Garv’s Pick of the Week: The Buster Keaton Collection Volume 4 (Cohen Film Collection)
For the release week of December 1st:
Garv’s Pick of the Week: The Buster Keaton Collection Volume 4 (Go West/College) [Blu-ray / Cohen Film Collection]: The Cohen Film Collection continues its excellent series of Blu-ray re-releases of Buster Keaton’s classic comedies with new 4K restorations of the silent features Go West (1925) and College (1927). The previous three volumes of The Buster Keaton Collection from Cohen have looked and sounded fantastic (especially considering the age of the films), and they have all been improvements over previous Blu-ray and DVD releases of the same titles. Consequently, Volume 4 will be a “day one” purchase for me.
Additional Titles of Interest —
The Return of the Musketeers [Blu-ray / Kino Lorber]: Richard Lester reunites with the core of his cast from The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974) for this 1989 adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ follow-up novel Twenty Years After. This sequel doesn’t quite capture the magic of the Seventies films or the Dumas novel (which is a personal favorite), but it is a fun romp, which is much better than its reputation. Any swashbuckler with Oliver Reed is worth your time.
Fellini’s Casanova [Blu-ray / Kino Lorber]: Donald Sutherland stars as the infamous seducer in this 1979 film from Federico Fellini. This one isn’t in the recently released Criterion box set, for all of you Fellini completists out there.
The Notorious Landlady [Blu-ray / Sony]: Sony is releasing five lesser-known Jack Lemmon titles on Blu-ray this week. The best of the bunch is this London-based murder mystery comedy with Kim Novak and Fred Astaire (in a rare non-dancing supporting role).
Phffft [Blu-ray / Kino Lorber]: I’ll list off the rest of the Lemmon films in release order, beginning with this 1954 entry, which was only his second feature film. I don’t believe I’ve seen this one, but it co-stars the always delightful Judy Holiday.
Operation Mad Ball [Blu-ray / Kino Lorber]: This 1957 military comedy is notable for being the feature film debut of television legend (and good friend of Lemmon’s) Ernie Kovacs.
Under the Yum-Yum Tree [Blu-ray / Kino Lorber]: Lemmon hated this 1963 light comedy, and while I’m sure I saw it as a kid, I’ve completely wiped it from my memory banks.
Good Neighbor Sam [Blu-ray / Kino Lorber]: Lemmon also badmouthed this light comedy from 1964. However, I do remember enjoying it when it was in regular rotation on the ABC 3:30 Movie.
The Godfather Coda: The death of Michael Corleone [Blu-ray / Paramount]: The Godfather Part III gets a re-edit by Francis Ford Coppola, and the early reviews are very positive. I’m looking forward to checking it out. Although, I should note that I didn’t dislike the original cut.
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