Random DVD and Blu-ray announcements

Started by wilder, November 01, 2011, 01:54:56 AM

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

wilder

September 21, 2021

Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Warner Bros.



Urban thugs run wild and new methods of crime deterrence are being explored. Career gang member Alex is nabbed by the police and offered the chance to a commuted sentence if he undergoes a kind of surgical therapy. One where his brain does not allow him to execute his violent urges.



2021 TBD

William Friedkin's To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Kino



When his partner is murdered just days before retirement, Secret Service Agent begins an obsessive hunt for the killer counterfeiter and all-round psychopath.



November 2, 2021

Román Viñoly Barreto's La bestia debe morir aka The Beast Must Die (1952) on blu-ray from Flicker Alley



A long-lost treasure of Argentine noir rediscovered! Thanks to the efforts of the Film Noir Foundation and UCLA Film & Television Archive, director Román Viñoly Barreto's compelling 1952 thriller has been rescued and restored to its original brilliance.

Mystery writer Felix Lane, (legendary Spanish actor Narciso Ibáñez Menta), suffers a tragic loss; his nine-year-old son is killed in a hit-and-run car accident. Desperate for vengeance, Lane bypasses the authorities, adopts a new identity, and begins looking for clues that will lead him to the culprit. The suspense reaches hair-raising levels as Felix's vendetta leads him to infiltrate an affluent family rife with its own intrigues. But who among this highly suspect bunch is the killer? And will Felix follow his mission to its bitter end? Based on Cecil Day-Lewis' influential 1936 novel The Beast Must Die (written as Nicholas Blake), Viñoly Barreto's film is a stunning adaptation of one of the true landmarks of crime fiction and psychological suspense.

Flicker Alley is honored to present this world-premiere Blu-ray disc edition of the superb The Beast Must Die (La bestia debe morir), a heretofore virtually unknown addition to the canon of classic international noir. This landmark release, gorgeously restored, was achieved through the dedicated efforts of the Film Noir Foundation and UCLA Film and Television Archive, with special thanks to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Charitable Trust.




November 2, 2021

Fernando Ayala's Los Tallos Amargos aka The Bitter Stems (1956) on blu-ray from Flicker Alley



This rarely seen 1956 film was lauded in its day but only recently rediscovered, hidden away in a private collector's home outside Buenos Aires. Thanks to the diligent efforts of the Film Noir Foundation and Argentine cinephile Fernando Martín Peña, a gorgeous new print of The Bitter Stems (Los tallos amargos) was created, by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, from the reconditioned original negative, now presented in its first ever home video release–with special thanks to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Charitable Trust.

Alfredo Gasper, a dissatisfied Buenos Aires newspaperman (Carlos Cores), partners with Paar Liudas, a clever Hungarian refugee (Vassili Lambrinos) who needs money to bring his family from Argentina. Together they create a bogus correspondence school, exploiting the hopes of would-be journalists. As their scheme succeeds beyond their wildest dreams, a mystery woman from Liudas' past sparks Gasper's suspicion: his charming colleague may be playing him for a sucker. Soon Gasper finds himself plotting the perfect crime – but fate has many twists in store.

This adaptation of journalist Adolfo Jasca's award winning novel was acclaimed upon its release, earning top prizes in 1957 from the Argentine critics association for Best Picture, with Fernando Ayala named Best Director. American Cinematographer magazine listed Los Tallos Amargos #49 on its roster of the 100 Best Photographed Films of All-Time. The innovative and evocative score, combining elements of tango, jazz, and classical music, is one of the first film scores by legendary composer Astor Piazolla. After more than 60 years in darkness, The Bitter Stems (Los tallos amargos) is finally restored and ready for rediscovery.




Late 2021

Raphael D. Silver's On the Yard (1985) on blu-ray from Cohen Media Group



Landing himself in a state penitentiary, Juleson (John Heard), a con artist, fails to adjust to the intricate social order of the prison system. Juleson's independent way of thinking does little to impress his fellow inmates and runs him afoul of Chilly (Thomas Waites), the leader of one of the most powerful gangs in the prison. Facing a group of cold-blooded killers on his own, Juleson discovers firsthand what individualism can bring to a loner behind bars.





October 26, 2021

George Abbot's The Cheat (1931) on blu-ray from Kino



Temptation meets its match in The Cheat, a scandalous Pre-Code classic starring Tallulah Bankhead (Lifeboat). Elsa Carlyle (Bankhead) is an impulsive and charismatic gambler who has fallen on hard times and owes a large sum of money. A wealthy playboy (Irving Pichel, The Story of Temple Drake) promises to help her but his price may be more than Elsa is prepared to give. When her devoted husband (Harvey Stephens, Beau Geste) takes the fall for her passions, Elsa's loyalties are put to the test. Directed by legendary Broadway and Hollywood ace George Abbott (Damn Yankees) during the most decadent era in motion picture history, this daring story explores a woman whose addictions lead her on a path of danger and discovery.



October 26, 2021

Marion Gering's Devil and the Deep (1932) on blu-ray from Kino



Screen legends Tallulah Bankhead (Lifeboat), Gary Cooper (Beau Geste), Charles Laughton (The Sign of the Cross) and Cary Grant (Hot Saturday) ignite the screen in Devil and the Deep. Grant, in his first major supporting role for Paramount studios, plays a lieutenant whose commanding officer (Laughton) suspects him of seducing his wife (Bankhead) when the real threat is another officer (Cooper). This sultry Pre-Code melodrama serves up a deadly love triangle with a thrilling climax set aboard a submarine that is trapped at the bottom of the sea. Directed by Marion Gering (Madame Butterfly) and featuring the stunning cinematography of Charles Lang (A Farewell to Arms), this offers a rare opportunity to see four screen legends together at the beginnings of their film careers.



October 26, 2021

Alexander Hall's The Torch Singer (1933) on blu-ray from Kino



One of the most popular and versatile actresses of all time, Claudette Colbert (Four Frightened People, It Happened One Night, Bluebeard's Eighth Wife) dazzles audiences in the Pre-Code musical drama Torch Singer. When Sally Trent (Colbert) can no longer support her illegitimate child, she puts her daughter up for adoption and pursues a career as a torch singer. Under the name Mimi Benton, she soon climbs to fame as a sexy nightclub singer and attempts to find her daughter through a children's radio show. Featuring rare performances of Colbert singing, this emotionally charged classic from directors Alexander Hall (Goin' to Town) and George Somnes (Midnight Club) showcases the truly great talent of its star. Co-starring Ricardo Cortez (The Maltese Falcon) and David Manners (Dracula).



October 26, 2021

William A. Selter's Hot Saturday (1932) on blu-ray from Kino



Cary Grant (The Eagle and the Hawk), Nancy Carroll (The Kiss Before the Mirror) and Randolph Scott (Supernatural) star in the Pre-Code scorcher Hot Saturday about small-town gossip that leads to enormous damage. When a wealthy city man, Romer Sheffield (Grant), hosts a party at his summer lake house, a rumor soon starts that Ruth (Carroll), a lovely small-town girl, spent the night with him. As Ruth seeks someone who will believe her innocence, the scandal rocks her community, forcing the girl to make a desperate decision that will change her life forever. They call her "bad"—and she tries to live up to it—in this classic from director William A. Seiter (A Lady Takes a Chance).



August 30, 2021

Zbynek Brynych's A pátý jezdec je Strach aka The Fifth Horseman is Fear (1965) on blu-ray from Second Run (UK)



A Jewish physician in Nazi-occupied Prague is compelled to work cataloguing the homes and possessions of his countrymen as they are displaced to designated ghettos. When he helps an injured resistance fighter, he is plunged into a moral and ethical dilemma, and begins a nightmarish odyssey to help save the man.

Focusing on the intense anxiety, paranoia and terror prevalent in a fascist state, Zbyněk Brynych's The Fifth Horseman is Fear subverts its historical context, creating an expressionistic, thinly disguised allegory about communist Czechoslovakia – or indeed living under any totalitarian system - that is richly atmospheric and frighteningly real.




October 11, 2021

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Collection Vol. 1 on blu-ray from Arrow (UK).



His debut feature Love is Colder Than Death (1969) is a playful but cynical crime picture, inspired by the nouvelle vague. Katzelmacher (1969) depicts the dynamics of a group of young layabout friends, which are radically altered by the arrival of an immigrant worker in their community. Beware of a Holy Whore (1971) pulls the curtain on the backstage dramas of the cast and crew of a film shoot as they wait in a Spanish seaside hotel for the arrival of funds to continue their production. The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971) portrays the downfall of a beleaguered fruit seller in 1950s Munich as he struggles to keep his family, body and soul together.

Originally written and produced as a stage play, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) focuses on the loves, losses and lamentations of the titular Petra, a successful fashion designer with two marriages behind her and an estranged daughter. The Ulli Lommel-directed Tenderness of the Wolves (1973) sees Fassbinder adopting the role of producer in a bleak tale based on the German serial killer Fritz Haarmann, memorably played by Fassbinder regular Kurt Raab, who also wrote the screenplay.

jenkins

within this week three of those movies arrived my way through this box set that was gifted to me. I already posted about murder at the vanities

wilder

Nice. Also bodes well for the rest of the set being upgraded.

WorldForgot

Quote from: wilder on July 30, 2021, 07:47:54 PM

October 11, 2021

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Collection Vol. 1 on blu-ray from Arrow (UK).



His debut feature Love is Colder Than Death (1969) is a playful but cynical crime picture, inspired by the nouvelle vague. Katzelmacher (1969) depicts the dynamics of a group of young layabout friends, which are radically altered by the arrival of an immigrant worker in their community. Beware of a Holy Whore (1971) pulls the curtain on the backstage dramas of the cast and crew of a film shoot as they wait in a Spanish seaside hotel for the arrival of funds to continue their production. The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971) portrays the downfall of a beleaguered fruit seller in 1950s Munich as he struggles to keep his family, body and soul together.

Originally written and produced as a stage play, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) focuses on the loves, losses and lamentations of the titular Petra, a successful fashion designer with two marriages behind her and an estranged daughter. The Ulli Lommel-directed Tenderness of the Wolves (1973) sees Fassbinder adopting the role of producer in a bleak tale based on the German serial killer Fritz Haarmann, memorably played by Fassbinder regular Kurt Raab, who also wrote the screenplay.


design by Drusilla Adeline


"I was blessed with near carte blanche by the team at Arrow to represent the films of RWF in a new light. The first step was to highlight each film in his diverse filmography on their own terms, starting with his neuvelle vague tinged noir debut - LOVE IS COLDER THAN DEATH"


"and then immediately followed by a more personal film for RWF, KATZELMACHER, tells the story of an immigrant on the fringe of society, setting the blueprint for themes that would carry through his career. You now have the option of alternate artwork for each film on the same disc"


"Beware of a Holy Whore launched Fassbinder into an all new arena in international film. Inspired by the making of his film Whity, his stock company is joined by Lou Castel and Eddie Constantine in the most nihilistic film about film ever. Like 8 1/2 with teeth (and Leonard Cohen)"


"The most important and fertile period of RWF's career begins with the Merchant of Four Seasons! Recontextualizing the hollywood melodrama for postwar germany, this Sirkian tale of a fruit vendor at odds with his family and self is as emotionally raw as it is gorgeous."


"And now for my favorite film in the set....the staggering sapphic beauty and pain that is THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT. Doing artwork for this was one of the most daunting challenges of my entire career. Few films mean this much to me. Margit Carstensen is god."


"Finishing off the first set is Ulli Lommell's take on the true case that inspired Lang's M, produced by RWF and featuring his iconic stable of actors. Twins of Evil did a stellar cover for the previous release that I couldn't compete with, had to do something a bit left field."

wilberfan

'A Clockwork Orange' Gets a 4K Ultra HD Release Date

The 4k Ultra HD and Blu-ray Combo Pack contains the following previously released special features:

Commentary by Malcolm McDowell and Nick Redman
Still Tickin': The Return of Clockwork Orange [2000 Channel 4 Documentary]
Great Bolshy Yarblockos! Making A Clockwork Orange
Turning Like Clockwork
Malcolm McDowell Looks Back
O Lucky Malcolm!

WorldForgot

Umbrella Ent will be releasing Super Mario Bros on region 4 blu ray and dvd with a restoration of its workprint cut. Huzzah!!



QuoteThis Ain't No Video Game Featurette
'Making Of' Featurette
Original electronic press kit with cast interviews and behind the scenes footage
Galleries: Stills, storyboards and concepts
Extended workprint with deleted scenes
US Theatrical Trailer



janky VHS archive

Seems like a loving release for a movie that earns its cult-cred. Excited to watch its extended cut.


wilder

November 9, 2021

Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders: The Complete Novel (1983) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Universal



Coming-of-age drama about teenagers growing up in 1950s Oklahoma. The youngest of three orphaned brothers gets into trouble with the law after he and his "greaser" friend are attacked at a park by the rich "socs."





Q1 2022 TBD

John Waters' Cry Baby (1990) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Kino



"Drape" (or Greaser) Wade Walker, also known as Cry-Baby for his ability to shed a single tear, falls head over heels for square Allison Vernon-Williams who, incidentally, is tired of being good.



January 18, 2022

Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Kino



Two down on their luck jazz musicians find themselves on the run after the police raid the speakeasy they perform in. With nowhere to hide, a gig with Sweet Sue and her Society Syncopators at a beach resort seems like the perfect getaway. There's just one problem: the Syncopators are an all-female band, and Joe and Jerry aren't women — yet. Armed with some dodgy wigs and wobbly falsettos, they manage to join the Syncopators and meet Sugar Kane: a hooch-swilling, ukulele-playing knockout with a soft spot for saxophone players. Things start to go off the rails when they begin to attract unwanted attention from lecherous millionaires and some familiar faces show up at their hotel for a gathering of the country's most dangerous criminals.



Q1 2022 TBD

John Sturges' The Great Escape (1963) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Kino



Allied prisoners of war plan for several hundred of their number to escape from a German camp during World War II.



October 12, 2021

Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds (2009) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Universal



In Nazi-occupied France, a group of Jewish-American soldiers are on a mission to take down the leaders of the Third Reich.



October 5, 2021

Universal Monsters (1931-1941) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Universal



-Todd Browning's Dracula (1931)
-James Whale's Frankenstein (1931)
-James Whale's The Invisible Man (1933)
-George Waggner's The Wolf Man (1941)



November 1, 2021

Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (1957) on 4K UHD blu-ray from BFI (UK)



Disillusioned and exhausted after a decade of battling in the Crusades, a knight encounters Death on a desolate beach and challenges him to a fateful game of chess.



