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A Question of VERTIGO

August 19th, 2008 by Scott Marks

Last week I received a frantic late night call from my friend Herb Ross asking to help clarify a plot point in Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Eager to assist a fellow stickler for logic, I popped in my DVD, synced up with Herb and in no time put his mind at ease. After going through the effort of walking to the bedroom, locating my copy (filed alphabetically by director in chronological order) and carefully nesting it in my player, I figured WTF?, why not give the film of films another look?

It had been years since I sat down and watched the big “V” from beginning to end. With the exception of Midge’s comic relief, it’s all so damn depressing. My last audience was in 1997 when Robert Harris and James Katz “restored” Hitchcock’s obsessive masterwork. Though the 70mm blowup effectively reinstated the film’s original VistaVision aspect ratio and removed the heinous Universal logo hot-spliced onto the last shot of the 1984 reissue, the anemic color, heightened sound effects and computer enhanced stereo (the film was originally released in mono) proved little more than “pay attention to us” tinkering on the part of the self-serving preservationists.

For decades, it was impossible to see Vertigo in any format. I have meaningless memories of a Best of CBS telecast, but I was only six at the time and, having not yet been exposed to Under Capricorn, could not possibly have appreciated The Master’s inner-dialog. Hitchcock bought back the rights to Vertigo, along with Rope, Rear Window, The Trouble With Harry and the Technicolor remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much. The films were not put on public display until years after his death when they were re-released as a package with the proceeds going to his daughter and grandchildren.

Of the five “lost” Hitchcocks, only Rope was withheld me until the 1984 reissue. Three of the group were made readily available thanks to my nitrate “brother” Rick Marks who owned 16mm dye transfer prints of Rear Window, TMWKTM and Harry, We were so jaded that one night, while his print of Rear WIndow screened at an after hours party for the Parkway Theatre staff, we sneaked up to the projection booth to study a Marcus Welby, M.D. rerun.

Somewhere in 1980, Rick secured a video cassette copy of Vertigo. It was before I owned a VCR, and I was fortunate enough to watch it with Dave Kehr, Tom Bruggeman and Lloyd Sachs on Dave’s 15″ Sony. Instead of Motion Picture High Fidelity, this 90th generation dupe appeared to have been photographed in the grandeur of Macular Degeneration. At least it was letterboxed.

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Orson Welles’ TOUCH OF EVIL DVD Special Edition slated for October release

July 8th, 2008 by Scott Marks

Whit Masterson\'s BADGE OF EVIL

Here’s something you won’t find on any DVD - Whit Masterson’s BADGE OF EVIL

Emulsion Compulsion’s favorite movie of all time is set to receive a (semi) deluxe, 50th Anniversary DVD reissue. Later this year, Universal Home Video will release a 2 disc set that will include the preview, theatrical and restored versions, documentaries, and audio commentaries by Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, restoration producer Rick Schmidlin, writer/filmmaker F.X. Feeny and Welles scholars Jonathan Rosenbaum and James Naremore.

The reason I qualify ‘deluxe’ with a parenthetical ’semi’ is because the set fails to include the outstanding 1999 documentary Reconstructing Evil. A couple of sites erroneously listed it as an extra included in the 2000 DVD edition. I double checked and aside from the trailer and a copy of Welles’ 58-page memo (both included in the new set) there is nothing in the way of extras. In its place there are two new documentaries, Bringing Evil to Life and Evil Lost & Found.

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Fritz Lang’s original cut of METROPOLIS found in Buenos Aires museum

July 5th, 2008 by Scott Marks

In May, rumors that an uncut, 131 minute print of Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons was discovered at the São Paulo Cinematheque. A fellow named Roberto posted this tidbit on the Turner Classic Movies website adding, “cans labeled correctly but ignored by over-worked local preservation staff which assumed it was regular print of film.”

Recently, staff members of the Museo del Cine Pablo C. Ducros Hicken in Buenos Aires, found a 16mm negative of what was thought to have been long lost missing scenes from Fritz Lang’s 21st Century masterwork Metropolis.

On Thursday, the recently discovered material was shown to journalists for the first time in decades. Museum director Paula Felix-Didier said theirs is the only copy of German director Fritz Lang’s complete film.

All this talk of Brazil and Buenos Aires being the meccas of lost movies prompted compulsive Emulsion Compulsion loyalist ‘Bushido’ John Decapias to slide back his porkpie hat, scratch his head and muse, “Boy, everything is being rediscovered in South America. Let’s see if they find anything else.”

How about unearthing the missing reels to Greed, the pie fight from Dr. Strangelove and a copies of London After Midnight and Don Siegel’s Baby Face Nelson while they’re at it?

The last time anyone saw the complete version of Lang’s futuristic tale of man vs. machine was in May of 1927. According to Zeit Online, “At the time it was the most expensive German film ever made. It was intended to be a major offensive against Hollywood. However the film flopped with critics and audiences alike.”

Fanning flopsweat, American reps from Paramount took a scissors and started snipping away at Lang’s creation. The plot was restructured to the point of oversimplification and many crucial scenes excised. In their wake, all that remained of the original Metropolis was an incomplete original negative and copies of shortened and reedited release prints. For eighty years, over a quarter of Lang’s original vision had been considered missing in action.

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