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MGM’s gigantic silent sci-fi extravaganza took three years to make, by which time the talkies arrived and everything went to pieces. Lionel Barrymore emotes (Emotes!) in his early sound footage, and terrific effects take us to the bottom of the ocean where monsters and a race of Donald Duck creatures menace our heroic adventurers. And don’t forget a few sundry other elements: a Russian revolution, torture scenes, and cool steampunk nautical hardware. All this Life Aquatic lacks is Steve Zissou!

The Mysterious Island

DVD

The Warner Archive Collection

1929 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 93 min. / Street Date March 26, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 19.99

Starring: Lionel Barrymore, Jane Daly (Jacqueline Gadsdon), Lloyd Hughes, Montagu Love, Harry Gribbon, Snitz Edwards, Gibson Gowland, Dolores Brinkman, Karl Dane, Robert Dudley, Sydney Jarvis, Bob Kortman, Angelo Rossitto.

Cinematography: Percy Hilburn

Film Editor: Carl L. Pierson

Technical Effects: James Basevi, Irving G. Ries, Louis H. Tolhurst

Original Music: Martin Broones,...

“I spent a lot of time reviewing the silent films for crowd scenes –the way extras move, evolve, how the space is staged and how the cameras capture it, the views used,” Nolan said earlier this year when it came to the creation of his WWII epic Dunkirk, referencing films such as Intolerance, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, and Greed, as well as the films of Robert Bresson.

Throughout the entire month of July, if you’re in the U.K., you are lucky enough to witness a selection of these influences in a program at BFI Southbank. Featuring all screenings in 35mm or 70mm — including a preview of Dunkirk over a week before it hits theaters — there’s classics such as Greed, Sunrise, and The Wages of Fear, as well as Alien, Speed, and even Tony Scott’s final film.

Check out Nolan’s introduction below, followed by...

Running from 1-31 July, BFI Southbank are delighted to present a season of films which have inspired director Christopher Nolan’s new feature Dunkirk (2017), released in cinemas across the UK on Friday 21 July.

Christopher Nolan Presents has been personally curated by the award-winning director and will offer audiences unique insight into the films which influenced his hotly anticipated take on one of the key moments of WWII.

The season will include a special preview screening of Dunkirk on Thursday 13 July, which will be presented in 70mm and include an introduction from the director himself.

Christopher Nolan is a passionate advocate for the importance of seeing films projected on film, and as one of the few cinemas in the UK that still shows a vast amount of celluloid film, BFI Southbank will screen all the films in the season on 35mm or 70mm.

In 2015 Nolan appeared on stage alongside visual artist...

Do rediscovered ‘lost’ movies always disappoint? This Depression-era pre-Code science fiction disaster thriller was unique in its day, and its outrageously ambitious special effects –New York City is tossed into a blender — were considered the state of the art. Sidney Blackmer and a fetching Peggy Shannon fight off rapacious gangs in what may be the first post-apocalyptic survival thriller.

Deluge

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1933 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 67 min. / Street Date February 21, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring Peggy Shannon, Lois Wilson, Sidney Blackmer, Lane Chandler, Samuel S. Hinds, Fred Kohler, Matt Moore, Edward Van Sloan .

Cinematography: Norbert Brodine

Film Editor: Martin G. Cohn, Rose Loewinger

Special Effects: Ned Mann, Williams Wiliams, Russell Lawson, Ernie Crockett, Victor Scheurich, Carl Wester

Original Music: Val Burton

Written by Warren Duff, John F. Goodrich from the novel by Sydney Fowler Wright

Produced by Samuel Bischoff, Burt Kelly, William Saal

Directed by Felix E. Feist...

The latest release of Lon Chaney's most famous silent classic is a Blu-ray, which allows us to marvel at at the actor's artistry in a beautifully tinted HD image. Erik the Phantom is one of the two or three greatest fantasy makeup performances of all time. The release has three separate encodings, of different versions running at different film speeds. A 1929 recut has the best image, while the original 1925 version is uncut. The Phantom of the Opera Blu-ray Kino Classics / Blackhawk 1925/29 / B&W with tints and Technicolor sequences / 1:37 flat Silent Aperture / 78, 92 and 114 min. / Street Date October 13, 2015 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Gibson Gowland, John St. Polis, Snitz Edwards. Cinematography Milton Bridenbecker, Virgil Miller, Charles Van Enger Consulting Artist Ben Carré Film Editors Maurice Pivar, Gilmore Walker Original Music Makeup Lon Chaney Written by Elliott J. Clawson from the novel...