September 21, 2021

Ulu Grosbard's Straight Time (1978) on blu-ray from Warner Archive



A career criminal, Max Dembo (Dustin Hoffman) is determined to go straight after his latest stint in prison. He takes a mindless job in a cannery, patiently endures the abuse of his pompous parole officer, Earl (M. Emmet Walsh), and begins a romance with a sympathetic girl from the employment office, Jenny (Theresa Russell). But when Earl erroneously busts Jack for drug abuse, the ex-con cracks, assaulting Earl and setting off on a reckless crime spree.



November 9, 2021

Fritz Lang's Fury (1936) on blu-ray from Warner Archive



Spencer Tracy stars in this provocative drama by director Fritz Lang about an innocent man who barely escapes a violent lynch mob. Believed dead, he secretly returns to seek revenge.



November 16, 2021

Vincente Minelli's Some Came Running (1958) on blu-ray from Warner Archive



Drama about the difficult challenges facing a veteran when he returns home to deal with family secrets and small-town scandals.



October 12, 2021

Val Lewton's Ghost Ship (1943) & Bedlam (1946) on blu-ray from Warner Archive



Bedlam

After getting a glimpse of the conditions at the St. Mary's of Bethlehem Asylum, known as "Bedlam," Nell Bowen (Anna Lee) is concerned that the patients are being mistreated. When she seeks to better the situation, the head of St. Mary's, George Sims (Boris Karloff), uses his political savvy to have Nell committed. Being within St. Mary's does not deter Nell, however, and she starts to turn the patients against Sims in a bid to violently oust him from power.

The Ghost Ship

Tom Merriam (Russell Wade) boards the freighter Altair in San Pedro, where he meets Capt. Will Stone (Richard Dix). During that first voyage, Tom begins to suspect that Stone is crazy, but he also learns that the crew is fiercely protective of him. When fellow sailor Louie (Lawrence Tierney) is killed in a freak accident, Merriam suspects Stone. However, he has no proof. As the killings continue, Tom decides to leave the ship, but the captain has other plans.



November 9, 2021

Howard Bretherton & William Keighley's Ladies They Talk About (1933) on blu-ray from Warner Archive



Gun moll Barbara Stanwyck is thrown into San Quentin thanks to her involvement in a bank robbery and the machinations of D.A./preacher David Slade (Preston Foster). It isn't political ambition that motivates Slade: he's in love with Stanwyck, and hopes that her incarceration will rehabilitate her. Instead, Stanwyck becomes a hard-bitten prison-block leader, spearheading a jailbreak. When things go awry, she holds Slade responsible. Upon her release, she goes gunning for Slade, and doesn't realize that she's really in love with him until she nearly puts him six feet under.



November 30, 2021

Nicholas Ray's Party Girl (1958) on blu-ray from Warner Archive



Party Girl follows a bum-legged mouthpiece for the mob and a gorgeous, wised-up vamp who fall in love, try to go straight, and head straight for trouble.



October 19, 2021

Karl Freund's Mad Love (1935) on blu-ray from Warner Archive



Doctor Gogol is a renowned surgeon who is obsessed with stage performer Yvonne Orlac. So much so that he actually goes to the theater every evening just to see her. He is disappointed to learn from her that she is leaving the show to join her husband, famed pianist Stephen Orlac, on a much delayed honeymoon. The Orlacs no sooner set off than they are involved in an accident where Stephen's hands are crushed. She begs Dr. Gogol to do anything to save her husband. He decides to graft new hands to replace those that are crushed and uses those from a recently executed prisoner, Rollo the Knife Thrower. When Stephen regains the use of his hands those around him find that he has also undergone a personality change and is now prone to violent fits of temper. He's also very good at knife throwing...



October 19, 2021

Terence Young's Corridor of Mirrors (1948) on blu-ray from Cohen Media Group



A man falls in love with a beautiful young woman and begins to suspect that he may have also loved her in a previous life.

Eric Portman (A CANTERBURY TALE) plays an artist obsessed with the past. He surrounds himself with Renaissance artwork, infatuated with the notion that he and his lover (Edana Romney) are reincarnations of the lovers in a centuries-old painting. Portman's delusions have deadly consequences. One of the most unusual British films of the 1940s, CORRIDOR OF MIRRORS incorporates aspects of gothic horror, film noir, melodrama, fantasy, romance and thrillers.






November 23, 2021

Mike Leigh's All Or Nothing (2002) on blu-ray from Severin



All or Nothing is set in the house of a working-class London couple, and also tells the stories of a range of Phil and Penny's neighbors, some of whom become involved in the family's lives, and all of whom experience an emotional journey.





November 30, 2021

Catherine Breillat's Romance (1999) on blu-ray from Strand Releasing



Although deeply in love with her boyfriend - and indeed sleeping in the same bed with him - a schoolteacher cannot handle the almost complete lack of intimacy he will allow. Increasingly frustrated, she gradually finds her sexual appetites leading her into ever more risky situations, including a developing one with the headmaster.





November 23, 2021

The Woody Allen Collection (1994-2003) on blu-ray from Quiver Films



-Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
-Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
-Everyone Says I Love You (1996)
-Celebrity (1998)
-Small Time Crooks (2000)
-The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001)
-Hollywood Ending (2002)
-Anything Else (2003)



November 23, 2021

Robert Muggs' Deep Blues (1992) on blu-ray from Film Movement



In 1990, commissioned by Dave Stewart of Eurythmics, veteran music film director Robert Mugge and renowned music scholar Robert Palmer ventured deep into the heart of the North Mississippi Hill Country and Mississippi Delta to seek out the best rural blues acts currently working. Starting on Beale Street in Memphis, they headed south to the juke joints, lounges, front porches, and parlors of Holly Springs, Greenville, Clarksdale, Bentonia, and Lexington. Along the way, they visited celebrated landmarks and documented talented artists cut off from the mainstream of the recording industry. The resulting film expresses reverence for the rich musical history of the region, spotlighting local performers, soon to be world-renowned, thanks in large part to the film, and demonstrating how the blues continues to thrive in new generations of gifted musicians.





September 21, 2021

Francis Ford Coppola's Dementia 13: Director's Cut (1963) on blu-ray from Vestron Video/Lionsgate, from a 4K restoration supervised by Francis Ford Coppola



"Dementia 13: Director's Cut" is quintessential gothic horror, wrapped in the twisted mysteries of a family's deepest, darkest secrets. A widow deceives her late husband's mother and brothers into thinking he's still alive when she attends the yearly memorial to his drowned sister, hoping to secure his inheritance. But her cunning is no match for the demented, axe-wielding thing roaming the grounds of the family's Irish estate in this cult favorite featuring Patrick Magee, Luana Anders, William Campbell, and Bart Patton.





November 9, 2021

Mick Jackson's LA Story (1991) on blu-ray from Lionsgate



With the help of a talking freeway billboard, a "wacky weatherman" tries to win the heart of an English newspaper reporter, who is struggling to make sense of the strange world of early-90s Los Angeles.



2021 TBD

Uli Lommel's Blank Generation (1980) on blu-ray from Dark Force Entertainment



Nada, a beautiful French journalist on assignment in New York, records the life and work of an up and coming punk rock star, Billy. Soon she enters into a volatile relationship with him and must decide whether to continue with it, or return to her lover, a fellow journalist trying to track down the elusive Andy Warhol.



November 30, 2021

Warren Beatty & Buck Henry's Heaven Can Wait (1978) on blu-ray from Paramount



A Los Angeles Rams quarterback, accidentally taken away from his body by an over-anxious angel before he was supposed to die, comes back to life in the body of a recently-murdered millionaire.



December 14, 2021

David Steinberg's Going Berserk (1983) on blu-ray from Shout Factory



SCTV stars John Candy (Stripes), Joe Flaherty (Freaks And Geeks), and Eugene Levy (Schitt's Creek) team up on the big screen for the free-wheeling comedy Going Berserk! Part-time chauffeur John Bourgignon (Candy) has decided to settle down with Nancy, the love of his life and daughter to a powerful congressman. But when news of his impending nuptials leaks, John gets entangled in a plot more twisted than the knot he was preparing to tie with Nancy! Kidnapped by a cult and brainwashed to assassinate his future father-in-law, our hero soon finds himself on an odyssey of sheer lunacy.



December 7, 2021

Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude (1971) on blu-ray from Paramount



Young, rich, and obsessed with death, Harold finds himself changed forever when he meets lively septuagenarian Maude at a funeral.



October 19, 2021

In the Shadow of Hollywood: Highlights from Poverty Row 1934-1935 on blu-ray from Flicker Alley



Independent films produced in the shadow of Hollywood's major studios were given the less than complimentary nickname "Poverty Row," which existed in Hollywood between the 1920s and 1960s. They were usually produced on small budgets, at rented facilities, and on a short production schedule. Despite being overshadowed by bigger studio projects, many of these films have since been rediscovered and appropriately hailed as exceptional and inventive. In fact, more than a few notable names were featured in these films, such as Humphrey Bogart, Fay Wray, Erich von Stroheim, Sterling Holloway and others. Each of these new restorations, from archival 35mm material, feature a film scholar commentary that offers production history, historical context, and an opportunity to explore this under-appreciated part of film history - an enriching experience for film enthusiasts of all ages!

Featured in this premiere Flicker Alley publication are four entertaining and beautifully restored films that explore crime, romance, horror, and mystery - all Poverty Row hallmarks:

Midnight aka Call It Murder (1934) - Directed by Chester Erskine and starring Sidney Fox, O.P. Heggie, and Humphrey Bogart – Jury foreman Edward Weldon (Heggie), a firm believer in following the letter of the law, is caught in complicated situation when his daughter, Stella (Fox), admits to having committed a murder.

Back Page (1934) - Directed by Anton Lorenze and starring Peggy Shannon – A young reporter, Jerry Hampton (Shannon), leaves her job at a big city newspaper for a position as the editor of a newspaper in a small California town. Political complications ensue as she struggles to keep the paper from being forced out of business.

Woman in the Dark (1934) - Directed by Phil Rosen and starring Fay Wray and Ralph Bellamy – John Bradly (Bellamy), recently released from prison, and attempting to live a quiet life, has his plans interrupted by a new love interest and a false murder accusation, causing him to flee the authorities. The film is an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's mystery novel, Woman in the Dark.

The Crime of Dr. Crespi (1935) - Directed by John H. Auer and starring Erich von Stroheim – The Crime of Dr. Crespi is the story of a respected surgeon, Dr. Andre Crespi (Stroheim), who, when asked to operate on another surgeon that he believes stole the affection of the woman he loved, invents a serum that will induce a catatonic state, in order to bury his enemy alive. The film is an adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's short story, The Premature Burial.




January 18, 2022

John Sturges' The Capture (1950) on blu-ray from Film Detective



From writer Niven Busch, the author of Duel in the Sun, comes an equally torrid sizzler, loaded with the intrigue and passion that marked the golden age of cinema. Cast with strong performers, this story of guilt and forbidden love still packs a jolt. Injured and on the run from police, Lin Vanner (Lew Ayres) confesses the sordid details of his life to a priest, which includes the death of a man he'd turned over to the police. Vanner also reveals that he fell in love with the dead man's widow (Teresa Wright), only to have his past catch up to him. Haunting and offbeat, The Capture (1950) was directed by one of Hollywood's best, John Sturges (The Great Escape).



December 7, 2021

Gregory Ratoff's Black Magic (1949) on blu-ray from ClassicFlix



After watching his gypsy parents executed by hanging for the alleged crime of sorcery, a young Joseph Balsamo is tortured mercilessly for the insolence of objecting to his parents' conviction. After a narrow escape from his captors, he vows revenge on the nobleman who sentenced his parents to death.

Having honed his skills as a charmer through his teen years and into adulthood, Joseph (Orson Welles) now dons the name Cagliostro and becomes a famous sorcerer throughout Europe earning wealth, fame and privilege. His misadventures culminate in a bit of palace intrigue with a plot against Queen Marie Antoinette (Nancy Guild)—whose exact double is under Cagliostro's spell and is helpless to be his instrument in usurping the throne of France.




December 14, 2021

Luchino Visconti's Ludwig (1973) on blu-ray from Arrow



Ludwig. He loved women. He loved men. He lived as controversially as he ruled. But he did not care what the world thought. He was the world.



2021 TBD

Andrei Konchalovskiy's Maria's Lovers (1984) on blu-ray from Code Red



Ivan Bibic returns to his Pittsburgh PA suburb after surviving a Japanse POW camp, causing regular nightmares. All the time he remained faithfully devoted to his childhood love, fellow ethnic Yugoslavian virgin Maria Bosic. She dates him again, thus ruining a virtual engagement to captain Al Griselli. Against Ivan's dad's advice, they get married. But Ivan became psychologically impotent, feels unworthy of her and starts wondering, even looking for another girl. Meanwhile slick guitar-and-song-busker Clarence Butts moves in to South-Western PA, and seduces Maria.



November 30, 2021

John Huston's Freud: The Secret Passion (1962) on blu-ray from Kino



This pseudo-biographical movie depicts 5 years from 1885 in the life of the Viennese psychologist Freud (Montgomery Clift). Disillusioned with the way his colleagues refuse to treat patients in a mental asylum, following a trip to Paris to visit Dr Charcot he sees how hysterical patients are treated by means of hypnosis.

The film follows Freud's descent into a region almost as black as Hell itself—man's unconscious—as he develops the notion that neurosis stems from sexual repression. By treating patients with various issues, including a woman haunted by recurring dreams (Susannah York, The Killing of Sister George) and a man with an Oedipus complex (David McCallum, The Great Escape), Freud experiences epiphanies that lead to the birth of modern analysis, despite the scorn his theories initially receive from his colleagues.




November 23, 2021

Rod Serling's Night Gallery - Season 1 (1969) on blu-ray from Kino



Prepare for the chill of a lifetime as the master of suspense, Rod Serling (The Twilight Zone), hosts every spine-tingling episode from the complete first season of Night Gallery.



December 7, 2021

Peter Hyams' Busting (1974) on limited edition blu-ray from Kino



LA cops Gould and Blake get in over their heads when they don't heed orders from above and go after a big crime boss. While higher ups in the police department want the cop duo to just focus on nabbing petty criminals, the team does so while still going after LA kingpin Rizzo. Various fist fights, chases, shootouts and other carnage occur as the two cops go after Rizzo's crime syndicate.





December 7, 2021

Alfred Hitchcock's Number Seventeen (1932) on blu-ray from Kino



A gang of thieves gather at a safe house following a robbery, but a detective is on their trail.



January 4, 2022

Alfred Hitchcock's Rich and Strange (1931) on blu-ray from Kino



Believing that an unexpected inheritance will bring them happiness, a married couple instead finds their relationship strained to the breaking point.



2022 TBD

Preston Sturges' The Great Moment (1944) on blu-ray from Kino



The saga of W.T.G. Morton, the 19th century Boston dentist who, after inventing the first truly effective anesthesia, was forced to give up his proprietary interest in the invention and ended up dying in poverty and obscurity



November 16, 2021

William Dieterle's The Accused (1949) on blu-ray from Kino



A beautiful psychology professor tries to hide a self-defense killing.



