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Black Sabbath
BD - Vintage Bava in which Karloff
introduces three adaptations from famous tales of the
supernatural (and also stars in the last): The Drop of Water
by Chekhov, The Telephone by Howard Snyder, and The
Wurdalak by Tolstoy. Pictorially it's amazing, and even the
script and dubbing are way above average. If only Amicus, who
subsequently cornered the horror omnibus market, had taken heed
they might have got some ideas as to what can be done with the
format. Blu-ray Release Date: May 13th, 2013
Opening Night
BD - Broadway actress Myrtle Gordon (Gena
Rowlands) rehearses for her latest play, about a woman unable to
admit that she is aging. When she witnesses the accidental death
of an adoring young fan, she begins to confront the personal and
professional turmoil she faces in her own life. Featuring a
moving performance by Rowlands (and with some scenes shot on
stages with live audiences reacting freely to the writing and
performing), John Cassavetes’ Opening Night exposes the
drama of an actress who at great personal cost makes a part her
own. Blu-ray Release Date: May 27th, 2013
Viva Zapata!
BD - The life and times of the legendary
Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata are brought to the screen
in Darryl F. Zanuck's powerful production of John Steinbeck's
screenplay. Marlon Brando, fresh from his success in
A Streetcar Named Desire, gives a stunning portrayal
of the outlaw turned revolutionary leader. The film also boasts
Anthony Quinn's 1952 Best Supporting Actor Oscar-Winning
performance as Zapata's brother. Viva Zapata! is one of
the classic political movies and another fine example of
Brando's genius as a film actor. Blu-ray Release date: May
7th, 2013
The Great Escape
BD - In 1943, the Germans opened Stalag
Luft III, a maximum-security prisoner-of-war camp designed to
hold even the craftiest escape artists. In doing so, however,
the Nazis unwittingly assembled the finest escape team in
military history - brilliantly portrayed here by Steve McQueen,
James Garner, Charles Bronson and James Coburn - who worked on
what became the largest prison breakout ever attempted. One of
the most ingenious and suspenseful adventure films of all time,
The Great Escape is a masterful collaboration between
director John Sturges (The
Magnificent Seven), screenwriters James Clavell (Shogun)
and W.R. Burnett (Little
Caesar), and composer Elmer Bernstein. Based on a
true story, The Great Escape is epic entertainment that
'captivates, thrills and stirs' (Variety).
Blu-ray Release
Date: May 7th, 2013
The Murderer Lives at Number 21
BD - One of the most
revered names in world cinema, Henri-Georges Clouzot, made a
remarkably self-assured debut in 1942 with the deliciously droll
thriller The Murderer Lives at 21 [L’Assassin habite
au 21]. A thief and killer stalks the streets of Paris,
leaving a calling card from “Monsieur Durand” at the scene of
each crime. But after a cache of these macabre identifications
is discovered by a burglar in the boarding house at 21 avenue
Junot, Inspector Wenceslas Vorobechik (Pierre Fresnay) takes
lodging at the infamous address in an undercover bid to solve
the crime, with help from his struggling-actress girlfriend Mila
(Suzy Delair.) Blu-ray Release date: May 20th, 2013
Ruthless
BD - Multi-millionaire Horace Woodruff Vendig
(Zachary Scott) shows himself to the world as an ambitious
philanthropist, but that's far from the case. Even as a young
man he starts to exhibit an obsessive and selfish urge to make
more and more money, loving and leaving women at will to further
this end. Vendig steps on and rolls over anyone who stands in
his way, including his lifelong friend Vic Lambdin (Louis
Hayward), utilities executive Buck Mansfield (Sydney Greenstreet)
and various women, among them his first and only love, Martha
Burnside (Diana Lynn), socialite Susan Duane (Martha Vickers)
and Buck's wife, Christa Mansfield (Lucille Bremer). It is a
tribute to the acting skills of Scott that he makes his
despicable character somehow likeable and sympathetic. The
stellar cast includes Raymond Burr, Edith Barrett, Dennis Hoey
and Joyce Arling. One of the few big-budgeted projects helmed by
cult director Edgar G. Ulmer (Detour).
