There are two very different ways to enter Brewster McCloud for the first time, and I’d say they’re probably of roughly equal preference. One is totally blind, or at least almost so. Those who wish to go that route can safely know that the film was Robert Altman’s follow-up to M*A*S*H, that the director could do almost anything he wanted at that point and chose something extremely weird. The script was by the guy who wrote Skidoo, a movie directed by Otto Preminger on acid where Jackie Gleason is married to Carol Channing and Groucho Marx plays a mobster named God. And Brewster McCloud is even stranger still. It stars Bud Cort, just before Harold and Maude, as a young man who lives in the fallout shelter of the Houston Astrodome and has plans to fly, like a bird and with real wings. Concurrent to this is a serial strangler being hunted by the Houston police and hot shot San Francisco cop Frank Shaft (Michael Murphy). Are they connected? Perhaps. Will you care about the investigation? Probably not.

The other option when considering a watch of Brewster McCloud, either for the first time or on the much-needed second viewing, is trying to immerse yourself as much as possible in understanding Altman’s film ahead of time. Good luck. It’s just not a movie open to serious analysis. I don’t care what people say or what they write or even what I write, Brewster McCloud is beautiful lark to be seen rather than studied. It does stand as a nice pillar of Altman’s career and something that gets far too little attention despite it being perhaps the signature work of his best decade the 1970s. As a reminder, Altman did M*A*S*H and then Brewster. His next film was McCabe & Mrs. Miller, followed by the underrated Images, my personal favorite The Long Goodbye, a key work California Split and the acknowledged masterpiece Nashville. That’s some kind of streak. I’m not sure an American director has ever put together seven films of that caliber in a row. Images isn’t too well known, but Brewster had never even been on DVD prior to the Warner Archive throwing out this purple-undersided DVD-R option. It’s a trip. Most people won’t get or enjoy the film but Altman enthusiasts are virtually commanded to seek it out.

Be warned that the so-called spoilers are about to fly. It’s flight that plays perhaps the most vital role in Brewster McCloud. Cort’s title character is almost like an alien creature, obsessed with birds and flight and wings. He’s shown chauffeuring around the character of Abraham Wright (Stacy Keach), an impossibly old man with a pair of famous brothers. Brewster fleeced the book inside Wright’s home given to him by his famous aviator siblings, Orville and Wilbur. Wright becomes a murder victim few really mourn. Other ill-fated characters include the singer of the national anthem at the Astrodome. She’s played by Margaret Hamilton, best known as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. We see more of her ruby-laben slippers than her face. The filmic references continue, with Steve McQueen in Bullitt as the target hit the hardest. His sweater, gun holster, blue eyes, and car chase are all sent up by Michael Murphy as the very serious Frank Shaft. Also look for a direct M*A*S*H callback and a quick cameo for that film’s poster.

Rene Auberjonois has one of the oddest roles in the history of studio-financed American film here. He plays a professor of some sort, identified in the opening credits as the lecturer, who comments on the film via bird-related factoids. He progressively becomes more and more birdlike in appearance, at one point even feasting on bird seed from the chalkboard tray. It does actually add a more introspective angle to the picture which allows for further consideration, though we wouldn’t expect anything less from Altman. Throughout, the director’s fingerprints are consistently stained across the film via both irreverence and playful, authority-questioning anarchy. I really love the line at the end of the trailer that frames Brewster’s troubles as coming at the hands of “the combined forces of gravity and the Houston Police.”

The treatment of Brewster, who’s sort of a deranged serial killer if we want to get right down to it. becomes the single most fascinating part of Altman’s film. The character’s background is never revealed or hinted at, and it’s empathy all the way that Altman prescribes to the viewer. I don’t know if this is honestly so bad. Altman apparently altered the script to remove more explicit accounts of Brewster’s indiscretions. As it exists, he’s the obvious choice for these crimes but they’re blunted by various external factors. Certainly Sally Kellerman as something resembling a fallen angel or a devilish bird turned human specimen adds a great deal of bird shit intrigue. I’m left with the primary idea of just not trying to take anything plotwise away from the film. Enjoy what you can, including the gloriously off-kilter nature of it from start to circus-inspired finish, but never kid yourself that Altman was doing much beyond making a movie he dug at that very moment. Reading too much into it is a mistake, I think. There’s a reason the label of “cult favorite” has formed around Brewster McCloud. Foremost, it’s weird and far from mainstream sensibilities. That it’s also great and a major stepping stone for Robert Altman that he needed to exorcise in order to make more conventional yet still subversive masterpieces is simply a gleaming hope in the eye of the potential viewer. This is, frankly, Altman’s strangest exercise in the kinds of films he liked to make. But it’s still essential and much too obscure.

We finally get Brewster McCloud and it’s for $25 as a remastered title from the Warner Archive. What a load of crap, if you’ll excuse my dissatisfaction. Had Warner Bros. been more proactive years ago then we’d probably have a full commentary from Altman and maybe even a nice retrospective featurette. It wouldn’t set you back $25 either. Yet, from a business standpoint, this isn’t the sort of film that would ever be a top seller and I do understand that. My respect for Warner Bros. has evaporated but I do hope there are people like me who can’t help themselves from being interested in such distinguished titles and thus appreciate these types of reviews.

The film is listed at the 2.40:1 aspect ratio but actually comes in at 2.35:1, and is enhanced for widescreen televisions. It gets the “Remastered” label and thus costs five bucks more than other Warner Archive titles. I don’t know exactly what goes into such a distinction but I can report that Brewster McCloud looks very pleasing indeed. Only some minor and occasional marks of damage pop up and detail is mostly excellent. It’s a progressive transfer, scrubbed nicely but not enough to give it an artificial feeling. Grain is present and at fine levels. Only some darker scenes exhibit mild concern but these too are largely forgivable in their naturalism.

