George Pal’s ill-fated ‘future docu’ followup to Destination Moon still stirs the imagination, rendering in vivid Technicolor the visionary images that amazed us in Chesley Bonestell’s paintings about space travel. We still love the movie even if we want to shove the script and whoever approved it out an airlock without a space helmet. It’s fun to pick it apart, but when Van Cleave’s trilling ‘spacey’ music plays we know we’re back in 1950s Sci-fi Nirvana, anticipating a techno-future of space marvels. [Imprint] gives the movie a classy Blu-ray showcase.
Conquest of Space
All-Region Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] #112
1955 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 81 min. / Street Date April 6, 2022 / Available from /
Starring: Walter Brooke, Eric Fleming, Mickey Shaughnessy, Phil Foster, William Redfield, William Hopper, Benson Fong, Ross Martin, Vito Scotti, Joan Shawlee, Michael Fox, Rosemary Clooney.
Cinematography: Lionel Lindon
Art Directors: Hal Pereira, Joseph MacMillan Johnson
Film Editor: Everett Douglas
Original...
Conquest of Space
All-Region Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] #112
1955 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 81 min. / Street Date April 6, 2022 / Available from /
Starring: Walter Brooke, Eric Fleming, Mickey Shaughnessy, Phil Foster, William Redfield, William Hopper, Benson Fong, Ross Martin, Vito Scotti, Joan Shawlee, Michael Fox, Rosemary Clooney.
Cinematography: Lionel Lindon
Art Directors: Hal Pereira, Joseph MacMillan Johnson
Film Editor: Everett Douglas
Original...
- 4/9/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
This creepy-crawly epic enjoyed a strong reputation on my grade-school playground! Does George Pal’s man-versus-the-elements saga hold up 68 years later? The ‘exotic’ special effects get the point across but the real appeal is the suppressed lust between Charlton Heston and his mail order bride Eleanor Parker — all heavy breathing and stern reproaches. I’m surprised nobody has fully exploited the original short story, which back in the ’60s showed up in numerous best-of collections. “Marabunta” is not a new fragrance line from Arpege.
The Naked Jungle
All- Region Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint]
1954 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 95 min. / Street Date December 29, 2021 / Available from [Imprint], Amazon.us /
Starring: Charlton Heston, Eleanor Parker, William Conrad, John Dierkes, Abraham Sofaer, Douglas Fowley, Rodd Redwing.
Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo
Production Designer: Art Director: Hal Pereira, Franz Bachelin
Film Editor: Everett Douglas
Special Photographic Effects: John P. Fulton
Matte artist Jan Domela
Miniatures Ivyl Burks
Optical cinematography Paul K. Lerpae...
The Naked Jungle
All- Region Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint]
1954 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 95 min. / Street Date December 29, 2021 / Available from [Imprint], Amazon.us /
Starring: Charlton Heston, Eleanor Parker, William Conrad, John Dierkes, Abraham Sofaer, Douglas Fowley, Rodd Redwing.
Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo
Production Designer: Art Director: Hal Pereira, Franz Bachelin
Film Editor: Everett Douglas
Special Photographic Effects: John P. Fulton
Matte artist Jan Domela
Miniatures Ivyl Burks
Optical cinematography Paul K. Lerpae...
- 1/29/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Cecil B. DeMille delivers a satisfying western epic starring Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy & Akim Tamiroff; the story of the building of a railroad is historically bogus but highly entertaining and action-filled. Joel McCrea is our favorite ethical frontier lawman; here he’s a troubleshooter keeping crooks, Indians and proto-Bolsheviks from delaying construction. The huge cast includes scores of favorite supporting actors — although the screen is so busy some of them will be hard to spot.
Union Pacific
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1939 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 135 min. / Street Date August 3, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Akim Tamiroff, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, Henry Kolker, Anthony Quinn, Lynne Overman.
Cinematography: Victor Milner
Art Directors: Hans Dreier, Roland Anderson
Film Editor: Anne Bauchens
Special Effects: Gordon Jennings, George Tomasini, Loren L. Ryder, Barney Wolff, Jan Domela, Paul K. Lerpae
Original Music: Sigmund Krumgold, John Leipold
Written by Jack Cunningham,...
Union Pacific
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1939 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 135 min. / Street Date August 3, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Akim Tamiroff, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, Henry Kolker, Anthony Quinn, Lynne Overman.
Cinematography: Victor Milner
Art Directors: Hans Dreier, Roland Anderson
Film Editor: Anne Bauchens
Special Effects: Gordon Jennings, George Tomasini, Loren L. Ryder, Barney Wolff, Jan Domela, Paul K. Lerpae
Original Music: Sigmund Krumgold, John Leipold
Written by Jack Cunningham,...
- 8/24/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
George Pal’s second science fiction classic has conceptual imagination and visual wonder to spare, along with a million awkward and dated details. When rogue planets threaten to obliterate the Earth, a super-Ark spaceship is built to spirit forty ‘chosen ones’ to safety. The Ark passengers have the right stuff, but you may be enraged by the rigged process to select who gets to go. Gee-whiz spectacle is the order of the day — how many End Of The World movies actually show terra firma expunged from the Solar System? Barbara Rush and John Hoyt are the acting standouts, but top honors go to Pal’s visual effect artists and designers.