January 4, 2022

William Beaudine's The Crime of the Century (1933) on blu-ray from Kino



A doctor who is also a "mentalist" confesses to a murder. The only problem is that the murder he's confessed to hasn't happened yet--although dead bodies are now starting to turn up all over the place. A reporter sets out to solve the "mystery".



July 27, 2021

Don Siegel's TV movie Stranger on the Run (1967) on blu-ray from Kino



In search of a woman, the washed-up alcoholic vagabond and former convict Ben Chamberlain ends up in a god-forsaken and dusty railhead town, where Sheriff McKay and his trigger-happy deputies rule with a heavy hand. Under those circumstances, the drifter who thirsts for answers, and above all redemption, will begin his investigation, only to soon find himself wrongfully accused of murder. Inevitably, as Ben runs for cover in the rough wilderness, an angry posse of hateful gunslingers will hunt him down before he reaches the borders. Can Ben make it out alive?










British Distributors Indicator/Powerhouse Films Enter U.S. and Canada Markets, Confirm First Catalog Releases Coming in 2022
October 12, 2021
Blu-ray.com

British Distributors Indicator/Powerhouse Films announced today that they have signed a physical media distribution deal with Distribution Solutions, a division of Alliance Entertainment. Distribution Solutions will handle sales, distribution of all Powerhouse Films sell-through releases in the US and Canada.

Complete announcement:

"Distribution Solutions, a division of Alliance Entertainment, is pleased to announce a physical media partnership with Powerhouse Films' UK-based label Indicator.

Distribution Solutions will handle sales, distribution of all Powerhouse Films sell-through releases in the US and Canada.

"We are very excited to be in business with Powerhouse Films," states Distribution Solutions President, Ben Means. "Partnering internationally with a film label like Indicator, which has such a driven passion for physical media, helps expand the quality and coverage of classic films we distribute to the US and Canada."

Powerhouse Films has an extensive collection of classic films that includes limited-edition box sets and single-title releases, as well as standard-edition reissues of limited-edition titles that have gone out of print, such as John Carpenter's Christine, Jacques Tourneur's Night of the Demon, and Dennis Hopper's The Last Movie.

"We're thrilled to be bringing our unique blend of cult and classic cinema to audiences in the US and Canada in partnership with the fantastic team at Distribution Solutions," says Powerhouse Films' co-founder, Sam Dunn. "We've been working hard unearthing and restoring a raft of incredible titles in order to put together a schedule that will surprise and delight even the most adventurous viewer."

Celebrated filmmaker Guillermo del Toro added his praise for the label, stating "Indicator lovingly curates and enshrines obscure, precious gems for the obsessive collector and the genre connoisseur."

The first physical Powerhouse Films releases distributed by Distribution Solutions will be available for purchase January 2022.





January 18, 2022

Alvin Rakoff's Hoffman (1970) on blu-ray from Indicator (US & UK), from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative



A businessman blackmails his pretty young secretary into spending the weekend with him.



January 18, 2022

Gerry O'Hara's The Brute (1977) on blu-ray from Indicator (US & UK), from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative



In The Brute, Sarah Douglas (Superman II) gives a courageous performance as Diane, a glamorous fashion model trying to escape the brutal blows of her sadistic husband, fearsomely portrayed by Julian Glover (For Your Eyes Only). After a particularly savage attack, Diane leaves to stay with photographer friend Mark (Bruce Robinson, writer and director of Withnail & I) and his girlfriend Carrie (Suzanne Stone). Finding solidarity with other victims at a nearby women's refuge, she aims to forge a new life alone, but her violent ex-partner is determined to track her down.



January 18, 2022

John Gould's The Blockhouse (1973) on blu-ray from Indicator (US & UK), from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative



Based upon harrowing real events which were turned into a 1955 novel by Jean-Paul Clébert, The Blockhouse starts explosively with an Allied air raid on a Nazi prison camp. Six escaped prisoners take shelter in an underground blockhouse, which is soon destroyed by heavy shelling. Trapped underground, with an almost endless supply of food, wine and candles, the men must endure confinement with no prospect of escape or rescue.



2022 TBD

Budd Boetticher's A Time for Dying (1969) on blu-ray from Indicator (UK)



In Silver City, naive farm boy Cass and newcomer saloon girl Nellie are married by Judge Roy Bean in a shotgun wedding but their honeymoon is marred by outlaws.



December 13, 2021

Mae West in Hollywood 1932-1943 on blu-ray from Indicator (UK)



When Mae West went to Hollywood in the early 1930s, she was already a major star. Having sensationalised Broadway, it was time for the movies to receive the same. Her fame allowed her control, picking her co-stars (including a young Cary Grant), receiving screenwriter credits, and baiting censors and audiences alike as the pre-Code era gave way to a more sanitised period in American filmmaking. This six-disc collection brings together all ten of West's classic Hollywood features, from her supporting turn in 1932's Night After Night to 1943's musical extravaganza, The Heat's On.



November 22, 2021

Mike Leigh's Bleak Moments (1971) on blu-ray from BFI (UK)



Sylvia leads a quiet life caring for her sister Hilda, who has complex care needs. Their lonely suburban existence is accentuated by a social awkwardness that detaches them from the community and fuels a life of seclusion and despair.



November 8, 2021

Mike Leigh's Vera Drake (2004) on blu-ray from StudioCanal (UK)



London, 1950. Vera Drake lives with her husband Stan and their grown-up children, Sid and Ethel. They are not rich, but they are a happy, close family. Vera cleans houses, Stan is a mechanic in his brother's garage, Sid works for a tailor and Ethel works in a factory testing lightbulbs. But selfless Vera has a sideline which she keeps secret from all of those around her: without accepting payment, she helps young women to end unwanted pregnancies. When one of these girls is rushed to hospital following an abortion, the police investigation leads to Vera and her world comes crashing in on her.



November 29, 2021

Jean-Pierre Melville's Les enfants terribles (1950) on blu-ray from BFI (UK)



Elisabeth and Paul close themselves off from the world by playing an increasingly intense series of mind games with the people who dare enter their lair.



October 18, 2021

Ann Turner's Celia (1989) on blu-ray from Second Run (UK)



An imaginative and somewhat disturbed young girl fantasizes about evil creatures and other oddities to mask her insecurities while growing up in rural Australia.





August 13, 201

Francois Ozon's Swimming Pool (2003) on blu-ray from Ara Media (South Korea)



A British mystery author visits her publisher's home in the South of France, where her interaction with his unusual daughter sets off some touchy dynamics.



November 30, 2021

Lino Brocka's Bayan Ko (1984) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Le Chat Qui Fume (France)



A political worker in a printing press, who works as a scab during company strike, realizes rather belatedly that everyone is affected by the ills of society.


WorldForgot

Hell yeah, Kino Lorber bringing the noir heat. This movie is intense and forms a neat element out of its parallel trios.

https://twitter.com/KLStudioClassic/status/1462450736378400769

WorldForgot

Quote from: wilder on July 27, 2017, 12:58:03 AM


Just learned about this German DVD & Blu-ray label Bildstörung. The owners, Alexander Beneke and Carsten Baiersdörfer, have really interesting taste. The label specializes in foreign arthouse and exploitation films, and what could generally be described as 'wide angle oddities'.

To give you an idea, some of the titles in their catalog already available in the US from other labels include:

-Aleksei German's Hard to Be A God (2013)
-Lodge Kerrigan's Clean, Shaven (1993)
-Andrzej Zulawski's Possession (1981)
-Stuart Cooper's Overlord (1975)
-Walerian Borowczyk's La Bete (1975)
-Jaromil Jireš' Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970)
-František Vláčil's Marketa Lazarová (1967)

Below are some of their titles that are unreleased or OOP in the US.

Iván Zulueta's Arrebato aka Rapture (1979) - DVD



A low budget horror filmmaker gets in touch with an eccentric who is trying to film his consciousness during drug abuse.




https://twitter.com/AltInnocence/status/1466817423688957952

Now to receive another home release on the Altered Innocence label!

directed by: Iván Zulueta
starring: Eusebio Poncela, Cecilia Roth, Will More, Helena Fernan-Gomez, Marta Fernandez Muro
1979 / 115 min / 1.66:1 / Spanish 2.0 with English subtitles

Additional info:
• Region Free Blu-ray
• Commentary Track w/ Mike White of The Projection Booth
• Documentary: Ivan Z by Andrés Duque (51 min.)
• Theatrical Trailer
• Other Trailers
• Reversible Art
• English subtitles

wilder

Early 2022

Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory (1957) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Kino



A World War I French colonel goes head-to-head with the army's ruthless top brass when his men are accused of cowardice after being unable to carry out an impossible mission.



March 8, 2022

Billy Wilder's The Apartment (1960) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Kino



Bud Baxter is a struggling clerk in a huge New York insurance company. He's discovered a quick way to climb the corporate ladder - by lending out his apartment to the executives as a place to take their mistresses. He often has to deal with the aftermath of their visits and one night he's left with a major problem to solve.



Early 2022

Brian De Palma's Dressed to Kill (1980) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Kino



A mysterious woman kills one of a psychiatrist's patients, and then goes after the call girl who witnessed the murder.



January 25, 2022

Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Lover aka L'Amant (1992) on 4K UHD blu-ray from MPI Media Group



It is French Colonial Vietnam in 1929. A young French girl from a family that is having some monetary difficulties is returning to boarding school. She is alone on public transportation when she catches the eye of a wealthy Chinese businessman. He offers her a ride into town in the back of his chauffeured sedan, and sparks fly. Can the torrid affair that ensues between them overcome the class restrictions and social mores of that time? Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Maugerite Duras.



Early 2022

Frank Darabont's The Green Mile (1999) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Warner Bros.



The lives of guards on Death Row are affected by one of their charges: a black man accused of child murder and rape, yet who has a mysterious gift.



March 29, 2022

Robert Redford's Ordinary People (1980) on blu-ray from Paramount



Donald Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore star as the upper-middle-class couple whose "ordinary" existence is irrevocably shattered by the death of their oldest son in a boating accident.



Early 2022

Sidney Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express (1974) on blu-ray from Paramount



Having concluded a case, detective Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) settles into what he expects will be a relaxing journey home aboard the Orient Express. But when an unpopular billionaire is murdered en route, Poirot takes up the case, and everyone on board the famous train is a suspect. Using an avalanche blocking the tracks to his advantage, Poirot gradually realizes that many of the passengers have revenge as a motive, and he begins to home in on the culprit.



December 28, 2021

Tsai Ming-liang's Rebels of the Neon God (1992) on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome partner label Big World Pictures



Within the urban gloom of Taipei, four youths face alienation, loneliness, and moments of existential crisis amidst a series of minor crimes.





January 25, 2022

Alfred L. Werker's Repeat Performance (1947) on blu-ray from Flicker Alley



Repeat Performance, the most requested film in the early years of the Film Noir Foundation's restoration campaign, is finally available in digital form! An amazingly original hybrid of film noir, supernatural fantasy, and backstage melodrama, the film stars Joan Leslie as a Broadway actress who magically relives the previous year of her life, but can she alter the fateful mistakes and misjudgments that led to a New Year's Eve tragedy? Think of it as film noir's answer to It's a Wonderful Life or a full-length precursor to The Twilight Zone.

Produced as a rare prestige picture by fledgling Eagle-Lion Pictures, the movie features an array of vivid performances: 21-year-old Joan Leslie as Sheila Page, her first mature role following a parade of teenage ingenues at Warner Bros.; Louis Hayward as her husband Barney, a bitter and vengeful playwright; Virginia Field as Sheila's personal and professional rival, Paula Costello; Tom Conway as suave stage producer John Friday; and Richard Basehart in his movie debut as poet William Williams, one of the era's most sensitive depictions of a gay artist.

In the years after its 1947 release, Repeat Performance seemingly vanished. For many who'd seen it, the film's startling premise and stunning set-pieces became merely a tantalizing memory. It fell so far off the cultural radar people began to think they'd only imagined the movie. But thanks to the dedication and diligence of the Film Noir Foundation, Repeat Performance was restored in collaboration with UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Packard Humanities Institute. And now, it lives again in a beautiful Blu-ray/DVD dual-format edition loaded with special features.




January 31, 2022

Justin Kurzel's Snowtown (2011) on blu-ray from 101 Films (UK)



When 16 year-old Jamie (Lucas Pittaway) is introduced to a charismatic man, a friendship begins. As the relationship grows so do Jamie's suspicions, until he finds his world threatened by both his loyalty for, and fear of his newfound father figure, John Bunting (Daniel Henshall): Australia's most notorious serial killer.





January 31, 2022

Jan Němec's The Party and the Guests (1966) on blu-ray from Second Run, from a 4K restoration by the Czech National Film Archive. Previously included in Criterion's Czech New Wave Eclipse box set.



A group of friends on an afternoon picnic are accosted by mysterious authority figures and compelled to join a lavish banquet in the woods. Jan Němec's surreal and sinister fable is a barbed satire of authoritarianism and conformity, as each of the 'guests' find their place among the revellers, succumbing to the will of their menacing hosts.

Distinguished by being 'banned forever' by Czech authorities, Nemec's disquieting film was considered the most politically dangerous film made during the short flowering of Czechoslovak cinema in the 1960's.






February 22, 2022

Lies and Deceit: Five Films by Claude Chabrol on blu-ray from Arrow US & Arrow UK



-Madame Bovary (1991) (new 4K restoration)
-Betty (1992) (new 4K restoration)
-Torment (1994) (new 4K restoration)
-Cop au Vin (1985)
-Inspector Lavardin (1986)

Too often overlooked and undervalued, Claude Chabrol was the first of the Cahiers du Cinema critics to release a feature film and would be among the most prolific. The sneaky anarchist of the French New Wave, he embraced genre as a means of lifting the lid on human nature. Nothing is sacred and nothing is certain in the films of Claude Chabrol: anything can be corrupted, and usually will be.

The hidden meaness of provincial life is at the heart of Cop Au Vin (Poulet au vinaigre), as deaths and disappearances intersect around the attempt by a corrupt syndicate of property developers to force a disabled woman and her son from their home. Actor Jean Poiret would prove so compelling as the laconic Detective Inspector Lavardin good cop/bad cop all in one that the sequel would be titled after him. Inspector Lavardin sees the titular detective investigating the murder of a wealthy and respected catholic author, renowned for his outspoken views against indecency, whose body is found naked and dead on the beach. In Madame Bovary, Chabrol directs one of his greatest collaborators, actress Isabelle Huppert, in perhaps the definitive depiction of Flaubert's classic heroine. Meanwhile Betty, adapted from the novel of the same name by Maigret author Georges Simenon, is a scathing attack on the uppermiddle classes, featuring an extraordinary performance by Marie Trintignant as a woman spiraling into alcoholism, but fighting to redefine herself. Finally, in Torment (L'enfer) Chabrol picks up a project abandoned by Henri Georges Clouzot, in which a husband's jealousy and suspicion of his wife drive him to appalling extremes. Francois Cluzet and Emmanuelle Beart give career best performances as the husband and wife tearing each other apart.






