The Stuff 1985 Written and directed by Larry Cohen. We watched the extended cut of the film that appears on the new 4K release from Arrow. It added about 30 mins of material that was cut from the film.
The Stuff is found by a couple of guys who are working for a mining company. It's a whipping cream like substance that's percolating out of the ground. One of the guys tastes it and it's good stuff. The pair tell the company and become executives. The company sucks The Stuff out of the ground and packages it for the public. It's a big hit and people rapidly become addicted. At first sales plummet for deserts then other foods take a hit as people only eat The Stuff.
Michael Moriarty is an ex-FBI agent who's become an industrial spy. He's kind of a dick but he does get results. Big Ice Cream hires him to save their business by getting something on the company that sells The Stuff. He teams up with Andrea Marcovicci to investigate. The pair travel about the country on their investigation, eventually it leads them to the source of the goo. With the help of a kid the trio reveal that The Stuff is addictive. The public catches on and the company is DOA, The Stuff is reduced to the black market.
The extended version has a lot of scenes that were cut from the movie, some were deserving of getting the chop. I have little memory of that film from the last viewing in 2016 so I'm not sure what was added back in. I'm sure someone might have made a list, if not already, soon. I'm not looking for it. I have enough to read. Despite it's nearly 2 hour running time it still moves along at a nice pace most of the time. There's a few short lags scattered through the film but they aren't too bothersome. There's plenty of gags and some of the best ones made me laugh. The cast is fairly good, I recognized a lot of them, Garrett Morris, Patrick O'Neal, Andrea Marcovicci, Paul Sorvino, Scott Bloom, Danny Aiello, Alexander Scourby, Brooke Adams, Tammy Grimes, Abe Vigoda and Clara Peller. Keep an eye out for Eric Bogosian, Patrick Dempsey and Mira Sorvino in cameos.
I was happy to watch it and plan to pick up the new Arrow 4K, even without a 4K player, I'll be happy to have it.
You Never Can Tell 1951 Story by Lou Breslow, screenplay by Lou Breslow and David Chandler, directed by Lou Breslow. A fantasy comedy murder mystery with a dog detective. Dick Powell plays the dog detective. In the 1930s Powell did a lot of comedy films and musicals, in 1944 he changed his image somewhat when he played Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet. He did well in that and a number of other crime films. He transitioned to TV in 1954 and stayed there until he passed away in 1963, he was only 58.
King is a dog, a German Shepard, who belongs to a rich guy. The man dies before the movie starts and King inherits the man's fortune. If King dies the $6 million inheritance passes along to Ellen, the rich guy's secretary played by Peggy Dow. She lives with King in the rich guy's big old house. A short time passes and Charles Drake shows up, he's playing Perry, a ex-soldier who used to abuse King in the dog training center in the Army. He weasels his way into Ellen's life and convinces her to marry him.
Shortly after the proposal King is murdered with poisoned meat. He ascends to animal heaven where he's give a chance to bring his killer to justice. Dick Powell plays Rex Shepard, he's a private eye with an office and his name painted on the window. Rex has an assistant who used to be a champion race horse called Golden Harvest. Joyce Holden uses the human name Goldie Harvey. She's one of the more entertaining characters in the movie.
Rex and Goldie get on the case but they don't do so well as detectives. Ellen thinks their weird, the cops think they're crazy but despite the hitches in their investigation they manage to convince Ellen she shouldn't marry Perry and the cops to arrest Perry for dog murder. The happy ending is a bit goofy but I was entertained.
I think I had seen this in the late 80s of early 90s on TCM or AMC but nothing was familiar. I didn't keep a Watched Movie List back then so who knows. I put it on the list. I'd picked up the Kino Lorber Blu-ray kind of on a whim and I'm glad I did. I'll be glad to watch it again someday. I listened to the commentary on the disc, it's the only extra other than a handful of trailers. It's by film historians Michael Schlesinger and Darlene Ramirez. It was somewhat informative but Michael's sense of humor is pretty weak. He makes weird connections to stuff in the movie. At one point he sees a sign by a door that Dick is exiting. The sign says Ira Roth diamond dealer and Michael makes a joke about Roth IRAs being invented in the 1990s. There's no really connection between the two and there's no need for it to be in the commentary. There's a couple more and they weakened my enjoyment of the commentary. A minor complaint that doesn't effect my enjoyment of the film.