The Criterion Collection Announces Its January 2015 DVD And Blu-ray Release Calendar

The Criterion Collection has unveiled its first release blitz for 2015 with the news this week of its DVD and Blu-ray selections for the month of January.

Kicking off the New Year on Jan. 6 will be a Blu-ray edition of Japanese filmmaker Kihachi Okamoto’s 1966 hunted/hated man samurai gem, The Sword of Doom.   

In a stunning departure from the Bushido code, Tsukue (Tatsuya Nakadai — Seppuku, Kagemusha, etc.) is a samurai-turned-assassin, who is an out-and-out psychopath.   He has no honor and lives by his own code of lies, violence and betrayal … which marks him as man with many enemies.

Bonus features here include commentary by author and film historian Stephen Prince (“The Warrior's Camera,” “Savage Cinema: Sam Peckinpah and the Rise of Ultraviolent Movies,” etc.).

German auteur filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1972 film adaptation of his own “envisioned” stage play, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, will be getting a push with a new digital restoration from Criterion on Jan. 13 as both DVD and Blu-ray product offerings.

Bonus nuggets include newly-prepared interviews with cinematographer Michael Ballhaus and actors Margit Carstensen, Eva Mattes, Katrin Schaake, and Hanna Schygulla, a second one with film scholar Jane Shattuc and the German TV documentary (circa 1992) titled “Role Play: Women on Fassbinder.”

Jan. 20 brings the domestic DVD and Blu-ray debut of director Guy Maddin’s mock-documentary My Winnipeg to market.   The ARR works out to 2,412 days for this 2008 theatrical release … domestic ticket sales back then were $156,629.

The Criterion Collection has included three of Maddin’s short films with this release — Spanky: To the Pier and Back, Sinclair and Only Dream Things — a deleted scene and a one-on-one with Maddin and art critic Robert Enright.

Also streeting on Jan. 20 are DVD and Blu-ray SKUs for director Preston Sturges’ 1942 screwball comedy, The Palm Beach Story, which teamed Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert … and Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea (if you have to ask, then you haven’t seen the film).

Bonus goodies here include separate video interviews with film historian James Harvey and voice actor and producer Bill Hader, a 1943 radio presentation of the story and filmmaker Preston Sturges’ 1942 short film, Safeguarding Military Information.

Lastly, Jan. 27 marks the arrival on Blu-ray of the Criterion Collection restoration of Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel’s 2001 film, La Ciénaga.   Previously released on DVD by Home Vision (long since out of print), Criterion will also be releasing on Jan. 27 a newly prepared DVD edition as well.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment Replaces A Trio Of Classic Film Noir MODs With The Release Of The Film Noir 10-Movie Spotlight Collection On Nov. 4

Universal Studios Home Entertainment will be releasing a ten-film, six-disc collection of classic film noir films on Nov. 4 titled The Film Noir 10-Movie Spotlight Collection.   

Films such as Touch of Evil (1958, Orson Welles, Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh) This Gun for Hire (1942, teaming Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake) Double Indemnity (1944, Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson and Barbara Stanwyk) and Criss Cross have been available for some time as stand-alone product offerings, but three very important films to any collector’s film noir library have only been available previously as MODs.   

Two of these MODs-to-manufactured DVDs are the other two film noir thrillers that teamed Alan Ladd with Veronica Lake.  The first of which is director George Marshall’s 1946 film release of Raymond Chandler’s first mystery written directly for the screen, The Blue Dahlia (he received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay … losing out to The Seventh Veil — in retrospect that was a mistake, although you could argue that Ben Hecht’s Notorious split the votes with Chandler and The Seventh Veil slipped through).

The second of these MODs-to-manufactured DVDs is director Stuart Heisler’s 1942 film adaptation of the Dashiell Hammett novel, The Glass Key.   Talk about an all-star cast … in addition to Ladd and Lake, William Bendix, Bonita Granville, Brian Donlevy, Richard Denning, Frances Gifford and Joseph Calleia appeared in this tale of corruption, murder and double-dealing.

