Check Out the Trailer

Phil Karlson made B-movies from the 1940s through the 1970s. He’s probably best known for the Elvis Presley flick KID GALAHAD and 1973’s original WALKING TALL. His 1955 THE PHENIX CITY STORY was like many moralizing message movies of the era, but distinguished itself with its unflinching realistic violence. KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL, a wronged man tale, is credited as inspiring RESERVOIR DOGS.

Joe Rolfe (John Payne, MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET) was studying to be an engineer when a gambling debt got him a stint in the pen. Now he’s driving a flower delivery truck to get his life on track. In a streak of bad luck, he gets set up as a patsy in a bank robbery. Without a job and 20 years hanging over his head, he sets out to locate the thieves and get his share anyway.

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Buy It Now!

Read my review of THE STRANGER

Film Chest has taken this Orson Welles public domain title and brought it to Blu-ray from a 35mm print. The result is mixed, but not bad. The restoration of the image is well done, ridding the image from virtually all damage and decay. However, the process has left the picture soft or washed out at times. Bright sunny outdoor scenes suffer the most. The high contrast suits the shadowy scenes best. Black are as dark as Welles’ Nazi-in-hiding character. Details in close-ups during these dark scenes actually show remarkable detail.

There are two soundtracks — Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0. The 5.1 track simply relegates Bronislaw Kaper’s score to the back speakers. The 2.0 track represents the original sound design better anyway. Without access to source material, the print used is not the best one could hope for. Pops, cracks and synch issues plague the entire film. Additionally, the high and low range seems compressed.

The disc comes with a DVD version as well. Difference in quality between that and the Blu-ray are certainly noticeable. The special features are very limited — the theatrical trailer and a demo of the restoration.

With public domain titles like this one, it will take a firm like Criterion or Kino to have a more robust transfer, but for now the Film Chest version is worth the reasonable price.

Check Out the Trailer and Clips

So if you’re one of nine superpowered aliens from a destroyed world hiding out on Earth when the creatures that wiped out your kind are in hot pursuit, what do you do? If you’re John Smith in this film, you stop to develop a roll of film with your Earthling girlfriend. You really can’t make this stuff up.

John Smith is played by the up-and-coming hunk Alex Pettyfer (BEASTLY). He is an alien hiding out on Earth with his guardian Henri (Timothy Olyphant, TV’s JUSTIFIED), who poses as his father. The evil Mogadorians are hunting the nine superpowered aliens in numerical order. The numbering system is never explained. Number 3 has just been killed and John is Number 4.

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Check Out the Trailer

Selected for the National Film Registry in 1989, this drama marked the film time an American-American was hired to direct a major studio production. Renaissance man Gordon Parks helmed the film, based on his screenplay adapted from his novel. It’s harder to think of another film under such a singular authorship. The result is a complex coming-of-age tale that defies expectations and resonates with emotional truth.

The story throws us into a tornado. Black teenager Newt Winger (Kyle Johnson, PRETTY MAIDS ALL IN A ROW) is lost in the storm. He ends up half delirious in a shack where the prostitute Big Mabel (Carol Lamond, BLACK GIRL) “pops his cherry.” In talking with his friends about it later, he doesn’t seem to have wanted anything to do with it. He’s a sensitive young man who develops a crush on the new girl in town Arcella Jefferson (Mira Waters, THE GREATEST). His family works for the town judge Cavanaugh (Russell Thorson, HANG ‘EM HIGH), whose progressive attitudes have rubbed off on his son Chauncey (Zooey Hall, I DISMEMBER MAMA)… somewhat. The young man likes ruffling feathers more than righting social wrongs.

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