Author Archives: chipkaufmann

After reading Marcus Hearn & Alan Barnes’ THE HAMMER STORY and visiting Chris Woods’ cheeky BRITISH HORROR FILMS website (google it, the film reviews are a scream!), I have been working my way through most of Hammer Film’s core output especially the often overlooked and unfairly maligned early 1970s films. The first part of thisContinue reading “DR JEKYLL & SISTER HYDE: A Clever Title And An Even Better Result”

…was to have been the original title of this offbeat Hammer offering which attempts to combine their trademark Gothic settings with the type of PSYCHO inspired thrillers like HYSTERIA or MANIAC that they churned out during the early 1960s. For the most part it’s a very successful marriage thanks to lush visuals, committed performances, andContinue reading “DEMONS OF THE MIND: Blood Will Have Blood…”

It was quite enjoyable to see THE WITCHES again after almost 40 years. The widescreen print used for the DVD was in much better shape than the one I saw at the drive-in. I had forgotten most of it but the prologue and the delirious finale came back almost at once. I hadn’t realized thatContinue reading “THE WITCHES: Hammer Horror Meets Hitchcock”

By the time this film was released in America as FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH in 1968, I was a confirmed fan of Hammer Films and tried to see as many of their movies as I could. Somehow I missed this one in the theaters and at the drive-ins so I had to wait 10Continue reading “QUATERMASS & THE PIT: A Major Miracle On A Minor Budget”

It delights me no end that Victor Sjostrom’s THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE is finally getting a Region 1 release and from Criterion no less. I have had the Region 2 version of this for a few years (complete with mislabeled discs) but now I will be able to enjoy the additional extra supplements that Criterion offers.Continue reading “THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE: A 1921 Swedish Silent Classic That Shouldn’t Be Missed”

In conjunction with its release of THE OUTLAW AND HIS WIFE, Kino has also given us this splendid double bill from Victor Sjostrom (Seastrom in America) who was truly one of the world’s great directors. His influence on other Scandinavian filmmakers (Ingmar Bergman and Carl Theodor Dreyer to name two of the best known) isContinue reading “INGEBORG HOLM / A MAN THERE WAS: Remarkable Silent Double Feature From Victor Sjostrom (Seastrom)”

It has taken Kino several years to make THE OUTLAW AND HIS WIFE available on DVD (the VHS version first appeared in 1989) but it has been worth the wait. Although it is essentially the same source material (the Swedish Film Institute’s 1986 restoration) as the video, the picture is marginally sharper in detail andContinue reading “THE OUTLAW & HIS WIFE (1918): Victor Sjostrom’s Classic Saga Finally on DVD”

THE SAGA OF GOSTA BERLING has been available for many years but never like this. Previous versions were cut-rate low budget affairs that were missing over half the film’s running time and were often presented without any kind of musical accompaniment. European silent films in particular have suffered in the U.S. where, because of theContinue reading “THE SAGA OF GOSTA BERLING: Sweden’s Great Silent Epic As It Was Meant To Be Seen”

SIR ARNE’S TREASURE is one of three releases from Kino devoted to Swedish silent cinema and in particular the work of Mauritz Stiller. Stiller is remembered today, when he is remembered at all, as the man who brought Greta Garbo to America. Garbo, of course, went on to screen immortality while Stiller simply went onContinue reading “SIR ARNE’S TREASURE (1919): Ghostly Revenge In Olde Sweden”

Having just sat through my umpteenth 100 million dollar plus CGI extravaganza which shall remain anonymous although it is interchangeable with any number of big budget films made since the turn of the century), I find myself gravitating more and more to the low budget films of yore where special effects were subservient to character,Continue reading “FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND (1990): Roger Corman’s Swan Song Shows That Less Is More”