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Van Johnson steps into adventure-guy shoes more suitable for Humphrey Bogart in this European-shot thriller. Daring Martine Carol provides the sex appeal as the mystery dame who entices Johnson to smuggle a man out of Red Albania. The movie is practically a proto- James Bond film: it’s directed by Terence Young, includes Sean Connery and Anthony Dawson in the cast list, and features a fight in a gypsy camp. But Herbert Lom steals the show from them all as a monocle-wearing, oversexed gypsy bandit who can’t abide Commies. Oh, and the disc has special treat in store for discerning, high-toned art-movie intellectuals: this is the film’s hotter Continental version.

Action of the Tiger

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 93 min. / Street Date April 14, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Van Johnson, Martine Carol, Herbert Lom, Gustavo Rojo, José Nieto, Helen Haye, Anna Gerber, Anthony Dawson, Sean Connery,...

It’s another big-star MGM romantic comedy, and not exactly a classic. Debbie Reynolds and Glenn Ford pick their way through a travelogue story that seems made of leftovers from I Love Lucy, inventing flat-farce gimmicks to sex things up without offending the Production Code. What’s the movie most remembered for? It features the exotic concept car that became TV’s Batmobile.

It Started with a Kiss

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1959 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 104 min. / Street Date February 25, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Glenn Ford, Debbie Reynolds, Eva Gabor, Gustavo Rojo, Fred Clark, Edgar Buchanan, Harry Morgan, Robert Warwick, Frances Bavier, Alice Backes, Carmen Phillips, Richard Deacon, Martin Garralaga, Robert Hutton, Morgan Jones, Joi Lansing, Marion Ross, Ralph Taeger, Carleton Young.

Cinematography: Robert J. Bronner

Film Editor: John McSweeney Jr.

Original Music: Jeff Alexander

Written by Charles Lederer story by Valentine Davies

Produced by Aaron Rosenberg

Directed by George...

Gwangi! Ready your rifles and lariats because this is one of the best. Harryhausen’s happiest dinos- à go-go epic comes thundering back in HD heralded by Jerome Moross’s impressive music score. Unless you count The Animal World, all of the stop-motion magician’s feature films are now available in quality Blu-rays.

The Valley of Gwangi

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1969 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 95 min. / Street Date March 14, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: James Franciscus, Gila Golan, Richard Carlson, Laurence Naismith, Freda Jackson, Gustavo Rojo.

Cinematography: Erwin Hillier

Visual Effects by Ray Harryhausen

Art Direction: Gil Parrondo

Film Editor: Henry Richardson

Original Music: Jerome Moross

Written by William E. Bast

Produced by Charles H. Schneer

Directed by Jim O’Connolly

“Ladies and Gentlemen, what you are about to see has never been seen before, I Repeat, has never been seen before by human eyes!”

In just the last month three...

Tired of stupid sword 'n' sandal costume pictures? Robert Rossen's all-star bio-epic of the charter founder of the Masons is a superior analysis of political ambition and the ruthless application of power. Yeah, he's wearing a blond wig, but Richard Burton captures the force of Alexander without camping up Asia Minor. Alexander the Great Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition 1956 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 136 min. / Ship Date March 15, 2016 / available through Twilight Time Movies / 29.95 Starring Richard Burton, Fredric March, Claire Bloom, Danielle Darrieux, Barry Jones, Harry Andrews, Stanley Baker, Niall MacGinnis, Peter Cushing. Cinematography Robert Krasker Art Direction Andrej Andrejew Film Editor Ralph Kemplen Original Music Mario Nascimbene Produced by Gordon Griffith, Robert Rossen Written and Directed by Robert Rossen

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Critical opinions aren't supposed to flip-flop with every screening of a film, but I have to admit that my appreciation of Robert Rossen's 1956 epic Alexander the Great...

