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The Big Gundown
BD - Jonathan Corbett (Lee
Van Cleef) is one of the top lawmen in the State of Texas. He's
so good at what he does, that he's been approached by Brokston
(Walter Barnes), a wealthy speculator and power-broker, about
running for the United States Senate. But there's one job that
needs doing first which, if Corbett can finish it, will put him
in an unchallengable position -- he has to hunt down and capture
(dead or alive, with the emphasis on "dead") Cuchillo Sanchez
(Tomas Milian), who's wanted for raping and killing a
12-year-old girl. Corbett does what he does best, pursuing
Sanchez relentlessly and on his own level of intense brutality,
past the border and into Mexico -- but along the way, Corbett
learns what life is like for peasants like Sanchez, and what men
like Brokston have to do with it. And he discovers that Sanchez
may not be the murderer that Corbett thinks he is.
Blu-ray Release date: December
13th, 2013
Dogs
BD - Bearded, be-jeaned and sporting a Beatle cut,
McCallum's biology professor stumbles through the movie -
usually accompanied by beercan - mumbling his disgust over the
idiocy of his students and cynicism about his dilettante
colleagues at a small, isolated college campus. The local dogs
seem to share his view that the planet could do without this
particular bunch of morons, and proceed to dispose of them with
much slavering and gnashing of teeth. McCallum suspects that
olfactory stimuli can cause mass behaviour in animals, and he
just manages to survive; perhaps it was his resemblance to an
Old English Sheepdog that fooled 'em.
Blu-ray Release date: March 11th, 2014
Tightrope
BD - Clint Eastwood plays a
New Orleans detective determined to track down a serial killer
of prostitutes. Complicating matters is the fact that the
unknown culprit is very likely an S&M fetishist....and so is
Eastwood. The detective is profoundly disturbed at the
likelihood that he and the killer have the same taste in women;
this element of the case is equally troublesome for psychologist
Genevieve Bujold, who finds herself attracted to Eastwood. The
climax involves the killer's attempting to throw Eastwood off
the track by kidnapping one of the detective's two daughters
(played quite well by Clint's real-life daughter Alison).
Blu-ray Release date: June 10th,
2014
The Human Factor
BD - This espionage drama is
based on a novel by Graham Greene about a low-level British
informant who is caught in a trap. Castle (Nicol Williamson) has
a desk job in British intelligence. Around him are heavyweights
like Col. Daintry (Richard Attenborough), Sir John Hargreaves
(Richard Vernon), and Percival (Robert Morley) who will
cold-bloodedly stop at nothing to do their jobs as they see fit.
And Castle certainly is a nobody compared to them. One day when
a friend of his in Africa needs some help, Castle is conned into
supplying the Eastern block countries with info on demand. No
one suspects him because of his low position, but when his
office partner is hauled off, Castle begins to rethink his
situation. This was director Otto Preminger's last film.
Blu-ray Release Date: September
12th, 2013
Cobra Woman
BD - Cobra Island, we hasten
to inform you, is ruled by a viperous doll who snake-dances in
the sacred temple, surrounded by a bevy of night-gowned toots.
She also sends levies of her subjects to be tossed into the
fire, and generally behaves so that no one will vote her the
most-popular-girl in her class. So it is not in the least
surprising when a hurry call is sent for her beautiful and
gracious twin-sister to come home from someplace else and grab
the throne. It is not in the least surprising—and not in the
least out of line—that the good one should be accompanied by her
ardent fiancé, Mr. Hall, himself appropriately accompanied by
Sabu and a chimpanzee. And it is not in the least
implausible—provided you're with us up to now—that the whole
kit-and-kaboodle should fight like wildcats before the island is
finally freed. Blu-ray Release
date: October 4th, 2013
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
BD - It's one of the very
best Hollywood adventure movies, with lots of monsters,
underground oceans, sinister villains, and touches which would
have delighted Jules Verne himself. James Mason as usual carries
his part superbly, and there are plenty of good supporting
actors like Napier and Ronson. Some of the special effects are
intriguing, and believe it or not there's also quite a bit of
effective sexual symbolism in typical Hollywood style, which
greatly enhances the syrupy romantic subplot.
