DVDBeaver Newsletter - January 4th, 2015

Newsletter - FOR THE WEEK

OF January 4th, 2016

	This Week's Highlights

	Güata Tàg! NOTE: Our Year-End Poll Results for Blu-ray and DVD of the Year 2015 are POSTED *HERE* THANKS TO ALL PARTICIPANTS! What a year!. We have reviews this week of Blu-rays from Criterion, Kino, Twilight Time, BFI, Severin of features directed by Wim Wenders, Charles Vidor, Louis Feuillade and more. Our *Release Calendar* include March Criterion and previously listed films-to-Blu-ray directed by the likes of Howard Hawks, John Huston, Richard Brooks, Jacques Rivette, Edward Yang, Vittorio De Sica, John Frankenheimer, Alfred Hitchcock and more. *Feature Blu-ray and DVD* is posted for January. We have a CONTEST posted with a Brand New Arrow Blu-ray prize! Enjoy! Feature Blu-ray and DVD chosen for the Month of JANUARY! Blu-ray and DVD of the Year 2015 Polling Results HERE! FOLLOW US on TWITTER! (where we post important reviews, contests - prizes, calendar updates - plus much more...)
	(Week of) January 4th CONTEST identify the clip on the CONTEST PAGE to win Arrows Blu-ray of What Have You Done to Solange? Best of luck!
	BIG THANKS!: DVDBeaver would not exist without the support of many patrons - those who generously donate, and especially those who use our Amazon(s), Barnes & Noble, TCM, Warner Archive and YesAsia links. That's it. When you go to Amazon - PLEASE use one of our links to get there (they are on every page - top and bottom - and we have 5000 webpages). It costs you absolutely nothing and we get a small commission on items you purchase. This helps pay our bills - in fact it's the only thing that pays our bills.
	STRATEGIES: The best way to take full advantage of Amazon is to use... PRE-ORDERs - lock in at the discount price by ORDERING - if perchance you decide against the purchase you have until the release date to cancel - at no charge AND if you will purchase more than 35 DVDs (or anything) in a 365 day period (and live in the Continental US) it makes excellent financial sense to subscribe to Amazon Prime
NOTE:_	If there are DVD or Blu-ray titles you'd like us to cover - please feel free to recommend! Gary at 2ze dot com

LATEST ADDITIONS TO THE RELEASE CALENDAR:

The Big Sleep [Blu-ray] (Howard Hawks, 1946) Region FREE DE Warner Bros

Key Largo [Blu-ray] (John Huston, 1948) Region FREE DE Warner Bros

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof [Blu-ray] (Richard Brooks, 1958) Region FREE DE Warner Bros

Paris Belongs to Us [Blu-ray] (Jacques Rivette, 1960) Criterion

A Brighter Summer Day [Blu-ray] (Edward Yang, 1991) Criterion

Bicycle Thieves [Blu-ray] (Vittorio De Sica, 1948) Criterion

The Manchurian Candidate [Blu-ray] (John Frankenheimer, 1962) Criterion

The Wrong Man [Blu-ray] (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956) Warner Archive

The Martian [Blu-ray] (Ridley Scott, 2015) RB UK 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

A Married Woman [Blu-ray] (Jean-Luc Godard, 1964) Cohen Media

A Poem Is a Naked Person [Blu-ray] (Les Blank, 1974) Criterion

Gog 3-D [Blu-ray] (Herbert L. Strock, 1954) Kino Lorber

Life [Blu-ray] (Anton Corbijn, 2015) RB UK Entertainment One

Sicario [Blu-ray] (Denis Villeneuve, 2015) Region FREE Lions Gate UK

The Reflecting Skin [Blu-ray] (Philip Ridley, 1990) RB UK Soda Pictures

Homeland - Season 5 [Blu-ray] - RB UK 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

The Lobster [Blu-ray] (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015) RB UK Spirit Entertainment
The Look of Silence [Blu-ray] (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2014) Drafthouse Films
Roughshod (Mark Robson, 1949) Warner Archive
Station West (Sidney Lanfield, 1948) Warner Archive

