Despite the fact
that we have grown accustomed as consumers to have the option of buying films
for home entertainment in a number of different mediums, the ability to watch a
film on demand is a relatively new concept in the history of cinema. As such,
there are decades of films which were created before VHS, DVD, Laserdisc,
Blu-ray and digital copies. These films have been lost in the clutter of the
constant influx of new movies, but 20th Century Fox regularly dips
into its archives in order to make these forgotten films available once again.
The reason they
are able to do this is by making the discs to order, realizing that the
production of any discs would most likely result in a lost profit. There are
certainly downsides to having the films on DVD-R rather than DVD, and there are
formatting flubs which treat even the widescreen films as though they are being
screened on old box-shaped televisions. At the same time, it is better than not
having these films available at all.
Most of these
movies are forgotten because they weren’t the main billing. At the time, movies
were released in bunches. You got a newsreel, cartoon, an opening feature and
the main picture. The main movie might be longer, but the first ones were
usually simpler genre pictures. Here are three examples from the latest batch
of releases:
Crack-Up (1936)
There is at
least one spectacular reason to see this forgotten espionage thriller, and that
reason is named Peter Lorre. The entire film is actually quite entertaining,
albeit somewhat frivolous in the handling of the material. At times it is
unclear whether this is meant to be suspenseful or comedic because of the
airiness of the material. It is never boring, however, and much of the credit
for that is due to Lorre’s ability to steal every scene. The plot involves a
stolen set of blueprints and a new aircraft on its maiden voyage. My biggest
issue with this film is the blurb included on the back of the DVD, which not
only tells the entire film, but the ending is inaccurate.
The Escape (1939)
The gangster
picture is a perfect example of a B-film from the 1930s that took off in
popularity, and The Escape is an
easily forgettable addition to the genre. With a running time of less than an
hour, the storyline doesn’t have time to get complicated. A former gangster
returns home from a stint in prison to find his sister engaged to a policeman.
He returns to a life of crime, which leads to the only inevitable result for a
gangster film during those times, due to the Hays Code. Kane Richmond, Amanda
Duff, Henry Armetta, Edward Norris and June Gale star.
Blood and Steel (1959)
Cynicism is
beginning to seep into the narratives of this World War II film, hinting at
what would eventually become of the war genre. When four U.S. Army Seabees are
given the task of infiltrating a Japanese-occupied island in the Asian Pacific
to see if it is suitable for an airfield, they are given a near impossible
task. They are outnumbered and stranded in the jungles, forced to take any
opportunity they can to even the odds. Although this is a clear B-picture which
could have easily been filmed on a preexisting set, the narrative is much
heavier than you might expect to find in this type of movie.
Entertainment Value:
/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: /10
Historical
Significance: /10
No comments:
Post a Comment