Audio is a basic English mono track that sounds slightly weak in volume.  Dialogue remains easily understandable and clear. The songs courtesy of John Phillips come through nicely. Boo again to the Warner Archive’s anti-subtitles policy. This simply needs to be corrected as soon as possible.

The film cries out for extras and contextualization but only a non-anamorphic trailer (2:46) has been included. Warner Archive doesn’t do extras. The idea there seems to be a tendency towards less supplemental content and nary a happy medium. You can either bang your head against the wall or relent on particular favorites being made available. Both options seem equally admirable.

It’s a strange analogy but film noir on DVD has become something like an oasis in the desert lately. With the trickle of classic titles at an all-time low in R1, it’s film noir which has stirred the pot this summer. VCI brought out New York Confidential and Olive Films licensed Dark City plus the noirish Union Station and Appointment with Danger from Paramount for release next week. I’m getting ready to start watching the stripped-down new Warner Bros. set that came out a week ago. Regardless of what’s happened with the Warner Archive and what could be in store for the future, nothing DVD-wise feels quite as good as a WB noir set stacked with 8 films on pressed discs. How it retails for $50 when, for example, Sam Fuller’s Verboten! goes for $25 by itself on a DVD-R from the Warner Archive is a mystery best left to someone else.

Late bloomer Sony has been the busiest of the studios regarding classic releases by far. It’s just released a second collection of Columbia film noir titles on DVD, and also issued a pair of Bad Girls of Film Noir sets earlier this year. That makes a whopping 17 new noir-related pictures to escape from Sony in the past 8 months or so. Now I feel like I should never say anything else bad about the studio in my TCM Ten write-ups. I’ve been won over, though not by the public relations department which, like most other American studios, won’t send me review copies because, primarily, I write for what is considered a UK site. Undeterred, I still wrote up the Columbia Film Noir II set for The Digital Fix. Here’s a link to my review. If I can gauge whether there’s any outside interest and if I have time then I might follow it later with a look at the Warner Bros. box.

Beyond some choice MGM-licensed titles on Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection, the future looks murky for film noir on disc. I hope that this wave of noir releases is greatly successful and perhaps results in more availability for that still-significant pile of unreleased films. Maybe Universal could even return to the game, or at least those pictures could pop up on TCM sometime. Ride the Pink Horse, I’m thinking about you in particular.

Here we are again. Still getting my sea legs back but glad to go through the schedule with you for a second week in a row. I’m keen on several of these, particularly that little Anthony Mann programmer that starts off his day on the schedule. I do have to make it to Film Forum in the next few days to see some of those screenings and possibly report back. As always, all times are EDT and program days begin at 6:00 AM.

Saturday June 26

12:00 PM Hearts of the West (Zieff, 1975) - C-102 mins. - Jeff Bridges stars as a young novelist of westerns who improbably finds himself starring in motion pictures in the 1930s. An intriguing cast includes Andy Griffith, Blythe Danner, Alan Arkin and Donald Pleasence. Director Howard Zieff may not be very well known but he had a decent run of comedies, some popular like Private Benjamin and the My Girl films and some less so like Slither and House Calls. Several years after this film a television show starring Jeff’s brother Beau Bridges aired by the name of Harts of the West. No connection. For some reason, Hearts of the West, released in cinemas by MGM so now likely controlled by Warner Bros., hasn’t found its way to DVD.

12:00 AM The Caretakers (Bartlett, 1963) - BW-98 mins. - TCM is “committed” to showing fare set in a psychiatric ward this evening. Terrible joke, sorry. The Snake Pit is given Essential status and is followed by Sam Fuller’s visceral Shock Corridor. Both excellent, largely uncompromising pictures. Next in line is this look at a mental hospital that stars Robert Stack as a young doctor who clashes with the not-so-young head nurse played by Joan Crawford. A notable cast also includes Polly Bergen, Diane McBain, Van Williams, Herbert Marshall and Robert Vaughn, among several others. There isn’t a proper DVD release available of the film, but it can be had on DVD-R through Amazon and MGM. Free and legal streaming is available through Hulu (and on the IMDb site) as well.

Sunday June 27

4:00 AM A Very Private Affair (Malle, 1962) - C-94 mins. - Louis Malle’s Au revoir les enfants is this week’s TCM Import and the channel seems to have paired another Malle film with it. A Very Private Affair has the big star combo of Marcello Mastroianni and Brigitte Bardot in its favor. Her character becomes a movie star but doesn’t like the intrusions upon her privacy. Mastroianni plays a former lover of Bardot’s mother who tries to shield the actress from some of the spotlight’s glare. It’s their relationship that gives the film its title. There are DVD editions available in Europe but nothing yet in R1. I believe Warner Bros. has the rights.

Monday June 28

7:30 AM Chatterbox (Nicholls Jr., 1936) - BW-68 mins. - A selection of Anne Shirley movies dot the day’s schedule. Shirley, first billed as Dawn O’Day in pictures like 4 Devils, City Girl and Liliom, gained notoriety and an Oscar nod for playing Barbara Stanwyck’s daughter in Stella Dallas. She also appeared as the wife of Jabez Stone in The Devil and Daniel Webster before retiring from acting after the 1944 film noir Murder, My Sweet. In Chatterbox, Shirley plays a young woman determined to follow in her mother’s footsteps and be a stage actress. Look for Lucille Ball in a supporting part. Made for RKO, the film should be in the hands of Warner Bros. and is not on DVD.

3:00 AM Penelope (Hiller, 1966) - C-98 mins. - Here’s a Natalie Wood pick for the week. It’s not an exceptional movie so much as it is a good showcase for Wood’s charm. She plays the wife of a bank manager who pulls off a major robbery mostly for the fun of it, and to get her husband’s attention. Peter Falk comes in to investigate. A weird little picture but worth seeing for her fans and not on DVD. MGM made it so Warner Bros. presumably has the rights now.

