Commentary Tracks - The Good, The Bad & The Unlistenable

[AndyDursin]

Kino's LADY FROM SHANGHAI has a really good commentary from Tim Lucas. The transfer though isn't quite as sharp as Powerhouse Indicator's UK release despite being from the same master.

[Eric Paddon]

I had "Groundstar Conspiracy" lying on my shelf for awhile from an earlier Kino sale binge. I got it only because having gone through "Banacek" a couple times I had no idea George Peppard and Christine Belford, who had sparred on that series had worked just before that. Watching the film, I got a reminder of how Peppard could come off as such a conceited jerk at times on "Banacek" only this time his character has not a single shred of redeeming charm whatsoever. I give the film a point for coming up with an out of left-field twist that I hadn't expected at the end (after I'd predictably tagged Cliff Potts as one of the baddies earlier on) but overall the film came off more like a Universal TV movie shot in Panavision.

Once again, I found myself shutting off a commentary track in midstream when one of the two participants decided to go current events and say that as they were recording this (Summer 2020) police forces "are being defunded, thank God." Goodbye after that. Before that the commentary was committing the sin of being boring because it's like a lot of Kino commentaries in that they spend FAR too much time yapping about the director and treating the director like an auteur and they say next to nothing about the production or the actors or the story or what we are seeing. I frankly find this "arthouse" approach boring as hell because let's be honest, Lamont Johnson is not the kind of director who merits this level of attention and I don't care what else his other projects were (the meandering about how he did a TV movie about the integration of the Arkansas schools in the 50s is why they then went off into that tangent about civil rights which led to that disgusting police defunding remark).

By contrast the commentary on the new Arrow release of "Black Sunday" is pretty good and held my attention (though it unfortunately ignored Williams score). It was superior to the commentary on the Imprint release in that the narrator here was familiar with the Harris novel and noted some key differences. He also noted Frankenheimer's cameo which the other commentary missed.

[AndyDursin]

Here's an unlistenable - the commentary on MUSIC BOX by "Cineaste" editor Gary Crowdus ends up devolving into a TrumpMAGAWhiteSupremacy sermon at the end. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

[Eric Paddon]

These are the kind of "commentaries" that deserved to be cancelled. Not the 45 ones for "Columbo" that we'll never hear!

[Eric Paddon]

And another commentary track gets the shutoff from me due to a political intrusion and this time sadly it came from someone whose work I've liked in previous efforts. Tim Lucas did a truly great commentary on "One Million Years B.C" that treated the film respectfully and without snark that I appreciated and he did a few other good ones too. But alas on the new commentary for the 4K version of "Barbarella" he started to go off into a tangent about the censorship of comic books in the late 40s in France and the 50s in America. I don't have any real problem with that. Except then he decided to liken that effort to the current attempts of the right to censor books blah-blah. As soon as I heard that, shut off, goodbye Tim nice to have known you. I don't indulge BS propaganda defenses of pornography for grade school kids funded by the taxpayer.

[AndyDursin]

HOUSE CALLS (1978) has a commentary by "historians" Bryan Reesman and Max Evry

You would think they would assign someone who knows Walter Matthau for this commentary. Instead, when Evry mentions CHARLEY VARRICK as being one of his best movies, Reesman blankly intones "never seen it".

I did find out Matthau was in (get this!) THE ODD COUPLE!! Amazing!!

[Monterey Jack]

I got the 20-movie Hammer set from Mill Creek recently, and Joshua Kennedy's track for The Old Dark House was excruciating.

[Eric Paddon]

Gee, did Reesman find an excuse to go into a five minute rant about the blacklist like I had to hear him do in the "Marooned" commentary just because Lee Grant was in it?

I was put to sleep for the most part by the commentary on the Flicker Alley silent "King Of Kings" though it never veered into any offensive territory and seemed respectful at least of the film's religious subject matter. It's admittedly not easy to sustain a good one for over two hours forty minutes.

[TaranofPrydain]

HOUSE CALLS (1978) has a commentary by "historians" Bryan Reesman and Max Evry

You would think they would assign someone who knows Walter Matthau for this commentary. Instead, when Evry mentions CHARLEY VARRICK as being one of his best movies, Reesman blankly intones "never seen it".

I did find out Matthau was in (get this!) THE ODD COUPLE!! Amazing!!

To be honest, sadly I feel as though the internet, which should have made film history more accessible (and in many ways does, as most films can be viewed somewhere on the Internet), has done the opposite. Sites like IMDb which put the newest films front and center don't help. But I also feel as though the whole cinema studies trend has really hollowed out. 15 years ago, you could still get an accurate picture of film history, but now it is bent to focus on certain themes rather than full and actual history.... There is no real way to spread love of cinema anymore because people aren't willing to explore.

[AndyDursin]

I agree with all that -- but those people who don't explore shouldn't be "historians" KL hires to do commentaries. Literally I was floored listening to Reesman spout out one IMDB/Wikipedia factoid after another, before Max Evry was all "Charley Varrick is one of his best movies." And Reesman said nothing other than he hadn't seen it but needed to do a "deeper dive" into early Matthau performances like A FACE IN THE CROWD...but of course CHARLEY VARRICK isn't anything like that, as it's not a '50s movie with him as a supporting player, but a '70s film with him as a lead in his prime. Other than that he's spot on!

EDIT - I checked out the HTF review and even their reviewer noted "slip ups" Reesman made, like not noting Matthau won on the two nominations he received, and saying "I know..." constantly. Guess it's not just me!

I just am continuously stunned with the lack of knowledge some of the "historians" show. They all seem to be self-published and not very well read either -- I'm sorry I never got a chance to do one of these tracks also. I'd at least have watched more movies by the participants involved so I didn't look like I was clueless.