Showing Soon; Losey, Leigh and Bette Davis Collections… February 26, 2008
Posted by John Hodson in : DVD News & Info, Showing Soon , 11 commentsShowing Soon in R2
Another look at what’s upcoming for fans of classic film and TV in the U.K…
Slipped under the radar; Cinema Club have just released Joe Losey’s 1973 filmed version of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House with Jane Fonda, Edward Fox, Trevor Howard and David Warner, plus the 1975 TV version of In This House of Brede with Diana Rigg, Pamela Brown, Gwen Watford and Denis Quilley. Also available now, Abel Ferrara’s 1985 movie Fear City with Tom Berenger and Melanie Griffith.
Sony is releasing the Deluxe Edition of The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen in April, concurrently with a Blu-Ray edition. Fox has both Commando and Wall Street coming on Blu-Ray in March.
Early April sees the release of an 11-disc Mike Leigh Collection; this is by way of Spirit Entertainment (who they?) and sees a box set of some of the best work from one of Britain’s finest directors. It contains:
A 56-page companion booklet with a complete filmography, stills and quotes
Bonus DVD of extras
Vera Drake: Special Features: Cast & Crew documentary, trailer.
All or Nothing: Special Features: Commentary by Mike Leigh, Interviews and Trailer.
Topsy-Turvy: Special Features: Commentary by Mike Leigh, Trailer.
Career Girls: Special Features: Trailer.
Secrets & Lies: Special Features: Interview with Mike Leigh, short film - A Sense of History, Trailer.
Naked: Special Features: Commentary by Mike Leigh, David Thewlis and Katrin Cartlidge. Trailer
Life Is Sweet: Special Features: Short The Short & Curlies, Trailer.
High Hopes: Special Features: Interview with Mike Leigh and On Set Footage, Production Notes and Biographies.
Meantime: Special Features: Interviews with Mike Leigh, Tim Roth and Marion Bailey.
Bleak Moments
Though I own most of those, I’m still bizarrely tempted; such is the lure of a nicely presented collection. I’m a huge fan, but I think Leigh is strangely under-appreciated - any director that can include both the magnificently bleak Naked and the quite joyous Topsy-Turvy in his CV must surely take his place at the top table of talents? The same day Contender releases Game of Death, their blurb reads: ‘After 22 years of waiting, Game of Death is at last available to UK audiences as nature intended. Now re-instated is the incredible one-on-one nunchuka battle between Bruce Lee and top student Dan Inosanto, which conceptually is totally unique to this movie.’
For animation fans in April, there’s a fistful of ‘Asterix’ releases - The Twelve Tasks Of Asterix, Asterix And Cleopatra and Asterix The Gaul. Paramount has a little treat for movie lovers (and foodies) with Big Night, Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott’s beautiful 1996 film with Tucci, Minnie Driver, Isabella Rossellini, Ian Holm and Tony Shalhoub. Don’t forget that Paramount is also releasing the original Sleuth (to coincide with the release of the remake) with Caine and Olivier at the end of April, unfortunately sans the Anthony Shaffer interview that was on the OOP Anchor Bay disc. Paramount is also to go the re-release route (again) with ‘Special Editions’ for Mission Impossible 1 & 2 at the end of June alongside HD DVD (or perhaps Blu-ray now) releases of Coming to America (May) plus The Untouchables and Reds (June).
No word on just who is responsible yet, but April also sees a DVD release for Peter Brooks’ spirited The Beggar’s Opera with Laurence Olivier as Captain MacHeath. Second Sight have slated Ronald Neame’s Walter Matthau comedy spy caper Hopscotch for April 21, the same time they release Georges Franju’s Eyes Without A Face while Artificial Eye have Bresson’s Lancelot du Lac, A Man Escaped and The Devil, Probably ready to go. Shameless have the ‘nunsploitation’ film The Story of a Cloistered Nun (candle’s out girls…). Don’t forget AE’s Les Vampires (3-disc Collector’s Edition) is released next month.
From Optimum, another feast: The Joseph Losey Collection is released April 28 and contains:
The Go Between: Summer 1900: Queen Victoria’s last and the summer Leo turns 13. He’s the guest of Marcus, a wealthy classmate, at a grand home in rural Norfolk. Leo is befriended by Marian, Marcus’s twenty-something sister, a beauty about to be engaged to Hugh, a viscount and good fellow. Marian buys Leo a forest-green suit, takes him on walks, and asks him to carry messages to and from their neighbor, Ted Burgess, a bit of a rake. Leo is soon dissembling, realizes he’s betraying Hugh, but continues as the go-between nonetheless, asking adults naive questions about the attractions of men and women. Can an affair between neighbours stay secret for long? And how does innocence end?
