Coming DVDs

Big Magilla
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Post by Big Magilla »

Also on the way for region 2 are Nicholas Ray's Hot Blood (Jane Russell, Cornel Wilde) and a number of British classics including Dark Journey (Conrad Veidt, Vivien Leigh), Windom's Way (Peter Finch, Mary Ure), The Magic Box (Robert Donat), The Quare Fellow (Patrick McGoohan, Sylvia Sims) and The L-Shaped Room (Leslie Caron, Tom Bell, Brock Peters).
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Post by Precious Doll »

Some very interesting region 2 (UK) DVD's coming out in the next few months:

Olivier, Olivier (Agnieszka Holland)
The Ballad of Narayama (Shohei Imamura)
Je t'aime moi non plus (Serge Gainsbourg) which I have wanted to see since the 70's and now I will finally get the chance.
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Post by Okri »

The other two features are excellent films as well, if not quite up to the level of Woman in the Dunes. And the promise of rare short films in the box will probably make this my first Criterion purchase in over a year.


Heh. I haven't even been buying Criterion DVDs for a year yet. They do look lovely on my shelf.
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Post by rain Bard »

It should be great; I saw the touring restored print of the film (in the original 147-minute original director's cut) twice last year and it only deepened my appreciation of the film- which I didn't realize was possible.

The other two features are excellent films as well, if not quite up to the level of Woman in the Dunes. And the promise of rare short films in the box will probably make this my first Criterion purchase in over a year.
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Post by Big Magilla »

I missed Ivan's Childhood as well as Teshigahara's Pitfall and The Face of Another.

Woman in the Dunes was one of the first films released on DVD in region one in what was for 1998 a pretty good restoration job by Image, but I'm sure the Critierion edition will be even better.
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Post by Precious Doll »

dws1982 wrote:
Big Magilla wrote:July Criterion releases will include Hiroshi Teshigahara's Woman in the Dunes, Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole and Jean Pierre Melville's's Les Enfants Terribles.

You left out a big one: Ivan's Childhood, finally gets its release after about five years of "coming soon" rumors.
Woman in the Dunes, Ivan's Childhood & Les Enfants Terribles have all been available in region 2 for some time now with beautiful transfers.
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Post by dws1982 »

Big Magilla wrote:July Criterion releases will include Hiroshi Teshigahara's Woman in the Dunes, Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole and Jean Pierre Melville's's Les Enfants Terribles.

You left out a big one: Ivan's Childhood, finally gets its release after about five years of "coming soon" rumors.
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Post by Big Magilla »

July Criterion releases will include Hiroshi Teshigahara's Woman in the Dunes, Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole and Jean Pierre Melville's's Les Enfants Terribles.
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Post by Big Magilla »

Thanks for the heads up, Precious. Somehow The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne passed under my radar.

Also of note:

A Disney authorized region 1 DVD of Song of the South is available through an on-line Google retailer in Oregon. It's the DVD Disney sells to American tourists at Disneyland France.

If you look hard enough you can find all region versions of The Egyptian, Desireee, Houdini and The Search.

Several U.S. outlets offer region 1 DVDs from Brazil that ship directly from that country. The titles are in Portugese, but the films have their original English soundtracks. They are very big on Hollywood musicals which they remaster in much higher quality than the Hong Kong cheapies on the market. Titles include the 1936 version of Show Boat, the 1954 versions of The Student Prince and Rose Marie, the 1934 version of The Merry Widow, the Romberg biography, Deep in My Heart, both It's a Date and its remake, Nancy Goes to Rio, A Date With Judy, all the Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy films and all of Mario Lanza's films. Non-musicals such as The Story of Louis Pasteur and Juarez are also available.

A major Garbo film not yet released on DVD in the U.S., Conquest, is available from a Russian importer.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which sells for as much as $100 in its out-of-print British region 2 version is available as a Spanish import at normal prices (under $15).




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Post by Precious Doll »

There are some interesting recent DVD releases that some people may be interested in.

Brian De Palma's very hard to 1968 Murder a la Mode has made it's DVD debut through Something Weird in a beautiful print.