December 6, 2021

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Vol. 2 on blu-ray from Arrow (UK)



-Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
-Effi Briest (1974)
-Fox and His Friends (1975)
-Chinese Roulette (1976)
-The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)

Among Fassbinder's best-loved works, Fear Eats the Soul sees the director paying homage to the classic melodramas of Douglas Sirk in its poignant portrayal of a relationship between a widowed cleaning lady in her sixties and a Moroccan immigrant in his thirties that causes an outrage with her family, friends and neighbours. Fassbinder's long-gestating adaptation of Theodor Fontane's classic German novel Effi Briest, his most expensive production to date as well as one of his most ambitious, tells the tale of a seventeen-year-old girl who is married off by her parents to a wealthy Baron more than twice her age.

Fassbinder himself plays the protagonist of Fox and His Friends, a sweet working class soul whose relationship with wealthy industrialist Eugen, he discovers, is based almost wholly on his unexpected lottery win. Chinese Roulette is a tense psychodrama set in an isolated house during a weekend break in which infidelities are revealed and families break down. Fassbinder's international breakthrough film, The Marriage of Maria Braun charts the rise to prosperity of its tenacious and pragmatic central character across the post-war years as she holds out hope for the return of the young soldier she was married to for less than 24-hours before he was dispatched to the Russian front and later reported dead.




January 25, 2022

Dancing with Crime (1947) and The Green Cockatoo (1937) on blu-ray from Cohen Media Group



A true rarity, William Cameron Menzies' THE GREEN COCKATOO was completed in 1937, but not released until 1940. It is often cited as one of the earliest of the British Noirs and helped set the stage for the classical period of Brit Noir which flourished in the years following WWII. It's a taut little thriller based on a Graham Greene story, directed by the American William Cameron Menzies, and featuring a stellar cast and crew. After witnessing the murder of a racketeer, a young woman is pursued by both gangsters and the police. She is aided by a Soho entertainer, who is the brother of the victim.

In DANCING WITH CRIME (1947), Richard Attenborough and Sheila Sim, married in real life at the time, put themselves in harms way when they go undercover to investigate the murder of a friend with ties to black market racketeers. Watch for Dirk Bogarde and Diana Dors in uncredited roles.






January 11, 2022

Tom Holland's The Temp (1993) on blu-ray from Shout Factory



The Temp stars Timothy Hutton as an executive with a history of paranoia and jealousy. When his company is taken over by a large corporation, everyone scrambles and jockeys for position -- but Hutton finds himself rising to the top with the assistance of his temporary secretary. As rivals and foes start turning up dead, Hutton struggles to figure out if his madness is returning, or is his curvaceous secretary taking her job a little too seriously?





February 8, 2022

Freddie Francis' Paranoiac (1963) on blu-ray from Shout Factory



Simon Ashby is a wealthy psychotic who is is coddled by his aunt in their palatial mansion outside of London. One day, Ashby's long lost brother mysteriously arrives at the house, but events prove that he is an impostor, sent by Keith Kossett, son of the attorney for the family estate, who has been dipping into the family trust fund.



February 8, 2022

Carl Reiner's Summer School (1987) on blu-ray from Shout Factory



Freddy the gym teacher has to teach remedial English in summer (high) school, if he wants tenure. As he can only teach gym and his students want fun, emphasis is on "field trips" - until he's fired unless all his students pass the test.



December 7, 2021

Michael Curtiz's Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) on blu-ray from Warner Archive



Childhood friends on opposite sides of the law fight over the future of a street gang.



January 18, 2022

Alfred Hitchcock's Stage Fright (1950) on blu-ray from Warner Archive



A struggling actress tries to help a friend prove his innocence when he's accused of murdering the husband of a high society entertainer.



January 11, 2022

Max Ophul's Laughing Heirs (1933) on blu-ray from Kino



A young salesman may inherit a wine-estate on one condition: he can't drink a drop of alcohol for at least a month.



January 18, 2022

Ernst Lubitch's Three Women (1924) on blu-ray from Kino, from a 4K restoration



With his third American film, Three Women (made just after The Marriage Circle) Ernst Lubitsch continued to endow Hollywood studio films with the European sophistication and graceful storytelling that had become his hallmark while working as a director in Germany. Pauline Frederick and May McAvoy star as a mother and daughter who find themselves competing for the attention of George, a handsome opportist (Lew Cody) who yearns to lay hands on the women's $3 million fortune. Marie Prevost stars as George's mistress, a sultry femme fatale who threatens to sabotage any romance that may transpire, further testing the strength of the primal mother/daughter relationship.



January 18, 2022

John Stahl's When Tomorrow Comes (1939) on blu-ray from Kino



Romance and heartbreak walk hand-in-hand when Philip Chagal accidentally meets Helen Lawrence in a restaurant where she is a waitress. Unhappily married to a woman who suffers from mental illness, he is attracted to her and they make a date to go sailing, arriving at Philip's country home just as a storm is breaking. Helen learns who he is for the first time, a celebrated-and-famous concert pianist and, falling in love with him, decides to leave before matters go further. A hurricane hits and their car is crippled by a falling tree. Rising water forces then to seek shelter in the choir loft of a church, where they spend the night.



December 1, 2021

Fred Schepisi's The Devil's Playground (1976) on blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment (Australia)



In August 1953, the 13-year old Tom Allan attends a Catholic seminary in Melbourne, Australia. Students and brothers face individual challenges of faith and self-restraint.


wilder

#970
March 22, 2022

Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Trilogy (1972-1990) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Paramount



Epic tale of a 1940s New York Mafia family and their struggle to protect their empire from rival families as the leadership switches from the father to his youngest son.



April 26, 2022

Stanley Donen's Singin' in the Rain (1952) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Warner Bros.



A Hollywood star of the silent era, production company and cast make a difficult transition to sound.



March 15, 2022

John Landis' American Werewolf in London (1981) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Arrow



The tale of a tourist from the U.S. whose stay in London is disrupted when, after being bitten by a wolf, he turns into a werewolf.



April 12, 2022

Paul Verhoven's Robocop (1987) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Arrow



In the not-too-distant future, a Detroit police officer returns as a powerful cyborg after being dismembered by a gang of thugs.



March 15, 2022

Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Kino



After a murder is committed in a small town right on the US-Mexico border a rogue cop from the US tries to frame his Mexican counterpart for it.



Late 2022 TBD

Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter (1955) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Kino, from a new 4K restoration



A demented preacher relentlessly torments two small children in the Depression-era Bible Belt in order to get at their dead father's stolen fortune.



July 26, 2022

Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Kino



Before settling down to a respectable life, career criminal Johnny Clay teams with a group of pitiful two-bit crooks to pull off one final, elaborate heist at a racetrack.



June 28, 2022

Stanley Kubrick's Killer's Kiss (1955) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Kino



A prize-fighter intervenes when private dancer Gloria is being attacked by her corrupt employer.



Summer 2022

Sidney Lumet's 12 Angry Men (1956) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Kino



A jury holdout attempts to prevent a miscarriage of justice by forcing his colleagues to reconsider the evidence.



2022 TBD

John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate (1962) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Kino



A US Army hero returns to New York from Korea, but has been mysteriously programmed by Communists to assassinate a presidential nominee, but when his Army buddy becomes suspicious of the goings on, he is on the trail to stop him.



May 31, 2022

Sergio Leone's A Fistful of  Dollars (1964) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Kino



A mysterious gunman has just arrived in San Miguel, a grim, dusty border town where two rival bands of smugglers are terrorizing the impoverished citizens. A master of the "quick-draw," the stranger soon receives offers of employment from each gang. But his loyalty cannot be bought; he accepts both jobs...and sets in motion a plan to destroy both jobs...and sets in motion a plan to destroy both groups of criminals, pitting one against the other in a series of brilliantly orchestrated set-ups, showdowns and deadly confrontations.



May 31, 2022

Sergio Leone's For A Few Dollars More (1965) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Kino



Eastwood is a keen-eyed, quick-witted bounty hunter on the bloody trail of Indio, the territory's most treacherous bandit. But his ruthless rival, Colonel Mortimer, is determined to bring Indio in first...dead or alive! Failing to capture their prey—or eliminate each other—the two are left with only one option: team up, or face certain death at the hands of Indio and his band of murderous outlaws.



May 17, 2022 TBD

John Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Scream Factory



Manhattan Island has been turned into a maximum security prison, a plane carrying the US president goes down there. An anti-hero is entrusted with the task of rescuing him.



February 22, 2022 TBD

John Carpenter's Escape from L.A. (1996) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Paramount



It's 16 years later and Snake Plissken is once again called in by the US government to recover a potential doomsday device from Los Angeles.



June 28, 2022 TBD

David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia (1962) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Sony



Due to his knowledge of the native Bedouin tribes, British Lieutenant T.E. Lawrence is sent to Arabia to find Prince Faisal and serve as a liaison between the Arabs and the British in their fight against the Turks. With the aid of native Sherif Ali, Lawrence rebels against the orders of his superior officer and strikes out on a daring camel journey across the harsh desert to attack a well-guarded Turkish port.



June 7, 2022 TBD

David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Sony



Allied commandos are dispatched deep inside the Burmese jungle to blow up a strategic bridge built by British POWs.



2022 TBD

George Stevens' Giant (1956) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Warner Bros.



Jordan 'Bick' Benedict Jr., is a wealthy landowner and cattle rancher who marries a spoiled and wealthy Virginian woman. When the two return to his cattle empire in Texas, conflicts around race, class and changing traditions including former cowboy and now rich oil tycoon Jett Rink rise to epic proportions through the years and test the unity of the family and surrounding community.



May 31, 2022

Brian De Palma's The Untouchables (1987) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Paramount, from a new 4K restoration



Federal Agent Eliot Ness sets out to stop Al Capone. Because of rampant corruption, he assembles a small, hand-picked team, including a tough-as-nails street cop and a rookie sharpshooter.



May 17, 2022

John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Paramount



A lawyer becomes a hero after shooting a notorious outlaw, but was the shot really fired by his friend?



2022 TBD

Paul Schrader's First Reformed (2017) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Lionsgate or Criterion?

First Reformed was shot at 2.8K and the digital intermediate was completed in 2K, so like many digitally-captured films released in the 4K UHD format, this will be an upscale.



A minister of a small congregation in upstate New York grapples with mounting despair brought on by tragedy, worldly concerns and a tormented past.



March 29, 2022

David Fincher's Panic Room (2002) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Sony



After purchasing a brownstone in New York, a thirty-something divorced woman and her daughter are forced to take advantage of the hidden room- the "panic room" -when intruders break into their home. However, they soon find that what the intruders want is locked in the panic room with them.



Late 2022 TBD

Robert Harmon's The Hitcher (1986) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Second Sight (UK), restored from the original camera negative



A magnanimous young man who picks up a strange hitchhiker on a desert highway on a dark, rainy night soon wishes he had just driven on. The deranged hitchhiker turns the innocent fellow's journey into a living nightmare.



April 20, 2022

Walter Hill's The Driver (1978) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Universal (Australia)



In Los Angeles, a mysterious getaway driver renowned for his speed and ability behind the wheel is pursued by an obsessive detective and his men. Drawn into their cat-and-mouse game is a beautiful gambler who saw the driver's face during a casino heist, but refuses to identify him to the police.



June 20, 2022

Columbia Noir #5: Humphrey Bogart (1947-1956) on blu-ray from Indicator (UK)



A fifth foray into the film noir output of Columbia Pictures, but, this time, with a twist. Not only does this volume bring together six more gems from the studio's archives, but it also serves as a showcase for the great Humphrey Bogart.

Having established his stardom in the gangster pictures of the 1930s, Bogart fit easily into the world of film noir, where he was equally at home playing troubled servicemen, slick-talking lawyers, black marketeers, gambling den owners, or hard-up journalists.

Columbia Noir #5: Humphrey Bogart brings together five of the iconic actor's starring vehicles: John Cromwell's Dead Reckoning, Nicholas Ray's Knock on Any Door, Stuart Heisler's Tokyo Joe, Curtis Bernhardt's Sirocco, and Mark Robson's The Harder They Fall, plus Henry Levin's The Family Secret, a rarity starring Lee J Cobb and John Derek that was produced by Bogart's Santana Pictures, an outfit that regularly delved into the seedy, shadowy world of noir.


QuoteDead Reckoning (1947)

War heroes Rip Murdock (Humphrey Bogart) and Johnny Drake (William Prince) are sent to Washington, D.C., by train, but are not told why. During the trip, they learn they're about to receive top honors for their service. Johnny, seemingly terrified by the publicity that awaits him, jumps off the train and later turns up dead. Suspecting foul play, Rip begins digging into his pal's past. He encounters cover-ups, threats to his own life and deadly femme fatale Coral Chandler (Lizabeth Scott). Directed by John Cromwell.

Knock On Any Door (1949)

Having pulled himself out of the poverty and squalor of a big city slum, idealist lawyer Andrew Morton (Humphrey Bogart) agrees to defend a young juvenile delinquent from his old neighborhood. Nick Romano (John Derek), the son of an innocent man Morton had unsuccessfully defended as a young lawyer years earlier, stands accused of murdering a policeman. In opposition to a law-and-order prosecutor (George Macready), Morton argues that Nick's deprived upbringing led to his life of crime. Directed by Nicholas Ray.

Tokyo Joe (1949)

In the wake of Japan's surrender, American expatriate Joseph Barrett (Humphrey Bogart) hopes to revive the Tokyo club he ran before he left to fight in World War II. Soon Barrett discovers that Trina (Florence Marly) -- the wife he assumed was dead -- has married another man and has a young daughter. As an overwhelmed Barrett struggles to obtain approval for residency in Japan, he becomes the blackmail target of Baron Kimura (Sessue Hayakawa), a crime boss with a dirty job for him to do. Directed by Stuart Heisler.

Sirocco (1951)

American Harry Smith (Humphrey Bogart) is selling guns to Emir Hassan (Onslow Stevens), whose Syrian rebels are battling occupying French troops. Hoping to stem the fighting, French Col. Feroud (Lee J. Cobb) asks Harry to introduce him to Hassan. Meanwhile, Feroud's girlfriend, Violette (Märta Torén), is increasingly drawn to Harry. While she wants Harry to ferry her out of the dangerous country, he boldly tries to make a profit from his dealings with both Hassan and Feroud. Directed by Curtis Bernhardt.

