It’s Tuesday again, which means that the time has come for another overview of the latest titles to hit Blu-ray and DVD! And what an assortment we’ve got for you now. From a recent Oscar-nominated fave to the farewell season of a legendary TV Timelord, there are enough diverse titles here to make the cliche that there is something for everyone seem very true. See for yourself!
1917 (2019)
Director Sam Mendes’ gripping World War I saga–told in one “continuous” take–focuses on Lance Corporals Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Schofield (George MacKay), British soldiers tasked with traversing miles of enemy territory in France in order to relay a warning of an impending German attack to a unit of fellow Brits. The mission is an especially personal one for Blake, as his brother is one of the 1,600 lives that hang in the balance. With Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, Colin Firth, and Benedict Cumberbatch.
Leave Her to Heaven
(Criterion Collection)(1945)
It took all of a shared train ride for novelist Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde) to fall head over heels for exquisite socialite Ellen Berent (Gene Tierney). She’d reciprocate in kind…but after their swift courtship, Harland would come to realize that his calculating and pathologically jealous spouse would resort to inducing her own miscarriage–and even murder–in order to have him all to herself. Glossy, film noir-flavored melodrama co-stars Jeanne Crain, Vincent Price, Darryl Hickman, Ray Collins.
The Grudge (2020)
Chilling reboot of the enduring horror series (itself based on the Japanese “Ju-On” films) centers around a house that becomes cursed after a young woman brutally murders her entire family there. With everyone who now sets foot in the home marked for a grisly demise, can anybody defeat the evil apparition that’s taken up residence under its roof? Andrea Riseborough, Demián Bichir, John Cho, Betty Gilpin, Lin Shaye star.
Dodsworth (1936)
Successful in business but feeling empty in his personal life, American auto parts manufacturer Samuel Dodsworth (Walter Huston) takes a European vacation with his egotistical wife (Ruth Chatterton). Instead of renewing their marriage, the trip reveals the divide in their relationship as they come to realize they each want very different things out of life. Director William Wyler and producer Samuel Goldwyn’s dramatic translation of Sinclair Lewis’ 1929 novel co-stars Mary Astor, David Niven.
My Gun Is Quick (1957)
When a young woman he befriended in an L.A. diner the night before turns up murdered, tough-as-nails gumshoe Mike Hammer (Robert Bray) takes up the investigation and finds a deadly chain of events linking a ring the dead girl wore to stolen Nazi treasure from World War II. Taut adaptation of the Mickey Spillane thriller also stars Whitney Blake, Donald Randolph, Pamela Duncan.
Murder in Greenwich Village (1937)
Fortune takes a dark turn for once carefree heiress “Lucky” Kay Cabot (Fay Wray) when she is accused of murdering an artist. Because circumstantial evidence appears to implicate her in the crime, she convinces ad photographer Steve Jackson (Richard Arlen) to pose as her fiancé, provide a crucial alibi…and help her clear her name. Gripping mystery co-stars Raymond Walburn, Marc Lawrence, Leon Ames, Marjorie Reynolds.
Doctor Who: Sylvester McCoy: Complete Season Three (1989)
Sylvester McCoy stars as the Seventh Doctor in what would be the last season for the series’s original run. First, “Battlefield” is an adventure that stretches from the 20th century back to the days of Camelot, pits the Doctor against the evil magicks of Morgaine Le Fay and Mordred, and reunites him with old comrade Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney). Next, what is the sinister secret hidden inside the cargo of a mysterious alien ship, and will the Doctor and Ace (Sophie Aldred) learn it before it’s too late? Find out in “Ghost Light.” In WWII England, the Doctor and Ace must uncover who is trying to bring an ages-old evil back to Earth while at the same time stop the more conventional menace of a German invasion force, in “The Curse of Fenric.” And, a rash of mysterious disappearances in and around London soon has the Doctor and Ace facing the deadly interstellar hunters known as the Cheetah People…and the old enemy behind their attacks, in “Survival.”
The Gauntlet (1977)
The normally routine exercise of escorting a witness, prostitute Gus Mally (Sondra Locke), from Las Vegas to Phoenix to testify at trial becomes a race for survival for detective Ben Shockley (Clint Eastwood). On a frantic bus ride to city hall, Shockley and his charge brave an all-out assault from police and a corrupt mayor, who fears incrimination by the determined witness. Co-stars Pat Hingle, William Prince.
Return from the Ashes (1965)
Vintage thriller concerns Stanislaus Pilgrin (Maximilian Schell), a Polish chess master whose Jewish physician wife Michele Wolf (Ingrid Thulin) is taken away to a German concentration camp towards the end of World War II. After the fighting stops, Pilgrin marries his former spouse’s stepdaughter, Fabi (Samantha Eggar). But when Michele suddenly reappears, Pilgrin decides to kill both of the women in his life in order to inherit their money. Herbert Lom, Talitha Pol also star.
Endless Night (1972)
American heiress Ellie Thomsen (Hayley Mills) fell hard for working-class Brit Michael Rogers (Hywel Bennett), and once married, she built them a magnificent home on the Devon coast. However, the acreage she bought was purportedly cursed, and as strange accidents beset the household’s members, she may not survive to understand the stunning truth. Chilling adaptation of an Agatha Christie story also stars Britt Ekland, George Sanders, Per Oscarsson, Lois Maxwell.
Frankenstein: The True Story (1973)
This much-requested made-for-TV adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel stars Michael Sarrazin as the creature given life by Victor Frankenstein (Leonard Whiting), who witnesses his creation turn uncontrollable after he’s duped by his associate, Dr. Polidori (James Mason). David McCallum, Jane Seymour, Ralph Richardson, John Gielgud, and Tom Baker also star.
Clemency (2019)
Oversight of executions was the most trying job responsibility of clear-eyed prison warden Bernadine Williams (Alfre Woodard), and she always met it with stoic professionalism when called upon. Faced with the controversial case of Anthony Woods (Aldis Hodge)–convicted of killing a cop, unwavering in his claim of innocence–she may finally hit a personal breaking point. Provocative drama also stars Wendell Pierce, Richard Schiff, LaMonica Garrett, Danielle Brooks.
The Song of Names (2019)
As World War II dawned, young Britisher Martin Simmonds saw his impresario father take in Polish refugee/violin prodigy Dovidl Rapaport–and they became as close as brothers. On the eve of his professional debut, Dovidl left without a word. In middle age, Martin pursued slim clues in order to discover where his friend vanished to…and the reasons why. Affecting take on the Norman Lebrecht novel stars Tim Roth and Clive Owen as the adult Martin and Dovidl; Catherine McCormack, Stanley Townsend co-star.
April Fool’s Day (1986)
This comedy/chiller follows a gang of teens at a remote mansion where a maniac with no sense of humor is killing them one by one. But…are they really dying, or is everyone just being set up to face an elaborate, not to mention very sinister, hoax inspired by the title occasion? Hey, put that axe down! Can’t you take a joke? Jay Baker, Deborah Foreman, Griffin O’Neal, and Thomas F. Wilson star.
Click here for a complete overview of all of this week’s new releases.