The Criterion Collection Reveals It March Slate Of New Film Restorations

The Criterion Collection announced its March slate of new film restorations this past week and topping the list (which is always a subjective call) is the 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack release of director Gus Van Sant’s 1995 film adaptation of the Joyce Maynard novel, To Die For.

This new 4K restoration of To Die For, starring Nichole Kidman as the self-obsessed local “weather reporter,” will be streeting on Mar. 26.

A masterful satire on fame for fame’s sake stands among the best works directed by Van Sant, which says quite a bit about the film when you consider that he was nominated twice for Best Director — Good Will Hunting (1998) and Milk (2009) — and in addition to those two films delivered Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho and Last Days.

As to bonus goodies, there are deleted scenes and commentary teaming Van Sant with the director of photography Eric Alan Edwards (My Own Private Idaho) and editor Curtiss Clayton (My Own Private Idaho, Drugstore Cowboy, etc.).

Also schedule for release in March is a new 4K film restoration of director William Dieterle’s 1941 film, All That Money Can Buy, starring Edward Arnold as Daniel Webster and Walter Huston as “Mr. Scratch.”   This will be a new Blu-ray edition available on Mar. 12.

The film was a mess in terms of its initial theatrical distribution.   The name of the film was changed several times (with cuts, etc.) before finally settling on the more familiar title of The Devil and Daniel Webster.    There was the issue with similar The Devil and Miss Jones and objections over “devil” in the title … and more.   In retrospect … just silly stuff.

As part of the bonus selections, the Criterion Collection has comparisons of the differences between 1941 preview version of the film, Here Is a Man, and the film’s 1943 rerelease as The Devil and Daniel Webster.
  Additionally, there is a commentary teaming film historian Bruce Eder with Bernard Herrmann biographer Steven C. Smith, a vintage radio adaptation and more.

Rounding out the March release calendar from the Criterion Collection are: producer/director Laura Poltras’ All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Mar. 12); director Amir Naderi’s The Runner (Mar. 19) and filmmaker Alice Diop’s Saint Omer (available Mar. 26).