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“Catching Fire: The Anita Pallenberg Story” * (2024, Magnolia Pictures) Compelling but crushing doc about the titular ’60s figure, muse and running partner to at least three of the Rolling Stones, and cautionary tale about the excesses of a life lived in constant personal conflagration. Scarlett Johansson reads text from Pallenberg’s unpublished memoir discovered by her children after her death in 2017, which paints the author as a woman withstanding the circus that swirled around her from inside a cage of addiction, possessive and destructive men, and the expectations/restrictions placed on women who want to live their own lives. Keith Richards is heard but not seen, while son Marlon, filmmaker Volker Schlordoff, and Kate Moss, among others, add perspective to a subject that defied easy definition. Worth it for music/culture/zeitgeist devotees, but a tough watch.
“The Linguini Incident” * (1991, MVD Marquee Video) Former child escape artist turned waitress Rosanna Arquette covets a ring owned by Houdini’s wife and plans to fund the purchase by robbing the Dali-inspired Downtown NYC restaurant at which she works, only to discover that the rest of the staff – including bartender David Bowie and cashier Marlee Matlin – also have designs on holding up the joint. Willfully offbeat and fairly brimming with indie charm thanks to its leads, this long-lost comedy from director Richard Shephard (“The Matador,” “The Perfection”) – the film was edited without his approval and released to empty theaters in the same weekend as the Rodney King riots – arrives on Blu-ray from MVD, which bundles the (sharper, funnier) Shephard-approved Director’s Cut with the theatrical cut. Shepard is featured on two commentaries – one solo and the other with Arquette, co-producer Sarah Jackson and co-writer Tamar Brott – as well as a lengthy making-of retrospective with plenty of production gossip, an introduction that explains the reasons for his director’s cut, gallery of production photos (with more gossip), and trailers.
“The President’s Analyst” * (1967, Kino Lorber) Psychiatrist James Coburn discovers that his new patient – the (unseen) President of the United States – is not only causing his life and relationship to Joan Delaney to collapse, but also makes him a target of various agencies, both domestic (CIA and FBI, both hiding behind fake names) and international (the KGB, represented by Severn Darden), as well as a shadowy technocrat group called The Phone Company. Irreverent, funny, and prescient satire from writer-director Theodore J. Flicker, who imagines an American society doomed by the combined efforts of technocrats and corporate types who seek to connect us all through communication devices (like I said, prescient); spies, by comparison, are quaintly outdated, as is the perceived threat of the counterculture (embodied here by a dippy Barry McGuire and Jill Banner from “Spider Baby”). With Godfrey Cambridge, William Daniels, Pat Harrington, and Will Geer; Kino’s Blu-ray offers a 4K restoration of the original theatrical version (TV edits snipped out the music numbers) and commentaries by Tim Lucas (solo) and historian Julie Kirgo with writer Peter Hankoff.
“Viva La Muerte” * (1971, Radiance Films) Playwright turned director Fernando Arrabal – a contemporary of Alejandro Jodorowsky – exorcises his own gruesome childhood during the Spanish Civil War with this litany of surreal and frequently horrific images. Like Arrabal himself, young Fando (child actor Mahdi Chaouch) believes that his mother (the fearless Nuria Espert) is responsible for his father’s abduction by Fascists, and sinks into reveries to exorcise his anger and Oedipal lust. As with Jodorowsky’s work, Arrabal pulls no punches in delivering these moments in bold and brutal terms – a number of animals suffer ugly on-screen demises in the service of his art, and Chaouch and Espert find themselves locked in various scatological or blood-soaked tableaus – which underscore the monstrous nature of personal and political betrayal. Arrabal’s film is also well-acted and photographed (in Tunisia) and often heartbreaking, which does much to balance the grotesque moments. Radiance’s Limited Edition Blu-ray features a 4K restoration (done in collaboration with Arrabal), commentary by the Projection Booth, a 1970 documentary about the making of “Muerte,” and a feature-length look at the filmmaker’s life and career from 2011.
“A Queen’s Ransom” (1976, Eureka Entertainment) Hong Kong’s police are influx thanks to the arrival of thousands of refugees from the Vietnam War and a state visit by Queen Elizabeth II – a situation which Irish terrorist George Lazenby plans to exploit in order to assassinate Her Majesty. Feature from Golden Harvest aims to fuse its signature martial arts action with a political thriller a la “Day of the Jackal”, and if it’s not quite successful in doing so, and its story dissolves into a mass of dangling plot threads, “Queen’s Ransom” does feature some period favorites – Jimmy Wang Yu, Bolo Yeung, and briefly, the great Angela Mao – in some hard-punching setpieces (and eye-catching ’70s togs). Eureka’s Blu-ray features both the Hong Kong theatrical cut (with Mandarin and English dubs) and a shorter export cut; the former features commentary by Frank Djeng and Michael Worth, while the latter has Mike Leeder and Arne Vernema. All of them know their kung fu, and Worth is also featured in a short interview about training Lazenby and his recollections of working in Hong Kong.
“The Scarface Mob” (1959, Arrow Video) Two-part pilot for ABC’s “Untouchables” series, which details the brutal lengths to which Fed Eliot Ness went to fight the equally ruthless organized crime empire of Al Capone (Neville Brand) in Roaring Twenties Chicago. Originally broadcast on television before its release to theaters, this tightly constructed noir sets the tone for the series that followed, which earned a huge viewership and much critical discussion for its level of violence; the film also features a sizable (for 1959) body count, but director Phil Karlson – a specialist in morally complex noir – also goes the extra mile to examine the mindset of men who casually kill in the name of their respective pursuits, even as it racks up a toll on those around them (like stoolie Joe Mantell and wife Barbara Nichols, for whom law and order doesn’t pay). Arrow’s Limited Edition Blu-ray has exceptionally fine sound and image as well as video essays on Karlson’s film career and the real Ness, whose legend was established by “Scarface Mob” and “The Untouchables” series. Liner notes include writing by Barry Forshaw.
