Newsletter - FOR THE WEEK

OF March 27th, 2017

Salvete! Massive week with 22 Blu-ray reviews of packages by Criterion, Elephant Films, Kino, Sony, 88 Films, Warner Archive, Olive Films, Cult Films, Classicflix, Shout! Factory, Twilight Time of films by Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Altman, Luchino Visconti, Carol Reed, Juzo Itami, Robert Wise, Aldo Lado, Donald Cammel, Val Guest, Mark Robson, John Landis, Ulli Lommel, Joe D'Amato, Jean Rollin and more. Our Calendar has a updates including films directed by Sam Peckinpah, Delmer Daves, Arthur Hiller, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Rudolph Maté, Nicholas Ray, Marcel Ophüls, Seijun Suzuki, Dario Argento, Mario Bava, Marcel Carné, Douglas Sirk, Yonggang Wu, Taylor Hackford, Paul Newman, Budd Boetticher, André De Toth, Kinji Fukasaku and others. Feature Blu-ray and DVD is posted for MARCH. We have a new article posted and a CONTEST with another BRAND NEW CRITERION Blu-ray prize. Enjoy!!

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If there are DVD or Blu-ray titles you'd like us to cover - please feel free to recommend!

Gary at 2ze dot com

A Game of Death BD - Lured too close to shore by misplaced channel lights, the yacht carrying noted big game hunter and author Don Rainsford hits a corral reef and sinks, throwing its passengers and crew into shark-infested waters. Rainsford, the sole survivor, swims ashore and makes his way to a mysterious-looking fortress. Inside, he is greeted by Eric Kreiger, the master of the house, and his servant Pleshke. Kreiger, a fervent hunter, recognizes Rainsford's name and insists that he join him and his guests for dinner. Escorted by Pleshke as he goes to change his wet clothes, Rainsford is puzzled by the bars on the windows. At dinner, after introducing Rainsford to his guests, Ellen Trowbridge and her brother Robert, Kreiger boasts that he bought the island as a hunting preserve and has stocked it with the most dangerous game in the world. Blu-ray Release date: March 21st, 2017

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying BD - A blandly outrageous and occasionally sharp-toothed musical satirising big business, with a likeable score by Frank Loesser, which takes potshots at everything from coffee breaks to advertising campaigns. Morse, somehow contriving to be horrendous and endearing at one and the same time, repeats his stage role to brilliant effect as the all-American boy who employs scientific knowhow to rise like a meteor, licking asses and trampling heads every step of the way. Swift's direction is a little stiff and stagy, and there are dull patches; but with handsome camerawork from Burnett Guffey, witty Bob Fosse choreography, and the ineffable Vallee playing the compulsive-knitting, fussbudget boss, this was one of the livelist musicals of the '60s. Blu-ray Release date: March, 2017

Peyton Place BD - Grace Metalious’ scandalous best-seller about the sordid life of a small New England town is given the high-gloss Hollywood treatment in Peyton Place (1957), a hugely successful melodrama produced by Jerry Wald and directed by Mark Robson, with John Michael Hayes providing the screenplay. A cast led by established star Lana Turner (then suffering her own real-life melodrama) is also studded with terrific performances from relative newcomers including Diane Varsi, Hope Lange, Lee Philips, and Russ Tamblyn, and further highlighted by an extraordinary score from Franz Waxman. Blu-ray Release date: March, 2017

Invasion of the Bee Girls BD - A classic example of the crossover genre which thrived briefly in the Sixties and Seventies, this enthusiastic mixture of invasion horror and badly shot soft porn focuses on a small American town whose menfolk are mysteriously dying, apparently during the act of coitus. From the outset, this presents us with two mysteries: why are the deaths occurring, and who would want to have sex with these men anyway? To be fair, the bad lighting and orangey colouration in this film don't flatter anyone, even the genre's better-known actresses; in places the lighting is bad enough to create an extra layer of mystery, as it's hard to see what the characters are doing. Nevertheless, this is a B-movie with a certain charm, pompous enough to be amusing even in its less salubrious moments. Blu-ray Release Date: April 4th, 2017

