Last night Home Theatre Forum’s Ronald Epstein revealed that Twilight Time will release a 4K Bluray of John Huston‘s Beat The Devil sometime in January.

This is Grover Crisp‘s two-year-old restored version, of course, which was first shown at a Reel Thing Technical Symposium in August 2016. The restoration runs 94 minutes compared to the 89-minute version that’s been around forever.

The newbie played at Manhattan’s Film Forum in February 2017, and then a couple of months later at the 2017 TCM Classic Film Festival. Why have we waited two and a half years for an announcement about the Bluray version, and why is Twilight Time releasing it and not Sony? Because Sony doesn’t appear to give a damn about restored classic films. At the very least they’re indifferent and drag-assy. Crisp did a beautiful job of restoring From Here To Eternity in 2009, and Sony didn’t put a Bluray version out until 2013.

The forthcoming Twilight Time Bluray is great news, I’m sure, for the 1250 to 1300 classic film fanatics worldwide who are sure to buy a copy.

To be perfectly honest I’ve never loved Oswald Morris‘ lensing of this 1953 film — it’s too sun-filled, too bleachy. It should have been shot in color with the Amalfi Coast settings and all.

The following is from a DVD Talk report on the 8.16 Reel Thing Beat The Devil screening, written by Gary Teetzwl:

“Grover Crisp said they had put off the restoration for years, trying to locate better-quality materials, especially the original neg. Finally deciding to work with what they had, they began evaluating their elements and discovered that what they thought was a dupe negative contained about 60% of the original neg. They also borrowed a fine grain from Romulus in England, hoping that they might be able to use it for some sections where they did not have the original neg. It turned out to be in excellent condition — and was an alternate, uncensored version of the film!

“All the public domain versions of Beat the Devil that have been circulating have been of a shorter, re-cut/censored version [i.e., 89 minutes]. Interesting point: Grover insists the film is NOT in the public domain.

The release date of WHE’s upcoming, highly controversial 4K Bluray of 2001: A Space Odyssey was recently bumped back to 11.20. A colleague reports, however, that Amazon and other retailers “are apparently getting limited stock in early and have already begun shipping, and so some people got it in the mail [yesterday].”

Here’s the big news: “My copy arrives on Monday, but I have readers who have it in hand already and are saying it’s not the Chris Nolan version” that played in theatres last summer — i.e., no piss-yellow or teal tinting.

Frame capture from 2007 Bluray of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Same image copied from WHE trailer for forthcoming 4K Bluray, which contains the same colors and specificity seen in the Chris Nolan version now in theatres.

This is excellent news if true. But if the disc has indeed been shorn of Nolan’s influence I’ve no choice but to presume one of two things.

One, that the WHE publicists and marketers who told the world last June that the 4K version had been “built on the work done for the new 70mm prints” (i.e., Nolan’s yellow and teal-tinted nostalgia version that premiered in Cannes) and then double-confirmed this by releasing a 4K disc trailer that contained the dreaded yellowish-teal tinting…I have to presume that these people didn’t understand what was happening and thereby passed along erroneous information.

Or two, that WHE honcho Ned Price considered widespread adverse reactions to Nolan’s urine-and-teal version and got cold feet and decided to produce a 4K Bluray that — shocker! — would present Stanley Kubrick‘s classic as it actually looked when it opened in 1968.

If the second scenario reflects what actually happened (i.e., that WHE marketers were in fact told by management that the 4K would in fact contain the values of the Nolan version, only to be made to look like absolute fools when a cleaner, truer version is released to the public), then Hollywood Elsewhere has to take at least some credit for changing Price’s mind.

Because I hammered and hammered on this story for months on end, bemoaning the urine-ization of a great film and wondering why WHE would willingly vandalize 2001 just to fortify a sweetheart relationship between Price and Nolan.

My source is going to get his 2001 4K disc on Monday, and has promised to get back to me. I’m naturally hoping to be able to report that the de-urineizing and untealing of 2011 has in fact happened, and that everyone can take to the streets and shout with glee that Nolan’s 4K Bluray version is indeed dead and that the whole urine-and-teal nightmare is over. Talk about a happy ending!

The dicks at AT&T are shutting down Filmstruck because it isn’t making enough money. Here’s the HE piece I’ve written about it, and here’s a change.org petition against ATT’s decision. If nothing is done Filmstruck will vaporize on 11.29.18. If you believe in fairies…

One of my fondest childhood memories (cliche!) is lying in bed at night and listening to not-so-distant freight and passenger trains clattering along, and especially to that whauugghh sound, that honky, drawn-out groan…one of the great all-time reminders that life pushes on and that endeavor and industry never sleep, which is generally comforting.

There’s a train track a few hundred feet from the condo where I’m staying in Wilton, Connecticut, and every night I hear that sound.

[Click through to full story on HE-plus]

An unoriginal observation, sharing it anyway: Harry Davenport (1866 – 1949) was perhaps the greatest old-guy character actor in Hollywood history. It was Bette Davis‘ view that Davenport was “without a doubt the greatest character actor of all time.”