The third MOD getting an upgrade is director Robert Siodmak’s 1944 film release of Phantom Lady, which stars Ella Raines, Alan Curtis and Franchot Tone.

The complete list of films include in this six-disc set are: This Gun for Hire, The Glass Key, Double Indemnity, Phantom Lady, The Blue Dahlia, Black Angel, The Killers, The Big Clock, Criss Cross and Touch of Evil.

HBO Home Entertainment's Banshee Returns On DVD And Blu-ray On Dec. 30

HBO Home Entertainment has one of the cleverest cable series lined up for delivery on both Blu-ray and DVD sets this coming Dec. 30 … just in time for some New Year’s holiday viewing (if you are otherwise not engaged in college bowl mania).

The series in question is Banshee: The Complete Second Season, starring Antony Starr as Lucas Hood, an ex-con who has assumed the identity of a dead lawman in a “tiger-by-the-tail” plot line that demands that he keep the deception going for both his personal survival and the well-being of the town’s people who have come to depend on him.   It is devilishly wicked in its twists and turns!!!

Banshee: The Complete Second Season arrives as both ten-episode DVD and Blu-ray collections spread over four-discs (the Blu-ray SKU features UltraViolet), with the featurette titled “Inside the Title Sequence: Uncover” and “Twitter” commentary with members of the cast and production crew as bonus goodies.  

Exclusive to the Blu-ray SKU are the featurette, “Banshee Origins,” deleted scenes and episode commentary.

Film Movement's DVD Debut Of Writer/Director Iram Haq’s I Am Yours Set For Nov. 11

Film Movement has tabbed Nov. 11 for the DVD debut of writer/director Iram Haq’s I Am Yours.

Mina (Amrita Acharia, perhaps best know to American audiences as Irri from the Game of Thrones television series … also as Reidun in Well Go USA’s upcoming DVD and Blu-ray debut of Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead) is by any standard an attractive young woman.   

 But, as things in her life have transpired, she finds herself with two strikes against her (and she’s not even 30 yet) … she’s a single mom with a six-year old son and she’s an ethnic Pakistani living in Oslo, Norway. 

She’d like to distance herself from the “traditional” ways that her parents would impose upon her, but those efforts — which are, quite frankly, too far in the other direction — have simply led to a whole series of bad decisions.     

How do you win; how do you have a life that is fulfilling when you don’t fit in and efforts made to do so only make it worse?

 

I Am Yours is certainly worth a look … critics have been kind, the film festival circuit has been rewarding and with the film now being made available to the domestic home entertainment market it could attract the following that it deserves.   

 Presented in Norwegian (with some Urdu and Swedish) with English subtitles.

Dead Snow: Red Vs. Dead On DVD And Blu-ray From Well Go U.S.A. On Dec. 9

Every now and then there is that film — that script — that is so out there that it takes on a life of its own.   We are talking about Nazi zombies, of course!   That was the hook for Norwegian filmmaker Tommy Wirkola’s 2009 breakout film Dead Snow.    

He combined the old standby of teens assembling in some remote area (read that as the victim pool), where they come face to face with some horrible murdering menace.   They encounter frozen Nazis (relics of WWII) and not just any Nazis, but elite SS Nazis who are now flesh-eating zombies.    Splatter, snow, nubile victims, zombies and it didn’t even matter that Dead Snow was in Norwegian.

It’s taken awhile, but such a devilishly delightful dance deserves another spin.   On Dec. 9 the only survivor from the first film, Martin (Vegar Hoel), returns to battle the undead once again — and miraculously all in one piece — in the Well Go U.S.A. DVD and Blu-ray debut of Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead on Dec. 9.

So too is Standartenführer Herzog (Orjan Gamst), whose mission is to carry out his 70-year-old assignment and decimate the town of Oksfjord.   With the locals not believing Martin’s wild tale (come on, Nazi zombies, please), he must recruit his own army to stop the advancing invasion!

