Upcoming Releases

[filmlover]

Catching up on some DVD news:

 

I just noticed that Luis Bunuel?s *A Death in the Garden ? La mort en ce jardin* ? from 1956 is getting its first U.S. release on DVD on Oct. 27th.

 

Four more of the *TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection* will be released on Nov 3rd. The themes will be:

 

_Holiday_ (Christmas in Connecticut, A Christmas Carol [1938], The Shop Around the Corner, and It Happened on 5th Avenue).

 

_Hitchcock Thrillers_ (Suspicion, Strangers on a Train, The Wrong Man, and I Confess)

 

_Comedy_ (Arsenic and Old Lace, A Night at the Opera, The Long Long Trailer, Father of the Bride [1950]

 

_Family_ (Lassie Come Home, Flipper [1963], The Incredible Mr. Limpet, and National Velvet)

[filmlover]

dvdbeaver.com has a review up comparing the UK Blu-ray version of "The Prisoner" with that of the U.S. A&E version coming out in a few weeks. Basically, both look similar, with the A&E having some new short featurettes and the UK version having the 290-page book instead. It's your call. By the way, the UK is Region B locked and won't play here, and the US is region A locked and will play here but not there.

 

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews47/the_prisoner_blu-ray.htm

[filmlover]

I had previously mentioned that *Tora! Tora! Tora!* was getting a German release on Blu-ray. France will be releasing it, too, on November 25th.

 

Still no sign of a U.S. release.

[CineMaven]

Hi there Filmlover. May I please try my hand at an FYI in the world of DVDs? This time it's horror:

 

I read about this in today's Sunday New York Times:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/movies/18kehr.html?_r=1&ref=movies

 

Thanx!

-C.M.

[filmlover]

Hi, CineMaven,

 

Thanks for posting the article. I think all the titles have been mentioned here at some point in the last while, but it is still interesting to see that studios are still producing titles for the home market.

 

The L.A. Times has a lengthy article on the William Castle Collection today:

 

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-secondlook18-2009oct18,0,777395.story

[filmlover]

According to a poster on blu-ray.com, Warner Bros. have announced for France on Blu-ray:

 

April 7th:

Where Eagles Dare

Kelly's Heroes

 

May 12th:

A Star is Born (1954)

 

October 6:

Mars Attack

The Exorcist

Forbidden Planet

 

November 3, 2010:

Treasure of the Sierra Madre

The Maltese Falcon

2001 Space Odyssey: Ultimate Collector's Ed.

 

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=118463

Expect we will see most of these in the U.S. around the same time

[filmlover]

According to a reliable poster over at blu-ray.com, *The Avengers - the Complete Series* is coming out in the UK on Blu-ray in 2010 from Studio Canal/Optimum. Uncertain if region-locked and we have to wait to see if there will be a U.S. distribution.

[filmlover]

Warner Home Video is releasing the original Alan Parker-directed version of *Fame* on Blu-ray on Jan. 26. The extras include:

 

- Class reunion commentary with branching video highlights and featuring director Alan Parker and co-Stars Lee Curreri, Laura Dean, Gene Anthony Ray and Maureen Teefy

- Vintage featurette: On Location with Fame

- Featurette: Fame Field Trip - visits the school that inspired the movie

- Q&A interviews with director F. Gary Gray and producer Patricia Charbonnet

- Theatrical trailer

- CD sampler with 4 songs

[filmlover]

Exciting upcoming classic film releases from Eureka Entertainment in the UK in their Masters of Cinema series. Like their release of *Sunrise* on Blu-ray, these will likely be region-free, so can be played here in the U.S.

 

Coming for Blu-ray:

 

F.W. Murnau's *City Girl* (1930) in February:

 

 

Fritz Lang's *M* (1931) in February:

 

 

Jean-Luc Goddard's *Une Femme Mariee* (1964) in January

 

 

Edited by: filmlover on Oct 20, 2009 4:37 PM to add the covers.

