MovieChat Forums > Inferno (1954) Discussion > DVD planned by Twilight Time (no date ye...

DVD planned by Twilight Time (no date yet)


thedigitalbits.com has reported that Twilight Time, the label releasing 20th Century Fox films on DVD, is working on a release of Inferno, though as of this post no date has been set. It appears, however, that it will be sometime in 2012. More information as it becomes available.

UPDATE: Fox Cinema Archives, the studio's new DVD-R series, will be the one releasing Inferno in 2012, not Twilight Time. Details on my new thread on this board.

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Cool! Thanks Hobnob. I will check out the site for any new information (and for other movies I might be interested in).

Perhaps they will package it with the T.V. remake ORDEAL from 1973, which I remember from my childhood. I finally had chance to see that one again not too long ago, but because of its lame ending, INFERNO is the superior film. However,
Diana Muldaur (who looked great in a bikini in ORDEAL), was the more interesting female character than the Rhonda Fleming version only because she was the instigator of the plot to leave the husband behind rather than the would-be boyfriend. To me, that was the more intriguing angle, but INFERNO overall is the better movie.

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Cool? Inferno? Big G!!

I've heard of TT's releases up through August and Inferno is not among them. Frankly I hope they don't release it because TT has morphed into one lousy outfit, all-Blu-ray (no choice of less expensive and perfectly acceptable standard DVD any more), and one crummy title after another, with a very few exceptions. The people running it had their experiences in music, not films, and they've been making one screw-up after another in their choices and decisions for this once-promising concept. Still, I can only assume that Inferno will indeed at some point come out on their label, which is too bad.

Don't expect Ordeal as an extra, though. No such thing from TT. But I generally agree with you about it -- not a bad remake, except that it was made-for-TV and not a real movie. The ending is very lame, though, and a real let-down. Diana did look great in that yellow bikini, but I'll stil take Rhonda. I believe it was also the last thing ever made by James Stacy before his accident, in which a truck crashed into his motorcycle on a bend in a road, resulting in Stacy's loss of his left arm and leg...and a lifetime of drugs, booze and other (understandable) physical and psychological issues.

Have you heard about the new Fox Cinema Archives line? They just announced it on June 1 and already the first 35 titles are in the pipeline. These are MODs (like Warner Archives) and they have some good titles among the first batch, though a number I'd like to see aren't yet in evidence. You can see a complete list at classicflix.com. Also, thedigitalbits has a brand new weekly column by Barrie Maxwell devoted solely to MODs (which also premiered June 1), and I believe this column (which comes out on Fridays) also has a list. My favorites among the group include The Raid, Diplomatic Courier, Suez and a couple of others. The line will also have MODs of films previously released as parts of sets on standard DVD (two to start). Maybe they'll make the TT titles available on MOD sometime. They may one day even add some TV movies to the list -- like Ordeal!

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Cool? Inferno? Big G!

Hah! I actually never noticed that!

And though Diana in ORDEAL was certainly much more devious, which I thought made her somewhat more interesting, I would still take Rhonda as well. Heck, had I'd been the Robert Ryan character, and I meet my wife Rhonda on the road, I would have weakened and state something like "Honey, you've done me quite wrong. But I forgive you. Now let's go to bed!"

In checking out classicfix.com, it seems they have the whole list of Warner Archieves, Columbia Classics, Olive, etc which is good to have. I will certainly be sourcing through that!

And I hope that INFERNO does get a long awaited DVD release soon enough from somebody. (until then, I keep my recorded-on-TV version).

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Especially with Wm. Lundigan dead and burned, if I were Ryan I'd also much rather have a "reconciliation" between the sheets with RF than have her sent to the jug. Speaking of jugs....

In 1954 Rhonda went to Italy to do a perfectly terrible movie released here as Queen of Babylon, with Ricardo Montalban. The only notable thing about it was that they went to great lengths to show Miss F. in the most revealing costumes they could risk in the early 50s. In one scene she dances for the King wearing nothing more than a silver bikini. She also appeared in a bikini, 1956-style, in Fritz Lang's While the City Sleeps. In both cases she was already past 30, not old, but no kid. I saw her recently with Bob Osborne on TCM. Not bad for almost 89! Which makes me sound a bit sick.

Keeping my off-the-air tape of Inferno in the meantime too.

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Ms. Fleming has aged quite beautifully, so there is nothing wrong with that. And when it came to bathing suits, it is too bad they always fashioned her (along with many, many other actresses at that time) in a typical one-piece attire (in Rhonda's case from INFERNO & TROPIC ZONE to THE CROWDED SKY, with the notable exception being the after mentioned WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS, and she did wear what one would deem a make-shift bikini in CROSSROADS).

I corresponded with Rhonda a couple of years ago and I mentioned INFERNO and how what a bad, bad girl she really was, and she really got a kick on how I said it. Very nice lady.