Germany's Explosive Media company has a serious itch for American westerns, and they have a trio of new releases. One is a minor Hollywood classic with major graces, from the late 1950s. A second sees an American producer based in England filming in Italy with a rising international star, and for the third an established American star goes European  to stay in the game. The best thing for Yankee buyers? The discs are Region-free.

Gunman's Walk, Land Raiders, A Man Called Sledge Three Westerns from Explosive Media Blu-ray Separate Releases 1958-1970 / Color Starring Van Heflin, Tab Hunter; George Maharis, Telly Savalas; James Garner

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

The majority of American studios now choose not to market their libraries for digital disc, and license them out instead. Collectors unwilling to settle for whatever's on Netflix or concerned about the permanence of Cloud Cinema, find themselves increasingly tempted by discs from Europe,...

Below we have the teaser trailer (w/English subtitles) for the new Spanish horror flick, The Silent House. Directed by Gustavo Hernandez and produced by Gustavo Rojo on a very low budget, Silent House, "digs deeply into the unexplored subject of psychological terror. The film runs through a terrifying story with only a single continuous shot and was filmed with a Slr digital or a Canon Eos 5D Mark, making it the first horror movie in in the world to have been filmed by a photograph camera."...

Here's an intriguing premise and concept for a new Spanish horror film. The Silent House aka La Casa Muda directed by Gustavo Hernandez, photographed by Pedro Luque and produced by Gustavo Rojo boasts to be the first horror film to be shot in one long continuous take. Filmed digitally using the Canon Eos 5D Mark, the film was meticulous planned to be shot without any cuts to give horror viewers an experience unlike any other they've ever seen in a narrative feature. Real fear in real time. (Could this be the next [Rec] ?) No release details yet for here in the States, but we'll keep our ears open for this one. Check out the trailer below, followed by the synopsis and two images. Synopsis: Laura (Florencia Colucci) and her father ( Gustavo Alonso)...

About a month ago we first learned about La Casa Muda, the first Latin American film to be shot entirely with a professional photo camera that also happened to be filmed in one single 72-minute sequence shot. And now we have an English-subbed teaser trailer to check out to see how things are progressing.

The film is still in audio post-production and on track for its March, 2010, completion. It was directed by Gustavo Hernandez, photographed by Pedro Luque, and produced by Gustavo Rojo at an amazingly low budget that amounts to $6,000 (Us). La Casa Muda (The Silent House) digs deeply into the unexplored subject of psychological terror, and here's the full synopsis provided to us by Rojo:

Laura (Florencia Colucci) and her father Wilson (Gustavo Alonso) settle down in a cottage that seems to be off the beaten track in order to update it since its owner (Abel Tripaldi) will...

We just received word of an intriguing-sounding Spanish-language indie thriller, The Silent House. Directed by Gustavo Hernandez, photographed by Pedro Luque (known for his work on Ataque de Pánico) and produced by Gustavo Rojo, Silent House cost only six thousand dollars to make. The film, done in one single continuous shot, was filmed with a Slr digital (a Canon Eos 5D Mark) and is apparently the first one in Latin America, the second one in the world, and the first horror film anywhere to have been filmed with a "photograph camera" (I assume this means still camera). The story, told in real time, is described thusly: "Laura ( Florencia...

Uruguay isn't the first country that comes to mind in terms of film innovations, but producer Gustavo Rojo is about to change that perception with La Casa Muda, the first Latin American film to be shot entirely with a professional photo camera that also happened to be filmed in one single 72-minute sequence shot.

Rojo informed us that on Wednesday, November 25th, shooting wrapped on Uruguayan film La Casa Muda (The Silent House), starring Florence Colucci, Abel Tripaldi, and Gustavo Alonso. He writes, "It was four days of intense work, based on a carefully planned project, shot to shot, scene by scene."

Directed by Gustavo Hernandez and shot with a digital Slr (specifically the Canon Eos 5D Mark II), La Casa Muda promises "a story with a lot of suspense based on a real event that took place in 1944 in an old farmhouse where were found two brutally tortured men's bodies,...