Blu-ray Release date: July 24th,
2012
Re-Animator
BD - Herbert West (Jeffrey
Combs) is a brilliant medical student who has perfected a
green-glowing serum for regenerating life into dead things -- or
even parts of dead things. But a corrupt superior, Dr. Carl Hill
(David Gale), assumes control of West's experiments and winds
up, by ghastly necessity, using the stuff on his own severed
head and body. West and in-over-his-head co-worker Dan Cain
(Bruce Abbott) struggle to control the now out-of-control
effects of the serum, but the bone-saws and zombies complicate
their plans. Blu-ray Release
date: June 2nd, 2014
Rollerball (1975)
BD - Rollerball
posits a dystopian future (2018!) in which war has been replaced
by the titular game, a gladiatorial spectacle of violence that
helps keep the global populace entertained and anesthetized.
Director Norman Jewison and writer William Harrison further give
us an athletic champion, Jonathan E (the great James Caan),
whose individual expertise defeats the worldwide corporate
leadership’s design: to emphasize the futility of individual
effort. Corporate bigwigs (icily incarnated by John Houseman)
need Jonathan to retire, but Jonathan begins to have his own
dangerous ideas. Blu-ray Release
Date: May 7th, 2014
Thunderbirds are Go / Thunderbird 6
BD - Thunderbirds Are Go
(1966) and Thunderbird 6 (1968) are the cinematic
evolution of Gerry Anderson’s hugely popular British TV series,
Thunderbirds (1965-66): a mix of puppetry (via the
patented Supermarionation process, which allowed synchronization
of dialogue with marionette movement), sci-fi futurism,
action-adventure, and undeniably fabulous Sixties-era design.
Both films weave tales of the adventures of the Tracy Family, a
father and five sons who, with the assistance of the glamorous
British agent Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, run International
Rescue, an elite team who roam the globe—and beyond—in a
humanitarian effort to help their fellow men.
Blu-ray Release Date: May 7th, 2014
If...
BD - Legendary director Lindsay Anderson expanded
on the social outrage and intense character focus of his debut
This Sporting Life with this combustible tale of teenage
insurrection. Winner of the 1969 Palme d Or at Cannes, If....
was a popular triumph and instantly recognised as a classic. A
caustic portrait of a traditional boys boarding school, where
social hierarchy reigns supreme and power remains in the hands
of distanced and ineffectual teachers and callously vicious
prefects. But three junior pupils, led by Mick Travis (played by
Malcolm McDowell in the role that would catapult him to becoming
one of Britain s most iconic actors), decide on a shocking
course of action to redress the balance of privilege once and
for all. Blu-ray Release Date:
June 9th, 2014
Two Rode Together
BD - Stewart is the Marshall
on a mission to rescue some whites captured by the Comanche. In
it for the money rather than any sense of justice, he just wants
to get the job over and done with. However, accompanied by
cavalry officer Widmark, he is forced to re-evaluate his
philosophy when matters come to a head. Not Ford at his best,
but the three-dimensional performances and an unusually dark
atmosphere make for an above average, occasionally gripping
western. Blu-ray Release Date:
May 7th, 2014
Fate is the Hunter
BD - Pilot Jack Savage (Rod
Taylor) is suspected of drinking and causing an airliner crash
that leaves only a single survivor, one of the stewardesses.
Savage is suspected of being the problem because no one believes
his radio transmissions of a landing gear problem. His wartime
buddy, airline executive Sam C. McBane (Glenn Ford) is convinced
of his friend's innocence and investigates doggedly. His
investigation, and his relentless defense of Savage, imperils
his pending promotion with the airline. Much of the movie is
spent recreating McBane's relationship with Savage, and
justifying his defense of the dead pilot.