The Lion In Winter [Blu-ray] (Anthony Harvey, 1968) RB UK Studiocanal
The Ice Pirates [Blu-ray] (Stewart Raffill, 1984) Warner Archive

Wild Orchid [Blu-ray] (Zalman King, 1989) RB UK Eureka

Edge of Seventeen [Blu-ray] (David Moreton, 1998) Strand Releasing
A Mighty Wind [Blu-ray] (Christopher Guest, 2003) Warner Archive
Paprika [Blu-ray] (Tinto Brass, 1991) Cult Epics

Steve Jobs [Blu-ray] (Danny Boyle, 2015) Universal

Cop [Blu-ray] (James B. Harris, 1988) Kino Lorber

The Rosary Murders [Blu-ray] (Fred Walton, 1987) Kino Lorber
Transformations [Blu-ray] (Jay Kamen, 1988) Kino Lorber
The Vikings [Blu-ray] (Richard Fleischer, 1958) Kino Lorber

Into the Deep [Blu-ray] (Gerald Rascionato, 2015) RB UK Metrodome

When Eight Bells Toll [Blu-ray] (Etienne Périer, 1971) Kino Lorber

The Forbidden Room [Blu-ray] (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, 2015) RB UK Soda Pictures
Lady in White [Blu-ray] (Frank Laloggia, 1988) Shout! Factory
Monster Dog [Blu-ray] (Claudio Fragasso, 1984) Kino Lorber
After the Fox [Blu-ray] (Vittorio De Sica, 1966) Kino Lorber

The Black Sleep [Blu-ray] (Reginald Le Borg, 1956) Kino Lorber
Donovan's Brain [Blu-ray] (Felix E. Feist, 1953) Kino Lorber
Revenge [Blu-ray] (Sidney Hayers, 1974) RB UK Network

The War Between Men and Women [Blu-ray] (Melville Shavelson, 1972) Kino Lorber
Cherry Falls [Blu-ray] (Geoffrey Wright, 2000) Shout! Factory
Code 7, Victim 5 / Mozambique [Blu-ray] (Robert Lynn, 1964-1965) Blue Underground
Confession of a Child of the Century [Blu-ray] (Sylvie Verheyde, 2012) Cohen Media
The Gong Show Movie [Blu-ray] (Chuck Barris, 1980) Shout! Factory

The Water Babies [Blu-ray] (Lionel Jeffries, 1978) RB UK Screenbound Entertainment

Fixed Bayonets! [Blu-ray] (Samuel Fuller, 1951) RB UK Masters of Cinema

Hawks and Sparrows (1966) / Pigsty (1969) [Blu-ray] Limited Edition RB UK Masters of Cinema

The Merchant of Four Seasons + Beware of a Holy Whore [Blu-ray] (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1970, 1971) RB UK Arrow

Death Walks Twice: Two Films by Luciano Ercoli (4-Disc Limited Edition Boxset) [Blu-ray + DVD] (includes Death Walks on High Heels and Death Walks at Midnight) - Arrow US

Black Mama White Mama [Blu-ray] (Eddie Romero, 1973) Arrow US

Seven Thieves [Blu-ray] (Henry Hathaway, 1960) RB DE Koch Media

Primal Impulse [Blu-ray] (Luigi Bazzoni, 1975) RB DE Koch Media

Fear Eats the Soul [Blu-ray] (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974) RB UK Arrow

Headline (John Harlow, 1943) R2 UK Network

Offbeat (Cliff Owen, 1961) R2 UK Network

Pink String and Sealing Wax [Blu-ray] (Robert Hamer, 1945) RB UK Studiocanal

Revenge [Blu-ray] (Sidney Hayers, 1971) RB UK Network

Boys' School [Blu-ray] (Christian-Jaque, 1938) Pathé

Empire of the Ants - Creature Features Collection Vol. 3 [Blu-ray] (Bert I. Gordon, 1977) RB DE Koch Media

