Notizie

The Spider Woman Strikes Back

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1946/ B&w / 1.33:1 / 59 Minutes

Starring Gale Sondergaard, Brenda Joyce, Kirby Grant

Directed by Arthur Lubin

People are measured by the company they keep—in a superhero’s case, that company is usually the supervillain. Villains, besides giving the hero a reason to exist in the first place, can liven up the joint; a dam burst here, a toppled bridge there, chaos and special effects ensue, and the popcorn munchers are happy. Sherlock Holmes was one of the few heroes who was fun all by himself (due respect to Dr. Watson)—the detective’s obsessive-compulsive brilliance, his monkish lifestyle, and his fondness for beekeeping and cocaine were just some of his more endearing quirks.

The filmed versions of Conan Doyle’s most famous character—not a superhero but seemingly immortal—were not so concerned with Holmes’s idiosyncrasies. This was especially true...

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By Hank Reineke

When Kino Lorber announced in April 2021 that a Blu-ray of Universal’s The Spider Woman Strikes Back (1946) was scheduled for issue in autumn I was, to put it mildly, over-joyed. It’s not that The Spider Woman Strikes Back is a great film – it most certainly is not – but it’s long been a missing entry on home video, a film of great interest to collectors of Golden Age horror. The studio has chosen, time and again, to re-master and re-offer the classic and iconic “Universal Monsters” in nearly every conceivable home video format and creative packaging. Too often these releases would be at the expense of the studios less famous genre titles as the still unissued Ghost Catchers (1944), and The Cat Creeps (1946).

In the course of this disc’s ten-minute featurette, Mistress of Menace and Murder: The Making of The Spider Woman Strikes Back,...

Discarded plots, quotes from canon, Martin Freeman's hatred of Watson's moustache... Here's a long list of Sherlock series 3 trivia...

Released this month, the collector’s edition Sherlock series 3 DVDs are crammed with nerd succour, from the episodes one and three commentaries by Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat, Sue Vertue and Una Stubbs, to behind-the-scenes featurettes, falling-over and dancing outtakes, footage from episode read-throughs, a deleted scene in which Lars Mikkelsen licks Benedict Cumberbatch, technical special effects gubbins, clips from the only existing television interview with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and - we almost forgot - the series itself.

For Sherlock fans who haven’t yet had the pleasure, we’ve ploughed through all the bonus material on the discs, turning up the odd bit of trivia treasure as we did so. Find out below about Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat's plans for Sherlock to teach Mary the violin, Benedict Cumberbatch...

With Hugh Jackman currently negotiating to play Wolverine for a seventh and eighth time, Cinelinx takes a look at actors who’ve played the same role eight times or more. Who has played the same character most often? Come in and find out.

Hugh Jackman has already played Wolverine five times--x-Men (2000), X2: X-Men United (2003) X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), and The Wolverine (2013)—as well as a cameo in X-Men:First Class (2011). Soon we’ll be seeing him fully clawed again on the big screen in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Recently, he told Collider that he might shoot Wolverine 3 and X-Men: Apocalypse “back-to-back”, which would make a total of eight times (9 times with the cameo) that he’ll portray the Canadian mutant.

You might be thinking “Wow! That’s amazing! I’ve never heard of anyone playing the same role so many times.” Well, for those who may not know it,...

Above: German poster for Last Year At Marienbad (Alain Resnais, France, 1961), artist: Tostmann.

Over the past three months of Movie Poster of the Day, the two most popular posters by far were two beautiful (each in their own very distinct way) posters that I posted in memoriam of two dearly departed auteurs: Alan Resnais and Harold Ramis. And two other posters among the most popular (i.e. most liked or reblogged) were those posted in celebration of Philip Seymour Hoffman, including Chris Ware’s lovely 2007 design for The Savages, one of my favorite posters of last decade. So, if nothing else, Movie Poster of the Day has recorded the saddest losses of the year. (Not forgetting the adorable Swedish poster I posted for Shirley Temple which didn’t make the Top 20.)

