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Alias the Doctor - Stephan
Brenner may be young, but – after his work with a severely
injured child and his subsequent efforts with earthquake victims
in Italy – he’s made a name for himself as a skilled,
compassionate surgeon. But it’s actually Karl (Richard
Barthelmess), Stephan’s foster brother, who is the surgeon. And
behind Karl’s use of his brother’s identity lies a sentimental
tale of secrets, love and sacrifice. Director Michael Curtiz and
art director Anton Grot elevated their status at Warner Bros.
with Alias the Doctor. Using tilted walls, shadows and other
expressionist techniques, Curtiz and Grot made the film a
triumph of style and paved the way for their teaming few months
later in the eerily atmospheric Doctor X. DVD Release Date:
December 14th, 2010
Black Fury - Based on
real-life events, Black Fury brings viewers deep into Depression
hard times…and into the heart of Joe Radek, a simple,
hardworking coal miner used and thrown away by racketeers eager
to muscle in on the unions. Paul Muni, who personified 1930s
anguish as the doomed hero of I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang,
makes Joe an unforgettable character: likeable, headstrong, too
easily led and finally a towering force for justice as he takes
on company goons single-handed. As sinewy and visceral as the
overworked men it celebrates, Black Fury pulls no punches, which
may explain why it was banned in Pennsylvania, the state where
this classic from Casablanca director Michael Curtiz is set.
DVD Release Date: December 14th, 2010
Blondie Johnson - Joan
Blondell, one of Hollywood’s most memorable blondes, gets top
billing in this protofeminist crime yarn as tough as a taxi
dancer’s heart. Blondell’s first starring role was also a change
of pace for a contract player usually cast as a chorus cutie or
the male lead’s loyal doxy. Instead she plays the title
character, a Depression-downtrodden waif who uses her brains
instead of her body to rise from tyro con artist to crime boss.
A terrific supporting cast – Chester Morris, Allen Jenkins. Mae
Busch, Sterling Holloway – comes along for the rags-to-rackets
ride through all the murder and double-crossing that make crime
melodrama great entertainment. This time with a woman’s touch.
DVD Release Date: December 14th, 2010
From Headquarters -
Playboy and ne’er-do-well Gordon Bates is dead, that’s for sure.
But whodunit? That’s not so sure. There are suspects aplenty. So
From Headquarters comes the army of crime specialists –
toxicologists, fingerprint experts, ballistic experts,
technicians running data-card tabulations on Hollerith machines
and, for good measure, authorities on the use of invisible ink –
that know the howdunit can point to the who. George Brent and
Eugene Pallette portray the lead crime dogs in this swift
sniff-out of a killer that sifts through murderous means and
motives at an engagingly pell-mell pace. William Dieterle (A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Hunchback of Notre Dame), on his
way to A-list prominence, directs with great visual hubbub and
flourish. DVD
Release Date: December 14th, 2010
Heat Lightning - The
setting: a gas station in the middle of a sweltering, desiccated
nowhere. The women: Olga (Aline MacMahon), a wary, weathered
loner with a knack for fixing cars, and Myra (Ann Dvorak), her
pretty kid sister who dishes up diner chow and dreams of
romance. The film: Heat Lightning, an edgy, femme prenoir that
turns incendiary when visitors arrive – two bejeweled divorcees
and Olga’s old love, a killer on the lam. Guiding a cast that
also includes Preston Foster, Lyle Talbot, Glenda Farrell, Ruth
Donnelly, Frank McHugh and Jane Darwell, Mervyn LeRoy (I Am a
Fugitive from a Chain Gang) ramps up pre-Code wisecracking and
vise-like tension into an emotional wallop of an ending. DVD
Release Date: December 14th, 2010
Howl
BD - James Franco stars as the young Allen
Ginsberg – poet, counter-culture adventurer and chronicler of
the Beat Generation. In his famously confessional,
leave-nothing-out style, Ginsberg recounts the road trips, love
affairs and search for personal liberation that led to the most
timeless and electrifying work of his career, the poem HOWL.
Meanwhile, in a San Francisco courtroom, HOWL is on trial.
Prosecutor Ralph McIntosh (Strathairn) sets out to prove that
the book should be banned, while suave defense attorney Jake
Ehrlich (Hamm) argues fervently for freedom of speech and
creative expression. The proceedings veer from the comically
absurd to the passionate as a host of unusual witnesses (Jeff
Daniels, Mary-Louise Parker, Treat Williams, Alesssandro Nivola)
pit generation against generation and art against fear in front
of conservative Judge Clayton Horn (Bob Balaban).
