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Hold Back the Dawn
BD
- Charles Boyer (Gaslight) gives an enthralling performance as
Georges Iscovescu, a Romanian-born gigolo who arrives at a
Mexican border town seeking entry to the US. Faced with a
waiting period of eight years, George is encouraged by his
former dancing partner Anita (Pauline Goddard, Modern Times) to
marry an American girl and desert her once safely across the
border. He successfully targets visiting school teacher Emmy
Brown (Olivia de Havilland, Gone with the Wind), but his plan is
compromised by a pursuing immigration officer, and blossoming
feelings of genuine love for Emmy. A moving and thoughtful film
with a wonderful script (co-written by Billy Wilder), Hold back
the Dawn benefits from evocative performances by Boyer and de
Havilland, and an over-arching sense of romantic melancholy. An
enduring classic of its era, Leisen's film was nominated for
no-less than six Academy Awards. Blu-ray Release Date: July
16th, 2019
Easy Living
BD - Unmistakably scripted by Preston Sturges (stout
tycoon falls down stairs; 'I see you're down early today, sir'
remarks the imperturbable butler), this irresistible screwball
comedy with a dash of Wall Street satire has the penniless
Arthur and the pompous Arnold meet cute when his wife's fur coat
(thrown out of the window in a marital spat) falls on her head.
Subsequently assumed to be the tycoon's mistress and encouraged
to live on credit in an extravagance beyond anyone's wildest
dreams, she is brought down from her cloud by falling for the
poor boy met in an automat diner (Milland), who ironically turns
out in best fairytale tradition to be the tycoon's son. Directed
by Leisen with his airy elegance, his infallible eye for decor
(the outrageous splendours of the hotel suite in which Arthur is
installed have to be seen to be believed), and injections of
slapstick which must have given Sturges ideas when he came to
direct his own movies (in particular the custard-pie food riot
in the automat), it is a delight. Blu-ray Release Date: July
23rd, 2019
Lust for a Vampire
BD - This is one of three Hammer films
loosely based on Sheridan LeFanu's book Camilla, which gives the
standard vampire story a lesbian twist. The other two films are
The Vampire Lovers and
Twins of Evil. In this film, Count Karnstein, through a magical ritual, relies on the feedings of
the newly re-fleshed and voluptuous vampire Mircalla (Yutte
Stensgaard) for his own sustenance. This keeps her very busy
indeed. She finds a ready supply of victims at a girls'
finishing school. Her troubles begin when two male teachers from
the school decide to investigate. Blu-ray Release Date: July
30th, 2019
The Front Page (Wilder)
BD - This third film version of the 1928
Ben Hecht/Charlie MacArthur Broadway hit The Front Page was the
first one permitted to utilize all the salty profanities in the
original play. Director Billy Wilder cast his two favorite
leading men, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, as ace reporter Hildy Johnson and ruthless newspaper editor Walter Burns,
respectively. The plot of the Hecht/MacArthur play remains
intact: Burns pulls every underhanded game in the book to
prevent Johnson from leaving his Chicago paper to get married,
and in so doing the two journalists uncover a cesspool of
political corruption, centered around the planned execution of
anarchist Earl Williams (Austin Pendleton). Carol Burnett has an
extended cameo as Williams' tart girlfriend, Mollie Malloy.
Blu-ray Release Date: August 6th, 2019
Port of Shadows
BD - Down a foggy, desolate road to the port
city of Le Havre travels Jean (Jean Gabin), an army deserter
looking for another chance to make good on life. Fate, however,
has a different plan for him, when acts of both revenge and
kindness turn him into front-page news. Also starring the
blue-eyed phenomenon Michèle Morgan in her first major role, and
the menacing Michel Simon, Port of Shadows (Le Quai des brumes)
starkly portrays an underworld of lonely souls wrestling with
their own destinies. Based on the novel by Pierre Mac Orlan, the
inimitable team of director Marcel Carné and writer Jacques
Prévert deliver a quintessential example of poetic realism, one
of the classics of the golden age of French cinema. Kino
Blu-ray
Release Date: August 13th, 2019
A Foreign Affair
BD - Shot amid the ruins of Berlin, Wilder's
satire on the corruption among GIs fraternizing with the locals
did not go down too well with the Defence Department. Arthur
plays a prim congresswoman investigating an army officer (Lund),
and when she realizes she really has fallen for her man, she has
to win him away from the exotic charms of chanteuse Dietrich.
