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Stars: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Patrick Allen, Jane Merrow, Sarah Lawson, William Lucas, Kenneth Cope, Percy Herbert, Thomas Heathcote | Written by Ronald Liles, Jane Baker, Pip Baker | Directed by Terence Fisher

Night of the Big Heat, directed by Terence Fisher, is a science fiction horror film based on the novel by John Lymington. The story unfolds on the small, isolated island of Fara, which is gripped by an unseasonable and unbearable heatwave. The local innkeeper, Jeff Callum (Patrick Allen), his wife Frankie (Sarah Lawson), and the mysterious scientist Dr. Godfrey Hanson (Christopher Lee) must uncover the source of the unnatural heat. Their investigation leads to a startling discovery: an invasion of extraterrestrial beings generating intense heat to make the environment suitable for their habitation.

Night of the Big Heat combines the atmospheric tension typical of 1960s British horror with the unsettling eeriness of classic science fiction. Terence Fisher, renowned for his work with Hammer Films,...

Rock Hudson’s small budget big-explosion war movie applies decent production values and decent direction to a good idea, but substitutes some weak double-crosses for a real screen story. Hudson and his co-producer Gene Corman toss in a fine stack of quality actors… who don’t do much more than dodge tanks, flame throwers, and big explosions. Those explosions look familiar — I’ll bet they were recycled in more than a couple subsequent movies. Aiding and abetting handsome Hudson are George Peppard (manning a Tarantino-issue flamethrower), Nigel Green, and Guy Stockwell, who seems to be in Every Universal release around this time.

Tobruk

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1967 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 107 min. / Street Date January 21, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Rock Hudson, George Peppard, Nigel Green, Guy Stockwell, Jack Watson, Percy Herbert, Norman Rossington, Liam Redmond, Heidy Hunt, Leo Gordon, Curt Lowens.

Cinematography: Russell Harlan

Film Editor: Robert C. Jones

Original...

Some critics wondered if Alec Guinness and John Mills should have swapped roles for this adaptation of James Kennaway’s incisive novel about popularity vs. discipline in the command structure of a Scots army brigade. Ronald Neame’s direction is exemplary, showcasing the powerhouse performances yet avoiding theatrical flourishes. And the movie introduces Susannah York as well. Criterion’s 4K remaster greatly improves on their older DVD release.

Tunes of Glory

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 225

1960 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 106 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date December 3, 2020 / 39.95

Starring: Alec Guinness, John Mills, Dennis Price, Kay Walsh, John Fraser, Susannah York, Gordon Jackson, Duncan Macrae, Percy Herbert, Allan Cuthbertson.

Cinematography: Arthur Ibbetson

Film Editor: Anne V. Coates

Original Music: Malcolm Arnold

Written by James Kennaway from his novel

Produced by Albert Fennell, Colin Lesslie

Directed by Ronald Neame

1960’s Tunes of Glory hasn’t persisted in revivals, and neither is it...

The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh

Blu ray

Disney Movie Club

1964/ 1:66 / 151 min.

Starring Patrick McGoohan, George Cole, Michael Hordern

Directed by James Neilson

One part Walt Disney, one part Patrick McGoohan – a bittersweet recipe if ever there was one. The notoriously brusque Irishman was immune to the crowd-pleasing sentimentality that shaped Disney’s empire yet he headlined two of that studio’s most appealing entertainments, The Three Lives of Thomasina and The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. An esoteric feline fantasy and a blood and thunder adventure tale, the films couldn’t have been more unalike but McGoohan anchored them both, reveling in the contradictions of his own characters. In Thomasina he plays a veterinarian with little love for animals. In Scarecrow he’s a kindly minister who spends his evenings terrorizing the parish.

In 18th century England, a brutal age marked by despots and dissent, the Scarecrow haunts the tiny fishing port of Dymchurch.

