Released on Blu-ray this week by the exemplary Second Run label, The Party and the Guests is a 1966 Czechoslovakian film from Jan Němec that holds the distinction of being one of a handful of films to be ‘banned forever’ in its native land by communist authorities who, in the […]
Mark Cunliffe
Senior Contributor Mark's first cinematic experience was watching the Cannon and Ball vehicle, The Boys in Blue. He hasn't looked back since. Hailing from St Helens, he is an occasional contributor to Arrow DVD, writing booklet inlay essays on a variety of titles, including Children of Men and The Great Escape. He is a reviewer with IndieMDB and has also written a chapter for Ste Brotherstone and Dave Lawrence's book, Scarred For Life Vol II. Other sites he has written for include We Are Cult, Horrified, and America's left-leaning news outlet ZNetwork. Publications he has written articles for include Stat Magazine and the fanzine Undefined Boundary: The Journal of Psychick Albion. He is also a regular contributor to the Geek Show's podcasts, including Pop Screen and the Uncut series, and he can be found on Letterboxd.
Dillinger (1973): Print the Legend (Review)
“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend” is an infamous quote from John Ford’s 1962 classic Western The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance that could arguably be seen as the inspiration for Dillinger, John Milius’1973 directorial debut, dusted down by Arrow Video and given the Blu-ray treatment this week. Based on […]
Merry-Go-Round (1956) Romeo and Juliet in Communist Hungary (Review)
Released this week as part of Second Run’s Hungarian Masters limited edition three disc Blu-ray (see m’colleagues reviews on this site for the other two films in the set), Merry-Go-Round, or to give it its original Hungarian title Körhinta, is rightly held up as one of the finest achievements in […]
Le Samourai (1967) Alain in the Underworld (Review)
Criterion delivers Alain Delon’s most iconic performance to Blu-ray this week with the release of Jean-Pierre Melville’s classic, Gallic ode to ’40s US gangster movies, Le Samourai. In what is arguably his greatest role, the impossibly handsome Delon stars as as assassin-for-hire Jef Costello. Dressed in trenchcoat and a deeply […]
Early Universal Vol 2: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea/The Calgary Stampede/What Happened to Jones? (1916-1926) (Review)
Hot on the heels of Eureka’s Masters of Cinema release of Early Universal Vol 1 in August comes this second volume from the vaults of the 110-year-old Hollywood studio, featuring one of its earliest productions, an epic adaptation of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea from 1916, alongside 1925 […]
Almost Liverpool 8 (2021) A Love Letter to a Postcode (Review)
In this documentary film, the writer Ronnie Hughes remarks “I’m not particularly interested in history…I’m more interested in what it tells us about how people live, and how is it now, and what is the history of now that we can turn into the future” So let’s get the history […]
The Sabata Trilogy (1969-71) For a Few Sequels More (Review)
The Western has been around as long as Hollywood. It stands to reason I guess that, when looking to tell tales on the big screen with this new medium of cinema, many American filmmakers looked towards the history of their homeland. However, by the 1960s Hollywood’s rendition of the Wild […]
Early Universal Vol 1: Skinner’s Dress Suit/The Shield of Honor/The Shakedown (1926-1929)(Review)
Released to Blu-ray on Eureka’s Masters of Cinema last month, Early Universal Vol 1 is a boxset celebrating the legendary studio’s formative years with three beautifully restored silent features. Each film feels carefully chosen to represent the breadth and variety of features made during the silent era; the domestic comedy […]
Walk on the Wild Side (1962) More Like Walk on the Mild Side (Review)
Released to Blu-ray by Arrow Video on the 6th of this month, Walk on the Wild Side is certainly a film with a good pedigree. Based on a novel by Nelson Algren published six years earlier, it is directed by Edward Dmytryk, the Canadian-born American filmmaker who had a very […]
The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976) Playing Ball With Motown Productions (Review)
When we think of Motown, we inevitably think of that glorious back catalogue of music – the mainstay of many a party or get together. What we don’t think of, is cinema. Nevertheless, Motown supremo Berry Gordy Jr launched Motown Productions in 1968, hopeful that he could corner the market […]