Olive Films Sets Five New Blu-ray Releases For Apr. 21 Including Abbott And Constello's Dance With Me, Henry

Olive Films has announced five new Blu-ray selections for delivery to retail on Apr. 21 … it is an eclectic mix!

Leading the parade — and that is strictly a matter of taste — is director Charles Barton’s 1956 film release of Dance With Me, Henry, teaming Bud Abbott and Lou Costello for their 36^th and final comedy screen appearance together.   And yes, that’s former Mickey Mouse Club member Sherry (Sherry Alberoni) playing the role of Bootsie … the orphan girl, Shelley, is played by veteran child star Gigi Perreau, who would transition later in the decade to such teen flicks as The Cool and the Crazy, Girls Town and Tammy Tell Me True and the orphan boy, Duffer, is played by Rusty Hamer (best known as Danny Thomas’ son on the Make Room for Daddy comedy series).

Other comedy releases in the Blu-ray mix are director Michael Schultz’s 1975 film, Cooley High (starring Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Glynn Turman and SNL alum Garrett Morris) and director Jason Bloom’s 1996 comedy release of Bio-Dome, starring Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin.

For action fans, Olive Films has the Blu-ray debut of Chuck Norris, Louis Gossett, Jr. and Melody Anderson in director J. Lee Thompson’s 1986 treasure hunt adventure, Firewalker.

The final new-to-Blu-ray selection is the 1995 all-star romantic drama from director Tony Richardson, Blue Sky, which won Jessica Lange the Oscar for Best Actress.  Counted among this period piece (circa early 1960s) about nuclear testing and marital strife are Tommy Lee Jones, Powers Boothe, Carrie Snodgrass future comic book hero, Robin (of Batman fame), Chris O’Donnell.

CJ Entertainment America Will Release DVD And Blu-ray Editions Of The Admiral: Roaring Currents On Apr. 28

Facing certain defeat and the fall of the capitol city of Joseon (aka: Seoul), the disgraced former commander of the Korean fleet (what remained of it) returns and in October of 1597 at the Battle of Myeongnyang (Straits) turns back a vastly superior Japanese invasion fleet.  

It is all true and this eerily similar Korean version of the English defeat of the Spanish Armada (which occurred just nine years earlier) is the backbone of Korean filmmaker Han-min Kim’s (Warrior of the Arrows, Paradise Murdered) naval battle blockbuster, The Admiral: Roaring Currents.

CJ Entertainment America has tabbed Apr. 28 as the release date for both DVD and Blu-ray editions of this international box office smash … even the domestic take for this Korean-language film delivered an impressive $2.6 million in ticket sales (that’s an outstanding number for a foreign-language import).    

The ARR works out to 263 days.

The film is neatly divided into two sections.   The first half of the film introduces us to Admiral Yi Sun-shin (Choi Min-sik — Lucy, Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War, Oldboy, etc.), the commander of the Korean fleet, who falls victim to corrupt palace intrigues of the floundering Joseon Dynasty and is stripped of his command.   During his imprisonment the Japanese nearly decimate the once superior Korean naval forces … the invasion and the fall of the Joseon Dynasty is at hand.

The second half of the film contains one of the most spectacular naval battle sequences ever filmed!   Admiral Yi is returned to his command — the fleet has been reduced to just a dozen ships — and is given the impossible task of turning back the on-rushing Japanese fleet of over 300 ships!    The rest, they say, is history … Admiral Yi accomplished the same as Sir Francis Drake (an his allies) in turning back a vastly superior invasion fleet … and in Admiral Yi’s case, with the odds heavily stacked against him.

If you missed the domestic theatrical run of The Admiral: Roaring Currents, then circle Apr. 28 on your calendar now … this is one that should not be missed!!

Paramount Home Media Selects May 5 For A 40th Anniversary DVD Edition Of Mahogany: The Couture Edition

Paramount Home Media will be celebrating the 40th Anniversary of director Berry Gordy’s 1975 Oscar-nominated (Best Song, “Do You Know Where You’re Going To”) film with the DVD release of Mahogany: The Couture Edition on May 5.

The world — and politics — of high fashion is front and center and Diana Ross is the focal point in this “Cinderella” tale that co-stars Anthony Perkins and Billy Dee Williams.

Bonus features include newly prepared limited edition packaging and a photo gallery of the high-fashion designs showcased in the film.

Icarus Films In Conjunction With The KimStim Collection Tabs Mar. 10 As The DVD Debut Date For A Spell To Ward Off The Darkness

Icarus Films, in conjunction with the KimStim Collection, has targeted Mar. 10 as the DVD debut date for A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness, the three-part experimental film from filmmakers Ben Rivers and Ben Russell that peels back the layers of the life of musician and artist Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe (aka: Lichens).

In the first part, the artist is seen in a communal gathering on the island of Vormsi, just off the coast of Estonia in the Baltic Sea.   We then follow Lowe on a solo journey of natural reflection in the remote forest region of Hyrynsalmi, Finland (about 300 miles to the northeast of Helsinki).

Once these aspects of Lowe’s life are explored — and his energy is restored in a metaphysical sense — the action for the third segment of the film shifts to Lowe in a live concert performance in Oslo, Norway.

