“DVD Beat” Archive
Irv Slifkin | Coming Attractions, DVD Beat, Staff Notes
Mike & Emeric Go To War: Ill Met By Moonlight (1957) (aka Night Ambush) comes to DVD on the heels of other great Michael Powell-Emeric Pressburger releases like The Battle of the River Plate (The Flight of the Graf Spee) and Black Narcissus. The British filmmaking team also known for The Thief of Bagdad and the Red Shoes in top form here, telling the thrilling true story of two British soldiers kidnapping a Nazi officer in charge of operations on the island of Crete during World War II. Dirk Bogarde, David Oxley and Cyril Cusack star in this intense, atmospheric war thriller—the last from “The Archers”—that features music by Mikis Theododrakis (Zorba the Greek).
More Brit Pics That Click: Also on the way from jolly ol’ England are Simba (1955) and Penny Princess (1952), both with the versatile Dirk Bogarde. In Simba, Bogarde plays a Brit who arrives in Kenya and discovers his famer brother has been killed during the Mau Mau uprising. The film delves into the racial friction between the English settlers and the natives and co-stars Virginia McKenna (Born Free) as the woman Bogarde falls for. Bogarde takes the romantic lead in Princess, playing a cheese salesman who arrives at a small European country which has just installed American-born heir Yolande Donlan on its throne. The pair team to save the postage-stamp principality from going bankrupt.
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Irv Slifkin | Coming Attractions, DVD Beat
Murphy’s Law: Audie Murphy, WWII legend-turned-movie hero, is showcased in Audie Murphy Westerns Collection, an exclusive to Movies Unlimited. The four-disc, four-film set is a surefire hit for Murphy mavens and sagebrush fanatics alike, boasting these titles:
Sierra (1950): Audie and father Dean Jagger are hiding away in the hills until lawyer Wanda Hendrix (then Murphy’s wife in real life) arrives to prove that they are innocent of the crimes they are accused of.
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Irv Slifkin | Coming Attractions, DVD Beat
Air Born: The MGM feature Night Flight (1933) has not been seen in any parts since 1942, but all that will change when Warner Home Video puts it on DVD this summer. Known in some circles as “Grand Hotel of the air,” Night Flight offers an amazing cast that includes Clark Gable, John and Lionel Barrymore, Helen Hayes, Robert Montgomery and Myrna Loy. Directed by Clarence Brown (National Velvet, The Yearling), the film features incredible aerial footage and centers on a group of brave pilots who fly from Santiago to Rio de Janeiro in order to get a serum that will halt an outbreak of polio. This is what has become a rarity: a regularly pressed, non-manufactured-on-demand release of a library classic.
Shout, Shout Lets Them All Out: For years, Shout Factory, started by some of the folks behind Rhino Records, has been one of the most aggressive indie companies out there. They’ve managed to wrangle the rights to much-requested TV series like SCTV and Leave It to Beaver, and cult films such as the original The Stepfather. Now, the company has pacted with Fox for some interesting titles. Among them are:
Capone (1975): Ben Gazzara plays “Scarface,” a pre-Rocky Sylvester Stallone is Frank Nitti and John Cassavetes, Susan Blakely and Harry Guardino are also featured in this slam-bang gangster yarn helmed by Steve Carver (Big Bad Mama).
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Irv Slifkin | Coming Attractions, DVD Beat
Bounding Main: Marjorie Main is best known as the “Ma” in the Ma and Pa Kettle series made for Universal Pictures in the 1940s and 1950s. But Ms. Main was also a reliable character actress who appeared in such favorites as Meet Me in St. Louis, Summer Stock and Rose Marie. As an exclusive, Movies Unlimited is rolling out an exclusive double bill of Ms. Main in Murder, He Says/Feudin’, Fussin’ and A-Fightin’. In Murder (1945), Marjorie plays the head of a homicidal hillbilly clan encountered by pollster Fred MacMurray when he gets stranded in the Ozarks. And in Feudin’ (1948), she teams with her Kettle co-star Percy Kilbride for a saga of travelling salesman Donald O’Connor, who is talked into joining an annual footrace between rival towns. Born Mary Tomlinson, Ms. Main also appeared in such efforts as The Women, Dead End, Heaven Can Wait and The Long, Long Trailer.
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Irv Slifkin | Coming Attractions, DVD Beat
Luck Be a Lady Tonight
Never before on video in ANY format, Lucky Lady arrives on DVD. This gorgeously filmed 1975 romantic adventure features Liza Minnelli as a prohibition-era widow who gets involved with run-running and two lovers, played by Burt Reynolds and Gene Hackman. The director is the great Stanley Donen (Singin’ in the Rain, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers). While the expensive production from Fox didn’t fare well at the box-office, it does have its supporters. And since it has rarely been seen, now is a good time to check out this curio that also has a top-notch supporting cast including Robby Benson, John Hillerman and Geoffrey Lewis.
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Irv Slifkin | Coming Attractions, DVD Beat
Dig Doug : Douglas Sirk, the German-born filmmaker best known for such superior soapers as Imitation of Life, Written on the Wind and Magnificent Obsession, is getting his own collection and Movies Unlimited has an exclusive on it. It’s theDouglas Sirk Filmmaker Collection, a four-disc set which showcases that there was more to Sirk than soap. The most famous title of the batch is The Tarnished Angels (1957), based on William Faulkner’s Pylon, and featuring Rock Hudson as a journalist who befriends WWI ace-turned-barnstorming pilot Robert Stack in 1930s New Orleans. Dorothy Malone is Stack’s wife, desired by Hudson and mechanic Jack Carson, in this exciting and powerful tale of lust in the dust and heroics in the sky. Also included is Thunder on the Hill (1951), in which nun Claudette Colbert believes convicted killer Ann Blyth is innocent and strives to clear her; Taza, Son of Cochise (1954), featuring Hudson as the son of the Apache Indian leader, who battles war-mongering brother Rex Reason and his followers while trying to bring peace with the Cavalry; and Captain Lightfoot (1955), with Rock as the Irish hellraiser mentored by revolutionary Jeff Chandler who battles the British and romances Chandler’s daughter Barbara Rush. All four titles are available individually, as well.
