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The Haunted Palace
BD - The Haunted Palace is a
witches' brew of stories written by Edgar Allan Poe and H. P.
Lovecraft--with the fine hand of sinister scenarist Charles
Beaumont stirring the pot. Vincent Price plays two roles this
time: A New England doctor burned as a sorcerer in 1745, and the
dead man's great-grandson of 1855. Arriving in the village where
his grandfather was killed, Price and his bride Debra Paget are
shunned by the community. They are told that the mutant progeny
of the "sorcerer"'s evil experiments are still roaming the
countryside--with hulking manservant Lon Chaney Jr. a good
example of these monstrosities. The longer he stays in the
family mansion, the more Price is taken over by the spirit of
his ancestor. The result: The possessed Price, together with
Chaney and a warlock assistant, set about to create a mutant
race to overtake the world. Concluding with the near-sacrifice
of bride Debra Paget and the torching of the mansion, The
Haunted Palace is a marvelous--and economically
produced--exercise in Grand Guignol.
Blu-ray Release Date:
February 23rd, 2015
Cries and Whispers
BD - Legendary director Ingmar
Bergman creates a testament to the strength of the soul—and a
film of absolute power. Karin and Maria come to the aid of their
dying sister, Agnes, but jealousy, manipulation, and selfishness
come before empathy. Agnes, tortured by cancer, transcends the
pettiness of her sisters’ concerns to remember moments of
being—moments that Bergman, with the help of Academy
Award-winning cinematographer Sven Nykvist, translates into
pictures of staggering beauty and unfathomable horror.
Blu-ray Release Date: March 17th, 2015
Anguish
BD - John, a loutish optometrist orderly, louses
up on the job and is dismissed. His odd, little mother, using a
form of hypnosis, sends him out on a killing spree, starting
with Caroline, the woman who caused his dismissal. But this is
all just a movie titled "The Mommy" being shown to a small
matinee crowd at a seedy movie theater in Los Angeles. As it
happens, two teenage girls in the audience, the strong-willed
Linda and the squeamish Patty, discover that one of the patrons
sitting near them is a real maniac. In the old movie, when the
scalpel-wielding John enters a movie theater and beings killing
the patrons and theater employees one by one, and removing their
eyeballs for his mother's collection, the killer in the
audience, armed with a silenced .38 pistol, begins killing the
patrons and employees of the theater in a manner which parallels
the action on the movie screen.
Blu-ray Release date: October
4th, 2012
Western Union
BD - "Western Union" (1941) is
Lang's second color film. It is a Western about the building of
the first trans-continental telegraph line in the USA. This
interest in modern high tech mass communication is distinctly
Langian. Lang will return to this aspect of the subject, the
actual physical building of a communications infrastructure, in
a later color film, "American Guerrilla in the Philippines"
(1950). These films share several elements in common. Both are
non-crime films, a fairly rare occurrence in Lang's career. Both
are in color. Both deal with an entire team of people trying to
fulfill an idealistic dream, rather than with a single hero.
Both are about the building of a high technology communications
system. Both have elaborate shots of massed food items. Both
take place in the outdoors, and have much beautiful landscape
photography.
Blu-ray Release Date: May 10th, 2013
The Last Seduction
BD - A critically acclaimed neo-noir,
The Last Seduction stars Linda Fiorentino as the ultimate
screen bitch: Bridget Gregory, wife of Clay Gregory, an
unscrupulous doctor who has just made almost a million dollars
from a drug deal. Stealing the money and hiding out in 'cow
country' to avoid her husband and his private investigator, she
begins a passionate affair with local man Mike. Mike has never
met anyone like Bridget. She's intelligent, classy, beautiful,
dangerous a master of emotional and sexual manipulation.
Passion, greed and revenge forge a desperate triangle as Bridget
controls events that can only have a tragic outcome.
Blu-ray
Release date: January 26th, 2015
Deadline U.S.A.
BD - An abundance of subplots are
expertly woven together by screenwriter/director Richard Brooks
in Deadline - USA. Humphrey Bogart stars as crusading editor Ed
Hutcheson, whose newspaper is on the verge of closing thanks to
the machinations of the mercenary daughter (Audrey Christie) of
Mrs. Garrison (Ethel Barrymore), the paper's owner. Though he
and his staff will all be out of work within a few days,
Hutcheson intends to go out with a bang, exposing the criminal
activities of "untouchable" gang boss Rienzi (Martin Gabel).
Despite numerous disappointments and setbacks, Hutcheson
achieves a pyrrhic victory as the film draws to a close.