Wednesday June 30

6:00 AM Two O’Clock Courage (Mann, 1945) - BW-66 mins. - This is one of the few Anthony Mann pictures not being shown at Film Forum’s three-week retrospective. TCM has a day’s worth of Mann scheduled on the 104th anniversary of his birth. The star is Tom Conway (portrayer of the Falcon and brother to George Sanders) as a man suffering from amnesia. Ann Rutherford is the cabbie who gets more than she bargained for after picking him up. It turns out that the mystery man might be involved in a murder plot. Made for RKO, Two O’Clock Courage exists in a Spanish DVD edition but hasn’t found its way to R1. Those interested should probably make it a point to catch this airing. At best, it ends up in the Warner Archive. Desperate, soon to be on DVD in the new Film Noir set, follows at 7:15 AM.

4:00 AM To the Ends of the Earth (Stevenson, 1948) - BW-108 mins. - Dick Powell in tough guy mode as a treasury agent who’ll stop at nothing to take down an international narcotics ring. The film was apparently based on case files and made with the support of the Bureau of Narcotics. A review at IMDb observantly references Popeye Doyle and indeed the plot does sound reminiscent of an early French Connection. Columbia was the studio. Nothing DVD-wise from Sony.

Thursday July 1

3:45 PM To Each His Own (Leisen, 1946) - BW-122 mins. - TCM has shown this a few times lately but I’ve managed to miss each airing. Olivia de Havilland won her first Oscar for playing an American woman who has an illegitimate son during WWI and ends up finding him again in London during WWII. Charles Brackett, still in the middle of sharing a good string of material with partner Billy Wilder, was credited with the story and as co-writer of the screenplay. Since Wilder presumably had nothing to do with the picture, and both his colleague Brackett and frequent director Mitchell Leisen did, you can somewhat deduce what those Paramount films that all three worked on might have looked like had they been Wilder-less. Or maybe I’m stretching things a bit much. If it’s Paramount in the ’30s or ’40s then it’s likely to be Universal-owned and probably not on DVD. Yep, sounds about right. The other Oscar-winning performance of de Havilland’s, in The Heiress, follows at 6:00 PM.

12:00 AM The Delinquents (Altman, 1957) - BW-72 mins. - Robert Altman, yes the same one, wrote and directed this low budget look at teenagers with a proclivity for getting into trouble. It’s a nice curiosity piece, not hardly as bad as I had feared. The star is none other than Billy Jack himself Tom Laughlin. Weird that Altman and Laughlin would be paired here and then go on to make completely different impacts in the seventies. United Artists was the original releasing studio so my best guess would be that MGM now controls the film. It’s not on DVD in R1 but I believe there is an edition available in Australia.

Friday July 2

10:45 AM Success at Any Price (Ruben, 1934) - BW-74 mins. - The younger Douglas Fairbanks stars as a man intent on making money legitimately but doing so at most any cost. Happiness doesn’t follow and the stock market crash provides a devastating blow to the young man. This is a pre-Code picture and one not often shown. It’s also not on DVD. Sounds like a potential gem. Done for RKO so it should be with Warner Bros.

…have I got the film for you - Profound Desires of the Gods. It’s available via the Masters of Cinema line, on Blu-ray only and restricted to play just on Region B or region-free machines so the possible audience for this release is limited. If you have those capabilities or simply want to read my well-intentioned thoughts on the film, check out this lengthy review at The Digital Fix. It’s instantly one of my favorite things I’ve written, and it also delves into director Shohei Imamura’s themes and interests of this period.

As promised, here’s my ever-popular, ever-useful, ever-humble TCM Ten once again. I feel a little rusty after the time away so apologies in advance for any possible mistakes relating to DVD availability. As always, times are EDT and program days begin at 6:00 AM.

Saturday June 19

8:30 AM Blackbeard the Pirate (Walsh, 1952) - C-99 mins. - I’m not sure whether Raoul Walsh’s output in the fifties is largely overlooked because it’s not up to snuff or if it’s partially due to the dwindling prestige of the pictures. He did White Heat in ‘49 but wasn’t able to really carry that momentum into the next decade. Certainly his age would have been a factor too. I don’t feel like I’ve seen enough to make my own determination. Here’s one of his deeper entries, a picture about the famous pirate starring Robert Newton as the title character and Linda Darnell in the female lead. Darnell didn’t have very many significant film roles after this one. William Bendix is in support. Screenwriter Alan LeMay penned the novel The Searchers was based on. It was done for RKO and there’s no DVD in R1. A French disc seems to be out there.

Sunday June 20

10:15 PM Life with Father (Curtiz, 1947) - C-118 mins. - Here’s something I’ve wanted to see for a good while. It earned William Powell his last of three Oscar nominations, but the DVD releases available all seem to be of dubious quality. Powell plays a family man married to Irene Dunne. The cast also includes Elizabeth Taylor, Edmund Gwenn and Zasu Pitts. The character Powell portrays was a real fellow, a businessman in New York in the 1880s, whose son grew up to be a writer. Life with Father had several incarnations, beginning with a book that lead to a play then a movie and even a television show. The film was released by Warner Bros., though I don’t believe the studio has ever issued a DVD and the editions out, as I mentioned, are the types found for a dollar at stores that typically don’t sell DVDs.

