DVD Spin Doctor

3D DVD: 'The Stewardesses' fly again

Everyone looks like a dork with 3D glasses on. The technology marches forward in the new century, but the flimsy glasses remain the same as our ancestors wore.

3D filmmaking is enjoying one of its occasional outbursts of invention and creativity, a once-a-decade phenomenon that tracks all the way back to the Lumieres brothers in the 1930s.

No doubt the golden age of 3D came in 1952-53, back when "It Came From Outer Space," "Creature From the Black Lagoon" and "House of Wax" ruled the cinemas. Those awkward-goofy red-and-cyan glasses made for some surreal scenes at the local bijou.

Now in theaters, the stop-motion "Coraline" is proving a dark crowd pleaser. Last year, "Journey to the Center of the Earth" did its digging in 3D. Hannah Montana flew the multi-dimensional flag for Disney with a concert film. Before that, it was U2, "Chicken Little" and "Polar Express" in 3D. In March, DreamWorks unleashes "Monsters vs. Aliens."

Over that 75-year span, 3D always registered as a stunt -- one that wears thin after an hour of wearing cardboard (anaglyph) glasses. But the Hollywood majors and a swarm of tech companies are betting the format is about to go mainstream in a big way. 

January was a big month for 3D and home media. 

At CES, Panasonic showed off an eye-popping solution that uses a second TV video channel using HDMI inputs. The DVD Forum, a trade group, adopted the Sensio 3D technology as a standard. The search is on for a Blu-ray standard, with high hopes for high-definition dimensionality. And, of course, the Super Bowl broadcast took a stab at 3-D ads, with fairly lame results.

January also brought us the return on DVD of "The Stewardesses," a 3D softcore romp from 1969 that made millions for its low-budget producers.

"The Stewardesses" are looking good. Shout! Factory presents the film in its original high-quality 3D format, not the compressed scheme that many audiences saw with 1971's wide release.

The double-disc set The Stewardesses 3D: 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition unspools the film in three versions: color 3D, black and white 3D, and "2D" color. The version of choice is b&w, as the menu advises.

I fired up the "The Stewardesses" and was quickly impressed by 3D images of a bikini beach scene. The DVD set comes with two pairs of glasses, so I called in my teen son to witness the wow. Unfortunately, seconds later, young Nick was introduced to the world of 3D with a young woman's legs poking out of the screen ... as she was giving it up to a horny sailor.

There's something perverse about a kid-friendly format being used for sex, but that's part of what made "The Stewardesses" such a hit back in the day. 

The movie offers non-stop female frontal nudity (pre-landing strips), with swaying boobs ping-ponging about in 3D. The mostly fresh-faced ladies find plenty of objects to poke out of the screen. 

This being the end of the '60s, there's plenty of drug taking, including a scene in which a hottie drops acid and makes it with a face on a lamp. Far out.

As a movie, the X-rated "The Stewardesses" could be a lot worse. It started out as "a series of loops," the filmmakers recall in the extras. For the wide release, content was added to provide "artistic merit" -- thus keeping the cops at bay. (This was a couple of years before "Deep Throat" made porn hip.) 

Basically, "The Stewardesses" follows around swinging stews who put out for handsome pilots and business travelers, who happily bring the wood. The movie is pretty funny, intentionally and otherwise.

The DVD extras include an interview with one of the key actresses, who never felt exploited and has good things to say about the mom-and-pop filmmaking operation. The producers share a good chuckle over the key art, which proclaimed the film was based on "The unpublishable novel!" Unpublishable because it never existed.

The first DVD's extras are test footage (lots of balloons) and some outtakes. On disc 2, "A Short History of 3D" provides a decent overview, ending with a few cool 3D samples from movies it cites, including "The Maze." Two short docus look at "The Stewardesses" production and technology, as well as the surprising boxoffice haul that rivaled "Love Story." (The extras films are in 2D and hail from 2006.)

Ending on a high note, SCTV spoofs the movie on Count Floyd's 3D TV show as John Candy and Eugene Levy strip some helpless flight attendants. Very scary.

Bettie Page on DVD: 2 pin-up queen biopics

The 1950s pin-up sensation Bettie Page died Thursday at age 85. Hers was a remarkable tale, one that the newspaper obituaries will struggle to tell. 

That's because Page was a visual artist who worked with her body -- naked or nearly so -- in a parade of pin-up pictures and black-and-white fetish films. Her sins would be PG- or R-rated these days, but in the 1950s Page was a bold sexual pioneer, a person of interest to preachers and postal inspectors alike.

Bettie Page's naughty career and religious conversion inspired not one but two biopics in the final years of her life. Both are out on DVD. 

For a good time, call "Bettie Page: Dark Angel." The low-budget film comes from director Nico B. of Cult Epics, who re-creates Page's 8mm bondage films to a rockabilly beat. Actress Paige Richards looks like Page's kid sister, bringing high spirits and a killer body to the part. 