The Family Secret (1951)

After David Clark (John Derek) kills his drunk, violent friend Art, he explains to his lawyer father, Howard (Lee J. Cobb), that he acted in self-defense. Howard lets David decide whether or not to confess. Disappointed when David refuses to admit to his crime, Howard is further disturbed when district attorney George Redman (Santos Ortega) prepares to prosecute Joe Elsner (Whit Bissell), a bookie Art was in debt to. When his son still refuses to turn himself in, Howard agrees to defend Joe.

The Harder They Fall (1956) (new 4K restoration)

Broke and without work, newspaper reporter Eddie Willis (Humphrey Bogart) agrees to work for the corrupt boxing promoter Nick Benko (Rod Steiger) to help hype his new boxer, Toro Moreno (Mike Lane). While Toro is beastly in appearance, he has no actual boxing talent, and all his fights are fixed. When Toro gets a shot at the title against the brutal Buddy Brannen (Max Baer), Willis is faced with the tough decision of whether or not to tell Toro that his entire career is a sham. Directed by Mark Robson.



March 22, 2022

Philippe Mora's Mad Dog Morgan (1976) on blu-ray from Indicator US & UK



Based on the true story of Dan Morgan – the infamous Australian outlaw once described as 'the most bloodthirsty ruffian that ever took to the bush' – Mad Dog Morgan provides the perfect showcase for the unique star quality of Dennis Hopper (Night Tide, The Last Movie).

After witnessing a bloody massacre of Chinese workers on Australia's goldfields, Morgan turns to a life of crime, becoming a bushranger and the scourge of the vicious authorities – and, ultimately, a local legend – leaving a bloody legacy in his wake.





March 22, 2022

Budd Boetticher's A Time for Dying (1969 on blu-ray from Indicator US & UK



The final western from one of the genre's greatest directors, Budd Boetticher (Ride Lonesome), and the last screen appearance of war hero-turned-movie star Audie Murphy (To Hell and Back), A Time for Dying is an offbeat, elegiac look at the Old West, prefiguring Don Siegel's classic western, and John Wayne's final picture, The Shootist.

Richard Lapp stars as a young man with fine shooting skills who crosses paths with real-life figures, such as Jesse James (played by Murphy) and Judge Roy Bean (Victor Jory), only to discover the true violence of the West.




March 22, 2022

Ramón Peón's La Llorona (1933) on blu-ray from Indicator US & UK



An early horror classic drawn from Mexico's rich tradition of folklore, La Llorona recounts the chilling tale of the 'wailing woman' who kills herself and her child before returning to haunt the living.

Expressionistic, lyrical and atmospheric, Ramón Peón's film draws on the influence of Universal Pictures' contemporaneous horror cycle and incorporates elements of period melodrama and romance. This landmark production in the evolution of Mexican cinema has been newly restored from the only surviving film elements, and is presented here with a selection of essential extras.




March 22, 2022

Fernando de Fuentes' El fantasma del convento aka The Phantom of the Monastery (1934) on blu-ray from Indicator US & UK



Made in the wake of La llorona's success and directed with flair by Fernando de Fuentes (regarded as one of the masters of early Mexican cinema), The Phantom of the Monastery (El fantasma del convento) tells the macabre tale of a troupe of hikers who become lost in a forest and take refuge in a haunted monastery. There, they encounter shape-shifting shadows, ominous sealed doorways, and a cellar crowded with coffins...

An expressionistic Gothic triumph which has tragically languished in obscurity outside of Mexico, The Phantom of the Monastery has now been lovingly restored and is presented on Blu-ray at long last in a world debut edition, along with a selection of illuminating extras.




March 29, 2022

Dennis Hopper's Out of the Blue (1980) on blu-ray from Severin, from a new 4K restoration



A young girl whose father is an ex-convict biker and whose mother is a junkie has a difficult time coping with her parents' problems. It centers on Cebe, a rebellious young girl, interested only in Elvis Presley and punk rock music — as well as her ex-convict father Don Barnes, and her high-strung mother Kathy. The title is taken from the Neil Young song "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)".




March 29, 2022

Twisting the Knife: Four Films by Claude Chabrol (1997-2003) on blu-ray from Arrow, from new 4K restorations



-THE SWINDLE (RIEN NE VA PLUS)
-THE COLOR OF LIES (AU COEUR DU MENSONGE)
-NIGHTCAP (MERCI POUR LE CHOCOLAT)
-THE FLOWER OF EVIL (LA FLEUR DU MAL)



2022 TBD

Tsai Ming-liang's Vive L'Amour (1994) on blu-ray from Film Movement, from a 2K restoration



The sophomore feature from Tsai Ming-liang (Rebels of the Neon God, Goodbye, Dragon Inn) finds the acclaimed master of Taiwan's Second New Wave demonstrating a confident new cinematic voice. Vive L'Amour follows three characters unknowingly sharing a supposedly empty Taipei apartment. The beautiful realtor May Lin (Yang Kuei-mei) brings her lover Ah-jung (Chen Chao-jung) to a vacant unit she has on the market, unaware that it is secretly being occupied by the suicidal funeral salesman Hsiao-kang (Lee Kang-sheng). The three cross paths in a series of precisely staged, tragicomic erotic encounters, but despite their physical proximity, they find themselves no closer to a personal connection.

Featuring an intoxicating mix of Antonioni-esque longing and surprising deadpan humor, Vive L'Amour catapulted Tsai to the top of the international filmmaking world and earned him the prestigious Golden Lion at the 1994 Venice International Film Festival.





February 22, 2022

The Douglas Sirk Collection II on blu-ray from Kino



Douglas Sirk is commonly credited with transforming the American melodrama into high art. What is less commonly known is that, prior to fleeing Germany in the 1930s, he was already exploring the boundaries of the genre, and refining the sophisticated visual style and emotional complexity that would become his trademarks in the 1950s.

The Girl from the Marsh Croft
An adaptation of Selma Lagerlöf's popular novel, a tale of shame and superstition set in an insular farming community in the northern region of Germany. Hansi Knoteck stars as a moral outcast who is willing to sacrifice her own happiness for the sake of the man she loves (Kurt Fischer-Fehling). Female self-sacrifice is also the theme of

The Final Chord
Alavish drama set in the classical concert halls of Germany. Maria von Tasnady is a woman who gives up her child for adoption, only to become its nursemaid years later. But even that tenuous happiness is threatened by the influence of a domineering nanny (Lil Dagover).



March 29, 2022

Robert Siodmak's Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam aka The Devil Strikes at Night (1957) on blu-ray from Kino. Includes in an audio commentary by Imogen Sara Smith.



A serial killer strikes again during WWII in Germany. The wrong man is arrested and a detective hunts down the real killer. But justice in Nazi Germany is not so easily administered.



March 15, 2022

Robert Siodmak's Abschied aka Farewell (1930) on blu-ray from Kino



In a return to the realistic "street films" of the German silent era, Robert Siodmak (Criss Cross) directed this comedy drama of intersecting lives within the rooms of a working-class boarding house. Aribert Mog (Ecstasy) and Brigitte Horney (Munchausen) star as Peter and Hella, a young couple waiting for the opportunity to be married. When Peter receives a job opportunity in Dresden, he intends to surprise Hella with the news. But when word spreads among the other lodgers, it creates a series misunderstandings that could jeopardize the couple's happiness.



May 24, 2022

Henry Koster's Flower Drum Song (1961) on blu-ray from Kino, from a new 2K restoration



A young Chinese girl travels to the United States as part of an arranged marriage and discovers a new and modern world.



April 26, 2022

Douglas Day Stewart's Thief of Hearts (1984) on blu-ray from Kino



A San Francisco cat burglar steals a married woman's diaries and seduces her with what he knows.



Summer 2022

Fritz Lang's Human Desire (1954) on blu-ray from Kino



Korean War vet Jeff Warren returns to his job as a railroad engineer, and quickly succumbs to his boss's wife, Vicki Buckley. Thus begins a tangled web of suspicion, sex and murder involving Vicki and her brutish husband Carl.



Summer 2022

Fritz Lang's You and Me (1938) on blu-ray from Kino



George Raft and Sylvia Sidney star as Joe and Helen Dennis, two former convicts who find honest work in a department store and love in one another — until a dark secret from Helen's past drives them apart and drives Joe back to his criminal ways.



2022 TBD

James William Guercio's Electra Glide in Blue (1973) on blu-ray from Kino, from a new 4K restoration



An Arizona motorcycle cop gets his wish and is promoted to the homicide unit following the mysterious murder of a hermit. He is forced to confront his illusions about himself and those around him in order to solve the case.



April 19, 2022

Erle C. Kenton's You're Telling Me! (1934) on blu-ray from Kino



A hard-drinking, socially-awkward inventor wrecks his daughter's chances of marriage into a rich family and bungles his own chances of success by selling one of his more practical inventions.



April 19, 2022

Clyde Bruckman and W.C. Fields' Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935) on blu-ray from Kino



Hard-working, henpecked Ambrose Wolfinger takes off from work to go to a wrestling match with catastrophic consequences.



April 19, 2022

George Marshall and Edward F. Cline's You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939) on blu-ray from Kino



Larson E. Whipsnade (W.C. Fields) runs a seedy circus which is perpetually in debt. His performers give him nothing but trouble, especially Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy.



2022 TBD

Erle C. Kenton's Search for Beauty (1934) on blu-ray from Kino



Three con artists dupe two Olympians into serving as editors of a new health and beauty magazine which is only a front for salacious stories and pictures.



2022 TBD

Mitchell Leisen's Murder at the Vanities (1934) on blu-ray from Kino



A homicide detective with an eye for the ladies investigating a murder in Earl Carroll's Vanities allows the music review to continue during the investigation.



July 19, 2022

Rod Serling's "Night Gallery" - Season Two (1971-1972) on blu-ray from Kino



Prepare for the unexpected as Season Two of Night Gallery comes to Blu-ray. The two-disc set contains 61 stories, created and hosted by the master of mystery, The Twilight Zone's Rod Serling.



Early 2022 TBD

Master Shot: The Films of Miklós Jancso on blu-ray from Kino, from 4K restorations



-The Round-Up (1965)
-The Red and the White (1967)
-The Confrontation (1968)
-Winter Wind (1969)
-Red Psalm (1971)
-Electra, My Love (1974)

Screenwriter and director Miklós Jancsó was the creator of a unique film language centered around his mastery of the tracking shot. The first internationally recognized representative of modern Hungarian filmmaking, his extraordinary works examined oppressive authority and the mechanics of power. Kino Lorber is proud to present six of his classic features restored in 4K from their original camera negatives by the National Film Institute Hungary – Film Archive.


QuoteThe Round-Up (1966)

Miklós Jancsó's most renowned work depicts a prison camp in the aftermath of the 1848 Hungarian Revolution. After the Hapsburg monarchy succeeds in suppressing Lajos Kossuth's nationalist uprising, the army sets about arresting suspected guerillas, who are subject to torture and other mental trickery in an effort to extract information about highwayman Sándor Rózsa's band of outlaws, still waging armed struggle against the Hapsburgs on the outside. Jancsó's camera stays in constant, hypnotic motion, taking in the developing dynamics and antagonisms between the prisoners and their captors, meditating upon and exalting its characters' resistance and perseverance in the face of brutal, authoritarian repression. A true classic of world cinema.


The Red and the White (1967)

A haunting, powerful film about the absurdity and evil of war. Set in Central Russia during the Civil War of 1918, The Red and The White details the murderous entanglements between Russia's Red soldiers and the counter-revolutionary Whites in the hills along the Volga. The epic conflict moves with skillful speed from a deserted monastery to a riverbank hospital to a final, unforgettable hillside massacre.

The Red and The White is a moving visual feast where every inch of the Cinemascope frame is used to magnificent effect. With his brilliant use of exceptionally long takes, vast and unchanging landscapes and Tamas Somlo's hypnotic black and white photography, Jancso gives the film the quality of a surreal nightmare. In the director's uncompromising world, people lose all sense of identity and become hopeless pawns in the ultimate game of chance.


The Confrontation (1968)

Paralleling the dramatic student protests and riots that were exploding across the world in the 1960s at the time the film was made, The Confrontation is a story of protest and rebellion.

Set in 1947 Hungary when the Communist Party have just taken power, dancing, singing Communist students debate Catholic seminary students at a People's college, all the while worrying their words will escalate into a fight.

Jancsó's first color film is a virtuoso display by a director at the peak of his powers. The film eloquently explores the complex issues and inherent problems of revolutionary democracy, and was set to compete in the famously cancelled Cannes 1968.


Winter Wind (1969)

In the mid-1930s a group of Croatian anarchists led by the grim revolutionary ascetic Marko Lazar (played by the film's French producer Jacques Charrier) escape a bungled ambush in Yugoslavia crossing the dense forests at that country's Northern border in an effort to seek refuge in Hungary.

Winter Wind consists largely of twelve fluid long takes, some as long as ten minutes, and each a completely mapped-out sequence. Jancsó's interest is more geometric than geopolitical, eschewing the big picture historic story for micro-social behavior. In a series of sweeping motions, effectively communicating the abstract conflict between the idealist anarchists and reality.


Red Psalm (1971)

Set on the Hungarian plains of the 1890s. When a group of farm workers go on a strike, demanding basic rights from a landowner, they are met with soldiers on horseback, facing harsh reprisals and the reality of revolt, oppression, morality and violence.

Structured as a passion play. An awesome fusion of form with content, and politics with poetry. Stylized dance with collective choreography depicts the fight of those answering terror with violence. The film honors the agrarian Socialist movements of the end of the nineteenth century, while. conveying a historical philosophical critique of the Socialist ideas.

Winner of the best director prize at Cannes in 1972, and widely considered to be the greatest Hungarian film of the 60s and 70s.


Electra, My Love (1974)

It has been fifteen years since the death of her father, Agamemnon, and Elektra, still burning with hatred towards his murderer, the tyrant Aegisztosz, attempts to rouse an apathetic population against the rule of this usurper.

A richly inventive adaptation of the two-thousand-year-old Greek myth. This searing exposé of oppression and the abuse of power resonates inescapably in twentieth century Hungary, reflecting attitudes towards tyranny and dictatorship from the modern man's perspective. Jancsó makes use of the play's framework to make charges against the then Russian rulership that continues to resonate today.

A thoroughly enjoyable cinematic tour de force, the 71 minute film consists of 12 single take, intricately choreographed set pieces.



May 10, 2022

Christopher Frank's L'année des méduses aka Year of the Jellyfish (1984) on blu-ray from Cohen Media Group



Set in Saint Tropez during mid-summer, this biting coming of age story is a tale of obsession and sexual desire. A young woman vacations in an upscale beach resort with her mother, where it becomes clear that a layer of secrets and jealousy lay beneath the sun-drenched paradise.




