Arrow Video Targets Dec. 5 For The Blu-ray Debut Of Director John Schlesinger’s The Day Of The Locust

Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has tabbed Dec. 5 for the Blu-ray debut of director John Schlesinger’s 1975 film adaptation of Nathanael West's 1939 “Hollywood” novel, The Day of the Locust.

 

This is a new 2K restoration (“remastered”) from the original camera negative.

 

There is so much to admire about this deeply flawed film vision from Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy, Marathon Man, Sunday Bloody Sunday).   Topping that list is Karen Black (Five Easy Pieces, Cisco Pike, The Great Gatsby, Nashville, Family Plot) as Faye Greene.  She proved beyond a doubt that she was not only an exotic beauty, but a genuine acting talent.

  

There were over a half-dozen major names lined up for the role and one point or another during pre-production, but she won the part with her screen test.   She’s brilliant here … come to The Day of the Locust for this reason alone.

 

Another is Donald Sutherland as “Homer Simpson” (classic), who is literally off the charts.   Creepy.  Insane.  His desire for Faye makes your skin crawl … and what he does to the tormenting “child” actor, Adore Loomis (played by Jackie Earl Haley), is both perverse, and yet, justified.  

 

The details in The Day of the Locust are stunning.   You feel like you are watching actual events unfold in Hollywood of the 1930s.   To that point, Conrad Hall was nominated for the Oscar for Best Cinematography (he was nominated a total of ten times in his career, winning Oscars for Road to Perdition, American Beauty and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid).

 

Bonus features included on the Blu-ray release from Arrow Video begins with commentary hosted by writer and film historian Lee Gambin (“Massacred by Mother Nature: Exploring the Natural Horror Film,” “We Can be Who We Are: Movie Musicals of the 1970s”), who is joined by assistant directors Leslie Moulton Asplund and Charles Ziarko, production associate Michael Childers and actors Grainger Hines and Pepe Sema.

 

Additional bonuses include image galleries (behind the scenes and more), plus three production featurettes — “Welcome to West Hollywood,” “Days of the Golden Age” and “Jeepers Creepers, Where’d You Get Those Peepers.”