Howdy pardners! This is a very special week for new releases around these parts as it sees the debut of the tenth volume of the Monogram Cowboy Collection.” This collection of sagebrush sagas is available exclusively from Movies Unlimited, and you’ll want to lasso it into your home video library. We’ve also got a great round-up of recent theatrical releases and classics from the archives. Yee-haw! Saddle up with the excitement of these titles that are now available!
Monogram Cowboy Collection, Vol. 10 (Movies Unlimited Exclusive!)
U.S. marshal Johnny Mack Brown is out to discover who’s looking to scare a widow out of her stake in “The Haunted Mine” (1946). Raymond Hatton, Linda Johnson co-star. When his murdered uncle’s accused of embezzlement, Brown must clear the family name, in “Valley of Fear” (1947). Christine McIntyre co-stars. Johnny must shield a friend from vigilante justice when a spurned land buyer’s lawyer turns up dead, in “Crossed Trails” (1948). Lynne Carver co-stars. Wells Fargo agent Brown goes undercover on a ranch to flush out a payroll thief in “Triggerman” (1948). Virginia Carroll co-stars. Johnny goes into action when a blackmailed banker’s tipping bandits to payroll shipments, in “Back Trail” (1948). Mildred Coles co-stars. Brown’s “Gunning for Justice” (1948) when a dying man entrusts him with the delivery of a treasure map. Evelyn Finley co-stars. A dead rancher had lots of enemies, and foreman Johnny will make sure the right one takes the fall, in “Trails End” (1949). Max Terhune co-stars. Ranchhand Brown seeks “Range Justice” (1949) when a corrupt foreman tries to ruin the boss widow’s spread. Tristram Coffin co-stars. Finally, marshal Johnny must clear a retired lawman friend in a rancher’s slaying, in “Western Renegades” (1949). Jane Adams co-stars.
Stu (Kumail Nanjiani) is an ordinary Uber driver. Vic Manning (Dave Bautista) is a no-nonsense LAPD detective determined to take down Oka Tedjo (Iko Uwais), the drug lord who killed his partner. When Vic recruits the reluctant Stu to drive him around on his mission of vengeance, the unlikely duo embarks on a series of wild and hilarious misadventures as they work together to bring Tedjo to justice. Natalie Morales, Mira Sorvino, and Karen Gillan co-star in this outrageous mix of action and comedy.
Director/co-writer/star Roman Polanski’s biting spoof of the bloodsucker legend follows a crotchety old vampire hunter (Jack MacGowran) and his inept young apprentice (Polanski) as they bumble through 18th-century Transylvania to confront the undead Count Von Krolock (Ferdy Mayne). Can they rescue the virginal innkeep’s daughter (Sharon Tate), and will they learn why crosses don’t affect all vampires? Alfie Bass, Terry Downes, Fiona Lewis, Iain Quarrier also star. AKA: “Dance of the Vampires,” “The Fearless Vampire Killers or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck.”
Seeking the fast track to an easy life via gambling, a working-class Russian army officer (Anton Walbrook) learns of an aged countess (Edith Evans) whose skills at faro were rumored to be gifted by the Devil himself. He seduces the noblewoman’s ward (Yvonne Mitchell) as a means of learning her secrets…but finds unholy consequences when his hand is called. Stylish and chilling adaptation of the Pushkin novella also stars Ronald Howard, Anthony Dawson, Mary Jerrold, Miles Malleson.
A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty ‘Hiyo, Silver!’…Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels saddle up to bring justice to the Old West as the Lone Ranger and Tonto in the timeless 1949-57 frontier drama, one of ABC’s few hits in the ’50s. All 52 episodes from the first season are included in this eight-disc set.
All 26 episodes from the second season are featured in this four-disc set.
Travelling to antebellum Dixie to claim his family estate, hapless heir Willie McKay (Buster Keaton) learns he’s also inherited a long-standing feud with the clan of his new girlfriend (Natalie Talmadge, Keaton’s real-life wife). A daring rescue performed by Buster at a waterfall is just one of the amazing stunts in this energetic silent romp. With Joe Keaton, Joe Roberts.
When a colleague commits suicide under a cloud of suspected treason, researcher Henry Longman (Dirk Bogarde) determines to prove his friend the victim of brainwashing…by undergoing controversial sensory deprivation and mind control experiments himself. Will this gambit, however, threaten his marriage…if not his very sanity? Unusual sci-fi/drama that foreshadows elements of “The Manchurian Candidate” and “Altered States” also stars John Clements, Mary Ure, Wendy Craig.
Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (Criterion Collection)
Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen’s legendary silent film uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the Middle Ages suffered the same hysteria as turn-of-the-century psychiatric patients. Far from a dry dissertation on the topic, the film itself is a witches’ brew of the scary, the gross, and the darkly humorous. Christensen’s mix-and-match approach to genre anticipates gothic horror, documentary re-creation, and the essay film, making for an experience unlike anything else in the history of cinema.