If you are a De Palma fan this is worth purchasing. The disc also includes a curio from 1962 The Moving Finger.

On the Region 2 front The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (with Maggie Smith), Nic Roeg's Track 29 and Intimate Relations (Julie Walters & Rupert Graves) were all released on DVD earlier this month in the U.K.

I have a feeling that they are bare bone discs and have no idea of the visual/sound quality but they are very cheaply priced.
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
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Post by Big Magilla »

Warners has ten nifty films noir set for release on 7/31 in dual disc packaging:

Act of Violence (1948) directed by Fred Zinnemann, featuring Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh and Mary Astor / Mystery Street (1950) directed by John Sturges, featuring Ricardo Montalban, Sally Forest, Bruce Bennett and Elsa Lanchester.

Crime Wave (1954) directed by Andre de Toth, featuring Sterling Hyden, Gene Nelson, Phyllis Kirk and Charles Bronson / Decoy (1946) directed Jack Bernhard, featuring Jean Gille, Edward Norris, Robert Armstrong and Sheldon Leonard.

Illegal (1955) directed by Lewis Allen, featuring Edward G. Robinson, Nina Foch, Hugh Marlowe and Jayne Mansfield / The Big Steal (1949) directed by Don Siegel, feautring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, William Bendix and Ramon Navarro.

They Live by Night (1948) directed by Nicholas Ray, featuring Cathy O'Donnell, Farley Granger, Howard Da Silva and Jay C. Flippen / Side Street (1950) directed by Anthony Mann, featuring Farley Granger, Cathy O'Donnell, James Craig and Jean Hagen.

Where Danger Lives (1950), directed by John Farrow, featuring Robert Mitchum, Faith Domergue, Claude Rains and Maureen O'Sullivan / Tension (1950), directed by John Berry, featuring Richard Basehart, Audrey Totter, Cyd Charisse and Barry Sullivan.
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Post by Penelope »

Oh, c'mon, La Collins WAS a superstar in the 80s, during her Dynasty heyday; but, yeah, she was only a minor celebrity during her film career.
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Post by Big Magilla »

Curiously Warners is not releasing Esther Williams' best film, Million Dollar Mermaid, or Mario Lanza's best, The Great Caruso and The Student Prince in which he sings the lead but was fired from the production for being too fat and replaced on screen by Edmond Purdom. All three films are available on import DVDs that will play on region 1 players, The Student Prince in both an inferior Hong Kong release and a superior Brazilian one.

Bravo, though, to Warners for including the 1934 Garbo version of The Painted Veil as a bonus on its May 8th release of the 2006 version.

Look any day now for the official news release of Fox's "Joan Collins Superstar" collection - an exercise in overhype if ever there was one. Collins was never a superstar and this collection proves it. It includes her flop starring vehicles, The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, Stopover Tokyo and The Sea Wife, as well as her featured roles in the more successful Rally Round the Flag, Boys!, a Paul Newman-Joanne Woodward film, and Seven Thieves in which she gives what is probably her best performance paired with Edward G. Robinson and Rod Steiger.
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Warner Home Video have announced the Region 1 DVD release of TCM Spotlight: Esther Williams on 17th July 2007. The ravishing bathing beauty who pioneered a new genre of moviemaking -- “Aqua Musicals” -- will be seen in some of her splashiest roles with this collection from Warner Home Video and Turner Classic Movies. The Collection includes the DVD debuts of five Technicolor films from ‘America’s Favorite Mermaid’ – Bathing Beauty, On an Island with You, Easy to Wed, Neptune’s Daughter and Dangerous When Wet.

Also included are special features such as TCM host Robert Osborne’s recent “Private Screenings” interview with Esther (featured on the Bathing Beauty DVD), Academy Award-winning vintage shorts, musical number outtakes, and classic cartoons. The films will be available only as a collection in a collectible digi-pak gift and will sell for $49.92 SRP.