[filmlover]

dvdbeaver has their review up of *North by Northwest* on Blu.

 

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare5/northbynorthwest.htm

[filmlover]

A couple of more classics have been tentatively announced by Warner-France for Blu-ray in France (and I hope for the U.S.!):

 

*Dial M for Murder* ? June 2nd, 2010

*The Postman Always Rings Twice* (both the Garfield and the Nicholson versions) - June 2nd

*Doctor Zhivago* - Oct. 6th, 2010

 

 

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=118838

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=118836

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=118840

 

Adding those to the ones I already mentioned below:

 

April 7th:

*Where Eagles Dare*

*Kelly's Heroes*

 

May 12th:

*A Star is Born (1954)*

 

October 6:

*Mars Attack*

*The Exorcist*

*Forbidden Planet*

 

November 3, 2010:

*The Treasure of the Sierra Madre*

*The Maltese Falcon*

*2001: A Space Odyssey: Ultimate Collector's Ed.*

 

I never thought I would say it, but Viva La France!

[filmlover]

Amazon.com now has a listing up for *The African Queen* on Blu-ray for $27.99 coming from Paramount. No date set yet.

 

http://www.amazon.com/African-Queen-Blu-ray-Katharine-Hepburn/dp/B001UHOWWY/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1256234547&sr=8-4

[filmlover]

According to blu-ray.com, *The Rocky Horror Picture Show* is making its way to Blu in 2010. Among the extras will be a possible stage recreation of the film in front of the screen.

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=3589

 

There is a casting call on this site to tie in with it:

http://www.cosmosfactory.org/

[filmlover]

Timing into the remake's theatrical release, the original version of *Clash of the Titans* is getting a Blu-ray release in the UK on March 22.

[filmlover]

As a sort of followup to the news that Eureka is releasing *M* on Blu-ray, apparently Criterion will also be releasing the title on Blu in the near future.

[filmlover]

classicflix.com has announced that Lions Gate will be releasing A Man Called Adam, starring Sammy Davis, Jr. on DVD on January 12th.

 

http://www.classicflix.com/called-adam-p-9347.html

[filmlover]

Here's the latest from Barrie Maxwell over at digitalbits.com. Some of the items we know about alredy but there is some new info here of upcoming releases:

 

Alpha has announced its November and December releases, the vast majority of which are 1930s and 40s titles plus a few TV show compilations. Coming on November 24th will be: *The Adventures of Tartu, Annie Oakley: Volume 7, Arson Racket Squad, Rex Bell Double Feature: Crashing Broadway (1933)/Fighting Pioneers (1935), Buffalo Bill Jr. Double Feature: Rawhide Romance (1934)/The Texan (1932), Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion: Volumes 3 and 4, Clearing the Range, The Drag-Net, Four Deuces, Fugitive Road, Golden Age Theater: Volumes 8 and 9, Ken Maynard Western Classics: Honor of the Range (1934)/Town Went Wild (1945)/Fargo Express (1933)/Lightning Strikes West (1940)/Two Gun Man (1931), Medic: Volume 4, Radio Ranch, Roy Rogers Double Feature: The Cowboy and the Senorita (1944)/Under Nevada Skies (1946), Shotgun Slade: Volumes 1-3, Silent Comedy Showcase (7 shorts), Silver Spurs, Son of the Renegade,* and *Wrecking Crew*. Then on December 29th, expect: *The Adventures of Fu Manchu: Volume 2, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet: Volume 16, The Adventures of Robin Hood: Volume 21, Annie Oakley: Volume 8, Apache Rose, Colorado, Danger on the Air, Get That Girl, Ghost Town, Golden Age Theater: Volume 10, Lil Abner, Outside of Paradise, Overland Stagecoach, The Reckless Way, Riders of Black Mountain, Song of Nevada, Sweepstake Annie, Sword and Musclemen: Volume 1 (7 films on 5 DVDs), Tornado, Wolves of the Range,* and *Young Dynamite*.