Blu-ray Release date:
March 26th, 2013
The Telephone Book
BD - A major, though forgotten, work
from New York's underground film scene of the late 60s and early
70s, Nelson Lyon's The Telephone Book tells the story of
a sex-obsessed hippie who falls in love with the world's
greatest obscene phone caller and embarks on a quest to find
him. Her journey introduces to her to an avant-garde stag
filmmaker, a manipulative psychiatrist, a bored lesbian
housewife, and more. Photographed in high-contrast
black-and-white, and punctuated with a remarkable, surreal
animated sequence, The Telephone Book is one of the
greatest cult films you've probably never heard of.
Blu-ray
Release date: May 7th, 2013
The Verdict
BD - Nominated for five Academy Awards
including Best Picture, Best director and Best Actor, The
Verdict is 'stirring, entertaining cinema' (Us). This
Blu-Ray release is packed with compelling special features
including on-camera interviews with Oscarr winner Paul Newman
and legendary director Sidney Lumet and is the perfect way to
experience 'one of the finest courtroom movies ever made' (New
York). Frank Galvin (Newman) is a boozy washed-up attorney with
a losing streak a mile long. so when he's handed a lucrative
out-of-court settlement, everyone expects him to take the money
and run. But Frank is tired of running. In a desperate bid to
reclaim his self-respect, he recklessly brings the case to court
- only to discover that if finding the whole truth is a little
like trial and error, then finding real justice is a lot like
trial by fire. Blu-ray Release Date: May 7th, 2013
Night of the Scarecrow
BD - An evil secret that a small
town has hidden for generations has come back to haunt them. A
monstrous demon has been set free - unspeakable, unstoppable,
and hell-bent for revenge. Before the night is through the
Scarecrow will sow the seeds of terror, then reap the grisly
harvest in a bloodcurdling trail of death and decay that leads
from the backwoods of horror to the bowels of hell. When the
Scarecrow starts stalking, don't bother running. just pray that
morning comes before the Scarecrow does. Stylishly directed by
horror veteran, Jeff Burr (The Offspring, Stepfather II).
The great cast of character actors includes Stephen Root (Office
Space), Bruce Glover (Diamonds
Are Forever), Gary Lockwood (2001:
A Space Odyssey) and John Hawkes (Winter's
Bone). Blu-ray Release date: April 30th, 2013
The Men
BD - Marlon Brando set the mark for a brilliant
career in Stanley Kramer's THE MEN, his motion picture
debut. As a war veteran paralyzed in combat, he returns home to
face the torturous ordeal of rehabilitation. The courage and
strength of the soldier are betrayed by the fear and insecurity
of the man when he learns he will never walk again. Embittered
by his condition, he refuses to see his fiancée and sinks into a
solitary world of hatred and hostility. Fighting the wishes of
her parents, the coldness of a guilt-ridden society and her own
self-doubts, it is she who must force him to confront the
reality of his condition and break his physical and emotional
confinement. When feeling starts to return to his legs, it could
be his last hope...or his final downfall.
Blu-ray Release
Date: April 30th, 2013
Hoodlum Empire
BD - WWII veteran and ex-gangster, Joe
Gray (John Russell) is subpoenaed to testify against his uncle
and current mob boss, Nick Mancini (Luther Adler). Nick must
restrain Charley Pignatalli (Forrest Tucker), his violent
second-in-command, from killing Joe before he his court
appearance. Torn from the headlines and shot in a
semi-documentary style, Hoodlum Empire was inspired by
the Kefauver investigations of 1950 and 1951. This classic film
noir was directed by Joseph Kane (King
of the Pecos) and was beautifully shot by Reggie
Lanning (Sands
of Iwo Jima). The all-star cast includes Claire
Trevor, Brian Donlevy, Vera Ralston and Gene Lockhart.
Blu-ray Release date: April 30th, 2013
In the Name of the Father
BD - The My Left Foot
team of star Daniel Day-Lewis and director Jim Sheridan were
reunited to make this political docudrama about Irish citizen
Gerry Conlon (Day-Lewis), who was wrongly convicted of taking
part in an IRA bombing that killed five in Guildford, England in
1974. After a brutal interrogation forces him to sign a false
confession, Gerry is sentenced to prison, his family is raked
over the coals, and later his father Giuseppe (Pete
Postelthwaite) is charged with being an accomplice and is also
sent to prison where he lives out the last days of his life.
