Warner Bros. Home
Entertainment announced this past week a wave of film catalog releases that
will be headed to the home entertainment marketplace during the month of July
as an eclectic assortment of DVD and Blu-ray product offerings.
At the top of the list —
at least for genre fans — is the July 31 Blu-ray debut of writer/director Wolf
Rilla’s 1960 creep-out, Village of the Damned. This very-British tale about an alien
invasion set on the shelf at MGM for nearly two years — probably for good
reason — as the late 50s produced (perhaps, “over-produced” is a better
description) a flood of sci-fi and horror films that seemed to arrive almost
weekly at theatres nationwide (baby boom at its height).
The truly eerie opening
sequence, with the entire village of Widwich “falling asleep,” sets the rest of
the film up perfectly. The military
arrives and all attempts to penetrate the circle of influence prove to be
fruitless. And then suddenly, everyone
is awake again — except for that poor chap flying the plane — and the “time
out” is over.
A sense of dread follows
during the weeks after the event, which is capped off by the discovery that all
of the women — young and old alike — are all pregnant. The local scientist, Gordon Zellaby (played
by George Sanders) discovers that his wife, Anthea (Barbara Shelley — Blood
of the Vampire, The Gorgon, Five Million Years to Earth, etc.), is to
be counted among them.
Twelve in all, which come
to term very quickly … and all, both boys and girls, are very similar in appearance,
despite having different mothers. They
are creepy little kids, who grow very fast and Gordon soon discovers that if
one learns something, they all suddenly know the same thing.
The ending is brilliant
as Gordon deduces that the ever-growing brood (both physically and mentally)
can read and manipulate the minds of us mere humans. He uses that power to create a mental image
in his mind that masks his true intensions to rid the world of these
creatures!!
Also on the film catalog
Blu-ray release front from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is the July 10 debut
of actor/director Peter Ustinov’s 1962 film adaptation of the Herman Melville
novel, Billy Budd, with Terence Stamp (nominated Best Supporting Actor
for his performances the title character), Peter Ustinov, John Neville, David
McCallum and Robert Ryan as the sinister (evil) Master of Arms, John Claggart.
July 17 brings to market
the Blu-ray release of director John Huston’s 1972 anti-Western, The
Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, starring Paul Newman as the “law west
of the Pecos.”
On the DVD release front,
there is a flurry of TV-on-DVD releases on July 10 — Alice: The Complete Seventh
Season (a three-disc set), Bill Engvall Show: The Complete First Season
and La
Femme Nikita: The Complete First Season (a six-disc collection). On the feature film front, Fay Wray stars with Victor Varconi in the early sound film release (Christmas of 1930) of Captain Thunder and director Fred Zinnemann’s 1951 war-bride tale, Teresa, teaming Pier Angeli with John Ericson and Patricia Collinge, both make their DVD debuts on July 17.
Being “unpacked” on July
24 from previous collection-only sets — and now flying solo — are Edge
of Darkness (1943, Errol Flynn and Ann Sheridan), Northern Pursuit (also
1943, Errol Flynn, Julie Bishop and Helmut Dantine), Uncertain Glory (1944, Errol Flynn)
and Wreck
of the Mary Deare (1959, teaming Gary Cooper with Charlton Heston).
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