Quote:
The brief, but mythical, life and career of film acting legend James Dean is dramatized in this biographical 2001 feature, originally produced for cable television. Dean is portrayed here as a hard worker and wild man, yet a sensitive lost… The brief, but mythical, life and career of film acting legend James Dean is dramatized in this biographical 2001 feature, originally produced for cable television. Dean is portrayed here as a hard worker and wild man, yet a sensitive lost soul whose own turbulent life mirrored the roles he took on his short, but greatly influential career. Dean is played by James Franco under the direction of Hollywood veteran Mark Rydell, a friend of Dean during his life. Rydell’s insights provide an especially insightful look at studio politics and procedure in the 1950s.

James.Dean.2001.DVDRERip.x264.AC3-DEEP.mkv

General
Container:	Matroska
Runtime:	1h 35mn
Size:	1.77 GiB
DXVA:	Compatible
Minimum settings:	Met
Video
Codec:	x264
Resolution:	720x480 ~> 720x540
Aspect ratio:	4:3
Frame rate:	23.976 fps
Bit rate:	2 255 kb/s
Audio
English 4.1ch AC-3 @ 384 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/8B3C93602203BDD/James.Dean.2001.DVDRERip.x264.AC3-DEEP.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English, French, Spanish

The post Mark Rydell – James Dean (2001) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
‘Jill Banford and Ellen March have built a good life together on a hardscrabble Canadian farm. Then handsome Paul Grenfel enters their isolated world, and sets friend against friend. But is Paul the real trouble between Jill and Ellen? Or has his presence merely awakened the unspoken, unexplored sexual tension that always existed between the women? Sandy Dennis, Keir Dullea and Anne Heywood portray the three sides of an incendiary triangle in this breakthrough film that sparked controversy in its day and remains fascinating in ours. Based on a D.H. Lawrence novella and directed by Mark Rydell (On Golden Pond), The Fox probes the mysteries of human relationships with maturity, subtlety and candor.’

1.65GB | 1h 45m | 674×408 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/6A1B0C5DD017C56/The.Fox.1967.DVDRip.x264-Pm.mkv

Language:English
Subtitles:None

The post Mark Rydell – The Fox (1967) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
This charming tough-love romance is yet more evidence why the early 1970s is considered one of the most creative times in Hollywood. Basically a story about a link-up between a sailor and a pool hall tramp, Cinderella Liberty overcomes traditional problems with such material. The “R” rating for once allows such characters to talk as they might, although our nice-guy hero has a thing against profanity. Darryl Ponicsan’s story acknowledges the desperation of sailors to find female companionship, especially when on ‘Cinderella Liberty,’ a shore pass that expires at midnight. Also breaking with Hollywood tradition, the film allows Marsha Mason’s hooker to be credibly profane and self destructive, and yet still be worthy of our concern. The movie has its share of emotional compromises but by the last act we’re only hoping that things turn out well for our deserving main characters.

Synopsis: Set ashore for minor surgery, Navy Boatswain John Baggs Jr. (James Caan) is stuck in the port of Seattle. After missing his boat, he is told that his records have been lost. Deprived of pay and reassignment, he gravitates toward Maggie Paul (Marsha Mason), an alcoholic pool hustler and occasional prostitute. Maggie’s eleven year-old son Doug (Kirk Calloway) is well on his way to becoming a juvenile menace. Baggs knows the Navy will discourage him from making a serious commitment to this pathetic family, and Maggie threatens to go back to the bottle and other men. But Baggs persists in searching for a solution to their problems.

It’s difficult to argue with perfect casting; James Caan and Marsha Mason have terrific chemistry. John Baggs and Maggie Paul’s romance must endure an uphill struggle, as neither the Navy nor common sense holds out much hope for their future together. Maggie and her son Doug would simply be homeless if it were not for her skill at separating sailors from their money. John Baggs beats her at her own tricks in a pool game, winning her favors. A more sentimental film would let Baggs prove his nobility by declining to collect on his bet but Cinderella Liberty wisely acknowledges that sex is the easy part. When it’s over, Baggs realizes that he wants a different kind of relationship. Maggie has plenty of reasons to be suspicious yet Baggs repeatedly proves to be both sincere and honest. John finds a way into Doug’s good graces, despite meeting the boy over a hostile switchblade.