When Worlds Collide
Blu-ray
Viavision / [Imprint] 6 (Australia)
1951 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 83 min. / Street Date August 26, 2020 / available through [Imprint] : $34.95
Starring: Barbara Rush, Richard Derr, Larry Keating, John Hoyt, Judith Ames, James Congden, Stephen Chase, Frank Cady, Hayden Rorke, Kirk Alyn, Casey Rogers, John Ridgely,...
When Worlds Collide
Blu-ray
Viavision / [Imprint] 6 (Australia)
1951 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 83 min. / Street Date August 26, 2020 / available through [Imprint] : $34.95
Starring: Barbara Rush, Richard Derr, Larry Keating, John Hoyt, Judith Ames, James Congden, Stephen Chase, Frank Cady, Hayden Rorke, Kirk Alyn, Casey Rogers, John Ridgely,...
- 9/12/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
George Pal’s second science fiction classic has conceptual imagination and visual wonder to spare, along with a million awkward and dated details. When rogue planets threaten to obliterate the Earth, a super-Ark spaceship is built to spirit forty ‘chosen ones’ to safety. The Ark passengers have the right stuff, but you may be enraged by the rigged process to select who gets to go. Gee-whiz spectacle is the order of the day — how many End Of The World movies actually show terra firma expunged from the Solar System? Barbara Rush and John Hoyt are the acting standouts, but top honors go to Pal’s visual effect artists and designers.
When Worlds Collide
Blu-ray
Viavision / Imprint (Australia)
1951 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 83 min. / Street Date August 26, 2020 / available through [Imprint] : $34.95
Starring: Barbara Rush, Richard Derr, Larry Keating, John Hoyt, Judith Ames, James Congden, Stephen Chase, Frank Cady, Hayden Rorke, Kirk Alyn, Casey Rogers,...
When Worlds Collide
Blu-ray
Viavision / Imprint (Australia)
1951 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 83 min. / Street Date August 26, 2020 / available through [Imprint] : $34.95
Starring: Barbara Rush, Richard Derr, Larry Keating, John Hoyt, Judith Ames, James Congden, Stephen Chase, Frank Cady, Hayden Rorke, Kirk Alyn, Casey Rogers,...
- 9/12/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
It may be a little creaky, but Dr. Cyclops is a genuine classic of the imagination, from a time long before pulp fantasy dominated Hollywood filmmaking. For 1940 audiences this must have felt like a strange dream. Five humans are miniaturized and terrorized by Albert Dekker’s Dr. Thorkel, a card-carrying mad scientist. Held firm by a giant rubber hand, ‘Mr. Crabby’ Charles Halton keeps an unfortunate appointment with a horrifying fate. Who will survive, and how big will they be? Did Thorkel change his name to Soberin, move to California, and steal The Great Whatzit? Kino’s new HD transfer of this oddball gem is a wonderment — the Technicolor is outstanding, better than Paramount’s old nitrate studio print.
Dr. Cyclops
Blu-ray
Kino Lorber Kino Classics
1940 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 77 min. / Street Date January 7, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Albert Dekker, Thomas Coley, Janice Logan, Charles Halton, Victor Kilian, Frank Yaconelli,...
Dr. Cyclops
Blu-ray
Kino Lorber Kino Classics
1940 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 77 min. / Street Date January 7, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Albert Dekker, Thomas Coley, Janice Logan, Charles Halton, Victor Kilian, Frank Yaconelli,...
- 12/28/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
A few years ago the editors of Shadowlocked asked me to compile a list of what was initially to be, the ten greatest movie matte paintings of all time. A mere ten selections was too slim by a long shot, so my list stretched considerably to twenty, then thirty and finally a nice round fifty entries. Even with that number I found it wasn’t easy to narrow down a suitably wide ranging showcase of motion picture matte art that best represented the artform. So with that in mind, and due to the surprising popularity of that 2012 Shadowlocked list (which is well worth a visit, here Ed), I’ve assembled a further fifty wonderful examples of this vast, vital and more extensively utilised than you’d imagine – though now sadly ‘dead and buried’ – movie magic.
It would of course be so easy to simply concentrate on the well known, iconic,...
It would of course be so easy to simply concentrate on the well known, iconic,...
- 12/28/2015
- Shadowlocked
The art of the glass shot or matte painting is one which originated very much in the early ‘teens’ of the silent era. Pioneer film maker, director, cameraman and visual effects inventor Norman Dawn is generally acknowledged as the father of the painted matte composite, with other visionary film makers such as Ferdinand Pinney Earle, Walter Hall and Walter Percy Day being heralded as making vast contributions to the trick process in the early 1920’s.
Boiled down, the matte process is one whereby a limited film set may be extended to whatever, or wherever the director’s imagination dictates with the employment of a matte artist. In it’s most pure form, the artist would set up a large plate of clear glass in front of the motion picture camera upon which he would carefully paint in new scenery an ornate period ceiling, snow capped mountains, a Gothic castle or even an alien world.
Boiled down, the matte process is one whereby a limited film set may be extended to whatever, or wherever the director’s imagination dictates with the employment of a matte artist. In it’s most pure form, the artist would set up a large plate of clear glass in front of the motion picture camera upon which he would carefully paint in new scenery an ornate period ceiling, snow capped mountains, a Gothic castle or even an alien world.
- 5/27/2012
- Shadowlocked
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