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Two For the Road
BD - After winning an Oscar for
Darling in 1965, screenwriter Frederic Raphael took a
similarly sardonic look at marriage with Two For The Road,
a witty and tightly plotted marital drama that earned him
another Academy nomination. Based on his own experiences of
motoring around France with his wife every summer, the film
explores various junctures in the relationship of husband and
wife Mark (Finney) and Joanna (Hepburn.)
Blu-ray Release
Date: January 19th, 2015
The Manchurian Candidate
BD - Raymond Shaw (Laurence
Harvey ), returns home from the Korean War and as a hero is
presented with the Medal of Valor in Washington. His domineering
mother (Angela Lansbury) and Stepfather Senator Iselin (James
Gregory) wrestle to grab as much positive political coverage out
of his heroics and name as possible. Major Bennett Marco (Frank
Sinatra) and others who served alongside him remember Shaw
differently, however, in duplicated nightmares as a killer
brainwashed by Dr Yen Lo, an evil hypnotist from Communist China
(Khigh Dhiegh) with Russian top political brass looking on in an
amphitheatre. Shaw's mother, Mrs. Iselin, playing a Joseph
McCarthy representation, is revealed to be a calculating
Communist Agent and her maneuvering is meant to position her
husband to the presidency through assassination, with her son
being the mentally manipulated hired gun.
Blu-ray Release
Date: May 10th, 2011
The Young Savages
BD - Based on the novel A Matter of
Conviction by Evan Hunter, The Young Savages (1961) was the
first collaboration between director John Frankenheimer and
actor Burt Lancaster (they would go on to make four more films
together including Birdman of Alcatraz, 1962). Like other
powerful social dramas of the late fifties/early sixties (12
Angry Men (1957), the TV series, East Side, West Side),
The Young Savages addressed issues which undoubtedly appealed to
the liberal Democrat in Frankenheimer and Lancaster yet the film
was not a labor of love. "What had happened," according to the
director (in Frankenheimer: A Conversation), "was that
the production company of Hecht-Hill-Lancaster had got itself
deeply into debt they'd had to agree to do four very inexpensive
pictures, with Burt Lancaster getting $150,000 instead of his
usual price of $750,000. He'd just come off
Elmer Gantry [1960],
and the last thing on earth he wanted to do was this movie."
Blu-ray Release Date: September 23rd, 2014
The Boys From Brazil
BD - Elderly Nazi hunter Ezra
Lieberman has made a life of seeking out the last remnants of
the Third Reich. But when he investigates a lead about a
mysterious plot to assassinate ninety-four seemingly unconnected
men from around the world, he makes a terrifying discovery that
has dire consequences for the fate of the human race.
Lieberman’s desperate quest to stop the unthinkable launches him
on a collision course with the sinister figure behind the plot:
the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele. Shout! Factory
Blu-ray
Release Date: January 6th, 2015
God's Pocket
BD - A film by John Slattery, Starring
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christina Hendricks, Richard Jenkins,
John Turturro and Eddie Marsan. Mickey (Philip Seymour-Hoffman)
makes ends-meet by partaking in petty crime and gambling, with
his friend Arthur (John Turturro), and then spending most of it
in the local flea-pit bar before stumbling home to his
long-suffering wife Jeanie (Christina Hendricks). When his
mentally unstable step-son, Leon, is killed by a co-worker on a
construction site - a crime that is quickly covered up and
explained away as an 'accident', nobody in the depressed blue
collar neighbourhood of God's Pocket is particularly sorry,
except of course his own mother. Mickey tries to bury the bad
news along with the body, but when Jeanie demands the truth,
Mickey finds himself stuck in a struggle between a body he can't
bury, a wife he can't please and a debt he can't pay.
Blu-ray
Release date: January 12th, 2015
The Big Heat
BD - "Somebody's going to pay… because he
forgot to kill me." Ruthless criminals, a dedicated honest cop,
sultry women and a gripping plot - all the elements of a classic
police action-drama are here in full force. Police Sergeant Bannion (Glenn Ford) is investigating the apparent suicide of a
corrupt cop, then is suddenly ordered to stop - and The Big Heat
is on. Driven to unravel the mystery, Bannion continues probing
until an explosion meant for him, kills his wife. He resigns
from the force and soon learns that behind it all is the
powerful underworld led by Mike Lagana (Alexander Scourby) and
his cold-blooded henchman, Vince Stone (Lee Marvin). When
Stone's girl Debby (Gloria Grahame) makes a play for Bannion,
Stone disfigures her face. In revenge, she tells all she knows.
