DVDBeaver Newsletter for the Week of November 23rd, 2020
http://www.dvdbeaver.com
What an overwhelming week! More Fellini magic (4) all with impressive video upgrades - P.S. the set comes out Tuesday!, one of the most fascinatingly provocative large-budget films ever made... and directed by a Canadian, Paul Leni's last film; a wonderful Silent Era fantasy with horror elements, a kitschy 60's Japanese Ishirô Honda kaiju genre effort, 50's Brit Noir with Diana Dors at her best, one of the most highly regarded, and probably my favorite, French films EVER made, one of the most impressive modern Mexican films ever made, 10 Yiddish films in one 5 X Blu-ray package with The Dybbuk (1937),  Tevya (1939) and more...
Enjoy!
Gary
 
RELEASES the WEEK of November 23rd, 2020 (Recommended titles have "**")
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Buck Rogers in the 25th Century [Blu-ray] (Daniel Haller, 1979) Kino
US: https://amzn.to/3nN4Ujk
CAN: https://amzn.to/373nigU
 
COMMENTS: 500 Years into the Future... One Hero... An Entire Universe... Let the Adventure Begin! Blast off with this groundbreaking theatrical feature of the action-packed sci-fi adventure that launched the hit TV series starring Gil Gerard, Erin Gray, Felix Silla and Tim O’Connor. Join legendary intergalactic crimefighters William “Buck” Rogers (Gerard) and Colonel Wilma Deering (Gray) as they lead the crew of the starship Searcher against a galaxy of evil from the past, present and faraway future.
 
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Buck Rogers in the 25th Century - The Complete Collection [Blu-ray] - Kino Lorber
US: https://amzn.to/2RG201B
CAN: https://amzn.to/3lYMUSk
 
COMMENTS: Blast off to the 25th century with Buck Rogers, one of the most popular sci-fi heroes of all time! When 20th-century astronaut William “Buck” Rogers (Gil Gerard) is awakened—500 years after a deep-space disaster—to an Earth in recovery from nuclear war, he must join Colonel Wilma Deering (Erin Gray) to lead the crew of the starship Searcher against a galaxy of evil from the past, present and faraway future. Co-starring Felix Silla, Tim O’Connor and the legendary voice of Mel Blanc as Twiki. This 9-disc set includes, the pilot episode, the theatrical feature and all 32 action-packed Season One and Season 2 episodes of the epic series with phenomenal guest stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Julie Newmar, Henry Silva, Pamela Hensley, Jack Palance, Roddy McDowall, Macdonald Carey, Cesar Romero
 
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Cemetery of Terror [Blu-ray] (Rubén Galindo Jr., 1985) Vinegar Syndrome
US: https://amzn.to/3jK9cWi
COMMENTS: It's Halloween night and a group of bored teenagers decide to pull a ghastly prank (as a means of getting lucky): stealing a corpse from the local morgue and taking it to a nearby cemetery where they perform a Satanic ritual in an attempt to bring it back to life. Unfortunately, they happen to choose the body of a savage serial killer who has just been shot dead by police, ending a recent spate of satanically influenced murders. Unwittingly reviving the bloodthirsty sadist to the realm of the undead, the group of fun-seeking youngsters risk becoming dinner for the devil worshipping zombie, with only occult expert, Dr. Carden (legendary Mexican character actor Hugo Stiglitz), able to try and put an end to the madness.
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**Le Cercle Rouge** [Blu-ray] (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1970) RB UK Studiocanal 
UK Blu-ray: https://amzn.to/2SKYYtD
UK 4K UHD: https://amzn.to/33MhWGB
 
OUR ALT-REVIEW: 
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare2/cerclerouge/cerclerouge3.html
COMMENTS: Alain Delon (The Leopard, Le samouraï) plays a master thief, fresh out of prison, who crosses paths with a notorious escapee and an alcoholic ex-cop (The Wages of Fear’s Yves Montand). The unlikely trio plot a heist, against impossible odds, and then a relentless inspector and their own pasts seal their fates. Le cercle rouge, from Jean-Pierre Melville (Le samouraï, Army of Shadows), combines honorable antiheroes, coolly atmospheric cinematography, and breathtaking set pieces to create a masterpiece of crime cinema.

 
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Dentist on the Job [Blu-ray] (C.M. Pennington-Richards, 1961) RB UK Network
UK: https://amzn.to/2SGR04u
COMMENTS: Original Carry On stars Bob Monkhouse, Kenneth Connor, Shirley Eaton and Eric Barker star in this hilarious sequel to 1960's Dentist in the Chair! The launch of Proudfoot Industries' new toothpaste is a resounding failure, much to the ire of its managing director. When a minion suggests they engage a dentist to endorse the product, it's pointed out that dentists would be struck off for such an endorsement so what they really need are some clueless dentists with no common sense...
 
