Some things are set in stone; DVDs are set on tissue paper.
What we are alluding to is the fact that DVDs come and go. They are here one minute and, like Keyser Soze—whoosh!—they are gone.
Discontinued, out-of-print, license expired.
It’s a daily occurrence.
Of course, Movies Unlimited has made it our goal to find out what is no longer available, then stock up on the title. We’ve become the go-to source for new out-of-print titles for decades.
The goal of this column is to inform customers about the latest DVD titles that are being taken out of circulation and offer folks one last opportunity to make them part of their collection. If history is any indication, this could be your last chance to get these films.
So here’s a list of some of the titles that collector’s love that are fading quickly into the sunset.
Get ‘em before they fade to black, perhaps for good.
And Then There Were None (1945): The Agatha Christie mystery is served in tip-top fashion with a fine cast assembled at a remote island mansion where they are each accused of murder by an anonymous host, then find themselves being killed one-by-one. Whodunit? Was it doctor Walter Huston or judge Barry Fitzgerald or explorer Louis Hayward? Or, perhaps, someone else?
Anna Christie (1930): “Garbo Talks!” screamed the ads! And they were right: The European star spoke on film for the first time in this adaptation of the Eugene O’Neill play. She’s the young woman who tries to reconnect with her sailor father whom she hasn’t seen in 15 years. But their reunion and her potential romance with another sailor (Charles Bickford) are tainted by her recent past as a prostitute.
Castle Keep (1969): A genuine curio from director Sydney Pollock centers on a group of American soldiers holding out in an art-filled castle in Belgium. While the America GIS show little regard for their surroundings, the platoon’s eye-patched major (Burt Lancaster) gets romantically involved with the home owner’s wife. Peter Falk, Scott Wilson, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Patrick O’Neal and Bruce Dern also star.
Larceny, Inc. (1942): A group of crooks led by mastermind Edward G. Robinson plot a robbery by using a luggage shop as their base as they dig into a bank next-door. Soon, however, their pans go awry as their suitcase emporium becomes incredibly successful, drawing a little more attention than they’d like. Broderick Crawford, Jayne Wyman, Jack Carson, Anthony Quinn and a young Jackie Gleason are featured in this entertaining crime caper.
Shoot the Moon (1982): A searing drama about divorce from director Alan Parker and screenwriter Bo Goldman. The focus is on Albert Finney, a writer, and Diane Keaton, a housewife. The couple has four children, but they have gone in separate directions during their 15-year marriage. After she discovers he’s having an affair with a younger woman (Karen Allen), she does the same with a young contractor (Peter Weller), worsening the lines of communication between them. Emotional fireworks between Finney and Keaton make this a devastating domestic story.