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Marlon Brando is back in an adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ play Orpheus Descending. The cameraman is Boris Kaufman and the director is Sidney Lumet; Marlon’s a classic tomcat drifter in a dangerous parish, who attracts two women. Acting styles mesh, or mix without blending — Anna Magnani and Joanne Woodward each get opportunities to shine. It’s all poetics and symbolism — dig the snakeskin jacket! — in a fairly realistic setting.

The Fugitive Kind

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 515

1960 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 121 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 14, 2020 / 39.95

Starring: Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward, Maureen Stapleton, Victor Jory, R.G. Armstrong.

Cinematography: Boris Kaufman

Film Editor: Carl Lerner

Original Music: Kenyon Hopkins

Written by Meade Roberts, Tennessee Williams from his play Orpheus Descending

Produced by Martin Jurow, Richard Shepherd

Directed by Sidney Lumet

Tennessee Williams sometimes seemed a continuation of William Faulkner’s literary legacy. This story’s...

Douglas Sirk movies: ‘Imitation of Life,’ ‘Written on the Wind’ (photo: Lana Turner, Juanita Moore, Karin Dicker in ‘Imitation of Life’) Douglas Sirk is Turner Classic Movies’ Director of the Evening. The German-born (April 26, 1897, in Hamburg) filmmaker has developed a cult following in recent decades after his "women’s pictures" were reappraised by some critics as works of profound social criticism filled with auteuristic touches. Why it would take years (or decades) for people to realize the obvious is a little mind-boggling, until you remember that movies about women and their issues have been, for the most part, relegated to the sidelines. A stupid prejudice that continues to this very day. My statement, by the way, has nothing to do with yikesy political correctness; if you don’t believe me, just check out the Best Picture Academy Award winners or Palme d’Or winners or Golden Lion winners or Golden...

Blu-ray Release Date: June 19, 2012

Price: Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Olive Films

Tall, dark, handsome...and mechanical!: It's The Colossus of New York.

The Colossus of New York, the 1958 sci-fi thriller classic, takes its place in the pantheon of such great killer robot movies as The Terminator, RoboCop and Demon Seed.Â

Written by Thelma Schnee (TV’s Science Fiction Theatre) from Willis Goldbeck’s story, the intriguing film turns on the accidental death of a brilliant scientist (Ross Martin), a tragedy that prompts his lunatic father (Otto Kruger) and brother (John Baragrey) to transplant the dead man’s brain onto the body of a giant robot. The operation is successful, but the Colossus Robot mourns for his wife and child and doesn’t want to be the guinea pig in his father’s psychotic project and starts displaying homicidal behaviors.

Olive issued the movie on DVD in May, 2011.

There are no...

The Colossus of New York, the 1958 sci-fi thriller classic that can rightfully takes its place in the pantheon of such great killer robot movies as The Terminator, RoboCop and Demon Seed, finally comes to DVD on Aug. 16 courtesy of Olive Films. It’ll carry a list price of $24.95.

Tall, dark, handsome...and mechanical!: The Colossus of New York finally comes to DVD.

Written by Thelma Schnee from Willis Goldbeck’s story, the intriguing film turns on the accidental death of a brilliant scientist (Ross Martin), a tragedy that prompts his lunatic father (Otto Kruger) and brother (John Baragrey) to transplant the dead man’s brain onto the body of a giant robot. The operation is successful, but the Colossus Robot mourns for his wife and child and doesn’t want to be the guinea pig in his father’s psychotic project and starts displaying homicidal behaviors.

Incidentally, the movie’s director,...