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**Ealing Studios Comedy Collection** [Blu-ray] (Whisky Galore!, The Maggie, Passport To Pimlico, The Tiitfield Thunderbolt) - Film Movement Classics 
US: https://amzn.to/35OmjRa
CAN: https://amzn.to/3pPoLjz
 
OUR ALT-REVIEWS:
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film8/blu-ray_review_103/whiskey_galore_the_maggie_blu-ray.htm
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film8/blu-ray_review_100/passport_to_pimlico_blu-ray.htm

 
COMMENTS: Ealing Studios output from the 1940s and 1950s helped define what was arguably the golden age of British cinema. Featuring contributions from Ealing regulars such as screenwriter T.E.B. Clarke (The Lavender Hill Mob, Sons and Lovers) and directors Charles Crichton (Dead of Night, A Fish Called Wanda) and Alexander MacKendrick (The Ladykillers, Sweet Smell of Success), this digitally restored 4-disc collection includes some of the most beloved comedy films of the postwar era. Includes: Whisky Galore! (1948), Passport To Pimlico (1949), The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953), The Maggie (1954).
 
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****Essential Fellini**** [Blu-ray] (Toby Dammit 1968, Variety Lights 1950, The White Sheik 1952, I vitelloni 1953, La strada 1954, Il bidone 1955, Nights of Cabiria 1957, La dolce vita 1960, 8½ 1963, Juliet of the Spirits 1965, Fellini Satyricon 1969, Roma 1972, Amarcord 1973, And the Ship Sails On 1983, Intervista 1987) Criterion
US: https://amzn.to/3okgDXI
CAN: https://amzn.to/2T8bkfD
 
BEAVER REVIEWs:
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_132/nights_of_cabiria_blu-ray.htm
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film6/blu-ray_reviews_77/la_strada_blu-ray.htm

 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_132/il_bidone_blu-ray.htm
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_132/the_white_sheik_blu-ray.htm
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews39/juliet_of_the_spirits_blu-ray.htm
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare5/amarcord.htm
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_130/i_vitelloni_blu-ray.htm
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_131/and_the_ship_sails_on_blu-ray.htm
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_133/variety_lights_blu-ray.htm
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_131/8.5_blu-ray.htm
 
COMMENTS: One hundred years after his birth, Federico Fellini still stands apart as a giant of the cinema. The Italian maestro is defined by his dualities: the sacred and the profane, the masculine and the feminine, the provincial and the urbane. He began his career working in the slice-of-life poetry of neorealism, and though he soon spun off on his own freewheeling creative axis, he never lost that grounding, evoking his dreams, memories, and obsessions in increasingly grand productions teeming with carnivalesque imagery and flights of phantasmagoric surrealism while maintaining an earthy, embodied connection to humanity. Bringing together fourteen of the director’s greatest spectacles, all beautifully restored, this centenary box set is a monument to an artist who conjured a cinematic universe all his own: a vision of the world as a three-ring circus in which his innermost infatuations, fears, and fantasies take center stage.
 
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Finding Jack Charlton [Blu-ray] (Gabriel Clarke , 2020) RB UK Noah Media Group
UK: https://amzn.to/33JsHt7
COMMENTS: Finding Jack Charlton is the definitive portrait of an extraordinary man; an English World Cup winning legend, who became an Irish hero. Directed by Gabriel Clarke and Pete Thomas , and shot on location in Ireland and England, the film also details Jack's previously undocumented life with dementia. The documentary features key characters from throughout Jack's career, including major figures in football, music, film, politics, and, for the first time, Jack's family. These personal perspectives, along with previously unseen archive, are an intimate window into Jack's charismatic personality, his managerial philosophy and offer a new level of understanding into Finding Jack Charlton.
 
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**La Haine** [Blu-ray] (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995) RB UK BFI 
UK: https://amzn.to/3hemkSI
OUR ALT-REVIEW: 
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews5/hate.htm
COMMENTS: Turning the camera away from iconic Paris to the concrete banlieue, Mathieu Kassovitz's second film as a director changed the cultural landscape of French cinema when it landed at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995, where it won the prize for Best Director. Taking place over 24 hours following the police shooting of a young man, Kassovitz shows the world through the eyes of three friends, Arab, Jew and Black, frustrated at politicians and the media excusing police brutality. The black-and-white visuals, thumping hip-hop soundtrack and graffiti-lined streets underscore the urgency and rebellion at the heart of this game-changing classic.

