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4K discs are selling like hotcakes so it’s only natural for studios to give Home Theater fanatics the biggest vintage blockbusters. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg’s hyper-efficient, no-loitering juggernaut is a return to the joys of serial action thrills, one ‘did you see that?’ bravura sequence after another. Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones is pitted against Paul Freeman’s villainous Belloq, and the might of Jehovah combats the Nazis. Accept the proposition that Adolf Hitler was ‘nuts about the occult’ and everything else will make logical sense. The picture hasn’t dated at all — it overflows with Gee-Whiz excitement that makes Marvel exploits play like weak tea.

Raiders of the Lost Ark 4K

4K Ultra HD + Digital / Steelbook

Paramount

1981 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date June 14, 2022 / Available from / 30.99

Starring: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, Denholm Elliott, Alfred Molina, Wolf Kahler, Anthony Chinn, Pat Roach,...

Just under the top echelon of British sci-fi lurks this well-produced, absorbing ‘expedition to terror!’ that surprises us by paying off on an intellectual plane. After building his monster but before defeating Dracula, Peter Cushing found himself in a real fix on a snowy mountain peak. Sure, the race of enormous Yeti are shiver-inducing, but Cushing must also withstand the mind games of a suspiciously solicitous Tibetan Lhama, and a piratical double-cross by an American huckster who goes by the deceptive name, ‘Friend.’

The Abominable Snowman

Blu-ray

Shout! Scream Factory

1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 85, 90 min. / The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas / Street Date December 10, 2020

Starring: Peter Cushing, Forrest Tucker, Maureen Connell, Arnold Marlé, Richard Wattis, Robert Brown, Michael Brill, Wolfe Morris, Anthony Chinn.

Cinematography: Arthur Grant

Film Editor: Bill Lenny

Original Music: Humphrey Searle

Written by Nigel Kneale from his teleplay The Creature

Produced by Aubrey Baring, Michael Carreras, Anthony Nelson-Keys...

The original Quinn the Eskimo (no kidding) is another life-loving rough portrait from Anthony Quinn, in Nicholas Ray’s rather successful final spin as a writer-director. Despite some technical awkwardness, Ray’s sensitivity to outsider souls finds full expression. Humans don’t get any more ‘outside’ than Inuk, a primitive unequipped to deal with the modern world.

The Savage Innocents

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1960 / Color / 2:35 widescreen (Super Technirama 70) / 110 min. / Street Date June 27, 2017 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98

Starring: Anthony Quinn, Yoko Tani, Carlo Giustini, Peter O’Toole, Marie Yang, Marco Guglielmi, Anthony Chinn, Francis De Wolff.

Cinematography: Peter Hennessey, Aldo Tonti

Film Editor: Eraldo Da Roma, Ralph Kemplen

Original Music: Angelo Francesco Lavagnino

Written by Nicholas Ray, adapted by Franco Solinas, Baccio Bandini, Hans Ruesch from his novel

Produced by Maleno Malenotti

Directed by Nicholas Ray

It’s arguable that Nicholas Ray’s career began to fall apart as...

The irrepressible Sam Fuller fashions a crime thriller for German TV with his expected eccentricity: old-fashioned hardboiled scripting, freeform direction and bits of graffiti from the French New Wave. Christa Lang is the femme fatale and Glenn Corbett is the twofisted American hero, whose name is Not Griff. And yes, a pigeon does bite the pavement on Beethoven Street, and I tell you, that's one dead pigeon. Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street Blu-ray Olive Films 1974 / Color / 1:33 flat full frame (for German TV / 127 min. / Tote Taube in der Beethovenstraße / Street Date April 19, 2016 / / available through the Olive Films website / 29.95 Starring Glenn Corbett, Christa Lang, Sieghardt Rupp, Anton Diffring, Stéphane Audran, Alexander D'Arcy, Anthony Chinn. Cinematography Jerzy Lipman Film Editor Liesgret Schmitt-Klink Original Music The Can German dialogue by Manfred R. Köhler Produced by Joachim von Mengershausen Written and Directed by Samuel Fuller

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Not that it helped Sam Fuller's career much,...

“My name is Bond - James Bond". That classic introduction to the cinema’s greatest secret agent is as famous as “I am Dracula, I bid you welcome.” When the box office success of Dr No (1962) turned the unknown Sean Connery into a movie legend, Hammer was never far away from the franchise. With their own films running parallel to the Bond series, Hammer and Eon Productions often made use of the same talent.

Dr No also marked the debuts of Bernard Lee (the first of 11 films as M) and Lois Maxwell (the first of 14 as Miss Moneypenny). Lee had a brief turn as Tarmut in Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1973) and despite never starring in a Hammer horror, Maxwell turned up in their early fifties thrillers Lady in the Fog (1953) and Mantrap (1954).

As doomed double-agent Professor Dent, Anthony Dawson is best known as the vile Marquis in Curse...

Despite Daniel Craig successfully taking over the role of James Bond in Casino Royale (2006), Eon Productions has now put the immortal series on a backburner because of a potential take-over of MGM. Whether another Bond film will be produced under the partnership remains to be seen, and even if the series kick-starts once more, there’s no guarantee that Craig will return as the world’s most famous secret agent.

The past 40 years has seen a number of actors who have contributed to more than one film. So with this imposed hiatus, it's worth taking a look at those performers who have been in the most 007 movies.

Making her debut in the first 007 outing Dr No (1962), the durable Canadian actress Lois Maxwell made 14 appearances as Secretary Jane Moneypenny, forever flirting with 007 when he returns home from another world-saving assignment. Ian Fleming always regarded Maxwell, who died in 2007, as the perfect Moneypenny because,...