What ought to be appreciated as one of the most prescient of 1950s suspense films holds a place among the best science fiction movies ever — and it formed a style template for a thousand paranoid spy thrillers to follow. Val Guest pares Nigel Kneale’s fantastic storyline down to its essentials, making his scientist-hero the perfect secret agent to confront a sinister techno-political conspiracy… from outer space.

Quatermass 2

Blu-ray

Scream Factory

1957 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 85 min. / Street Date July 30, 2019 / 29.95

Starring: Brian Donlevy, John Longdon, Sidney James, Bryan Forbes, William Franklyn, Vera Day, Charles Lloyd Pack, Tom Chatto, John Van Eyssen, Percy Herbert, Michael Ripper, John Rae, Michael Balfour.

Cinematography: Gerald Gibbs

Film Editor: James Needs

Makeup: Philip Leakey

Art Direction: Bernard Robinson

Original Music: James Bernard

Written by Val Guest, Nigel Kneale from his teleplay

Produced by Anthony Hinds

Directed by Val Guest

Here’s yet another fine 2019 Blu-ray release...

Alec Guinness transfers an acting challenge from the stage to the screen, in this account of a Cardinal forced to knuckle under to a Communist regime — instead of extracting a confession with torture, Jack Hawkins’ Inquisitor uses psychology to find his prisoner’s weakness. The picture is uneven but its key performances are choice, with a special assist from Wilfrid Lawson as a jailer.

The Prisoner

Blu-ray

Arrow Academy

1955 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 95 min. / Street Date March 12, 2019 / 39.95

Starring: Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Wilfrid Lawson, Kenneth Griffith, Jeanette Sterke, Ronald Lewis, Raymond Huntley, Percy Herbert.

Cinematography: Reginald Wyer

Film Editor: Frederick Wilson

Original Music: Benjamin Frankel

Written by Bridget Boland from her play

Produced by Vivian Cox

Directed by Peter Glenville

Is this an anti-Communist piece, or simply a story about human convictions and human weakness? Believe it or not, some interpreted it as anti-Catholic in 1955. European film festivals may have...

(See previous post: Fourth of July Movies: Escapism During a Weird Year.) On the evening of the Fourth of July, besides fireworks, fire hazards, and Yankee Doodle Dandy, if you're watching TCM in the U.S. and Canada, there's the following: Peter H. Hunt's 1776 (1972), a largely forgotten film musical based on the Broadway hit with music by Sherman Edwards. William Daniels, who was recently on TCM talking about 1776 and a couple of other movies (A Thousand Clowns, Dodsworth), has one of the key roles as John Adams. Howard Da Silva, blacklisted for over a decade after being named a communist during the House Un-American Committee hearings of the early 1950s (Robert Taylor was one who mentioned him in his testimony), plays Benjamin Franklin. Ken Howard is Thomas Jefferson, a role he would reprise in John Huston's 1976 short Independence. (In the short, Pat Hingle was cast as John Adams; Eli Wallach was Benjamin Franklin.) Warner...

One Million Years B.C.

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1966 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 91, 100 min. / Street Date February 14, 2017 / Available from Kino Lorber 29.95

Starring: Raquel Welch, John Richardson, Percy Herbert, Robert Brown, Martine Beswick

Cinematography: Wilkie Cooper

Special visual effects: Ray Harryhausen

Art Direction: Robert Jones

Film Editor: Tom Simpson

Original Music: Mario Nascimbene

Written by: Michael Carreras from a 1940 screenplay by George Baker

Produced by: Michael Carreras, Hal Roach, Aida Young

Directed by Don Chaffey

Here’s a title we haven’t seen in a while, and that we’ve never seen at this level of quality. Hammer Films’ most successful release ever, One Million Years B.C. launched a new film star. I count myself among the zillions of kids that pinned her poster on my bedroom wall. At age fifteen, the release of a new Harryhausen film was so important to me that I begged my slightly older neighbor to take me to the drive-in,...