 
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He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefé Collection [Blu-ray] - Sting of Death (1966), Death Curse of Tartu (1966), The Hooked Generation (1968), The Psychedelic Priest (1971), The Naked Zoo (1971), Mako: Jaws of Death (1976) and Whiskey Mountain (1977) - Arrow US
US: https://amzn.to/3kfOZbd
CAN: https://amzn.to/2HvEBPa
 
UK: https://amzn.to/3iCzTfT
 
COMMENTS: Killer sharks and human jellyfish and living mummies, oh my! Arrow Video is proud to present the first ever collection of works by William Wild Bill Grefé, the maverick filmmaker who braved the deep, dark depths of the Florida everglades to deliver some of the most outrageous exploitation fare ever to go-go dance its way across drive-in screens.
 
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**I Start Counting** [Blu-ray](David Greene, 1969) Fun City Editions
US: https://amzn.to/3edOa0R
COMMENTS: As young Wynne (Jenny Agutter) comes of age, a psychotic killer of teen schoolgirls stalks her hometown, which is rapidly transforming from an antiquated village to a forward-looking "new town." Is the murderer Wynne's much older foster brother George (Bryan Marshall)? The conflicted Wynne is deeply in love with George, but also fears that he is guilty of the horrific crimes. Director David Greene imbues Audrey Erskine Lindop's unsettling story with sensitivity, social commentary, and a haunting ambience.
 
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**The Irishman** [Blu-ray] (Martin Scorsese, 2019) Criterion 
US: https://amzn.to/32xy258
CAN: https://amzn.to/2FS4yaD
 
UK: https://amzn.to/3msJTKb
 
OUR REVIEW: 
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_130/the_irishman_blu-ray.htm
COMMENTS: Martin Scorsese’s cinematic mastery is on full display in this sweeping crime saga, which serves as an elegiac summation of his six-decade career. Left behind by the world, former hit man and union truck driver Frank Sheeran (Robert DeNiro) looks back from a nursing home on his life’s journey through the ranks of organized crime: from his involvement with Philadelphia mob boss Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) to his association with Teamsters union head Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino) to the rift that forced him to choose between the two. An intimate story of loyalty and betrayal writ large across the epic canvas of mid-twentieth-century American history, The Irishman (based on the real-life Sheeran’s confessions, as told to writer Charles Brandt for the book I Heard You Paint Houses) is a uniquely reflective late-career triumph that balances its director’s virtuoso set pieces with a profoundly personal rumination on aging, mortality, and the decisions and regrets that shape a life.

 
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**The Jewish Soul: Classics of Yiddish Cinema** [Blu-ray] (The Dybbuk, Mir Kumen on, American matchmaker, Overtires to Glory, Tevya, The Yiddish King Lear, Her Second Mother, Moteal the Operator, Eli Eli, Three Daughters) Kino Lorber 
US: https://amzn.to/2Rk2t9B
CAN: https://amzn.to/3kXwdFA
OUR REVIEW: 
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_131/jewish_soul_classics_of_yiddish_cinema_blu-ray.htm
COMMENTS: Kino's The Jewish Soul: Classics of Yiddish Cinema Blu-ray boxset is fascinating from a cultural perspective. I felt I was learning from each viewing and I thoroughly enjoyed the information exported in the commentaries. I wish the video quality of a few of the films was better, but the cloaking of the burned-in subtitles (or just watching with them) soon gets forgotten and you get into the meat of the films - be it humor, drama, music, fantasy, sadness or celebration. I can honestly say I have not seen films like this before and the exposure was totally refreshing and uniquely educational. Certainly recommended!  

 
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**Libeled Lady** [Blu-ray] (Jack Conway, 1936) Warner Archive
US: https://amzn.to/2HQIbn2
WARNERSHOP: https://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/3628627/type/dlg/https://www.wbshop.com/collections/warner-archive-blu-ray/products/libeled-lady-bd
CAN: https://amzn.to/3pTzZ6M
 
COMMENTS: Bill Chandler (William Powell) is one of Americas great anglers, a sport fisherman without peer, doom in waders to the wiliest trout. And that isnt the only fish story Chandler tells. Four of Hollywoods greatest stars Powell, Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy reel in this whopper of a screwball romantic-comedy classic nominated for a Best Picture Oscar®. It all starts when society diva Loy slaps newsman Tracy with a libel suit. Tracy enlists fiancée Harlow and down-on-his-luck Powell in a counter maneuver involving a rigged marriage, a phony seduction, a fabulously funny fishing scene, fisticuffs, broken promises and hearts, and eventually, true love for all. This Lady is one fine catch.
 
