The shop received more than a half-dozen restocks from Germany today. Among the contents of this latest haul are Jack Arnold’s “Revenge of the Creature,” Joe Dante’s “Small Soldiers,” Michael Crichton’s “Runaway,” Paul Verhoeven’s “Spetters,” Robert Altman’s “The Gingerbread Man,” and two by Anthony Mann: “The Fall of the Roman Empire” and “The Glenn Miller Story.”
After a string of low budget noirs with cinematographer John Alton that would become some of the genre’s quintessential works, the next major partnership of director Anthony Mann’s career was with actor Jimmy Stewart. Stewart, whose return to Hollywood after five years of military service during World War II was riddled with flops, first teamed with Mann on 1950’s “Winchester ’73.” The pair would collaborate on seven more pictures during the 1950’s; while most of them were westerns, “The Glenn Miller Story” — which tells the story of the famed musician turned military pilot — allowed Stewart to bring two of his personal passions (aviation and music) to the screen. Like Miller, Stewart was a pilot during the war; he was also a avid musician, taking up the accordion as a youth and often playing the instrument when wasn’t before the camera — or, as in the case of 1957’s “Night Passage,” even playing the instrument onscreen (although the audio of his playing was later replaced by a professional musician). Incidentally, it was Mann’s refusal to direct “Night Passage” that resulted in his falling out with Stewart. Not only did they never make another picture, but reportedly the two never even spoke again.