Rumble Fish BD - In this deeply personal tale of estrangement and reconciliation between two rebellious brothers, set in a dreamlike and timeless Tulsa, Francis Ford Coppola gives mythic dimensions to intimate, painful emotions. The director’s “art film for teenagers” was his second adaptation of young-adult novelist S.E. Hinton’s work in a single year, after the more classically styled The Outsiders. Graced with a remarkable cast headed by Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, and Diane Lane; haunting black-and-white visuals that hark back to German expressionism and forward to Coppola’s own Tetro; and a powerful percussive score by Stewart Copeland that underlines the movie’s romantic fatalism, Rumble Fish pulsates throughout with genuine love and dread. Criterion Blu-ray Release date: April 25th, 2017

Another Man's Poison BD - Bette Davis pulls out all the stops as Janet Frobisher, a devious, selfish vixen who will stop at nothing to get what she wants in Another Man's Poison, a drama deliciously full of unexpected twists and turns. Frobisher is a rich mystery writer who falls in love with her secretary's fiancé and lures him away. But her happiness is far from ensured. She first must deal with a long forgotten ex-convict husband who tries to blackmail her, and then she must scheme her way out of the clutches of her husband's ruthless partner, George Bates (Gary Merrill, Davis's husband in real life). Davis proves why she remains such an acting legend as she dominates the screen in the kind of part that only she could bring to life so vividly. Blu-ray Release Date: March 28th, 2017

Tampopo BD - The tale of an eccentric band of culinary ronin who guide the widow of a noodle-shop owner on her quest for the perfect recipe, this rapturous “ramen western” by Japanese director Juzo Itami is an entertaining, genre-bending adventure underpinned by a deft satire of the way social conventions distort the most natural of human urges—our appetites. Interspersing the efforts of Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto) and friends to make her café a success with the erotic exploits of a gastronome gangster and glimpses of food culture both high and low, the sweet, sexy, and surreal Tampopo is a lavishly inclusive paean to the sensual joys of nourishment, and one of the most mouthwatering examples of food on film ever made. Blu-ray Release Date: April 24th, 2017

Our Man in Havana BD - Ex-pat vacuum salesman Jim Wormold (Guinness) is roped into Britain's Cuban espionage division. Paid per item of intelligence, and desperate to send daughter Milly (Morrow) to an expensive European school, Wormold embellishes his reports with daring falsification. But the ruse has uneasy consequences, especially when his activities arouse the suspicions of police chief Captain Segura (Kovacs) suspicion. Guinness plays his part to perfection, an Everyman paddling furiously against the tide, and excellent support comes from Ralph Richardson (as the obsessive MI6 boss), Burl Ives and Paul Rogers (as rival agent). But Coward steals the show as his patrician spymaster. Blu-ray Release Date: March, 2017

Black Magic BD - Few Eastern frighteners build up quite as much menace and mania as 1975's masterpiece of Southeast Asian eeriness BLACK MAGIC. One of the first horror shockers to be shot in the sun and cityscapes of Malaysia, and its picturesque capital Kuala Lumpur, BLACK MAGIC is a sordid story of sex, sleaze, slime and spells - with an ancient magician able to bring lonely spinsters together with their ideal partners thanks to some good old fashioned witchery. Of course, this is not say such demonic antics do not sometimes go wrong and with BLACK MAGIC viewers are exposed to some of the most sublime scares ever dreamed up by the Shaw studio! Blu-ray Release Date: October 31st, 2016

L'innocente BD - Visconti returns to the stunningly lavish 19th Century sets of his Cannes Winner, THE LEOPARD, in this, his last film; a deplorably overlooked brooding masterpiece... Presented here from restored HD materials, for the very 1st time doing justice to the film's cinematography, rich sets and story. Finishing where THE LEOPARD left off, we follow the disintegration of the aristocracy into moral decadence and sexual taboos, personified by a career-defining, powerhouse performance by Giannini whose antihero displays hitherto uncharted monstrosity. Giannini is the aristocrat who leaves his wife for his latest mistress Jennifer O'Neil, but his morbid need for domination makes him want his wife back when she becomes pregnant by another man… Blu-ray Release Date: April 10th, 2017