Day-Lewis gives an outstanding performance as a man tormented by
the injustice served him. Watch for Emma Thompson as the
persevering lawyer who works for years, gathering evidence to
clear Gerry's name. Blu-ray Release date: May 7th, 2013
Medium Cool
BD - It’s 1968, and the whole world is watching.
With the U.S. in social upheaval, famed cinematographer Haskell
Wexler decided to make a film about what the hell was going on.
Medium Cool, his debut feature, plunges us into the moment. With
its mix of fictional storytelling and documentary technique,
this depiction of the working world and romantic life of a
television cameraman (Robert Forster) is a visceral cinematic
snapshot of the era, climaxing with an extended sequence shot
right in the middle of the riots surrounding the Democratic
National Convention in Chicago. An inventive commentary on the
pleasures and dangers of wielding a camera, Medium Cool is as
prescient a political film as Hollywood has ever produced.
Blu-ray Release date: May 21st, 2013
Starlet
BD - STARLET explores the unlikely friendship between 21
year-old aspiring actress Jane (Dree Hemingway) and elderly
widow Sadie after their worlds collide in California's San
Fernando Valley. Jane spends her time getting high with her
dysfunctional roommates and taking care of her hihuahua Starlet,
while Sadie passes her days alone, tending to her garden. After
a confrontation at a yard sale, Jane finds something unexpected
in a relic from Sadie's past. Her curiosity piqued, she tries to
befriend the caustic older woman. Secrets emerge as their
relationship grows, revealing that nothing is ever as it seems.
Blu-ray Release date: May 7th, 2013
Life is Sweet
BD - This invigorating film from Mike Leigh was
his first international sensation. Melancholy and funny by
turns, it is an intimate portrait of a working-class family in a
suburb just north of London—an irrepressible mum and dad (Alison
Steadman and Jim Broadbent) and their night-and-day twins, a
bookish good girl and a troubled, ill-tempered layabout (Claire
Skinner and Jane Horrocks). Leigh and his typically brilliant
cast create, with extraordinary sensitivity and craft, a vivid,
lived-in story of ordinary existence, in which even modest
dreams—such as the father’s desire to open a food truck—carry
enormous weight. Blu-ray Release date: May 28th, 2013
The Facility - Horror in which a clinical trial at a
remote facility goes terribly wrong. Among those who sign up to
test ProSyntrex's latest drug Pro9 are Adam (Aneurin Barnard),
Joni (Alex Reid), Carmen (Skye Lourie) and Jed (Oliver Coleman).
The trial is highly secret, with no-one, including the staff who
administer injections, aware of who is receiving the drug and
who is in the placebo group. Shortly after the trial begins it
becomes clear that something has gone wrong. There are
unexplained disappearances, bizarre silhouettes and screaming
from behind locked doors. Locked inside the facility, unaware of
the true nature of events, the surviving patients and staff must
band together to try and find a way out of the nightmare. DVD
Release Date: May 6th, 2013
Stripped - Four friends head to Vegas for a 21st
birthday in hopes of finding adventure, debauchery and memories
that will last them a lifetime. Cameron, the scandalous one of
the group decides to record the whole trip, determined to not
forget the fiasco. A girlfriend of theirs begs for a ride,
convincing them she will disappear as soon as they arrive. When
they get to Vegas the guys devise an amazing plan for the night,
but things take a turn for the worst when they call strippers
that have them travel to a remote location. Little do they know,
the strippers work for an organ trafficker. The guys fight for
their lives, but eventually get Stripped. DVD Release Date:
May 14th, 2013
Murder is My Beat - A man's body is found face down in a
fireplace, face and fingerprints charred beyond identification.