Monday June 21

1:15 AM Love with the Proper Stranger (Mulligan, 1964) - BW-100 mins. - Not long ago, while trying to come up with ideas for semi-regular features on this site, I thought about a “Not on DVD” column of sorts where titles I consider to be prominent and absent from the marketplace would be brought up and discussed a little. I’ve not completely abandoned that thought but it’s definitely on the back burner for now. For one thing, the Warner Archive and its spawn has blurred the line between what is and is not available on DVD. Anyway, the movie I’d targeted as the first to write up was this one, an underseen and underrated drama that isn’t exactly a romance. Natalie Wood, June Star of the Month and Oscar-nominated for this performance, plays a young woman who still lives with her nagging parents in their New York City apartment. She goes out one night and meets musician Steve McQueen. They don’t fall in love but she becomes pregnant as a result of their encounter. McQueen never played another role like this one and he pulls it off well. The whole thing simply works and looks rather unique in that era of Hollywood filmmaking. But, oddly, it’s not on DVD. Paramount, which has licensed various titles to at least three different companies now but not let this one go yet, is responsible.

Tuesday June 22

7:00 AM Five Graves to Cairo (Wilder, 1943) - BW-96 mins. - This is the one Billy Wilder title made at Paramount (and now controlled by Universal) that isn’t available in either the states or R2, though a perfectly fine edition from Madman exists in R4. You can see Erich von Stroheim as Rommel here. Franchot Tone and Anne Baxter star. Even I’m starting to think TCM has gotten silly with the monthly showings of Some Like It Hot and Stalag 17 but so be it. Maybe we’ll get a Wilder film in Blu-ray sooner rather than later. If somehow you’ve avoided his pictures up to now, TCM has five of them airing during the day.

Wednesday June 23

2:00 PM Seven Women (Ford, 1966) - C-87 mins. - The simple truth that this was John Ford’s last feature makes it worthy of consideration. It’s also not on DVD to my knowledge. Anne Bancroft stars. The plot concerns Western women at a Chinese mission. Warner Bros. should have the rights. Not sure what the hold-up is.

2:30 AM The Bat Whispers (West, 1930) - BW-85  mins. - I don’t have very many of their releases, but the R1 label Milestone is probably one of the best small DVD outfits on this continent. And small is the operative word because I believe the company is largely run by a married couple out of their home. Yet, they’re responsible for bringing movies like Killer of Sheep, I Am Cuba and The Exiles to cinemas and home video in the last few years. TCM spotlights Milestone by airing the first and last of those titles, as well as a few others like this interesting-sounding early talkie from the director and star of Alibi. Chester Morris plays a detective who gets caught up with a masked baddie haunting an isolated residence. What’s really intriguing is that the film was shot both in 35mm for Academy ratio and in 65mm for widescreen, a huge novelty in those days. TCM indicates it will be showing the latter version letterboxed. If you miss the airing, Milestone has a DVD release out for The Bat Whispers.

Thursday June 24

2:15 AM Susan and God (Cukor, 1940) - BW-117 mins. - A definite maybe to this comedy starring Joan Crawford as a socialite who finds religion. She then tries to convert others. Fredric March appears as her husband and Rita Hayworth has a supporting part. The picture was done for MGM, giving Warner Bros. the rights currently, and I don’t think it’s made it to DVD.

8:00 PM Men in War (Mann, 1957) - BW-98 mins. - The 60th anniversary of the Korean conflict is upon us and TCM has lined up a great selection of films to commemorate the occasion, starting with Anthony Mann’s take. Robert Ryan and Aldo Ray star. A DVD from Geneon/Pioneer seems to be out of print. Hopefully I’ll have much more to come on Mann in the weeks ahead as he is the subject of a promising retrospective at Film Forum. Sam Fuller’s The Steel Helmet follows a little later at 11:00 PM.

Friday June 25

8:15 AM Battle Taxi (Strock, 1955) - BW-80 mins. - Still with the war movies. here’s a probably minor one starring Sterling Hayden as a superior officer trying to deal with upstart Arthur Franz (of The Sniper). Screenplay was by Malvin Wald. United Artists released in theaters so MGM is the likely choice for rights holder.

11:15 AM All the Young Men (Bartlett, 1960) - BW-86 mins. - I was surprised to come across a picture with Sidney Poitier that I had no knowledge of whatsoever. Alan Ladd is the other lead and the two men portray soldiers in the midst of a Chinese ambush. Their superior perishes but not before instructing the survivors that Poitier is to be in charge rather than Ladd. The teaming of Poitier and Ladd makes me just curious enough to probably watch. Glenn Corbett, a year after debuting in Fuller’s The Crimson Kimono, is also in the cast. It was made for Columbia. Sony has improved substantially with its DVD releases but this isn’t one that seems destined for a disc any time soon.

As some of you may have noticed, things have been a tad slow around here the last few weeks. No TCM picks, very few reviews and little else to enjoy. Mostly it was a lack of inspiration and the general struggle to come up with anything worth sharing lately. With TCM, the last two Stars of the Month before June were Robert Taylor, an actor I don’t care for at all, and Donna Reed, who not only wasn’t a movie star but didn’t even have the lead role in a single movie that TCM showed all month. I don’t think she was ever top-billed. Regardless, if you come back on Friday you’ll see a fresh TCM Ten for the first time in too long.

I’ve also recently been hammering away at reviews for what is now The Digital Fix and used to be called DVD Times. I’m quite proud of some of these and want to share a link to my write-up on Chaplin’s masterful The Great Dictator. In my moments of optimism a few people out there are reading and appreciating these reviews. Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you Friday.

Penthouse marked an important turning point in the career of Myrna Loy. Not only did the 1933 film, a deft mix of romance, comedy and mystery, allow Loy to display her considerable charm and sophistication onscreen in a major role, it was also her first teaming with director W.S. Van Dyke, who just a year later would guide the actress through her iconic performance as Nora Charles in The Thin Man. Prior to Penthouse, Loy was being misused to an almost inexplicable degree, perhaps most notoriously in yellowface casting in pictures like The Mask of Fu Manchu, where she appeared opposite Boris Karloff. She had had small roles in dozens of silent films and remained stuck down the cast list, including in Love Me Tonight and John Ford’s Arrowsmith, for the first few years of talkies. What Loy really needed was a break to get her out of the exotic stereotype. Penthouse, if not directly then certainly by extension, would provide just such a opportunity.