The Servant: In this landmark drama of class struggle and moral decay, a pampered playboy (James Fox) acquires an elegant townhouse complete with a dedicated man servant (Dirk Bogarde). But when the young man’s fiance (Wendy Craig) becomes suspicious of the servant’s intentions, he and his ’sister’ (Sarah Miles) thrust the household into a sinister game where seduction is corruption and power becomes the most shocking desire of all.
Accident: When an accident kills one of his student, and Oxford professor (Dirk Bogarde) recounts the circumstances of their meeting. But as these turbulent memories unfold, they reveal a series of shocking relationships betrayed by adultery, obsession and self-destruction in which nothing is what it seems and everything has its cost.
The Criminal: Stanley Baker stars as underworld kingpin Johnny Bannion, sprung from prison by his best friend Mike Carter to mastermind a daring racetrack heist. But when Johnny is sent back to jail shortly after hiding the stolen loot, he must survive and ordeal of brutality and betrayal at the hands of his fellow convicts and former accomplices in this gritty drama that was originally advertised as “The Toughest Film Ever Made In Britain!”
Eva: Welsh writer Tyvian Jones (Stanley Baker) seems to have it all, Sixties style — an international best seller, an apartment in Rome, a gorgeous fiancée in Virna Lisi - but he’s bitter anyway. He meets his existential match in ennui in the mod seductress Eve, played by Jeanne Moreau, who was never more cynical or iconic. Decked out in pointy pumps and heavy eyeliner, listening to Billie Holiday on scratchy LPs as she counts the lire and smokes endless packs of cigarettes in strangers’ bedrooms, she is the epitome of frayed glamour. An emotional tyrant, Eve’s casual maneuvering forces Baker to confront his past - and his weaknesses - as a man and an artist.
Mr. Klein: As Jews flee Paris, Mr. Klein exploits them, preying on their desperation by buying their valuables at a fraction of their worth… until he finds his name is shared by a Jewish member of the anti-Nazi resistance. Klein reports this to the authorities only find that he is uncontrollably sinking into the quicksand of mistaken identity.
The Sleeping Tiger: A doctor who believes he can reform criminals by psychiatric treatment takes into his house a young criminal who had tried to rob him at gunpoint to test his theories. The youth, however, begins an affair with the doctor’s wife.
Some cross-pollination there for owners of Optimum’s Dirk Bogarde and Julie Christie sets (and surely - surely - Optimum will release a Stanley Baker Collection at some point?) Now, please Optimum - please let’s have a proper anamorphic OAR release of The Go Between. Optimum is to release Carpenter’s Assault On Precinct 13: Special Edition in April and (fans of Stanley Baker rejoice) Peter Yates’ exciting take on the Great Train Robbery - Robbery - in May, lots of thwackings to the groin, screeching of tyres and steely hard man looks. Yum. Optimum has also rescheduled Happy Is The Bride for August and Rashomon for September release.
May sees an R2 release for Lindsay Anderson’s O Lucky Man! from Warner, who are also releasing a six disc Bette Davis Anniversary Boxset the same month (this may switch, as they sometimes do, to a retailer exclusive). The titles are:
In This Our Life (Dir. John Huston) (1942): A young woman Stanley (Bette Davis) dumps her fiancée Craig (George Brent) and runs off with her sister’s husband Peter (Dennis Morgan). They marry, settle in Baltimore, and Stanley ultimately drives Peter to drink and suicide. Stanley returns home to Richmond only to learn that her sister and old flame have fallen in love and plan to marry. The jealous and selfish Stanley attempts to win back Craig’s affections, but her true character is revealed when she attempts to pin a hit and run accident on the young black clerk who works in Craig’s law office.
The Old Maid (Dir. Edmund Goulding) (1939): This is the sad story of Charlotte (Bette Davis), a woman whose circumstances force her to give up her illegitimate child and pose as the child’s old maid aunt, thereby facing a lifetime of maternal sacrifice. Miriam Hopkins provides effective counterbalance with her portrayal of Charlotte’s effusive cousin, who raises the little girl.
All This And Heaven Too (Dir. Anatole Litvak) (1940): A first-rate drama about a 19th century nobleman who falls in love with his childrens’ governess and murders his wife
The Great Lie (Dir. Edmund Goulding) (1941): After a newlywed’s husband apparently dies in a plane crash, she discovers that her rival for his affections is now pregnant with his child.
