DVD Round-up, 31 January 2011: Man Hunt, Deadfall and Long Hot Summer

Canadian Walter Pidgeon stars as plucky British army officer Thorndike, opposite Brit George Sanders as nasty German, Major Quive-Smith, in Fritz Lang's pacy 1941 drama, Man Hunt (Optimum).

Opening with Thorndike placing Adolf Hitler in the sights of his rifle, before being captured by the Nazis who suspect him of planning to assassinate their Fuhrer, we're soon involved in Thorndike's plan to escape their clutches and make his way back to Blighty.

With assistance from cabin boy, Vaner (a very young Roddy McDowell), and cockney sparra' Jerry Stokes (Joan Bennett), Thorndike takes on the might of German Intelligence in a foggy London where WWII is about to begin.

The direction is typical Lang, holding the viewers attention even when the film feels slightly overlong thanks to Thorndike's twisting and turning escape plan.

It may not be classic Fritz Lang, or indeed the most thrilling of thrillers, but Man Hunt is an important release for Lang completists and there's fun to be had in watching the encounters between Pidgeon and Sanders, which culminate in a bizarre end for one of the characters.

Just two years after his appearance in 1966's Gambit, a fun heist movie which saw Michael Caine team up with Shirley Maclaine to pull off a robbery, the actor returned to cinema screens as a very different type of con artist in Bryan Forbes' Deadfall (Optimum).

This time around Caine is Henry Clarke, hired by Richard Moreau (Eric Portman) and his beautiful wife, Fe (Giovanna Ralli), to steal diamonds owned by millionaire, Salinas (David Buck).

What should be a simple enough job turns into a complex series of double crosses and lies, Harry and Fe falling for each other as sexual politics inform Moreau's actions.

Deadfall is an oddity, the script playing with viewers' expectations of Caine's usually chirpy persona and weaving in subplots which aren't usually found in caper films, specifically Moreau's sexual proclivities.

Forbes succeeds in providing tension during the heist sequences, it's just the emotional aspects which don't quite hit the mark.

Sexual politics are also on the menu in a very different place and time in Martin Ritt's adaptation of two William Faulkner stories, The Long Hot Summer (Optimum), as Paul Newman's Ben Quick arrives in a small Deep South town and lights the fuse on local passions (among other things).

Keeping his head down after causing trouble in another town, Quick arrives in Frenchman's Bend where he meets local landowner, Will Varner (Orson Welles), who takes him under his wing.

Quick repays Varner by attempting to seduce his daughter, Clara (Joanna Woodward) igniting tensions and setting tongues wagging.

With a stellar cast, sumptuous set design sumptuous and Newman prowling around in his first film role, this is a joy from start to finish, though the exaggerated Welles does threaten to tip the film into farce more than once.

DVD Review: Morgan - A Suitable Case for Treatment

Avoiding many of the trappings of its more serious 1960s stablemates, by depicting the deepening mental instability of its eponymous character in broad strokes and larger-than-life imagery, Morgan - A Suitable Case for Treatment (Optimum Releasing) is something of a unique picture.

David Warner is Morgan, a man whose marriage to the aloof Leonie (Vanessa Redgrave) has fallen apart, causing her to take up with a new man, Charles Napier (Robert Stephens), while Morgan slumps into depression.

Determined to win his soon-to-be-ex-wife back, Morgan undertakes a series of "rescue" attempts, his aim to kill Napier or die trying. With explosions, kidnapping and a gorilla suit all part of Morgan's increasingly unusual armoury, Leonie has to decide whether she's better off with a mad man or a life with some stability.

Aided by director Karel Reisz's frenetic camera, Warner perfoms David Mercer's script with exuberance, adding much colour to the black and white depiction of swinging 1960s London taking place in the background. 

Morgan's actions may be outlandish, his mind losing its grip on reality, but Warner still manages to elicit sympathy from the audience, even in the fantasy sequences.

Redgrave makes for sultry and sexy opposition for our hero, her intentions never entirely clear, though Morgan's feelings do appear reciprocated. Poor Robert Stephens is out-acted at every turn by Warner, but he manages a few interesting moments as the more serious suitor.

With a strong supporting cast in the shape of Irene Handl, Bernard Bresslaw and Graham Crowden, Morgan is a fun romp with a serious edge, the very definition of a bittersweet comedy.

Blue Valentine

Taking a familiar romantic movie premise and turning it on its head - instead of boy-meets-girl we have boy-has-been-with-girl-for-eight-years before jumping back in time to the part where they actually met each other - Blue Valentine doesn't make things easy on the viewer, or its characters.

Introducing us to Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) as they live their lives in a small town with their daughter while slowly falling out of love, we're then shown the moment when their lives first intertwined.

From here we're on something of a rollercoaster ride as the relationship is formed, welded together and then slowly chipped apart. 

Gosling and Williams are magnetic in the earlier time period, the part-improvised script adding a reality to proceedings which allows their personalities to shine through: it's a cold heart that doesn't feel something as the couple sing, dance and gradually fall for each other.

Though it's easy to believe that time has led the pair to resent each other, it's harder to feel empathy with them in the present day, perhaps due to the fact that the cause of the problems aren't as carefully laid out before the viewer as the birth of the relationship.

Never an easy watch, Blue Valentine succeeds on the charm of the actors and Joey Curtis and Cami Delavigne's script which doesn't offer easy solutions to the Dean and Cindy's problems. 

Just don't go and see this on a first date or you might not want to make it to Valentine's day as a couple.

Blue Valentine is in UK cinemas now.

Prepare to enter the Animal Kingdom

It's not out in the UK until 25 February, but if you've been lucky enough to catch one of the preview screenings over the last few months (or if you saw it at the Inverness Film Festival like I did) then you'll know that Aussie crime drama Animal Kingdom is something special.

Set in the suburbs of Melbourne, the film introduces us to Joshue 'J' Cody (James Frecheville), sent to live with his grandmother and uncles after the death of his mother in the opening moments.

Though he's welcomed into the fold, it's soon obvious to J that this is no ordinary clan and that violence and crime are everyday occurences, something he's not exactly enamoured with.

With appearances from some of Australia's finest actors, including Guy Pearce, Jaki Weaver and the brilliant Ben Mendelsohn as the terrifying Pope, this is one to look out for.

Here's a look at the trailer, with Air Supply's All Out of Love used to great effect: