Kenny J Reviews

Columbo: The Conspirators (1978) Season 7, Episode 5

Great episode, pity about the music.

[11 October 2004]

Another superb episode of Columbo (are there any bad ones?) and particularly interesting for the following reason:

I recently bought the DVD of Robert Altman's extraordinary film "Images". This has an original score written by John Williams. Most of the music is plodding 1970's background stuff with plenty of, I think, harpsichord (thank goodness for the imaginative collaboration of Stomu Yamashta's percussion. Now and again the music comes to life. A typical example is about 4 minutes from the end when Susannah York is driving through the night. This distinctive pizzicato music can best be heard on the Trailer which is included on the DVD. Later the same evening I watched this Columbo episode. About 20 minutes in, Columbo turns up on the killer's doorstep, they talk and Columbo leaves. The music that bridges this scene and the next is accompanied by the same music that John Williams wrote for "Images". I did an A/B test - very slightly different orchestration around the edges, otherwise identical. Maybe the two composers are related (both are called Williams), or maybe they're one and the same.

The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

Comments on the DVD

[10/10 · 12 September 2003]

I saw The Pit and the Pendulum in 1963 and it scared the hell out of this 14-year-old, just as did The Fall of the House of Usher (still my favourite of the Poe/Corman films). The sequence that really put a silver streak through my hair and, if we exclude the climatic pendulum scene, the one to stick most vividly in my memory, is when Barbara Steele rises from the tomb and pursues Vincent Price. She comes out of the tomb and he retreats, she follows, slowly. She's so close as he stumblingly edges his way down spiralling steps... or does he? I've just bought the beautifully restored version on dvd, with a commentary by Roger Corman, and she doesn't follow him down the steps at all - instead, he stumbles and falls, landing on the floor of the dungeon. Is my memory really so bad, or are there two versions of that sequence?

Also, neither the packaging on the box, nor the Corman commentary give any information about the theatrical prologue included on the dvd. This is a 5 minute sequence that was presumably axed before release. What was its purpose, who was the actress and who was she portraying?

Stalker (1979)

An interesting interview on the DVD

[1 May 2003]

The Region 2 Artificial Eye DVD includes interesting interviews with the cameraman and production designer. The production designer reveals that the film was completed only to be destroyed because it had been shot on experimental Kodak and couldn't be developed - a whole year's work was ruined. He proposes the possibility that the authorities of the time didn't want it to be developed. The incident nearly destroyed Tarkovsky. He was finally persuaded to go back and film a new Stalker, this time on a shoestring budget.

What does the film mean? Ask me again when I've watched it maybe ten times.

Certainly the Zone means more to Stalker than the Room. The Room is his living, but the Zone is an escape, a sanctuary from the noisy, industrial rusting slum where he lives (captured brilliantly in metallic sepia). In the Zone everything eventually returns to nature - like a pastoral coral reef growing on a battleship lichen and mosses engulf factory buildings and tanks. His first action on arriving there is to leave the other two occupied while he communes with the natural things growing in the zone, the grasses, the dew, the soil, the tiny worm that dances head-over-tail down his hand.

A beautiful, great and puzzling film. But then if it revealed all its secrets straight off then, apart from the beautiful visuals and the soundtrack it would be pointless watching it again. Great art only leaches out its secrets gradually and only to those with the desire to learn them.

The Haunting (1963)

Still the best horror film I've seen

[10/10 · 21 July 2001]

I saw this film back in '63-'64 when it first appeared in the English cinemas. It scared the pants off me. Since then then I must have seen it on TV around a dozen times. And every time, it still scares the pants off me. To really appreciate the beautiful black and white photography it needs to be seen in widescreen format. The exteriors were filmed at Ettington Park - does anyone know where the interiors were filmed, or were they done in the studio? I voted for this film and considered only giving it a 9 because of the hammy acting of the house's retainer. She's only in it for a few minutes, so I voted it a 10. Everything else about this film is perfect. Think about all that swearing and vomit in The Exorcist and all the films it influenced; all the special effects in the new version of The Haunting; all the blood, axe-wielding in the countless college-kids-locked-in-a-house/locked-in-a-nightmare/locked-in-endless-seque ls we have to endure like a family curse. Compare these with a film that not only looks good, sounds good, has good acting, has suspense, makes your hair stand on end and with no special effects - apart from the bending door!

Can't wait for the DVD.