Watch On The Rhine (Dir. Herman Shumlin and Hal Mohr) (1943): Set during WW2. An anti-Nazi leader escapes with his wife to America, only to find himself being pursued and blackmailed by Nazi agents.
Deception (Dir. Irving Rapper) (1946): Based on Louis Verneuil’s 1928 play Jealousy, the film tells the story of pianist Christine Radcliffe separated from her great love, cellist Karel Novak by World War II. Unexpectedly reunited with him, Christine desperately strives to hide her wartime dalliance as the mistress of a wealthy, sadistic composer (Rains), with devastating results.
It is said that all films come with the extra content: ‘Warner Night At The Movies’ - a ’special selection of extras that recreate the movie going experience of the time with newsreel footage, featurettes and contemporary cartoons and trailers’. Hopefully, the only difference content wise between this and the R1 Bette Davis Collection 3 is the title.
April sees a raft of titles coming yet again from various PD merchants (The Big Trees, Charade, etc., etc.), slipped in there are The Bela Lugosi Collection, The Boris Karloff Collection and The Classic Westerns Collection, The John Wayne Collection, The Rudolph Valentino Collection, The Roy Rogers Collection; no word on titles but don’t have any hopes transfer wise.
Looking ahead to May and you’ll find Jess Franco’s Demons from Redemption, and a Yume Pictures release of Nigisa Oshima’s Night And Fog in Japan (aka Nihon No Yoru To Kiri) plus Tartan’s three disc Fukasaku Trilogy Box Set. According the HMV website, June also sees Paramount releasing the remastered box set of the Godfather trilogy mentioned in a recent Showing Soon; the rrp is £29.99, some £30 cheaper than the original release seven years ago, which tells you quite a lot about the way the DVD game has gone in recent years - little wonder studios are bleating about those little shiny discs becoming less profitable. When I think about what I paid for discs at the turn of the millennium. No details on whether the extras will be carried over, or indeed, if there are any new extras in store - watch this space.
The BBFC has shown a pass for Jim Jarmusch’s Down By Law for Optimum. Less thrilling news is a pass for the 1965 Agatha Christie ‘whodunit’ Ten Llittle Indians for PD specialists Orbit; expect nothing in the way of a restored transfer. The BBFC is also currently passing extras for Philip Kaufman’s Invasion of The Body Snatchers for Fox, who, as in R1, are currently marketing discs for MGM - if the R2 replicates the R1, fans this side of The Pond will be very happy.
TV releases in April include The Chinese Detective (5 Discs), The Gentle Touch - Series 2, London’s Burning - Series 7, Mork And Mindy - Season 2, The Owl Service, Crown Court - Volume 3, Enemy At The Door - Series 1 and Series 2, Follyfoot - Series 2, Hadleigh - Series 1 and Series 2, Laverne And Shirley: Season 1, The Morecambe and Wise Show: Series 4 (2 Discs), Desmond’s: Complete Series 2, Ironside: Series 1 (8 Discs) plus the 1976 adaptation of Our Mutual Friend, from Acorn, featuring Jane Seymour, Leo McKern, John McEnery and Lesley Dunlop; extras include Cast Filmographies, a Charles Dickens Biography, and a Charles Dickens Bibliography. May sees another release for Threads, Porterhouse Blue, The Incredible Hulk: Season 3 (6 Discs), The Incredible Hulk: Season 4 (6 Discs) and The Cosby Show: Season 1 (4 Discs). Network say they have something quite special coming May; Department S; The Complete Series. By the way, Fremantle have recently announced a budget release for Oliver Stone’s Wild Palms next month.