The Magnificent Ambersons [Blu-ray] (Orson Welles, 1942) RA JP IVC

Modesty Blaise [Blu-ray] (Joseph Losey, 1966) RA JP

Horse Money [Blu-ray] (Pedro Costa, 2014) RB UK Second Run

Ashes and Diamonds [Blu-ray] (Andrzej Wajda, 1958) RB UK Arrow

Curse of the Faceless Man [Blu-ray] (Edward L. Cahn , 1958) Kino Lorber

Woman in the Moon [Blu-ray] (Fritz Lang, 1929) Kino Lorber

Spies [Blu-ray] (Fritz Lang, 1928) Kino Lorber

Hiroshima Mon Amour 4K [Blu-ray] (Alain Resnais, 1959) RB UK StudioCanal

Pauline at the Beach [Blu-ray] (Eric Rohmer, 1983) Kino Lorber

A Lizard in a Woman's Skin [Blu-ray] (Lucio Fulci, 1971) Mondo Macabre

Murders in the Rue Morgue / The Dunwich Horror [Blu-ray] - Shout! Factory

ONE VOICE (not Ellsworth Monkton Toohey): Kino Classics' Blu-ray of Louis Feuillade's pioneer crime-drama-serial Fantomas gets top nod this week looking remarkably impressive in restored 4K. It offers commentary and has immense value (at this writing 50% OFF!). Great job Kino! Gilda is one of the most watchable Noirs of all time - I never seem to tire of it and Criterion's new Blu-ray has lossless audio, a stellar image and supplements including Eddie Muller!! A must-own, IMO. Debatably, Wim Wenders best film; The American Friend gets the Criterion treatment in a new Blu-ray package that is yet another to add to the digital library. Still a favorite with giant crabs, chickens and bees - Twilight Time add a commentary and more to their Mysterious Island (Encore Ed.) putting it back in-print (for the time being.) Criterion court some controversy with their The Complete Lady Snowblood Blu-ray as we compared it to the older Arrow. Crushed? Your decision - it gives the best presentation of the two, in my opinion. Love on the Dole has Geoffrey Hibbert and Deborah Kerr as two young siblings who fall prey to poverty and mass unemployment, and must make terrible sacrifices in order to survive - from BFI Blu-ray. It's a wonderful vintage film. Frank Sinatra is The Detective - another new Blu-ray from Twilight Time advancing over the old DVD in every area. Phantom from 10,000 Leagues is premium schlock but the commentary lends appreciation to this mindless, low-budget, black and white, Drive-In fodder, creature-feature thriller on Blu-ray. Count Dracula has Christopher Lee in this, confusing but, frustratingly, faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel - directed by Jess Franco - on Blu-ray from Severin. "I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're doing something.!". - Neil Gaiman Till next week!


