criterionforum.org

24th April

Frank Borzage's China Doll
Andre DeToth's Play Dirty
Roger Corman's Von Richtofen and Brown
Robert Altman's Thieves Like Us (with Altman commentary from LD)

Thank goodness Fox is starting to get some of the good stuff out before the format expires.

Frank Borzage's China Doll

Great! Not the best Borzage, but his first after a ten year hiatus and, up until this release, a genuine rarity.

I'm confused, is this coming from MGM of Fox?

Gordon wrote:Robert Altman's Thieves Like Us (with Altman commentary from LD)

I couldn't be more pleased. This is one of the very few Altman titles still unavailable, and I think that it's one of the best of that bunch. The fact that he is still gracing us with commentaries from beyond the grave is quite a bonus.

justeleblanc wrote:I'm confused, is this coming from MGM of Fox?

Both. It's MGM product, but Fox is their distributor.

Fox : MGM :: Image : Criterion

According to Navarre's website, we can also expect Keith Gordon's "The Chocolate War" on April 17th.

-BJ

And don't forget Mike Hodge's Pulp on the 24th.

Wow, Mike Caine did a full-costume screen-test for Saturday Night Fever?!

Dave Kehr on the new DVD of China Doll:

[quote]The climax of “China Girlâ€

DVD Savant has reviews of Thieves Like Us and Pulp.

DeToth's Panavision, 2:35:1 Play Dirty sadly released by MGM/Fox in a 1:85, non-enhanced, transfer.

DVD Savant Play Dirty Review:

Play Dirty is presented in a crystal-clear enhanced transfer that displays Edward Scaife's widescreen Panavision vistas to great advantage - this movie has better landscapes than the average western.

and earlier:

Some good news ... the specs on the new MGM disc of Andre de Toth's Play Dirty say that the movie is presented in 1:85 ... when those of us who know and admire the film know that it should be 2:35. I got the disc today and it is indeed 2:35 as it is supposed to be, and looks great.

Mmmm, my apologies, I've been told a different story on this. However, none of the reviews I've read have anything to say about the disc being 16:9 enhanced.

Savant

Play Dirty is presented in a crystal-clear enhanced transfer...

same review

Other than Savant, anyone here thinks Play Dirty is as good as he claims?

Gigi M. wrote:Other than Savant, anyone here thinks Play Dirty is as good as he claims?

This is Fred Camper's general view on De Toth, with a big compliment to Play Dirty, from the a_film_by group:

[Message]484
From: Fred Camper
Date: Sat Jul 12, 2003 2:59pm
Subject: Re: Dark Waters

(edit)

This is quite great. It's not one of the three or so greatest ("Day of
the Outlaw" and "Play Dirty" being the obvious ones; next would be the
under-appreciated "Last of the Comanches"). But it's definitely in the
next group. As with a lot of auteurist classics, it's been decades since
I've seen it, so don't ask me about the camera movement at 335 feet of
reel 4. But I remember it as amazing, especially the long scenes in a
swamp, with the rising steam forming one of those exclusionary
environments that freeze out "humanity," kins to the snow at the end of
"Day of the Outlaw" or the desert in "Play Dirty."

Yes, I am being very nerdy and am slowly reading through the posts I missed on that group!

Apologies for all the confusion around the Play Dirty DVD, I'll have to go back to the purple pills instead of the blue ones.

The film itself is a stunner, or that's how I remember it being, considering it's been 25-odd years since last viewing.

I couldn't find a thread for Play Dirty so I resurrected this old one... I felt extremely moved by the film and wanted to jot down some quick thoughts...

Like many war films, I feel Play Dirty is about male relationships. I think how it differs from lesser films about war is that it's specifically about male relationships. This is interesting to me because in terms of scope, Play Dirty appears somewhat limited compared to other, "bigger" war films films like The Big Red One or (for the sake of argument) Saving Private Ryan. But in many ways the philosophical implications of the male to male dynamic are much greater than in the other films I've mentioned. True, those films are about men and their relationship towards one another, but only insofar as they are also about battle, human capabilities and the often implied but never articulated 'Code of Honor'. Play Dirty distances itself from the battlefield and gains in focus. THIS FILM IS ABOUT CAPTAIN DOUGLAS AND CAPTAIN LEECH! Quietly, DeToth establishes these men in terms of landscape. Leech is war torn and weary, driving with a corpse through the desert... Douglas' inexperience (bureaucratic naivete as well?) is wonderfully prefigured by his absence in the very scene he's first implied in. In both these establishing scenes the frame is initially divided horizontally, before breaking off into more complex variations... The starkest variation of Leech and Douglas' relationship appears in the form of the gay Arabic (?) lovers, Hassan and Assine. These characters stood out for me not only because they are clearly gay lovers, but because they are gay Arabic lovers during World War 2 and are portrayed with dignity and respect. Their presence is important and their story is moving...

Ok. I'm done. I'd love for my comments to start more discussions about the film. Am I off-base? Tell me.