Classic Coming Attractions by Barrie Maxwell

I'm busy working on new reviews, but I thought I would get out a new edition of the column that, in the meantime, will at least update you on all the latest announcements. There's good stuff coming on pressed DVDs from Criterion and Universal particularly, with even Warner Bros. showing that it hasn't abandoned the format. Also look for some very welcome news from a small company named Olive Films regarding Paramount titles.

I've also been gradually generating a listing of titles prior to 1980 that are available now or announced for release on Blu-ray. Both North American and European releases are included. I hope you'll find it useful. All additions and/or corrections are welcomed.

Classic Titles on Blu-ray

Note: TV releases in italics, ** indicates a release on Blu-ray disc using line doubling applied to a standard DVD transfer. Titles only released outside North America are shown in blue. A few of them are region-locked and will not play on standard North American Blu-ray players.

1900-1929 (total for North America/total only outside North America - 6/2)

Battleship Potemkin (1925) (Kino) - coming 4.20.2010
General, The (1927) (Kino)
Kid, The (1921) (Park Circus - UK) - coming 5.10.2010
Man from Beyond, The (1922) (Restored Serials) **
Metropolis (1927) (Kino) - coming late 2010
Our Hospitality (1923) (Kino) - coming 2010
Sherlock Jr. (1924) (Kino) - coming 2010
Sunrise (1927) (Eureka Masters of Cinema - UK)

1930-1939 (7/3)

39 Steps, The (1935) (ITV - UK)
Adventures of Robin Hood, The (1938) (WB)
City Girl (1930) (Eureka Masters of Cinema - UK)
Gone with the Wind (1939) (WB)
Gulliver's Travels (1939) (Koch Vision)
M (1931) (Criterion) - coming 5.11.2010
M (1931) (Eureka Masters of Cinema - UK)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) (Disney)
Stagecoach (1939) (Criterion) - coming 5.25.2010
Wizard of Oz, The (1939) (WB)

1940-1949 (9/8)

Bicycle Thieves, The (1948) (Arrow - UK)
Black Narcissus (1946) (ITV - UK)
Brief Encounter (1945) (ITV - UK)
Casablanca (1942) (WB)
Dumbo (1941) (Disney) - coming Feb. 2011
Fantasia (1940) (Disney) - coming Dec. 2010
Great Dictator, The (1940) (Park Circus - UK) - coming 5.10.2010
Great Expectations (1946) (ITV - UK)
Green Archer, The (1940) (Restored Serials) **
Green Hornet Strikes Again, The (1941) (Restored Serials) **
Hamlet (1948) (ITV - UK)
Henry V (1945) (ITV - UK)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946) (Paramount)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947) (Fox)
Pinocchio (1940) (Disney)
Red Shoes, The (1948) (ITV - UK)
Third Man, The (1949) (Criterion)

1950-1959 (27/5)

20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) (Sony)
400 Blows, The (1959) (Criterion)
7th Voyage of Sinbad, The (1958) (Sony)
African Queen, The (1951) (Paramount) - coming 3.23.2010
American in Paris, An (1951) (WB)
Bigger Than Life (1956) (Criterion) - coming 3.23.2010
Black Shield of Falworth, The (1954) (Eureka - UK)
By Brakhage: Volumes 1 and 2 (1954-2001) (Criterion) - coming 5.25.2010
Christmas Carol, A (1951) (VCI)
Dam Busters, The (1954) (Optimum - UK)
Day the Earth Stood Still, The (1951) (Fox)
Diary of Anne Frank, The (1959) (Fox)
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) (Sony)
Gigi (1958) (WB)
Godzilla (1954) (Classic Media)
It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955) (Sony)
Jailhouse Rock (1957) (WB)
Ladykillers, The (1955) (Lionsgate)
Lola Mont�s (1955) (Criterion)
North by Northwest (1959) (WB)
Penny Points to Paradise/Let's Go Crazy (1951) (BFI - UK)
Prince Valiant (1954) (Koch Media - Germany) - coming 4.30.2010
Quo Vadis (1951) (WB)
Red Balloon, The (1956) (Network - UK)
Rio Bravo (1959) (WB)
Robe, The (1953) (Fox)
Searchers, The (1956) (WB)
Seven Samurai (1954) (Criterion) - coming 2010
Seventh Seal, The (1957) (Criterion)
Sleeping Beauty (1959) (Disney)
South Pacific (1958) (Fox)
Wages of Fear, The (1953) (Criterion)