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**The Lost Weekend** [Blu-ray] (Billy Wilder, 1945) Kino
US: https://amzn.to/32kZ3cM
CAN: https://amzn.to/2U4u2Fk
 
OUR REVIEW: 
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_133/the_lost_weekend_blu-ray.htm
COMMENTS: Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend is a subtly escalating film with grim realism peering around every corner. Ray Milland is so good at distracting with his congenial happiness and witty repartee. You can ignore reality, but you can't ignore the consequences of reality. This remains one of Wilder's best dramas. We bond to Don - accepting and understanding his disease making his fall all the more impactful. I can't believe that it took so long for this unforgettable masterpiece to come to Region 'A'  Blu-ray. We can easily recommend it as part of every digital library. Kino's McBride commentary, and 4-K restored image adds significant value to their Blu-ray. I'd even recommend double-dipping if you already own the UK edition. An essential film to own in the best home theatre quality!

 
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**Mad Max** [4K UHD Blu-ray] (George Miller, 1979) Kino
US: https://amzn.to/3miMYge
COMMENTS: From George Miller comes this post-apocalyptic masterpiece starring screen legend Mel Gibson. In the ravaged near-future, a savage motorcycle gang rules the road. Terrorizing innocent civilians while tearing up the streets, the ruthless gang laughs in the face of a police force hell-bent on stopping them. But they underestimate one officer: Max (Gibson). And when the bikers brutalize Max’s best friend and family, they send him into a mad frenzy that leaves him with only one thing left in the world to live for—revenge!
 
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**Monty Python's Flying Circus: The Complete Series** [Blu-ray] Universal Pictures Home Entertainment 
US: https://amzn.to/35QATrh
OUR REVIEW: 
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film7/blu-ray_reviews_96/monty_python_complete_collection_blu-ray.htm
COMMENTS: This is easily one of the most desirable and nostalgic comedy shows of all time. It's a package that I am thrilled to own on Blu-ray. You can stick it on any time - the absurd humor never grows old - even if you recall the sketch - it never fails to amuse. This is 'Year-End Poll' stuff... a very strong recommendation! Big kudos to Network! 

 
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**Parasite** (+B&W) [Blu-ray] (Bong Joon Ho, 2019) - RB UK Curzon Artificial Eye
UK Blu-ray: https://amzn.to/2Sc1WHf
UK [4K UHD Blu-ray] (B&W BD & 4K): https://amzn.to/3iaTrXy
 
OUR ALT-REVIEW:
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film8/blu-ray_review_102/parasite_blu-ray.htm
COMMENTS: The Kim family are close. All four live in a tiny basement flat and all four are unemployed. But when the son, Ki-woo, is recommended by his friend to take a well-paid tutoring job, hopes of a regular income blossom on the horizon. There's only one small issue - he's not a qualified teacher and has to fake it. Carrying the expectations of all his family, Ki-woo heads to the extravagant Park family home for an interview and after securing the job discovers they also need an art tutor for their son, something he thinks his sister could pretend to do... if they don't know she's his sister. Soon the whole family has infiltrated the Park home but as their deception unravels events begin to get increasingly out of hand in ways you simply cannot imagine.

 
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Peninsula [4K UHD Blu-ray] (Sang-ho Yeon, 2020) Well Go USA
US: https://amzn.to/2IGKxFd
CAN: https://amzn.to/3pS2guj
 
COMMENTS: Four years after South Korea's total decimation in Train to Busan, the zombie thriller that captivated audiences worldwide, acclaimed director Yeon Sang-ho brings us Peninsula, the next nail-biting chapter in his post-apocalyptic world. Jung-seok, a soldier who previously escaped the diseased wasteland, relives the horror when assigned to a covert operation with two simple objectives: retrieve and survive. When his team unexpectedly stumbles upon survivors, their lives will depend on whether the best—or worst—of human nature prevails in the direst of circumstances.
 
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The Pirate [Blu-ray] (Vincente Minnelli, 1948) Warner Archive
US: https://amzn.to/3mBHoVR
WARNERSHOP: https://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/3628627/type/dlg/https://www.wbshop.com/collections/warner-archive-blu-ray/products/the-pirate-bd
 
CAN: https://amzn.to/3fpBXa6
 
COMMENTS: Newly remastered from the original Technicolor® negatives! A treasure trove of fun awaits when a Caribbean beauty (Judy Garland) with a mad crush on a legendary pirate meets a vagabond actor (Gene Kelly) who poses as the scoundrel. Vincente Minnelli directs, bringing his uncanny skill with color and design to this joyous romp set to Cole Porter tunes. Mixing tremulous girlishness with hellcat hilarity, Garland was never better as a comedienne. Parodying the rakish style of Fairbanks and Barrymore, Kelly duels, dupes and dances with buccaneer bravado. All by itself, his Be a Clown (danced with the Nicholas Brothers and reprised with Garland) is enough to convince all to be a fan of The Pirate.
 