	THIS WEEK's REVIEWS / COMPARISONS
	Phantom from 10,000 Leagues BD - A series of mysterious deaths of fishermen and swimmers along a stretch of beach attract the attention of scientist Dr. Ted Stevens (Kent Taylor) and government investigator William Grant (Rodney Bell) -- they both want to know why the victims and their boats all show signs of exposure to atomic radiation, and if there's a connection between the deaths and the nearby Pacific College of Oceanography, run by Professor King (Michael Whalen); and they're also interested in why King's assistant, George Thomas (Phillip Pine), is always lurking around the beach, often armed with a spear gun. Blu-ray Release date: January 4th, 2016 Fantomas BD - Feuillade’s serial was one of cinema’s earliest and most strikingly original crime dramas, starring René Navarre as FANTÔMAS, the master of disguise and leader of a vast army of street thugs, and Edmond Bréon as his nemesis, Inspector Juve. Beautifully restored by Gaumont and the Cinematheque Française, the five episodes of Fantômas are among the most fascinating and enthralling silent films ever made. Blu-ray Release Date: January 5th, 2016 Count Dracula BD - In 1970, cult director Jess Franco and screen legend Christopher Lee collaborated on what they promised would be the most faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel ever filmed. From its remarkable performances – including Lee as the Count, Herbert Lom (*MARK OF THE DEVIL) as Van Helsing, Soledad Miranda (VAMPYROS LESBOS) as Lucy, Maria Rohm (VENUS IN FURS) as Mina, and authentic madman Klaus Kinski as Renfield – to its lush locations and atmosphere of sinister sensuality, it remains perhaps the most spellbinding version of Dracula in movie history. Blu-ray Release Date: December 15th, 2015* The Detective BD - Frank Sinatra gives a gritty performance in the crime thriller The Detective. When Teddy Leikman, the homosexual son of a politically connected department-store magnate, is murdered, detective Joe Leland (Frank Sinatra) is sent in to investigate. Leland drags in Teddy's psychotic former roommate Felix Tesla (Tony Musante) and forces a confession out of him; for his work on the case Leland gets a promotion, which troubles him. Afterwards, Norma MacIver (Jacqueline Bisset), the widow of a well-heeled accountant, comes to see Leland. Her husband was killed after falling off the grandstand at a racetrack -- but Norma thinks he was pushed. Blu-ray Release Date: January 2016 Love on the Dole BD - Although its stark portrayal of social deprivation led the British Board of Film Censors to ban the film as a 'very sordid story in very sordid surroundings'. Love on the Dole nonetheless retains an optimistic spirit, reinforcing the ideal that Britain's working classes could face any hardship. Through its impassioned performances, it shows faith in the values of liberal democracy which Britain upheld throughout the war, and looks forward to a better future. Blu-ray Release date: January 18th, 2016 The American Friend BD - Superb adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel Ripley's Game, with Hopper as her amiably cynical hero, asked to find a non-professional for a killing or two, and - in echo of *Strangers on a Train* - drawing an innocent family man (Ganz) into the game by persuading him that the blood disease he is suffering from is not merely incurable but terminal. Good Highsmith, it's even better Wenders, with Ripley, an American expatriate in Germany, first seen keeping a rendezvous with a dead man, then confiding his disorientation to a tape recorder ('There is nothing to fear but fear itself... I know less and less about who I am or who anybody else is'). Ripley, in other words, becomes the quintessential Wenders hero, the loner travelling through alien lands in quest of himself, of friendship, of some meaning to life. Blu-ray Release Date: January 12th, 2016 The Complete Lady Snowblood BD - young woman (Meiko Kaji), trained from childhood as an assassin and hell-bent on revenge for the murders of her father and brother and the rape of her mother, hacks and slashes her way to gory satisfaction in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Japan. Rampant with inventive violence and spectacularly choreographed swordplay, Toshiya Fujita’s pair of influential cult classics Lady Snowblood and Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance are bloody, beautiful extravaganzas composed of one elegant widescreen composition after another. Criterion Blu-ray Release date: January 5th, 2016 Mysterious Island (Encore Ed.) BD - Filmed at least nine times over the last nine decades, Jules Verne's Mysterious Island received its most popular picturization in the hands of producer Charles Schneer, director Cy Endfield and special-effects maestro Ray Harryhausen. During the Civil War, several P.O.W.s led by Gary Merrill escape from a southern stockade in a huge observation balloon. Buffeted about by a violent storm, the balloon lands on an unchartered island somewhere near New Zealand. The fugitives soon discover that this is no ordinary desert isle, especially after being attacked by a giant-sized crab. Joined by a pair of shipwrecked British gentlewomen (Joan Greenwood and Beth Rogan), the castaways find evidence that the island has been previously inhabited-and that they're all being watched. Twilight Time (Encore Edition) Blu-ray Release Date: January 2016 Gilda (Criterion added) BD - “Gilda, are you decent?” Rita Hayworth tosses her hair back and slyly responds, “Me?” in one of the great star entrances in movie history. Gilda, directed by Charles Vidor, features a sultry Hayworth in her most iconic role, as the much-lusted-after wife of a criminal kingpin (George Macready), as well as the former flame of his bitter henchman (Glenn Ford), and she drives them both mad with desire and jealousy. An ever-shifting battle of the sexes set on a Buenos Aires casino’s glittering floor and in its shadowy back rooms, Gilda is among the most sensual of all Hollywood noirs. Criterion Blu-ray Release Date: January 19th, 2015

