Cinema is Dope

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FILE: Rock Hudson Guidelines (Letter)

This historical item from this series is an inter-office letter about guidelines for Rock Hudson’s tour for the film, “Pretty Maids All In A Row.” View the letter above or after the link bump read the full text of it.

About This Series: (VIEW ALL)
One of the goals of this site is preserving film history one image at a time. In addition to that preserving various other forms of film history. Debuting Friday, August 31, 2007 was a historical look at the Boston leg of Rock Hudson’s publicity tour for “Pretty Maids All In A Row.” Items in this series will feature all kinds of images, letters and other extremely rare goodies. This really will be a fascinating look at both publicity for this film and press at the time of 1971. I’m extremely proud to be archiving for public viewing these rare historical film items! Several items a day will be posted for this series in the weeks ahead.

I really do hope everyone enjoys this series and I do ask to please credit my site if you mention this. In addition please do not take any of these items I will be posting and rework them to be sold on eBay.

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FILE: Hudson Tours for MAIDS (Press Release)

One of the goals of this site is preserving film history one image at a time. In addition to that preserving various other forms of film history. Debuting today with this post is going to be a historical look at the Boston leg of Rock Hudson’s publicity tour for “Pretty Maids All In A Row.” Items in this series will feature all kinds of images, letters and other extremely rare goodies. This really will be a fascinating look at both publicity for this film and press at the time of 1971. I’m extremely proud to be archiving for public viewing these rare historical film items! Several items a day will be posted for this series in the weeks ahead.

I really do hope everyone enjoys this series and I do ask to please credit my site if you mention this. In addition please do not take any of these items I will be posting and rework them to be sold on eBay.

Today’s historical item is an announcement letter announcing Mr. Hudson’s planned tour around the U.S. to promote this film. View the letter above or after the link bump read the full text of it.

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::: The Ultimate Experience Part Diez
via Flickr Slideshow

Here is part ten of my ongoing tribute to the upcoming 40th Sitges Film Festival (www.cinemasitges.com). This tribute will be showcasing my sepia toned images I took from the 39th Sitges Film Festival.

::: 39th Sitges Film Festival - The Ultimate Experience Part 9
::: 39th Sitges Film Festival - The Ultimate Experience Part 8
::: 39th Sitges Film Festival - The Ultimate Experience Part 7
::: 39th Sitges Film Festival - The Ultimate Experience Part 6
::: 39th Sitges Film Festival - The Ultimate Experience Part 5
::: 39th Sitges Film Festival - The Ultimate Experience Part 4
::: 39th Sitges Film Festival - The Ultimate Experience Part 3
::: 39th Sitges Film Festival - The Ultimate Experience Part 2
::: 39th Sitges Film Festival - The Ultimate Experience Part 1

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I may have accidentally bumped into the motherload of “Pretty Maids all in a row” historical and memorabilia coolness. I’ll know more this week when I get a package in the mail. This could be a badass rocking find! Keep your fingers crossed.

Related Links:
::: IMDb Profile

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Murakami (Toshiro Mifune) and Sato (Takashi Shimura) in pursuit of Murakami’s stolen gun in postwar Japan. “Nora inu” aka “Stray Dog” is one of my favorite Akira Kurosawa films, a great crime fable that is brimming with life in every inch of its frame throughout.

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Gripping martial arts fury in “Five Superfighters” aka “Tong San ng foo.”

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I haven’t seen this Nagisa Oshima film but judging from the French lobbycard set I have my interest is certainly raised to check it out. It has a US VHS release that I’ve been hestitant to purchase.

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::: AFFD Report - Finishing the Game, Dorm, Battle of Wits, Heavenly Kings

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Classic rare image from fun 70’s cinema.

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Some upcoming images to expect here.

* The Traveling Executioner (1970)
* Short Night of the Glass Dolls (1971)
* The Sword and the Dragon (1956)
* The Warriors (1979)
* Twisted Nerve (1968) - Two rare classic stills from.