"Dark Angel" focuses on the final years of Page's career, in which she cheerfully makes fetish films with the notorious producer Irving Klaw and his sister. The re-creations serve as chapter breaks to the biographical scenes. The acting is pretty stiff, and likely to put off viewers who don't get the gag. DVD extras include "How to Pose Nude," an extended photo session in South Florida with Page's longtime photographer Bunny Yeager shooting Richards. It drags on a bit, but there's plenty of Richards in the buff.

"The Notorious Bettie Page" stars Gretchen Moll (pictured), who in real life looks nothing like the pin-up queen. She pulls it off regardless, thanks to padding and a lot of milk shakes. This movie works the darker end of the street, opening with the Senate probe of Page's bondage films and tracking back to the sexual abuse the busty model endured as a girl and young woman. Still, it's mostly an upbeat affair, due to Moll's fine performance. 

The film has high production values and is beautifully shot in black and white, except for a bit of oversaturated color footage. "The Notorious Bettie Page" was directed and produced by women.

Check out some real Bettie Page films at Amazon.

Movie movies: 'Be Kind, Rewind,' 'The Amateurs'

"Be Kind, Rewind" hasn't done much at the boxoffice in its two weeks of release, possibly because it's screening in a relatively small number of cinemas.

Too bad, because this Jack Black-Mos Def vehicle offers viewers a charming night at the movies. It's an American cousin to "Cinema Paradiso," only much shorter and sillier.

Black and Def play buddies who team up to make DIY versions of hit movies after a struggling video-rental shop has all of its VHS tapes accidentally erased. The customers love the bad replacement movies, of course, and line up for more. My favorite was the "2001" bit.

At this rate, "Be Kind, Rewind" will be in real video stores in a flash. Until then, lovers of movies about movies might want to check out "The Amateurs," a Jeff Bridges starrer made in 2005 and only briefly released in the U.S. last year. Aka "The Moguls."

Anyone see it? Hands? Thought so. ...

Michael Traeger directed this casual comedy about bored small-town characters who decide to make a porno film. These middle-aged slackers have no idea what they're doing, but everyone in town seems to think it's a dandy idea, down to the little old ladies. "Amateurs" is about hard-core sex, but pretty much anyone over 15 could watch it.

The ensemble cast is quite good, even during the parts where the movie isn't.

Joe Pantoliano plays the porn director, known as "Some Idiot" (don't ask); Ted Danson is the gay guy who only thinks he's in the closet; Tim Blake Nelson provides ballast as the semi-competent producer.

I liked the B-story about Bridges' son and his rich stepdad, as well as the performance of Lauren Graham, who was so good in "Bad Santa." Glenne Headley, pictured, does a nice job as a wary porn recruit.

I wouldn't want to take my thumbs-up on this movie into court, but if you're up for some good-hearted foolishness and some good acting, check out "The Amateurs."

The extras on First Look Studios' single-disc DVD include an making-of docu, a commentary with Bridges and Traeger, and some photos by talented photographer Bridges.

The production docu shows first-time director Traeger and his famous "buddy" actors spending a weekend together at the beach before filming -- an exercise in ensemble-building that paid off. Bridges tells how his associates and friends had to talk him into doing the film.

The DVD looks and sounds fine, and the Blu-ray is somewhat of a step up. There is also an HD DVD.

DVD review: 'WR: Mysteries of the Organism'

One of the stranger DVDs to pass this way recently is "WR: Mysteries of the Organism."

The 1971 film, by Eastern European filmmaker Dusan Makavejev, was banned for 16 years in the director's homeland, the former Yugoslavia, due to its herky-jerky mix of sex, politics and comedy. The DVD comes via the Criterion Collection, which released it in a single-disc edition a few months back.

"WR" starts off as a documentary about Austrian-American psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich ("WR"), creator of the "orgone accumulator" -- a sweat-box-like contraption said to harness sexual life energy for the benefits of patients, who sat inside. The feds shut down the ailing Reich's operation, banned his books and eventually jailed him, in an act his wife called "judicial murder." Reich devotees find orgasms a good way to get the energy flowing, so we see practitioners pleasing themselves into a good froth. The docu plays it pretty straight; the content is plenty weird enough.

From there, the movie moves to Yugoslavia, for a slapstick fiction about a beautiful young Marxist who talks a lot about sex and Soviet bloc politics while her hot naked roommate gets busy with a series of lovers. The women's adventures are mixed in with footage from the 1946 drama "Pitsi," about Stalin.

Meanwhile in Manhattan, a member of the Fugs runs around with a toy automatic weapon, shaking up the suits and amusing the cops (imagine). In a porn magazine office, a female plaster-caster makes a permanent record of a subject's cock in a long take that Makavejev found so good it was "uneditable."

The extras feature a couple of interviews with Makavejev, who does a pretty good job of explaining the film and its contexts in that rocky era. One funny clip shows the BBC's attempts to clean up the quite-explicit film for broadcast. The commentary is read aloud from a 1999 book on the film.