[Click through to full story on HE-plus]

Hollywood Elsewhere and Blackfilm.com’s Wilson Morales did a chat earlier today. I tried to keep our discussion to 30 minutes, but it went 42. Largely because Wilson’s so easy to talk to. Whatever the topic, we always seem to fall into the old yappity-yap and the time just flies.

Here’s the mp3.

Wilson is a fascinating guy — split between his natural ability to step back and offer complex analysis of how this or that film may perform commercially or within the award-season bubble, and a streak of constant compulsive honesty.

I wish I could say that we stepped outside the box and explored unusual topics today, but I’m afraid we stuck to the usual-usual — new films (like Steven Caple, Jr.‘s Creed II, which pops on 11.21), Best Picture contenders, Mahershala Ali, the likeliest Best Actor and Best Actress nominees, etc.

Luca Guadagnino‘s Suspiria (Amazon, 10.26) has brought distress and left me glum and conflicted. I’m torn by my admiration and affection for a great filmmaker and a wonderful human being and my…well, my troubled responses to this strange detour film. It’s put me in a bad, self-doubting place, and as wimpy as this sounds I think my reactions to Suspiria are probably best left alone.

Am I chickening out? Yes, I am — sorry. But this is what happens when you know a guy who’s made a striking, complex film that’s put you in a weird place.

[Click through to full story on HE-plus]

AT&T, owner of WarnerMedia, Turner and Warner Bros. Digital Networks, is shutting down Filmstruck because it isn’t making enough money. I only just signed up for the service in mid-August, buying a full year’s subscription, and now it’s toast? Filmstruck will disappear on 11.29.18.

A Variety story, quoting a source familiar with AT&T’s strategy, is reporting that AT&T “is looking to eliminate peripheral projects that aren’t major producers of revenue.” Fucking weasels. Soulless corporate dicks. How about serving that portion of the public that really likes having pay services like Filmstruck and the Criterion Channel?

So how do I get my money back? Filmstruck’s farewell message says that “all current FilmStruck subscribers will receive an email with details about your account and the refund process as applicable. Please see the options below for more information or email the customer service team at help@filmstruck.com.”

Metro report, 11:06 am: “Police have arrested a 56 year-old Republican named Cesar Sayoc, Jr. on suspicion of being the MAGA bomber who sent 12 pipe bombs to Democrats and Donald Trump critics. Sayoc was taken into custody close to an auto parts store in Plantation, a suburb of Miami, around 10:30 Friday morning. He was traced by DNA evidence.

“Law enforcement officials were seen covering a white van close to the scene, which appears to be covered in photos of Donald Trump, and is reported to have at least one anti-Hillary Clinton sticker. That van was seen being loaded onto a police flatbed truck. Plantation is located in the congressional district of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, whose last name (misspelled) was listed on the packages.”

Incidentally: I’ll bet that on some level Sen. Corey Booker (D., New Jersey) felt left out yesterday when it appeared as if he hadn’t been sent a MAGA bomb package. Well, today he joined the club.

I’ve never heard of a ball-fetching cattle in all my years on this planet, and I’d certainly never seen one until this morning. This was posted less than month ago (9.26.18). I don’t usually share inane stuff but this stands out. Possibly a Charolais bovine, which is native to the Burgundy region of France?

How about a list of bad or dreary movies with brilliant titles? This is a thing, no? Titles that are so zestily inviting and perfectly catchy that you want to see them right away, but then the movie turns out to be an amateurish slog.

And I’m not thinking of, say, Surf Nazis Must Die — a Troma title that told you right off the bat that it was almost certainly cheap garbage. But Ilsa, She-Wolf of the S.S., a title from the mind of director-writer Don Edmonds or screenwriter Jonah Royston, turned a certain lock in the mind, unleashing all kinds of dopey B&D leather-pervo fantasies plus hints of wicked humor.

For years I loved this stupid title without having seen the film. Then I finally saw it on DVD in the late ’90s, and my whole Ilsa realm was shattered. The reviewers weren’t wrong when they called it dreary torture porn. But you still have to admire the title. And it did well enough to inspire four sequels — Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks, Ilsa, The Mad Butcher, Ilsa, Tigress of Siberia and Ilsa, the Wicked Warden.

I was going also going to ask for the reverse — a list of unusually good or even excellent films that were saddled with a curious, interest-killing title. But there aren’t very many of these — Edge of Tomorrow, Quantum of Solace, Under Capricorn, Chartreuse Caboose, etc.

I first looked at this President Trump tweet around 6 am, and it had a 3:14 am timestamp. Another Twitter user made note of the unusual hour. According to this White House schedule Trump was in D.C. last night. Now it has a 12:14 am timestamp, except he wasn’t in California last night. Plus another timestamp says it was posted “6h” ago,” and it’s now around 9:30 am eastern. I’m presuming that somehow a staffer managed to change the timestamp as the notion of Trump tweeting at 3:14 am suggests the behavior of an unruly insomniac. He’s apparently done this before, having tweeted something at 3:15 am on 9.17.18.