Ingrid Bergman ca. early 1940s. Ingrid Bergman movies on TCM: From the artificial 'Gaslight' to the magisterial 'Autumn Sonata' Two days ago, Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” series highlighted the film career of Greta Garbo. Today, Aug. 28, '15, TCM is focusing on another Swedish actress, three-time Academy Award winner Ingrid Bergman, who would have turned 100 years old tomorrow. TCM has likely aired most of Bergman's Hollywood films, and at least some of her early Swedish work. As a result, today's only premiere is Fielder Cook's little-seen and little-remembered From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1973), about two bored kids (Sally Prager, Johnny Doran) who run away from home and end up at New York City's Metropolitan Museum. Obviously, this is no A Night at the Museum – and that's a major plus. Bergman plays an elderly art lover who takes an interest in them; her...

Teresa Wright ca. 1945. Teresa Wright movies on TCM: 'The Little Foxes,' 'The Pride of the Yankees' Pretty, talented Teresa Wright made a relatively small number of movies: 28 in all, over the course of more than half a century. Most of her films have already been shown on Turner Classic Movies, so it's more than a little disappointing that TCM will not be presenting Teresa Wright rarities such as The Imperfect Lady and The Trouble with Women – two 1947 releases co-starring Ray Milland – on Aug. 4, '15, a "Summer Under the Stars" day dedicated to the only performer to date to have been shortlisted for Academy Awards for their first three film roles. TCM's Teresa Wright day would also have benefited from a presentation of The Search for Bridey Murphy (1956), an unusual entry – parapsychology, reincarnation – in the Wright movie canon and/or Roseland (1977), a little-remembered entry in James Ivory's canon.

Teresa Wright: Later years (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright: From Marlon Brando to Matt Damon.") Teresa Wright and Robert Anderson were divorced in 1978. They would remain friends in the ensuing years.[1] Wright spent most of the last decade of her life in Connecticut, making only sporadic public appearances. In 1998, she could be seen with her grandson, film producer Jonah Smith, at New York's Yankee Stadium, where she threw the ceremonial first pitch.[2] Wright also became involved in the Greater New York chapter of the Als Association. (The Pride of the Yankees subject, Lou Gehrig, died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in 1941.) The week she turned 82 in October 2000, Wright attended the 20th anniversary celebration of Somewhere in Time, where she posed for pictures with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. In March 2003, she was a guest at the 75th Academy Awards, in the segment showcasing Oscar-winning actors of the past. Two years later,...

Mickey Rooney movie schedule (Pt): TCM on August 13 See previous post: “Mickey Rooney Movies: Music and Murder.” Photo: Mickey Rooney ca. 1940. 3:00 Am Death On The Diamond (1934). Director: Edward Sedgwick. Cast: Robert Young, Madge Evans, Nat Pendleton, Mickey Rooney. Bw-71 mins. 4:15 Am A Midsummer Night’S Dream (1935). Director: Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle. Cast: James Cagney, Dick Powell, Olivia de Havilland, Ross Alexander, Anita Louise, Mickey Rooney, Joe E. Brown, Victor Jory, Ian Hunter, Verree Teasdale, Jean Muir, Frank McHugh, Grant Mitchell, Hobart Cavanaugh, Dewey Robinson, Hugh Herbert, Arthur Treacher, Otis Harlan, Helen Westcott, Fred Sale, Billy Barty, Rags Ragland. Bw-143 mins. 6:45 Am A Family Affair (1936). Director: George B. Seitz. Cast: Mickey Rooney, Lionel Barrymore, Cecilia Parker, Eric Linden. Bw-69 mins. 8:00 Am Boys Town (1938). Director: Norman Taurog. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull, Leslie Fenton, Gene Reynolds, Edward Norris, Addison Richards, Minor Watson, Jonathan Hale,...

Ramon Novarro and Greta Garbo in ‘Mata Hari’: The wrath of the censors (See previous post: "Ramon Novarro in One of the Best Silent Movies.") George Fitzmaurice’s romantic spy melodrama Mata Hari (1931) was well received by critics and enthusiastically embraced by moviegoers. The Greta Garbo / Ramon Novarro combo — the first time Novarro took second billing since becoming a star — turned Mata Hari into a major worldwide blockbuster, with $2.22 million in worldwide rentals. The film became Garbo’s biggest international success to date, and Novarro’s highest-grossing picture after Ben-Hur. (Photo: Ramon Novarro and Greta Garbo in Mata Hari.) Among MGM’s 1932 releases — Mata Hari opened on December 31, 1931 — only W.S. Van Dyke’s Tarzan, the Ape Man, featuring Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan, and Edmund Goulding’s all-star Best Picture Academy Award winner Grand Hotel (also with Garbo, in addition to Joan Crawford, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, and...