As Florida authorities were evacuating a small town ahead of a Category 5 hurricane, Haley Keller (Kaya Scodelario) was fighting to get in–trying to locate her unaccounted-for dad Dave (Barry Pepper). Making her way to his house, she finds him injured within an attic crawlspace…and, now, their survival is in question, both from the rising floodwaters and the hungry alligators trolling within. Alexandre Aja’s terrifying two-hander co-stars Ross Anderson, Anson Boon.
Writer-director Rob Zombie picks back up with the shock-laden saga of “House of 1000 Corpses” and “The Devil’s Rejects,” as the state’s locked Otis (Bill Moseley), Baby Firefly (Sheri Moon Zombie), and Capt. Spaulding (Sid Haig) away forever for their heinous crimes. Though an escape gets engineered by Otis’ psychotic half-brother Foxy (Richard Brake), their flight to a small Mexican town gets tracked by enemies looking for bloody payback. Danny Trejo, Dee Wallace, Daniel Roebuck co-star.
In one of his earliest roles, Peter Falk plays Nico, the psychotic, drug-pushing leader of a beatnik gang who enjoys torturing people. Nico becomes the subject of an investigation conducted by Cliff (Jack Betts), who’s determined to find out who killed his brother by giving him a hamburger made with broken glass! Outrageous made-in-Canada crime drama also stars Barbara Lord, Ron Hartmann, Ron Taylor.
Doctor Who: Jon Pertwee: Complete Season Four
Jon Pertwee’s fourth season as the Third Doctor kicks off with the show’s 10th anniversary saga, “The Three Doctors.” When a renegade Time Lord attempts to escape from an anti-matter universe, it requires the combined efforts of the First (William Hartnell), Second (Patrick Troughton), and Third Doctors to save the day. The Doctor and Jo’s (Katy Manning) planned vacation on Metebelis 3 is sidetracked when they wind up in an alien sideshow of extraterrestrial lifeforms, in “Carnival of Monsters.” In “Frontier in Space,” the Doctor and Jo land in a future Earth starship and discover that the Master (Roger Delgado) is attempting to start an interplanetary war. Then, the Time Lord and his companion arrive on the “Planet of the Daleks,” where they must stop an army of the malevolent beings from being unleashed upon the universe. And, finally, a Welsh village that’s home to a new chemical plant, a deadly menace in a long-abandoned mine, and a malevolent computer with a mind of its own all add up to a dangerous mission, in “The Green Death.”
“Hayata, the Beta Capsule!” It’s the original 1966-67 “Ultraman” series, the UHF favorite in which ace pilot Hayata uses his Beta Capsule to become the giant alien superhero Ultraman, so that he and the other members of the Science Patrol can battle huge monsters across the Japanese landscape. Susumu Kurobe stars in the title role. With Akiji Kobayashi, Hiroko Sakurai. All 39 episodes are featured in this six-disc set.
As the first of Japan’s many “Ultra” programs, this imaginative adventure series sets a team of scientific experts against giant monsters that invade Tokyo (on a seemingly daily basis) and cause massive property damage and general panic. Drawing from both monster movie hits like “Godzilla” and small-screen classics like “The Twilight Zone,” this long-unseen saga is at last available for kaiju fans! Kenji Sahara, Hiroko Sakurai star. All 28 episodes are featured in a four-disc set.
An insomniac Minnesota cop (Henry Cavill) reluctantly partners with an ex-judge-turned-vigilante (Ben Kingsley) to bring in a suspect in a string of kidnappings and murders of young women. As the department’s profiler (Alexandra Daddario) tries to break the patently schizophrenic perpetrator (Brendan Fletcher), the police killings that follow show that he hadn’t been working alone. Stylish thriller also stars Stanley Tucci, Nathan Fillion, Minka Kelly, Eliana Jones. AKA: “Nomis.”
To know spinelessly passive accountant Casey Davies (Jesse Eisenberg) was to be able to push him around–and after his random pounding by a biker gang, he’d decided he’d had enough. Enrolling in a local karate school, he goes all in on the hyper-masculine doctrines of the dojo’s charismatic sensei (Allesandro Nivola)–but will the turnaround in his life be worth it after he gains invitation to the teacher’s hush-hush night classes? Dark social satire co-stars Imogen Poots, David Zellner, Steve Terada.
Star Trek: Picard Movie & TV Collection
Six-disc set includes feature versions of the episodes “The Best of Both Worlds” and “Chain of Command,” plus the films Star Trek: Generations, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection, and Star Trek: Nemesis.
For a complete overview of all of this week’s new releases, click here.