Blu-ray Release date: February 6th, 2015
Tales of Terror
BD - Roger Corman's Tales of Terror
stars Vincent Price in a trio of short stories, liberally
adapted by Richard Matheson from the works of Edgar Allan Poe.
The film gets off to a rousing start with "Morella," in which
Price's bitterness over the long-ago death of his wife results
in tragedy for his estranged daughter Maggie Pierce. The last of
the three terror-filled tales, "The Case of Mr. Valdemar,"
finds Price being put into a state of suspended animation by the
diabolical Basil Rathbone; when Rathbone claims Price's bride
Debra Paget for himself, Price briefly revives, only to melt
before our eyes (this horrific image was reproduced on the
film's advertising posters). The film's best story is its
centerpiece, "The Black Cat," which weaves elements of "The
Cask of Amontillado" into a mordantly funny revenge tale
concerning Price, his bitter enemy Peter Lorre, and Lorre's
two-timing wife Joyce Jameson.
Blu-ray Release Date: April
14th, 2015
Cover Up
BD - A Small Town...with Big Secrets!
Sam Donovan (Dennis O'Keefe,
T-Men,
Raw Deal) is an insurance investigator sent to a
small Midwest town, to find out whether the death of one of its
policyholders was a suicide or murder. Sam is convinced that he
was murdered but the entire town, led by the sheriff (William
Bendix,
Lifeboat), is not talking. It's only when local girl
Anita (Barbara Britton,
I Shot Jesse James) breaks her silence does Sam
begin to uncover the truth. As he falls in love with Anita, he
begins to unravel the secret everyone in the town is keeping.
Directed by Alfred E. Green (Baby
Face), with stunning black-and-white cinematography
by the great Ernest Laszlo (Judgment
at Nuremberg).
Blu-ray Release date: March 24th,
2015
In the Land of the Head Hunters
BD - Selected for the
National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, this early
Native American drama/documentary released in 1914 is an amazing
film produced in collaboration with the tribe members. The story
of love and revenge among the Kwakwaka'wakw of British Columbia,
Motana, the son of a great chief, goes on a vigil journey.
Through fasting and hardships he hopes to gain supernatural
strength which will make him a chief as powerful as his father.
Curtis showcases the Kwakwaka'wakw's magnificent war canoes,
totem poles, rituals, costumes and dancing.
Blu-ray Release
date: February 24th, 2015
The Soft Skin
BD - The Soft Skin, from one of the
Nouvelle Vague's most prolific directors, Francois Truffaut, is
a brilliant classic replete with intrigue, emotion, and stunning
imagery. This dissection of an affair between successful
publisher and novelist Pierre Lachenay (Jean Desailly), and
airline stewardess Nicole (Francoise Dorleac), begins on
Lachenay's trip to Lisbon for a lecture, On the airplane he
watches, enraptured, as Nicole changes out of her work shoes and
into sexy, sling-back pumps. From there, his lust for her only
grows, and he begins a deeply involved affair with her that
continues back in Paris. Meanwhile Lachenay's perfect bourgeoise
wife, Franca (Nelly Benedetti) is entertaining friends and
playing with their cute five-year-old daughter, Sabine (Sabine
Haudepin), seemingly unaware of her husband's strange behaviour.
But when Franca discovers that he's been cheating and may even
be in love, she reacts irrationally. The Soft Skin's surprising
finale is one of the most memorable in film history.
Criterion Blu-ray Release Date: March 17th, 2015
Ride the Pink Horse
BD - Hollywood actor turned idiosyncratic
auteur Robert Montgomery directs and stars in this striking
crime drama based on a novel by Dorothy B. Hughes. He plays a
tough-talking former GI who comes to a small New Mexico town to
shake down a gangster who killed his best friend; things quickly
turn nasty. Ride the Pink Horse features standout supporting
performances by Fred Clark, Wanda Hendrix, and especially Thomas
Gomez, who became the first Hispanic actor to receive an Academy
Award nomination for his role here. With its relentless pace,
expressive cinematography by the great Russell Metty, and
punchy, clever script by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer, this is
an overlooked treasure from the heyday of 1940s film noir.
Blu-ray Release date: March 17th, 2015
A Killer in the Family - The sins of the father.... Convicted
murderer Gary Tison (Robert Mitchum) knows all about sin. And
after his young sons bust him out of the joint, he makes sure
they do too, leading the unwilling boys on a blood-soaked
rampage of crime across the Southwest. Based on a true story, A
Killer in the Family lays bare the horror of violence and the
terrible power a father can exert over his children. The
excellent cast includes James Spader, Lance Kerwin and Eric
Stoltz as Tison's sons, plunged into a nightmare they cannot
escape. But it's Mitchum - who earlier etched two indelible
portraits of pure evil in
The Night of the Hunter and
Cape Fear
- who dominates the film like a perverse and raging Old
Testament patriarch. DVD Release Date: April 21st, 2010
Home at Seven - Home at Seven is a 1952 British mystery drama
film directed by and starring Ralph Richardson. It also featured
Margaret Leighton, Jack Hawkins, Campbell Singer and Michael Shepley. It was based on the play Home at Seven by R. C.