A Hitch Slight…
Finally, a recent Showing Soon looked forward immensely to Network’s new box set, Alfred Hitchcock; The British Years, but the just posted DVD Times reviews are disappointng to say the least. Bad sound - no sound - scratchy, sometimes unrestored prints transferred to single layer discs, extras cobbled together from the butt end of the archives or retrieved from previous releases to save the pennies, no commentaries, and box art that would disgrace a pair of comedy Union Jack underpants; it all smacks of a huge under-achievement from a British company supposedly celebrating not just one of the great directors, but a great British director. Well, that’s my grumpy over-reaction; read the reviews yourself here. Grrr…
‘Til next time…
A Little Showing Soon; Another Mills Bomb, Ms Lockwood Requests… February 13, 2008
Posted by John Hodson in : DVD News & Info, Showing Soon , 7 commentsShowing Soon in R2
Apologies to be back so soon, but I’ve made some decent discoveries (and plain forgot to include some others) since the last Showing Soon, only a couple of days ago, that I feel I must share them post-haste, gentle reader…
Tartan has scheduled March for a release of Nicolas Philibert and René Allio’s I, Pierre Riviere, a little-seen film based on the disturbing true story of a peasant who murdered his family in 1835. It’s released in conjuction with Philibert’s documentary Back To Normandy; ‘All the main parts in ‘I, Pierre Rivière’ were played by non-professional actors from Normandy. Here, thirty years after the film’s release, Philibert takes his camera back to the region to learn about the lives of its stars during the intervening years. Weaving through time - between 1975, the present time, and the nineteenth century - Philibert creates yet another captivating documentary.’
Still no word on what makes Network’s March release This Sporting Life: Special Edition so ’special’. It will have to be some set to come near Criterion’s recent R1, a sumptuous transfer replete with superb extras.
Late March, Network release Espionage an interesting ITC Series little seen since its broadcast in 1963-’64, on six discs. The BFI says the series: “Presented an above-average anthology series of European-filmed suspense dramas dealing with undercover agents and their activities, ranging in period from the American Revolution politics of the 18th century to contemporary Cold War capers. 24 hour-long episodes were produced by George Justin”
No only that, in a knowing bit of marketing, Network is to release a single disc set of all three Espionage episodes directed by Michael Powell (for even the Great Man had to stoop to TV work as times became lean) one of which was written by his Peeping Tom screenwriter Leo Marks. Excellent.
Coming early April is The Crimson Pirate from Warner**, mentioned in a past Showing Soon, as is Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Season 3 (5 Discs), and another release for the excellent western series Lonesome Dove; Acorn promises this transfer is newly ‘digitally remastered’ and it also includes an interview with Larry McMurtry and Suzanne De Passe. PD specialist Orbit is giving an R2 outing to Vincent Price’s Last Man on Earth in April, while Artificial Eye release’s Robert Bresson’s The Devil, Probably and A Man Escaped.
Following the good news last time that this month’s John Mills Centenary Box Set had been bumped from a six disc collection to nine, ITVDVD has now announced the hoped for second set to celebrate 100 years since the birth of an actor who was, variously throughout his career, described as the ‘British James Cagney’ and an ‘English everyman’. The eight disc John Mills Centenary Collection II: Icon Box Set, coming May, boasts:
Car Of Dreams (Dir. Graham Cutts and Austin Melford) (1935): John mills stars as playboy Robert Miller, the son and heir of a wealthy tycoon who owns a musical instrument factory. Robert is in love with Vera Hart (Grete Mosheim), a poor girl who works at his father’s factory–but neither is aware of the other’s true identity. When Robert anonymously buys Vera a Rolls-Royce, he discovers her low social class and must further conceal his identity to avoid a family scandal.
This Happy Breed (Dir. David Lean) (1944): A dramatisation of Noel Coward’s play which details the lives of ordinary people between WWI and WWII.
The Way To The Stars (Dir. Anthony Asquith) (1945): In 1940, a deserted airfield somewhere in the heart of England becomes a bustling bomber command station. In 1942 advance units of the American Air Force arrive to join The Royal Air Force and help turn the tide of World War II. So unfolds the story of a group of flyers and their ‘missions’.
Peter Penrose (John Mills), a young RAF pilot is sent to Halfpenny Field, close to the small town of Shepley. His Squadron Leader, Flight Lieutenant David Archdale (Michael Redgrave) gives him inspiration and encouragement and they fast become friends. They are joined by a young American pilot Johnny (Douglas Montgomery) which complicates the friendship. This is the story of the group’s private lives - particularly their loves during war-time.
The Long Memory (Dir. Robert Hamer) (1952): After a long jail term for a crime he did not commit, a man is torn between revenge or making a new life for himself.
The Vicious Circle (Dir. Gerald Thomas) (1957): When Dr Howard Latimer finds the German Actress that he has just met at London Airport murdered in his flat, it leads him into the world of murder, blackmail and a fake passport scam.
Above Us The Waves (Dir. Ralph Thomas) (1955): The dramatic World War II story of Britain’s heroic attempts to sink the monster German battleship Tirpitz in a Norwegian Fjord using midget submarines. In this adventure of unsurpassed courage, the crews of the Navy become human torpedos.