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Irv Slifkin | Coming Attractions, DVD Beat
Our Man Flynn: Errol Flynn may have best been known for his portrayals of Robin Hood, the Earl of Essex, General Custer and “Gentleman” Jim Corbett. But Flynn brought his rugged and often dashing demeanor to other roles as well, such as those contained in TCM Spotlight: Errol Flynn Adventures, a five-disc set showcasing the Tasmanian-born star. Included here are Desperate Journey (1942), in which he teams with fellow RAF pilot Ronald Reagan to escape the Nazis in Poland after their plane is downed; Edge of Darkness (1943), in which Flynn and Ann Sheridan are resistance fighters battling the Axis in a Norwegian fishing village; Northern Pursuit (1943), with Errol as a Mountie tracking down Nazi Helmut Dantine in the Canadian wilderness; Uncertain Glory (1944), with Flynn as a condemned murderer fleeing a Parisian prison following a British air raid; and Objective Burma! (1945), where the actor leads paratroopers trying to put the kibosh on Japanese forces in Burma. The amazing thing to us was how he got all of these films done in such a short span of time!
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Irv Slifkin | Coming Attractions, DVD Beat
High Hopes
The legendary comic Bob Hope is being feted by Universal with a set of terrific farces he made for Paramount, some of which have never seen the light of day on video in any format. The Bob Hope: Thanks For The Memories Collection boasts Thanks for the Memory (1938), with Bob as a writer who turns househubby to pen a novel while wife Shirley Ross heads to work. In the much-requested horror-comedy The Cat and the Canary (1939), Paulette Goddard is an heiress that Ol’ Ski Nose must protect when she agrees to stay in a creaky old house in order to gain an inheritance. Bob and Paulette reteamed for Nothing but the Truth (1941), where Hope played a stockbroker saddled with a $10,000 bet that he can refrain from telling a lie for 24 hours. Other titles in this three-disc set include The Ghost Breakers, Road to Morocco and The Paleface.
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Irv Slifkin | Coming Attractions, DVD Beat
Roger, Corman
Roger Corman was recently honored with a special Academy Award, and a new 3-D remake of his 1978 production Piranha is heading for theaters this year. So it makes sense that Corman’s “B” movie classics from New World Pictures have found a new home at Shout Factory!/Vivendi.
The Corman library has been out of circulation for a few years, and the company is welcoming such water-logged monstrosity movies as the original Piranha, Humanoids from the Deep, Up from the Depths, and Demon of Paradise back in April. They will be followed by the likes of Rock ‘N’ Roll High School, Suburbia, Death Race 2000, Deathsport and others. We say it’s about time the Academy recognized Corman’s contributions to cinema, as a producer, director and mentor to young talent. It’s just a shame his award will not be part of the telecast this year.
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Irv Slifkin | Coming Attractions, DVD Beat
Cary On
Turner Classic Movies has pacted with Universal to issue several new-to-DVDs showcasing the great Cary Grant. This comes after TCM’s release of such Universal-licensed efforts as Remember the Night and the Universal Cult Horror Collection. These films, originally produced by Paramount, will be available individually, or collected in a set called Cary Grant: The Early Paramount Years. The titles include:
The Last Outpost (1935) finds Grant as a British officer wounded in WWI-era Kurdistan who falls for a nurse (Gertrude Michael) who happens to be married to the intelligence agent (Claude Rains) who rescued him.
The Eagle and the Hawk (1933), in which Cary tries to save the reputation of WWI British flying ace Fredric March after he commits suicide. Carole Lombard has a small role as the woman with whom March has an affair.
The Devil and the Deep (1932) is a superior sub drama, although Mr. Grant is only appears briefly, playing a lieutenant transferred to another base when sub commander Charles Laughton suspects him of having an affair with wife Tallulah Bankhead. Things don’t get easier when Gary Cooper comes on board, and when Laughton suspects the same, the future of his crew is put in jeopardy.
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Irv Slifkin | Coming Attractions, DVD Beat
“Film noir” is a term that movie marketers have pinned to practically every film involving crime or suspense that was shot in b
lack-and-white during the 1950s. While some of the labeling has been downright silly, such as the case with some of the DVD entries from the Fox library (Daisy Kenyon?), it’s great to see the interest for making classic noirs available to fans out there.
Sony has lagged behind Warner, Fox and others in excavating their vast library from Columbia for screen gems, but they’re certainly coming on strong of late. Consider recent sets centered on the works of Budd Boetticher, William Castle and efforts from Ishiro Honda and Toho Studios that have been issued recently.
Sony’s streak continues with the impressive five-disc Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics I, a nifty compendium of creepy crime movies from the dark side of the screen and human nature.
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Irv Slifkin | Coming Attractions, DVD Beat
Feelin’ Groovy: Going deep, deep, deep into their library to issue the next wave in their “Martini Movies” series, Sony has plucked some fascinating obscurities for public DVD screenings. They are from the 1960s and 1970s, which designates them as Groovy Movies of sorts.
In this batch of titles are:
Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing (1973): An exquisitely filmed romantic drama in which sheltered Timothy Bottoms meets older Maggie Smith during a bicycle journey through Spain. The two carry on a romance, but Smith eventually gets ill. Alan J. Pakula helmed this change-of-pace effort.
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