Bonus features include the short film Call No Man Happy Until He is Dead and the featurette titled “Directors’ Note.”

MVD Entertainment Group Announces An Apr. 21 Release Date For A Blu-ray Edition Of SGL Entertainment's Paranormal Extremes: Text Messages From The Dead

Dark Entity Music, LLC (aka: SGL Entertainment), with sales and distribution expertise provided by the MVD Entertainment Group, has tabbed Apr. 21 for the Blu-ray debut of cult filmmaking legend Ted V. Mikels’ latest film, Paranormal Extremes: Text Messages from the Dead.

From the director who gave us such gems as The Astro-Zombies, The Corpse Grinders and The Doll Squad, one thing is certain, Ted V. Mikels has both staying power (an active filmmaker since 1963) and a loyal following.

With Paranormal Extremes: Text Messages from the Dead we meet platinum blonde Addison (Colie Knoke), a would-be Las Vegas-based model, who tragically loses her fiancé to a home repair accident.   But wait, his love for her is now reaching out from the beyond … or is there something more sinister at play here?

Also counted among the cast members is none other than Beverly Washburn (as Elizabeth in director Jack Hill’s Spider Baby and as Lt. Arlene Galway in Star Trek) … and Mikels does a cameo turn.

Bonus features for the Blu-ray release of Paranormal Extremes: Text Messages from the Dead include a behind-the-scenes featurette.

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

The Criterion Collection announced its May selections of DVD and Blu-ray film releases this past week … they arrive in two three-titled waves on May 19 and May 26.

In the first group, arriving at retail on May 19, is a newly-prepared restoration (approved by director Mark Rydell) of the 1979 film release of The Rose, starring Bette Midler (her first of two Oscar-nominations for Best Actress … the other being 1992 release of For the Boys) as Mary Rose Foster, a fictional character based on singing legend Janis Joplin.   Alan Bates, Harry Dean Stanton and Frederic Forrest (Oscar nominated for Best Supporting Actor) are her co-stars.

Blu-ray and DVD SKUs will be available from Criterion.

Bonus nuggets include commentary from Mark Rydell (The Cowboys, Cinderella Liberty, On Golden Pond, For the Boys, etc.), newly-prepared video sessions with Mark Rydell, Bette Midler and cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond (four times nominated for Best Cinematography, with an Oscar win for Close Encounters of the Third Kind) and vintage interviews with both Midler and Rydell.

Also streeting on May 19 are newly restored DVD and Blu-ray editions of Charles Chaplin’s 1952 drama, Limelight (with Claire Bloom, Buster Keaton, Norman Lloyd and Nigel Bruce).

Bonus goodies here include a new video session with Chaplin biographer David Robinson (author of “Chaplin: His Life and Art”), newly-prepared video interviews with Claire Bloom and Norman Lloyd and two silent short films featuring Chaplin — A Night in the Snow (1915) and The Professor (1919).

Lastly, May 19 is the release date for a Blu-ray edition of 1937 tearjerker, Make Way For Tomorrow, starring Beulah Bondi and Victor Moore.

Shifting to May 26, the Criterion Collection brings to the Blu-ray format two films from auteur filmmaker Costa-Gavras, State of Siege and The Confession.

With the Oscar-win for Best Foreign Language film in 1969 with Z, Costa-Gavras suddenly found himself thrust into the international spotlight … and he delivered two magnificent films in the space of just three years, The Confession (1970, with Yves Montand and Simone Signoret) and State of Siege (1972, also with Montand).

The Confession sports a new film transfer (supervised by Costa-Gavras), the 1971 documentary short, You Speak of Prague: The Second Trial of Artur London, vintage video sessions and a newly-prepared video interview with the film’s editor, Françoise Bonnot (Oscar winner for Best Film Editing for Z).

Bonus features for State of Siege include a newly-prepared interview session with Costa-Gavras and film scholar Peter Cowie (“John Ford and the American West,” “Ingmar Bergman: A Critical Biography,” etc.) and a vintage NBC News clip featuring Dan Mitrione (on whose life the film was based).

Lastly, May 26 brings the Blu-ray and DVD debut of auteur filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s little-seen 1971 film, The Merchant of Four Seasons.  

Bonus features here include commentary from fellow German filmmaker Wim Wenders, newly-produced interview sessions with actors Irm Hermann and Hans Hirschmüller and a new video discussion with film scholar Eric Rentschler (author of “The Ministry of Illusion: Nazi Cinema and Its Afterlife”).

Unbroken On DVD And Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack From Universal Studios Home Entertainment On Mar. 24

Actress, producer and filmmaker, Angelina Jolie, will see her hit film adaptation of author Laura Hillenbrand’s 2010 best-selling biography of former Olympian (1936) and WWII POW Louis Zamperini, “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption” — shortened for its theatrical release to simply, Unbroken — released on DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack from Universal Studios Home Entertainment on Mar. 24.   

The ARR is a quick-to-market 88 days and box office receipts are $115.1 million.

Bonus features include seven production featurettes, including one titled “The Real Louis Zamperini” and a second titled “Louis' Path to Forgiveness.”