Clues lead to his mistress, bar singer Barbara Payton (alas, we
get to hear nary a note). Homicide cop Ray Patrick tracks her to
a mountain cabin, but a blizzard forces them to spend a (chaste)
night together, and she starts to get under his skin. On the
train back to Los Angeles, she spots the man who was presumed
murdered standing on a platform; against his better judgement,
Patrick joins her on the lam to uncover the truth -- a confusing
pastiche involving her roommate, a double blackmail scheme, the
wrong body and, somehow, ceramic figurines.... DVD Release
Date: January 8th, 2013
Scene of the Crime - Van Johnson cracks heads and cases
in this hardboiled crime thriller costarring Gloria DeHaven and
Arlene Dahl, directed by Roy Rowland (The Girl Hunters)
and written by Oscar®-winner* Charles Schnee (They
Live by Night). Assigned to investigate the murder
of a plainclothes detective outside a bookie joint, homicide
lieutenant Mike Conovan (Johnson) must also prove the cop was
not on the take after $1,000 is found in his pocket. Following a
slim set of clues, Conovan is beaten, shot and double-crossed as
he sets out to catch a killer and clear the detective’s name. A
departure from M-G-M’s usual glamor and glitz, Scene of the
Crime was part of production head Dore Schary’s effort to
provide post-war audiences with grittier, more realistic
entertainment. The film succeeded on all counts, returning a
handsome profit to the studio and earning an Edgar® nomination
from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Motion Picture.
DVD Release Date: January 8th, 2013
Code Two - Accepted into the Los Angeles Police Academy,
cadets Chuck O’Flair (Ralph Meeker,
Kiss Me Deadly), Harry Whenlon (Jeff Richards,
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers) and Russ Hardley (Robert
Horton, Wagon Train) pass the rigorous training program, but are
soon bored with their humdrum assignments. After a grueling
series of tests, they’re transferred to the LAPD’s elite
motorcycle squad and begin to patrol the city. So when a routine
traffic stop ends in Whenlon’s murder, O’Flair and Hardley set
out to track down the killers: two truckers involved in a
hijacking ring. One of the last features shot in the
semi-documentary style popularized by The Naked City and
Dragnet, Code Two is a police procedural highly regarded by
motorcycle enthusiasts due to its scenes of vintage Harley
Davidsons being put through their paces on off-road trails,
obstacle courses and the mean streets of early ‘50s L.A. DVD
Release Date: January 8th, 2013
Bad Kids Go To Hell - Six prep school kids from Crestview
Academy, home to the spoiled offspring of society's elite, find
themselves stuck in detention on a frightfully dark and stormy
Saturday afternoon. During their 8-hour incarceration, each of
the six kids falls victim to a horrible 'accident' until only
one of them remains. DVD Release Date: April 9th, 2013
K-11 - Record producer Raymond Saxx, Jr. (Goran Visnjic,
The
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Red Widow,
ER), has never seen
anything like this before. After a weekend of binge drinking and
drug use, he wakes in a jail cell completely oblivious of what
happened and how he got there; Ray is abruptly hauled off into a
completely new brand of Hell Los Angeles County s controversial
K-11 unit. Like Alice in a brutally violent Wonderland, Ray must
learn to navigate the politics of vicious transvestites and
drug-addicted criminals if he wants to see his perfect life
again. DVD Release Date: April 23rd, 2013
Ten Little Indians - The third of many film and TV
adaptations of the popular Agatha Christie novel And Then
There Were None (Ten Little Indians is the title of
the American edition, the hit play, and most of the movies),
this 1965 version moves the action from a remote island to an
isolated ski resort and otherwise rearranges the plot. The basic
premise, however, remains the same. Ten strangers, eight of them
guests and two of them servants, are lured to a dinner party and
then trapped there to be killed one at a time by an unseen host
who wishes to punish them for their disparate perceived crimes.
The old nursery rhyme provides both the framing device, and, in
the source material, the method of execution for each victim. In
this version, however, the revised murder scenes include a
hapless servant (Marianne Hoppe) falling to her death from a
booby-trapped ski lift. Ten Little Indians features a
varied cast that ranges from future Bond girls Shirley Eaton and
Daliah Lavi to former teen idol Fabian and former Wyatt Earp TV
star Hugh O'Brian. It also reunites My Fair Lady co-stars
Stanley Holloway and Wilfrid Hyde-White. The film was the final
directorial effort of George Pollock, who had previously helmed
several adaptations of Christie's popular Miss Marple mysteries,
starting with 1962's Murder, She Said. Christopher Lee makes an
uncredited appearance as the recorded voice of absentee
host/villain Mr. Owen. Despite its mountain setting, the picture
was filmed in Ireland. DVD Release Date: November 29th, 2012
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