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So at the last point of contact with Deep Discount DVD for those catching up this happened (full story here):

August 22:
I get an e-mail this morning from Deep Discount DVD saying: “Our records show that your original order was for the DVD “Who Can Kill A Child“. Please provide us with the order number for “The Last Hunter“.” Hmm. Ok. I just sent them an e-mail with all the contact information and details on Monday. Hope dims. I send an e-mail back taking the e-mail I sent on Monday but detailing it out like I’m having to explain the situation to a 4 year old. I have no idea if I will ever get this movie from them. I’ll give it until the end of September and at that point I will have to cancel my order completely.

***

Let me at this junction point out that I can login to my account on Deep Discount DVD and see that “The Last Hunter“” was never shipped to me. In addition it shows it under the order # I have used in all my correspondence with Deep Discount DVD. In the e-mail from above I referenced that order #.

Just now I got this response from Deep Discount DVD:

* I blacked out key information on purpose.

How is it that suddenly my order number doesn’t work for both movies? I see them both associated with the same exact order number when I login to “my account” and go to - View Orders > Order Details, for it!?! How can I see this information in the same system but they cannot.

Here is a screenshot as of now for my order under “my account” with Deep Discount DVD:

* Personal details of course blacked out.

For some strange reason I don’t see myself ever buying a DVD from them ever again. Cue the line “the computer says no” from “Little Britain” at this Abbott and Costello routine their customer service department has me in.

Really in dealing with online “discount” retailers it really is like going to a high stakes table in Vegas. Sure you can win big, but you can also come up a a big loser. While using Deep Discount DVD I might could save a lot of money but there is a good chance I won’t be seeing anything I bought anytime soon. So my choice is roll the dice and save a buck or buy movies at a higher price but get them in the mail in a reasonable time with no headaches. While I love saving money it really doesn’t mean a *&*#(($ thing if I have no movie to watch.

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Timeline:

June 24:
I order the two movies on Deep Discount DVD - The Last Hunter and Who Can Kill A Child.

First Week of July
I get Who Can Kill A Child in the mail with no mention of why the other movie I ordered isn’t with it.

July:
I look on my account at various points and The Last Hunter shows in process. I’m a bit confused as others that I know have gotten this DVD no problem. So it doesn’t seem to be an issue of shortage as to why I haven’t gotten my DVD.

August 9:
I finally feel I’ve waited too long and contact Deep Discount DVD off their website trying to find out if I will be getting The Last Hunter anytime soon?

August 10:
I get an e-mail back saying they can’t find my order in question and if I can please provide them with all my contact information and related info in the purchase I made. I guess Deep Discount DVD has a system that isn’t sophisticated enough to look up customer order information by name, e-mail address and order number. Hmm. Ok. I respond back with as many details as possible. Later that night I get an e-mail saying they are sending out a replacement DVD for The Last Hunter and an apology for the delay. I still get charged for the full amount and only a slight sorry. No offer of free shipping on the next order or anything. Not that I expected that but it certainly is nice when a company realizes it was their fault and makes such an offer.

August 20:
I check my mail and a package from Deep Discount DVD is in it! I breath a sigh of relief… only to discover the package contains - Who Can Kill A Child. I immediately e-mail Deep Discount DVD with the previous e-mail (that has all the contact details) and state this latest mishap.

August 22:
I get an e-mail this morning from Deep Discount DVD saying: “Our records show that your original order was for the DVD “Who Can Kill A Child“. Please provide us with the order number for “The Last Hunter“.” Hmm. Ok. I just sent them an e-mail with all the contact information and details on Monday. Hope dims. I send an e-mail back taking the e-mail I sent on Monday but detailing it out like I’m having to explain the situation to a 4 year old. I have no idea if I will ever get this movie from them. I’ll give it until the end of September and at that point I will have to cancel my order completely.