1960-1969 (51/30)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) (WB)
8� (1963) (Criterion)
� Bout de Souffle (1960) (Optimum - UK)
All the Right Noises (1969) (BFI - UK)
Batman: The Movie (1966) (Fox)
Battle of Britain (1969) (MGM)
Battle of the Bulge (1965) (WB)
Becket (1964) (MPI)
Bed Sitting Room, The (1969) (BFI - UK)
Belle de Jour (1967) (Optimum - UK)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967) (WB)
Bullitt (1968) (WB)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) (Fox)
Charlie Brown Christmas, A (1965) (WB)
Contempt (Le M�pris) (1963) (Lionsgate)
Cool Hand Luke (1967) (WB)
Dirty Dozen, The (1967) (WB)
Django (1966) (Blue Underground) - coming 5.25.2010
Doctor Zhivago (1965) (WB) - coming 5.4.2010
Dolce Vita, La (1960) (E1 Entertainment) - coming 2010
Dr. No (1962) (MGM)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) (Sony)
Eagles Over London (1970) (Severin)
Easy Rider (1969) (Sony)
El Cid (1960) (Koch Media - Germany)
Fall of the Roman Empire, The (1964) (Koch Media - Germany)
Femme Mari�e, Une (1964) (Eureka Masters of Cinema - UK)
Fireball XL5: A Day in the Life of a Space General (1962) (Network -UK)
From Russia with Love (1963) (MGM)
Gaswrx: The Films of Jeff Keen (1960) (BFI - UK)
Goldfinger (1964) (MGM)
Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The (1966) (MGM)
Graduate, The (1967) (MGM)
Green Berets, The (1968) (WB)
Herostratus (1967) (BFI - UK)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1965) (WB)
How the West Was Won (1963) (WB)
In Cold Blood (1967) (Sony)
Innocents, The (1961) (BFI - UK) - coming 3.22.2010
Ipcress File, The (1965) (ITV - UK)
Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary?/My Wife's Lodger (1953) (BFI - UK) - coming 6.21.2010
Italian Job, The (1969) (Paramount - UK)
Last Year at Marienbad (1961) (Criterion)
Leopard, The (1963) (BFI - UK)
London in the Raw (1964) (BFI - UK)
Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, The (1962) (BFI - UK)
Longest Day, The (1962) (Fox)
Magick Lantern Cycle, The (1967) (BFI - UK)
Man of Violence (1968) (BFI - UK)
Monterey Pop (1968) (Criterion)
Music Man, The (1962) (WB)
Night of the Living Dead (1968) (Optimum - UK)
Party's Over, The (1965) (BFI - UK) - coming 5.17.2010
Pierrot le Fou (1965) (Criterion)
Pink Panther, The (1963) (MGM)
Planet of the Apes (1968) (Fox)
Playtime (1967) (Criterion)
Pleasure Girls (1966) (BFI -UK) - coming 5.17.2010
Primitive London (1965) (BFI - UK)
Prisoner, The: Complete Series (1967) (A&E)
Professionals, The (1966) (Sony)
Red Desert (1964) (BFI - UK)
Repulsion (1965) (Criterion)
Sand Pebbles, The (1966) (Fox)
Sanjuro (1962) (Criterion) - coming 3.23.2010
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) (BFI - UK)
Separation (1968) (BFI - UK)
Sound of Music, The (1965) (Fox) - coming 4th quarter 2010
Spartacus (1960) (Universal) - coming 5.25.2010
Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 1 (1966) (Paramount)
Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 2 (1967) (Paramount)
Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 3 (1968) (Paramount)
That Kind of Girl (1963) (BFI - UK)
Thunderball (1965) (MGM)
Thunderbirds (1964) (ITV - UK)
Triple Cross (1966) (HMH - Germany)
Viva Las Vegas (1964) (WB)
Vivre sa vie (1962) (Criterion) - coming 4.20.2010
Wild Bunch, The (1969) (WB)
Yojimbo (1961) (Criterion) - coming 3.23.2010
Zulu (1964) (Paramount - UK)

1970-1979 (97/16)

