Garv’s Pick of the Week: It’s the Old Army Game (Kino Lorber)
For the release week of March 13th:
Garv’s Pick of the Week:It's the Old Army Game [Blu-ray / Kino Lorber]: W.C. Fields is the funniest man ever to stagger in front of a movie camera, but even many of his biggest fans have never seen any of the twelve films he starred in during the silent era. Most of those films are lost, probably never to be seen again. However, Kino Lorber has released two of the surviving features on Blu-ray this week for new fans to discover. It’s the Old Army Game is important, as it was the first feature where Fields received star billing and had some control over his screen character. Here we see the seeds of Fields’ comic persona–an excessively harassed everyman, often displaying ill temper in the face of simpletons, nagging relatives, and obnoxious children. It is a very funny beginning to a hilarious movie career. My full review can be found here.
Additional Titles of Interest —
Running Wild [Blu-ray / Kino Lorber]: Some critics rank this as the best of W.C. Fields’ surviving silents. I have the Blu-ray in my hand, and I’m looking forward to finding out if that is the case. Expect a review sometime later this month.
A Trip to the Moon [Blu-ray + DVD / Flicker Alley]: Flicker Alley has re-released Georges Méliès legendary silent, sci-fi fantasy with a new score, as they no longer have the rights to the soundtrack by the pop group Air, which accompanied the earlier Blu-ray version.
The Lion in Winter (50th Anniversary Edition) [Blu-ray / Kino Lorber]: Peter O’Toole spars with Kate Hepburn while Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton look on. What’s not to like?
Downfall [Blu-ray / Shout Select]: When it comes to screen Hitlers, Bruno Ganz is second only to Chaplin.
While the City Sleeps [Blu-ray / Warner Archive]: Frits Lang’s last two American films get HD upgrades from the Warner Archive Collection. Both are films noir starring Dana Andrews. This one also features Rhonda Fleming, George Sanders, Howard Duff, Thomas Mitchell, and Vincent Price. That’s as solid a cast as anyone is likely to assemble.
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt [Blu-ray / Warner Archive]: The cast in the other Fritz Lang noir isn’t as strong, but how’s this for a convoluted plot: “A novelist, aided by his future father-in-law, conspires to frame himself in the murder of a stripper as part of an effort to ban capital punishment.”
Suspiria [Blu-ray / Synapse]: If you didn’t pick up Synapse’s stunning limited edition steelbook release of their restoration of Dario Argento’s Suspiria (overseen by the film’s director of photography), don’t hesitate to purchase the standard edition release. It is one of the best looking Blu-rays that you’ll ever own.
The Age of Innocence [Blu-ray / Criterion]: Fans were caught a bit off guard when Martin Scorsese followed up Cape Fear with an adaptation of an Edith Wharton novel. It will be interesting to revisit it today.
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I have the Sunrise Silents release of this film (that company went out of business a few years ago), and it was very good, but this new release is even better. The image is sharper than I’ve ever seen of this film, and the new music by Ben Model is great.