Blu-ray Release date: January 4th,
2011
I Was Born, But... - One of
Ozu's most popular films, I Was Born But . . . is a blithe
portrait of the financial and psychological toils of one family,
as told from the rascally point of view of a couple of stubborn
little boys. For two brothers, the daily struggles of bullies
and mean teachers is nothing next to the mortification they feel
when they realize their good-natured father’s low-rung social
status. Reworked decades later as Ozu's Technicolor comedy Good
Morning, it's a poignant evocation of the tumult of childhood,
as well as a showcase for Ozu's expertly timed comedy editing.
SD but available on the Blu-ray
with Release Date: January 17th, 2011
The Social Network
BD - David Fincher’s The
Social Network is the stunning tale of a new breed of cultural
insurgent: a punk genius who sparked a revolution and changed
the face of human interaction for a generation, and perhaps
forever. Shot through with emotional brutality and unexpected
humor, this superbly crafted film chronicles the formation of
Facebook and the battles over ownership that followed upon the
website’s unfathomable success. With a complex, incisive
screenplay by Aaron Sorkin and a brilliant cast including Jesse
Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake, The Social
Network bears witness to the birth of an idea that rewove the
fabric of society even as it unraveled the friendship of its
creators. Blu-ray Release date:
January 11th, 2011
Good Morning
BD - Ozu’s hilarious
Technicolor re-working of his silent I Was Born, But. . ., Good
Morning (Ohayo) is the story of two young boys in suburban Tokyo
who take a vow of silence after their parents refuse to buy them
a television set. Shot from the perspective of the petulant
brothers, Good Morning is an enchantingly satirical portrait of
family life that gives rise to gags about romance, gossip, and
the consumerism of modern Japan.
Blu-ray Release Date: January 17th, 2011
Army of Shadows
BD - Jean-Pierre Melville’s
masterpiece about the French Resistance against the Nazi
occupation went unreleased in the United States for thirty-seven
years, before its triumphant theatrical debut in 2006.
Atmospheric and gripping, Army of Shadows is Melville’s most
personal film, featuring Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse,
Jean-Pierre Cassel, and the incomparable Simone Signoret as
intrepid underground fighters who must grapple with their own
brand of honor in their battle against Hitler's regime.
Blu-ray Release Date: January 11th,
2011
Robinson Crusoe on Mars
BD - Special-effects
wunderkind and genre master Byron Haskin (The War of the Worlds,
The Outer Limits) won a place in the hearts of fantasy-film
lovers everywhere with this gorgeously designed journey into the
unknown. When his spaceship crash-lands on the barren wastelands
of Mars, U.S. astronaut Commander "Kit" Draper (Paul Mantee)
must fight for survival, with a pet monkey seemingly his only
companion. But is he alone? Shot in vast Techniscope and blazing
Technicolor, Robinson Crusoe on Mars is an imaginative and
beloved techni-marvel of classic science fiction.
Blu-ray Release Date: January 11th,
2011
Gone Baby Gone
BD - Gone Baby Gone is Ben
Affleck s directorial debut, adapted by Affleck from the novel
by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River). It is an intense look inside an
ongoing investigation about the mysterious disappearance of a
little girl. As two young private detectives (Casey Affleck and
Michelle Monaghan) hired to take the case get closer to finding
her, they discover that nothing is as it seems and more
dangerous than they ever thought possible. Also starring Academy
Award® winners Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby) and Ed
Harris (Pollack). Blu-ray
Release Date: February 12th, 2008
Machete
BD - Robert Rodriguez (Grindhouse,
Sin City) comes an action-packed, cutting-edge serving of
carnage asada...with killer deleted scenes that deliver more
guns, more girls and more Machete action! Set up, double-crossed
and left for dead, Machete (Danny Trejo) is an ass-kicking ex-Federale
who lays waste to anything that gets in his path. As he takes on
hitmen, vigilantes and a ruthless drug cartel, bullets fly,
blades clash and the body count rises. Any way you slice it,
vengeance has a new name--Machete.
Blu-ray Release date: January 4th, 2011
Match Point
BD - Match Point is sexy,
mysterious, suspense-driven, eventful and essentially quite
unforgettable. The performances are basically one dimensional -
aside from the moral slippage of the protagonist - conveniently
reading Crime and Punishment in the beginning of the film.