Bathing Beauty (1944)
Rambunctious funnyman Red Skelton joins Esther Williams in this buoyant (literally) comedy about a lovesick songwriter who enrolls in a women’s college to woo his estranged swimming-teacher wife. Highlights include music from both Harry James and his Music Makers and Xavier Cugat and his Orchestra, Skelton in a pink tutu doing unforgivable things to Tchaikovsky and a spectacular, trendsetting ‘chlorine-and-chorine’ finale.

Special Features:
Robert Osborne hosts TCM’s Private Screenings with Esther Williams
Oscar-nominated Short Main Street Today
Academy Award-winning Cartoon Mouse Trouble
Theatrical trailer
Subtitles: English (feature film only)

On an Island with You (1948)
Moonlight swims, swaying palms, Technicolor® sunsets and…cannibals?! Esther Williams, Peter Lawford, Ricardo Montalban and Cyd Charisse get the swimming, swaying and sunsets and Jimmy Durante gets the cannibals in this tune-filled paradise for fans of musical comedy. The frothy plot follows a swimming movie star (Williams, who else?) pursued by two handsome suitors on the set of her latest film, but the main point is mostly the songs, romance and Esther in a sizzling series of swimsuits and sarongs.

Special Features:
Vintage Romance of Celluloid series short Personalities
Classic cartoon The Bear and the Hare
Theatrical trailer
Subtitles: English (feature film only)

Easy To Wed (1946)
In this fast-paced, romantic comedy – a remake of the screwball 1930’s classic Libeled Lady – the comic bits are legion, with two standouts: Van Johnson afloat with a baleful spaniel who knows a lot more about duck hunting than he does, and a laugh-out-loud drunk scene that uncorks the incomparable lunacy of Lucille Ball. When the local paper runs an untrue story claiming an heiress (Esther Williams) is a husband stealer, she prepares to sue for libel. So a newspaper honcho (Keenan Wynn) devises a counter scheme to compromise her image: He’ll arrange a sham wedding between his fiancée (Lucille Ball) and a newsroom Romeo (Van Johnson), send the Romeo to woo the heiress, and make the phony story come true!

Special Features:
Oscar-nominated Pete Smith Specialty comedy short Sure Cures
Classic cartoon The Unwelcome Guest
Theatrical trailers of Easy to Wed and Libeled Lady
Subtitles: English (feature film only)

Neptune’s Daughter (1949)
Longing for a Latin lover, boy-crazy Betty Barrett (Betty Garrett) mistakes girl-shy Jack Spratt (Red Skelton) for the South American polo team captain José O’Rourke (Ricardo Montalban). Meanwhile, the real O’Rourke pursues Betty’s elegant sister Eve (Esther Williams). Soon mistaken identities and romantic complications spin into a dizzy mix of slapstick and flirtatious fun. All is set to terrific Frank Loesser songs, including Baby, It’s Cold Outside, winner of the 1949 Best Song Oscar®. The film ends not only happily-ever-after but with (would a Williams fan expect anything less?) a stupendous water ballet.

Special Features:
Outtake musical number I Want My Money Back
Esther Williams cameo sequence from 1951’s Callaway Went Thataway
Oscar-Nominated Pete Smith Specialty comedy short Water Trix
Oscar-nominated cartoon Hatch Up Your Troubles
Theatrical trailers of this movie and Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Subtitles: English (feature film only)

Dangerous When Wet (1953)
The “just add water” formula works again in this lighthearted mix of romance, music and comedy directed by Charles Walters (Easter Parade). Williams plays Katy, a farm girl who finds romance (with Williams’ future real-life husband Fernando Lamas) while training for a swim across the English Channel. In the film’s key sequence, Williams swims, swirls and swoops with cartoon stars Tom and Jerry in a concoction “brimful of attractive people and attractive performances” (Clive Hirschhorn, The Hollywood Musical).

Special Features:
Outtake musical number C’est La Guerre
Pete Smith Specialty comedy short This Is a Living?
Classic cartoon Name to Come
Esther Williams musicals trailer gallery
Subtitles: English (feature film only)
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
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Warner Home Video have announced the Region 1 DVD release of Classic Musicals from the Dream Factory Volume 2 for 24th July 2007. This collection of seven newly-remastered favorites from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s Golden Era features the DVD debuts of The Pirate, That’s Dancing, and Words and Music along with two new to DVD Double Feature discs: a pair of Mario Lanza/Kathryn Grayson musicals -- That Midnight Kiss and Toast of New York, and two Fred Astaire favorites -- Royal Wedding/ Belle of New York.