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The Severed Arm [Blu-ray] (Tom Alderman, 1973) Vinegar Syndrome
US: https://amzn.to/3mEN1T3
COMMENTS: While camping, a group of friends become trapped in a cave. Desperate and starving, they draw straws to decide which one should suffer the severing of his arm so that the others can eat. But no sooner than making this fateful amputation, they're rescued, though their unfortunate victim has been driven hopelessly mad by the experience. Years later, the survivors have all moved on with their lives, that is until someone with a very sharp axe to grind begins stalking them and chopping off their arms, one by one...
 
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She Mob / The Girl from Pussycat [Blu-ray] - American Genre Film Archive
US: https://amzn.to/37ZcORK
COMMENTS: Shot on the sweaty backroads of Dallas and Waco, SHE MOB is an underground miracle that feels like an alt-Earth FASTER PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! as realized by a young John Waters. Big Shim is the cone-bra-wearing butch leader of a wild girl gang that's running from the law. After kidnapping a gigolo named Tony, Shim and the girls demand a ransom from Tony's wealthy lady keeper... OR ELSE!! Produced and directed by NBC News veteran Maurice Levy, written by Diana Paschal, and featuring actresses culled from Jack Ruby's infamous Dallas nightclub, SHE MOB is an essential jewel in the other-dimensional vortex known as Texploitation.
 
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**Short Sharp Shocks** [Blu-ray] (Lock Your Door, The Reformation of St Jules, The Tell-Tale Heart, Death Was a Passenger, Portrait of a Matador, Twenty Nine, The Sex Victims, The Lake, and The Errand) - RB UK BFI
UK: https://amzn.to/34N4bqe
COMMENTS: The latest in the critically acclaimed BFI Flipside series continuing its ongoing mission to curate an alternative Brit-screen history of overlooked rarities in deluxe home-entertainment editions is a compelling compendium of strange, striking, thrilling, horrific, eerie and eccentric short subjects from the heyday of the British cinematic supporting programme. This carefully-curated collection the first of its kind anywhere includes a plethora of sought-after titles, some newly remastered in HD for the very first time and showcases an eclectic range of delights spanning the second half of the 20th Century from the 1940s right through to the 1980s.
 
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**The Siege of Pinchgut** [Blu-ray] (Harry Watt, 1959) RB UK Network 
UK: https://amzn.to/3f5MUNQ
OUR REVIEW: 
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_130/the_siege_of_pinchgut_blu-ray.htm
COMMENTS: The Siege of Pinchgut is very good - far exceeding my expectations (it seemed like it might be a war picture as opposed to a crime-thriller.) It is notable as Ealing Studios last film. Ealing is remembered for their delightful comedies, often with Alec Guinness; The Lavender Hill Mob, Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Man in the White Suit etc. but the studio did a number of excellent noirish crime thrillers and unique efforts; The Blue Lamp, Dead of Night, Pool of London, It Always Rains on Sunday, The Square Ring, The Night My Number Came Up, The Captive Heart, They Came to a City etc. It's hard to believe that a thriller this accomplished with the last effort from the much beloved British studio. I enjoyed it immensely and I am very happy the Network Blu-ray presentation and smattering of supplements. Certainly recommended!

 
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Total Recall Steelbook [4K UHD Blu-ray] (Paul Verhoeven, 1990) UK StudioCanal
UK: https://amzn.to/3ma1Iyd
COMMENTS: Get ready for a surprise, with a mind-blowing 4K restoration of the much loved sci-fi action classic, TOTAL RECALL, directed by Paul Verhoeven. In celebration of Total Recall's 30th anniversary, this collection is one you won't forget. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger (Douglas Quaid) and Sharon Stone (Lori Quaid), accompanied by an iconic soundtrack by Academy Award-winner Jerry Goldsmith this is the ultimate version of the cult classic.
 
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Unhinged [Blu-ray] (Derrick Borte, 2020) RB UK Altitude Film Distribution
UK: https://amzn.to/2DcbeiD
COMMENTS: Russell Crowe stars in Unhinged, a timely psychological thriller that explores the fragile balance of a society pushed to the edge, taking something we've all experienced - road rage - to an unpredictable and terrifying conclusion. Rachel (Caren Pistorius) is running late to work when she has an altercation at a traffic light with a stranger (Crowe) whose life has left him feeling powerless and invisible. Soon, Rachel finds herself and everyone she loves the target of a man who decides to make one last mark upon the world by teaching her a series of deadly lessons. What follows is a dangerous game of cat and mouse that proves you never know just how close you are to someone who is about to become unhinged.
 