Scarlett Johansson has never looked better (as good as any
female has a right to look) and her character generously gives
to Rhys Meyers - an extremely important cog in the brilliant
evolution of this story. Obvious comparisons are made to Allen's
Crimes and Misdemeanors - the sterility of murder and the cold
blanket of its cumulative effect. For me this is a favorite film
of the past few years and one I should have added to this
article had I seen it first. Nothing short of perfection and we
should be enormously grateful to have Allen as a working
filmmaker. Italian Blu-ray
Release Date: November 24th, 2010
The World, the Flesh and the Devil
- “Millions Flee from Cities! End of the World!” From a
Manhattan skyscraper, Ralph Burton (Harry Belafonte) surveys the
emptiness announced by that chilling newspaper headline. Nuclear
doomsday has come. Ralph is sure he is the last person alive.
Then a woman (Inger Stevens) appears and the two form a cautious
friendship that’s threatened when a third survivor (Mel Ferrer)
arrives. Unlike other post-apocalyptic thrillers from The Time
Machine to I Am Legend, there are no external monsters to battle
here. Instead, the monsters – fear, intolerance, jealousy – lurk
inside the all-too-human human beings. And heightening the
intensity of writer/director Ranald MacDougall’s suspenseful and
unsettling movie are stunning vistas of an unpopulated New York:
vast, empty and soulless. DVD Release Date: December 14th,
2010
Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison
- Is prison a place of punishment or a catalyst for personal
change? The warden at infamous Folsom Prison answers in a way
that breaks spirits and bones. On the other side is a new yard
captain eager to institute reforms. And caught in between is a
ticking time bomb of inmates ready to bust out. Set in the early
20th century and filmed within the actual prison, this intense
tale of men behind bars belongs to the Warner Bros. lineage of
social-conscience films like Caged, Each Dawn I Die and I Am a
Fugitive from a Chain Gang. The cover-up of overseer brutality,
the secret plans of escape, the fate of stoolies, the gnawing
desperation, the clinging to hope where no hope survives: all
happen Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison. DVD Release Date:
December 14th, 2010
The Haunting of Amelia -
Josh (Brendan Fehr, DISTURBING BEHAVIOR) has never gotten over
the death of his high school sweetheart Emily in a train
accident. He is still working in the same job at a pizzeria ten
years after high school (living in his decrepit childhood home
with a minishrine to his girlfriend's memory) when old pal Rusty
(Chad Lindberg, the I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE remake) shows up for
the high school reunion and stirs up painful memories. Josh has
a second chance of happiness when Amelia (Beatrice Rosen, 2012)
applies for a job at the pizza place, but her convenient
absences when other people around have Rusty questioning if she
even exists until he meets her, and then things take an
interesting, if not entirely original, turn. Stephanie Weir
(TV's MAD-TV) and Sam Robards (AMERICAN BEAUTY) co-star. DVD
Release Date: December 28th, 2010
The Window - Nine-year-old
Tommy Woodry has a history of making things up, but he insists
he really saw this: a murder in his own apartment building! No
one believes Tommy’s story. No one except the killers. From its
taut pursuits to its sinister sense of danger lurking behind any
apartment door, The Window is a minor gem of film noir. Bobby
Driscoll, playing perhaps the genre’s youngest protagonist,
received an honorary Oscar®* for his portrayal of the imperiled
boy. Noted cinematographer Ted Tetzlaff (Notorious) directs,
ramping up the tension in this film based on a story by Cornell
Woolrich (Rear Window). DVD Release Date: December 14th, 2010
The Big Lebowski
BD - Released in 1998 the
Coen brothers film The Big Lebowski introduces us to characters
that are stuck in the 70's and who are unable or unwilling to
adapt to the 90's. The story continues with a focal backdrop of
the unique community that has fashioned itself around the
American pastime of... bowling. The Coens also found time in the
films 118 minutes to pay homage to past film genre's including
westerns and Busby Berkley musicals. Italian
Blu-ray Release Date: July 9th,
2010
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
BD - Development of A.I.
originally began with director Stanley Kubrick in the early
1970s. Kubrick hired a series of writers up until the mid-1990s,
including Brian Aldiss, Bob Shaw, Ian Watson and Sara Maitland.
