to yorga, not the price but it's a movie I want. And I have the sequel on pre-order already.
I am happy it will have some extras to take some of the financial sting out. I simply could not afford to order from them often, especially when shipping to Ireland is added.
I might be tempted to go in for scream and scream again, to add to my Vincent price collection, if I can raise the funds needed.

[morg999]

Originally Posted by dommie

Definitely want The Thing From Another World.

How about getting these titles released?
Big Wednesday (John Milius' surfing opus about growing up in the late 60's)
The Late Show (70's detective homage to those 40's film noir detective thrillers like The Big Sleep)
Seven Days in May (Burt Lancaster/Kirk Douglas cold war thriller)
Warlock (the Richard Widmark/Henry Fonda 1959 western)

And three great John Sturges films:
Last Train From Gun Hill (great 50's Kirk Douglas western)
Never So Few (Frank Sinatra, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson)
and Bad Day at Black Rock (this was announced several years ago and then nothing happened).

Originally Posted by MikeZ.

Watched this one again just the other day, great, great film.

A year later and still nothing .....

[John_Drake]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Of course that's one they'll reissue, because that's the one OOP title I got after the fact at a higher-than-list price. You're all welcome.

Thanks--now would you mind buying a copy of The Egyptian so we can get a reissue of that as well?

[Girls With Guns]

So I bought my first TT release about a week ago, was perusing their site and saw just one title listed in their "Going Fast" page, the "Thunderbirds are Go! / Thunderbird 6 release. I used to watch the TV series religiously when I was a kid back in the '60's, so I figured I just had to have a copy. It just arrived yesterday in the mail, and a friend of mine happened to stop over last night for a few beers, so we popped the Blu-ray in and watched the first movie up on the big 120" projection screen in my theater. Lol, it was a great watch, humorously awkward but awesomely nostalgic... loves me some of that good ol' classic puppet porn!

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by dommie View Post
Definitely want The Thing From Another World.

How about getting these titles released?
Big Wednesday (John Milius' surfing opus about growing up in the late 60's)
The Late Show (70's detective homage to those 40's film noir detective thrillers like The Big Sleep)
Seven Days in May (Burt Lancaster/Kirk Douglas cold war thriller)
Warlock (the Richard Widmark/Henry Fonda 1959 western)

And three great John Sturges films:
Last Train From Gun Hill (great 50's Kirk Douglas western)
Never So Few (Frank Sinatra, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson)
and Bad Day at Black Rock (this was announced several years ago and then nothing happened).

Originally Posted by morg999

A year later and still nothing .....

Bad Day at Black Rock (as well as some others on the list above) is owned by Warner, so it's highly unlikely that TT would release it.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by John_Drake

Thanks--now would you mind buying a copy of The Egyptian so we can get a reissue of that as well?

I would, if I could find it at a price I can live with.

[The Great Owl]

I've resolved to quit procrastinating with some of the long-time still-unwatched Blu-rays in my collection, so, earlier tonight, I watched my Twilight Time Blu-ray of Fate is the Hunter, and followed it up with the feature-length documentary about Nancy Kwan, To Whom It May Concern: Ka Shen's Journey.

Fate is the Hunter is everything that the 2012 Robert Zemeckis film, Flight, should have been. It's a meditation on procedurals and human drama that somehow manages to be riveting even during its quietest moments. The movie opens with a plane crash that is terrifying even by today's standards, and then follows it up with an even more unsettling sequence of the aftermath. From there, an airline investigator, played by Glenn Ford, delves into the possible factors behind the crash, especially with regard to a background examination of a pilot and personal friend, played by Rod Taylor, whom most viewers will recognize from his role in The Time Machine (1960), and conversations with a stewardess survivor, played by Suzanne Pleshette, whom most viewers will recognize from her school teacher role in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. A series of encounters of people from the pilot's past figure into the equation, the most thought-provoking of which involves a biologist, played by Nancy Kwan.

Nancy Kwan, whose signature is on the booklet of my promo autograph Blu-ray of this film, has a background worthy of its own film, and that's just what we get here, in the form of To Whom It May Concern: Ka Shen's Journey, which stands as one of the best special features included on a Twilight Time disc. My mind tends to wander during lengthy supplementary documentaries on discs, but I was engaged all through this particular film.

I'm just now getting into the commentary track, and it's pretty solid as well.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Fate is the Hunter is everything that the 2012 Robert Zemeckis film, Flight, should have been. It's a meditation on procedurals and human drama that somehow manages to be riveting even during its quietest moments. The movie opens with a plane crash that is terrifying even by today's standards, and then follows it up with an even more unsettling sequence of the aftermath.

That's one I've had sitting on the shelf for a while without getting round to despite wanting to see it - possibly because when my father was in the Air Force his job was 'cleaning up' after the nastier crashes, which has made me keep it somewhat at arm's length to date (something like an Airport movie I've no problem, curiously enough). But reading your review I'll try to finally bit the bullet this week.

[morg999]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Bad Day at Black Rock (as well as some others on the list above) is owned by Warner, so it's highly unlikely that TT would release it.

You're right.. I just looked @ my DVD. I took a quick look @ imdb earlier and thought I saw MGM was distributor..thanks for the update.

[The Great Owl]

I have a day off work today, so I watched my Twilight Time Blu-ray of The Blue Max this morning.

This was my first time seeing The Blue Max, and I think that it's a remarkable film. In fact, it might have instantly shot into my list of top ten war movies. The aerial footage is just awesome, and it's easy to see how the filmmakers of Star Wars and other subsequent films have taken cues from these scenes.

The hard-hitting aerial scenes, however, take a back seat to the dramatic elements in The Blue Max. George Preppard, James Mason, Karl Michael Vogler, and the gorgeous Ursula Andress are wonderful in their roles, but my favorite role of the film is that of Willi, played by Jeremy Kemp.

I'm glad that I finally got around to watching this one. It took me long enough to check out my Blu-rays of both Zulu and The Blue Max, and I'm pleased to report that they're both top-notch war films.

[baheidstu]

Originally Posted by morg999

You're right.. I just looked @ my DVD. I took a quick look @ imdb earlier and thought I saw MGM was distributor..thanks for the update.

You likely did, MGM was the theatrical distributor. As you are probably aware, Warner owns most MGM releases prior to 1986.

[The Great Owl]

After watching The Blue Max this morning, I followed it up by watching my Twilight Time Blu-ray of Brannigan.

An American mobster who is up for extradition from London to the United States is kidnapped and held for ransom. The kidnappers and all involved, though, apparently did not get the memo that nobody messes with John Wayne, who plays the title character, a Chicago detective in charge of transporting the mobster back to these shores. Richard Attenborough plays a London police commander, while Judy Geeson provides wonderful eye candy as the officer assigned to assist Brannigan in the city.

It's a trip to see John Wayne's name in the opening credits just before some funky Shaft-esque music starts to play. This is, to say the least, an interesting role choice for Wayne, but it all works out. A barroom brawl is one of my favorite moments in the film, because we get to see old-school Wayne action in the style of his older films. I also enjoyed the London cityscapes and landmarks that the film takes every opportunity to showcase.

I won't go so far as to say that Brannigan is a great film, but it's definitely fun and decently paced. I'm glad that it's in my collection, because I know that I'll have a hankering to watch it again in the not-too-distant future.

The Blu-ray looks and sounds pretty good, and the audio commentary, which I'm listening to now, is engaging.