The Mighty Peking Man BD - King Kong comes to Hong Kong in The Mighty Peking Man, a uniquely Shaw Brothers spin on the ageless theme of beauty and the beast. The beast, seven stories high and hailing from the Himalayas, makes his way to the jungles of India in the wake of a violent earthquake. The beauty is Swiss starlet Evelyn Kraft, a sexy blonde Tarzanette who is the Mighty Peking Man's best friend. Both are discovered by Danny Lee, a handsome young explorer who brings the odd couple back to Hong Kong, where Evelyn is almost raped and the monster runs amuck. Instead of the Empire State Building, the special effects laden climax takes place at the Connaught Centre, then Hong Kong's tallest building. Plenty of action, location shooting in India, and an inter-racial romance make this one of Shaw Brothers most unique motion pictures. Variety's verdict: High camp, Chinese style. Blu-ray Release Date: March 13th, 2017

Zombie Lake BD - In a small lakeside town, young women are disappearing without a trace. The superstitious locals blame ''The Lake of Ghosts'', because of the lake's haunting past, but the town's mayor (Howard Vernon) seems reluctant, or powerless to take any action. When another woman is found dead near the lake, with her throat ripped out, a reporter comes to town and soon discovers that the lake harbors a terrible secret dating back to World War II. It is then a group of local Resistance fighters take action against a troop of Nazi zombie soldiers invading their town, as they have come back from the dead. And now, whenever the waters at ZOMBIE LAKE are disturbed, the dead will rise! Blu-ray Release Date: February 26th, 2013

Prozzie BD - An English child sees an American soldier kill her mother, a prostitute; years later, the girl grows up and gets married and begins to hear her dead mother's voice, instructing her to start killing. Blu-ray Release Date: February 13th, 2017

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth BD - Sanna (Victoria Vetri), a beautiful blonde woman, is condemned to death when she is blamed for a sudden aberration of the sun. Fortunately, the girl is rescued by fisherman Tara (Robin Hawdon), a member of the nearby Sand Tribe, but Sanna's presence infuriates Tara's girlfriend Ayak (Imogen Hassall). While others run from the carnivorous dinosaurs, Tara trains one of the beasts who believes she is one of her offspring. A typhoon leaves four survivors to fight for survival. Blu-ray Release date: February 28th, 2017

Demon Seed BD - Susan Harris is alone in the house when, suddenly, doors lock, windows slam shut and the phone stops working. Susan is trapped by an intruder - but this is no ordinary thug. Instead, the intruder is a computer named Proteus, an artificial brain that has learned to reason. And to terrorize. Blu-ray Release Date: March 14th, 2017

Lifeboat BD - Hitchcock goes to sea in this Oscar-nominated character piece. Tallulah Bankhead is among the survivors of a Nazi torpedo attack on a cruise ship, but tensions on board the rescue craft are as lethal as the German threat. Based on a John Steinbeck story, this taut, tense psychological thriller, set entirely on a lifeboat following the bombing of a luxury liner, anticipates the claustrophobic atmosphere of both Rear Window and Rope. A simple premise tightens the dramatic focus and the film explores the delicate balance of power among the survivors as they suffer the consequences of their own and one another's folly. Kino Blu-ray Release Date: March 21st, 2017

Beyond the Darkness BD - Focusing on a PSYCHO-style story of a young loner, under the authority of a besotted but blood-thirsty matriarch, who enjoys bouts of human taxidermy, bodily mutilation and cannibalism - this crimson-ridden splatter caper might just be D'Amato's crowning achievement. Starring the legendary Cinzea Monreale (THE BEYOND) as a beautiful blonde who is lured into the killer's premises, BEYOND THE DARKNESS also features a sublime score from prog-rockers Goblin (TENEBRAE) and a sick, but nonetheless satisfying, sense of humour. Blu-ray Release Date: February 13th, 2017