April 5, 2022

Val Guest's Jigsaw (1962) on blu-ray from Cohen Media Group



When a woman is found murdered in Brighton it is left to two local detectives, Sergeant Wilks (Lewis) and Inspector Fellows (Warner), to piece together the clues, solve the crime and catch the killer.




April 26, 2022

John Parker's Dementia (1955) on blu-ray from Cohen Media Group



A young woman wanders the streets in a nightmare through a landscape of mutilations, patricide, and paranoia, waking in her apartment amidst clues that suggest it wasn't a dream!




February 5, 2022

Mervyn LeRoy & Busby Berkeley's Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) on blu-ray from Warner Archive



Millionaire turned composer Dick Powell rescues unemployed Broadway people with a new play.



March 29, 2022

William A. Wellman's A Star is Born (1937) on blu-ray from Warner Archive, remastered from its original nitrate Technicolor camera negatives



The classic story about the fragility of fame and the cost of stardom. A young woman arrives at Hollywood with dreams of stardom and with the help of a leading man achieves them, but his best days are behind him and she eclipses him.



May 17, 2022

Brian De Palma's Femme Fatale (2002) on blu-ray from Shout Factory



A con-woman tries to straighten out her life, even as her past comes back to haunt her.



March 15, 2022

Robert Siodmak and Louis de Rochemont's The Whistle at Eaton Falls (1951) on blu-ray from Flicker Alley, from a 2K restoration



Flicker Alley invites you to discover The Whistle at Eaton Falls, a rarely seen 1951 film by renowned filmmakers Robert Siodmak and Louis de Rochemont, featuring Lloyd Bridges, Ernest Borgnine, Murray Hamilton, and Dorothy Gish (in one of her rare later screen appearances). Making its home video debut, this superb quasi-documentary labor drama has been brilliantly restored, utilizing 2K scanned materials from the Library of Congress.

Shot on location in New Hampshire and set during a post war economic crisis, The Whistle at Eaton Falls follows the newly appointed manager of Doubleday Plastics, Brad Adams (Lloyd Bridges), and the labor union that represents their factory workers. Brad, a former factory worker and union president, is tasked with the unfortunate responsibility of laying off employees and friends to ease the company's financial struggles. Despite his relentless commitment to protect the workers, Brad must find a way to keep the company on its feet and thereby ensure the stability of the local economy.





March 23, 2022

El Escapulario (1968) aka The Scapular (1968)) and Ladron De Cadaveres (1957) on blu-ray from VCI



Quote from: wilder on April 19, 2020, 06:16:07 PMThe Scapular aka El Escapulario (1968)



A woman who is about to die calls the town's priest and hands him a scapulary, saying that she knows of its great powers. Anybody who does not believe in them will end up dead.

Quote from: Letterboxd user Carlos ValladaresIf Val Lewton produced and Orson Welles directed the story of a quiet Mexican Revolution-era pueblo where the lines between the supernatural and the miraculous, the holy and the satanic, blur.

MVP: Gabriel Figueroa's constantly astonishing photography, with loads and loads of beautiful, well-staged compositions. Montage is internalized; the cut disappears, and the statuesque Mexican actors are the glue that keep the off-kilter imagery together. The daring opening: we become one with the camera, as we stalk a priest who's delivering the last rites of a doña on her death-bed. There's no specific source to the ghoulishness: it's palpable, we can sense it in the air and in the murky-muddy photography, but we can't grasp it. The elusiveness of Figueroa's phantom images (fog curls around the actors, zooms serve to make the actor bigger-than-life and ant-sized) is breathtaking. The film becomes a powerful metaphor for the dangers that come to non-believers...but also, how concrete facts seem to vanish when we come face-to-face with the Utterly Irrational (a Jacques Tourneur-like swinging of hanged bodies, Figueroa's camera panning across them one-by-one, like a fascinated morgue inspector). André Bazin would have killed to have seen this. RKO "God is absent" horror, disguised as a Catholic parable.





February 8, 2022

Lewis Milestone's A Walk in the Sun (1945) on blu-ray from Kit Parker Films



During WWII, a platoon of American soldiers trudge through the Italian countryside in search of a bridge they have been ordered to blow up, encountering danger and destruction along the way.

Quote from: Letterboxd user Nitrate_DietImpressionistic WWII tale and a worthy addition to the Lewis Milestone war movie canon. Less pacifist than All Quiet on the Western Front, but still willing to consider soldiers' fears and insecurities. More than other genres in classical Hollywood, war movies get away with an unusual amount of narrative freedom. The story here is about a trek to a farmhouse six miles away, a scenario so simple it's forced to revolve around the characters and their existential reflections on what they're doing. A lot of the cast were becoming familiar faces in noir pictures, so in a roundabout way that also contributes to the film's sense of absurdism and dread. Screenplay is by Robert Rossen, who would become a director himself the following year.



June 7, 2022

Noah Baumbach's Highball (1997) on blu-ray from MVD Visual



Diane and Travis throw great parties. This year they are throwing three: a birthday bash for Felix; a Halloween masquerade; and a New Year's celebration. Whether it's the faulty pyrotechnics of a recovering magician... Travis' struggle to turn Diane's kitchen into a micro-brewery... the imagined death of Phillip's Ethiopian son... Fletcher's attempt to bed a celebrity or Diane's drunken attempt at seduction... something is always out of place and someone is definitely going to get hurt!



March 15, 2022

Jonathan Kaplan's The Accused (1988) on blu-ray from Paramount



After a woman suffers a brutal rape in a bar one night, a prosecutor assists in bringing the perpetrators to justice, including the ones who encouraged and cheered on the attack.



April 19, 2022

Hal Ashby's Bound for Glory (1976) on blu-ray from Sandpiper Pictures. Previously released by Twilight Time.



Based on the life of Woody Guthrie, Bound for Glory explores the social, economic, and political hardships that molded his beliefs. Beginning with his life in Texas and his horrific experiences in the Southwest Dust Bowl, the film follows Guthrie as he moves to California to begin his radio career. There he discovers the political power of music, which he harnesses by writing and singing his own songs about human suffering.



May 17, 2022

Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker's Top Secret! (1984) on blu-ray from Paramount



Parody of WWII spy movies in which an American rock and roll singer becomes involved in a Resistance plot to rescue a scientist imprisoned in East Germany.



March 22, 2022

Alain Resnais: Five Short Films on blu-ray from Icarus Films



Icarus Films is proud to present five newly restored early short film masterpieces from legendary filmmaker Alain Resnais (1922-2014). Resnais would go on to make his mark in feature films, including the Oscar- nominated Hiroshima mon amour, but these early-career shorts demonstrate an already keenly developed eye. The films are a remarkable compendium of the stylistic elements found in his features, and represent an important contribution to the distinguished French documentary tradition.

QuotePAUL GAUGUIN(1949, 13 minutes)
PAUL GAUGUIN uses the artist's own writings and artwork to trace his creative journey. The flm begins with Gauguin losing his job in fnance―the catalyst for his commitment to paint every day―and continues through to his fnal days in Tahiti.

VAN GOGH (1948, 18 minutes)
Winner of the 1950 Academy Awards Best Short Film, this boundary-pushing short brilliantly evokes the life of Vincent Van Gogh, using only his paintings as visuals.

GUERNICA (1949, 14 minutes)
GUERNICA, about the city's horrifying bombing during the Spanish Civil War, features Picasso's paintings, drawings and sculptures. Co-directed with Robert Hessens.

ALL THE WORLD'S MEMORY: TOUTE LA MÉMOIRE DU MONDE (1956, 21 minutes)
ALL THE WORLD'S MEMORY pays homage to the National Library of France and takes us on an impressive and impressionistic tour. It received the Best Picture Award at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival.

THE SONG OF STYRENE: LE CHANT DU STYRÈNE (1957, 14 minutes)
Alain Resnais carries out a poetic investigation into the origins of plastic. It is the perfect example of how to turn a commissioned industrial film into a lyrical, satirical film masterpiece.



February 1, 2022

Zander the Great (1925) on blu-ray from Undercrank Productions. Undercrank previously put out When Knighthood Was in Flower (1922)



Mamie, an orphan girl who was abused in the orphanage, is taken in by Mrs. Caldwell, a kindly woman with a young son named Alexander. Mamie hits it off with the lad, and nicknames him "Zander". When Mrs. Caldwell dies, the authorities decree that the boy must be placed in the same orphanage where Mamie was mistreated. Horrified, Mamie determines to see to it that the boy will be spared the same treatment that she had to suffer.





April 11, 2022

Liv Ullman's Faithless (2000) on blu-ray from BFI (UK)



Marianne is a theatre actress married to an orchestra conductor, Markus. She becomes involved in an affair with their director friend, David, which leads to a painful divorce and battle for custody of their daughter, Isabelle.



February 7, 2022

Mike Leigh's Career Girls (1997) on blu-ray from 4dvd (UK)



Mike Leigh's film explores the changing face of friendship as times goes by. Hannah (Katrin Cartlidge) and Annie (Lynda Steadman) shared a flat together at college, but have not seen each other for six years. They meet up for the weekend, reminiscing about their student days and the characters they used to know. These include their flatmate Claire, Adrian Spinks (with whom they both had flings), and Ricky, Annie's unstable would-be suitor.



May 30, 2022

Geoffrey Wright's Romper Stomper (1992) on blu-ray from 88 Films (UK)



Nazi skinheads in Melbourne take out their anger on local Vietnamese, who are seen as threatening racial purity. Finally the Vietnamese have had enough and confront the skinheads in an all-out confrontation, sending the skinheads running.



February 28, 2022

Frantisek Vlacil's The Devil's Trap (1962) on blu-ray from Second Run (UK)



The first in František Vláčil's trilogy of beautifully realized historical epics (which also includes his legendary works Marketa Lazarová and The Valley of the Bees), The Devil's Trap is set in 16th century Bohemia where a miller and his son find themselves under investigation by Inquisition authorities after daring to question the local landowner's decision to build on unstable land.

Evoking a time where religious authority holds sway, and an understanding of the natural world is interpreted as evidence of a diabolical pact, The Devil's Trap stunningly creates a cruel but credible world torn between superstition and science.




March 28, 2022

Karel Kachyna's Coach to Vienna (1966) on blu-ray from Second Run (UK)



In the final days of World War Two, a young Czech widow is abducted by two deserting German soldiers and forced to ferry them to the Austrian border. Unbeknown to them, she is plotting a brutal revenge for the recent killing of her husband by Wehrmacht forces.

Banned even before its release (and remained unseen for over twenty years), Karel Kachyňa's powerful and often harrowing film takes a humanist approach to war. Controversially, it rejected traditional notions of 'evil Germans' and 'good Czechs' and instead explores notions of guilt and vengeance, and how war degrades everyone in such violent times.




April 18, 2022

Tavernier: The Essential Collection (1975-2010) on blu-ray from Studio Canal (UK)



-QUE LA FÊTE COMMENCE (1975)
-UNE SEMAINE DE VACANCES (1980)
-COUP DE TORCHON (1981)
-L.627 (1992)
-LA GUERRE SANS NOM (1992)
-ÇA COMMENCE AUJOURD'HUI (1999)
-LAISSEZ-PASSER (2002)
-LA PRINCESSE DE MONTPENSIER (2010)

Bertrand Tavernier was one of the most outstanding French film makers of his time. Born in Lyon in 1941, he began his career with a short-lived stint as an assistant to Jean-Pierre Melville - an experience and environment that affected him so deeply that he took up first film journalism then worked as a highly influential press agent for ten years before returning to filmmaking.

A diverse filmmaker whose works covered a spectacular range of genres, settings and time periods, Tavernier imbued his films with intelligence and grace, but they were also often a commentary on political and social injustice and the strength of the human spirit. This essential collection includes 8 of his films, a tribute and testimony to the spectacular work of the legendary filmmaker.




May 30, 2022

Carl Theodor Dreyer's Vampyr (1932) on blu-ray from Masters of Cinema (UK), from a new 2K restoration by the Danish Film Institute completed in 2020



The first foray into sound filmmaking by one of cinema's pivotal artists, Vampyr remains a cornerstone work of the horror genre. The dreamlike tale of an occult-obsessed student's visit to a small French village, as he is drawn into the unsettling mystery around a stricken family's struggle with malevolent forces, remains an unparalleled evocation of the uncanny.

Adapting the haunted stories of Sheridan Le Fanu, Dreyer's ceaseless innovation delivers a tour-de-force of supernatural phantasmagoria and creeping unease, via audacious camerawork and sound design.




May 25, 2022

After Dark: Neo Noir Cinema Collection One (1990-1998) on blu-ray from Impulse (Australia)



-After Dark My Sweet (1990)
-Rush (1991)
-One False Move (1992)
-Mortal Thoughts (1992)
-Flesh & Bone (1993)
-Twilight (1998)



April 27, 2022

Ivan Passer's Cutter's Way (1981) on blu-ray from Impulse (Australia)



Alex Cutter is a boozy, belligerent and deeply cynical Vietnam veteran whose encounter with a landmine during the war has left him minus an eye, a leg and an arm. When his drifter playboy friend Richard Bone is falsely accused of murder, Cutter sets out for revenge in his own inimitable style


WorldForgot

Wow! Thank you for this comprehensive post, and including asides such as the short film and collection inclusionz, and the upscale note.

That Neo Noir collection iz dank. Also, Femme Fatale via Shout! Definitely going to grab that.

I hadn't heard of Liv Ullmann's Faithless before but that sounds like a gem that was out of my sight. Looking forward to revisiting this post and checking out more of the films as the year goes on.

wilder

May 10, 2022

The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection: Volume Two (1942-1976) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Universal. Individual releases also coming, simultaneously.



Alfred Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense, directed some of the most exciting and memorable films in cinema history. The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection features five films from the acclaimed director's illustrious career, including Saboteur, Shadow of a Doubt, The Trouble with Harry, Marnie, and Family Plot in stunning 4K resolution. Starring Hollywood favorites such as Sean Connery, Tippi Hedren, Shirley MacLaine, Joseph Cotten, Robert Cummings, Norman Lloyd, Teresa Wright, Bruce Dern, and John Forsythe, this collection includes hours of bonus features and captures the artistry of one of the most innovative directors of all time.


Saboteur (1942)



Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur is a riveting wartime thriller following an innocent man who suddenly finds himself in a very deadly situation. After aircraft factory worker Barry Kane (Robert Cummings) witnesses his plant's firebombing by a Nazi agent, he finds himself falsely accused of sabotage and killing his best friend. To clear his name, Kane begins a relentless cross-country chase that takes him from Los Angeles to Boulder Dam and New York's Radio City Music Hall. The suspense builds to a climactic finale atop the Statue of Liberty that has become one of the most iconic scenes ever filmed by the Master of Suspense.



