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The Black Book - Anthony
Mann’s The Black Book (1949). One of the great
unacknowledged forms of noir is costume drama. I can’t think of
a better example than this campy, hugely enjoyable thriller
about the French Revolution—-also known as Reign of Terror,
with Robert Cummings, Richard Basehart, and Arlene
Dahl--brilliantly shot by John Alton, the greatest noir
cinematographer. I even prefer it to Mann’s more conventional
noirs in contemporary settings, many of them also shot by Alton.
Sony DVD Release Date: January 3rd, 2012
Thirteen Women - Shortly
before shedding her snakeskin vamp persona for good by wrapping
herself in the ermine confines of Nora Charles, Myrna Loy
terrified and terrorized as the murderous mesmerist Ursula
Georgi in the pre-Code horror show Thirteen Women. Following a
racist sorority’s cruel rebuff, half-caste Ursula embarks on a
blood-thirsty trail of deceit and murder until only one woman
(Irene Dunne) is left to face her. Aside from the allure and
interest of its two leading ladies – each on the cusp of their
ascension into cinema legend – Thirteen Women’s delights are
rather more diabolical and devastating than the more domestic
concerns of a traditional “Women’s Picture.” From its breathless
and terrifying (and arrestingly staged) opening aerial atrocity
through its stabbings, suicides and hidden bombs, Thirteen
Women’s relentless pace startles and astonishes, ever driven by
Loy’s portrayal of Ursula’s unalloyed and unapologetic evil.
DVD Release Date: February 21st, 2012
Three Bad Sisters - The
title tells a lie: It's actually two bad sisters. The middle
sibling Lorna (played by Sara Shane) proves as virtuous as she
is dull, compared to the psychotic (Valerie, played by Kathleen
Hughes) and the nymphomaniac (Vicki, played by Marla English)
with whom she shares a mansion and their dead father's millions.
(Also in the mix is a boozed-up busybody of an aunt played by
Madge Kennedy.) DVD Release Date: March 13th, 2012
The Steel Trap -
Thrillmaster Andrew Stone re-teams Shadow of a Doubt’s Joseph
Cotten and Teresa Wright for this bank job drama about a man who
goes all out for the big score, only to discover he’s risked
losing all. Diligent, observant and bright assistant bank
manager James Osborne (Cotten) knows all the ins and outs of his
bank – including a few loopholes wary upper management has
missed. Despairing of the suburban treadmill, Osborne seizes on
U.S.-Brazil extradition (or lack thereof) to provide his “get
out of jail free card.” His daring plan – rob the bank during
working hours on Friday and be safely in Brazil by the time the
cash is found missing Monday morn. Unfortunately, Osborne’s wife
Laurie (Wright) does not applaud his daring as imagined. She
leaves him and, in order to get her back, Osborne must now enact
an even more daring plan – break back into the bank and return
the purloined tender before Monday morning. DVD Release Date:
February 21st, 2012
Spin a Dark Web - British
crime melodrama starring Domergue as the sister of a powerful
London mobster who slowly seduces her lover, Patterson, into a
life of crime. He goes along reluctantly, but when things turn
homicidal he tries to back out. She won't let him. DVD
Release Date: March 6th, 2012
The Big Night - Joseph
Losey's The Big Night is a film noir that's also, like
Moonrise and Talk About A Stranger, a coming-of-age story. The
young male undergoing his transformational journey is John
Barrymore, Jr., son of the Great Profile and father of Drew. His
film career was not high-profile, as he inherited the family
disposition toward chemical dependency (blood will tell). But
here, boasting a luxuriantly healthy crown of hair, he gives a
surprisingly intense yet controlled performance. His big night
happens to be his 16th or 17th birthday, when his barkeep father
is brutally beaten and publicly humiliated by a local
sportswriter (Losey's staging is unflinching). Frustrations
about his own Hamlet-like ditherings and confusions impel him to
seek revenge on his father's behalf, and, gun in pocket, he sets
out into a nightscape of prize fights, gin mills and the walk-up
flats of casually met strangers. DVD Release Date: March
13th, 2012
The Last of the Mohicans -
Randolph Scott has one of his best roles as Hawkeye in this
exciting film adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper's often...
filmed novel. During the brutal French and Indian War, Hawkeye
is prevailed upon to escort Major Duncan Heyward (Henry Wilcoxon),
and the two daughters of Fort William Henry commander Colonel
Munro (Hugh Buckler) -- Alice (Binnie Barnes) and Cora (Heather
Angel) -- to safety through enemy lines. Hawkeye is assisted by
his Indian friend Chingachgook (Robert Barrat), and Uncas
(Philip Reed), Chingachgook's son; the two are the last
survivors of the Mohican tribe. DVD Release Date: April 10th,
2012
What Really Frightens You?
- A writer who prefers to be known as "Ghost Writer" (Ian
Tomaschik) pitches an article to Ghastly Horror Magazine editor
Marshall McFarland (Patrick Flynne, THE UNDYING) about
"What Really Frightens You" in which he will interview New
Yorkers on their deepest fears. Scouring Times Square he happens
upon lawyer Drew (Postell Pringle), bookstore employee Chloe
(Jennifer Sorika), and office worker Brett (Chris Keveney).
