Blu-ray Review: Night Gallery – Season Three
Returning for its third and final season in September 1972, Night Gallery retained Rod Serling as host, but executives at NBC demanded changes. The episode number was reduced to 15 and the runtime was reduced from 60 to 30 minutes. In perhaps the most substantive move, the series was to become more “Americanized,” moving away […]
Blu-ray Review: Night Gallery – Season Two
Five years after The Twilight Zone ended, Rod Serling returned to television with a new anthology series, Night Gallery. While the Twilight Zone was largely focused on science fiction, The Night Gallery tended toward the macabre. Once again Rod Serling served as host. After an abbreviated six-episode first season, the series was granted a full […]
Blu-ray Review: The Beguiled
Released in 1971 (the same year as Dirty Harry and Play Misty for Me), the gothic melodrama The Beguiled was a disappointment at the box office. Based on the novel A Painted Devil by Thomas P. Cullinan, The Beguiled is set in the final days of the Civil War and concerns Cpl. John McBurney (Clint […]
Blu-ray Review: Sweet Bird of Youth
Accompanied by special ‘for adults only’ notices when it opened in 1962, Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird of Youth had been cleaned up considerably for the big screen. Though much of the ugliness of the stage version has been excised by screenwriter/director Richard Brooks rewrite, Paul Newman, Ed Begley, Rip Torn and particularly Geraldine Page maintain […]
Blu-ray Review: What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?
In 1964, with the success of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? the Grand Dame Guignol genre began. Director Robert Aldrich (Twilight’s Last Gleaming) had cast aging stars Joan Crawford and Bette Davis in leads, created a hit, and in the process resurrected their flagging careers. The 1964 follow-up Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte starring Davis and […]
Blu-ray Review: Hondo
In a career that spanned five decades and roughly 142 films, John Wayne became one of the biggest stars of the silver screen. Released in 1953, Hondo is probably Wayne’s most beloved film not directed by John Ford or Howard Hawks. Instead, John Farrow (Wake Island) was at the helm. To Farrow’s credit, while he […]
Hondo Coming to Blu-ray June 5th
As Paramount continues its centennial celebration, the studio has announced the June 5th Blu-ray release of Hondo. The classic western stars John Wayne (True Grit) as the title character, a cavalry despatch rider who becomes the unwitting protector to a family living in dangerous Apache territory. Directed by John Farrow (Wake Island) the film also […]