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We're No Angels [Blu-ray] (Michael Curtiz, 1955) Paramount
US: https://amzn.to/2TE42Af
COMMENTS: Humphrey Bogart plays one of his rare comedy roles in this jaunty excursion about three convicts - Joseph (Bogart), Albert (Aldo Ray), and Jules (Peter Ustinov) - who are plotting their escape from Devil's Island. Fate intervenes when they hide out with kindly, but inept Felix (Leo G. Carroll) and his family. Felix manages a store for his arrogant cousin Andre (Basil Rathbone), who makes the fatal mistake of stealing Albert's pet, a poisonous snake. After resolving Felix's problems, the convicts return to prison, convinced that the world is much too wicked. Based on the play by Albert Husson.
 
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NOTABLE NEW CALENDAR UPDATES:
 
November 30th, 2020
 
**Still Life** (Zhangke Jia, 2006) Big World Pictures
https://amzn.to/2UqJPyz

 
December 7th, 2020
 
**Raining in the Mountain** (King Hu, 1979) Film Movement
https://amzn.to/3pfVmyU
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film8/blu-ray_review_110/raining_in_the_mountain_blu-ray.htm

 
 
December 14th
 
Ip Man The Complete Collection [4K UHD] Ip Man (2008),  Ip Man 2: Legend of the Grandmaster, Ip Man 3 (2015), Ip Man 4: The Finale (2019) - Well Go USA
https://amzn.to/3kxtouT

 
Tenet 4K UHD (Christopher Nolan, 2020) Warner Bros UK
https://amzn.to/36kiELa

 
December 24th
 
Fire in the Sky (Robert Lieberman, 1993) Imprint
https://amzn.to/35h8hZu

 
Year of the Dragon (Michael Cimino, 1985) Imprint
https://amzn.to/35fnM3L

 
January 4th
 
Beach Red (Cornel Wilde, 1967) Kino Lorber
https://amzn.to/2IlexWU

January 11th
 
**Satantango** (Béla Tarr, 1994) Arbelos Films
https://amzn.to/3lj7Mn0

 
January 18th
 
**Marlene Dietrich at Universal 1940-1942**: Seven Sinners, Flame of New Orleans, The Spoilers & Pittsburgh RB UK BFI
https://amzn.to/2U9UQnL

 
January 25th
 
**The Court Jester** (Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, 1955) Paramount
https://amzn.to/35f888z

 
February 1st
 
Anna Lucasta (Arnold Laven, 1958) Kino
https://amzn.to/36nbYvN

 
**Dark Intruder** (Harvey Hart, 1965) Kino
https://amzn.to/35hapQY

 
**A Man Called Adam** (Leo Penn, 1966) Kino
https://amzn.to/3pj5l6C

 
February 8th
 
Man of the East (Enzo Barbon, 1972) Kino
https://amzn.to/36qDQiR

 
**The Parallax View** (Alan J. Pakula, 1974) Criterion
https://amzn.to/3kvslvr

 
**So Evil My Love** (Lewis Allen, 1948) Kino
https://amzn.to/2JVFa5F

 
**The Suspect** (Robert Siodmak, 1944) Kino
https://amzn.to/32txg9U 

 
February 15th, 2020
 
**COLUMBIA NOIR #2** - LE - FRAMED (Richard Wallace, 1947), 711 OCEAN DRIVE (Joseph M Newman, 1950), THE MOB (Robert Parrish, 1951), AFFAIR IN TRINIDAD (Vincent Sherman, 1952), TIGHT SPOT (Phil Karlson, 1955) and MURDER BY CONTRACT (Irving Lerner, 1958) - RB UK Indicator
https://www.powerhousefilms.co.uk/collections/frontpage/products/columbia-noir-2-le?utm_source=DVDBEAVER&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=COLUMBIA-NOIR-#2-LE

 
**The Kid Stays in the Picture** (Nanette Burstein, Brett Morgen, 2002) Kino
https://amzn.to/3pt348F

 
**Mandabi** (Ousmane Sembene, 1968) Criterion
https://amzn.to/3eYQqtm

 
February 22nd
 
**Chop Shop** (Ramin Bahrani, 2007) Criterion
https://amzn.to/331cMG3

 
**Man Push Cart** (Ramin Bahrani, 2005) Criterion
https://amzn.to/3lBfxF6

 
**Smooth Talk** (Joyce Chopra, 1985) Criterion
https://amzn.to/3ky7Pdz

 
March 22nd,
 
**Targets** (Peter Bogdanovich, 1968) RB UK BFI
https://amzn.to/3eWB094
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Photo Archives" for Patrons:
Gloria Grahame:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/gloria_grahame_photo_archive.htm
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Monica Vitti:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/monica_vitti_photo_archive.htm
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Paul Newman:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/paul_newman_photo_archive.htm
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Susan George:
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Jacqueline Bisset:
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Suzanne Pleshette:
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THIS WEEK'S REVIEWS
 
