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Napoleon (1955) - 6/10. Sacha Guitry's take on the great man. I haven't seen Didley Squat's recent effort, but I'm going to assume it doesn't have as much singing and dancing as this version. Also, none of the bon mots. This has two different actors playing Bonaparte (Daniel Gelin and Raymond Pellegrin), and Michele Morgan as Josephine. Guitry himself plays Talleyrand, who narrates the story. The cameos are amazing: Gabin, Jean Marais, Yves Montand, Micheline Presle, Serge Reggiani, Orson Welles, Dany Robin, Maria Schell, Danielle Darrieux. There's one particularly hilarious one of Erich von Stroheim playing Beethoven. Watch it in two parts, beginning here: http://rarefilmm.com/2019/06/napoleon-1955/

Elstree Calling (1930) H. directed some of it. If that are the two sketches one can find on youtube (there's also the entire movie) they are negligible.

I think Blackmail and The Lodger are essential Hitchcocker.
They paved the way to what comes later, and the next essential one is The Man Who Knew Too Much. After that one most of his films were more or less essential.

Blackmail (1929) The actors play like it was a silent movie, which partially was shot like and it is. Especially the blackmailer is over the top all of the time. The girl (a german actree who couldn't speak english and was dubbed live!) is pretty but H. insists on keeping the camera on her too much. H. wanted a different finale but I don't think it would have changed much. There are some nice shots (see those in the British Museum, some arranged with the Shuftan process) and an occasional creative use of the sound. Still, only for completists.

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OK. I'll order from them as well. Meanwhile, anything about this new edition you'd like to comment on?

This was remade as The Lost Man (1969) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064602/ At least that's what Alexander Walker says it is. Can't find it around, though. Good OST by Quincy Jones.

The War Wagon - Clair Huffaker




I don't remember I ever saw the movie, but if I did I don't remember a thing about it. Judging from the trailer and the synopsis they left little of the novel: basically only a reformed version of the mechanism of the assault to the gold carriage. The character played by Wayne seems to be completely different from the one of the novel: that does explain the change of the original title (Badman). The story is basically that of the plan to steal the gold and the relationship of the main character (a badman with a code) and his accomplices in the heist, among whom there is his little brother. 7/10 because it is short (not even 130 pages) and the way the coup is planned.

The Flesh of the Orchid (1975) - 8/10. Maybe this is a retelling of "No Orchids For Miss Blandish," although it sure is different. James Hadley Chase got a writing credit, though, so maybe.  Charlotte Rampling is first billed, which makes sense, as she does a full frontal nude scene here. She also puts out the eyes of every guy who tries to jump her. The interesting thing is, she's not crazy, it's just everyone around her who is. This leads to a rather high body count by the end of the picture. Interesting supporting cast: Simone Signoret, Bruno Cremer, Hans Christian Blech. Alida Valli has a weird cameo. This was Patrice Chereau's first feature.

Why on earth is there a 70mm release for a film shot entirely digitally? What a waste!

The trailer looks like a comic book. Is that the intended style?

Yea I think that is what they were going for the CGI has limitations with that kind of scale.