After their interviews, the three begin experiencing nightmares
and hallucinations related to their fears: Drew worked his way
out of Hell's Kitchen and is afraid of running into the gangs
that used to beat him up (meanwhile, he's defending a slumlord
with a building in the area), Chloe has nightmares of being in
her underwear in public and getting pawed by strip-club
customers, and Brett fears a monster under his bed from
childhood. DVD Release Date: October 19th, 2010
Debauchery - The frustrated
desires of housewife Ami (Ryoko Watanabe, FEMALE PRISONER:
CAGE) - who has fantasies of violation while having vanilla
sex with her physician husband Fujina - are awakened by his
lascivious friend Dr. Kohsaka, who tells her of the existence of
Madame Machiko's Society Club where housewives moonlight as
prostitutes. After a wrong phone number leads to a rough sexual
encounter with a stranger, Ami decides to work for Madame
Machiko, "but only in the afternoon." As Ami begins to enjoy the
bestial desires of her clients, things pep up in the bedroom
with her husband and she considers quitting her "dayjob"; that
is, until Kohsaka proves very able to drag her down into the
desired abyss of degradation. DVD Release Date: April 10th,
2010
A Trip to the Moon
BD - No original
hand-colored copies of A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage
dans la Lune - 1902), by Georges Méliès, had been known to
survive until one was miraculously found in Spain in the
mid-1990s, but in a fragmentary condition thought too fragile to
handle for either viewing or restoration. In 2010, three experts
in worldwide film restoration - Lobster Films, and two
non-profit entities, Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema and
Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage - launched one of the
most complex and ambitious film restoration projects ever to
bring an original, colored version of Méliès masterpiece back
110 years after its first release.
Blu-ray Release date: April 10th, 2012
Alambrista!
BD - In Alambrista!, a
Mexican farmworker sneaks across the border to California to
make money to send to his family back home. It is a story that
happens every day, told here in an uncompromising,
groundbreaking work of realism from American independent
filmmaker Robert M. Young. Vivid and spare where other films
about illegal immigration might sentimentalize, Young’s take is
equal parts intimate character study and gripping road movie, a
political work that never loses sight of the complex man at its
center. Alambrista!, winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s
inaugural Caméra d’Or in 1978, remains one of the best films
ever made on this perennially relevant topic.
Blu-ray Release date: April 17th,
2012
The Deadly Spawn - Toothy
alien parasites (and their titular deadly spawn) invade the
suburbs of New Jersey when a meteor crashes to Earth in this
nifty no-budget effects showcase. The creatures make their home
in the dark and dank basement of a family home and proceed to
gorily devour anyone who ventures into the basement (including
mom, dad, and an electrician). Meanwhile big brother Pete (Tom
DeFranco, DR. ALIEN), his brainy girlfriend Ellen (Jean
Tafler), friend Frankie (Richard Lee Porter), and buxom blond
Kathy (Karen Tighe) discover one of the dead parasites in an
upstairs sink and decide to dissect it rather than study for the
chemistry exam. Aunt Millie (Ethel Michelson) is on her way out
to a ladies luncheon, and Uncle Herb (John Schmerling) decides
to psychoanalyze younger child Charles (Charles George
Hildebrandt, son of illustrator Tim Hildebrandt [who has a small
part]) who likes to put on monster masks and scare his
relatives. Charles ventures into the basement and discovers the
bodies, but his love of all things monstrous and his innate
curiosity allows him to survive getting eaten. He must figure
out how to defeat the rapidly multiplying and growing monsters
as they venture upstairs and out into the neighborhood. DVD
Release Date: March 19th, 2012
Resurrection County - When
Sam (Dayton Knoll, BLOOD RANCH), his sister Lucy (Kathryn
Michelle, REPO MEN), girlfriend Kat (Cassie Self), and
best friend Tommy (Adam Huss, EL MASCARADO MASSACRE)
decide to camp out at Devil's Den State Park in Resurrection
County - necessitating a detour through creepy Enoch City - you
know there's little chance of them ever coming back. When Sam
and Tommy ignore the "no trespassing" and "keep out" signs and
drive their ATV's onto the meth lab of Stag (Rus Blackwell,
MONSTER), they get in a
shootout with his tweaking brother Billy (Lynnsee Provence,
THE GIFT). Sam and Tommy take off on foot with Stag in
pursuit. DVD Release Date: March 20th, 2012
Pal Joey
BD - Ambitious singer/dancer
Joey (Frank Sinatra) is still something of a louse, but a
redeemable one. The relationship between Joey and his older
benefactress Vera Simpson (Rita Hayworth, who was actually a few
years younger than Sinatra) is one of implication rather than
overt statement. And Joey's true love, chorine Linda English
(Kim Novak), is as pure as the driven snow, who vehemently
expresses distaste at having to perform a striptease. The
Rodgers and Hart songs ("I Could Write a Book" the
aforementioned "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered") which
seemed so cynical and ironic back in 1940, are given the
typically lush, luxurious Hollywood treatment (many of the
tunes, notably "There's a Small Hotel", were borrowed from other
Rodgers and Hart shows, a not uncommon practice of the time).