Summary:
These “discount” retailers online seem like a great bargain. They promise cheaper costs and reliable service. Often times these companies do not seem to be set up to handle volume. If you order something with them at a peak time your essentially screwed. With the home video market having exploded with increasing DVD sales there are more and more companies trying to exploit this craze with minimal operating costs through online sites offering great “discount.” It sometimes works out great for us consumers when we can buy a DVD without having to pay a premium. Though the rub is that as the consumer buying has escalated these companies seem to have cut back on service and looked at more ways to cut operational cost while trying to meet increased business volume. Just look at eBay! Have you ever had an issue there? There customer service is an entirely automated non-human system that really makes you feel like your dealing with HAL from 2001.

With companies like Deep Discount DVD I can honestly say at times I feel like I’m buying from two college kids who are running the business out of their apartment with the movies kept in several closets and their mom out on the balcony handling packaging. No wonder then that one order in every thousand might be messed up.

In summary a discount is surely always a nice thing for most of us consumers. The shrinking service associated with getting that discount isn’t. As much as I like to buy things cheaper I have to say having been burned several times this year is “reliable” is the only word I’m now going after when I buy a DVD online. With this in mind if you have online DVD retailers you buy from that are reliable please post a comment and let me and others know who they are. Lets get the word out about the ones that understand providing service. Give me a discount? Great! Though I have to say getting the “actual DVD” is even better!

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Could Zeena the Fortune Teller (Joan Blondell) be predicting the demise of Stanton (Tyrone Power) with her tarot card reading?

The classic film noir, “Nightmare Alley” is one of my favorites and The Masters of Cinema DVD release seems to be its best on home video (more info here). Can’t wait to pick it up. I’ve had it on my list to get all year but seems to keep slipping me by. If anyone out there has this release please let me know how it is.

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::: Hong Kong director Johnnie To wrapping up 3 movies
The Star

Well it has been no secret that Johnnie To is a big fan of Melville but this is the first time I remember reading about him teaming up with Alan Delon for a film. Separate from that he is also working on remaking Melville’s “Red Circle.”

More on To:
::: Your Johnnie To weekend update
Kaiju Shakedown

Over at Outcast Cinema Marc has a nice post on some behind the scenes of the “Horrors of Malformed Men” DVD release and the upcoming Yoen dokufu-den series. Having watched Marc interview Shinya Tsukamoto for the Malformed Men release in this small courtyard at The Nippon Connection I’m really interested to see how it came out. The nightmare (no pun intended) of doing interviews that day was the fact we were right under a route for airplanes. I plowed ahead in when I interview Tsukamoto before Marc just hoping that my digital audio recorder would be good enough to balance out the whizzing noise of the planes. Which for the most part seemed to only make certain words tougher to hear. I’m looking to get my interview with him up on Twitch in September. When Marc interviewed Tsukamoto they had to stop when the planes came near which made it a challenge and had everyone perking their heads up like kids in the street playing hockey would at the sound of a possible approaching vehicle. Another small challenge doing the interviews by selecting it to be out in a open courtyard that was mostly surrounded by a building was keeping other people away. When you have a small outdoor place with walls around it, chatter and voices carry much stronger than normal. Marc had eyed the courtyard for quite a bit of time out at Nippon and really never caught anyone out there. I never noticed anyone ever out there myself. So as it would go as soon as everyone set up shop out there for the interviews various packs of college students started coming in to sit down for refuge and chatting. We kicked them all out politely though. The only thing we couldn’t stop that day (outside of the airplane noise) was some type of piano lesson going on. So if you listen to the Tsukamoto interview closely enough perhaps you will be able to hear it.

Over at the Drafthouse South Lamar Henri is throwing a DVD release party for R. Kelly’s new chapters of Trapped in a Closet. For those that can’t wait for Monday you can view the new chapters at IFC.com here (… and yes there is a chapter 12.5 now that recaps everything that has happened so far). I went to Henri’s original sing-a-long for the original set of chapters and have to say it was one of the crazier nights I’ve been to at the Drafthouse Downtown - beach ball condoms, stage acts and an audience singing along like it was their last day to be alive.

::: 2007 DEAD CHANNELS—Interview With Jack Hill
Michael Guillen, Twitch

::: ‘Days of Heaven’ Due for “Radical Departure” on DVD
Peter Martin @ cinematicalINDIE

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Shazam! This is a great image from this 1940’s serial.

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