I’m happy to see a number of new posters here: a very popular Dutch Wolf of Wall Street,...

The St. Louis Globe-Democrat is a monthly newspaper run by Steve DeBellis, a well know St. Louis historian, and it’s the largest one-man newspaper in the world. The concept of The Globe is that there is an old historic headline, then all the articles in that issue are written as though it’s the year that the headline is from. It’s an unusual concept but the paper is now in its 25th successful year! Steve and I collaborated recently on an all-Vincent Price issue of The Globe and he has asked me to write a regular monthly movie-related column. Since there is no on-line version of The Globe, I will be posting all of my articles here at We Are Movie Geeks. This month’s St. Louis Globe-Democrat is written as if it’s 1946.

Motion picture audiences may be curious who this odd-looking new horror star by...

Spaced repeats from episode one, and there's a bit of Harry Hill. Fortunately, there are also lots and lots of great movies on UK TV this coming week...

Well, we hope you're a movie fan, because there aren't many TV shows to highlight. In fact, all we can point to is some overflow from last week's abundant new starts and returning series.

We missed telling you that the newest series of the prop explosion Harry Hill's TV Burp returned for an eleventh go at its neighbours on the telly schedules. But, not to worry, as it's often repeated and you can catch the first episode when it shows again tonight, Friday, February 11th at 8:30pm, or Saturday, February 12th at 6:50pm. Our hope is that the Heather-look-a-likey has been retired, but we never tire of the Knitted Character, or any pals it wants to bring along to the new series.

Amazon's Gold Box Deal of the day today is a choice between two Sherlock Holmes collections, each 54% off: Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Granada Television Series 12-dvd set for $96.99, 58% off the $230msrp. Photo seen above. The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection for $59.99, 54% off the $130msrp. The Collection is comprised of all 14 classic films on 5 discs: "The Hound Of The Baskervilles: Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes," "Sherlock Holmes And The Voice Of Terror," "Sherlock Holmes And The Secret Weapon," "Sherlock Holmes In Washington," "Sherlock Holmes Faces Death," "Sherlock Holmes In The Spider Woman," "Sherlock Holmes The Scarlet Claw," "Sherlock Holmes In Pearl Of Death," "Sherlock Holmes House Of Fear," "Sherlock Holmes And The Woman In Green," "Sherlock Holmes Pursuit To Algiers," "Sherlock Holmes Terror By Night," Sherlock Holmes Dressed To Kill." Both deals are only valid until midnight tonight (March 30th 2010). Amazon also has the first four season of the ...

With the new Sherlock Holmes movie in theaters, people may remember other portrayals of the famous sleuth. One of our favorites has always been Basil Rathbone, whose performances brought Mr. Holmes to life for a generation of theater goers as well as those who encountered him at Saturday matinees or late night television. This double feature DVD presents two Holmes favorites, restored in 35mm. First on the disc is The Spider Woman, an adventure that can still produce nightmares for those who are prone to arachnophobia. Sherlock Holmes and the good Dr. Watson are called upon to help solve a baffling crime, or in this case a series of murders. The murders occur in the victim.s bedroom, after...

Depending on who you ask or which article you read there’s a definitive actor who played Sherlock Holmes. It’s the more obscure version of the James Bond argument (Connery? Dalton? Brosnan?), but the candidates are far more evenly matched. For my money though, Basil Rathbone, who stars in this double feature, takes the cake. Right about now everyone is marching out their DVD releases of old Sherlock Holmes adventures to catch the buzz rolling off the release of the new film starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. In the grand scheme of all the releases, this one falls somewhere in the upper 75%.

Basil Rathbone has the essential Holmes speech pattern down pat, he played the sleuth numerous times and perfected the character. Sherlock Holmes, no matter who’s playing him, pretty much comes out the same regardless. Some people get his nuances better than others, but in...