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What made the original television run of "The Twilight Zone" (from 1959-1964) so special was the way individual episodes could function on multiple levels. Since the show was an anthology, and every episode had its own premise, it was free to explore whatever it wanted to. The first level of a given episode was the superficially exciting one that put you in the shoes of a protagonist faced with an unnerving science-fiction premise. But the other level went deeper, studying human nature at extremes. Host and show creator Rod Serling would show up to deliver the moral, but the twists, unhappy endings, and central ironies continue to be surprising and disturbing.

The series typically explored prejudice in the form of racism or anti-intellectualism, or in one of its most famous episodes, the idea of beauty standards. But it also explored nostalgia, whether for a bygone way of life or for the one that got away.

It’s a hot soap from ’65, when movies promised raging passion but delivered cheap teases and hypocritical judgments. It’s Suzanne Pleshette’s only starring role, but it doesn’t exploit her bright personality, her sense of humor. John O’Hara’s tale hasn’t much pity for a promiscuous young wife who breaks the rules. Does nymphomania make her a social menace, or is she victimized by a script determined to put the blame on Mame? Costarring Ben Gazzara, Bradford Dillman and Peter Graves.

A Rage to Live

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 197

1965 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 101 min. / Street Date December 28, 2022 / Available from [Imprint] / aud 34.98

Starring: Suzanne Pleshette, Bradford Dillman, Ben Gazzara, Peter Graves, Bethel Leslie, Carmen Mathews, Linden Chiles, James Gregory, Ruth White, Mark Goddard, Sarah Marshall, George Furth, Virginia Christine, Aneta Corsaut, Frank Maxwell, Almira Sessions.

Cinematography: Charles Lawton Jr.

Costume Designer: Howard Shoup

Art Director: James Sullivan

Film Editor: Stuart Gilmore...

How does one make a movie about a hot-button political topic that's divided the nation for sixty years?  And if the facts of the case aren't fully known, how can one be sure that some news revelation won't reach back and make your well-meaning  film play like a stack of lies? E. L. Doctorow and Sidney Lumet found a way. Daniel Olive Films Savant Blu-ray Review

1983 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 130 min. / Street Date August 25, 2015 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.95 Starring Timothy Hutton, Mandy Patinkin, Lindsay Crouse, Edward Asner, Ellen Barkin, Julie Bovasso, Tovah Feldshuh, Joseph Leon, Carmen Mathews, Amanda Plummer, John Rubinstein, Maria Tucci, Daniel Stern. Cinematography Andrzej Bartkowiak Film Editor Peter C. Frank Written by E.L. Doctorow from his novel The Book of Daniel.  Produced by E. Lk. Doctorow, Burtt Harris Directed by Sidney Lumet

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

In his book Making Movies, director Sidney Lumet says that...

With the entire original run of The Twilight Zone available to watch instantly, we’re partnering with Twitch Film to cover all of the show’s 156 episodes. Are you brave enough to watch them all with us? The Twilight Zone (Episode #56): “Static” (airdate 3/10/61) The Plot: A bitter old man complains about a newfangled contraption called the television. Fortunately, he finds a radio that plays things without images. The Goods: Aside from this episode being shot in video, which makes it seem incredibly cheap, this episode is thoroughly annoying on its own. A 150-year-old version of Sean Connery named Dean Jagger plays a caustic elder gent named Ed Lindsay who can’t stand television and feels free to claim as much to all the people living in the boarding house with him. One of the inhabitants is Vinnie Broun (Carmen Matthews) who was supposed to marry Ed two decades ago, but...

Sounder (1972) Direction: Martin Ritt Cast: Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, Kevin Hooks, Carmen Mathews, Taj Mahal, James Best Screenplay: Lonne Elder III; from William H. Armstrong's book Oscar Movies Paul Winfield, Sounder, Kevin Hooks, Sounder Sounder probably features more extremely wide shots than any movie besides Lawrence of Arabia — and Martin Ritt's movie is only half as long. Time and again, humans become antish dots on the horizon, visually overwhelmed by the vast wilderness around them. That's Ritt's way of establishing the world of David (Kevin Hooks), a young boy living in the Louisiana woods with his sharecropper family and the titular dog during the Great Depression. That world completely envelops him in these shots, which perform the old pastoral trick of contrasting the human and temporary and insignificant with the eternal realm of nature. Ritt, however, sets that up in order to subvert it. Ultimately, the boy must...