Fans of The Thin Man and its sequels might notice a basic similarity here. A respected man (with a snazzy pencil thin moustache) involves himself in a murder mystery as a collection of friends and the lovely Myrna Loy offer their help. The tale is told in a fairly lighthearted manner but not without some modest amount of suspense and danger. Clever plans are hatched and so on. Nonetheless, Penthouse provides basically just a hint of what would follow with The Thin Man and various other pictures using that template. Loy doesn’t appear until well into the movie and the lead here is In Old Arizona Oscar winner Warner Baxter. He’s far less wry and charismatic in comparison to Loy’s Thin Man co-star William Powell. You can almost imagine Van Dyke putting together The Thin Man on the basis of Penthouse and Loy and then calling for a leading man who, unlike Baxter, could match Loy’s effortless air of cool. Add copious amounts of alcohol and stir. Garnish with an adorable terrier.

As the lawyer protagonist who’s recently been ditched by his love and now finds himself crusading for the freedom of his replacement, Baxter is never less than fine. His more serious acting style hasn’t aged half as well as Powell’s, though, and we’re left with a rigid good guy rather than a mischievous, accidental gumshoe who clearly knows how to have a good time. This, again, simply separates Penthouse from its subsequent cousin a little, never hindering the overall pleasantness of the picture. His wardrobe, including a striking white hat, contributes probably a third or more of what works about Baxter’s performance.

While Martha Sleeper lives it up to her surname in making little impression as Baxter’s former flame, a pair of actors do come on strong in support. The irrepressible Nat Pendleton, familiar to all fans of pictures from the early thirties and another carryover into The Thin Man, plays a lovable gangster thug. He’s defended by Baxter’s character and acquitted, yielding our hero the undying affection of Pendleton’s large ogre. Pendleton ultimately introduces Baxter to Loy, who’s both an escort and a witness. The murder victim is - stop to avoid spoilers - Mae Clarke as a hussy sort named Mimi Montagne. As a potential charter member of Mae Clarke’s nonexistent fan club, I can only add that she makes a decent impression in Penthouse but doesn’t have more than a couple of scenes’ worth of screen time. Anyone interested in Clarke, the actress unfortunately know as much for being on the wrong end of a grapefruit as for her career, should check out James Whale’s Waterloo Bridge, a film that allows her to give an absolutely exquisite and natural performance. It can be found in the R1 edition of Warners’ Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 1.

Ultimately, the charms of Penthouse are owed greatly to Loy, who’s such an appealing performer, and a plot that’s generally able to sustain interest and intrigue without falling too far in any one direction. Audiences of the 1930s were in many ways smarter than modern cinemagoers and they expected it all rather than a mere morsel of a single type of entertainment. Penthouse, in this regard, has so much to recommend and amounts to a wonderfully enjoyable experience. It follows through on the mystery, the comedy, the romance and the hints of suspense and drama. Thus, it’s not unlike a rough version of The Thin Man even if the movie is nonetheless entirely fun in its own right. Maybe it’s a throwaway but there’s still something to be said for a pleasant diversion. Films of this type rarely get more pleasant than Penthouse.

The Warner Archive has been targeted over and over again in my writings here so I’ll give it a slight pass this time with the knowledge that Penthouse isn’t the sort of movie that would have otherwise likely seen the light of day on DVD.

That’s DVD-R, to be more accurate, and it looks rather worn on this burned disc. The print appears to be unrestored and retaining the various scratches, grain, and damages that accompany such a lack of time and money. Blacks are basically nonexistent in favor of a more grey tone and the image is on the soft side. Still, we’re hardly dealing with a print that’s not watchable and the film manages to register quite well given its age. Anything that looks decent from this decade tends to get a pass considering the general apathy shown by the studios in releasing pre-Code pictures. In short, it’s not great but I’ll take it without much backtalk. It’s also a progressive transfer.

Audio is mono, of course, and enhanced with hiss and crackles that come as largely expected for films of this vintage. Is it still audible? Absolutely and it’s probably even a little above average all things considered. The Warner Archive policy of excluding subtitles remains a significant thorn in the side of shelling out up to twenty dollars or more for these burned discs.

The only extra is a trailer (2:50) for the film.

There really aren’t that many ice skating noirs. And while that very well could be for the best, the 1946 picture Suspense proves that it’s indeed possible to effectively merge the two worlds of chilly entertainment and even cooler displays of morbid unraveling. Here we have yet another delicious reminder of what we mean when we talk about the pleasures of film noir. It’s a movie not terribly well known or appreciated but nonetheless in love with dark shadows and the ominous feeling one gets as things seem to work out just a tad too perfectly. What’s especially odd about Suspense is that, in addition to having so many of the tropes of noir, it keeps making room for several ice skating numbers performed by Belita, the female lead who had been an Olympian at the age of 12 and later made a handful of movies. In the same way a musical can’t help interrupting itself every few minutes for a song and dance, here we get intermittent breaks in the plot for Belita to ice skate. These interludes, like the Poverty Row version of Cyd Charisse’s dance sequences in Party Girl, quickly become almost hypnotic, somehow serving the film well rather than as a distraction.

