I’m not quite sure why I got this movie — it might just have been on the New Releases page on Criterion and I went “oh right”.

I’ve probably seen this before? But not since the 80s.

It’s nice that almost all the blurays from Criterion are in 4K now. I mean, it’s not a huge bump in quality, but they do 100Mbps bitrates and everything looks… better.

See? Better.

Oh, I have seen this before more recently… I saw it in 2019, apparently, but I have no recollection of doing so.

Hey! Ted Danson! I didn’t appreciate Danson until I saw Bored To Death in 2010, and then I got it…

That’s what I want my bathroom to look like!

Oh, now I’m starting to remember… Yeah, I think I remember the plot of this now. The movie is a noir pastiche, and I think the plot is super duper noirish, too…

70s movies used to be really sweaty, and then 80s movies were very powdery. The sweat here is part of the plot, though.

I’m shocked at how few movies Kasdan has directed, because his name seems like such a staple. But I guess it’s his writing credits on a bunch of George Lucas properties that’s made him famous…

Anyway, this movie is pretty spiffy. Really good performances from everybody, and it got That Mood.

Sure, it’s a retro genre exercise, but it’s really entertaining.

Body Heat . Lawrence Kasdan. 1981. ⚄

Gotta love some Ginger Rogers.

I’m not totally sure why I got this, but it’s probably part of the Hazel Flagg collection.

This is a pretty unusual drama — it’s so full on, in a way. Ginger Rogers has been in prison for years, but is apparently out on a week’s release or something. And I don’t know what Cotten’s deal is, but he’s probably suffering from PTDQ from the war — nothing’s explained, really.

So it’s very ponderous from the start, and sad, but also mysterious.

Oh, is that Shirley Temple? I think I’ve only seen her in 30s movies…

Heh:

Unsatisfied with Dieterle’s direction of actress Shirley Temple during her confession regarding Mary’s prison record, producer David O. Selznick hired George Cukor to undertake a reshoot of the scene after principal photography was completed.

I really enjoyed this movie. This is one of those li’l forgotten pearls — I can understand why that’s happened (a movie from 1944 where the protagonists are a shell-shocked soldier and a woman serving a six year sentence), but it’s just such a solid movie. The performances are really good, and the plot is moving, and… it’s just a super duper solid movie. And:

The film was a box office hit, earning $3 million in domestic rentals.

I’ll Be Seeing You. William Dieterle. 1944. ⚄

Right, so this is the movie Alan Clarke is most known for. This was part of the BBC series “Play for Today”, but after BBC saw what Clarke had made, they refused to show it. Which led to Clarke making a cinema version two years later, which might be his only not-for-TV movie or something?

BBC didn’t show it until 1991.

Clarke (and writer Minton) was doing a little series about institutions, I guess? Their previous BBC movie was about a mental institution, and now it’s about kids in prison…

I’m not sure the dialogue here is very convincing…

See what I mean?

Ah yes, the 70s.

No respect for personal space!

The Wikipedia page said the make sure to ground everything in research, and… it does seem will researched. I mean, broadly. But … the scenes themselves don’t seem convincing? Especially the dialogue, which is very… articulate.

But I mean — it’s pretty entertaining.

I dunno… it feels like it could do with… more? This seems oddly abbreviated without anything resolved, which may indeed be the point.

But it’s pretty good.

Scum. Alan Clarke. 1977. ⚃