Shadow of a Doubt (1943)



One of Alfred Hitchcock's most chilling films, Shadow of a Doubt, was considered a personal favorite by the director himself. After her charming Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotton) comes to visit in the sleepy town of Santa Rosa, his favorite niece and namesake, "Young Charlie" (Teresa Wright), begins to suspect him of being the infamous Merry Widow murderer. As she draws closer to the truth, a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse begins, leading to a shocking climax in this riveting psychological thriller from the Master of Suspense.



The Trouble with Harry (1955)



Set against a picturesque New England backdrop, Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry is a dark comedy starring Edmund Gwenn, John Forsythe, Shirley MacLaine and Jerry Mathers. The trouble with Harry is that he is dead and, while no one really minds, everyone feels responsible. After Harry's body is discovered in the woods, several of the local residents must determine not only how and why he was killed but what to do with the body. Featuring romance, humor...and several unearthings of the corpse, this quirky romp showcases a decidedly different type of story from the Master of Suspense.



Marnie (1964)



Director Alfred Hitchcock creates a spellbinding portrait of disturbed woman and the man who tries to save her in the unrelenting psychological thriller Marnie. A compulsive liar and thief, Marnie (Tippi Hedren) winds up impulsively marrying the very man (Sean Connery) she attempts to rob. When a terrible accident pushes her over the edge, her husband struggles to help her face her demons and her past as the plot races to a shattering, inescapable conclusion. Originally marketed as a "suspenseful sex mystery," this shocking story from the Master of Suspense is a mesmerizing classic.



Family Plot (1976)



Director Alfred Hitchcock delivers a diabolically entertaining thriller in Family Plot starring Karen Black, Bruce Dern, Barbara Harris and William Devane. A phony psychic (Harris) and con man (Dern) are a conniving couple who plot to swindle an old lady out of her fortune by telling her they can find her long-lost nephew. In the process, their lives become intertwined with a larcenous jewel merchant (Devane) and his beautiful girlfriend (Black) who have an affinity for kidnapping. Filled with plot twists from beginning to end, the final film from the Master of Suspense is a fitting finale to his illustrious career.

wilder

Summer 2022 TBD

The Coen Bros. Fargo (1996) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Shout Factory



Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) is a car salesman in Minneapolis who has gotten himself into debt and is so desperate for money that he hires two thugs (Steve Buscemi), (Peter Stormare) to kidnap his own wife. Jerry will collect the ransom from her wealthy father (Harve Presnell), paying the thugs a small portion and keeping the rest to satisfy his debts. The scheme collapses when the thugs shoot a state trooper.



April 7, 2022

Uli Edel's Christiane F. (1981) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Euro Video (Germany). Includes English subtitles.



In 1970s Berlin, an aimless teenager, living with her single mother, falls in with a drug dealer.



July 19, 2022

Paul Schrader's Cat People (1982) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Shout Factory



A young woman's sexual awakening brings horror when she discovers her urges transform her into a monstrous black leopard.



Late 2022 TBD

Joseph Sargent's The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Kino



A gang of thugs who have hijacked a subway train near New York's Pelham Station threaten to kill one hostage per minute. Forced to stall the assailants until a ransom is delivered or a rescue made, transit chief Lt. Garber must somehow ad-lib, con and outmaneuver one of the craftiest, cruelest villains ever.



June 28, 2022

Tony Scott's True Romance (1993) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Arrow US



Runaway lovers Clarence and Alabama play a dangerous game when they come to possess a suitcase of mob contraband. They head for Los Angeles, where they'll sell the goods and begin a new life. But both sides of the law have other ideas.



May 31, 2022

Ivan Passer's Born to Win (1971) on blu-ray from Fun City Editions



J. (George Segal, Where's Poppa?) was a hairdresser until his escalating heroin addiction broke up his family and overtook his life. In filmmaker Ivan Passer's Fun City-set Born to Win, J. and his friend and fellow junkie Billy Dynamite (Jay Fletcher, Foxy Brown), are reduced to running scams all over town together, desperately angling for their next fix. When a free-spirited young woman (Karen Black, Easy Rider) falls for J., it seems they might have a chance to escape this bleak world together, but J.'s addiction means they are never too far from the reach of a merciless drug dealer and pimp (Hector Elizondo, The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3) and a relentless narcotics cop (Robert De Niro, Taxi Driver). In the supporting cast, are Paula Prentiss (The Stepford Wives) as J.'s estranged wife, who turns tricks to support her habit, and, in one of his first roles, Burt Young (Rocky) as a hoodlum.

After directing his acclaimed debut film Intimate Lighting in his native Czechoslovakia, Passer fled to America, following the Warsaw Pact invasion of his homeland. He teamed with playwright and novelist David Scott Milton and producer-star Segal to make Born to Win, his first English-language film. Over fifty years after its initial release, it stands as one of the quintessential and most influential cinematic portrayals of the down-and-out New York City of the early 1970s, and some of its less fortunate inhabitants. For this first-ever Blu-ray release, Born to Win has been restored in 2K from its 35mm interpositive, beautifully preserving the film's indelible images of a New York that otherwise exists only in our memories.





June 14, 2022

Herzog: The Collection Vol. 2 on blu-ray from Shout Factory



QuoteSIGNS OF LIFE

THE GREAT ECSTASY OF WOODCARVER STEINER

HOW MUCH WOOD WOULD A WOODCHUCK CHUCK

LA SOUFRIÈRE

GOD'S ANGRY MAN

HUIE'S SERMON

THE DARK GLOW OF THE MOUNTAINS

HERDSMEN OF THE SUN

ECHOES FROM A SOMBER EMPIRE

WHEEL OF TIME

THE WILD BLUE YONDER



Late 2022 TBD

Seven films directed by Francois Truffaut Prepped for blu-ray from Kino



QuoteThe Bride Wore Black (1968)

After newly widowed Julie Kohler's (Jeanne Moreau) mother stops her from committing suicide, she hatches a different plan to deal with her grief. In a small black book, she lists five men. One by one she visits the men with murderous intentions, assuming different identities to get close to them. Only one man remains elusive, having been captured by the cops before Julie could reach him -- but despite the obstacles, Julie intends to see her task through to the end.

Mississippi Mermaid (1969)

Lonely on the island of Réunion, tobacco planter Louis Mahe (Jean-Paul Belmondo) decides to wed a mail-order bride. Although the woman who arrives off the ship, Julie Roussel (Catherine Deneuve), looks nothing like her picture, she's still gorgeous. Their marriage seems to be going fine until Julie empties his bank accounts and disappears. This should be the end of Louis' obsession -- but then he spots Julie in the south of France and falls under her spell once more.

The Wild Child (1970)

A young boy (Jean-Pierre Cargol) is discovered in a forest, living a feral existence among a pack of wolves. Captured by hunters, he is sent to Paris and placed in a school for deaf-mute children. There he is observed by Dr. Itard (François Truffaut) who concludes that the boy is neither deaf nor intellectually stunted, but has simply been deprived of normal, humanizing influences. With no shortage of tenderness, patience and ambition, Itard devotes himself to educating and civilizing the boy.

The Story of Adele H (1975)

Adèle Hugo (Isabelle Adjani), daughter of renowned French writer Victor Hugo, falls in love with British soldier Albert Pinson (Bruce Robinson) while living in exile off the coast of England. Though he spurns her affections, she follows him to Nova Scotia and takes on the alias of Adèle Lewly. Albert continues to reject her, but she remains obsessive in her quest to win him over. When Albert is stationed in the West Indies, Adèle once again trails him, furthering her downward spiral.

Small Change (1976)

Filmed in the small French city of Thiers, François Truffaut's episodic comedy-drama concerns one of the director's favorite subjects: childhood. A class clown stalls the teacher long enough to avoid answering a question, a toddler ends up on a high window ledge, a little girl announces to the neighborhood that her parents are punishing her, and the new boy in school hides his poor, abusive home life in these intertwining stories illustrating the joys and sorrows of growing up.

The Man Who Loved Women (1977)

Middle-aged Frenchman Bertrand Morane (Charles Denner) is relentless in his pursuit of women, constantly moving from conquest to conquest without any qualms about his promiscuity. He attempts to woo Helene (Geneviève Fontanel), a lovely lingerie store owner, but she prefers younger men, so he moves on to a married woman, Delphine Grezel (Nelly Borgeaud). Bertrand eventually begins his sex-filled memoirs, and his editor, Genevieve Bigey (Brigitte Fossey), becomes his next amorous relationship.

The Green Room (1978)

Julien Davenne (François Truffaut) is a French writer who becomes consumed with the concept of death. After losing many friends during the fighting in World War I, Julien constructs a shrine to those close to him who died in battle. At the heart of Julien's obsession is his late wife, whom he honors throughout his home, which is essentially one large memorial dedicated to her memory. Though Julien makes fleeting attempts to connect with the living, he seems more comfortable with the dead.



May 17, 2022

Victor Fleming's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) on blu-ray from Warner Archive



Gentle Dr. Jekyll (Spencer Tracy) experiments with human nature, believing that each person has both good and evil sides that can be brought forth chemically. Jekyll tests a serum on himself, releasing his vicious alter ego, Mr. Hyde, on 19th-century London. Prowling the town, Hyde ventures to a music hall and encounters Ivy (Ingrid Bergman), whom he takes forcibly as his mistress. When the serum's effects wear off, Jekyll vows never to take it again. But Hyde is not gone for good.



June 14, 2022

Busby Berkeley's For Me and My Gal (1942) on blu-ray from Warner Archive



Delightful romp set in pre-WWI vaudeville, with naive young singer Jo Hayden (Judy Garland) being wooed away from her stage partners by debonair hoofer Harry Palmer (Gene Kelly, in his film debut). The pair struggles to make it big, and find their romance interrupted by Harrys enlistment in an entertainment troupe overseas. Directed by Busby Berkeley, and starring Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Mártha Eggerth, George Murphy, and Ben Blue.



June 14, 2022

Busby Berkeley's Ziegfeld Girl (1941) on blu-ray from Warner Archive



An elevator operator, a wife of a struggling concert violinist, a born-in-the-trunk vaudevillian: they're three different women on three different paths of life, yet they soon share one dream: to become a Ziegfeld Girl.

Lana Turner, Hedy Lamarr and Judy Garland play the respective three trying for stardom in this sumptuous extravaganza. James Stewart adds to the star wattage, playing the jilted truck-driving beau of Turner's footlight diva. And legendary innovator Busby Berkeley brings his imaginative camerawork and pacing to numbers that include Garland's massively scaled and calypso-infused Minnie from Trinidad, plus a lavish, showgirl-revue finale that reprises the rhapsodic You Stepped Out of a Dream. Sweet dreams, movie fans.




June 7, 2022

John Reinhardt's The Guilty (1947) & High Tide (1947) on blu-ray from Flicker Alley



QuoteThe Guilty (1947)

Released by Monogram Pictures, is a triumph of resourcefulness for its nomadic Viennese director, John Reinhardt. Based on a short story by legendary suspense writer Cornell Woolrich, this little-seen B movie centers on war veterans Mike Carr (Don Castle) and Johnny Dixon (Wally Cassell), roommates in a low-rent tenement. They are romantically entangled with twin sisters Estelle and Linda Mitchell (Bonita Granville, in a dual role). When one sister turns up dead, the boys are hounded by a suspicious police inspector (Regis Toomey)—although there's no shortage of suspects. Working on only three sets, with a shoestring budget, Reinhardt and director of photography Henry Sharp evoke the dreadful, dead-of-night ambiance that was the domain of the era's most prolific noir scribe, Cornell Woolrich.

Thanks to the dedication of the Film Noir Foundation, The Guilty has been restored from a 35mm nitrate composite fine-grain master by UCLA Film & Television Archive.


High Tide (1947)

Forgotten noir, set in a spectacularly corrupt Los Angeles, is a crackling crime thriller rescued thanks to the combined efforts of the Film Noir Foundation, UCLA Film & Television Archive, and the British Film Institute.

In flashback, we learn that Slade was brought in by muckraking editor Fresney as protection against a mobster (Anthony Warde) his paper is investigating. Things quickly get complicated as Fresney's boss has a wife (Julia Bishop) eager to resume a smoldering romance with Slade. When a main character gets iced early, everybody becomes a suspect, and the double-crosses start multiplying at a breakneck pace.

High Tide was the second of two crime thrillers independently produced in 1947 by Texas oil tycoon Jack Wrather. It carries over from The Guilty the same screenwriter and cameraman, the same protagonist in actor Don Castle, and the same director, John Reinhardt, whose playful inventiveness enlivened several post-WW II films noir.

Restoration funding was provided by the Film Noir Foundation in conjunction with the Packard Humanities Institute. The action gets rolling with one of the greatest framing gimmicks in noir: a speeding car crashes onto a rocky shoreline and its occupants, newspaper editor Hugh Fresney (Lee Tracy) and private eye Tim Slade (Don Castle) recount the plot as the rising tide threatens to drown them.



June 5, 2022

George Armitage's Miami Blues (1990) on blu-ray from MVD Visual



Veteran criminal Junior Frenger has moved to Miami to get a fresh start.... at robbing a whole new set of people.



July 12, 2022

Don Siegel's Rough Cut (1980) on blu-ray from Paramount, from a 4K restoration



Jewel thief Jack Rhodes, a.k.a. "Jack of Diamonds," is masterminding a heist of $30 million worth of uncut gems. He also has his eye on lovely Gillian Bromley, who becomes a part of the gang he is forming to pull off the daring robbery. Chief Inspector Cyril Willis from Scotland Yard, however, is blackmailing Gillian, threatening her with prosecution on another theft if she doesn't cooperate in helping him bag the elusive Rhodes, the last jewel in his crown before the Chief Inspector formally retires from duty.




July 5, 2022

William Friedkin's The Hunted (2003) on blu-ray from Paramount



An FBI deep-woods tracker captures a trained assassin who has made a sport of hunting humans.



August 23, 2022

Luis Bunuel's The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955) on blu-ray from VCI



The wealthy Archibaldo is a potential serial killer. This might be the result of a childhood incident: his governess caught him trying on some of his mother's clothes and scolded him. He wished the governess dead, and she was immediately killed by a stray bullet from a revolution raging outside the window. Conflating violent death with sexual desire, the adult Archibaldo plots to murder numerous women, but his elaborate schemes are constantly thwarted.



July 18, 2022

Frank Perry's Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970) on blu-ray from Indicator (UK)



Superbly directed by Frank Perry (The Swimmer, Play It as It Lays), with a scathing screenplay by Eleanor Perry (David and Lisa, Ladybug Ladybug), Diary of a Mad Housewife tells the story of Tina Balser (Carrie Snodgress, The Fury, Pale Rider) a frustrated housewife trapped in an unhappy marriage to an insufferably controlling, status-obsessed bore (Richard Benjamin, Catch-22). Tina seeks solace in a fling with an abusive lover, the arrogant writer Georg Prager (Frank Langella, Dracula), who treats her like a sex object, leading to therapy and further unhappiness.