 

 

Criterion's January slate is highlighted by the release of *Roberto Rossellini's War Trilogy* on January 26th. It will be a three-disc set containing Rome, Open City (1945), Paisan (1946, in its full original release version of six episodes), and Germany Year Zero (1948). Each title will also be available separately. Each disc will offer a video introduction by Rossellini, and a suite of new and archival features including audio commentary and a 2006 making-of documentary on the Rome, Open City disc; a new documentary on Rossellini's use of the urban landscape on the Paisan disc; and a 2001 documentary on Rossellini on the Germany Year Zero disc. Criterion will also issue Federico Fellini's *8?* (1963) on Blu-ray on January 12th. Among others, supplements will include an audio commentary featuring film critic and Fellini friend Gideon Bachmann and NYU film professor Antonio Monda; an HD digital transfer of a new restoration of Fellini: A Director's Notebook, a 52-minute film by Federico Fellini; The Last Sequence, a new 52-minute documentary on Fellini's lost alternate ending for 8?; and Nino Rota: Between Cinema and Concert, a compelling 48-minute documentary about Fellini's longtime composer. *Eclipse Series 19: Chantal Akerman in the Seventies* is planned for January 19th. It will contain five titles (a mix of shorts and features) on three discs: La Chambre (1972), Hotel Monterey (1972), News from Home (1976), Je Tu Il Elle (1974), and Les Rendez-Vous d'Anna (1978).

 

 

In conjunction with Blackhawk Films Collection and Turner Classic Movies, Flicker Alley will release *Miss Mend* on December 15th. The title is a three-part, 4 ? hour film produced in the Soviet Union in 1926 and inspired by American movie cliffhangers of the day. Mastered in HD from superb 35mm elements, the DVD release will feature a newly-recorded large-orchestra score by Robert Israel, a new 25-minute documentary on the film, a behind-the-scenes look at the Robert Israel recording sessions, and a booklet essay.

 

 

Grapevine Video has announced its October slate of seven releases, of which four are silent offerings: *Burning Daylight* (1928, with Milton Sills), *Eagle of the Night* (1928), *Mickey* (1918, with Mabel Normand), and Secrets of the Night (1924, with James Kirkwood). The three sound releases are a Don "Red" Barry 1943 western double feature of *California Joe* and Canyon City; *The Flying Serpent* (1946 PRC horror film with George Zucco); and *The Villain Still Pursued Her* (1940, with Billy Gilbert).

 

 

Lionsgate will release *A Man Called Adam* (1966, starring Sammy Davis Jr. as a trumpet player) on January 12th.

 

 

MGM has announced a promotion it's calling *MGM 85 Years of Stars*, for which it is releasing giftsets containing four films each starring well-known actors. They will be available on November 3rd. This appears to be a simple repackaging of films already available from MGM as separate DVDs with no new transfers involved. Just in case you may have somehow missed these titles in the past, the sets with content of interest to classic fans are: *Clint Eastwood Star Collection* (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, Hang 'Em High); *Frank Sinatra Star Collection* (Guys and Dolls, Hole in the Head, The Manchurian Candidate, Sergeants 3); *Gary Cooper Star Collection* (The Westerner, Man of the West, Along Came Jones, Pride of the Yankees); and *Jack Lemmon Star Collection* (Some Like It Hot, Avanti!, The Apartment, How to Murder Your Wife).

 

 

Paramount (in conjunction with CBS) will offer *Hogan's Heroes: Kommandant Kollection - The Komplete* Series (28 discs in 6 digipaks) on November 24th. As reported elsewhere on The Bits, there are fresh rumours that Paramount's release of *The African Queen* is imminent, with appearance on both DVD and Blu-ray likely. Rest assured, once there's something concrete, we'll have the news for you.