Tiger Bay (Dir. J. Lee Thompson) (1959): Polish sailor Korchinsky (Buchholz) is furious to discover his lover has left him for another man and, in a confrontation, murders her. The crime is witnessed by 10 year old Gillie (Hayley Mills) who steals the gun used and as officer Graham (John Mills) closes in, Korchinsky abducts Gillie…
Forever England (Dir. Walter Forde) (1935): A war drama, based on the story by C.S. Forrester, in which the illegitimate son of a British naval officer singlehandedly brings about the downfall of a German battleship during World War I.
Lumme. All this and Morning Departure just announced for R1 release too. By the way, on the same tack, Universal hasn’t forgotten that 17 disc box set for Jimmy Stewart that they announced last year; they’ve sensibly delayed it until later in ‘08, June to be precise, better to celebrate the centenary of the birth of James Maitland Stewart, 24-carat Hollywood star and a modest, but genuine hero of the Second World War to boot.
May and archive telly fans can look forward to Auf Wiedersehen Pet: 25 Years Ultimate Box Set, Rumpole Of The Bailey: Series 5, The Rockford Files: Season 5, Love Thy Neighbour: Series 8, Homicide: Series 5, Last Of The Summer Wine: Series 9 & 10 (3 Discs), Top Cat: Vol 2, Cybill: Complete Series 3 (4 Discs), Little House On The Prairie Season 4 (6 Discs) and Magnum P.I.: Season 8 (3 Discs).
Channel 4 has been delving into the back catalogue, releasing and re-releasing some of the films and series they have financed, but reports are that they’ve been making something of a mess with very poor transfers. Fingers crossed for an improvement - in March expect East Is East, The Bostonians, Bread & Roses, Dogma, The Europeans, Heat & Dust, Life Is Sweet, Maurice, Monsoon Wedding, My Beautiful Laundrette, My Name Is Joe, Raining Stones, and Riff Raff. Coming May are Ken Loach’s Ladybird, Ladybird, The Limey, The Straight Story, Porterhouse Blue, My Left Foot, Shackleton, The Camomile Lawn and Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero.
June and ITVDVD are at it again. The eight disc* - count ‘em - Margaret Lockwood Collection includes:
The Wicked Lady (Dir.Leslie Arliss) (1945): The lusty, bawdy, epic story of England’s legendary highwayperson Lady Barbara Skelton, who married a nobleman, lusted after a highway-man, and sought the love of the only man she could never have…
Love Story (Dir. Leslie Arliss) (1944): After successful pianist Lissa Campbell is diagnosed with a terminal heart defect, she vows to make her last months worth living. She takes a trip to Cornwall where she meets Tom Tanner, Kit Firth and Judy Martin.
Bank Holiday (Dir. Carol Reed) (1938): Various people set off on an August bank holiday, including a raucous Cockney family, a would-be beauty queen, and two young lovers - whose relationship starts to come apart when one has to deal with a bereavement at the hospital where she works.
Jassy (Dir. Bernard Knowles) (1947): Based on the novel by Norah Losts Jassy is a gypsy girl blessed with the gift of second sight. When superstitious villagers are on the point of submitting her to a ducking in the village pool, a young man, Barney, intervenes to save her. They are separated soon afterwards when it becomes clear Jassy has romantic feelings towards Barnery, but from her humble beginnings as a servant girl she eventually succeeds in becoming mistress of a fine old English mansion.
Give Us The Moon (Dir. Val Guest) (1944): A young man, Sascha, joins a group call ‘The Elephants’ whose principle is to abide by a complete disregard for work. However chaos ensues when the group decides to help run the hotel owned by Sascha’s father!
I’ll Be Your Sweetheart (Dir. Val Guest) (1945): A lighthearted, romantic musical, featuring many classic songs built round an engaging story the establishment of copyrighting in the music industry.
Highly Dangerous (Dir. Roy Ward Baker) (1950): When British Intelligence discovers that a (mythical) Iron Curtain country is developing insects as weapons they dispatch entomologist Fraces Gray to get into the county and collect specimens. However her cover is almost immediately blown on her arrival and her contact is murdered…
Madness Of The Heart (Dir. Charles Bennett) (1949): A blind woman seeks sanctuary in a convent before deciding to pursue her destiny with her French lover.