Review by Sam Moffitt

I grew up a monster kid in the 1960s. I tried to watch any movie with Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Lon Chaney or Peter Lorre, whether the movie was horror or not, I loved all these actors. But Bela Lugosi has always had a special place in my heart and I’ve made every effort to see all his films. Phantom ship was one title that has eluded me for years, until now.

Courtesy of Image Entertainment and Netflix I finally caught up with Phantom Ship, also known as The Mystery of The Mary Celeste. Was it worth the wait and worth seeing? Yes and no, depending on how you feel about Lugosi. This is one film that allowed Lugosi room to move and create a character not really related to horror movies and it show cases just how good an actor he really was.

Greed (1924) is considered one of the greatest silent films ever made, although the film was a box-office failure at the time. Greed is an epic morality tale about how three people are dehumanized by the influence of money upon their lives. They are the simple, uneducated former miner and dentist McTeague (played by Gibson Gowland) in turn of the century San Francisco, his miserly, vulgar and pathological wife Trina (Zasu Pitts), and their mutual friend and McTeague’s ultimate nemesis Marcus (Jean Hersholt) – who all are caught up by their greed for riches. What remains of the film was directed by the ambitious, extravagant, stubborn and independent-minded Erich Von Stroheim – he spent nine months shooting the film and a total of fifteen months writing and editing it (from 1923-1924). Production costs were close to half a million dollars. Von Stroheim, who is best known for his role as Gloria Swanson...

In 1925, Universal released what would become one of the most influential and important movies ever made. Even today it stands as a singular achievement in film that still impresses some eighty years on.

From Lon Chaney’s outstanding makeup to the beautiful sets and costumes, it is a breathtakingly lavish film that entertains as much as it educates. The film cannot be overstated in its historical importance, as it was the first of the Universal Monsters to be born.

Without Chaney and his amazing creation, we would arguably never have seen Lugosi’s Dracula or Karloff’s Monster and so on. One could point to this film and say it was the birth of the horror film, as we know it today. Sure, Nosferatu had come before, as had The Golem, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and of course Edison’s Frankenstein. However, The Phantom of the Opera was the...

Rank the week of November 1st’s Blu-ray and DVD new releases against the best films of all-time: New Releases Cars 2

(Blu-ray & DVD | G | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #2213

Win Percentage: 48%

Times Ranked: 3502

Top-20 Rankings: 35

Directed By: John Lasseter

Starring: Larry the Cable Guy • Owen Wilson • Michael Caine • Emily Mortimer • Eddie Izzard

Genres: Action Comedy • Adventure • Adventure Comedy • Animation • Comedy • Family • Family-Oriented Adventure • Family-Oriented Comedy

Rank This Movie

Water For Elephants

(Blu-ray & DVD | PG13 | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #3022

Win Percentage: 51%

Times Ranked: 2226

Top-20 Rankings: 17

Directed By: Francis Lawrence

Starring: Reese Witherspoon • Robert Pattinson • Christoph Waltz • Paul Schneider • Hal Holbrook

Genres: Animal Picture • Drama • Romance • Romantic Drama

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Crazy Stupid Love

(Blu-ray & DVD | PG13 | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #816

Win Percentage: 57%

Times Ranked: 3830

Top-20 Rankings: 19

Directed By: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa

Starring: Steve Carell • Ryan Gosling • Julianne Moore • Emma Stone • Marisa Tomei

Genres: Comedy Drama • Comedy of Manners • Drama • Romance • Romantic Comedy

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Snow Flower And The Secret Fan...

Greed (1924) Direction: Erich von Stroheim Screenplay: Erich von Stroheim, June Mathis; from Frank Norris' novel McTeague Cast: Gibson Gowland, ZaSu Pitts, Jean Hersholt, Dale Fuller, Chester Conklin, Sylvia Ashton Gibson Gowland, Jean Hersholt in Erich von Stroheim's Greed Erich von Stroheim's masterpiece and one of the best silent films ever made, Greed remains a powerful indictment against the deadly sin of the title. Based on Frank Norris' novel McTeague, Greed revolves around the misdeeds of a California dentist (Gibson Gowland), his miserly wife (comedienne ZaSu Pitts magisterially cast against type), and her former lover (Jean Hersholt), all of whom sacrifice everything — and I mean everything — to the almighty god of dollar bills. Stroheim's initial cut had 47 reels, which the director wanted to release as two films. Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg's Metro-Goldwyn (and its parent company, Loews, Inc.), which inherited the out-of-control project from...