Cinderella Liberty looks at Baggs and Maggie’s entire social situation. Without official records John Baggs Jr. is in a bureaucratic limbo. He has no choice but to stand endless watches as a shore patrolman (with the talkative, amusing Bruno Kirby) and do without pay for weeks. The Navy finally makes an effort to find the missing papers because an irate officer (Dabney Coleman) wants to get Baggs on a ship and out of port, away from ideas of getting married.

Things are even worse for Maggie. A social worker yanks Maggie’s welfare and food stamps, claiming that Baggs is ‘assuming the role of provider.’ After Baggs tells her the full story the social worker reverses her position and tries to help, but the damage has already been done. Even under normal conditions Maggie has difficulty finding ways to feel good about herself. She can’t take having her hopes raised, only to see them dashed yet one more time.

A sidebar plot deals with Baggs’ growing disillusion with the Navy. He runs into Lynn Forshay (Eli Wallach), a career sailor drummed out for mistreating an important man’s son. Forshay has taken a job as a strip club tout and would do anything to get back with the fleet. The conclusion ties up this part of the story rather neatly, while leaving us unsure whether Baggs will be able to keep his newly formed family intact.

Star James Caan was fresh from his celebrated role in The Godfather. Mark Rydell had to make a fuss to get Fox to accept young Marsha Mason as Maggie. It’s probable that her debut feature Blume in Love hadn’t even opened when she got this part. Ms. Mason is just sensational, projecting the bravado of a proud woman near the edge of collapse. Mason starts with a difficult acting feat, acting the good sport while losing a humiliating bet. How many actresses could portray losing such a bet, and laugh it off this good-naturedly? Ms. Mason is vivacious, genuinely funny and surely the most arresting star discovery of the year. Instead of using acting tricks to reveal Maggie’s vulnerable side, Mason simply has the woman endure her problems until she can’t take any more. Then she falls apart, all at once. Caan’s Baggs can’t pick up the pieces every time.

Several heart-wrenching events in the last act turn the light romance into a straight drama. It’s still more hopeful than the same year’s The Last Detail, a less forgiving story of the underside of Navy life. Cinderella Liberty allows us to leave feeling good about its characters, even though their future is uncertain.

The production has a realistic feel for the life of sailors. The U.S. Navy refused to cooperate with the producers because a major plot point depicts desertion of duty without consequences. To stand in for an American craft, Fox rented a small ship from the Canadian Navy. The rest of the show seems 100% authentic.

Fox’s Cinema Classics Collection of Cinderella Liberty comes in a sparkling enhanced transfer that optimizes cameraman Vilmos Zsigmond’s edgy camerawork. The disc is a substantial improvement over the original theatrical release prints, which were grainy and green. Pan-scanned 16mm TV prints looked like bad color Xeroxes. Visually, the film now seems alive again. Some dialogue is difficult to make out so closed captions are recommended to hear every line clearly. An alternate audio channel offers an isolated music and sound effects track, the better to appreciate the fine work of composer John Williams.

2.08GB | 1h 56m | 1024×432 | avi

https://nitro.download/view/AD2C5DF7677DCDF/Mark_Rydell_-_(1973)_Cinderella_Liberty.mkv
or
https://tezfiles.com/file/e98921aac7e77/Mark_Rydell_-_%281973%29_Cinderella_Liberty.mkv

Language:English
Subtitles:English

The post Mark Rydell – Cinderella Liberty (1973) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
Based on William Faulkner’s novel, THE REIVERS is a coming-of-age story laced with adventure and comedy. Young Lucius McCaslin (Mitch Vogel) leaves home and sets off on a journey with Boon (Steve McQueen), the family handyman, who is a reiver (cheating philanderer); and his best friend, Ned (Rupert Crosse). The three set off for the big city, where the boy, inspired by Boon, learns some valuable lessons about the world. A delightful piece of southern Americana, director Mark Rydell’s THE REIVERS is witty and filled with lively action. The score by John Williams and the superb cinematography enhance the richly fleshed-out characters. McQueen, in particular, gives one of the most memorable–and often underrated–performances of his career.

Coming out only one year after the enormous success of Bullitt, and fearing that the studio might misleadingly present the film as a “Bullitt II”, McQueen demanded of the studio that The Reivers be marketed honestly, without any misleading press. He was not however happy with the studio’s final promotion, which he felt depicted him as the “village idiot”.

