Restored Films | Cagey Films

The Criminal Acts of Tod Slaughter on Blu-ray from Indicator

Posted on January 10, 2024January 7, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

James Dalton, the Tiger (Tod Slaughter) becomes desperate at the end of George King's The Ticket of Leave Man (1937)

Indicator closed 2023 with one of their finest offerings yet – a four-disk, eight film box set of blood-and-thunder melodramas produced, and mostly directed, by George King and starring the inimitable Tod Slaughter as a roster of heinous villains portrayed with gleeful enthusiasm by an actor who devoted his long career to preserving an art form incubated on Victorian stages and largely fallen out of favour by the time these films preserved it with such relish. With striking restorations, mostly from original nitrate negatives, supplemented with commentaries, interviews and Slaughter-related ephemera, this is definitely the highlight of the past year.

Recent Noir releases from Indicator and Arrow

Posted on December 6, 2023December 5, 2023 by Kenneth George Godwin

Filmmaker William Wyler was known for his complex compositions in depth in The Desperate Hours (1955)

Indicator’s Universal Noir #2 box set gathers six minor movies from the late 1940s, most of which can only qualify as noir if the definition is severely stretched, while William Wyler’s consummate craft lifts B-movie tropes to the level of art in The Desperate Hours (1955), beautifully restored on Arrow’s new Blu-ray edition.

Cheap sci-fi and hardboiled noir in 3D

Posted on September 27, 2023September 19, 2023 by Kenneth George Godwin

Members of the gang come down hard on Mike Hammer (Biff Elliot) and his secretary Velda (Margaret Sheridan) in Harry Essex's I, the Jury (1953)

A 3D restoration of Phil Tucker’s ultra-cheap Robot Monster (1953) doesn’t really help this oddly endearing slice of poverty row sci-fi, but Classicflix’s 4K restoration of Harry Essex’s adaptation of Mickey Spillane’s I, the Jury (1953) is a revelation of what a great cinematographer could accomplish with first-wave 3D technology; Spillane’s brutal noir was shot by John Alton, a master of light and shadow, and the sense of space and imagery which plays on multiple planes in almost shot makes this one of the most impressive looking 3D movies of its time.

Orson Welles’s The Trial (1962): Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on September 20, 2023September 19, 2023 by Kenneth George Godwin

Josef K. (Anthony Perkins) tries to ascertain what happened to his neighbour Miss Burstner (Jeanne Moreau) in Orson Welles's The Trial (1962)

Made between Touch of Evil (1958) and Chimes at Midnight (1965), Orson Welles adaptation of Franz Kafka’s The Trial (1962) has long had a lesser reputation than the filmmaker’s better-known films; Criterion’s new 4K restoration should prompt a reassessment of this visually stunning evocation of the 20th Century totalitarian nightmare.

Grefé, Shatner and the resurrection of Impulse (1974)

Posted on August 30, 2023August 29, 2023 by Kenneth George Godwin

Matt Stone (William Shatner) is attentive to a nightclub dancer's performance in William Grefé's Impulse (1974)

Grindhouse Releasing have resurrected one of Florida exploitation master William Grefé’s best films with an impressive two-disk set showcasing Impulse (1974), starring William Shatner as a con-man/killer, along with two other features plus hours of extras.

Bo Widerberg’s New Swedish Cinema from Criterion

Posted on August 23, 2023August 26, 2023 by Kenneth George Godwin

A circus tightrope-walker (Pia Degermark) is swept away by romance in Bo Widerberg's Elvira Madigan (1967)

Criterion’s new four-disk Blu-ray set Bo Widerberg’s New Swedish Cinema introduces the work of a filmmaker who deserves to be better-known; a critic who rebelled against the dominant work of filmmakers like Ingmar Bergman which ignored issues of politics, economics and class, Widerberg drew on the French New Wave and New British Cinema to create politically engaged and expressive films which reflected contemporary Swedish society and recent history.

Mexico Macabre: four horror classics from Indicator

Posted on August 16, 2023August 15, 2023 by Kenneth George Godwin

Baron Vitelius d’Estera (Abel Salazar) assumes his brain-sucking demonic form in Chano Urueta's The Brainiac (1961)

Indicator give a fine new polish to four classic Mexican Gothic horror movies from the late ’50s and early ’60s, ranging from the deranged invention of Chano Urueta’s The Brainiac (1962) to Fernando Méndez’s elegant masterpiece The Black Pit of Dr. M (1959), in an impressive box set featuring their usual thoughtful extras, plus a 100-page book of essays.

The Exotic Ones: exploitation and religion from the Ormond family

Posted on July 19, 2023July 19, 2023 by Kenneth George Godwin

The film business being what it is, it’s not surprising that there are many odd corners still waiting to be explored – one of the oddest being the Ormond family, dad Ron, mom June and son Tim. After a successful career in vaudeville, June and Ron turned to independent production in the late ’40s with a string of poverty row westerns starring Lash LaRue, followed by a wide range of exploitation movies for the drive-in circuit – jungle adventure, hicksploitation featuring bootlegging, stock car racing, country music, spiced with sex and violence. Then in the late ’60s, they found God and made a series of evangelist movies, using all their exploitation skills to warn churchgoers about the evils of Communism and the inevitability of Hell. All of this is gathered together in Indicator’s box set From Hollywood to Heaven: The Lost and Saved Films of the Ormond Family, compiled in collaboration with filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn and biographer Jimmy McDonough.

The amateur passion of Michael J. Murphy

Posted on July 12, 2023January 10, 2025 by Kenneth George Godwin

Director Alistair (Patrick Oliver) assumes the identity of the killer in his own movie in Michael J. Murphy's Bloodstream (1985)

Although I’ve so far only watched four of the ten disks in Indicators monumental Magic, Myth & Mutilation: The Micro-Budget Cinema of Michael J. Murphy 1967-2015, it’s time to say a few words about this remarkable English outsider artist whose ambition consistently outpaced limited resources; the set is an amazing act of recovery and preservation of a body of work which has survived only in compromised form, covering multiple genres and displaying the development of a genuine filmmaking talent. The most impressive release yet from one of the world’s finest companies.

Dragons and ghosts, resurrected in 4K

Posted on June 28, 2023June 27, 2023 by Kenneth George Godwin

Julia (Mia Farrow) welcomes her own doom as expiation for her guilt in Richard Loncraine's Full Circle (The Haunting of Julia, 1977)

A pair of new 4K restorations resurrect two neglected films which deserve to be better known – Matthew Robbins’ Dragonslayer (1981), one of the finest fantasy films ever made which has never fared well on home video, but looks wonderful in this new edition; and Richard Loncraine’s atmospheric Full Circle (The Haunting of Julia, 1977), adapted from Peter Straub’s first horror novel, featuring Mia Farrow as a mother traumatized by the death of her child, who becomes immersed in a decades-old mystery when she moves into a haunted house.

Tag: Restored Films