3 Days of the Condor (1975) (Paramount)
36th Chamber of Shaolin, The (1978) (Vivendi) - coming 3.2.2010
ABBA: The Movie (1977) (Polydor)
Amityville Horror, The (1979) (MGM)
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) (Image)
Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) (Fox)
Being There (1979) (WB)
Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) (Fox)
Bill Douglas Trilogy (1972) (BFI - UK)
Billy Jack (1971) (Image)
Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The (1970) (Blue Underground)
Black Christmas (1974) (Somerville)
Blazing Saddles (1974) (WB)
Boys from Brazil, The (1978) (ITV- UK)
Bridge Too Far, A (1977) (MGM)
Bugsy Malone (1976) (ITV - UK)
Caligula (1979) (Image)
Canterbury Tales, The (1972) (BFI-UK)
Capricorn One (1976) (ITV - UK)
Carrie (1976) (MGM)
Circle of Iron (1978) (Blue Underground)
Clockwork Orange, A (1971) (WB)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) (Sony)
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) (Fox)
Cowboys, The (1972) (WB)
Crazies, The (1973) (Blue Underground) - coming 2.23.2010
Damien: Omen II (1978) (Fox)
Dawn of the Dead (1978) (Starz)
Days of Heaven (1978) (Criterion) - coming 3.23.2010
Death Race 2000 (1975) (Shout Factory) - coming 6.22.2010
Decameron, The (1970) (BFI - UK)
Deep, The (1977) (Sony)
Deer Hunter, The (1978) (Optimum - UK)
Deliverance (1972) (WB)
Dirty Harry (1971) (WB)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975) (WB)
Eagle Has Landed, The (1977) (ITV - UK)
Enforcer, The (1976) (WB)
Enter the Dragon (1973) (WB)
Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) (Fox)
Escape to Athena (1974) (ITV - UK)
Every Which Way But Loose (1978) (WB)
Exorcist, The (1973) (WB) - coming 2010
Fast Company (1979) (Blue Underground)
Force 10 from Navarone (1978) (MGM)
French Connection, The (1971) (Fox)
French Connection II (1975) (Fox)
Gauntlet, The (1977) (WB)
Getaway, The (1972) (WB)
Gimme Shelter (1970) (Criterion)
Go-Between, The (1970) (Optimum - UK)
Godfather, The (1972) (Paramount)
Godfather Part II, The (1974) (Paramount)
Grease (1978) (Paramount)
Halloween (1978) (Starz)
High Anxiety (1977) (Fox)
In the Realm of the Senses (1976) (Criterion)
Inglorious Bastards (1978) (Severin)
Kids Are Alright, The (1978) (Universal Music) - coming 3.2.2010
Killing Machine (1975) (Ronin)
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) (Sony)
Last Waltz, The (1978) (MGM)
Led Zeppelin: The Song Remains the Same (1976) (WB)
Life Gamble (1979) (Brentwood)
Live and Let Die (1973) (MGM)
Living Dead at Manchester Morgue, The (1974) (Blue Underground)
Logan's Run (1976) (WB)
Lord of the Rings, The (1978) (WB) - coming 4.6.2010
M*A*S*H (1971) (Fox)
Magnum Force (1973) (WB)
Man Who Fell to Earth, The (1976) (Criterion)
Man with the Golden Gun, The (1974) (MGM)
Midnight Express (1978) (Sony)
Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979) (Sony)
Moonraker (1979) (MGM)
My Brilliant Career (1979) (Blue Underground)
Nighthawks/Strip Jack Naked (1978) (BFI - UK)
Omega Man, The (1971) (WB)
Omen, The (1976) (Fox)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) (WB)
Other Side of Underneath, The (1972) (BFI - UK)
Patton (1970) (Fox)
Permissive (1970) (BFI - UK)
Piranha (1978) (Shout Factory) - coming 8.3.2010
Privilege (1971) (BFI - UK)
Rock 'N' Roll High School (1979) (Shout Factory) - coming 5.4.2010
Rocky (1976) (MGM)
Rocky II (1979) (MGM)
Rocky Horror Picture Show, The (1975) (Fox) - coming 2010
Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) (BFI - UK)
Saturday Night Fever (1977) (Paramount)
Silent Movie (1976) (Fox)
Sister Street Fighter (1974) (Ronin)
Sister Street Fighter 2: Hanging by a Thread (1974) (Ronin)
Starcrash (1978) (Shout Factory) - coming 9.7.2010
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) (Paramount)
Story of O, The (1975) (Somerville)
Superman: The Movie (1978) (WB)
Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The (1974) (Dark Sky)
That's Entertainment! (1974) (WB)
That's Entertainment, Part II (1976) (WB)
Toolbox Murders, The (1978) (Blue Underground)
Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) (Fox - Germany)
Towering Inferno, The (1974) (Fox)
Twelve Chairs, The (1970) (Fox)
Vampyres (1974) (Blue Underground) - coming 3.30.2010
Vanishing Point (1971) (Fox)
Vengeance of the Zombies (1972) (Deimos)
Walkabout (1971) (Criterion) - coming 5.18.2010
Warriors, The (1979) (Paramount)
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) (WB)
Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music (1970) (WB)
Young Frankenstein (1974) (Fox)