 

 

Shout! Factory will have *Merry Sitcom!: Christmas Classics* from TV's Golden Age on November 3rd. Similar to recent releases from Paramount/CBS, it will contain holiday-themed episodes from seven TV series including Father Knows Best, The Donna Reed Show, McHale's Navy, Bewitched, That Girl, The Flying Nun, and Window on Main Street.

 

 

There's still nothing official about the previously rumoured October release of the Universal Cult Horror Collection (Murders in the Zoo, The Mad Doctor of Market Street, The Strange Case of Dr. Rx, The Mad Ghoul, House of Horrors) that was to be a TCM exclusive, but further confirmation that it was definitely planned comes from the November issue of the TCM "Now Playing" guide. There, it's advertised as one of the available titles in the TCM Holiday Gift Guide pages of the publication. Even more interesting, however, is the advertisement of Remember the Night (1940, with Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, a Paramount title that Universal controls) as another TCM exclusive likely planned to be out before Christmas in order to benefit from the film's seasonal theme. There's obviously no specific timing on these releases as yet, but it seems safe to assume that if they go ahead, it'll now be well into November before they're available.

 

 

VCI has announced the delay of its Buck Rogers: 70th Anniversary Edition DVD from November 3rd to the 24th, due to a longer than anticipated period required to complete the digital restoration process.

 

 

Warner Bros. has announced the DVD release of *You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown: Deluxe Edition* for January 26th. A little beyond this column's mandate release-date wise, but of interest to those who enjoyed the 1970s TV series The Waltons, will be the January 26th release of *The Waltons Movie Collection*. It will include all six Walton TV movies from the 1980s and 1990s together on three double-sided-discs. The studio will also offer 4 Film Favorites: Urban Action Collection on January 19th. It will contain four films (most with Jim Kelly) from the 1970s : Black Belt Jones, Black Samson, Hot Potato, and Three the Hard Way. Warner Blu-ray plans include *The Music Man* (1962, with Robert Preston) on February 2nd. In other news, those interested in the wide retail release of the 2008 documentary *You Must Remember This* may have to wait. I say "may" because the announced October 20th release has been officially cancelled for now, yet I've seen copies newly available in stores in Toronto this last week of October.

 

 

The *Warner Archive* has added the following titles for October: The Badlanders (1958, with Alan Ladd), The Barbarian (1933, with Myrna Loy), Best of the Bad Men (1951, with Robert Ryan), The Bribe (1949, with Robert Taylor), City Beneath the Sea (1971, with Stuart Whitman), Comrade X (1940, with Clark Gable), Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939, with Edward G. Robinson), Every Girl Should Be Married (1948, with Cary Grant), The Fastest Gun Alive (1956, with Glenn Ford), Gabriel over the White House (1933, with Walter Huston), Gun Glory (1957, with Stewart Granger), The Iron Mistress (1952, with Alan Ladd), The Master Race (1944, with George Coulouris), Mission to Moscow (1943, with Walter Huston), The Mortal Storm (1940, with Margaret Sullavan), Our Miss Brooks (1956, with Eve Arden), Penthouse (1933, with Myrna Loy), Perfect Strangers (1950, with Ginger Rogers), Pretty Baby (1950, with Betsy Drake), Rancho Notorious (1952, with Marlene Dietrich), Robert Benchley Shorts (all 30 MGM shorts), The Rounders (1965, with Henry Fonda), The Sheepman (1958, with Glenn Ford), The Subject Was Roses (1968, with Patricia Neal), Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957, with Dean Martin), They Won't Forget (1937, with Claude Rains), Top Secret Affair (1957, with Kirk Douglas), and Whipsaw (1935, with Spencer Tracy). I know the recently released Esther Williams Collection: Volume Two got a release based on the fine sales of her Volume One, but it's hard to accept that we now have 11 of her films available on properly pressed DVDs yet we can't get some of the gems on the above list in Region 1 on other than overpriced, burnt product.