Update:  Bonus goodies include commentary from director Tommy Wirkola and a VFX featurette ... exclusive to the Blu-ray SKU are an alternative international cut of the film and the short film titled Armen.

Olive Film's Restores Director Robert Altman's Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean For Blu-ray And DVD On Nov. 18

At last!  At last!   The late auteur filmmaker Robert Altman’s long sought-after 1982 film adaptation of Ed Graczyk’s stage play, Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean will be released as both DVD and Blu-ray product offerings by Olive Films on Nov. 18!

Not only will this news please fans of filmmaker Robert Altman, but there are literally legions of adoring fans of the various cast members that Altman assembled for this film (geeze, this guy had a gift for that, didn’t he!).   

Are you ready?   Cher (future Oscar-winner for Best Actress in Moonstruck), the late Karen Black (Oscar-nominee for Best Actress, Five Easy Pieces), Sandy Dennis (Oscar-winner for Best Supporting Actress in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) and Kathy Bates (future Oscar-winner for Best Actress in Misery) are the marquee names, but Sudie Bond (perhaps best remembered as “Mama” Velma Castleberry for the Flo TV sitcom, plus such films as They Might be Giants, Cold Turkey and Love Story) more than holds her own as the store owner where the “reunion” takes place.

September 30, 1955 is the day that James Dean died in an auto accident just outside of Paso Robles, California … it is now 20 years later and fans — they call themselves the “Disciples of James Dean” — of the actor are gathering for a reunion to honor his memory.   They are, however, not gathering anywhere near Paso Robles, but at an aging Woolworth’s (a “five and dime”) in a remote corner of Texas.   

Why there?  It’s the closest place they could find to Marta, which just so happened to be the shooting location for Dean’s 1956 film release of Giant (released theatrically a full year after his death) … which is a whole other story onto itself.

Through flashbacks and character dialog (this is, after all, an adaptation of a stage play) we learn secrets — especially about Karen Black’s character, Joanne, and her relationship to Mona (Sandy Dennis) — about the various members of the group.   

These connections and “reveals” are marked by both visuals (an interesting use of mirrors) and music.   And therein was the hold up in getting this Altman gem to DVD and Blu-ray … music clearances!   The soundtrack from the film includes a number of songs made famous by the McGuire Sisters, including their number one hit from (yes, you guessed it) 1955, “Sincerely.”

This restored version of the film was completed in 2011 by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and should look absolutely gorgeous on both DVD and Blu-ray.   

Bonus goodies include a newly-prepared video conversation with writer Ed Graczyk, who both wrote the original state play and then adapted that play for the screen.

Eagle Rock Entertainment Says Nov. 11 For The DVD Debut Of Crank It Up! — Colt Ford: Live At Wild Adventures

Country recording artist and songsmith Colt Ford, after five successful albums and more miles on the road touring than a long-haul trucker, will be making his way to the home entertainment market place on Nov. 11 with the release of his debut DVD, Crank it Up! — Colt Ford: Live at Wild Adventures.

This Eagle Rock Entertainment-produced event features over two hours of Ford in concert this past August from the Wild Adventures Park in Valdosta, Georgia, where he served-up a fan-pleasing 19-song set, plus a medley of country ditties penned by Ford.   

Included in the mix are both “Ride Through The Country” and “No Trash in My Trailer” from his debut album, plus “Chicken & Biscuits,” “Country Thang,” “Back” and he sent the crowd out into the night with the capper, “Dirt Road Anthem.”

Bonus features include ten webisode segments from his Mr. Goodtime TV series — where you just need to remember three things … Chicks, Trucks and Beer — and a behind the scenes featurette.

Also new to Eagle Rock Entertainment’s November release calendar is the Nov. 25 DVD and Blu-ray debut of Jeff Beck: Live in Tokyo.

Filmed in April of this year at the Tokyo Dome City Hall, this concert featured a blend of Beck standards — “Stratus,” “Led Boots,” “Cause We Ended as Lovers,” “Big Block,” “A Day in the Life,” and “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” — plus new material performed live here for the first time.