Following last year’s successful Volume 1 (reviewed here) this second collection of the fabled studio’s vintage musicals features some of the most memorable numbers by the greatest stars of the genre, top lined by the Hollywood musical’s golden trio of immortal legends –- Judy Garland, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. Landmark numbers include Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling and with a coat rack, Gene Kelly’s “Be a Clown,” and Judy Garland belting out “Johnny One Note.” The talents of Mickey Rooney, Jane Powell, Lena Horne, Ray Bolger and many more stars are also showcased.

Each feature film has been meticulously restored and remastered from its original elements and complemented with new featurettes, commentaries, rare outtake musical numbers, radio interviews, audio only bonus outtakes and vintage cartoons. The titles will be available individually for $19.97 SRP, the 2-disc Double Features will sell for $24.98 SRP and the seven-disc collection will sell for $59.92 SRP.

The Pirate (1948)
A treasure trove of fun awaits when a Caribbean beauty (Judy Garland) with a mad crush on a legendary pirate meets a vagabond actor (Gene Kelly) who poses as the scoundrel. Vincente Minnelli, who was married to Garland at the time, directs, bringing his uncanny skill with color and design to this joyous romp set to Cole Porter tunes. Mixing tremulous girlishness with hellcat hilarity, Garland was never better as a comedienne. Parodying the rakish style of Fairbanks and Barrymore, Kelly duels, dupes and dances with buccaneer bravado. All by itself, his Be a Clown (danced with the Nicholas Brothers and reprised with Garland) is reason enough to love the film.

DVD Special Features:
Commentary by historian John Fricke (Noted Garland biographer Fricke details every aspect of this tempestuous production as Garland, Kelly and Minnelli pushed the artistic limits of the movie musicals to the breaking point)
New featurette The Pirate: A Musical Treasure Chest
Oscar-nominated Pete Smith Specialty 1948 MGM comedy short You Can’t Win
1947 MGM classic cartoon Cat Fishin’
Mack the Black stereo remix version
Audio-outtakes: Love of My Life and Mack the Black
Roger Edens’ guide tracks of Be a Clown, Manuela, Nina, Voodoo and You Can Do No Wrong
Promotional radio interviews with Gene Kelly for On the Town and Judy Garland for The Pirate
Theatrical trailer
Subtitles: English (feature film only)

That’s Dancing! (1985)
Executive producer Gene Kelly hosts this extravagant celebration of dance that features some of his greatest screen work, as well as performances that range from Baryshnikov to break dancing, Fred and Ginger to Shirley Temple and Bojangles, and Busby Berkeley spectaculars to Michael Jackson music videos. Written, produced, and directed by Jack Haley Jr., who performed the same duties creating the legendary That’s Entertainment! in 1974, That’s Dancing! follows a similar structure. Kelly, joined by co-hosts Ray Bolger, Sammy Davis Jr., Mikhail Baryshnikov and Liza Minnelli, set the stage for clips from the peerless M-G-M musicals, also featuring landmark moments of dance on film from virtually every studio in the industry, adding more fun and glorious surprises. This cinema anthology spanning eight decades of dance has boundless energy, unending artistry and “no shortage of showstoppers” (Entertainment Weekly).

DVD Special Features:
Introduction by Gene Kelly and Jack Haley, Jr.
Invitation to Dance
The Search
The Cameras Roll
The Gathering
Theatrical trailer
Subtitles: English (feature film only)

Words and Music (1948)
Hart wrote the lyrics. Rodgers wrote the music. Audiences still applaud the results. Mickey Rooney (as Lorenz Hart) and Tom Drake (as Richard Rodgers) team in a splashy biopic of the songwriters behind Babes in Arms, Pal Joey and more Broadway classics. In glossy Hollywood style, the film plays loose with facts and lets the songs speak for themselves. Judy Garland belts out Johnny One Note. Lena Horne delivers a haunting Where or When. Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen lead a streetwise Slaughter on 10th Avenue ballet. Some 22 songs/specialties and a baker’s dozen of major stars are included within the film.