Next 4 weeks on the Calendar

January 4th, 2015

The Angry Silence [Blu-ray] (Guy Green, 1960) RB UK Studiocanal

Banshee: Season 3 [Blu-ray] - HBO Studios

Beowulf & Grendel [Blu-ray] (Sturla Gunnarsson, 2005) RB UK Platform

The Captive City [Blu-ray] (Robert Wise, 1952) Kino Lorber

The Captive Heart [Blu-ray] (Basil Dearden, 1946) RB UK Studiocanal

The Complete Lady Snowblood [Blu-ray] Criterion (BEAVER REVIEW)

Experimenter [Blu-ray] (Michael Almereyda, 2015) Magnolia

Fantomas [Blu-ray] (Louis Feuillade, 1913) Kino Lorber (BEAVER REVIEW)

Gas-s-s-s [Blu-ray] (Roger Corman, 1970) RB UK Signal One

The Green Inferno [Blu-ray] (Eli Roth, 2013) Universal

The Hotel New Hampshire [Blu-ray] (Tony Richardson, 1984) Kino Lorber

The House Where Evil Dwells / Ghost Warrior [Blu-ray] - Shout! Factory

Kill Me Three Times [Blu-ray] (Kriv Stenders, 2014) UK Universal

Love [Blu-ray] (Gaspar Noé, 2015) Alchemy (BEAVER REVIEW)

Mr. Majestyk [Blu-ray] (Richard Fleischer, 1974) RB UK Signal One

Over Your Dead Body [Blu-ray] (Takashi Miike, 2014) Shout! Factory

The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues [Blu-ray] (Dan Milner, 1955) Kino Lorber (BEAVER REVIEW)

Spellbinder [Blu-ray] (Janet Greek, 1988) Kino Lorber

The Trip [Blu-ray] (Roger Corman, 1967) RB UK Signal One

True Detective: Season 2 [Blu-ray] HBO Studios

Two For the Seesaw [Blu-ray] (Robert Wise, 1962) Kino Lorber

Valentino [Blu-ray] (Ken Russell, 1977) Kino Lorber

The Visit [Blu-ray] (M. Night Shyamalan, 2015) Universal Studios

The Walk [Blu-ray] (Robert Zemeckis, 2015) Sony Pictures

Yongary, Monster from the Deep [Blu-ray] (Ki-duk Kim, 1967) Kino Lorber

January 11th, 2016

45 Years [Blu-ray] (Andrew Haigh, 2015) RB UK Artificial Eye

The American Friend [Blu-ray] (Wim Wenders, 1977) Criterion Collection (BEAVER REVIEW)

The Bed Sitting Room [Blu-ray] (Richard Lester, 1969) Kino Lorber

Bitter Rice [Blu-ray] (Giuseppe De Santis, 1949) Criterion Collection

Bolero / Ghosts Can't Do It [Blu-ray] - Shout! Factory

Churchill's Secret [Blu-ray] (Charles Sturridge, 2015) RB UK Spirit Entertainment

Figures in a Landscape [Blu-ray] (Joseph Losey, 1972) Kino Lorber

Hana-bi (Fireworks) [Blu-ray] (Takeshi Kitano, 1997) RB UK Third Window Films

How I Won the War [Blu-ray] (Richard Lester, 1967) Kino Lorber

Irrational Man [Blu-ray] (Woody Allen, 2015) Sony

The Knack, and How to Get It [Blu-ray] (Richard Lester, 1965) Kino Lorber

The Look of Silence [Blu-ray] (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2014) Drafthouse Films

Love [Blu-ray] (Gaspar Noé, 2015) RB UK Curzon / Artificial Eye (BEAVER REVIEW)

Out 1 (13-Disc) [Blu-ray] (Jacques Rivette, 1971) Carlotta Films (BEAVER REVIEW)

Primal Impulse [Blu-ray] (Luigi Bazzoni, 1975) RB DE Koch Media

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead [Blu-ray] (Tom Stoppard, 1990) Image Entertainment