This may not be Wilder at his best - the story develops along
fairly predictable lines, with Arthur switching her starchy
uniform for a glistening evening gown - but there are some
precious set pieces, notably a seduction among a row of filing
cabinets and Dietrich's club act, not to mention a crackling
script. Kino Blu-ray Release date: August 6th, 2019
Quatermass 2
BD - Professor Quatermass, played by Hollywood
veteran Brian Donlevy reprising his role from
The Quatermass
Xperiment, is Britain's most clever scientist. Investigating a
series of bizarre incidents that have been reported from a
deserted area, he finds a group of soldiers and government
officials that appear to be controlled by aliens from another
world. When a close friend is brutally murdered by these beings,
Quatermass leads a mob of local workers to a showdown with the
extraterrestrials. The film was retitled Enemy From Space for
its U.S. theatrical release. Shout! Factory
Blu-ray Release
Date: July 30th, 2019
Touchez Pas Au Grisbi
BD - Jean Gabin is at his most wearily
romantic as aging gangster Max le Menteur in the Jacques Becker
gem Touchez pas au grisbi (Hands Off the Loot!). Having pulled
off the heist of a lifetime, Max looks forward to spending his
remaining days relaxing with his beautiful young girlfriend. But
when Riton (René Dary), Max’s hapless partner and best friend,
lets word of the loot slip to loose-lipped, two-timing Josy
(Jeanne Moreau), Max is reluctantly drawn back into the
underworld. A touchstone of the gangster-film genre, Touchez pas
au grisbi is also pure Becker—understated, elegant, evocative.
Blu-ray Release Date: August 13th, 2019
Last Year at Marienbad
BD - A cinematic puzzle, Alain Resnais'
Last Year at Marienbad is a radical exploration of the formal
possibilities of film. Beautifully shot in Cinemascope by Sacha
Vierny, the movie is a riddle of seduction, a mercurial enigma
darting between a present and past which may not even exist, let
alone converge. The film stars Giorgio Albertazzi as an unnamed
sophisticate attempting to convince a similarly nameless woman (Delphine
Seyrig) that they met and were romantically involved a year ago
in the same enormous, baroque European hotel. In the end, it
hardly matters -- they're not characters so much as pawns
anyway. Hypnotically dreamlike, Last Year at Marienbad is a
surrealist parody of Hollywood melodrama, a high-fashion romance
with a dark, alien underbelly. According to screenwriter Alain
Robbe-Grillet, the movie is a pure construction, without a frame
of reference outside of its own existence -- the lives of its
characters begin when the lights go down, and conclude when they
come back up. Blu-ray Release Date: August 20th, 2009
4D Man
BD -
He walks through walls of solid steel and stone… into the 4th dimension! From
legendary producer Jack H. Harris and director Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr., the team
behind cult favorites
The Blob and
Dinosaurus!, comes this sci-fi horror classic
starring Robert Lansing (The Grissom Gang), Lee Meriwether (Catwoman/Miss Kitka
of
Batman: The Movie,
The Time Tunnel), Robert Strauss (Stalag 17), James Congdon (The Left
Handed Gun) and Patty Duke (The Miracle Worker). Science whiz Dr. Tony Nelson (Congdon)
has made an amazing discovery: he has developed a method of stimulating the
molecular structure of solid objects so that they can be joined or passed
through one another. Stumbling upon this incredible secret is Tony’s older
brother, Scott (Lansing), a fellow scientist who decides to take the experiment
one step further—and soon finds himself able to pass through doors and walls.
But his newfound freedom of movement has unforeseen side effects, for each time
the power is used, Scott ages a bit, and only by touching other living beings
and draining their energy (and thus, their lives) can he maintain his age. In
addition, this incredible force is driving Scott quite mad... and he’s just
noticed his beautiful would-be fiancée (Meriwether) expressing an interest in
his brother Tony. Filled with eye-popping special effects, 4D Man takes sci-fi
to a whole new dimension!
Blu-ray Release Date: August 20th, 2019
Billy the Kid Versus Dracula
BD - The venerable John Carradine
gets his first chance to play the fanged count in 20 years (the
last time was House of Dracula), albeit in one of the weirdest
scenarios ever committed to film. Arriving in the Wild West via
stagecoach, Drac installs himself in the home of a pretty
rancher (Melinda Plowman) by convincing her (through hypnosis)
that he is her long-lost uncle. Unfortunately for the Count, one
of her hired hands is none other than legendary outlaw Billy the
Kid (Chuck Courtney), who has been trying to put his wicked ways
behind him. Billy takes a shine to his boss but starts to have
his suspicions about her creepy "uncle." Eventually, the
reformed desperado straps on his six-guns again to do battle
with the Count, ably assisted by the local sawbones who must be
an acquaintance of Dr. Van Helsing, since he obviously knows
such helpful arcane knowledge such as (gasp) "The Vampire Test!"
A camp anti-classic from William "One-Shot" Beaudine", who shot
it back-to-back with yet another Wild-West-Horror mutation,
Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter.
Blu-ray Release Date:
August 20th, 2019
Quatermass and the Pit
BD - Hobbs End, Knightsbridge, London.