Ultimately, Bannion and Stone square off in a life-or-death
confrontation. Wild Side Blu-ray package: Release Date:
November 26th, 2014
A Summer's Tale
BD - Gaspard (Melvil Poupaud), a recent
university graduate, arrives at the seaside in Bretagne for
three weeks' vacation before starting a new job. He's hoping his
sort-of girlfriend, the fickle Léna (Aurélia Nolin), will join
him there; but as the days pass, he welcomes the interest of
Margot (Amanda Langlet, the titular character from Rohmer's
PAULINE AT THE BEACH), a student of ethnology working as a
waitress for the summer. Things start to get complicated when
the spoken-for Margot encourages Gaspard to have a summer
romance with her friend, Solène (Gwenaëlle Simon), and he
complies. When Léna turns up, and scheduling complications
abound, Gaspard will have to make a choice… Rohmer's
characteristically light touch allows his characters to
discourse on love and friendship, even as their body language
complicates and even contradicts their words. Diane Baratier's
cinematography perfectly captures the languor of youth and the
feeling of a French beach vacation--the sea, the sunlight and
the lovely surroundings convey the openness of a world of
possibilities faced by these young people. Potemkine
Blu-ray
Release Date: November 19th, 2013
Blackwell's Island - Crusading reporter Tim Haydon goes
behind bars at the infamous prison on New York's Blackwell 's
Island, determined to expose a vicious network of corruption and
crime. There, he's under the power of a gangland kingpin who
runs the prison like his private fiefdom while the weak-willed
warden looks the other way. Then the kingpin gets suspicious of
the new inmate, and Tim is marked for murder. One year after his
breakthrough performance in Four Daughters, john Garfield
headlined this hard-hitting crime drama representative of the
spare, socially realistic melodramas Warner Bros. turned out in
the 19305. The supporting cast includes Rosemary Lane (one of
Garfield's Four Daughters costars), Dick Purcell, Victor Jory
and Leon Ames. DVD Release Date: June 10th, 2014
The Dark Valley - A lone rider arrives in a small high
mountain village; nobody knows where he is from and nobody wants
him there. Greider introduces himself as a photographer from
America, and the town patriarch, Old Brenner, provides him with
shelter for the harsh winter ahead. The village cut off by
snowfall and barely a ray of sunlight reaching the valley, a
tragic accident leads to the death of one of Brenners beloved
sons. When another son is mysteriously killed, it s clear this
is not a coincidence, and this visitor carries a secret with
him. DVD Release Date: January 6th, 2015
Salvo - A hitman for the Sicilian Mafia, Salvo is
solitary, cold and ruthless. When he sneaks into a house on an
assignment, he discovers Rita, an innocent young blind girl who
must stand by powerlessly while her brother is assassinated.
What follows is an intense exchange fueled by adrenaline and
fear between the killer and his witness, one that changes their
two lives in an instant. The darkness is lifted from her eyes
just as Salvo decides, against his murderous instincts, to spare
her life. From then on, both haunted by their brief encounter,
these two damaged souls will attempt to navigate their dangerous
next steps side by side. DVD Release Date: January 6th, 2015
Dust Be My Destiny - After doing time for a crime he
didn't commit and busting rock on a work farm after he's picked
up for vagrancy, young Joe Bell (John Garfield) figures the
cards are stacked against him. Then a showdown with his sadistic
foreman ends in the older man's accidental death. So Joe makes a
run for it with the foreman's pretty stepdaughter (Priscilla
Lane). And waits for Fate to deal the cards one last time.
DVD Release Date: June 10th, 2014
Dangerously They Live - An entertaining propaganda piece
that is fitting for the wartime. This is a minor film for John
Garfield, he is a far more capable actor than what this
programmer allows him to do. [...] Jane Graystone (Coleman)
leaves a NYC office building where she works at the British
Export and gets into a taxi, but instead of going to Grand
Central Station she's being kidnapped. But the taxi gets into an
accident and she's transported by ambulance to the hospital
under the care of intern Dr. Mike Lewis (Garfield). Jane comes
down with a temporary case of amnesia, and Lewis' boss, Dr.
Murdoch, allows him to keep the case. When Jane recovers, she
tells Lewis that a Nazi spy ring is after her because she's a
British intelligence officer and knows the secret route of a
convoy leaving from Halifax with wartime goods for the Brits.
