Paramount Home Media Tabs June 20 For The DVD Debut Of Incorporated

Paramount Home Media announced this past week that the futuristic dystopian series, Incorporated, will be heading the DVD arena on June 20 as a three-disc collection.   

This short-lived series, starring Sean Teale (in a dual role), Julia Osmond, Allison Miller and Eddie Ramos, takes place in a dysfunctional future (circa 2074) where corporations have taken over for governments and the world is divided into green and red zones.   All ten episodes are included here.

Also on the TV series front on June 20 is the double-disc DVD presentation of Workaholics: The Final Season (the complete series will also be offered on that date).   Bonus goodies include deleted scenes, outtakes and a pair of featurettes — “The Last Shot” and “Wrap Reel.”

And rounding out the DVD product offerings from Paramount Home Media on June 20 is the Stephen King inspired series, Under the Dome: The Complete Series … all three seasons are spread over three discs (all 39 episodes).

Last week, Paramount announced that the five-disc DVD collection titled Stephen King Triple Feature would be released on June 13.   This set includes The Stand, The Langoliers and Golden Years and Paramount is clearly timing these two Stephen King promotions to take full advantage of the media buzz surrounding the theatrical releases of The Dark Tower on Aug. 4 and It on Sept. 8.

The Film Detective Sets Six New Film Restorations For DVD Release On May 2

The Film Detective announced this past week six new film restorations for delivery to the collectible marketplace on May 2.

The leader of the DVD hit parade this time out is cult filmmaker Edgar G. Ulmer’s 1944 film release of Bluebeard, starring John Carradine as the demented Parisian serial killer — and painter ... and puppeteer — Gaston Morel. 

All of Paris is on edge as the murder count mounts and the elusive “Bluebeard” is nowhere to be found.   When Reene (Sonia Sorel — Strange Illusion, Captain Kidd and the Slave Girl), Gaston’s lover, asks the whereabouts of the models that he’s been using for his painting, he politely strangles her and dumps her body in the Seine … now that is a really direct way of answering her query!

Lamarte (played by Ludwig Stössel — House of Dracula, The Beginning or the End) is on to Gaston’s evil deeds, but he’s such a damn good painter — the money keeps rolling in — that he turns a blind eye to his serial killing ways.   But love is in the air as Gaston discovers the lovely Lucille (Jean Parker — The Ghost Goes West, One Body Too Many), who accepts a commission to design and sew new costumes for his puppets.   Love her?  Kill her?  Love her?  Kill her?   It’s more than enough to drive one crazy … oh wait, he already is!

Will the lovely Lucille be the next victim … and what triggers Gaston’s murderous rages?   These questions and more await an answer on May 2 with The Film Detective’s DVD release of Bluebeard.

Also streeting on that date is writer/director Norman Dawn’s 1936 adventure saga, Tundra, which finds Alaskan bush pilot and doctor Jason Barlow (Alfred Delcambre) tending to his far-flung rounds when his plane goes down and he must fight his way back to civilization against impossible odds.

For Hopalong Cassidy fans there is director Lesley Selander’s 1943 entry into the Hopalong Cassidy Western series, Border Patrol.   In this outing Hoppy (William Boyd is a Texas Ranger, who along with fellow lawmen California (Andy Clyde) and Johnny (Jay Kirby), are out to stop an illicit silver mine operation that is attracting illegals from the south of the border (filmed 74 years ago with the same border issue, how ironic).   

Border Patrol, while a Hopalong Cassidy Western, is noted for its interesting newcomer cast members that includes George Reeves, Robert Mitchum, Duncan Renaldo and Detour’s Claudia Drake.

Rounding out the May 2 selections are Blazing Barriers (1937, directed by Aubrey Scotto and starring (Frank Coghlan Jr., Edward Arnold Jr. and Florine McKinney) Crimson Romance (1934, James Bush and Ben Lyon are teamed with Erich von Stroheim) and Missouri Nightingale (also from 1934, directed by Albert Ray and starring Johnny Mack Brown and Jeanette Loff)

Ruthless Films Teams With MVD Entertainment Group For The June 27 DVD Release Of The Dove Family-Approved Jungle Tales

Ruthless Films, LLC will be teaming with MVD Entertainment Group on June 27 for the DVD debut of the directing team of Liliano Romero and Norman Ruiz’s Dove Family-Approved animated adventure, Jungle Tales.

A giraffe just happens to be on the way from the zoo to an animal rehabilitation center when he suddenly finds himself in an Amazonian rainforest.   This lost giraffe meets a crocodile, a friendly sort of fellow, who has an incredible tale to tell … and so our adventure begins.

He tells his curious friend that he is in the “Jungle of the Animal Warriors,” but that it wasn’t always that way.    It seems that something called “The Monster” invaded their serene rainforest and was digging holes and mowing down the trees and of the animals were all in a panic.   

Aratay, the jaguar — who the other animals fear — comes to warn them of “The Monster and that they must band together.   But, mistrust of Aratay is rampant and it is only when an unlikely little boy, named Koati, enters the fray and unites the animals of the rainforest that battle against “The Monster” begins!

Filmmakers Romero and Ruiz use an interesting blend of stop motion, cut-outs, pastel backgrounds and other creative techniques to tell their story, which works as a blend of conservation awareness and an introduction to the many varieties of animals living in the Amazon rainforest.

Twilight Time To Release A 3D Blu-ray Edition Of Director Roy Ward Baker's Inferno On May 16

Twilight Time announced this past week that May 16 will be the street date for a newly minted Blu-ray presentation of director Roy Ward Baker’s 1953 film noir masterpiece, Inferno.