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman

Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, whose dazzling and innovative visual effects work on fantasy adventure films such as Jason And The Argonauts and The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad passed away in 2013 at age 92. In 1933, the then-13-year-old Ray Harryhausen saw King Kong at a Hollywood theater and was inspired – not only by Kong, who was clearly not just a man in a gorilla suit, but also by the dinosaurs. He came out of the theatre “stunned and haunted. They looked absolutely lifelike … I wanted to know how it was done.” It was done by using stop-motion animation: jointed models filmed one frame at a time to simulate movement. Harryhausen was to become the prime exponent of the technique and its combination with live action. The influence of Harryhausen on film luminaries like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and...

Fans that missed Twilight Time's initial Blu-ray release of Ray Harryhausen's Jules Verne spectacle get a second chance with this Encore Edition reissue. It includes an improved transfer and new extras, including an excellent audio commentary with Steven C. Smith, C. Courtney Joyner and Randall William Cook. The show still sends us, and Bernard Herrmann's powerful music score shakes the rafters. Mysterious Island Blu-ray Twilight Time 1961 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 101 min. / Encoire Limited Edition / available at the Screen Archives Entertainment website; Street Date December 8, 2015 / 29.95 Starring Michael Craig, Michael Callan, Beth Rogan, Gary Merrill, Herbert Lom, Joan Greenwood, Percy Herbert. Cinematography Wilkie Cooper Special visual effects Ray Harryhausen Art Direction Bill Andrews Film Editor Frederick Wilson Original Music Bernard Herrmann Written by John Prebble, Daniel B. Ullman and Crane Wilbur from the novel by Jules Verne Produced by Charles H. Schneer Directed by Cy Endfield

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson...

By Doug Oswald

Released by Universal in 1967, “Tobruk” opens with the feel of a 1960s spy thriller. Rock Hudson is Major Donald Craig, a Canadian prisoner of war on board a German transport ship anchored somewhere off the North Africa coast in late 1942. A group of frogmen surface near the ship and sneak on board with silencers fixed to their guns in order to capture Craig. The frogmen are led by Captain Bergman (George Peppard) who reveal themselves to be part of a team of German commandos.

The commandos take Craig to a German airfield and fly him to a desert landing strip. They’re unexpectedly greeted by a group of British soldiers led by Colonel Harker (Nigel Green). It’s revealed that Bergman is the leader of a German-Jewish commando unit attached to a group of British commandos operating in North Africa. They secured the rescue of Craig due...

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman

Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, whose dazzling and innovative visual effects work on fantasy adventure films such as Jason And The Argonauts and The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad passed away last month at age 92. In 1933, the then-13-year-old Ray Harryhausen saw King Kong at a Hollywood theater and was inspired – not only by Kong, who was clearly not just a man in a gorilla suit, but also by the dinosaurs. He came out of the theatre “stunned and haunted. They looked absolutely lifelike … I wanted to know how it was done.” It was done by using stop-motion animation: jointed models filmed one frame at a time to simulate movement. Harryhausen was to become the prime exponent of the technique and its combination with live action. The influence of Harryhausen on film luminaries like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson,...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Twilight Time has released the 1961 film adaptation of Jules Verne's classic adventure Mysterious Island as a limited edition (3,000 units) Blu-ray. The story was Verne's sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, although the only recurring character is the reclusive genius Captain Nemo (played in this version with great dignity and charisma by Herbert Lom). Nemo doesn't appear until late in the movie and to say too much about how he fits in with the story would spoil the film's many delights. The movie starts with a daring escape by Union POWs from a Confederate prison during the final days of the Civil War. The escapees utilize a hot air balloon, that they successfully launch under gun fire in the midst of a hurricane. The newly-freed men are Capt. Harding (Michael Craig), fellow soldiers Herbert Brown (Michael Callan) and Neb Nugent (Dan Jackson), as well as a war correspondent,...