The Delinquents BD - The Delinquents, maverick filmmaker Robert Altman’s feature film debut, is the ultimate in the kids-gone-bad film genre. Pre-Billy Jack actor Tom Laughlin stars as Scotty, a young man drawn into a potentially deadly friendship when he inadvertently becomes involved with “the wrong crowd.” Naiveté will lead Scotty and his girlfriend, Janice (Rosemary Howard) into dangerous waters when adolescent fun escalates into robbery, assault and kidnapping. Blu-ray Release date: March 21st, 2017

Short Night of Glass Dolls BD - "The corpse of reporter Gregory Moore (Jean Sorel) is found in a Prague plaza and brought to the local morgue. But Moore is actually alive, trapped inside his dead body and desperately recalling how the mysterious disappearance of his beautiful girlfriend (Barbara Bach) led to a terrifying conspiracy of depravity. Can a reporter with no visible signs of life solve this perverse puzzle before he meets his ultimate deadline?" Blu-ray Release Date: November 21sr, 2016

Massacre in Dinosaur Valley BD - When their plane crashes in the dense Amazon jungle, anthropologist, and all-round ladies man, Kevin Hall (Michael Sopkiw, Blastfighter), is left to protect a bevy of model bombshells who were along for the ride; including the gorgeous Eva (Suzane Carvalho, Women in Fury). On their journey back to civilization, they battle the harsh elements of the Amazon and clash with terrifying jungle creatures, not to mention a run in with local slave traders. They eventually find themselves deep in cannibal territory and fighting to save their skins. Blu-ray Release Date: March 13th, 2017

Taxi Driver (4K Remastered) BD - Travis' state of mind and his work allow Scorsese to show a side of New York that's progressively darker and darker, with the help of Michael Chapman's gorgeous photography and Bernard Hermann's haunting last score, from the classy campaign HQ to the dirty streets where 12-year-old hookers (young Jodie Foster, incredible) are beaten up by their pimp (Harvey Keitel, amost unrecognizable). Travis becomes more and more self-centered, destructive and mad (the famous "You talking to me ?" scene is a powerful example of it) and finally decides to act and to kill the ones that prevent him from being happy with the girls of his life. Sony (4K Remastered) Blu-ray Release Date: May 14th, 2013

Into the Night BD - - Besides Ron Koslow’s deceptively brilliant script, the two lead performances are outstanding. Goldblum’s regular guy insomniac is fantastic. He’s so good, it’s hard to believe Michelle Pfeiffer is even better as the sort of mystery woman who takes over his life. Koslow never gives pay-off scenes showing how Goldblum’s life has changed because of the encounter because there’s just no time for it. A pay-off scene would break the realism of the timeline Koslow and Landis create. Into the Night’s not real time and doesn’t attempt it. Blu-ray Release date: June 1st, 2016

Claire in Motion - Three weeks after Claire's husband has mysteriously disappeared, the police have ended their investigation and her son is beginning to grieve. The only person who hasn't given up is Claire. Soon she discovers his troubling secrets, including an alluring-yet-manipulative graduate student with whom he had formed a close bond. As she digs deeper, Claire begins to lose her grip on how well she truly knew her husband, and questions her own identity in the process. Claire In Motion twists the missing person thriller into an emotional take on uncertainty and loss. DVD Release Date: April 11th, 2017

Death Passage - A couple of Australians introduce three American backpackers to the local legend of Lemon Tree Passage, where the ghost of a motorcyclist warns young drivers to slow down. After seeing the ghost firsthand, they uncover a malevolent force that possesses the area, and threatens to wreck havoc on the final days of their vacation. Isolated and ten thousand miles from home, the tourists find themselves caught in the clutches of an evil force much more heinous than that of local myth. DVD Release Date: March 21st, 2017

Somewhere in the Middle - Four lovers collide into each others' lives as one marriage morphs into several intertwining affairs. SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE was born out of a year long improvisational process in which the actors and director mutually crafted an ensemble drama. Structured like a jigsaw puzzle, no character fully grasps their current dilemma as interwoven stories are retold from varying viewpoints. DVD Release Date: February 14th, 2017

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