[oaxaca]

Watched several films yesterday:

THE HUSTLER (20thC Fox digibook, 1961): Brilliant! Felt very much like a noir in style, loved the seedy two-bit pool halls and grimy locations + George C Scott was immense.

THE IRON ROSE (Kino & Redemption, 1973): The atmosphere and cinematography were excellent. The graveyard was a great place to film and set the majority of the movie. However I found the characters a little annoying and felt it could have benefited from a bit of a story, although I realise that's not what Rollins is about.

THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE (Criterion, 1921): Again, excellent atmosphere. The fact it was filmed on nitrite gives it this eerie silvery sheen + lovely tints. Characters were good, story was good although tending to the melodramatic a bit as silent films generally do, visual effects were very impressive for the time. The phantom coach & its driver (death) were effective too.

All of the above blu rays had exceptional transfers, very impressive jobs done by the publishers.

THE LAST GUN / 4 DOLLERS OF REVENGE (Mill Creek, 1964&1968) : I was pleasantly surprised with this double Spag West release from Mill Creek. Seeing as it only cost £5, the quality of the transfers were much better than I was expecting. It is definitely HD, and underneath the surface noise (lots of squiggles and print damage) it was nicely done I thought. The films were better than I was expecting too, particularly THE LAST GUN. Good characters and a good story, although 4 DOLLERS had the better soundtrack for definite. Looking forward to receiving KEOMA/THEGRAND DUEL double bill too.