I was thrilled when this Smilebox Cinerama version of The Wonderful World of The Brothers Grimm was released on Blu Ray earlier this year, and even though it is a relative newcomer to the Slaughtered Lamb Cinema Library, it was a done deal that this would fill the 'W' slot when the time came! Whatever the film may lack, I must say the presentation is excellent. We watched it in the Smilebox format (as we did with  How the West Was Won ) to best replicate the original Cinerama experience. The story of Willhelm and Jacob Grimm frames the feature, with three primary fairy tales presented within the film: "The Dancing Princess," "The Cobbler and the Elves," and "The Singing Bone." If you wonder why you've not heard of these particular fairy tales, producer (and director of fairy-tale sequences) George Pal specifically selected stories for which the audience not already know how they end. Yvette Mimieux and Russ Tamblyn star in "The Dancing Pr...

  When it came to our 'V' movie, we had the potential list narrowed down to two Vampires ... and two Virgins ... and Christopher Lee was the deciding factor to go with The Virgin of Nuremberg .  The film is a classic creature feature. Gothic castle, dungeon full of torture devices, women running around in nightgowns, and creepy disfigured characters wandering around the premises.  Now for surprise numero-uno — the Virgin of Nuremburg of the title isn't one of the gothic maidens running around the castle. Nope! She's a completely different kind of maiden — one of the iron variety! The film wastes no time in giving us a glimpse of a victim with her eyes poked out via said torture device. Or was that just in our character Mary's imagination? Well, once you know her husband Max maintains a museum of torture devices in the family castle, it's not so much of a stretch to believe her.  Surprise numero two-o — this isn't a period film! All the trappings were there, ...

  The tagline proclaims, "Jane Russell as you've never seen her before!" If the way in which you've never seen her before is in fact underwater , chalk one up to truth in advertising. ( Vonna adds that for all the Jane Russell fans, she can be seen in numerous bathing suits and cleavage/leg admiring tropical attire. )  Underwater  seems to me to be a precursor to Peter Benchley's  The Deep  (which I haven't seen, and therefore is a candidate for this series as well). I have to assume with all the ballyhoo about the $3 million dollars and three years spent making it,  Underwater  must have been the first significant widescreen, technicolor film to have been shot, appropriately enough, underwater.  The draw for me was that it was coming from director John Sturges, the man responsible for numerous classics, my favorite being The Great Escape . This film is definitely in a different league than that one (pun intended). The story revolves around two...

I was excited that we were able to screen  Treasure of the Four Crowns  as our second 3D feature of the series. To be fair, the version of the film that we've had in the Slaughtered Lamb Cinema library for years is a pan and scan DVD, so the recent upgrade to widescreen and 3D made this a timely addition. And whereas  A*P*E  was a 3D knock off of the 1976 King Kong remake, Treasure of the Four Crowns serves up a low-rent 3D  Raiders of the Lost Ark .  While there are arguably some over-the-top visual effects that might hold up under 2D viewing, let's put our cards on the table and clarify that the only way you should invest any time with this movie is in its 3D version. I can't imagine that the included red/blue anaglyph 3D version included on the disc is worth watching, but if you have a Blu Ray 3D setup, you can experience film in the most favorable means possible. And this isn't a subtle, look at the cool depth of the shots 3D effort (though the...