Roughshod (Mark Robson, 1949) Warner Archive

Seven Thieves [Blu-ray] (Henry Hathaway, 1960) RB DE Koch Media

Station West (Sidney Lanfield, 1948) Warner Archive

January 18th, 2016

All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records [Blu-ray] (Colin Hanks, 2015) FilmRise

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls + The Seven Minutes [Blu-ray] (Russ Meyer, 1970, 1971) RB UK Arrow Video

Christmas Eve [Blu-ray] (Edwin L. Marin, 1947) Olive Films

Gilda [Blu-ray] (Charles Vidor, 1946) Criterion Collection (BEAVER REVIEW)

Hana-Dama: The Origins [Blu-ray] (Hisayasu Satô, 2014) Olive

Hiroshima Mon Amour 4K [Blu-ray] (Alain Resnais, 1959) RB UK StudioCanal

The Ice Pirates [Blu-ray] (Stewart Raffill, 1984) Warner Archive

Inside Llewyn Davis [Blu-ray] (Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, 2013) Criterion Collection

The Guardian [Blu-ray] (William Friedkin, 1990) Shout! Factory

The Jacques Rivette Collection [Blu-ray] - RB UK Arrow Academy

Kiki's Delivery Service [Blu-ray] (Hayao Miyazaki, 1989) Disney

Let There Be Light: John Huston's Wartime [Blu-ray] Olive Films

Love on the Dole [Blu-ray] (John Baxter, 1941) RB UK BFI (BEAVER REVIEW)

McFarland, USA [Blu-ray] (Niki Caro, 2015) Walt Disney

Momentum [Blu-ray] (Stephen S. Campanelli, 2015) RB UK Signature Entertainment

The Ninja Trilogy [Blu-ray] (Enter the Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja, Ninja III: The Domination) RB UK Eureka

Of Mice and Men [Blu-ray] (Gary Sinise, 1992) Olive Films

Serial [Blu-ray] (Bill Persky, 1980) Olive Films

Solace [Blu-ray] (Afonso Poyart, 2015) RB UK EV

The Undesirable [Blu-ray] (Michael Curtiz, 1915) Olive Films

The Visit [Blu-ray] (M. Night Shyamalan, 2015) Universal Pictures UK

January 25th, 2015

The Assassin [Blu-ray] (Hsiao-Hsien Hou, 2015) Well Go USA

Burnt [Blu-ray] (John Wells, 2015) Starz / Anchor Bay

Comin' at Ya! [Blu-ray] (Ferdinando Baldi, 1981) MVD

Deep Red [4k Remaster] [Blu-ray] (Dario Argento, 1975) RB UK Arrow

Empire of the Ants - Creature Features Collection Vol. 3 [Blu-ray] (Bert I. Gordon, 1977) RB DE Koch Media

The Friends of Eddie Coyle [Blu-ray] (Peter Yates, 1973) RB UK Masters of Cinema

Godard: The Essential Collection [Blu-ray] (Breathless, A Woman is a Woman, Le Mepris, Alphaville, Pierrot le Fou) RB UK Studiocanal

Hellraiser Trilogy [Blu-ray] - RB UK Arrow

Jack's Back [Blu-ray] (Rowdy Herrington, 1988) Shout! Factory

Kiss of the Spider Woman [Blu-ray] (Hector Babenco, 1985) RB UK Curzon Artificial Eye

Legend [Blu-ray] (Brian Helgeland, 2015) RB UK Studiocanal

Legend Limited Edition Steelbook [Blu-ray] (Brian Helgeland, 2015) RB UK Studiocanal

The New Girlfriend [Blu-ray] (François Ozon, 2014) Cohen Media

Nikkatsu Diamond Guys Vol 1 [Blu-ray] - US Arrow Video

Nikkatsu Diamond Guys Vol 1 [Blu-ray] - RB UK Arrow Video

Offbeat (Cliff Owen, 1961) R2 UK Network

Sonny Boy [Blu-ray] (Robert Martin Carroll, 1989) Shout! Factory

A Touch of Zen [Blu-ray] (King Hu, 1970) RB UK Masters of Cinema

The Wrong Man [Blu-ray] (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956) Warner Archive

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