Fritz Lang’s 1953 film noir The Big Heat will be shown on TCM on Saturday at 8:00 pm. It’s one of the best film noirs and the best of Lang’s American films that I have seen. Star Glenn Ford is kind of bland but Gloria Grahame and Lee Marvin are great. You won’t forget the coffee scene once you see it.’
I believe it is out of print on Blu-ray and DVD in the US.
Judd Legum has been doing an outstanding job tracking this. Follow him on Twitter.
The best film I have seen this year. A really thought provoking film that experiments with drug-induced time travel.
There are numerous examples
Home appraisal increased by almost $100,000 after Black family hid their race
TCM will show Touch of Evil (1958) on May 15th at midnight and May 16th at 10:00 am. It’s a great film directed by Orson Welles. The tracking shot that begins the film is famous. It was his last studio film.
It’s also on Blu-ray and DVD from Universal. There are three versions on the discs. I think it’s his third best film after Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons.
Stage Fright, the Band’s third album, was released in 1970. I have always had mixed feelings about it. There are four great songs:
Strawberry Wine
Sleeping
Time to Kill
The Shape I’m In
The other six are mediocre or worse. On “Just Another Whistle Stop”, the Band sounded like lots of other bands instead of the unique sound of their first two albums. I guess this happened when they left the seclusion of Woodstock and got out in the world. “The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show” just repeats the historic sounding aspect of their earlier records. It’s not new. The would do it again five years later with “Ophelia”. These aren’t bad songs., they just cover ground they covered better before.
On the other hand. “The Shape I’m In” is one of their best songs. I didn’t really understand how they did it until I saw them later in 1970. They had one organ playing lead and a clavinet playing rhythm. In the concert, everything had the bright, crisp sound of the best songs on Stage Fright.
Sad! 