DVDs, 7/25.

DK Holm follows up on his previous column with a roundup of takes on Bogie, more James Bond for the Brits, and a new Criterion release worth rejoicing about.

The real gem among the July 25th R1 DVDs is undoubtedly Criterion's release of A Canterbury Tale. DSH at DVDJournal says of the 1944 release, "Some films survive the passage of time even if they were made with modernity in mind, and the aching belief in the better things in life transcends this Powell and Pressburger film beyond its wartime origins, making it the best thing that can be found on DVD: The lost masterpiece."

Jon Danziger at DigitallyObsessed found the film equally enchanting, noting that the "stirring conclusion to the film demonstrates somewhat surprisingly just how cumulatively powerful the movie has been."

The New York Times' Dave Kehr observes that A Canterbury Tale is "ostensibly a propaganda piece made to promote friendship and understanding between the wary British and the unruly American servicemen who were their wartime guests. But, as always with Powell, a strong streak of perversity and an irrepressible poetic spirit keep nudging A Canterbury Tale down unexpected paths."

The DVD Journal also takes on Bogie & Bacall: The Signature Collection from Warner Bros., consisting of The Big Sleep, Key Largo, To Have and Have Not, and Dark Passage. Of the latter, the DVDJournal's DSH has a hard time finding something nice to say, eventually noting that "it's apparent that the movie has a fan in Frank Darabont — the endings of this and The Shawshank Redemption have some parallels." About the best thing that DSH can say is that the most notable extras is the Friz Freleng-directed 'toon Slick Hare. "It's one of the fabulous Looney Tunes that features numerous celebrity parodies, with the main one being Bogey himself."

DVDTimes's Noel Megahey focuses on Marcello Pagliero's 1944 Roma cittá libera (Rome, Free City), released in R1 by Italian film specialists NoShame. Not quite neorealism, not quite noir, the film still pleases Megahey thanks to the presence of Vittorio de Sica as a amnesia stricken pol wandering the streets. "I don't know if there is any political allegory in his circumstances, but he remains a fascinating presence in the film, adding something elusive, dignified and honest to the scenes he is in — a poetic quality that is at odds with the gambling dens and deserted nightclubs. De Sica's performance is marvellous then and the principal pleasure of the film."

Also at DVDTimes, Gary Couzens examines Optimum's R2 The Louis Malle Collection: Volume 1. Consisting of Ascenseur pour l'échafaud, Le feu follet, Les amants, Zazie dans le Métro, it is a companion to, or competitor with, Criterion's recent box set of autobiographical Malle films. Couzens concludes that "Malle is probably less an 'auteur' than some of his contemporaries, preferring not to impose a signature style on his work but to adapt his style and technique to different subject matter in a variety of genres. That's not to say that his works are impersonal: working generally in commercial cinema he was in Martin Scorsese's phrase a 'smuggler', bringing his own perspective in under cover of whichever genre he was working in. And the proof is that he made some very fine films (and certainly some duds) over a forty-year career. Not all of these four early features are great but all have plenty of interest and they are generally presented well."

At DVDTalk, Randy Miller III catches up with Stuart Sutcliffe: The Lost Beatle, Kultur's contribution to recent Beatlemania. Miller seeks out the gossip, noting that Sutcliffe's sister, Pauline Sutcliffe "hints at a fight with Lennon that resulted in a head injury that could've led to Stuart's later health problems. Other participants also suggest a more intimate relationship between the two young Beatles, but it's hardly a trashy tell-all. More than anything, The Lost Beatle offers a poignant look at a talented young man and the choices he made during his lifetime." Miller points out that the disc has but one feature but a helpful one, a gallery of Sutcliffe's art.

In a confessional review (is there any other kind on the 'Net?), also at DVD Talk, Holly Beeman lauds Korean director Woo-cheol Lee's work on Cello for his attempt "to break away from the stereotypical Asian horror film (of which there are many) in his debut largely by mixing in the element of drama and making the things we hold most dear to us seem frightful in a way we wouldn't normally imagine. An admirable attempt, Cello does come off as a unique addition to the ever-growing genre, but unfortunately, it also has its fair share of faults."

Gabriel Powers at DVDActive is less patient with the film. "Seriously, enough with the white faced, black-haired ghost girls. Enough. I'm done with them. There has to be some other scary image the world's filmmakers can use for ghost stories. If you hadn't guessed it yet, Cello is yet another entry in the genre that if water could fill five Pacific oceans."

Turning to the Amicus Collection of three reissues from Dark Sky Films, Matt Joseph, also of DVDActive, finds The Beast Must Die to be a "strange mixture of blaxploitation action and horror with a smidgeon of Agatha Christie thrown in for good measure," and though it "never quite gels" it's "an enjoyable romp." Joseph also found Amicus's And Now the Screaming Starts! "as good as any of rival studio Hammer Films' gothic horror pictures," but in the end preferred Asylum over all of them, while also praising the new transfers as superior to their predecessors.

Rich Rosell at Digitally Obsessed, though, was much less enthralled, at least with 1974's The Beast Must Die, a "gimmicky werewolf melding of The Most Dangerous Game and just about any English murder mystery also utilizes something called a 'werewolf break,' in which the film stops dead with about ten minutes left and asks viewers to try and predict who the lycanthrope really is." Among other sins, Rosell notes that director Paul Annett used no special effects for his werewolf, but rather "an Alsatian Wolfhound — essentially, Annett is forced to use is an oversized dog as his main monster."

Finally, the DVD Savant (Glenn Erickson) helps solve an age old mystery about From Russia With Love — what was cut out of the last scene as Bond and Tania drift along in a gondola. Bond is shown looking at the 8mm footage of their lovemaking, and says "He was right, you know." Then there is an obvious cut. With the aid of a reader named Gavin Salkeld of GNCFilms, Erickson can report the mystery solved. Salkeld wrote to tell Erickson that by consulting the BBFC's files he came upon a list of cuts. No. 13 reads thus: "Bond's repeat of Red Grant's quip [also cut, hence the deletion here], 'What a performance!' as he examines the film reel in the Gondola, has been cut." Mystery solved.

In related news, Gary Tooze at DVDBeaver gets all VideoWatchdoggy on us, comparing the R2 MGM of From Russia With Love with last week's R2 Ultimate Edition, and finds that the UltEd "blows [MGM's R1] away in all areas. What a treat to see in in 1.66 with such strong clarity and sound." [ed. note: We expect to see similar re-issues here in the States around the time the new Bond film comes out this year.]

Update: Eric Kohn, in the NY Press, gives his take on the "lost episodes" of Ren & Stimpy.