DVD Release Date: June 10th, 2014
Mystery in Mexico - There's not much of one -- a
mystery, that is -- but that's S.O.P for these programmers that
run a longish hour. But Robert Wise keeps things brisk and
watchable, which isn't to be sneezed at. It's about an insurance
investigator (William Lundigan) who follows a suspect
(Jacqueline White) south of the border while trying to solve a
jewelry theft. The whole shebang was filmed in the studios in
Mexico City, with a largely native cast; among them is Ricardo
Cortez, a big Latin heart-throb from the earliest talkies (when
he was often paired with Bebe Daniels). DVD Release Date:
February 4th, 2014
The Hunted - Laura Mead (played by celebrated
ice-skating queen-turned-actress Belita) insists she didn't do
the crime. But she did the time, swearing she would murder the
incompetent attorney who represented her at her jewel-theft
trial. Not long after her release from prison, the attorney’s
gunned-down body is found. Laura flees. Tracking her is a
detective Laura had also threatened with death: Johnny Saxon
(Preston Foster), who years back had arrested her for the jewel
theft and who once loved - perhaps even still loves - her. The
Hunted is one of three atmospheric forays into the noir
netherworld that Belita made for Allied Artists/Monogram during
the 1940's shadowy heyday of film noir. Jack Bernhard (Decoy,
Blonde Ice) directs, and genre icon Charles McGraw (The Narrow
Margin) has an uncredited role. DVD Release Date: July 22nd,
2014
Violent Road - Palms sweating, backs tensed, six men
coax three trucks along treacherous, unpaved mountain roads.
Their cargo: unstable rocket fuel that may be a single jolt away
from fiery catastrophe. Their incentive: a big payday - if the
men can reach their remote desert destination and live to cash
their checks. Violent Road tells the story of desperate men
willing to risk their necks for the opportunity to start their
lives anew. Brian Keith (Family Affair) plays the lead driver, a
tough and cagey long-hauler. Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., who would
soon find TV stardom on 77 Sunset Strip, portrays the fuel’s
creator, tormented by guilt over a previous explosion that
killed innocent people...including his own wife and children.
DVD Release Date:
May 20th, 2014
App - Anna, a student at the University of Amsterdam,
lives with her best friend Sophie and balances psychology
classes with supporting her brother and his recovery following a
traumatic motorcycle accident. She s never far from her
cellphone, and after a night of partying in the dorms, Anna
wakes up groggy and hungover only to find that a new app has
been inexplicably added to it. Initially helpful and clever,
IRIS soon begins behaving mysteriously, answering personal
questions it shouldn't know the answers to, and sending
inappropriate images to her contacts. When it becomes clear she
can t simply delete the unwanted evil app, Anna s efforts to
confront it will set in motion a fearful series of events that
will put her life, and that of her roommate and her fragile
brother, in fatal danger. DVD Release Date: December 30th,
2014
The Edgar Wallace Mysteries -
Vol 1,
Vol 2,
Vol 3,
Vol 4,
Vol 5,
Vol 6,
Vol 7 -
One of the twentieth century’s most successful crime novelists,
Edgar Wallace’s thrillers have been widely adapted for film and
television -the most memorable of which are the Edgar Wallace
Mysteries series, made at Merton Park Studios during the first
half of the 1960s. A noir-esque series, it updates some of the
author’s stories to more contemporary settings, blending classic
B-movie elements with a distinctly British feel. Unseen for
decades and freshly transferred from the original film elements,
all 47 films are included in this Anthology set alongside a
wealth of special features. DVD Release Date: July 30th, 2012
1,000 Times Good Night - Rebecca (Juliette Binoche) is
one of the world s top war photojournalists, capturing dangerous
and chilling images in the most dire landscapes, all in an
effort to shed light on the real cost of modern war. But she is
also a wife and mother, leaving behind a husband and two young
daughters every time she travels to a new combat zone. After a
near-death experience chronicling the ritual of a female suicide
bomber, husband Marcus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) levels an
ultimatum: give up the dangerous profession or lose the family
she counts on being there when she returns from each assignment.
Yet the conviction that her photos can make a difference keeps
pulling at Rebeccas resolve, making it difficult for her to walk
away entirely. With an offer to photograph a refugee camp in
Kenya, a place allegedly so safe that daughter Steph (Lauryn
Canny) is allowed to join her, Rebecca comes face to face with
just how much she risks each time she steps back into the fray.
DVD Release Date: December 23rd, 2014
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