**8.5** BD 
US: https://amzn.to/3okgDXI
CAN: https://amzn.to/2T8bkfD
 
OUR COMPARISON:
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_131/8.5_blu-ray.htm
COMMENTS: One of the greatest films about film ever made, Federico Fellini’s 8½ marks the moment when the director’s always-personal approach to filmmaking fully embraced self-reflexivity, pioneering a stream-of-consciousness style that darts exuberantly among flashbacks, dream sequences, and carnivalesque reality, and turning one man’s artistic crisis into a grand epic of the cinema. Marcello Mastroianni plays Guido Anselmi, a director whose new project is collapsing around him, along with his life, as he struggles against creative block and helplessly juggles the women in his life—including Anouk Aimée, Sandra Milo, and Claudia Cardinale. An early working title for 8½ was The Beautiful Confusion, and Fellini’s masterpiece is exactly that: a shimmering dream, a circus, and a magic act.

 
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**The Jewish Soul: Classics of Yiddish Cinema** BD
US: https://amzn.to/2HsxWFm
CAN: https://amzn.to/3kXwdFA
 
OUR REVIEW:
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_131/jewish_soul_classics_of_yiddish_cinema_blu-ray.htm
COMMENTS: Kino's The Jewish Soul: Classics of Yiddish Cinema Blu-ray boxset is fascinating from a cultural perspective. I felt I was learning from each viewing and I thoroughly enjoyed the information exported in the commentaries. I wish the video quality of a few of the films was better, but the cloaking of the burned-in subtitles (or just watching with them) soon gets forgotten and you get into the meat of the films - be it humor, drama, music, fantasy, sadness or celebration. I can honestly say I have not seen films like this before and the exposure was totally refreshing and uniquely educational. Certainly recommended!  

 
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**Yield to the Night** BD 
UK: https://amzn.to/2UQ7gBC
OUR COMPARISON:
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_133/yield_to_the_night_blu-ray.htm
COMMENTS: I've always really appreciated J. Lee Thompson's Yield to the Night which definitively announced Diana Dors as a serious actress rather than just another blonde bombshell in vacuous comedies like Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary? and My Wife's Lodger ... or even better family comedies like Carol Reed's A Kid for Two Farthings. Yield to the Night paved the way for another favorite British Noir Passport to Shame (strongly recommended!). She is impressive in Yield to the Night; a powerful film helmed by effective director J. Lee Thompson (1962's Cape Fear, Return From the Ashes - both strongly recommended!). With the astronomically improved Studio Canal Blu-ray a/v and new extras - this get a very strong endorsement! 

 
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**Amores Perros** BD
US: https://amzn.to/2FAgpu4
CAN: https://amzn.to/3lPAqwh
 
OUR COMPARISON:
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film6/blu-ray_reviews_79/amores_perrros_blu-ray.htm
COMMENTS: Amores perros is alive with vérité tensions, stark realism, human emotion, love and survivalism. So great to have the intended filmmaker presentation in HD. Plus all the new extras are an important addition in making this an essential Blu-ray package. The film has retained its inventive cinematic relevance and we given it a strong recommendation!

 
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**Variety Lights** BD 
US: https://amzn.to/3okgDXI
CAN: https://amzn.to/2T8bkfD
 
OUR COMPARISON:
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_133/variety_lights_blu-ray.htm
COMMENTS: Federico Fellini's Variety Lights is wonderful. It carries a neorealist atmosphere capturing the essence of performance art and those who dwell and toil there seeking acceptance and fame. This is another important part of Criterion's upcoming Essential Fellini Blu-ray package... which is the premium front-runner for best of the entire 2020 year.

 
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**And the Ship Sails On** BD 
US: https://amzn.to/3okgDXI
CAN: https://amzn.to/2T8bkfD
 
OUR COMPARISON:
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_131/and_the_ship_sails_on_blu-ray.htm
COMMENTS: Federico Fellini's And the Ship Sails On has a meandering, unspecified plot, but relies on Fellini's menagerie of eccentric characters - many belonging to a disaffected bourgeoisie class and it is part musical, drama and comedy with a fabulous unforgettable ending. Totally brilliant - especially in this dramatically improved a/v. This is another integral part of Criterion's upcoming Essential Fellini Blu-ray package... which is the front-runner for best of the entire 2020 year.