The Lady Vanishes (Dir. Alfred Hitchcock) (1938): Intrigue and espionage, and the effects on the lives and futures of passengers aboard a Trans-Continental Express emerge, when a girl traveller (Margaret Lockwood) returning from a holiday, strikes up an acquaintance with a middle-aged English governess who, during the journey mysteriously disappears from her compartment. The girl, seeking an explanation for the disappearance, is accused of hallucinating and is nearly convinced that her new friend does not exist.However, further inquiries made among the passengers reveal the curious behaviour of a group of foreign government agents who are also travelling as passengers…
A very nice looking set spotlighting one British cinema’s biggest post-war stars, though a star which shone brightly, yet relatively briefly at the very top - it probably will involve some double-dipping…
*Feb. 27 EDIT: Thanks to Glyn for alerting me to the fact that it looks like ITVDVD have now trimmed the set down to six films. See the comments on this post for the titles. **And The Crimson Pirate comes from Orbit, not Warner, unfortunately.
Showing Soon; An Offer You Can’t Refuse..? February 11, 2008
Posted by John Hodson in : DVD News & Info, Showing Soon , 4 commentsShowing Soon in R2
Since the last Showing Soon, I’ve been drumming my fingers patiently waiting for something really, really big to be announced for fans of classic film in R2. All I can say is that it’s a darned good job I didn’t hold my breath…
As revealed last time, Network is set to release a very tasty looking box set later this month, Hitchcock; The British Years, and the titles are as I guessed - Jamaica Inn (1939), The Lady Vanishes (1938), Young and Innocent (1937), Sabotage (1936), Secret Agent (1936), The 39 Steps (1935), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), Downhill (1927), The Lodger (1927), and the abridged (and rather scruffy looking) Rohauer Collection version of The Pleasure Garden (1925).
The good news is that it has some very decent extras:
Digitally restored versions of The Lodger, Sabotage, Young and Innocent and Jamaica Inn
Cinema: Alfred Hitchcock – unseen for forty years, Mike Scott interviews Hitchcock about his life and career
Aquarius - Alfred Hitchcock – taken from the 1972 Arts programme, this show includes candid photography of Hitchcock filming Frenzy in London
Charles Barr on… a series of featurettes in which film historian Charles Barr introduces and analyses each of the ten films within the set
On location reports for Sabotage and The Thirty-Nine Steps introduced by actor Robert Powell
Original theatrical trailer for The Lady Vanishes
Script PDFs for The Thirty-Nine Steps, The Lady Vanishes and Jamaica Inn
Commemorative booklet written by Charles Barr
Image Galleries
8 page booklet by film historian and writer of “English Hitchcock”, Charles Barr, presenting an overview of Hitchcock’s career
Cinema; now that brings back some memories - be good to see Mike Scott in the chair again. Full details are over at the Network site.
Metrodome are releasing Stuart Cooper’s powerful Overlord in March. The blurb:
Winner of the Berlin Film Festival’s Silver Bear for Direction in 1975, Overlord is a spectacularly shot meditation on the sacrifice and expandability of soldiers during the biggest military operation of all times. Cooper shot the movie with Stanley Kubrick’s acclaimed cinematographer John Alcott (Clockwork Orange, The Shining), and they achieve a unique and terrifying vision of war by intercutting new narrative footage of a shy young soldier joining the army and truly incredible stock footage from the Imperial War Museum’s archives. It’s all shot in meticulously re-created black and white style, meaning that the narrative is mixed in indistinguishably with the real footage to great effect.
Critically acclaimed upon it’s original release in the UK in 1975, the Sunday Telegraph declared “It should not be missed.. We are in Stuart Cooper’s debt”, while the Daily Mail agreed by saying “I can’t recommend it too highly”. While a recent US re-release in 2005 saw contemporary critics agree. “Overlord combines its newsreel and fictional footage so effectively that it has a greater impact than all fiction, or all documentary, could have achieved” was Roger Ebert’s opinion, while Time Out NY simply called it “an impressionistic wonder”.
Overlord was a labour of love for Cooper and the Imperial War Museum (who co-produced the movie), and together they spent three years pouring through the footage to find the shots used in the movie - which is at times truly incredible. All profits from the original release of the movie were pledged to the Imperial War Museum and related charities.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Commentary by director Stuart Cooper
Interview with Roger Smither, Keeper Of The Archive at the Imperial War Museum
Interview with co-star Nicholas Ball
A tribute to John Alcott by cinematographer and friend Doug O’Neons
A tour of the Imperial War Museum Archives with Roger Smither
Theatrical trailer
Booklet with essays from Stuart Cooper and others…
Swings and roundabouts, it seems, with the excellent Criterion edition, but the R2 appears to be missing Germany Calling, one of my favourite pieces of wartime propaganda and, oh so very English.
