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Diamonds of the Night
BD - Another outstanding
example of Czech New Wave cinema, DIAMONDS OF THE NIGHT
was directed in 1964 by the 27-year-old Jan Nemec and based on
the writings of Holocaust survivor Arnost Lustig. Running just
over an hour, the film compresses four days in the lives of two
Jewish boys (Ladislav Jansky and Antonin Kumbera) who, while
being transferred to a concentration camp, jump from the
transport and escape into the woods. Physically and mentally
exhausted, hungry, lost, and desperate, they scrounge for food
and shelter and are later chased and caught by a group of old
men, only to be released. As their fatigue increases, the boys
begin to hallucinate, imagining that the trees are falling down
on them or that swarms of ants are crawling on their bodies.
Blu-ray Release Date: January 21st,
2019
Jack the Ripper
BD - In 1959, legendary
showman Joseph E. Levine unleashed this grisly UK thriller on
American moviegoers. But when audiences were horrified by the
film's startling violence, graphic nudity and bloody Technicolor
climax, it became one of Levine's most notorious failures. Today
- in its notorious UK cut and the American version with a brassy
new score - it remains among the most underappreciated and
provocative shockers of its time.
Blu-ray Release Date: January 15th, 2018
Someone's Watching Me!
BD - This early John
Carpenter effort, made before Halloween but telecast
afterwards, is a modest but solid example of his developing
skills as a filmmaker. Carpenter's script isn't terribly
original (the premise and several scenes borrow heavily from
Rear Window) but he
makes the story his own with his own quirky brand of
characterizations: Leigh escapes the usual 'pretty heroine'
stereotype thanks to her independent mindset and quirky sense of
humor and Paul makes a thoughtful, refreshingly non-macho
romantic foil for her character. These intriguing
characterizations further benefit from skillful performances by
a well-chosen cast: Lauren Hutton brings the right combination
of charm and skill to make her characterization believable,
David Birney turns in a nicely understated performance as and
Adrienne Barbeau brings a likeably feisty cynicism to the role
of Leigh's wise-cracking coworker.
Blu-ray Release Date: August 7th, 2018
All the Colors of the Dark
BD - Mature audiences only.
Trapped in a feminist parable wrapped tightly within multiple
layers of an Italian low-budget Giallo, Jane, an English
housewife, may or may not be 1) the victim of a conspiracy to
kill her; 2) a central figure in an elaborate occult ritual; 3)
prone to wild paranoid fantasies; or 4) all of the above. Sergio
Martino presents every one of these possibilities in sensuously
photographed colors and with a cast so beautiful one might be
willing to forgive some nefarious tendencies. Edwige Fenech, who
graced many gialli with her wide eyes, plays the disturbed
figure at the center of this exciting yet seductive milieu.
Severin Blu-ray Release Date:
January 29th, 2019
Rogue Male
BD - In early 1939, with the
Second World War looming, English aristocrat Sir Robert Hunter
(Peter O'Toole) embarks on a 'sporting stalk' of the deadliest
of prey: Adolf Hitler. Captured by the Gestapo and left for
dead, Sir Robert soon becomes the hunted on a chase from the
Bavarian mountains to the wilds of the English countryside,
where he will need all his sportsman's wit and guile to survive.
Based on Geoffrey Household's cult 1930s thriller, Rogue Male is
a suspenseful action adventure featuring an exceptional lead
performance by O'Toole. Blu-ray
Release Date: January 28th, 2019
All the Colors of Giallo
BD - 'Giallo' is Italian for
'yellow', the color of the lurid pulp novels that inspired one
of the most intense, extreme and influential genres in movie
history. In this unprecedented collection, experience the full
chronological evolution of giallo with more than 100 rare and
classic trailers from such masters as Mario Bava, Dario Argento,
Lucio Fulci, Sergio Martino, Antonio Margheriti, Umberto Lenzi
and many more. Then slip on black leather gloves and set the
mood with a Bonus CD of legendary soundtrack music from
composers that include Ennio Morricone, Riz Ortolani, Bruno
Nicolai, Stelvio Cipriani and others, along with all-new
featurettes that thrust even deeper into the genre.
Blu-ray Release Date: January 29th,
2019
Papillon
BD - "Papillon,"
Franklin J. Schaffner's film version of the late Henri
Charrière's book about his adventures in various penal colonies
in French Guiana, is a big, brave, stouthearted, sometimes
romantic, sometimes silly melodrama with the kind of visual
sweep you don't often find in movies anymore. Sony UK
Blu-ray Release date: September
17th, 2018
Untamed
BD - In 1847, Katie O'Neill
(Susan Hayward), the vibrant daughter of a wealthy
horse-breeding family, falls in love with a farmer named Paul
Van Riebeck (Tyrone Power), who unfortunately must leave Ireland
and return home. The following year, after marrying another man,
Katie and her kin flee to South Africa to escape the potato
famine. Life in the new world is fraught with danger, but even
more perilous than the native attacks is Von Riebeck's return,
which causes Katie's heartstrings to stir.
