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European-export studio library print.
THE GREAT LACE
I may be prejudiced, having known Kim Newman for well over a decade, but I found his review of the British DVD of MIDNIGHT LACE [VW 164:72] to be one of the best pieces of film writing, let along DVD reviewing, that I have read in a long time. The Doris Day vehicle will have limited ap- peal to most horror fans but the rank and file will be missing something by passing over Kim’s erudite and informative take on the forgotten murder mystery. His placement of the production within a particular cinematic con- text (its forebears include GAS- LIGHT and SORRY, WRONG NUMBER) and his deployment of fascinating and pertinent histori- cal factoids (his sidebar on the properties of London fog is price- less) add an extra dimension to
Linda Boyce receives mail in Joe Sarno’s recently recovered MARCY.
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the experience of criticism and make for reading that not only informs and entertains but satis- fies. Small wonder Kim has such credibility among the horror fanbase—he is, or should be, the clock by which we all set our critical watches. Bravo.
Richard Harland Smith Los Angeles CA
THE POOR FACE
FACE TO FACE [VW 165:8] was theatrically released in America in 1976 by Paramount at roughly the same running time of this Olive Films DVD. Para- mount distributed the picture in both English subtitled and dubbed versions at the same length, to my recollection; I saw both versions in theaters. The source material for this Olive disc, which oddly bears a pre- 1976 Paramount logo, a modern- day StudioCanal logo and the old Cinema International Corpora- tion logo, may well have been a
While I was pleased to read of Olive’s announcement of the long-difficult-to-see Ingmar Bergman title, which I believe fea- tures Liv Ullmann’s finest film performance, the disc itself is a tremendous disappointment. The transfer is notably poor. The color is dull; the disc fails utterly to properly reflect either the palette or the subtlety of Sven Nykvist’s photography. The sound, as you note, is simply lousy. This isn’t the movie I saw in 1976. I had always hoped that Cri- terion would one day release this title, presenting the original Swedish miniseries in tandem with the theatrical version along the lines of the company’s excel- lent SCENES FROM A MAR- RIAGE set. I don’t blame Olive for not being as ambitious as Criterion, but this FACE TO FACE disc is an unacceptable presen- tation of the theatrical release version of Bergman’s work. On another note: The always erudite and entertaining John Charles observes that SLITHIS [VW 165:10] is “likely the cheap- est production to ever run on THE CBS LATE MOVIE.” An interesting thought. I’ve always assumed the most inexpensive indie picture to air on the network’s weeknight late show was UFO: TARGET EARTH (1974).
Byron Baker New York NY
John replies: “I just ran UFO: TARGET EARTH... and you’re right!”
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