Metrodome are also releasing John Huston’s fun The List of Adrian Messenger the same month, the first official DVD release of the film anywhere, though sadly no extras to be seen. Relatively new outfit Demand DVD is to release two interesting archive TV productions; Frank Finlay takes the eponymous role in The Death of Adolf Hitler in March, and Charles Sturridge’s superb A Foreign Field with a stellar cast - Jeanne Moreau, Lauren Bacall, Edward Hermann, Leo McKern, John Randolph, and Alec Guinness. Also March, they release Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph Of The Will.
April and Showbox Media release the first two comedies made by Group 3 Productions, Kenneth More in Brandy for The Parson, and Charles Hawtry in You’re Only Young Twice. We already know that the Dirty Harry franchise is getting a do-over in R1; not only was it announced nearly 18 months ago now that it was coming (in conjunction with a subsequently postponed computer game), but Warner have recently announced some of their U.S. slate for ‘08 and it was right up there among the ‘Things You Must Buy’. A couple of U.K. etailers have the first two films as coming June over here, a Dirty Harry: Special Edition and a Magnum Force: Directors Edition. One etailer also has a new box set listed, but with no date set for release - unlike the U.S., the U.K. titles have never gone into moratorium. At the end of March, the BFI stump up an Otto Preminger double-header; Margin for Error & A Royal Scandal. No news of extras yet, if any.
It’s looking like a long haul; SimplyHE seem to be making a meal out of dragging the old DD Home Entertainment catalogue back into being. Their new website is, frankly, a bit of mess, and scuttlebutt has it that ordering is not the quick and painless process it ought to be. However their latest catalogue reveals that they are back in DVD production, with plenty of new titles, mostly in the military / vehicles / documentary line, but a couple caught my eye. SimplyHE has released the George Formby vehicle Off The Dole (which was to be part of the - now aborted - second Formby box from Optimum), and intriguingly they star Cottage To Let as a ‘new’ title. Now this British spy picture was released last year by Network and would only be a ‘new’ release if (a) Simply have screwed up (possible), or (b) that their deal with Granada International is back in place allowing them to ‘double up’ on titles Granada license elsewhere (also possible). No news sadly of the deal with Sony / Columbia.
Other titles to look out for; the 1964 Devil Doll from Cinema Club, just released, Metrodome’s Howard The Duck, to be released next week, and also next week The John Mills Centenary Icon Collection, which ITVDVD, just can’t make their minds up on; first it was a nine disc set devoted to the Great Man, then it dropped to six, now it’s back to nine - In Which We Serve, We Dive At Dawn, Waterloo Road, Great Expectations, The October Man, The History Of Mr. Polly, Morning Departure, Flame In The Streets, and the documentary Sir John Mills’s Moving Memories. Fremantle HE are to release a number of older titles in March: I’ll Be Seeing You (1944), The Indiscretion Of An American Wife (1954), Krakatoa - East Of Java (1968), Mastermind (1976), Ruby Gentry (1952), Since You Went Away (1944), Target - Harry (1979). Eureka have lined up Antonioni’s La Notte for a March release in their increasingly impressive Masters of Cinema range. Sony are to release a trio of monster flicks in a low-cost (£10.99 for instance at HMV) Ray Harryhausen Collection boxset early March; 20 Million Miles to Earth, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, It Came From Beneath the Sea - all feature the ‘colorized’ versions (you’ll go blind, I’m warning you…), but there is some question as to whether the box is a six or three DVD set, as various etailers claim.
Nearly forgot. I mentioned the possibility of a Helen Mirren collection a while back, and later this month 2 | Entertain obliges with the Helen Mirren At The BBC box set. The press release says:
Helen Mirren is one of the most respected actresses of British stage, screen, and television. With classical training, celebrated work across TV, film and the London stage, the award winning actress has proven herself an as a women of immense talent, versatility, and unforgettable presence.
Helen made her first theatrical debut in 1965 at the Old Vic theatre where she received rave reviews and by 1971 her film and TV career was blossoming. In 2007 she was the deserving recipient of the Academy Award™ for Best Actress for her portrayal of the current monarch in The Queen.