Blu-ray Release Date: May 7th, 2014
Porky's
BD - It’s 1954 and the
sex-obsessed boys of Angel Beach High School are looking to get
laid. Porky’s is their destination, local nightclub and
whorehouse. Only its redneck owner has other plans, as does his
sheriff brother. Will Meat, Mickey, Tommy and the other guys in
the gang get their own back? And will the barely-endowed Pee Wee
finally lose his virginity? Blu-ray
Release date: June 16th, 2014
Perry Mason Movie Collection V 1
- In "Perry Mason Returns", Mason's beloved former secretary,
Della Street, is accused of murdering her multi-millionaire
employer, Arthur Gordon, who has recently told his family they
are disinherited. Mason resigns his position as appellate court
judge to defend her. And Della, in the process, returns to work
for Mason. In "The Case of the Notorious Nun", Perry defends a
young novitiate accused of murdering a young priest with whom
she had grown (platonically!) close. DVD Release Date: June
10th, 2014
Dottie Gets Spanked -
Another dazzling suburban phantasm from writer-director Todd
Haynes, Dottie Gets Spanked (made post-Poison and
pre-Safe)
is a stylized, bittersweet nod to his childhood fascination with
I Love Lucy. Deep in the heart of pre-hippie 1960s
America, young artistically-inclined Steven Gale is obsessed
with Dottie Frank, wacky star of the eponymous hit sitcom The
Dottie Show. While his mother gently encourages the boy's
fixation, his father grows increasingly frustrated by his son's
apparently "sissified" interests. This provocative, heartfelt
mini-feature anticipates Haynes' Oscar-nominated Far From
Heaven with its excavation of placid mid-century surfaces
and deeply-buried emotions. DVD Release Date: November 2nd,
2004
The Terrornauts - Doomwatch
star Simon Oates takes the lead role in this cult '60s sci-fi
gem, adapted from visionary author Murray Leinster s novel The
Wailing Asteroid by fellow Hugo-Award winner John Brunner. Also
starring Bond girl Zena Marshall and featuring typically comedic
turns from Patricia Hayes and Charles Hawtrey, The Terrornauts
is presented here in brand-new transfers from the original film
elements of both its initial theatrical and subsequent,
shortened versions. DVD Release Date: March 17th, 2014
The House in the Woods -
Geoffrey Carter a highly strung author suffering from writer's
block petulantly insists to his wife that they flee their
annoying neighbours and move somewhere more peaceful. They find
a delightfully remote woodland cottage which the owner a
melancholic, widowed artist with a Larry Adler fixation is happy
to rent them at a pittance. All too soon they realise that
something is not quite right with their landlord and, much to
Geoffrey's horror, he realises that the plot of his new murder
mystery is being played out for real... DVD Release Date:
March 24th, 2014
Cat Girl - This
not-so-subtle variation on Val Lewton's classic
Cat People (1942) is
enlivened by the presence of exotic Barbara Shelley -- who would
later grace many Hammer Studios productions (most notably
Terence Fisher's
Dracula -- Prince of Darkness)
with her feline beauty. Shelley plays Leonora, a woman who
believes she has inherited a curse which will transform her
spirit into the body of a ferocious, man-eating leopard. Though
her disbelieving psychiatrist (Robert Ayres) tries to persuade
her that this belief is merely a by-product of her rage toward
her unfaithful husband, the vengeful "phantom" cat she releases
from her subconscious triggers the curse and spells doom not
only for those who betrayed her, but perhaps for Leonora's own
soul as well. DVD Release Date: March 24th, 2014
Horrors of the Black Museum
- The power of hypnotism provides the basis of this film that
was released in "Hypnovision" (yet another promotional gimmick)
A budding and frustrated mystery writer takes extreme steps to
insure that his latest thriller contains accurate descriptions
of horrible murders in this gory horror thriller. He decides
that the best way to do this is to set up and witness similar
murders first- hand, so, not wanting to bloody his own hands, he
hypnotizes his assistant, turns him into a deformed monster and
has him do the dirty work using a few devilishly clever gadgets
that include binoculars equipped with spring-loaded spikes, a
secret guillotine poised above a young woman's bed, and deadly
ice tongs. Afterward, the writer drops the bodies in a vat of
acid. Several people die before the assistant rebels and gets
bloody revenge. DVD Release Date: June 24th, 2013
Christmas Holiday - Don't
be fooled by the title. Christmas Holiday is a far, far
cry from
It's a Wonderful Life.
Told in flashback, the story begins as Jackie (Deanna Durbin),
marries Southern aristocrat Robert Monette (Gene Kelly).
Unfortunately, Robert has inherited his family's streak of
violence and instability and soon drags Jackie into a life of
misery. When her husband commits murder, Jackie is compelled by
Robert's equally degenerate mother (Gale Sondergaard) to cover
up the crime. When Robert is arrested, Jackie, tormented by the
love she still holds for her husband, runs away from the family
home, changing her name and securing work as a singer in a New
Orleans dive. DVD Release Date: March 7th, 2011
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