Made with a relatively large budget at Monogram Pictures following the success of Dillinger the previous year, Suspense gathered director Frank Tuttle, notable for his Ladd-Lake adaptation of Graham Greene’s This Gun for Hire, and a solid team of talent both behind and in front of the camera. Barry Sullivan was making a play for leading man status as protagonist Joe Morgan, a luckless drifter who left Chicago for New York before turning up in Los Angeles and seemingly catching a break. He doesn’t take long to rise up the ranks from peanut vendor to Albert Dekker’s trusted second in command. As Frank Leonard, Dekker hangs over almost the entire film, a spectre present even when he’s not on screen. Noirish complications arise as Joe finds himself drawn to Leonard’s wife Roberta (Belita), who’s also the star of the show he runs. Eugene Pallette, in his last film, plays the reasonably loyal lapdog, first for Leonard and then Joe, though his motivations often seem tough to entirely pin down. Add Bonita Granville, a former Nancy Drew, to the mix also, as the ex-flame semblance of Joe’s past life who proves love affairs die exceptionally hard. She’s excellent in a role that could have registered with far less concern.

The main problem Suspense may face to modern viewers is a skepticism regarding the plot. We’ve seen this before, right, with Gilda, also from 1946, bearing particular resemblance. The outsider who disrupts a marriage by positioning himself as a younger, more virile alternative to the beautiful woman’s husband has been done repeatedly in film noir. Yet, the unfolding of events in Suspense manages to still feel fresh and unpredictable. This is largely due to a sustained uncertainty in Philip Yordan’s script. As familiar as the basics can seem, the characterizations here are fairly novel in comparison, and much of the movie protects the two leads from harboring any criminal intentions. Joe and Roberta legitimately connect to one another but, unlike numerous other dips into this territory, there’s no expressed flirtation with murder or eliminating the husband. A resolution to this infidelity isn’t made immediately obvious in this instance. At first, anyway.

(spoilers)

Leonard becomes proactive and that seems to make all the difference. This little twist serves Suspense well by letting its pair of main characters entirely off the hook. They may be on the path to adultery, if not there already, but their actions are otherwise on the up and up at this point. Leonard’s apparent death via avalanche is little reason for guilt in Joe or Roberta. He was, after all, intending to kill Joe. Twisted sympathies always make for good noir. Frank Leonard isn’t that admirable of a guy anyway, but when he tries (and fails) to shoot Joe the path is open and free for throwing our support in favor of the guy who’d earlier claimed he was someone who had “swung and missed” in life. Ah, noir, how you so happily wreak havoc on those who step outside the comfort zone of normalcy. Joe just can’t help himself. He rises up to the top, name in lights, and soon enough finds fate’s cruel assertion of power. Leonard, alive and well, is framed in an extraordinary display of shadows by Karl Struss as he makes himself at home in his former office. The real kicker is that the inevitable struggle, resulting in an apparent fight to the death, between these two men isn’t shown. The outcome is teased. The black cat Leonard had earlier been shown stroking can be seen jumping away out of the desk amid the company of a lifeless body. But the actual killing is completely ignored.

(end of spoilers)

The gathering unpredictability of Suspense plays out like a breath of fresh air that might dizzy the unfaithful. Things don’t fall exactly as we’re lead to believe, and Belita is unorthodox enough to lead the viewer into questioning her character’s motivations about most everything. Does Roberta care about her husband? Is she really fond of Joe? This conflict of loyalty comes to dominate the unspoken subtext of the relationships between Roberta and her men. When she’s with either, she seems happy and content and, most intriguingly, loyal. Belita is believable as a woman torn between two men. She functions as the fragile backbone of the picture. Joe meanwhile seems to forget his previous bad luck and foolishly thinks he can maintain a comfortable life. It’s noir Joe, where reminders come in the form of bullets and character flaws double as the protagonist’s downfall. Whatever happened in Chicago took him to New York before he tried again in Los Angeles. That’s three swings and three misses.

Aside from being single-layered and on a DVD-R without subtitles or extra features, Suspense gets by quite nicely in its incarnation as a Warner Archive title. The feature is presented in 1.33:1 and looks good. Grain is visible but not intrusive. Black levels look adequate. Just a few speckles and some scratches mar the otherwise respectable transfer. It’s consistently more impressive than disappointing. Progressive and as sharp as one would reasonably demand, the film manages a quite nice transition to the world of ghettoized DVD-R releases via official studio editions.

The mono audio track is always acceptable, if understandably limited. Dialogue comes through rather clearly and consistently. A mild hiss is present. The lack of subtitles, as always with these Warner Archive releases, continues to be a disappointing and inexcusable weakness.

There aren’t any extras on the disc, not even a trailer.

Though the June schedule hasn’t yet been posted at the TCM site, a little birdie told me to look forward to Natalie Wood as the Star of the Month. Excited for that. Is it really April already? Seems so, and we get Robert Taylor films all month long. Even if I’m not over the moon about Barbara Stanwyck’s one-time husband, it’ll give me a chance to mention several things either not on DVD or sent out to the Warner Archive pasture, where Taylor seems to be reigning as far as I can tell. As always, all times are EDT and program days begin at 6:00 AM.

Saturday March 27

2:00 PM Monte Walsh (Fraker, 1970) - C-99 mins. - Nice little seventies western starring Lee Marvin as the title character, Jack Palance as his buddy and Jeanne Moreau as the woman he sometimes pays a visit to. It’s low-key and I think that’s probably why my opinion of the film has risen since first seeing it almost three years ago as part of a Marvin retrospective. There was later a remake for television starring Tom Selleck. It’s that version that’s on DVD while this one hasn’t made it yet. I think Warner Bros. might be the studio with R1 rights, though Fox released it on VHS here.

10:15 PM Letter from an Unknown Woman (Ophuls, 1948) - BW-87 mins. - Easily among the best films not on R1 DVD, this stars Joan Fontaine as the mysterious letter writer and Louis Jourdan as the rather arrogant recipient, a Viennese pianist. I don’t really want to relate any more of the plot but I’ll happily recommend a viewing. Second Sight in the UK has a DVD out, but you just know that the Criterion Collection, with 4 Max Ophuls titles already under its belt, would love to release this. The film is in the Republic library.