New Announcements

Note that the new announcements database has been updated to include the information listed below.

AC Comics' latest additions to its serial offerings are two Republic efforts - Radar Patrol vs. Spy King (1950, with Kirk Alyn) and Canadian Mounties vs. Atomic Invaders (1953). Both are 12-chapter serials released on two DVD-Rs.

Alpha has its usual monthly slates of 15-20 titles coming on each of February 23rd and March 30th. Westerns (both silent and sound, and featuring the likes of Roy Rogers, Fred Scott, Smith Ballew, Tom Tyler, Tom Mix, and Tim McCoy) provide the main emphasis, but there's a smattering of TV episodes, suspense, and comedy. See the New Announcements database for full details.

Criterion will be releasing its version of John Ford's Stagecoach (1939) on May 25th. Both DVD and Blu-ray versions will be available. Supplements are all new and include: audio commentary by noted western authority Jim Kitses; Bucking Broadway (1917), a fifty-four-minute silent western by John Ford, with new music by Donald Sosin; an extensive video interview with Ford from 1968; new video interview with Dan Ford, biographer and grandson of the director, about Ford's home movies; new video interview with filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich; new video essay by writer Tag Gallagher; new video feature about Monument Valley; new video interview with stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong about Stagecoach's stuntman Yakima Canutt; radio dramatization of Stagecoach from 1949; theatrical trailer; and a booklet featuring an essay by David Cairns and the short story that inspired the film. Coming on May 11th is Fritz Lang's M (1931, with Peter Lorre) in Blu-ray. Features include: audio commentary by German film scholars Anton Kaes and Eric Rentschler; the long-lost English-language version of M; documentary on the physical history of M, from production to distribution to digital restoration; Conversation with Fritz Lang, a fifty-minute film by William Friedkin: laude Chabrol's short film M le maudit, plus a video interview with Chabrol; classroom audiotapes of editor Paul Falkenberg discussing M and its history, set to clips from the film; video interview with Harold Nebenzal, son of M producer Seymour Nebenzal; stills gallery, with behind-the-scenes photos and production sketches; and a booklet featuring an essay by film critic Stanley Kauffmann, a 1963 interview with director Fritz Lang, the script for a missing scene, and contemporaneous newspaper articles. Neither the M or Stagecoach Blu-rays will be released in Canada as Criterion does not hold the Canadian rights to the titles. Also coming in May is both a DVD and Blu-ray release of Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout (1971). That's on the 18th, as is Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties (Pleasures of the Flesh/Violence at Noon/ Sing a Song of Sex/Japanese Summer: Double Suicide/Three Resurrected Drunkards). A May 25th release of By Brakhage: Volumes 1 & 2 (1954-2001) on Blu-ray rounds out the May release list.

E1 Entertainment will release The Barbara Stanwyck Show: Volume Two on May 18th. It will be a two-disc set containing 12 episodes and also the unaired pilot.

Flicker Alley has now confirmed its DVD release of The Italian Straw Hat (1928, directed by Rene Clair) for April 6th. This will be the only fully complete edition available to Region 1 viewers. There will be two musical accompaniments by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra and by pianist Philip Carli, and supplements will include a short film by Ren� Clair - La Tour (The Eiffel Tower) (1928) - and Ferdinand Zecca's Noce en Goguette (Fun after The Wedding) (1907), typical of the early films that inspired Clair. Lenny Borger and Iris Barry both provide essays in an enclosed booklet. The complete 1851 play "Un Chapeau de paille d' Italie" by Eugene Labiche and Marc Michel, here in an English translation of 1916 as "The Leghorn Hat", will be included as a DVD-ROM extra.

Fox has confirmed that it will release The Sound of Music (1965) on Blu-ray this year, but it won't appear until the last quarter, in time for Christmas. There are no details about content as yet.

Grapevine Video's February releases include the usual four silents and three sound ones. The silents are: Biograph Productions: Volume 2 (11 shorts from 1904-1908); The Fighting Legion (1930, with Ken Maynard - his last silent film); She Goes to War (1929, with Eleanor Boardman - presented with the original part talkie sound track); and Sweethearts on Parade (1930, with Alice White). The sound releases are: Around the World in 80 Minutes (1931, with Douglas Fairbanks); Space Patrol: Volume 1 (four episodes of the TV series with original commercials); Van Beuren Animation (1929-33, 16 animated shorts).

Infinity Entertainment will be releasing Gale Storm - America's Sweetheart Collection on March 16th. It'll contain 8 films on 3 discs including: Tom Brown's School Days (1940), Uncle Joe (1941), Jesse James at Bay (1941), City of Missing Girls (1941), Let's Go Collegiate (1941), Lure of the Islands (1942), Gambling Daughters (1941), and Rhythm Parade (1942). Three episodes from the My Little Margie and two from The Gale Storm Show TV series will be added as extras. The films are all from the likes of Monogram, Republic, PRC, etc. and probably in the public domain so any particular restoration seems unlikely. On March 30th, we'll get the Alice in Wonderland: Classic Film Collection. The 2-disc set will include: Alice in Wonderland (1915, with Elmo Lincoln); Alice's Adventures in Cartoonland (1925, two shorts from an animated film series directed and produced by Walt Disney himself, starring curly-haired, four-year-old Virginia Davis); Alice of Wonderland in Paris (1966, feature film with French animation includes the voice of Carl Reiner); and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972, British musical feature film adaptation features a star-studded cast, including Michael Crawford, Peter Sellers, Dudley Moore and Fiona Fullerton). The Judy Garland Show: Volume 3 is set for March 23rd. And A Gospel Calling: Mahalia Jackson Sings is coming on April 13th. It will be a two-disc set containing 58 live performances by Jackson on NBC in the early 1960s.

Two Honeymooners TV specials from the 1970s are coming on DVD from MPI. The Honeymooners: Second Honeymoon (1976) and The Honeymooners Valentine Special (1978) will appear on May 4th as separate releases.

As reported at the Home Theater Forum, some welcome and exciting news for classic enthusiasts indicates that Olive Films, a wholesaler DVD distributor of mainly smaller independent foreign and domestic films, has acquired the rights to 27 Paramount films dating from 1949 to the mid-1970s. They are to be released this year with the first batch coming in the summer and will be pressed DVDs from HD transfers with even the suggestion that some may be issued in Blu-ray. The titles: Rope of Sand (1949, Burt Lancaster), Union Station (1950, William Holden), Dark City (1950, Charlton Heston), Appointment with Danger (1951, Alan Ladd), My Favorite Spy (1951, Bob Hope), Off Limits (1953, Bob Hope), Knock on Wood (1954, Danny Kaye), The Mountain (1956, Spencer Tracy), The Savage Innocents (1960, Anthony Quinn), On the Double (1961, Danny Kaye), Summer and Smoke (1961, Geraldine Page), Escape from Zahrain (1962, Yul Brynner), Where Love Has Gone (1964, Bette Davis), Crack in the World (1965, Dana Andrews), Harlow (1965, Carroll Baker), Sands of the Kalahari (1965, Stuart Whitman), Promise Her Anything (1966, Warren Beatty), Hurry Sundown (1967, Michael Caine), Skidoo (1968, Jackie Gleason), Riot (1969, Jim Brown), Tropic of Cancer (1970, Rip Torn), WUSA (1970, Paul Newman), Hannie Caulder (1971, Raquel Welsh), Such Good Friends (1971, Dyan Cannon), Fear Is the Key (1972, Barry Newman), Once Is Not Enough (1975, Kirk Douglas), and Face to Face (1976, Liv Ullmann).

Restored Serials Super Restoration Corp. has been working at producing The Green Archer (1940) and The Green Hornet Strikes Again (1941) serials on Blu-ray discs. Both are now available and I will be reporting on them in my next classic column. These are not true Blu-ray transfers, but generated by performing line doubling on the company's existing restorations done for the earlier standard DVD releases. The silent Houdini film The Man from Beyond (1922) is already available on a Blu-ray disc using this technique.

Shout! Factory will release Gamera: The Giant Monster (1965) in a Special Edition on May 18th. Presented in its unedited original version, with English subtitles and in anamorphic widescreen from an all-new HD master, the DVD will include a 12-page booklet with an essay by director Noriaki Yuasa, a photo gallery, trailers and more.

Sony has a whole raft of western and war titles set for release on May 4th. Unfortunately all have been previously released, although a few may have gone out of print. If you happened to have missed some of them, however, here's your chance: Anzio, The Beast, A Man Called Sledge, The Stranger Wore a Gun, Cowboy, Hellcats of the Navy, Alvarez Kelly, The Caine Mutiny, Castle Keep, Cat Ballou, Geronimo: An American Legend, Hangman's Knot, King Rat, Mackenna's Gold, The Man from Laramie, Mountain Men, The Texican, The Villain, and The War Lover (colourized). I have not included these titles on the new announcements database.

Timeless Media Group appears to have altered its approach to releasing The Virginian TV series. On offer now for release on May 25th is The Virginian: The Complete First Season - an 11-DVD set in a tin box. This will be available in addition to the two separate volumes release of the first season, although their original March release is apparently intended as an exclusive to Costco/Sam's rather than a wide release (which will come later).

Universal hasn't abandoned its Backlot series yet and provides the welcome Barbara Stanwyck Collection on April 27th. It'll include All I Desire (1953), The Bride Wore Boots (1946), The Great Man's Lady (1942), Internes Can't Take Money (1937), The Lady Gambles (1949), and There's Always Tomorrow (1956). The studio is also releasing its first classic title on Blu-ray on May 25th when it delivers Spartacus: 50th Anniversary Edition (no corresponding standard DVD announced). Bonus features will include: deleted scenes, interviews with Peter Ustinov and Jean Simmons, behind-the-scenes footage, vintage newsreels, theatrical trailer, production stills, concept art, costume designs, Saul Bass storyboards, and posters & print ads.

VCI's April list is a little thin for classic fans, but it does include Thunder in Carolina (1960, with Rory Calhoun) due on the 27th.

Further Warner Archive additions for February include three Richard Barthelmess titles - Weary River (1929), Son of the Gods (1930), Central Airport (1933) - and The Bride Goes Wild (1948, with Van Johnson) all on February 2nd. February 16th brought seven further titles to the Archive including: So This Is College (1929, Robert Montgomery), Love in the Rough (1930, Robert Montgomery), Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930, Claudia Dell), The Valley of Decision (1945, Greer Garson), The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady (1950, June Haver), The Jazz Singer (1952, Danny Thomas), and She's Back on Broadway (1953, Virginia Mayo). The Archive has also announced that for its first anniversary, it is changing its artwork. In future, original key art taken from vintage packaging, studio stills, film posters and lobby cards will be used where possible. That's a positive step and possibly a harbinger of other changes that fans have long called for.

Warner Bros. has set a single-disc Blu-ray version of Gone with the Wind for April 13th. It includes the remastered film as already released in last autumn's 4-disc collector's edition and Rudy Behlmer's full-length audio commentary. Coming on June 8th from WB Bros. in a normal retail DVD release will be the TCM Spotlight: Charlie Chan Collection. It will contain four Chan films from Monogram including three with Sidney Toler and one with Roland Winters: Dark Alibi (1946), Dangerous Money (1946), The Trap (1947), and The Chinese Ring (1947). More Chan sets are undoubtedly coming as work by Warners continues on the restoration of the other seven titles under its control.

Non-Region 1 Releases:

April 9th - Incident at Phantom Hill (1966, with Robert Fuller), Hell Bent for Leather (1960, with Audie Murphy) - both from Koch Media, Germany

April 30th - Prince Valiant (1954, with James Mason) - on Blu-ray, from Koch Media, Germany

Well, once again, that's it for now. I'll return again soon.

Barrie Maxwell
barriemaxwell@thedigitalbits.com