 

 

Some forthcoming classic titles in *Region 2* are as follows: October 26th - The Holly and the Ivy (1952, with Ralph Richardson) from Optimum; Cimarron Strip (5 discs released separately each containing 1 episode of the western TV series - "The Beast that Walks Like a Man", "The Judgement", "The Last Wolf", "Nobody", "The Deputy" - other episodes have also been previously released) from Pegasus International; British Heroes Box Set (contains The Wild Geese with Richard Burton, Zulu Dawn with Peter O'Toole, Ashanti with Michael Caine, Jaguar Lives with Joe Lewis, Game for Vultures with Richard Harris - all 1978-1979) from Arrow Films

November 2nd - Frank Borzage: Volume 1 (Seventh Heaven, Street Angel) and Frank Borzage: Volume 2 (Lucky Star, Liliom) both from the British Film Institute

November 16th - Home Town Story (1951, with Jeffery Lynn) from Brightspark

November 23rd - The Millionairess (1960, with Sophia Loren) from Arrow Films

December 4th - Desert Fury (1947, with Burt Lancaster) and The Dark Mirror (1946, with Olivia De Havilland) both from Koch Media in Germany

January 4th, 11th, 18th - Captain America: The Serial (1944 Republic serial) on 3 DVDs (5 chapters each) released 1 disc per week from Video International

January 11th - Eagle in a Cage (1972, with John Gielgud) from Video International

January 25th - Rebel Rousers (1967, with Jack Nicholson) from Video International

February 1st - Gunfight (1971, with Kirk Douglas) from Video International http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/barriemaxwell/maxwell102809b.html

[filmlover]

classixflix has announced the release of *King Lear* on DVD. This was a part of the Omnibus TV series in 1953 and starred Orson Welles. This was a live broadcast.

 

Extras include:

 

Interviews & Rehearsal Footage with Peter Brook and Virgil Thomson

Demonstration & Discussion of Scenes from Hamlet by Walter Kerr

Reports from the Yale University Shakespeare Festival by Alastair Cooke

PLUS: A Collectible Booklet with Essays About the Performance

 

http://www.classicflix.com/king-lear-p-9354.html

[filmlover]

www.highdefdigest.com has a review of *North by Northwest* on Blu-ray and it is easy to see that the reviewer was blown away by it.

 

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/309/northbynorthwest.html

[filmlover]

Great review of the Blu release of Buster Keaton's *The General*. The pictures show the increase in quality:

 

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare5/thegeneral.htm

[filmlover]

Good reviews up for the Blu versions of It's A Wonderful Life:

 

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare/wonderfullife.htm

 

and for A Christmas Carol (Lim):

 

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews47/a_christmas_carol_blu-ray.htm

[filmlover]

France is certainly keeping busy with announcements of upcoming Blu releases in that country (uncertain at this time if all will be Region-B locked):

 

Nov. 17th: *Phantom of the Paradise* (1974), Brian De Palma's update of the Phantom of the Opera

 

Feb. 16th (tentative):

*The Ladykillers*, the classic Alec Guinness comedy

*Senso* by Luchino Visconti from 1954, starring Alida Valli (The Third Man)

and two Jean-Paul Belmondo films: *Pierrot Le Fou* (1965) and the previously mentioned, *Breathless* (1960)

 

Edited by: filmlover on Nov 1, 2009 8:02 AM to add titles

[filmlover]

Well, the first review of the *Gone With The Wind* Blu-ray set is now up at dvdbeaver.com:

 

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare6/gonewiththewind.htm

[filmlover]

Just a small announcement that Paramount is going to release The Godfather and Godfather Part II as individual Blu-ray releases, so it won't be necessary to buy the box set. Part III is absent from the announcement. The two will be part of the Sapphire Series from Paramount (previous ones included Braveheart and Gladiator).

[filmlover]

Classicflix.com has announced Ballad in Blue (1964) starring Ray Charles (directed by Paul Henreid) is coming out on DVD from Lion's Gate on Jan. 12th.

 

http://www.classicflix.com/ballad-blue-p-9371.html