The film languished in development hell for years, partly
because Kubrick felt computer-generated imagery was not advanced
enough to create the David character, whom he believed no child
actor would believably portray. In 1995, Kubrick handed A.I. to
Steven Spielberg, but the film did not gain momentum until
Kubrick's death in 1999. Spielberg remained close to Watson's
film treatment for the screenplay, and replicated Kubrick's
secretive style of filmmaking. A.I. was greeted with mostly
positive reviews from critics and became a moderate financial
success. Blu-ray Release date:
December 22nd, 2010
The American
BD - As an assassin, Jack is
constantly on the move and always alone. After a job in Sweden
ends more harshly than expected... for this American abroad,
Jack retreats to the Italian countryside. He relishes being away
from death for a spell as he holes up in a small medieval town.
While there, Jack takes an assignment to construct a weapon for
a mysterious contact, Mathilde. Savoring the peaceful quietude
he finds in the mountains of Abruzzo, Jack accepts the
friendship of local priest Father Benedetto and pursues a torrid
liaison with a beautiful woman, Clara. Jack and Clara's time
together evolves into a romance, one seemingly free of danger.
But by stepping out of the shadows, Jack may be tempting fate.
Blu-ray Release date: December
28th, 2010
Valley of Decision - Steel
separates 1873 Pittsburgh into rich and poor, master and worker,
powerful and powerless. On one side is Paul Scott, the
progressive son of a steel mill owner. On the other is Mary
Rafferty, daughter of an embittered laborer who was crippled in
a mill accident. When Mary takes a post as housemaid at the
Scott mansion, she and Paul fall desperately in love. But a
bloody strike may tear the city – and the lovers – apart.
Surging with passion and strife, featuring a commanding cast
that includes Greer Garson, Lionel Barrymore and Gregory Peck
(the relative newcomer created a sensation as the romantic,
intense Paul), The Valley of Decision is a prime example of
prestige filmmaking during Hollywood’s Golden Age. DVD
Release Date: February 16th, 2010
The Swan - Grace Kelly is
gloriously, glamorously regal in this retelling of Ferenc
Molnar’s romantic fable about a shy princess whose head tells
her to wed a worldly Crown Prince (Alec Guinness), but whose
heart is drawn to a dashing commoner (Louis Jourdan). Garbed in
dreamy Helen Rose gowns, surrounded by Mittel-European opulence,
the leading lady dances, duels, flirts, falls in love and makes
even the most jaded moviegoer want to believe in fairy tales.
And just to prove that fairy tales can come true, Kelly became a
real-life princess as The Swan went into release, marrying
Prince Rainier of Monaco in a magnificent royal wedding that
captured the world’s imagination. DVD Release Date: October
26th, 2010
Bundle of Joy - When Bundle
of Joy premiered in 1956, Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher were
the cutest young marrieds in Hollywood, the obvious choice to
headline the musical remake of one of the great comedies of the
’30s, Bachelor Mother. As the Prince Charming of the piece,
Fisher proves that as an actor, he is a pretty good crooner. But
Reynolds is warmly appealing in the role originated by Ginger
Rogers, playing a salesgirl who picks up a foundling, is
mistaken for its unwed mother and must keep up the charade –
baby and all – to keep her job. Coincidentally, Reynolds
discovered she was pregnant before filming began. In true
trouper fashion, she was still hoofing up a storm on the
soundstage when she was seven months along. DVD Release Date:
November 9th, 2010
Susan Slept Here -
Screenwriter Mark Christopher gets a Christmas present that
isn’t on his Santa list: a 17-year-old delinquent named Susan,
deposited in his bachelor pad by a cop pal who doesn’t want to
see the kid spend Christmas behind bars. Touched by Susan’s
plight, Mark decides there’s only one way to keep her out of
juvie: marry her in name only and get an annulment when she
comes of age. But after a Vegas elopement, Susan isn’t so sure
she wants to be the ex-Mrs. Christopher. Dick Powell (in his
last film role before devoting himself to a hugely successful TV
career) and Debbie Reynolds play the (maybe) mismatched couple
in a big-hearted romantic comedy from animator-turned-director
Frank Tashlin that makes merry use of its Yuletide setting.
DVD Release Date: November 9th, 2010
Cry Wolf - A sudden death.
Cries in the night. A locked laboratory in a windswept mansion.