This elegantly packaged 6 disc box set, available from 18th February, celebrates her work with the BBC and contains 11 adaptations and films dating back to 1974:
• The Changling (1974)
• George Bernard Shaw’s political satire The Apple Cart (1975)
• Caesar and Claretta (1975)
• The Philanthropist (1975)
• JM Barrie’s The Little Minister (1975)
• William Wycherley’s comedy The Country Wife (1977)
• Dennis Potter’s BAFTA- winning drama Blue Remembered Hills (1979)
• Mrs Reinhardt (1981)
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1981)
• Cymbeline (1983)
• The Hawk (1995)Extras include: An exclusively shot interview with Helen talking about the films in this fabulous collection and a clip of her appearance on TV talk show Parkinson from 1975.
Recent passes at the BBFC include The Pirate for Warner (complete with the extras from the US R1), extras for a The Adventures of Baron Munchausen SE for Sony, Rashomon for Optimum, Joseph Losey’s The Criminal (already available in quite a decent edition from Anchor Bay in R1 and a very good Stanley Baker vehicle) has also been passed for Optimum, as has Charles Frend’s Ealing wartime drama San Demetrio, London, plus Robert Hamer’s Pink String and Sealing Wax - my Spidey sense tells me that another Ealing set may be coming from Optimum (and that their current ‘Definitive’ box set is, as if we didn’t know it, simply not so…)
No such (non)sense needed to tell me that Paramount is about to re-release The Godfather films, not only has it been rumoured for some while, but the pass for the first film in the trilogy at the BBFC indicates that this is the ‘2007 restored version’. Undoubtedly all three films are to get a wash and brush up; will Paramount again be making you an offer you can’t refuse?
The BBFC has also - confirming its cut status - passed a 60m 29s version of The Pleasure Garden for Network. Public domain outfit Pegasus has Richard Greene in Captain Scarlett. Odeon have a number of titles on the go including George King’s The Shop at Sly Corner, Tread Softly Stranger (with Diana Dors and George Baker), Tomorrow We Live, Keep It Clean, Double X: Name Of The Game, Cone Of Silence, The Case Of The Frightened Lady, Park Plaza 605 and Ladies Who Do all for February / March release. I’m not a big fan of Odeon - their releases are mostly merely ‘okay’ at best. Showbox Media (who made something of a mess of Brides of Dracula and The Evil of Frankenstein last year) have had a couple of rare Peter Sellers films passed; the dark and interesting ensemble piece The Blockhouse (previously released by - ugh - Orbit in R2) and Where Does it Hurt.
Before I fall out of R2 mode, a quick mention of some interesting French releases. Carlotta has just released a four film Monte Hellman box, featuring The Shooting, Cockfighter, Ride The Whirlwind and Two-Lane Blacktop. The latter is also released as a two-disc SE. In March Elaine May’s Mikey and Nicky with John Cassavetes and Peter Falk gets a release as does a Kenji Mizoguchi, two disc set featuring Orizuru Osen (1934), Gubijinsô (1935), and Maria no Oyuki (1935). Universal France is releasing more Hitchcock two film sets in March; The Ring and Champagne, The Farmer’s Wife and The Manxman, Blackmail / The Skin Game, Rich and Strange / Number 17, plus releases for Murder and Foreign Correspondent.
Out of Print…
I notice that the DVD Talk forum’s list of R1 titles that have fallen out of print include a number of those ‘crayoned in’ titles, the Sherlock Holmes title Prelude to Murder (aka Dressed to Kill) and My Man Godfrey. Good riddance; better efforts are out there. They also list the Ford at Fox box set, underlining the rumour that Fox only produced one run of this gargantuan effort and when it’s gone, it will be well and truly gone. I mention the box with trepidation; my promise to review the contents is, er, taking rather longer than I had hoped. Deadlines rule my life; it gives me a certain joy that by not delivering on this occasion, it doesn’t really matter. I’ll get there.
The DVD Talk list also includes the superb Harry and Tonto; if you haven’t already got a copy of this fabulous Paul Mazursky film, then I urge you to do so right away before existing stocks dwindle away. Paramount appear to be the OOP specialists right now - a large number of the classic back catalogue films have been excised including the VistaVision western The Lonely Man and The Carpetbaggers, while, true to their word, Warner has slapped a moratorium on Gone With The Wind, North by Northwest, The Wizard of Oz, the first three Batman films and L.A. Confidential. Unlike the others mentioned here, the good news is that Warner say all will return apparently when they’ve finalised super-duper new Blu-Ray editions.
Sitting on the HD fence, as Midge Ure once said, it means nothing to me. Or was it Rigsby..?