The Film Detective Announces Fifty New Film Restorations For Delivery On DVD On Aug. 4

The Film Detective announced its next wave of 50 film restorations that will be heading to DVD.   The street date for this next group of priced-to-collect film treasures is Aug. 4!!!   Let’s get right to … there is a lot to cover here!

Beginning with a pair terrific film noir gems, we have both director Tay Garnett’s 1951 film release of Cause for Alarm, starring Loretta Young as a wife wrongly accused of plotting her deranged husband’s murder (played by Barry Sullivan), and director Edgar G. Ulmer’s 1945 “Poverty Row” (Producers Releasing Corporation) film noir masterpiece, Detour, teaming Tom Neal with Ann Savage.

Other films in the mix with a dramatic edge are writer/director Frank R. Strayer’s summer of 1933 “provocative” drama, By Appointment Only (Sally O’Neill and Lew Cody star in what only can be described as an awkward relationship); Behind Office Doors (1931, Mary Astory, Robert Ames and Richardo Cortez); director Felix Feist’s Cold War biopic, Guilty of Treason, starring Charles Bickford as Cardinal Joszef Mindszenty (with Bonita Granville and Paul Kelly) and the late Mickey Rooney stars in director Edward Ludwig’s 1949 film release of The Big Wheel (Mary Hatcher, Thomas Mitchell and Spring Byington co-star).

Mickey Rooney also stars in director William Nigh’s 1937 film, Hoosier Schoolboy — opposite Anne Nagel — and Bette Davis stars with Pat O'Brien in writer/director Howard Higgin’s 1932 social drama, Hell’s House. 

Another delight in this mix is August Week-End, the rare-to-find 1936 film from director Charles Lamont.  Valerie Hobson (The Bride of Frankenstein, Werewolf of London, etc.) stars as Claire, the beauty who becomes the focus of attention at a family gathering when powerful attorney George Washburne (Paul Harvey) tries to bribe her boyfriend (G. P. Huntley) into marrying his daughter so that he can have the young woman for himself!

There are four films from the Film Detective on the Aug. 4 release calendar that showcase the antics of the East Side Kids — Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall, plus Bobby Jordan, Gabriel Dell and Billy Halop (among others) — these are: East Side Kids (1940), Boys of the City (also 1940), Bowery Blitzkrieg (1941) and Ghosts on the Loose (1943).   

Westerns?  If you enjoy Westerns, Aug. 4 brings fans the likes of Roy Rogers, Dale Evans and Andy Devine starring in director William Witney’s 1947 film release of Bells of San Angelo, the all-star Abilene Town (1946) featuring Randolph Scott, Ann Dvorak, Rhonda Fleming, Lloyd Bridges and Edgar Buchanan and director Sam Newfield’s 1941 oater, Billy the Kid Wanted, stars Buster (Flash Gordon) Crabbe as the legendary Billy the Kid … others familiar faces in the cast are Fuzzy St. John, Dave O’Brien, Slim Whitaker and Charles King.

Comedy?   How about comedy legends Abbott and Costello in Africa Screams?  Or how about Shelley Winters, Farley Granger and William Demarest in writer/director George Beck’s 1951 hit, Behave Yourself!?   They are both here, plus such fun-filled films as The Bashful Bachelor (1942, with Chester Lauck, Norris Goff and Zasu Pitts), It's a Joke, Son (1947, Una Merkel, Kenny Delmar and June Lockhart), Check and Double Check (1930, Amos and Andy) and the 1938 gold-digger comedy, The Rage of Paris, teaming Douglas Fairbanks Jr. with Danielle Darrieux.

The Film Detective has prepared eight film restorations from the silent era for release as new DVD product offerings on Aug. 4.   These are: a real early silent rarity, Florida Enchantment (silent-1914), D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance (silent-1916), Betsy Ross (silent-1917), Erich von Stroheim’s Blind Husbands (silent-1919), Mary The Hoodlum (silent-1919), Lon Chaney is Quasimodo and Patsy Ruth Miller stars as Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (silent-1923), The Eagle teams Rudolph Valentino with Vilma Bánky (silent-1925) and director Allan Dwan’s The Iron Mask (silent-1929, with sound effects), starring Douglas Fairbanks.

Pickford stars in

And you can’t have a selection of 50 new film restorations without at least a couple of classic horror films.   Not to worry, director Ray Kellogg’s 1959 The Giant Gila Monster is here, as is director Allan Dawn’s The Gorilla, starring Lionell Atwill, Bela Lugosi and The Ritz Brothers.

For a complete listing of the Film Detective’s Aug. 4 DVD releases check out page 7 in this week’s edition of the DVD & Blu-ray Release Report or check out the company’s website at www.thefilmdetective.com.