The movie isn't for most people, obviously, but those in tune with Lennon and Marx (John and Groucho) should call "WR" for a good time.

Makavejev's sex-drenched Sweet Movie also is available from Criterion.

Visit my hand-picked titles at this DVD blog's Criterion Store.

Sex tourism with a feminine touch

Here's a fine title released by Genius a few months back -- "Heading South" -- this DVD blog is late to the party but wanted to write it up. Charlotte Rampling and Karen Young ("Law & Order") star in a smart, sexy, ultimately somber drama about three middle-aged women of the 1970s who vacation in Haiti in order to sleep with the local youth. Newcomer Menothy Cesar was justly honored at the Venice film festival for his role as the hottest young native on the beach. Rampling does fine work as a jealous but cynical sex tourist -- she's pretty much in the league of those great English actresses we're always honoring. Also of note is Karen Young of "Law & Order," who takes center stage midway through the film.

The movie is in French and English, subtitled, with the players weaving in and out of the languages. Genius' disc looks and sounds good but has no extras. Disappointing because there's plenty to explore in the unsettling issues the 2005 film raised about clueless Yankee tourism in the third world.

Highly recommended as a rental. "Time Out" is an equally good and similarly toned movie from "Heading South's" French director, Laurent Cantet.

Fun with DVD marketing

Misleading marketing usually reeks, but it's business as usual in film/home video. In the point-of-sale obsessed world of DVDs you get all kinds of whack results. Sometimes taking a flyer really pays off for viewers. Here are a trio of films that aren't all they seem -- they're actually a lot better ...

Requiem
The package pitch: A young woman's right eye gleams bloody red, demonically. "Evil lies in her soul," the tagline says. "Absolutely haunting!" the review blurb cries. A priest lurks in the background. We're thinking another seedy spawn of "The Exorcist."
The reality: "Requiem" is a thoughtful, touching drama about an epileptic young woman who hears "voices." With her father's help, she goes to college seeking a normal life but fails. A priest later convinces her family to try an exorcism, with heartbreaking results. A true story from Germany, 2006. (IFC)

Naked You Die
The package pitch: In the delightfully lurid cover art, a shadowy killer strangles a young blonde whose aroused breasts poke through her underwear. An ancient city burns red in the distance. The text promises "a macabre tale of murder at an all-girls school."
The reality: A fun tale of murder at an all-girls school. This Italian whodunnit from 1968 is more Agatha Christy than Mario Bava (who wrote some of the story). Charming performances from the young cast, especially the British actress Sally Smith as a Nancy Drew wannabe. Michael Rennie wanders through as an inspector. Horror/slasher fans will find something to like with the opening nude bathtub murder. In Italian, first time in the States in an uncut version. (Dark Sky/MPI)

Bedazzled
The package pitch: Raquel Welch appears to star as "Lust," with most of the DVD cover devoted to her still-astounding body, barely held in check by a stripper's outfit. Dudley Moore and Peter Cook loiter in the background. Welch's name is directly below the movie title, in all caps.
The reality: A peppy poppy Moore and Cook vehicle, directed by Stanley Donen. Cook plays the devil, a decent enough guy who offers love-struck Moore a handful of wishes in exchange for his soul. Welch appears onscreen for a couple of minutes at most. Good fun; sorry, no sex. (Fox)

Bond girl face-off: Who was the hottest?

More 007: The hottest, most popular Bond girl of them all? Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman), followed closely by Honey Rider (Ursula Andress). That's the verdict of "Bond Girls Are Forever," a bonus feature on the "Casino Royale" DVD that's pretty good in spite of itself. The lite docu, originally made for AMC when "Die Another Day" came out, has some "Casino" material tacked on at the end to justify its inclusion on the DVD.

Hostess Maryam d'Abo of "The Living Daylights"wanders around the globe checking in on her 007 sorority sisters. Yes, they're all still hot, relative to the passing years. Blackman, who had perhaps the longest and best career of the bunch, says she's still gets mail from hot-and-bothered young men who've just seen "Goldfinger." Her aviator character, she points out, was in fact a lesbian who just couldn't resist Sean Connery's charms (hetro validation required by the era, apparently).

Andress, our host points out, was the original and the ideal: "We all tried to live up to Ursula." The iconic scene of Andress emerging from the sea in a well-stuffed bikini has been cheerfully referenced throughout the 007 series, most recently by Halle Berry and Daniel Craig. (Brit film magazine Empire and the N.Y. Post both crowned Andress the hottest Bond girl based on reader polls.) Chatty Andress loves talking about "Dr. No,"whose script struck her as so lame, "We laughed and laughed."

Other Bond exes worth checking out are Jill St. John (who wishes Bond girls who complain of typecasting would shut up), ass-kicking Michelle Yeoh and series feminist Louis Chiles of "Moonraker." A side benefit of watching this docu is the reminder that most Bond movies sucked after Sean Connery -- and how lucky we are to have Daniel Craig delivering the goods as Ian Fleming intended.

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