It’s hard to say what creates more tension in Cry Wolf, the
nerve-tingling atmosphere (enhanced by Franz Waxman’s edgy
score) or the flashfire romantic chemistry between movie
immortals Barbara Stanwyck and Errol Flynn in their only screen
pairing. Stanwyck plays Sandra, a recent widow who visits her
husband’s family for the first time and finds herself drawn to a
man she knows she should fear: her husband’s remote, controlling
uncle (Flynn). He seems to know secrets about the eerie cries,
the laboratory and why his nephew was buried in a closed coffin.
Can Sandra uncover the truth before a second death occurs?
DVD Release Date: November 16th, 2010
High Wall - Steven Kenet
(Robert Taylor) says he killed his wife, but even he doesn’t
really know. A wartime head trauma has left him subject to
disorientations and blackouts. So Kenet enters a psych ward
where, the DA asserts, he’ll hide behind the wall of an insanity
plea. But truth cannot hide. And Kenet – assisted by a ward
doctor (Audrey Totter) – is driven to find that truth. With
bravura use of genre trademarks like expressionist shadows and
subjective camera, director Curtis Bernhardt (Possessed) builds
a High Wall into a film noir psychological thriller that, little
noted its day, is ready for an honored place amid the shadowy
shrines of noir. Go behind the wall into the inner sanctum of
noir and consciousness. DVD Release Date: September 7th, 2010
Tomorrow is Another Day -
Bill Clark (Steve Cochran) is a brooding, fresh-from-the-pen
ex-con who has spent his entire adult life behind bars. Upon
discharge, he is a newborn in a fast, unforgiving world. When a
reporter posts a front-page story on his release he has no
recourse but to leave town. He heads to New York for a fresh
start, but finds more complications in the form of Catherine
(Ruth Roman), a steely dancehall dame. Their blossoming romance
is almost nipped in the bud when Catherine’s cop ex-boyfriend is
shot and killed during an altercation with the pair. They take
it on the lam with their reputations and past deeds not far
behind. From out of the film noir shadows comes Tomorrow Is
Another Day, a frank and forceful tale of fugitive lovers in an
unforgiving world. DVD Release Date: August 17th, 2010
Crack-Up - After a train
wreck sends art critic George Steele (Pat O’Brien) into a mental
tailspin, he’s fired from his job at a New York art museum.
Seems unjust – until you learn there was no train wreck. This
relentless, nervy film noir explores the sinister world of
violence and the monied world of aesthetics as Steele’s attempt
to reconstruct what really happened leads him to murder, mania
and an international conspiracy that threatens the museum’s
masterpieces. Herbert Marshall (Foreign Correspondent, The
Letter) joins the hunt as a mysterious Brit who’s awfully chummy
with the cops. And noir great Claire Trevor (Murder, My Sweet;
Key Largo) plays Steele’s sweetheart, a savvy journalist who may
know more a lot more than she’s telling. DVD Release Date:
August 24th, 2010
Bunco Squad - Master con
artist Anthony Wells and his team of sham spiritualists and
séance operators have found the perfect mark: a wealthy widow
(Elisabeth Risdon) convinced that Wells' phony Rama Society can
put the grieving woman in touch with her deceased son. The con
is on, and the LAPD’s Bunco squad is out to stop it in this
brisk B documentary-style crime tale that features intriguing
glimpses of mid-century Los Angeles locales. Robert Sterling
(TV’s Topper series) plays an investigating cop closing in on
Wells (Ricardo Cortez). The cast also includes Dante – aka Dante
the Magician – whose amazing stage shows were once international
sensations. DVD Release Date: September 7th, 2010
Bachelor Mother -
Unemployed Polly Parrish (Ginger Rogers) impulsively picks up a
baby left at orphanage doors at Christmas. Everyone assumes the
foundling is hers, including Polly’s playboy ex-boss (David
Niven), who offers her a job if she’ll live up to her maternal
duties. A paycheck would be handy, so Polly complies. Then the
boss’s tycoon dad (Charles Coburn) assumes the infant is his
secret grandson…and things really spin out of control. Buoyed by
Rogers’ irresistibly endearing performance, Bachelor Mother is
one of those rarities, a brilliantly cast comedy where
everything – plot, pacing and dialogue (thanks to Garson Kanin’s
savvy direction and Norman Krasna’s witty script) – is exactly,
hilariously right. DVD Release Date: November 9th, 2010
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