Blu-ray Release Date: January, 2019
Méliès: Fairy Tales in Color
BD - Lobster Films (based in
Paris, birthplace of Méliès) scanned the best sources for each
of these films, and performed an extensive digital restoration,
stabilizing the images and regrading faded colors. Eric Lange
supervised the entire project. The nitrate hand-colored prints,
and original camera negatives came from major archives and
collectors around the world. We thank the EYE Film Institute,
Library of Congress, Cinémathèque française, and Národní Filmovy
Archiv for their help and their trust. Focusing on a selection
of hand-colored films, and designed to feature Méliès love of
storytelling, this collection showcases Méliès talent for
bringing imagination and fantasy to his films.
Blu-ray Release Date: December
18th, 2018
The Return of Frank James
BD - At the start of the
film, Frank (Fonda) is happy to let the law pronounce sentence
on the Ford brothers, who killed Jesse; but when they are
pardoned, he begins a deadly hunt that alienates him from
society, imperils not only his own life but those of his
friends, and threatens to destroy his long-held ideas of
justice. For all its fine photography and sturdy performances,
the film is finally little more than efficient and routine, with
Lang rarely probing beyond the ironic if superficial twists of
the narrative. Blu-ray Release
Date: January, 2019
Beat the Devil
BD - A wildly eccentric
collaboration between director John Huston, writer Truman
Capote, and an astonishing cast of stars and character actors,
Beat the Devil (1953) offers a sly send-up of caper films. In
this one, everything goes amusingly wrong for its gallery of
liars, thieves, and fantasists, including Humphrey Bogart,
Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida etc. The Twilight Time
Blu-ray Release Date: January, 2019
The Haunted Castle / Finances of the Grand
Duke BD - A
hunting party is interrupted by the arrival of a notorious Count
(Lothar Mehnert), who is believed to have murdered his brother.
The uninvited guest sets in motion an elaborate plot to
resurrect the ghosts of the past and bring to light the dark
secret that lies at the center of his brother's death. Breaking
away from the dark, foreboding dramas for which he was becoming
known, Murnau explored the realm of light comedy in a playful
espionage thriller reminisent of Ernst Lubitsch. Kino
Blu-ray Release Date: February
12th, 2019
The Last Frontier
BD - Victor Mature is in
rare form in this otherwise uneven cavalry Western about a
trapper who prevents a Little Big Horn-type disaster. Having
been robbed of a year's worth of skins by marauding Indians, Jed
Cooper (Mature), Gus Hideout (James Whitmore), and Mungo (Pat
Hogan) sign on at a nearby fort. Jed, however, falls in love
with Corinna (Anne Bancroft), the refined wife of the commanding
officer, Colonel Marston (Robert Preston), and when the latter
begins to plan an all-out attack on an unruly Indian tribe, he
attempts to prevent what, in all likelihood, will be a mass
slaughter. Blu-ray Release Date:
December 27th, 2017
What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?
BD - Oscar winners Geraldine
Page and Ruth Gordon sharpen their claws on each other in this
chilling thriller about a lost fortune, a mad heiress and a
housekeeper hell-bent on digging up the truth. Mrs. Marrable
(Page) is a society matron who's had some shocking news: her
late husband left her only a stamp collection. Determined to
maintain her extravagant lifestyle, she takes advantage of an
unlikely new source of income—her housekeepers, by robbing them
not only of their life savings, but also their lives.
Blu-ray Release Date: January 8th,
2018
The Killing Kind
BD - After being released
from prison for a brutal assault in which he too was a victim,
Terry returns home to his mother's (Ann Sothern) boarding house.
Unable to cope with his freedom and uncertain about how to
appease his ever growing desire to harm those around him, Terry
finds solace in playing violent practical jokes. But when an
attractive young woman (Cindy Williams) moves into the boarding
house, Terry finds himself overpowered by violent impulses and,
in a fit of rage, accidentally murders the woman. Now engulfed
by bloodlust, it's not long before he begins seeking out more
victims... Blu-ray Release Date:
November 6th, 2018
Orpheus
BD - Jean Cocteau’s 1940s
update of the Orphic myth depicts Orpheus (Jean Marais ), a
famous poet scorned by the Left Bank youth, and his love for
both his wife Eurydice (Marie Déa) and the mysterious Princess
(Maria Casarès). Seeking inspiration, the poet follows the
Princess from the world of the living to the land of the
deceased through Cocteau’s trademark “mirrored portal.” As the
myth unfolds, the director’s visually poetic style pulls the
audience into realms both real and imagined in this, the
centerpiece to his Orphic Trilogy. BFI
Blu-ray Release Date: January 28th, 2019
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