Geraldine Carson (played by Rhonda Fleming in all of her Technicolor radiance) has it all, beauty, wealth and a marriage to business tycoon Donald Whitley Carson III (played by Robert Ryan in one of his greatest screen performances).  But she wants IT ALL … and that opportunity arises in the opening sequences of Inferno when Donald breaks his leg while out riding in a remote spot in the Mojave Desert.   

With her lover, Joseph Duncan (William Lundigan), an ingenious plot is hatched on the spot.   They will ride for help and just keep riding … poor Donald, who is something of a bully, a heavy-drinker and a pampered weakling, despite his tough businessman persona, will simply die.   She knows he doesn’t have the fortitude to survive a broken leg and the harsh desert environment.  It’s the perfect murder!

They cover their tracks, create a false trail — miles from his real location — and even go to the local authorities for help.   Who diligently look in the wrong place!  Nothing.   The desert got him!

The lovers need only wait … the first storm will wipe out all of the evidence.  But, Donald isn’t the weakling that they imagined.   When it finally dawns on him that they are not coming back with help, he plans his revenge and that means that he must survive.   Hate and betrayal can be a mountain-moving motivator.

This is where Robert Ryan shines.   His character has to undergo a metamorphosis and take on each new challenge … his wealth and power mean nothing in this hostile place; he can’t snap his fingers and order this or that to be done.   Set his own leg, find water, find shelter and find a way out of the slot canyon that he has been abandoned in are just some of the tests that will be thrown his way.   

Eventually Donald realizes that wealth, power and even hate and revenge are not important.   It can be a simple thing that has far more value than money, such as an act of friendship (a nice turn by Henry Hull as a desert rat by the name of Elby), or the sense of real accomplishment … or even a cool glass of water.

Meanwhile, Geraldine and Joseph need to make sure that the storm and the desert did the job.   Will their murderous plan succeed or will Donald survive yet another attempt on his life … Inferno is the perfect film noir for this sort of treachery.

Bonus features for this Twilight Time limited edition Blu-ray release of Inferno includes commentary from film historian Alan K. Rode (author of “Charles McGraw: Film Noir Tough Guy” and the author of the blog site, “One Way Street;” aka: alankrode.com), who is joined by Robert Ryan’s daughter, Lisa Ryan.   

Other nuggets include both 3D and 2D presentations of the film, the original theatrical trailer and the newly-prepared featurette titled, “A New Dimension of Noir: Filming Inferno in 3D.”   Pre-orders — on a first come, first serve basis — begin on May 3.

Wild Eye Releasing Tabs June 13 As The DVD Release Date For Director Darin Wood's Badass Monster KIller

Gang warfare takes a twisted turn in writer/director Darin Wood’s Badass Monster Killer, which is heading to DVD on June 13 from Wild Eye Releasing, with MVD Entertainment Group providing sales and distribution support.

Camaroville (actually filmed in and around Sacramento, California) is in the middle of a turf war, with the new wannabe crime lord calling himself Reverend Dellamorte (Ryan Cicak).   His approach to the drug and sex trade is the use of the occult, specifically the “old ones” and the resurrection of the Bride of Cthulhu.

Seriously, a little black magic is the secret to being a criminal overlord … and the Reverend’s new beastly minions are a force to be reckoned with!   

Fortunately for the good citizens of Camaroville there is The Department of Supernatural Security and agent Jimmy Chevelle (Jawara Duncan — Planet of the Vampire Women), who has an axe of revenge to grind with the Reverend (he killed his partner in a previous encounter).

With filmmaker Darin Wood’s Badass Monster Killer we have a nifty blend of Shaft meeets Men in Black, with a nod to vintage ‘70s Blaxploitation horror films (think: Blacula and the like), complete with “foxy” females that our hero, Jimmy, has to take time out to “save!”   

Have fun!

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment's Super Hero Girls Return To DVD On May 23

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, in conjunction with DC Entertainment, has tabbed May 23 for the DVD debut of producer/director Jennifer Coyle’s feature-length animated adventure, DC Super Hero Girls: Intergalactic Games.

This second entry into the series (DC Super Hero Girls: Hero of the Year made its debut last August) finds the Super Hero Girls in competition with Lena Luthor and her minions at the Intergalactic Games.

Bonus features include the Fifth Harmony music video, “That’s My Girl” and seven animated short films from the series second season.

MVD Entertainment Group Guides The Iron Ivan To The DVD Marketplace On June 13

MVD Entertainment Group will be guiding the domestic sales and distribution efforts for Synergetic Distribution’s June 13 DVD debut of Russian filmmaker Gleb Orlov’s biopic, The Iron Ivan.

This lushly mounted film (with cinematography by Vladislav Opelyants) details the life of Ivan Poddubny (played by Mikhail Porechenkov), Cossack-born during the time of Czarist Russia (1871), who became the World Champion in wrestling in 1905 at the age of 34.

After World War I, Poddubny became a world figure and toured extensively in the United States where he earned close to a half-million dollars in prize winnings, which he was unable to take back to the Ukraine.   That, among other thing, sparked the interest of the Communist authorities, who tossed him into prison (being a Cossack he would be always be suspect) and tortured.

The film covers his amazing sports career as a wrestler (only two recorded event losses in 40 years of world-class competition) and his love affair with his wife, Maria (Katerina Shpitsa) … he was even forgiven by the party elites and named a “Master of Sports.”  

The Iron Ivan is presented in Russian with English subtitles.