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She also appeared somewhat under-dressed (bare midriff at least) in a Universal costume epic called Yankee Pasha in 1954, in which she's a New England lass abducted by Barbary pirates and put in the sultan's harem. Silly but harmless stuff, haven't seen it in years.

Didn't she wear something of a two-piece in Tropic Zone? It's been a long time for that one, too, but I seem to recall her fashioning some kind of green two-piece on the beach to tempt Ronald Reagan, who was off drawing Laffer curves in the sand or something.

It would be great if Olive Films, which has been bringing out Paramount classics for the past two years, were to package some of the studio's 50s Bs into dual-film discs, or maybe a set -- you know, some of the Pine-Thomas stuff, like The Last Outpost, Hong Kong, Tropic Zone, Jamaica Run and some others.

How ever did you get in touch with Miss F? (If you care to tell, PM me: don't put it on the public boards.)

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I haven't seen TROPIC ZONE since the 1980s, but you could be right about Rhonda's suit (and surely that is something I should remember!).

I saw YANKEE PARSHA long long ago on the Million Dollar Movie and the best thing I can remember about that is Rhonda Fleming having it out with Mamie Van Doren! (Almost as interesting as the Raquel Welch / Martine Beswick fight in ONE MILLION YEARS B.C.).

And yes, there are a whole bunch of Paramount films that I hope Olive will be able to release some day. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

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What I most remember about Yankee Pasha, aside from Miss Fleming's elaborate but sexy costume in that one scene, was thinking what a comedown it must have been for Lee J. Cobb to go from On the Waterfront to this in the same year!

On a different Inferno cast member, I thought this was William Lundigan's best film by far during his few years at Fox (roughly 1949-1953). He was generally put down as a genial, lightweight actor, but I thought that, cast against type as a murderous rat, he was pretty good. He had a great last shot!

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Cobb would recover and do something like 12 ANGRY MEN a couple of years later. YANKEE PASHA probably would not come up if one were doing a retrospect of Cobb's career.

I've only seen very few of Lundigan's films, and INFERNO was his best I thought. And unlike ORDEAL, it was indeed nice to see his character getting his comeuppance at the end.

Of course, this movie belongs to Robert Ryan. Not sure if this was his best, but certainly one of my favorites of his.

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Yeah, most actors have to take pretty much what they can get. Reading Ben Gazzara's obit earlier this year, I saw that he had turned down lots of roles after Anatomy of a Murder, because he thought so highly of himself. This attitude damaged his career irretrievably, something that years later Gazzara ruefully acknowledged, admitting he had been an ass. So guys like Lee J. Cobb, and Robert Ryan too, made a lot of weaker movies at the same time they got to do better ones. (James Mason was another one who took anything that came along.) But they had the more consistent, fulfilling, varied careers.

To me, Inferno's best performance is something of a tie between Ryan and Lundigan. Ryan was a much better actor, but Lundigan had the juicier role (for the one and only time!). But I'd say everyone clicked very well in this movie. Including Carl Betz! I think Betz made only seven movies in his career, and six of them were for Fox in 1953. I might go over to his site to get more information.

There's a discussion of Ordeal on another thread here, which you might like to look in on.

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When I think of actors taking any parts, for me the one that best sums it up was Takashi Shimura. Whether being in a Kurosawa (and really only small parts towards the end) or a kaiju, Shimura did not mind at all as long as he was acting (and many other Japanese actors felt the same - heck Yosuke Natsuki said he preferred working in one of Honda's monster flicks than in a Kurosawa movie, because Honda-san was much more at ease with his actors).

And yes, I agree that the performances in INFERNO were all top rate. Lundigan, Ryan, RF and let's not forget old Henry Hull who more-or-less plays the hero in this film (and I had to laugh at the vehicle he was driving, but in that terrain, it seemed to have worked for him!)

Will wait patiently (or impatiently) for this movie to come out on DVD!

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Of course, Shimura and the rest were all under contract to Toho, and in his era they were given even less choice in what they appeared in than were American actors under our old studio system. Japanese studios were even more hierarchical and proprietary. Of course, directors could ask that actors be assigned to their films, but it was still an assignment, not a choice.

I liked Hull's old jalopy, too. I guess Rhonda Fleming had a pretty bumpy ride when she climbed into the back of that thing at the end. Quite a way to get a lift to the hoosegow!

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I liked Hull's old jalopy, too. I guess Rhonda Fleming had a pretty bumpy ride when she climbed into the back of that thing at the end. Quite a way to get a lift to the hoosegow!

Funny! And I wonder if she really had to ride in that thing. Maybe that is a question I will ask her next time!

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Well, she rode away down the dusty trail in it for at least a couple hundred feet before Roy Ward Baker yelled, "Cut! Print! Great! Now, Rhonda, we need more close-ups of you by the pool, so be a good girl and get into that skin-tight silver swimsuit again, huh?"

The Inferno crew upon learning they were to re-shoot the pool scene:

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If so then God bless Roy Ward Baker! (and any other filmmaker who had us see Ms. Fleming in swimwear or scantly clothing!).

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