DVD Special Features:
Commentary by historian Richard Barrios [Author and historian Barrios provides fascinating insights into the genius of Rodgers and Hart, one of the greatest songwriting teams of the twentieth century, and why the studio failed to bring the truth of Hart's story to the screen.]
New featurette A Life in Words and Music
Oscar-nominated Theatre of Life 1948 MGM short Going to Blazes!
1948 MGM classic cartoon The Cat That Hated People
Lover and You’re Nearer Outtakes featuring Perry Como
Audio-only bonuses: Outtakes of Falling in Love with Love, I Feel at Home with You, Manhattan (alternate version), My Funny Valentine, My Heart Stood Still, On Your Toes (alternate version) and Way Out West on West End Avenue
Theatrical trailer
Subtitles: English (feature film only)

Double Feature: That Midnight Kiss (1949) and The Toast Of New Orleans (1950)
The muscular tenor of Mario Lanza combines with the bright coloratura of Kathryn Grayson in two marvelous musicals. Lanza makes his debut in That Midnight Kiss as a trucker who travels the road to romance and musical success. Pianist José Iturbi, who helped popularize classical music on film, makes his final movie appearance in this breezy treat. Next, big voices conquer the Big Easy in The Toast of New Orleans, with selections from Verdi, Bizet, the popular Be My Love and more. David Niven co-stars in this tale of a haughty diva and the shrimp fisherman whose talent she discovers.

DVD Special Features:
Disc One - That Midnight Kiss
Pete Smith Specialty 1949 MGM comedy short Sports Oddities
1949 MGM classic cartoon Se?or Droopy
One Love of Mine outtake sequence with Lanza and Grayson
Theatrical trailer
Subtitles: English (feature film only)

Disc Two - The Toast of New Orleans
2006 BBC documentary Mario Lanza:Singing to the Gods
Vintage Fitzpatrick Traveltalk 1940 MGM shorts Modern New Orleans and Old New Orleans
Theatrical trailer

Double Feature: Royal Wedding (1951) and The Belle of New York (1952)
Fred Astaire slips on his dancing shoes for two magical musicals. In roles loosely based on Fred’s career with his sister Adele, he and Jane Powell play siblings whose London stage engagement overlaps Princess Elizabeth’s Royal Wedding. Stanley Donen directs this delight which features Astaire’s famous dance with a hat rack, as well as his famous dancing on the walls and ceiling to the song “You’re All The World To Me”. Lovely Jane Powell was given her first “adult” role in this smash hit, in which she introduced the Oscar-nominated Burton Lane/Alan Jay Lerner hit “Too Late Now”. On the other side of the pond, Fred and Vera-Ellen star in The Belle of New York. Loosely based on a turn of the century stage play, this 1952 screen treatment is a showcase for sensational songs by Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer, and the incomparable talents of the two stars, all under the inspired direction of Charles Walters. Fred plays a playboy who sings (I Wanna Be a Dancin’ Man). She’s a charity worker likelier to prefer a guy with his feet on the ground…until Fred dances her off her feet and into the sky.

DVD Special Features:

Disc One: Royal Wedding
Private Screenings with Stanley Donen [2006 TCM special]
Royal Wedding: June, Judy and Jane-A New Featurette
Car of Tomorrow 1951 MGM cartoon
Droopy’s Double Trouble 1951 MGM cartoon
Ev’ry Night at Seven outtake with Peter Lawford and Jane Powell
Fred Astaire and Jane Powell MGM Promotional Radio Interview for Royal Wedding [audio only]
Theatrical trailer


Disc Two: The Belle of New York
Musiquiz 1952 MGM Pete Smithshort
Magical Maestro 1952 MGM Tex Avery cartoon
I Wanna Be a Dancin’ Man-Unused alternate take
Theatrical trailer
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
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