The Criterion Collection announced its August slate of new film restorations that will be arriving in the home entertainment packaged media marketplace over the course of the month … it is an eclectic mix.
Topping the list, and this purely subjective is actor/director Sidney Poitier’s 1972 Western, Buck and the Preacher, which will be available as a Blu-ray-only edition on Aug. 23.
Millie had been the box office cashier at Loews on the Mall in Santa Monica for as long as anyone could remember. She started there when it was the El Miro Theatre and knew the routine and pace of a “grindhouse” operation.
Part of that “routine” was to alert whoever was on duty at the time, which in this case was me, that a “celebrity” was at the box office and she wanted permission to pass them in as a professional courtesy. I headed out to the box office structure in the theatre’s outer foyer … who could the mystery guest be?
A career as a financial analyst at Dun & Bradstreet had been tossed aside to learn the theatre business (exhibition) from the ground up — at first no one would hire me because I had a degree in Economics, but as chance would have it, I was in the right place at the right time. Loews on the Mall was my second assignment and the manager, Mark Hecht, was more than willing to teach me the tricks of the trade … and experiment with intermission music and promotions and document the results as well (concession sales).
A “grindhouse” back in the day showed double-features, usually beginning at noon and running to roughly 12:30 in the morning when the union projectionists would call it a day (some, downtown, ran 24/7). This particular week, the double-feature at this particular “grindhouse” was Buck and the Preacher and Hannie Caulder, and the celebrity that Millie had spotted was none other than Billy Jack, Tom Laughlin, who was accompanied by his wife Delores Taylor … I recognized him at once, and sure, please enjoy the show.
Thinking nothing of it, I happened to be standing outside (the street had been closed and turned into an outdoor promenade) enjoying the beautiful spring afternoon when Buck and the Preacher concluded and Tom Laughlin and Delores Taylor exited the theatre.
In one of those shocking moments that sticks with you, he walked right up to me and thanked me. For the next 40 minutes, Tom Laughlin and I talked about the movie business, his interest specifically in Buck and the Preacher and how the film was structured.
A “Black Western,” directed by Sidney Poitier (who was also the producer, along with Harry Belafonte, his co-star), who had taken over the direction and replaced Joseph Sargent … Laughlin was fascinated with both the process and the final product.
In 1975, Laughlin would direct and star in (with his wife, Delores Taylor, as producer) his own “Black Western,” The Master Gunfighter, with the iconic “Super Fly,” Ron O’Neal as his co-star.
But more importantly, history would record, Laughlin’s fascination with Buck and the Preacher, not just the film, but the creative and distribution process, would lead to a settlement with Warner Bros. later in the year and the re-release of Billy Jack in May of 1973, which proved to be a blockbuster after its initial lackluster results from the summer of 1971 (blamed on haphazard marketing by the studio).
It is no accident that Criterion has a new 4K film restoration of Buck and the Preacher, which will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year. It is a landmark film in many ways.
As to bonus features, there is a newly-prepared video session with author Mia Mask (“Black Rodeo: A History of the African American Western”), a video session with Gina Belafonte (Harry Belafonte’s daughter), vintage interviews with both Poitier and Belafonte and behind-the-scenes footage.
Also, on the release calendar from the Criterion Collection during the month of August are: Josh and Benny Safdie’s 2009 Blu-ray debut of Daddy Longlegs and writer/director Ronald Bronstein’s 2007 debut film, Frownland (both on Aug. 16), French filmmaker Marcel Carné’s 1938 film, Hotel du Nord (Aug. 23) and director Jessica Beshir’s Faya Dayi (Aug. 30).
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