The Week of November 16th, 2010

GROUP EDITED by: TROY ANDERSON

DVD/BR
SECTION by: Troy Anderson

NIGHT OF THE HUNTER: CRITERION COLLECTION

Director: Charles Laughton
Criterion

CLICK HERE TO BUY IT AT AMAZON!

Special Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer
  • Audio commentary with assistant director Terry Sanders, F. X. Feeney, and more
  • Night of the Hunter – a treasure trove of outtakes from the film (2.5 hrs)
  • Interviews with producer Paul Gregory, Sanders, Jones, and Jeffrey Couchman
  • New video interview with Simon Callow
  • Clip from the The Ed Sullivan Show
  • Fifteen-minute episode of the BBC show “Moving Pictures”
  • Archival interview with cinematographer Stanley Cortez
  • Gallery of sketches by author Davis Grubb
  • New video conversation between Gitt and film critic Leonard Maltin
  • Original theatrical trailer

    • Night of the Hunter has finally advanced past that single disc MGM disc that came out at the start of the DVD boom. Harry Powell is a legendary character that Mitchum brings to life with relative ease. Powell is a religious fanatic that preys upon women and children, as he desperately searches for his next easy pickings. When he meets Shelley Winters, Powell learns that her ex-con husband gave her the ten thousand dollars that he stole. Powell wants that cash, so he tries to seduce Winters and torture her kids to get it. Rarely have I seen such a film that treats kids without a light touch. There’s never a moment in the film where you don’t believe that Harry Powell won’t resort to butchering the little shits to get his way. The film gets a half-ton of special features from Criterion, including one major highlight. The cast performs scenes from the film on The Ed Sullivan Show. I don’t know where they found the kinescope, but it looks amazing when compared to Criterion’s release of The Golden Age of Television.

    BEST WORST MOVIE
    Director: Michael Stephenson

    CLICK HERE TO BUY IT AT AMAZON!

    Special Features

    Audio Commentary
    Deleted Scenes
    Interviews

    Best Worst Movie is a film that has developed a cult following that I don’t understand. Troll 2 is a giant piece of shit that lacks the magic of the Sonny Bono/Julia Louis-Dreyfus original. Filmed over a couple of weeks in Salt Lake City, none of the key players could’ve imagined the life that Geekdom would bestow upon this cinematic upper-decker. Hell, the first film had a troll in it! The sequel only has goblins, but I’m getting away from my point. This documentary was the lovechild of the young star of Troll 2 and he treats the film like the oddity that it is. Almost all of the cast takes part in this documentary, but none of them lack anything important to say.

    MODERN TIMES: CRITERION COLLECTION
    director: Charlie Chaplin