Douglas Sirk Collection, Vol. 2 Stanwyck, Rock Hudson

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Douglas Sirk Collection, Vol. 2

All I Desire (1953) There's Always Tomorrow (1956)

Interlude (1957) The Tarnished Angels (1958)

The Tarnished Angels is compared on Blu-ray HERE

All I Desire is compared on Blu-ray HERE

There's Always Tomorrow is compared on Blu-ray HERE

Titles

All I Desire (1953)

An early Sirk melodrama that is saved by Stanwyck's full-blooded performance. She's a failed actress invited back to the small town she left ten years earlier after a scandalous affair. Her daughter is acting in a play and wants her mother to see her in the high school production, but the townsfolk have long memories and are prepared to punish Stanwyck for her past behavior.

Excerpt from Channel 4 located HERE

There's Always Tomorrow (1956)
Douglas Sirk is best known for his highly stylized Technicolor melodramas, but he also did superlative work in restrained black and white. There's Always Tomorrow is a virtuoso study in tones, ranging from the blinding sunlight of a desert resort to the expressionist shadows of the suburban home where Fred MacMurray lives in unhappy union with Joan Bennett. Barbara Stanwyck is the old flame who turns up by accident, rekindling for MacMurray the dangerous illusion that happiness is still possible.

Excerpt from Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader

Interlude (1957)

A James M Cain story filmed before as When Tomorrow Comes by John M Stahl, Interlude is not one of Sirk's masterpieces, but is still a more than adequate melodrama about a Continental love triangle. Allyson is the naive American travelling through Europe who falls for smooth classical conductor Brazzi. Koch is Brazzi's crazy wife, who is not willing to accept the situation graciously. The glorious Technicolor makes the film look more like a tourist advertisement at times, but Sirk manages to convey the rollercoaster emotions of his protagonists almost effortlessly.

Excerpt from Channel 4 located HERE

The Tarnished Angels (1958)

Douglas Sirk took a vacation from Ross Hunter and Technicolor for this 1958 production, though he retained Rock Hudson, who turns in an astonishingly good performance as a journalist who finds himself fascinated by the sordid lives of a trio of professional stunt fliers (Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, and Jack Carson). Based on a minor novel by William Faulkner (Pylon), the film betters the book in every way, from the quality of characterization to the development of the dark, searing imagery. Made in black-and-white CinemaScope, the film doesn't survive on television; it should be seen in a theater or not at all.

Excerpt from Dave Kehr at the Chicago Reader located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Releases: Various from 1953 - 1958

DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Carlotta (8-disc) - Region 2 - PAL

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Carlotta (8-disc) - Region 2 - PAL
Time:	over 7 hrs. of feature films total on four discs and 4 discs of extras
Audio	English (original mono) - Tarnished Angels also has an optional French DUB
Subtitles	French, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Carlotta Aspect Ratio: All Original Aspect Ratios Edition Details: Disc 1's all have the feature and 'Bande Annonce' trailers Disc 2's All I Desire • Billy Gray on Sirk's All I Desire (24:58 - English!) • Interview with Sirk (Days With Sirk) (1:00:38 - English!) • Bourget & Berthomieu - In French Only 20:40 Interlude • Bourget & Berthomieu - In French Only (23:00) • In French with German (subtitles French) - 24:28 • Kathryn Bigelow (13:17) • When Tomorrow Comes (1:27:45) There's Always Tomorrow • Bourget & Berthomieu - In French Only (25:02) • 2 actresses (22:34) Fiction factory • Perspectives on the American family - Allison Anders (film by Robert Fischer) Tarnished Angels • La ronde de l'aube par Bourget & Berthomieu (25:04 - in French no subtitles) • Faulkner / Sirk: La Defaulknerisation de Pylone (24:54 - in French no subtitles) • Le Cercle Infernal (28:28 - English) • Parlons Du Spectacle (18:12 - English) • Jouer Pour Douglas Sirk (22:26 - English) DVD Release Date: November 2nd, 2008 4 slim transparent (double) keep cases inside a cardboard box

Comments:

The Tarnished Angels is compared on Blu-ray HERE

All I Desire is compared on Blu-ray HERE

NOTE: The 4 main features (with a bonus disc each - in total 8 discs) of this boxset are housed in individual slim, transparent, double-disc keep cases (see image above) and are also sold separately with a reasonable savings accrued by purchasing in one complete package.

Technical specifications of the discs: All eight DVDs are coded for region 2 in the PAL standard, are dual-layered, and features are anamorphic where widescreen. Each have original English mono audio and options for French subtitles in an off-white font. My computer and both region-free players do not enforce the subtitles.

Image: Quality is exceptionally strong for SD-DVD. I see plenty of grain - very few speckles of dirt and the discs all appear progressive although I see some very infrequent combing on the Interlude transfer (the weakest looking of the 4). This may be utilizing the 'alchemist' method of transfer. In both compared instances below the French Carlotta image is superior to the UK counterpart. These have very high bitrates and don't share dual-layered discs with much anything else but a few trailers. The SD-DVD transfer seems to have maxed out the potential of this format. Quite magnificent!

Audio - All original English mono or 2.0 with and there are optional French subtitles for each film. NOTE: Tarnished Angels also has an optional French DUB

Extras - Each supplement disc offers a 'Bourget & Berthomieu' 20 minute discussion in French with no subtitles. But there are plenty of English friendly extras to indulge in. On All I Desire the hour-long Interview with Sirk (Days With Sirk) is very enjoyable and informative viewing. Also in English on that bonus disc is the 20 minute Billy Gray on Sirk's All I Desire. On Interlude's bonus disc I enjoyed Kathryn Bigelow take on Sirk wishing it was much longer but we also get the entire 1.5 hour Stahl film When Tomorrow Comes. There are quite a few Fiction Factory pieces (films by Robert Fischer) that are English friendly and cover a wide scope of Sirk's work including reminiscence with 2 actresses from There's Always Tomorrow (Pat Crowley and Gigi Perreau. Le Cercle Infernal has about 1/2 hour of Bill Krohn discussing the film with sporadic clips. Parlons Du Spectacle talks with William Schallert for 18 minutes on his recollections of the film and his career plus working with other directors including Max Ophuls and Edgar Ulmer. Jouer Pour Douglas Sirk is 22 minutes and has vintage interview pieces with Sirk, Rock Hudson, Dorothy Malone and Robert Stack - mostly about Tarnished Angels.