July 18, 2022

Budd Boetticher's Bullfighter and the Lady (1951) on blu-ray from Indicator (UK)



American sportsman Johnny Regan (Robert Stack, Written on the Wind) goes to a bullfight while holidaying in Mexico and witnesses the great matador Manolo Estrada (Gilbert Roland, She Done Him Wrong) in action. The two men meet later that evening, and Johnny becomes entranced by Anita (Joy Page, Casablanca), a friend of Manolo's. Impressed by the world of bullfighting, and seeking to impress Anita, Johnny becomes Manolo's pupil so that he, too, may become a champion torero.

Produced by John Wayne, and based in part on Budd Boetticher's experiences as a novice bullfighter, Bullfighter and the Lady was initially released in a shorter 87-minute cut, reputedly edited by John Ford. In 1986, with the aid of Boetticher and Stack, the complete 124-minute version was restored, revealing the film to be a true masterpiece. Both cuts are presented on this edition, alongside Boetticher's final work as a director, the 1985 documentary My Kingdom For... which is part autobiography, part history of the bullfighting art of rejoneo.




June 13, 2022

The Rainer Werner Fassbinder Collection Vol. 3 on blu-ray from Arrow (UK)



Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the enfant terrible of the New German Cinema, wrote, directed, produced and starred in over 40 films in his short but prolific life, before passing away of a drugs overdose in 1982 aged just 37. Rainer Werner Fassbinder vol. 3 brings together a collection of his lesser seen works from various stages in his career, featuring high definition digital restorations prepared by the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation.

Quote-The American Soldier
-The Niklashausen Journey
-Gods of the Plague
-Rio Das Mortes
-Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven
-Fear of Fear
-Satan's Brew



April 25, 2022

Francois Truffaut's Jules and Jim (1962) on blu-ray from BFI (UK), from a new 2K restoration



In the carefree days before World War I, introverted Austrian author Jules strikes up a friendship with the exuberant Frenchman Jim. Both men fall for the impulsive and beautiful Catherine, but it's Jules who wins her hand. After the war, Jim visits Jules, Catherine, and their daughter in their Austrian home and discovers not only that his feelings for Catherine are unchanged, but also that they're reciprocated.



May 16, 2022

Alan Arkin's Fire Sale (1977) on blu-ray from Signal One (UK)



Benny and his wife Ruthie a getting set to drive down to Florida, but Benny needs someone to look after his store while he's gone. Though he doesn't think much of him, Benny hands the responsibility over to his son, Russel. While Russel doesn't get much respect from his parents, he's better off than his brother, Ezra, whom Benny has gone so far as to disown. Ezra is currently battling with his work (coach of a high school basketball team that hasn't won in ages) and his wife (who keeps nagging him that she wants to have a baby as soon as possible) at the same time.




May 4, 2022

Shirley Barrett's Love Serenade (1996) on blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment (Australia)



Though one is shy and the other is flashy and outgoing, the Hurley sisters are both lonely young women on the lookout for love! So when a slick, smooth-talking radio deejay from the big city blows into their tiny town - and moves in next door - it sets off a hilarious competition to win his affections!




July 27, 2022

Ken Russell's Whore (1991) on blu-ray from Imprint (Australia)



The life of a jaded L.A. prostitute is described in this haunting drama, through flashbacks of her past marriage, brutal, inhumane abuse and her time on the streets.



July 27, 2022

Philip Haas' The Music of Chance (1993) on blu-ray from Imprint (Australia)



Two men face the consequences of gambling after playing with men beyond their league.


wilder

October 2022 TBD

Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist (1982) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Warner Bros.



A family's home is haunted by a host of demonic ghosts.



August 16, 2022

John Milius's Red Dawn (1984) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Shout Factory, from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative



In the heartland of the United States of America, a group of teenagers band together to defend their town, and their country, from invading Soviet and Cuban forces.



July 12, 2022

Alan Parker's Angel Heart (1987) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Lionsgate



In the 1950s Brooklyn a seedy PI is hired by a shady client to track down a singer who reneged on a debt. The investigation takes an unexpected and somber turn.



June 20, 2022

Luis Bunuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) on 4K UHD blu-ray from StudioCanal (UK)



The Ambassador of the small South American country of Miranda is trafficking in drugs with some French bourgeois friends of his. But every time they want to have dinner together, their plans are put off due to unexpected events. In their quest of a lavish feast, the dividing-line between reality and dreams becomes unclear for each guest, leading to complete and utter ridicule.




May 31, 2022

William Peter Blatty's The Ninth Configuration (1980) on blu-ray from Shout Factory, from a new 2K restoration of the original camera negative. Exclusive to their online store



In the final days of the Vietnam War, a remote castle in the Pacific Northwest serves as a mental hospital for troubled soldiers scarred by their experiences. Isolated and all-but-forgotten, the inmates are running the asylum ... until Colonel Kane (Stacy Keach) arrives to take over their treatment. Taking a special interest in one of his new patients – former astronaut Billy Cutshaw (Scott Wilson) who inexplicably aborted his mission to the Moon during its final countdown – Kane seeks answers to the mysteries of the breakdown. But as his time in the castle goes on, the riddles in Kane's own mind reveal themselves in shocking and violent ways.




2022 TBD

Gavin Millar's Dreamchild (1985) on blu-ray from Kino



Exploring the somewhat darker and more mysterious side of the Lewis Carroll's classic book, the movie follows Alice Liddell (the book's inspiration) as an old woman who is haunted by the characters she was once so amused by. As she thinks back on it, she starts to see her relationship with the shy author/professor in a new way and realizes the vast change between the young Alice and the old.






2022 TBD

Vincent J. Donehue's Lonelyhearts (1958) on blu-ray from Kino



Eager to land a journalistic position, Adam White goes to work as an advice-giving newspaper columnist. His editor, Shrike, takes pleasure in browbeating his alcoholic wife Florence for her past adultery, and assigning his employees journalistic jobs for which they have little aptitude or interest. Shrike goads Adam into meeting one of his correspondents, Fay Doyle, a teary, self-pitying woman who makes a play for him. Adam is torn between his loyalty to the newspaper and his girl Justy.



2022 TBD

William Dieterle's Love Letters (1945) on bu-ray from Kino




During World War II, Roger Morland (Robert Scully) persuades his friend Alan Quinton (Joseph Cotton) to write passionate love letters to Victoria Remington (Jones). Believing that Roger is the author of the letters, she marries him. Roger's deception sets in motion a dire chain of events that locks Victoria in a world of fear and clouded memories. So begins a tale of intrigue, love and suspense, as Alan returns home in search of Victoria, the woman he loves. Once he finds her, can he risk driving her over the edge with the knowledge of her past life?



August 30, 2022

Milton Moses Ginsberg's Coming Apart (1969) on blu-ray from Kino



Joe is a psychiatrist who puts a hidden camera behind his couch, facing a wall sized mirror in order to document a number of women who come and go. Obsessed with a former lover, Joe intends to perform and record an "experiment in contemporary sexual aberration." In the process, Joe documents his own mental breakdown as well as a number of sexually volatile encounters with the women who come to see him.




2022 TBD

Anthony Mann and Laurence Harvey's A Dandy in Aspic (1968) on blu-ray from Kino



A Russian double-agent working for British Intelligence is assigned to track down and kill an unusual target...himself!



August 16, 2022

Lasse Halstrom's What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) on blu-ray from Paramount



A young man in a small Midwestern town struggles to care for his mentally-disabled younger brother and morbidly obese mother while attempting to pursue his own happiness.



May 30, 2022

The Pemini Organisation (1972-1974) on blu-ray from Indicator



In the early 1970s, three ambitious friends – Peter Crane, Michael Sloan and Nigel Hodgson – combined the first letters of each of their names and set up the Pemini Organisation, a young and vital independent British film production company. Active between 1972 and 1974, Pemini produced one mid-length film, Hunted, a high-suspense thriller starring Edward Woodward and June Ritchie, and two feature films: Assassin, a grimly realistic spy film starring Ian Hendry, Edward Judd, Frank Windsor, Ray Brooks and Mike Pratt; and Moments, an enigmatic romantic mystery starring Keith Michell and Angharad Rees. When Pemini disbanded, the films disappeared into the ether...

Now, these three lost works, made by one of the most vibrant independent production companies of the era, have been rescued from the archives to be given their first ever home entertainment release in this deluxe, individually numbered Limited Edition Blu-ray set, accompanied by a wealth of newly produced extras, including feature-length director commentaries, cast and crew interviews, and an 80-page book.


Quote from: Mondo DigitalHunted (1972)
Features Edward Woodward (just before shooting The Wicker Man) as a Scottish man named John who sets up a late morning appointment to check out an office space with real estate agent Margaret. Inside the space (which is adorned with amazing half-sheets for plays like Oh, Calcutta!), she comes to realize that he has something a lot more sinister in mind when he keeps hanging out by the window and soon whips out a hunting shotgun in what appears to be a plan to fire at passersby during the lunch hour. John promises not to hurt her if she doesn't try to escape, and as the time approaches and she gradually gleans more information out of him, it becomes apparent that his plan could be far different than it appears.

Assassin (1973)
Ian Hendry stars as a nameless MI5 agent who's flown in for on an elaborate mission to research and carry out a hit for the government on someone who's been leaking state secrets within the Ministry of Defense. His client doesn't care if the killing looks like an accident (saying blame will go to "the other side"), but Hendry has his own personal code about killing within the machinery of government that could throw a major wrench into the works. Along the way we meet other government officials who decide to send in a pair of backups in case things go wrong. There's very little dialogue here, with the use of sound effects and stylized photography carrying across what feels like a mixture of gritty '70s U.K. crime thriller with an austere art film.

Moments (1974)
Traumatized by the deaths of his wife and daughter, businessman Peter Samuelson takes a train to a seaside hotel where he had some happy memories from childhood. Finding the place largely empty off season, he reunites with the porter who's aged considerably in the ensuing decades. That first night he pulls out a gun with clear intentions of committing suicide, but he's interrupted by another guest, Chrissy, an energetic spirit who's having trouble with the gas line. 

Moments (1974) looks especially interesting, which Mondo Digital's review compared to Footprints on the Moon (1975)






August 22, 2022

Robin Hood at Hammer: Two Tales from Sherwood Forest (1960-1967) on blu-ray from Indicator (UK)



For 1960's Sword of Sherwood Forest, Richard Greene (The Blood of Fu Manchu, The Castle of Fu Manchu) reprises the role he made famous in the classic television series The Adventures of Robin Hood. Directed by Terence Fisher (The Gorgon, The Revenge of Frankenstein), and starring Peter Cushing (The Devil's Men, Corruption) as the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham, the film sees Robin Hood thwart a plot to assassinate the Archbishop of Canterbury (Jack Gwillm, Jason and the Argonauts, The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb). The film also boasts an uncredited early role for Oliver Reed (The System, The Damned).

In 1967's A Challenge for Robin Hood, Barrie Ingham (The Day of the Jackal) dons the Lincoln green as he and his merrie men hide out in Sherwood Forest after his cousin (Peter Blythe, Frankenstein Created Woman) frames him for murder. This action-packed adventure features acting support from Gay Hamilton (Barry Lyndon, The Duellists) and Leon Greene (Adventures of a Private Eye, Adventures of a Plumber's Mate).





August 22, 2022

Frank Perry's The Swimmer (1968) on blu-ray from Indicator (UK)



One of the few bona fide counter-cultural films to be produced by a major studio, The Swimmer is a sun-scorched and surreal suburban satire that boasts a fine performance from Burt Lancaster (Castle Keep, Buffalo Bill and the Indians) as Ned Merrill, the all-American man who one day determines to swim home to his Connecticut mansion via a series of pools in his neighbourhood. Directed by Frank Perry (Diary of a Mad Housewife) imbues Eleanor Perry's (David and Lisa, Ladybug Ladybug) adaptation of John Cheever's short story with stunning expressionistic flourishes, creating a true masterpiece of cinema.




June 6, 2022

The Vise: Volume One (1954) on blu-ray fro Network (UK)



Edward J. and Harry Lee Danziger, producers extraordinaire – native New Yorkers, they set up shop in Britain in 1952 and, for a decade, became arguably the world's most prolific independent supplier of television shows and 'B' movies, creating nearly 100 films and in excess of 300 TV episodes for the British and American market. Their longest-running creation was one-armed detective Mark Saber, who sleuthed his way through more than 150 episodes of murder, blackmail and conduct unbecoming!

But before Saber appeared on the scene, there was The Vise – an anthology series that nailed its colors to the mast in the opening sentence of each episode: "The story we're going to tell is about people caught in the jaws of a vise – in a dilemma of their own making!". Over 65 episodes a rotating cast played out a succession of noir-tinged morality tales, with each show bookended by a monologue from moody Australian actor Ron Randell.
Featuring screenplays from a very young Brian Clemens among others, this volume showcases 21 episodes from the first series of The Vise – unseen for over fifty years they have been newly transferred from original film elements especially for this release!





September 27, 2022

Eduardo Coutinho's Man Marked for Death, 20 Years Later (1984) on blu-ray from new UK label Mawu Films, a "new independent blu-ray company focusing on rare and forgotten cinematic masterpieces from Africa and Latin America"



'Man Marked for Death, 20 Years Later' is an intensely moving portrait of a family ripped apart by the murder of the Sapé Peasant League leader, João Pedro Teixeira. Structurally daring, this seminal documentary creates a complex, genre-defying mosaic and the film's triptych design makes for a compelling odyssey through twenty years of Brazilian political upheaval.

Quote"In 1964, Eduardo Coutinho was at work on a film about João Pedro Teixeira, who was murdered by the police as a result of his efforts to organize farm workers in northeast Brazil. The director cast non-actors in the production, including Teixeira's widow, who plays herself, but shooting was cut short in the wake of the military coup that same year; footage was seized, a number of participants imprisoned. The project was resumed 20 years later, as the country was transitioning to a democracy, but had begun to take a rather different shape: Coutinho incorporated the earlier material as well new interviews with those originally involved and reflections on the injustices of the interval, yielding a prismatically reflexive, genre-defying essay on political commitment and life under dictatorship." —Film at Lincoln Center




August 31, 2022

The World of Suzie Wong (1960) on blu-ray from Imprint (Australia)



William Holden and Nancy Kwan star in this soul-searching look at an East-meets-West romance. He's a struggling American artist who's down on his luck. She's a beautiful Chinese prostitute who captures his heart. The scenery is as spectacular as the colorful and exotic streets of Hong Kong in this wonderfully warm story about the strength of true love.

Video essay discussing this movie: