Classic DVD Reviews (Continued)

With film noir icon Robert Ryan playing a war-traumatized Coast Guard officer and starring along with semi-icon Joan Bennett, The Woman on the Beach (RKO, 1947) seems on the surface to fit the film noir ethos. But it never persuades as a full-blown example of that film style.



As an evocative dissection of a marriage in the throes of decline and the role of a man unsure of himself and his future, it's an interesting exercise from director Jean Renoir even if it seems incomplete, apparently due to studio tampering. Ryan has recurring nightmares about the sinking of the ship he served on and they become increasingly imbued with images of a woman on a beach. Then while on the beach near his Coast Guard station, Ryan happens on the apparent actual woman (Bennett) gathering firewood. He helps her carry the wood home and when he arrives there, learns that she is married to a well-known painter (Charles Bickford) whom she accidentally caused to go blind. Ryan is soon convinced that Bickford is feigning blindness to keep hold of Bennett and he attempts to prove it by allowing Bickford to walk along with him unaided near the end of a cliff overlooking the beach. The rest of the film portrays a bankrupt marital relationship that Ryan tries to unravel, his obsession leading him to turn his back on a promising relationship of his own. The film's ending is only partially satisfying and it may have been around that that Renoir's vision was most compromised. Despite that, the film is a fine vehicle for the three principal actors who all deliver excellent work. The Woman on the Beach is available in a remastered edition on a MOD disc from the Warner Archive. The full frame image is very strong offering a crisp, nicely-detailed image that's generally bright and sporting good contrast. Speckles and scratches are minimal and modest grain is evident. The mono sound is in good shape and there are no subtitles. There are no supplements either. Recommended.

The latest offering from THE TCM Vault Collection in conjunction with Universal is a Pre-Code double feature of The Song of Songs (1933) and This Is the Night (1932). Both were originally Paramount productions.



The Song of Songs stars Marlene Dietrich who had worked almost exclusively with director Josef von Sternberg, but here is under the guidance of Rouben Mamoulian, no slouch himself. Unfortunately the film offers little scope for inspiration for it's a dreary, humdrum story about peasant girl Lily (Dietrich)who finds herself in Berlin staying with her aunt (Alison Skipworth as a bookseller!) after the death of her father. In the big city she's entranced by a local sculptor (Brian Aherne) into posing nude. A relationship soon develops between the two, but the sculptor finds himself unable to commit to marriage and Lily, through the offices of her aunt, ends up marrying a lecherous baron (Lionel Atwill). This one's strictly for Dietrich fans, whom she rewards with a pretty good performance although she reportedly didn't care much for the film. The film is clearly Mamoulian's in the lyricism he brings to the early scenes between Lily and the Aherne character, but the later scenes revolving around Lily and the baron almost seem to have a less sympathetic director at the helm. A much more entertaining vehicle is This Is the Night which features a number of Paramount early sound favorites such as Roland Young, Charles Ruggles, and Claire Dodd as well as being Cary Grant's debut film. The story is a typical bit of Paramount nonsense with an early nod to screwball comedy. Grant plays a javelin player who risks losing his wife (Thelma Todd) to a wealthy Parisian bachelor (Young). Trying to mislead Grant into thinking the bachelor is actually married is Ruggles who hires Lily Damita to pose as Young's wife. The whole group heads off to Venice. Before we know it all the guys are in love with Damita. The film sports a funny running gag in which Thelma Todd has her skirt torn off. It starts when chauffeur Irving Bacon closes a door on her skirt and the film makes the event almost a Parisian cause celebre. The film is a pretty good effort for Grant to point to as his debut. He's good himself and his character is enhanced by the fine supporting cast. As has become common with Universal's treatment of its early Paramount holdings, both films look quite good on the pressed DVDs (each film has its own disc. Both are presented full frame as originally shot and offer crisp, nicely detailed images. This Is the Night looks a little brighter than The Song of Songs. Both are in black and white though This Is the Night has some tinted sequences. The mono sound on both is quite acceptable with hiss being a bit more noticeable on The Song of Songs. There are no subtitles. Supplements include introductions by TCM's Ben Mankiewicz, and a range of photo and poster galleries, production notes, and a program accessible as DVD-ROM content for The Song of Songs. Recommended (mainly for This Is the Night).

The five early 1929-1933 Marx Bros. titles that were all released by Paramount (Animal Crackers, The Cocoanuts, Duck Soup, Horse Feathers, and Monkey Business) have been analyzed thoroughly over the years in books, magazines and at numerous on-line sites.





There's nothing new I can add, other than to acknowledge their infinite pleasures and seemingly endless repeat viewing potential. They have now arrived at their third release on DVD and this latest one caused a flurry of anticipation that Blu-ray versions were in the offing. Now that may yet be true, but we've certainly had no concrete indication from the rights holders, Universal, nor anything in that studio's Blu-ray track record to suggest an early arrival. So back to Universal's latest DVD versions. They constitute Universal's second kick at the can, there having been a six-disc box set issued in 2004 entitled The Marx Brothers: Silver Screen Collection. Prior to that the five titles had been issued by Image as separate releases in 2000. The Image releases certainly showed their age with numerous scratches, debris, and a fuzziness at times. Universal's Silver Screen Collection was a slight improvement, looking a little cleaner and offering a pretty decent gray scale, although a few scratches and speckles were still quite evident. The mono sound was also an improvement in clarity over the Image releases. Three of the titles (Animal Crackers, Horse Feathers, Duck Soup) had their theatrical trailers on their discs and there was a sixth disc of extras comprising some short interviews with Harpo and Groucho and William Marx (Harpo's son). As for the new releases from Universal, to my eyes, there appears to be no difference from the 2004 transfers. That's confirmed by the fact that the new releases' video and audio files bear the same 2004 creation dates as before. The same three titles mentioned above contain their theatrical trailers, but there's no sign of any of the interviews. So if you already have the Silver Screen Collection, there's no need to buy these new individual releases. And if you don't have these titles on DVD yet, you're still best off to look for the Silver Screen Collection, because a quick check indicates it is a much better deal than buying these five new versions individually. If you don't have any of these titles yet, you're missing out on some of the best comic fare out there. Yet if you've waited this long, you might as well hold on a while in case Blu-ray versions do appear, but I for one am not holding my breath for anything soon.


Classic Blu-ray Reviews

John Wayne's output was of a fairly high standard in the early 1960s with the likes of The Alamo, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Hatari, and McClintock. Well up to the mark too was his work in director Michael Curtiz's final film, The Comancheros.



The story begins with gambler Paul Regret killing a man in a duel in New Orleans and then fleeing to Texas to avoid arrest. There he is taken into custody by Texas Ranger Jack Cutter (John Wayne) who starts to take Regret back to Louisiana. Regret manages to escape and Cutter returns to Ranger headquarters where he soon learns that an outlaw gang has ignited an Indian attack by supplying them with rifles and liquor. Cutter is assigned to infiltrate the outlaw band and in so doing he runs into Regret again, with the two of them eventually joining forces hoping to eradicate the outlaws and destroy their desert stronghold. The Comancheros is a sturdy, traditional piece of western entertainment that demonstrated that despite health problems, Michael Curtiz still seemed able to orchestrate an action film effectively, though perhaps not quite as tightly as he did back in his 1940s Warner Bros. heyday. Admittedly, Curtiz was not well during the filming and some of the direction had to be assumed by Wayne and second-unit director Cliff Lyons, but the sweep of some of the action sequences certainly appears to reflect Curtiz's grand style. Unfortunately, it proved to be his last directorial effort, as he died of cancer soon after its release. For John Wayne, then in his mid-50s, the film was one of those that reflected his transition from traditional leading man to more of a venerable figure still able to back up his wisdom with action. This image was pleasing and would carry Wayne successfully through the rest of his career. The film benefits also from a strong cast featuring Stuart Whitman as Regret, Nehemiah Persoff as the head of the outlaw band, Ina Balin as his daughter, and Lee Marvin. The latter has a somewhat curious (and truncated) role as a gun-runner that provides a link between the film's first and last thirds. Familiar character actors abound: Michael Ansara, Bruce Cabot, Jack Elam, Edgar Buchanan, Henry Daniell, Guinn Williams, and Bob Steele. Fine location work, mainly in Moab, Utah, adds much to the film's look. Fox's 2.35:1 Blu-ray image is a definite upgrade over the previous DVD version. Textures are very detailed and colours are bright and nicely though not overly saturated. Modest grain is intact and there's absolutely no evidence of untoward digital manipulation. The source material is very clean also. The 5.1 DTS-HD Master audio remix is fairly effective. Surround activity isn't pronounced and LFE are minimal, but gunshots have a suitably effective crack to them. Dialogue is clear and Elmer Bernstein's score fares well. There's also a 4.0 Dolby Digital English track and French and Spanish mono ones. English SDH and Spanish subtitling has been include. The supplement package is impressive, including an interesting actors audio commentary that goes back to laserdisc days, and two good featurettes - one on the historical background to the film's plot and another (about 40 minutes long) on John Wayne's career work at Fox. There's also an audio interview with Stuart Whitman, a reproduction of a Comancheros comic book done with HD scans, a short newsreel, and two trailers. Recommended.

1970's Rio Lobo represented director Howard Hawks' third drink at the well of a plot that had previously been effectively told with minor variations in both Rio Bravo and El Dorado.



In this, the weakest of the three versions, the story starts off with a real bang in the form of a train robbery of some style and freshness. A group of Confederate soldiers steals a shipment of gold destined for a Union depot where Colonel Cord McNally awaits its arrival. McNally goes in pursuit, but fails to retrieve the gold although he does manage to capture two of the Confederates - Captain Pierre Cordona and Sergeant Tuscarora Phillips. The Civil War ends soon thereafter and McNally befriends Cordona and Phillips because he still wants to track down the men responsible for betraying the details of the gold shipment to the Confederacy and thus guilty of treasonable activity. The trail eventually leads to the Rio Lobo country of Texas where a town is being held under the thumb of local rancher Ketcham and his corrupt sheriff Hendricks. Besides being familiar territory story-wise for Howard Hawks, it was also his last film. Although far from his best effort, it was fitting that he go out with a western starring John Wayne, a genre and a star with whom he had become closely associated during the second half of his career. For filming, he once again returned to the friendly location of Tucson. Unfortunately Hawks' renowned ability to pace his films so meticulously deserted him here. After the train robbery sequence, which was vintage Hawks, the film dragged interminably, becoming contrived in order to fit in the good-guys-barricaded-in-the-sheriff's-office plot line from Rio Bravo. Even the somewhat more energetic climactic sequence can't rescue it completely. John Wayne is, well, John Wayne - more of a presence than anything else in most of his final westerns - but that is plenty good enough. Minor supporting characters are well played by veterans like Jack Elam, Bob Steele, Hank Worden, Jim Davis, and Bill Williams. But the main co-stars are real letdowns. Jorge Rivera, somehow second-billed as Cordona, conveys no charisma at all, and Jennifer O'Neill is disappointing as Shasta, a woman who has her own reasons for wanting to return to Rio Lobo. One can't fault Paramount's Blu-ray presentation however. The 1.85:1 image is crisp and pleasingly colourful with the natural grain well preserved. There's no evidence of untoward digital manipulation. The 5.1 DTS-HD Master audio remix impresses throughout, delivering nice heft to gunshots and the sounds of a steam locomotive. Jerry Goldsmith's score also fares nicely. There's also an English stereo and Spanish, French and German tracks as well as a whole raft of subtitles (English SDH, French, Spanish, German, Danish, etc.). There are no supplements. The Blu-ray is overall a modest advance on the previous DVD and I would not suggest more than a rental unless you're a real fan of the film.

After Rio Lobo, Big Jake is a distinct improvement in terms of a unified story line and a plot that veteran director George Sherman drives along briskly. (This would be Sherman's last film, capping a career in westerns extending over five decades. He had previously worked with John Wayne in the Three Mesquiteer westerns that Wayne starred in for Republic in the late 1930s.)



The story revolves around the kidnapping of young Jacob McCandles from the ranch of his grandmother Martha who has been estranged from her husband Jacob (Big Jake of the title) McCandles for many years. The kidnapping is carried out by a gang of nine men headed by John Fain, who demands a ransom of $1 million for the young boy's return. Martha calls on Big Jake, despite their past differences, as the only man who can save their grandson. With the money in tow on the back of a donkey and gradually gathering help from his two sons and an old Indian compatriot, Big Jake heads to Mexico to pay the ransom. With a well-executed kidnap sequence to open the film, a suspenseful closing set-piece, and punctuated by bursts of action throughout, Big Jake turns out to be one of the best of John Wayne's final half dozen westerns. The film was very much a family affair for Wayne. The producer was one of his sons - Michael - while two other sons - Patrick and John Ethan - played one of his sons and his grandson respectively in the film. Wayne also gathered many of his film family around him again. Chris Mitchum who had appeared in Rio Lobo played another son, and frequent players in Wayne films such as Bruce Cabot, Harry Carey Jr., and Hank Worden were on hand too. Even better, the role of Martha was played by Maureen O'Hara appearing for the fifth time in a film with Wayne. John Fain was played with appropriate menace by the reliable Richard Boone who was also working with Wayne for the second time. Filming was based in Durango, Mexico with plenty of advantage being taken of the surrounding Sonora Desert locations. Later Wayne films such as The Train Robbers and Cahill would be filmed there too. For the most part, Big Jake is a traditional sort of western. One deviation from this is the introduction of early motorized vehicles (the story is set circa 1910) and even an early automatic pistol, both of which drive a couple of the early sequences. This foolishness is soon dispensed with after a posse using the vehicles to track Fain's gang is ambushed and a number of the posse killed. Thereafter, horse and six-gun rule, as they should in any good western. Paramount's 2.35:1 Blu-ray presentation is very good. The image is very crisp with excellent detail and beautifully saturated colour. The 5.1 DTS-HD Master audio remix doesn't score quite as strongly as that on Rio Lobo, but dialogue is clear thoughout. English stereo and French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese tracks are provided as are English SDH and a whole raft of various European languages subtitles. There are no supplements. A noticeable advance in video at least over the DVD version. Recommended.

It's hard to know how to take A Man Called Horse. Is it really as realistic of Indian life and rituals as it would have you believe, or is it just the usual Hollywood stretching of the truth to suit dramatic license (despite the crediting of a Sioux advisor)?



Whatever the case, the film is a violent one with definite masochistic tendencies that eventually lead more to tedium than fascination. The story concerns English lord, John Morgan, who while hunting in the West, is captured by a band of Sioux Indians. He is taken to their village and forced to suffer degrading treatment, but gradually he wins their respect and resolves to undergo the Vow of the Sun initiation, in order to gain complete acceptance. Afterwards, he settles into the life of the village, but that is all threatened when the village is attacked by a rival tribe. The problem with the film is not that it has long stretches when we are simply placed in the position of Morgan as he struggles to understand his surroundings with no appreciation for the language whatsoever. The difficulty is that none of the Indians are really allowed to develop as rounded characters, so we develop little affinity for them or their ways. Nor is there an entirely realistic progression in Morgan's development. All of a sudden, he's to undergo this ritual that seems to be one of some sacredness to the band. Yet, he hardly seems worthy of being allowed to do so. The rest of the film is pretty predictable. There is some interest in seeing a young Richard Harris at work and one must admit that he does an earnest job with the part of Morgan. Just seeing him in an early western role reminded me of his fine turn as English Bob in Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven (1992). Standout work is turned in by Dame Judith Anderson, almost unrecognizable as the band chief's elderly mother. Veteran Hollywood Indian player Iron Eyes Cody appears to advantage as the medicine man leading the Vow of the Sun ceremony. The film inspired two sequels - Return of a Man Called Horse (1976) and Trials of a Man Called Horse (1982) - with diminishing returns. Paramount's 2.35:1 Blu-ray image is very impressive particularly in some of the panoramas in the early part of the film. Colours are particularly vivid. Image sharpness is excellent and textural detail impresses throughout. Modest grain is effectively retained. The 5.1 DTS-HD Master audio remix and a stereo version offer little to choose between the two. Surround activity is very limited. Dialogue is clear and the music score is quite pulsating at times. French, German, and Spanish tracks are provided as are English SDH subtitles and a whole raft of European languages ones. There are no supplements. A noticeable advance in video over the DVD version and worth a purchase if you really like the film. Otherwise I'd stick with a rental first.

Vera Cruz was the second of three westerns in a row that Burt Lancaster starred in during 1954-55. The bracketing films were Apache and The Kentuckian.



As with the others, Vera Cruz was made by Lancaster's production company and released by United Artists. Co-starring Gary Cooper, it's essentially a fun picture about two adventurers looking to make money helping one of the sides in the post Civil War struggle in Mexico between Maximilian's occupation forces and the local people who want freedom. Attracted by offers of money from Maximilian's representative, the pair is soon wrapped up in an effort to steal a cache of gold from the French occupation forces. The film, with its games of one-upsmanship between the two principals and a somewhat morally ambiguous viewpoint, reminds one of the Italian spaghetti westerns still nearly a decade away. There's plenty of action liberally dosed with somewhat random violence rather than the straight-forward elements of the traditional western. Both Lancaster and Cooper are very good in their roles and for me it's one of Cooper's better westerns. The roles the two stars play are actually reversed from how they were first cast. Aside from the interplay between the pair, the film also benefits from a strong supporting cast that includes Cesar Romero, George Macready, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson (billed as Charles Buchinsky), Jack Elam, Henry Brandon, and Morris Ankrum. Robert Aldrich directs with efficiency and imparts an urgency to the story. The location work in Mexico is a nice touch. Originally shot in Superscope, MGM's 2.0:1 Blu-ray transfer probably makes the film look as good as is possible. There's a fair bit of film grain, but it's been nicely handled with no excessive use of digital manipulation to smooth things out. The image is not consistently sharp but it does convey textures and colours quite well. The DTS-HD Master audio mono mix is about as effective as mono will allow, with gunshots delivering a nice crack of sound. Spanish and French mono tracks and subtitles are provided as is English SDH subtitling. The only extra is the theatrical trailer. Vera Cruz was a box-office success when originally released and this Blu-ray version deserves similar success. Recommended.


New Announcements

Additions to the Criterion Collection in August will include: If.... (1968, Malcolm McDowell) on Blu-ray on August 2nd; a two-disc Blu-ray edition of Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers (1965) on August 9th; and Roman Polanski's Cul-de-sac (1966) and Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956, Sterling Hayden) on both Blu-ray and DVD on August 16th. August 30th will bring an upgrade of the early Criterion Collection title - Jean Cocteau's Orpheus (1949, Jean Marais) - and The Complete Jean Vigo (A propos de Nice/Taris/Zero de conduite/L'Atalante all from 1930-34). Both will be available on Blu-ray and DVD. Finally on DVD only on August 23rd, we'll get Eclipse Series 28: The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara (Intimidation/The Warped Ones/I Hate But Love/Black Sun/Thirst for Love - all from 1960-67). September additions include two films by Claude Chabrol, both available on Blu-ray and DVD. Le beau Serge (1958) and Les cousins (1959) both arrive on September 20th and each will include audio commentary and a new making-of documentary. On September 27th, we'll get Victor Sjostrom's The Phantom Carriage (1920), again on both Blu-ray and DVD. The film is a key inspiration for Ingmar Bergman and its release will include audio commentary, an original visual essay on the Bergman connection, and a vintage Bergman interview,

Fox is looking at 2012 as a release time for The Poseidon Adventure on Blu-ray. That would be the 1972 film's 40th anniversary. A number of classic Todd-AO films such as Cleopatra, Hello Dolly, The Agony and the Ecstasy, Doctor Dolittle, and Star are also in Fox's radar for Blu-ray, but no specific titles or release plans have been announced as yet.

Grapevine Video has four silent and three sound offerings for June (all on DVD-R): The Avenging Conscience (1914, D.W. Griffith), Marked Money (1928, Frank Coghlan Jr.), You'd Be Surprised (1926, Raymond Griffith), The Torture of Silence (1917, Abel Gance), Woman to Woman (1929, Betty Compson), The Millionaire Kid (1936, Betty Compson), and Kukla, Fran and Ollie (2 colour episodes of the TV show).

Hen's Tooth Video will release Ill Met by Moonlight (1957, Dirk Bogarde) on August 16th. This was Powell and Pressburger's final collaboration and Hen's Tooth will be offering the longer original English release version and with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The title was originally planned for an April release but delayed.

Image Entertainment and the National Film Preservation Foundation have revealed that they're releasing Treasures 5: The West, 1898-1938 as a 3-disc DVD box set on September 27th. The set's 10 hours will showcase the "dynamic, gender-bending, ethnically-diverse West that flourished in early movies but has never before been seen on DVD". Among the 40 selections are Mantrap (1926 - the wilderness comedy starring Clara Bow), W.S. Van Dyke's legendary The Lady of the Dugout (1918 - featuring outlaw-turned-actor Al Jennings), Salomy Jane (1914 - with America's first Latina screen celebrity Beatriz Michelena), Gregory La Cava's Womanhandled (1925), the cross-cultural drama Last of the Line (1914 - starring Sessue Hayakawa), one-reel films with Tom Mix and Broncho Billy, Mabel Normand in The Tourists (1912) and more. You'll also get "travelogues from 10 Western states including Seeing Yosemite with David A. Curry and the Fred Harvey Company's The Indian-detour, Kodachrome home movies, newsreels about Native Americans, documentaries and industrial films about such Western subjects as cattle ranching in Santa Monica" and many others. Coming on September 20th is a 5-DVD set entitled The Dick Van Dyke Show: 50th Anniversary Edition - Fan Favorites. It will contain 20 episodes of the popular series and is presumably aimed at those who don't already have the individual season releases that were issued quite some time ago. Some of the bonus material from those releases is included in the new release, including the original pilot episode and some cast and producer interviews.

Kino brings The Romantic Englishwoman (1975, Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson) to Blu-ray and DVD on June 21st. The company has also announced a September 27th release date for a double feature of Buster Keaton's Battling Butler (1926) and Go West (1925). It would appear as both a single-disc Blu-ray edition and a two-disc DVD Ultimate Edition.

MGM offers It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) on Blu-ray on July 5th. This will not be the restored complete version that the film's fans have been hoping for. And it will only be available as a Walmart exclusive at least for now.

RHI in association with Vivendi are releasing the content of the Genius Little Rascals box set from 3 years ago on individual release discs. The Little Rascals Volume 1 and The Little Rascals Volume 2 are available as of June 14th. Each contains 10 shorts and early reports suggest that these releases correct the deficiencies on the Genius set, with original (rather than Blackhawk) titles now being used as well as uncut masters. Amazon lists at least five more volumes as being available now.

Shout Factory gives us The Wild West Collection on June 14th. It includes Rio Conchos (1965, Richard Boone) and Take a Hard Ride (1975, Fred Williamson) - both with anamorphic widescreen transfers and the latter film with new interviews with Williamson and Jim Kelly. On July 26th, Dennis the Menace: Season Two (all 38 episodes) arrives.

S'More Entertainment will release A Big Box of Cowboys, Aliens, Robots and Death Rays on July 12th. It will be a 4-disc set including Radio Ranch (1935, Gene Autry, feature version of The Phantom Empire serial), Tombstone Canyon (1932, Ken Maynard), Ghost Patrol (1936, Tim McCoy), Riders of the Whistling Skull (1937, The 3 Mesquiteers), Sky Bandits (1940, James Newell), Gun Packer (1938, Jack Randall), Vanishing Riders (1935, Bill Cody) and Saddle Mountain Round-Up (1941, The Range Busters). That's 8 B westerns, all with a touch of the bizarre to them. Then on July 26th comes A Big Box of Wood which focuses on Ed Wood, producer/director/writer of many cheap genre films in the 1950s-70s. Included in the 5-disc set will be: Jail Bait (1954), Bride of the Monster (1955), The Violent Years (1958), Plan 9 from Outer Space (1958), Sinister Urge (1960), Orgy of the Dead (1965), Snow Bunnies (1972), Drop Our Wife (1972), Fugitive Girls (1974), Beach Bunnies (1976), Hot Ice (1978), and a large selection of extras including film intros, three audio commentaries, and several interviews.

Sony's MOD program has added a number of classic titles as of June 7th: White Line Fever (1975, Jan-Michael Vincent); Key Witness (1947, John Beal); Slightly French (1949, Don Ameche); Love Has Many Faces (1965, Lana Turner); Barbary Pirate (1949, Donald Woods); Snake River Desperadoes (1951, Charles Starrett); and No Sad Songs for Me (1950, Margaret Sullavan).

VCI's second round of July releases is set for July 19th. It includes: Simba (1955, Dirk Bogarde), Penny Princess (1952, Dirk Bogarde), Robbery Under Arms (1957, David McCallum), and Ferry to Hong Kong (1959, Orson Welles). The latter will be presented in widescreen at 2.35:1, but not anamorphically enhanced. On August 2nd, seven of the Richard Gordon "Doctor" films are due out: Doctor in the House (1954), Doctor at Sea (1955), Doctor at Large (1957), Doctor in Love (1960), Doctor in Distress (1963), Doctor in Clover (1966), and Doctor in Trouble (1970). All star Dirk Bogarde except for the final two in which Leslie Phillips took over. Doctor in the House will be full frame. The others will all be presented at 1.78:1 but not anamorphically enhanced. Five of the titles will feature audio commentary (not Doctor in Distress or Doctor at Sea). It appears the titles will only be available individually and not as a box set.

Warner Archive additions for May 17th include the Four Daughters Collection and three Paul Newman titles. Four Daughters Collection includes Four Daughters (1938), Daughters Courageous (1939), Four Wives (1940), and Four Mothers (1941) - all with Claude Rains and the Lane sisters. The Newman titles are The Rack (1956), Until They Sail (1957), and The Prize (1963). May 24th, as previously expected, brings The F.B.I.: The First Season, Part One. Dark of the Sun (1968, Rod Taylor) arrives on June 7th along with Kona Coast (1968, Richard Boone), A Double Man (1967, Yul Brynner), Assignment to Kill (1969, Patrick O'Neal), 24 Hours to Kill (1965, Lex Barker), Once Before I Die (1965, John Derek), Hearts of the West (1975, Jeff Bridges), Avalanche Express (1979, Lee Marvin), and The Great Caruso (1951, Mario Lanza). Additions for June 14th include two John Garfield films - The Breaking Point (1950) and Tortilla Flat (1942) as well as The Herculoids: The Complete Animated Series (1967). June 21st brings The Woman on the Beach (1947, Robert Ryan) in a newly remastered edition. Also remastered for that date is A Damsel in Distress (1937, Fred Astaire). Other June 21st additions to the Archive are: Symphony of Six Million (1932, Irene Dunne), In Name Only (1939, Cary Grant), The George Sanders Saint Movies Collection (The Saint Strikes Back/The Saint in London, The Saint's Double Trouble/The Saint Takes Over/The Saint in Palm Springs - all from RKO 1939-41), The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931, Helen Hayes), If I Were Free (1934, Irene Dunne), Day of Reckoning (1933, Richard Dix), and Vigil in the Night (1940, Carole Lombard).

Warner Bros. has now officially confirmed the arrival of Citizen Kane (1941) on Blu-ray. It will come as a 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition due on September 13th, with availability on DVD too. The film itself has been remastered in 4K resolution. The set will include more than 3 hours of bonus content along with a 48-page collector's book filled with photos and behind-the-scene details, a 20-page reproduction of the original 1941 souvenir program, lobby cards, plus reproductions of rare production memos and correspondence. Disc One of the 3-disc set (Blu-ray or DVD) will include audio commentary by Peter Bogdanovich, a second commentary by Roger Ebert, Opening: World Premier of Citizen Kane vintage featurettes, interviews with Ruth Warrick and Robert Wise, galleries (of storyboards, call sheets and still photography - the latter with commentary by Ebert and photos of the ad campaign, press book and opening night), deleted scenes, and the theatrical trailer. Disc Two (DVD) will include The Battle Over Citizen Kane documentary. Disc Three (DVD) will include the excellent HBO feature film RKO 281 which dramatizes the making of Citizen Kane. Amazon.com also has an exclusive version that comes packaged with a DVD copy of Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons (the film will be widely available by itself at a later date). Coming on Blu-ray on October 11th will be The Bad Seed (1956, Nancy Kelly). And in late news, Warners has confirmed their Ben-Hur: 50th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition Blu-ray and DVD box sets for release on September 27th. There's also a 2-disc special edition DVD version that contains just the film with commentary. The UCE box sets will include the film split over two discs, newly-remastered frame by frame from the original 65mm elements in stunning 8K resolution - the highest resolution restoration ever done by the studio - with audio commentary by film historian T. Gene Hatcher, scene specific comments from Charlton Heston and a music-only track featuring Miklos Rozsa's score. Extras on the additional discs in the set include the all-new Charlton Heston: A Personal Journey documentary (in HD on the Blu-ray), along with the 1925 silent version of Ben-Hur from the Thames Television restoration with stereophonic orchestral score by composer Carl Davis (143 min), the 2005 documentary Ben-Hur: The Epic That Changed Cinema (58 min), the 1994 documentary Ben-Hur: The Making of an Epic (58 min), the Ben-Hur: A Journey Through Pictures feature, screen tests, a vintage newsreels gallery, highlights from the 1960 Academy Awards and a trailer gallery. The set will also include an exacting reproduction of Heston's own personal diary kept during the filming, as well as an exclusive hardbound photo book.

Well once again, that's it for now. I'll return again soon. And here's something to think on. I'm considering dividing Classic Coming Attractions into two separate editions - one focused strictly on MOD classic releases, and the other strictly on pressed DVD and BD classic releases. Each edition would appear about once a month. Your feedback is welcome.

Barrie Maxwell
barriemaxwell@thedigitalbits.com