12:00 AM Julie (Stone, 1956) - BW-98 mins. - I’m not familiar with this film, even if it did get a Best Original Screenplay nod, but it sounds intriguing enough to mention. Doris Day gets a dramatic role as the title character, a stewardess in San Francisco stalked by her psychotic spouse. (sssss!) Louis Jourdan is here too, joined by Barry Sullivan and Frank Lovejoy. Andrew L. Stone wrote the screenplay and directed. It was released by MGM so Warner Bros. should have the rights and apparently Doris Day is a big DVD seller (according to George Feltenstein) so Julie probably has a better shot of seeing a pressed disc than most of the studio’s catalog. Later in the week, on Wednesday, Stone’s 1965 film The Secret of My Success airs at 6:15 PM.

Sunday March 28

6:00 AM Cottage to Let (Asquith, 1941) - BW-90 mins. - Even though this was also directed by Anthony Asquith and has the word “Cottage” in the title, it apparently is unrelated to the 1929 feature A Cottage on Dartmoor. Leslie Banks plays an inventor working for the military at a Scottish manor. The Nazis covet one of his ideas and houseguests including Alastair Sim and John Mills push the intrigue even further. I see a cheap R2 DVD from the UK label Network available, but the film doesn’t seem to be available in R1. A little later, at 10:30 AM, the Frank Capra-Barbara Stanwyck picture The Bitter Tea of General Yen airs.

Monday March 29

7:30 AM Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet (Dieterle, 1940) - BW-103 mins. - If you’d rather not pony up for a burned DVD-R from the Warner Archive, here’s a chance to see Edward G. Robinson in the dramatic role of the doctor who spent his career finding a cure for syphilis. Robinson was very proud of the performance and film, though the never-nominated actor was again ignored by the Academy Awards. Behind-the-scenes talent abounds, with William Dieterle directing, James Wong Howe doing the cinematography, and Max Steiner scoring.

Tuesday March 30

8:00 PM Dersu Uzala (Kurosawa, 1975) - C-141 mins. - Kurosawa’s Russian film, about an army explorer in Siberia rescued by an Asiatic hunter. This sparks a friendship between the two men that is rekindled a few years later during another expedition. It won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, though the victor was technically the Soviet Union since countries rather than people are the official winners of those awards. I know that Kino has a DVD available in R1 and that Film Forum in New York will be running Dersu Uzala for nine days in April. I do wonder if TCM’s print will match the Kino transfer or improve on it.

Wednesday March 31

1:30 AM Primrose Path (La Cava, 1940) - BW-93 mins. -  Ginger Rogers won the Academy Award for 1940’s Kitty Foyle but you could probably argue that her performance here was an important factor in that victory. Having two dramatic roles in the same year which were both generally well-regarded couldn’t have hurt. She plays a woman trying to overcome her family’s dim past and falling for Joel McCrea in the process. Marjorie Rambeau was Oscar-nominated for playing Rogers’ mother. The film was done at RKO so it should be with Warner Bros. now in R1. A French DVD from Editions Montparnasse can be had in R2.

Thursday April 1

11:00 AM The First Traveling Saleslady (Lubin, 1956) - C-92 mins. - The Ginger Rogers Star of the Month celebration is winding down but a few of her later movies show up on the schedule today. This sounds like a potential turkey but I can’t resist pointing out a western where Ginger is the star and she’s joined by Carol Channing, James Arness and Clint Eastwood. I just couldn’t forgive myself for ignoring it. The plot is something about Rogers and Channing going from show business to corsets to selling barbed wire in the West. This was the last picture Ginger or anyone else did for RKO and a note of trivia at IMDb states that the New York Times didn’t even bother reviewing it. Not on DVD. Tight Spot officially closes out the Ginger Rogers films at 2:30 PM.

6:00 PM I Thank a Fool (Stevens, 1962) - C-100 mins. - Susan Hayward was always getting into the absolute worst situations in her movies. Here she’s a physician sent to prison on charges of euthanasia who, upon release, ends up caring for the wife of her prosecutor (played by Peter Finch). Peter Sallis, the voice of plasticine cheese lover Wallace, has a small role listed at IMDb as “Sleazy Doctor.” Also, a user review at that site mentions that the movie was filmed in a small fishing village in West Cork, Ireland, a fact that caught my eye. I don’t know of a DVD release. MGM released theatrically so Warner Bros. is the likely rights holder.

Friday April 2

7:45 AM Born to Dance (Del Ruth, 1936) - BW-106 mins. - Here we have Jimmy Stewart as a sailor who helps dancer Eleanor Powell find success on Broadway. Sid Silvers both co-wrote the screenplay and plays Stewart’s pal Gunny. Other cast members include Virginia Bruce, Una Merkel, and Buddy Ebsen, who would have been 102 years old today and has several pictures on today’s schedule. Born to Dance was an MGM feature that hasn’t been released on DVD. Warner Bros. should have the rights. Broadway Melody of 1936, an Oscar nominee for Best Picture that isn’t on DVD, precedes this showing, at 6:00 AM.

A backloaded week, the schedule does well by Akira Kurosawa on Tuesday by giving the full day to the director’s films. Also more movies with Ginger Rogers, including many not on DVD in R1, find their way to the television this week. Tough to complain. As always, all times are EDT and program days begin at 6:00 AM.

Tuesday March 23

6:00 AM Sanshiro Sugata (Kurosawa, 1943) - BW-79 mins. - The monthlong celebration honoring the 100th anniversary of director Akira Kurosawa’s birth concludes next week on TCM, but today is the big one, giving the entire schedule to Kurosawa-san. The first four films being shown, beginning here, are only available in R1 as part of Criterion’s massive (and expensive) 25-film box set released last year. So, cheers to TCM for finding time to show these harder to see efforts. Sanshiro Sugata was the first real feature Kurosawa directed. It’s set in the 19th century and concerns a young student’s experiences with the martial arts of jujitsu and judo. A sequel was made a couple of years later, though Kurosawa was apparently unhappy about having to do it. TCM has that one scheduled for 10:00 AM today. Another of the movies exclusive to the Criterion set, The Most Beautiful, airs next at 7:30 AM.