Sherriff. The film remains Richardson's only work as a film
director. It follows a man who returns to his suburban home one
evening to discover that he has been missing for 24 hours,
despite not remembering the 'lost' day. DVD Release Date: June
23rd, 2014
The Case Against Brooklyn -
The Case Against Brooklyn was based
on an "expose" article by Ed Reid. Darren McGavin plays rookie
cop Pete Harris, who goes undercover to help smash a Brooklyn
bookie ring. The problem here as that the crooks have been
bribing other cops to look the other way. As if Harris wasn't
courting enough trouble by going up against his "own," he also
falls in love with gambler's widow Lil Polombo (Maggie Hayes),
even though he's already married to Jane Harris (Peggy McCay).
Daniel B. Ullman's screenplay adheres to the facts as recorded
by Ed Reid, right down to the semi-unhappy finale. DVD Release
Date: March 4th, 2011
Escape From San Quentin - If it worked for Frank Sinatra...
Singing star Johnny Desmond goes dramatic in the low-budget
Escape From San Quentin. Desmond plays escaped convict Mike
Gilbert, who goes on the lam with fellow prisoners Gruber
Richard Devon and Graham Roy Engel. While hiding from the law,
Gilbert comes to realize that he's fallen in love with Robbie
Merry Anders, the sister of his ex-wife Peggy Maley. Through
Robbie's influence, Gilbert decides to go straight, but his
cohorts aren't quite so willing to reform. Like most Sam Katzman
quickies of the era, Escape from San Quentin was loosely based
on a true story. DVD Release Date: December 6th, 2011
Criminal Lawyer - Though made in 1951, Criminal Lawyer has the
feel of a 1930s film, right down to the casting of Pat O'Brien
in the lead. The star plays attorney James Regan, whose
unethical methods have earned him the disdain of the American
Bar Association. Eventually, Regan is even disgusted with
himself, and accordingly crawls into a liquor bottle. Redeemed
by the love of girl-Friday Maggie Powell Jane Wyatt, Regan
tackles a difficult make-or-break case which comprises the
film's tense denouement. Critics in 1951 were impressed by the
subtle performance by brutish Mike Mazurki as Regan's bodyguard;
few of them were aware that the college-educated Mazurki was a
sensitive, highly intelligent performer who was not at all like
the thugs and pluguglies he played on screen. DVD Release Date:
March 4th, 2011
Vandal - This earthy French drama strikes a chord. A troubled
young thief is sent by a judge to live with his aunt and attend
vocational school in the country But his half-hearted attempt at
going straight is happily sidetracked when he discovers that his
bland cousin is secretly part of a gang of taggers who roam the
night, bombing local buildings with graffiti. And somewhere out
in that night there's a lone, legendary tagger whose fearless
exploits have become legend. Great casting, a terrific
soundtrack, an intense script and a sense of the mystical make
this worth the read. DVD Release Date: February 10th, 2015
The Wild North - Canadian officer Pedley slaps the cuffs on an
accused murderer, mountain man Jules Vincent. The captive offers
no resistance. Mother Nature will. As the Mountie and his dog
team mush onward to take Vincent to justice, an avalanche, a
marauding wolf pack, temperatures of -38° and more perils await
them. Survival depends on the man who knows the mountains and
ravines best - Pedley's prisoner. Stewart Granger portrays
Vincent and Wendell Corey is Pedley in an eye-filling adventure
that also stars Cyd Charisse. Andrew Marton, co-director of
Granger's King Solomon's Mines, helms the brawny survivalist
action. DVD Release Date: September 14th, 2010
Jane and the Lost City - This adventure is taken from the
popular British comic strip by Norman Pett that ran between 1932
until 1963. Jane (Kirsten Hughes) and her companion Jungle Jack
Buck (Sam Jones) travel with a team of British adventurers to
Africa and the mythical Lost City. Their mission is to find the
fortune in diamonds before they fall into the hands of the
Nazis, led by Lola Pagnola (Maud Adams). Also with Jane is the
Colonel (Robin Bailey), a proper gentleman who is reminded of
his "club" when he enters a centuries-old underground tomb.
DVD
Release Date: March 12th, 2001
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