Whilst working on a new subway tunnel for the London Underground
a group of construction workers uncover a strangely shaped skull
amongst the rubble. Nearby is another discovery: a large,
mysterious and impenetrable metal object. Initially mistaken for
an unexploded bomb the origins of the object and its strange
power are far more horrific and terrifying than anybody could
have possibly imagined. Is it of this earth? Could it be the
ancestral link to mankind’s evolution? Or could it be an ancient
link to unleashing ultimate evil? There’s only one man capable
of unravelling the clues, his name is Professor Bernard
Quatermass, a man of science who thrives on the dark mysteries
of the world, a man with answers. Blu-ray Release Date: July 30,
2019
The Leopard Man
BD - A superior horror film from the partnership
of producer Val Lewton and director Tourneur. A travelling zoo
loses a leopard after a publicity stunt in a New Mexico town,
and soon after there are a series of gruesome killings. The
police and townsfolk are peering into every shadow to find the
big cat, which could leap out on them at any moment, but remain
baffled by aspects of the deaths. Their doubts are confirmed
when the killings continue even after the body of the cat is
discovered. Then the real fear begins. Not a starry cast, but
good acting and some real jump-out-of-the-seat moments.
Blu-ray
Release Date: July 30th, 2019
The Man Who Killed Hitler and then The Bigfoot
4K UHD - The
story follows a legendary American war veteran named Calvin Barr
(Elliott / Turner) who, decades after serving in WWII and
assassinating Adolf Hitler, must now hunt down the fabled
Bigfoot. Living a peaceful life in New England, reflecting on a
lost love, the former veteran is contacted by the FBI and the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police to lead the charge as the creature
is carrying a deadly plague and is hidden deep inside the
Canadian wilderness. 4K Ultra HD Release Date: August 9th, 2016
The Deadly Bees
BD - Noted British horror director Freddie
Francis and author Robert Bloch, who wrote Psycho, combine their
talents for this tale of terror. Pop singer Vicki Robbins
(Suzanna Leigh) collapses from exhaustion and takes a vacation
on a small resort island. She soon meets Mr. Hargrove (Guy Doleman), a difficult man with a failing marriage who owns the
resort and keeps bees as a hobby. However, when Hargrove's wife
dies from bee stings, Vicki discovers that someone on the island
is breeding a strain of killer bees, and she has to find out who
is responsible and what can be done before they kill again.
Wicked-Vision Blu-ray Release Date: March 29th, 2019
Death and the Maiden
BD - Ariel Dorfman's acclaimed play of the
same name serves as the basis for Roman Polanski's drama, which
depicts a politically and psychological complex battle of wills
amongst three characters in an unnamed South American country.
The trio in question is made up of Paulina Sigourney Weaver, her
husband Gerardo Stuart Wilson, and Dr. Miranda Ben Kingsley, a
seemingly friendly stranger who provided Gerardo with a ride
home after a car breakdown. The trouble begins when Paulina
claims to recognize Miranda's voice, and accuses him of being
the unseen doctor who had subjected her to horrific torture
during her days as a prisoner of the country's former
government. Miranda, flabbergasted, denies any knowledge of such
events, but Paulina is determined to have her revenge. The
uncertain Gerardo finds himself caught in the middle, forced to
decide if his wife is telling the truth or reacting irrationally
due to her past trauma. The confrontation and shifts in power
between the three inevitably raises issues of justice and
revenge, especially in relationship to the punishment of war
criminals. Blu-ray Release Date: June 6th, 2019
An Angel at My Table
BD - After several remarkable short films
and a quirky full-length debut, Sweetie (1989), Jane Campion
presents in her second theatrical feature a biography of poet
Janet Frame. Frame's life is depicted in episodic form, covering
her pre-teen, teen, and young adult years -- each of these three
periods features a different actress as Frame (Alexia Keogh,
Karen Fergusson, Kerry Fox), and all do an excellent job of
capturing Frame's awkwardness, self-doubt, and self-discovery as
she struggles to develop as a human being and as an artist in a
sometimes inhospitable world. The imagery is striking throughout
the film, and limiting myself to just the screenshots below was
painful. Criterion Blu-ray Release Date: August 6th, 2019
The Legacy
BD - Written by the late, great Jimmy Sangster, this supernatural riff
on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None is a gruesome,
hugely entertaining chiller. Two American architects (real-life
couple Katharine Ross and Sam Elliott, who met on the set of
this film) are holidaying in England and find themselves trapped
at a country mansion where the various guests become victims in
a series of unexplained and increasingly violent deaths.
Director Richard Marquand,
making his feature-film directing debut, deftly balances horror
and grisly black humour. The film also boasts sumptuous
photography by the great Dick Bush and Alan Hume, a wonderfully
eccentric score by Michael J Lewis and a superb supporting cast
which includes Charles Gray, Margaret Tyzack, Ian Hogg, John
Standing and The Who's Roger Daltrey.
Blu-ray Release Date: July
29th, 2019
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