Review:
I’ll bet at the end of the sixties Steve McQueen was probably deluged with offers to play cool cops, glamorous thieves, and ultra-hip soldiers in big-scale war movies. But after three successive hits – The Sand Pebbles (1966), The Thomas Crown Affair (1967), and Bullitt (1968) – McQueen instead made The Reivers (1969), from William Faulkner’s novel, about three friends getting into trouble in 1905 Mississippi. The image of Steve McQueen heartily singing “Camptown Races” in a paisley shirt and straw hat must have given his fans pause. The picture took in less than half of Bullitt’s take, and despite McQueen’s cult status, is practically forgotten today except by those who’ve seen it. Long-defunct distributor National General may partly be to blame; several other very good films distributed by them have likewise fallen into obscurity. But The Reivers is a very fine picture, nearly a great film that was mainly a victim of bad timing.

In Jefferson, Mississippi, the townsfolk all turn out for the arrival of the hamlet’s first automobile, an 18-horse-power, yellow Winton Flyer, purchased by patriarch “Boss” (Will Geer). Boon Hogganbeck (McQueen) and Ned (Rupert Crosse), respectively orphaned and abandoned at birth but adopted into Boss’s family (black Ned, a descendent of slaves, claims an acknowledged bloodline to the family), become obsessed with the much-coveted car, fighting over use of the vehicle like quarreling children.

When most of the family leaves town for a funeral, Boon conspires against strict orders from Boss to “borrow” the Winton Flyer for a trip to Memphis. To make his plan work he takes along young Lucius (Mitch Vogel), Boss’s 11-year-old grandson. Ned stows aboard under a tarp in the back seat, and as the adult Lucius (Burgess Meredith, narrating the film like a memoir) notes, “The rewards of virtue are cold and odorless and tasteless and not to be compared to the bright and exciting pleasures of sin and wrongdoing!”

At times, The Reivers is quite magical. Though it teeters toward a freshly-scrubbed Americana nostalgia, like Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A., it’s also filled with authentic little vignettes of great charm, obviously drawn from Faulkner’s own childhood. An early scene, for instance, has the Winton Flyer hopelessly stuck in a stream of sticky mud, a trap deliberately maintained by an enterprising hillbilly (1970s film fixture Charles Tyner) who charges $2 a head to pull unfortunate vehicles out with his at-the-ready mule team. Similarly, the trio’s awe at the “highway to Memphis,” a dirt road with a long line of low-to-the-ground telephone poles but dotted with early 20th century marvels (including their first glimpse of a motorcycle) recalls a simpler era.

The picture’s focus is how Lucius loses the innocence of childhood with an introduction all at once to the vices of man. He stares in prepubescent wonder at a life-size painting of a reclining nude woman, yet can’t believe that Boon’s warm-hearted girlfriend (who dotes on Lucius as if he were her own son) could possibly sell her body to a stranger. The conflict between the backwater but genteel sensibilities of his hometown and his simultaneous attraction and repulsion toward the world of grown-up cityfolk is the heart of the picture.

The Reivers also offers an enormously mature approach to race relations and racism, which so often in films wears its heart on its sleeve and lacks the subtlety presented here. It’s sad that the film isn’t embraced more by black audiences.

To that end, while McQueen is fine, the standout performance comes from Rupert Crosse (and, in a much smaller role, Will Geer). Crosse’s Ned is a deliriously breezy rascal, and it’s no surprise Crosse was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar that year. The role should have propelled Crosse into the top ranks of his profession, but he did only a few guest shots on shows. Another pioneering black actor, Juano Hernandez, is also very good as Uncle Possum, a sort of cynical Uncle Remus.

The film would be perfect if not for some misplaced broad comedy that’s at odds with the tone of the rest of the picture. These scenes stand out even more thanks to John Williams’ score, which is evocative (and, in Williams’ oeuvre, unique) except in the comic sequences, where it’s overly precious.

Another possible reason for the picture’s relative failure is the prudishness of the MPAA. The film was originally rated “M” (the early equivalent of “R”) and re-rated PG-13 this year for its “sexual content, brief nudity, language and thematic elements.” But if ever there was a “family film” this is it, at least for families with children Lucius’ age on up. The nudity, incidentally, refers to young boys skinny-dipping, seen from a distance, for cryin’ out loud.

Mark Rydell - (1969) The Reivers.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 51 min
Size: 	1.98 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1024x436 
Aspect ratio:  	2.35:1
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	2 351 kb/s
BPP: 	0.220
Audio
#1:  	English 2.0ch AC-3 @ 192 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/DFADDCE087BD966/Mark_Rydell_-_(1969)_The_Reivers.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English

The post Mark Rydell – The Reivers (1969) first appeared on Cinema of the World.