9:00 AM The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail (Kurosawa, 1945) - BW-59 mins. - Very short Kurosawa adventure about a 12th century lord who goes into enemy territory with a group of samurai. This too is available in Criterion’s AK100 box but might at some point, along with the other three not yet widely available films, turn up as an Eclipse set. Something worth noting is that TCM today is not only showing 13 Kurosawa pictures, but the 8 airing before prime time are in chronological order and make for an interesting look at the evolution of his career.

5:30 PM Stray Dog (Kurosawa, 1949) - BW-122 mins. - The day’s line-up culminates in what I consider to be Kurosawa’s first truly great film. Toshiro Mifune plays a rookie detective whose gun is stolen by a pickpocket on a bus. While undercover trying to retrieve his firearm, Mifune realizes how easily his postwar path could have led him to a life on the other side of the law. Very noir and very compelling. Criterion’s individual DVD release is solid, though the Kurosawa Blu-ray upgrades have been coming fast and furious lately so I wonder how much longer it will be until we have this title in high definition.

Wednesday March 24

5:45 PM Junior Bonner (Peckinpah, 1972) - C-100 mins. - The two films Sam Peckinpah made with Steve McQueen - The Getaway, also from 1972, being the other - brought out the best in both men. I get the feeling that some Peckinpah admirers see them as commercial concessions but I couldn’t be fonder of either. The modern western Junior Bonner, with McQueen as a fading rodeo star prone to discord, is as tender as it is tough. The film is a whiskey-soaked character study that seemingly could have only been made in the 1970s. Since the MGM R1 DVD doesn’t display the Scope photography in anamorphic widescreen, and I’m not sure any other region has disc that is enhanced, those with the TCM HD channel can finally enjoy an upscaled, anamorphic presentation. Last year’s McQueen retrospective at Lincoln Center in New York didn’t even feature Junior Bonner. I heard the programmer of the series say that a print of sufficient quality couldn’t be found.

8:00 PM Vivacious Lady (Stevens, 1937) - BW-90 mins. - Remember that idea I had for a Ginger Rogers box set from Warner Bros.? You can catch three of the pictures mentioned on TCM tonight, including Bachelor Mother at 9:45 PM and 5th Ave. Girl at 2:15 AM. Vivacious Lady, though, is a gem and definitely one of those movies where it’s tough to figure out why a DVD in R1 hasn’t been issued yet. Jimmy Stewart plays a professor with a buttoned up family who finds an unlikely wife in a nightclub singer (Rogers) and then struggles to keep the marriage a secret. Ginger has rarely been more appealing. It was done for RKO, and there is a disc available in France from Editions Montparnasse (under the title Mariage incognito).

Thursday March 25

7:00 AM Upper World (Del Ruth, 1934) - BW-73 mins. - The Ginger Rogers Star of the Month extravaganza continues with one of her earlier pictures that doesn’t show up very often on the schedule. It’s kind of a strange film that really feels like two different movies. Initially, our old friend Warren William is seen playing with his son and being a wealthy family man married to Mary Astor. When he meets a showgirl (Rogers), William lightens up and enjoys the attention he wasn’t getting from his wife. Things are going well until J. Carrol Naish sees a blackmail opportunity and the film then darkens considerably. Several different moods for such a short picture. Definitely worth a look. It’s Warner Bros., and not available on DVD.

2:00 AM The Happy Ending (Brooks, 1969) - C-112 mins. - When Jean Simmons died earlier this year TCM had a tribute and included this but I missed it. As with Elmer Gantry, she’s directed by Richard Brooks, who also wrote the film and was married to Simmons at the time. The result was an Oscar nomination for the actress. Plot descriptions emphasize that Simmons’ character is a middle-aged woman who abandons her family in order to find herself. I’m interested to see how everything plays out considering the immediate tendency to prejudge a situation like that. A pretty good supporting cast includes John Forsythe, Lloyd Bridges, Teresa Wright, Bobby Darin, Shirley Jones and Tina Louise. The Happy Ending isn’t on DVD in R1. It looks like MGM should have the rights.

4:00 AM The Pumpkin Eater (Clayton, 1964) - BW-110 mins. - The theme of the night is “Families in Crisis.” We move from one Oscar-nominated performance to another. Anne Bancroft here is a much-wedded woman unable to find what she wants in life. Peter Finch and James Mason co-star. The screenplay is by Harold Pinter. Columbia released, but no DVD in R1. A disc can be had in the UK via Moviemail.

Friday March 26

8:00 AM A Life of Her Own (Cukor, 1950) - BW-109 mins. - Lana Turner plays a model who finds success and, ultimately, the married Ray Milland. This was Turner’s first film after a two-year hiatus. A remarkable cast includes Ann Dvorak as a model losing her youth and other well-known names like Tom Ewell, Louis Calhern, Barry Sullivan, and Jean Hagen. It was done for MGM so Warner Bros. should control. It’s not on DVD.

11:30 AM No Questions Asked (Kress, 1951) - BW-81 mins. - Barry Sullivan also pops up here, now in the lead role. He’s a lawyer who finds himself framed for murder. He’s joined by Arlene Dahl and Jean Hagen again. There’s a noirish vibe to it apparently. The screenplay was by Sidney Sheldon. Harold Kress, known more as an editor who won a pair of Oscars, directed but soon enough went back to editing. This is MGM and now Warner Bros. No DVD.