Pal Joey is nice to look at and consummately performed, but
don't expect the bite of the original play, or the John O'Hara
short stories which preceded them.
Blu-ray Release date: February, 2012
Into the Abyss
BD - In his fascinating
exploration of a triple homicide case in Conroe, Texas, master
filmmaker Werner Herzog (Cave
of Forgotten Dreams, Grizzly Man)
probes the human psyche to explore why people kill and why a
state kills. Through intimate conversations with those involved,
including 28-year-old death row inmate Michael Perry (scheduled
to die within eight days of appearing on-screen), Herzog
achieves what he describes as a gaze into the abyss of the human
soul. Herzog s inquiries also extend to the families of the
victims and perpetrators as well as a state executioner and
pastor who've been with death row prisoners as they've taken
their final breaths. As he s so often done before, Herzog s
investigation unveils layers of humanity, making an enlightening
trip out of ominous territory. Blu-ray
Release date: April 10th, 2012
Don't Go In the House - A
disturbed man descends into an inferno of madness in this
thriller. Donald Kohler (Dan Grimaldi) was raised by an...
abusive mother who frequently punished him by thrusting his arms
into open flame. As an adult, Kohler has developed a malign
obsession with fire and works at a garbage incineration plant
while still living at his mother's house. One night, Kohler
returns home to discover his mother has died, but after a brief
moment of freedom he begins hearing her voice commanding him to
punish women who might tempt her errant son. Kohler builds a
fireproof room in the house and starts luring women he meets at
random to his home, where they're burned alive by the disturbed
pyromaniac. Bobby (Robert Osth), one of his few friends at work,
tries to help bring Kohler out of his shell and even fixes him
up with a date, but an evening at a disco takes an ugly turn,
revealing Kohler's deadly obsession. Don't Go In The House was
the first film role for Dan Grimaldi, who later went on to play
Patsy Parisi on the HBO series The Sopranos. Media Blasters
DVD Release Date: November 29th, 2005
Crows Zero - The only way
to move up in the ranks of the Suzuran Boys' High School is by
fighting. The "School of Crows" - so-called because the students
have banded into fighting groups against each other - is the
lowest-achieving school in Japan, and no one faction has ever
been able to rule the school by unifying all of the factions
beneath them. New transfer Genji (Shun Oguri, REINCARNATION)
is eager to take on Tamao (Takayuki Yamada, 13 ASSASSINS),
whose faction is currently on its way to ruling the ranks of
Suzuran. Genji gets some coaching from low-rung Yakuza hotshot
Katagiri (Kyôsuke Yabe, DEAD OR ALIVE) who has failed on
his own to take on Tamao for putting several of his fellow gang
members in the hospital. As Genji fights his way through the
various factions to gain respect and support, Tamao and Genji's
former friend Tatsukawa (Kenta Kiritani, CYBORG GIRL)
forge alliances with other factions leading up to the brutal
ultimate showdown. DVD Release Date: April 9th, 2012
Los Basterdos - Jesus
(Jesus Moises Rodriguez) and teenage Fausto (Rubén Sosa) are two
illegal immigrants among many looking for work in Home Depot
parking lots and on the side of roads. Today, however, they've
been offered a lucrative job: they've been paid and armed with a
sawed-off shotgun to invade the home of single mother Karen
(Nina Zavarin,
REQUIEM FOR A DREAM)
while her son Trevor (Trevor Glen Campbell) is out with friends.
The job does not go smoothly since they are as ambiguous about
killing her; however, Karen can only remain passive for so long
(and through so much) and the indignities of the day (and every
other day) are wearing thin on Jesus and Fausto. DVD Release
Date: January 23rd, 2012
The Terrorists
BD - A gang of hijackers led
by Ian McShane seize a British plane as it is landing in
Scandinavia. Ruthless military police chief Colonel Tahlvik is
assigned to rescue the plane and it's passengers. But he must
also deal with the problem of the British Ambassador, whose
residence has been seized by a second group of terrorists.
Blu-ray Release date: April 10th,
2012
The Organizer
BD - In
turn-of-the-twentieth-century Turin, an accident in a textile
factory incites workers to stage a walkout. But it’s not until
they receive unexpected aid from a traveling professor (Marcello
Mastroianni) that they find their voice, unite, and stand up for
themselves. This historical drama by Mario Monicelli, brimming
with humor and honesty, is a beautiful and moving ode to the
power of the people, and features engaging, naturalistic
performances; cinematography by the great Giuseppe Rotunno; and
a multilayered, Oscar-nominated screenplay by Monicelli, Agenore
Incrocci, and Furio Scarpelli. Blu-ray
Release date: April 24th, 2012
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