 
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**Mothra** BD 
UK: https://amzn.to/3pKiMMY
OUR REVIEW:
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_131/mothra_blu-ray.htm
COMMENTS: Mothra has Ishirô Honda's kitschy 60's Japanese sci-fi appeal. I much prefer it to the later efforts of the kaiju genre that were being cranked-out endlessly.  'The Peanuts' (twin sisters Emi and Yumi Itō) inclusion adds more of the desirable 'camp' element. Having both version and the commentaries is a big bonus on the Masters of Cinema Blu-ray as is Kim Newman and the entire slip-cased package cover. Yes, there is value here and Mothra maintains the innocence, eventually lost in the ensuing cycle of Japanese monster films.

 
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Symbiopsychotaxiplasm BD
US: https://amzn.to/2UHoDEu
CAN: https://amzn.to/3lMYKz4
 
OUR COMPARISON:
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_130/symbiopsychotaxiplasm_blu-ray.htm
COMMENTS: In his one-of-a-kind fiction/documentary hybrid Symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take One, director William Greaves presides over a beleaguered film crew in New York's Central Park, leaving them to try to figure out what kind of movie they're making. A couple enacts a break-up scenario over and over, a documentary crew films a crew filming the crew, locals wander casually into the frame: the project defies easy description. Yet this wildly innovative sixties counterculture landmark remains one of the most tightly focused and insightful movies ever made about making movies.

 
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**I Vitelloni** BD
US: https://amzn.to/3okgDXI
CAN: https://amzn.to/2T8bkfD
 
OUR COMPARISON:
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_130/i_vitelloni_blu-ray.htm
COMMENTS: While an outlier in the narrative aspect of Fellini's oeuvre with multiple stories infusing humor and drama, this is still one of the director's best and most enjoyable films.... another integral part of Criterion's upcoming Essential Fellini Blu-ray package... which is an obvious front-runner for best of the entire 2020 year.

 
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**Mouchette** BD 
US: https://amzn.to/2REMqDl
UK: https://amzn.to/3495hfT
 
CAN: https://amzn.to/3kFyCos
 
OUR COMPARISON:
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_130/mouchette_blu-ray.htm
COMMENTS: Robert Bresson's Mouchette is an absolute masterpiece. It becomes more devastatingly pure with age. A film, and commentary, I can revisit for the rest of my life. The Criterion Blu-ray has our highest recommendation

 
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**The Siege of Pinchgut** BD 
UK: https://amzn.to/3f5MUNQ
OUR REVIEW:
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_130/the_siege_of_pinchgut_blu-ray.htm
COMMENTS: The Siege of Pinchgut is very good - far exceeding my expectations (it seemed like it might be a war picture as opposed to a crime-thriller.) It is notable as Ealing Studios last film. Ealing is remembered for their delightful comedies, often with Alec Guinness; The Lavender Hill Mob, Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Man in the White Suit etc. but the studio did a number of excellent noirish crime thrillers and unique efforts; The Blue Lamp, Dead of Night, Pool of London, It Always Rains on Sunday, The Square Ring, The Night My Number Came Up, The Captive Heart, They Came to a City etc. It's hard to believe that a thriller this accomplished with the last effort from the much beloved British studio. I enjoyed it immensely and I am very happy the Network Blu-ray presentation and smattering of supplements. Certainly recommended!

 
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**Waxworks** BD 
US: https://amzn.to/2IIqAOk
UK: https://amzn.to/3px7qM9
 
OUR REVIEW:
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_130/waxworks_blu-ray.htm
COMMENTS: Paul Leni's Waxworks is a wonderful Silent Era fantasy with horror elements. It has highly interesting effects and framing devices. Fans of German Expressionism will delight in Leni's Waxworks. The three stories are varied and have different appeal from suspense to humor.  I'm thrilled to own another Flicker Alley Blu-ray keepsake. It has an exceptional commentary by Adrian Martin, Kim Newman, relevant extras on the restoration and the collector’s booklet. Strongly recommended to all film fans. 

 
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**Crash** BD 
US: https://amzn.to/2IIqExg
UK 4K UHD: https://amzn.to/38NbbY3
 
OUR COMPARISON:
 
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_130/crash_blu-ray.htm
COMMENTS: David Cronenberg's Crash is one of the most fascinating large-budget films ever made. Some say it is akin to driving by a car accident... and slowing down. I applaud the director's bravery and love all his films for their uniqueness and bold, emotionally wrenching, expressions. My ex-girlfriend was an editing intern on Crash. I loved revisiting this in the image resolution of HD. The score is and effects are especially effective in the lossless. It's such a curious film that it is ultimately rewatchable over the years. I'm very happy with the Criterion Blu-ray for both the 4K-restored, director approved a/v and the fabulous extras including the invaluable commentary, Q+A and press conference. Our highest recommendation!

 
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