Mill Creek Entertainment Tabs May 4 As The Street Date For Both DVD And Blu-ray Editions Of Director Andrew V. McLaglen's Hellfighters

Mill Creek Entertainment announced this past week that May 4 will be the street date for both Blu-ray and DVD editions of director Andrew V. McLaglen’s 1968 thriller, Hellfighters, starring John Wayne, Katharine Ross, Vera Miles and Jim Hutton.

Of course, it is John Wayne that packed them in, but the film owes much to filmmaker Andrew V. McLaglen, one of the most underrated directors from Hollywood’s old school.   Given a budget and a schedule, he would find a way to get it done … his list of credits as a filmmaker include the likes of McLintock!, Shenandoah, The Way West, Cahill U.S. Marshal, The Wild Geese and even Monkeys, Go Home!.

Plus, McLaglen was a mainstay on the set of Gunsmoke, directing a whopping 96 episodes of this venerable Western television series.   He, like his contemporary, Don Siegel — a director who would mentor Clint Eastwood — knew the craft inside and out, which means he didn’t need 17 takes to get the shot he wanted.

Everything was thrown at him in the production of Hellfighters.   Scheduled exterior sequences had to be moved around when a monster storm descended on Houston … did he pack up and move everyone to a sound stage in Hollywood?   Hell no, he rented a warehouse, tented it and shot interiors while the storm raged outside. 

This is a movie about oil field firefighters and McLaglen had the best advisors on-set as possible, including the legendary “Red” Adair (whose life is the backdrop for the film itself), but right in the middle of shooting, Adair and his crew get not one, but two critical emergency calls.  They had to abandon the production to fight two life-and-death oil field fires ... just like the movie, and McLaglen didn’t panic, didn’t miss a beat, he soldiered-on and got it done!

Hellfighters, something of an atypical John Wayne film, was a huge theatrical success.  Peppered with a strong supporting cast that included Jay C. Flippen and Bruce Cabot, plus relative newcomer Katharine Ross — who had just come off of her Oscar-nominated performance in The Graduate — and, veterans Vera Miles and Jim Hutton, all under the sure-handed direction of Andrew V. McLaglen.  Even with hell itself thrown at the production, it came off seamlessly (the “magic” of “Hollywood”).

 

 

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MVD Entertainment Group Picks June 4 For The Blu-ray Debut Of Documentary Filmmaker John Scheinfeld's Who Is Harry Nilsson ...

MVD Entertainment Group has set Friday, June 4, as the Blu-ray debut date for documentary filmmaker John Scheinfeld's Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?) … a DVD selection will also be available on that date.

John Scheinfeld began making bio-documentaries on a regular basis in 2000, these included such entries as The Unknown Peter Sellers, Dean Martin, That’s Amore, Vintage Sinatra, Bob Hope the Road to Laughter, The Divine Bette Midler and The U.S. vs John Lennon.   The documentary on John Lennon opened at the Venice Film Festival in 2006 and followed theatrically later in the year … it did very well for a documentary during its theatrical run.

It was this same year, and the work put in on The U.S. vs John Lennon that brought Scheinfeld to put together a documentary on The Beatles’ “favorite” American recording artist, Harry Nilsson.   It was pulled together sometime in 2005 and brought to the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in February of 2006 … and then it, that particular version of it, was pulled.

It turns out, the film was not finished.   At least, the version screened then, and this presentation, which surfaced four years later, are very different; a much-more complete telling of the life and times of recording artist and tunesmith, Harry Nilsson.   More interviews, more work … and a far better result.

For fans, if you are looking for a trip down music memory lane, with performances of “Everybody’s Talkin’,” “I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City,” “Without You,” “Coconut” and more, that’s not what you will get with Scheinfeld’s film.  This isn’t a critical review of Nilsson’s work, peppered with live performances, rather this is a look at the artist’s life from his early days to his death in 1994.

Using vintage material of Nilsson, plus interviews with the people who were part of Nilsson’s circle of friends and colleagues, we get a look at the life of an artist who produced a number of very memorable — and catchy — songs, for himself and others, but in the end, he remained something of a mystery.  

Bonus features include a treasure-trove of additional interviews (this would have been an epic film if Scheinfeld had used everything he had assembled in the final cut), deleted scenes and the music video titled “Loneliness,” which is introduced by Yoko Ono.

 

 

 

 

Bayview Entertainment Readies Director Grainger Hines' The Mill For DVD On May 11

Bayview Entertainment has the chills lined up for genre fans on May 11 with the DVD release of Grainger Hines’ classic “haunted house” thriller, The Mill.

Sure, the action doesn’t take place in a haunted house, but for horror fans it doesn’t matter.   Haunted house, insane asylum, cabin in the wood or an abandoned mill, in this case, Steen’s Textile Mill, they all have the same thing in common, creepy places where bad things are going to happen.  

A quick show of hands!   What else is central to a “haunted house” thriller?   You, you there in the back row, what’s your answer?   Why yes, that is correct, a “victim pool.”   So, if you have eight sexually active college students, looking to party at an abandon mill, what do you have?   Answer: a haunted house horror tale.

Filmed in and around Salisbury, North Carolina, actor Grainger Hines (The Final Interview, Lincoln, Street Knight, etc. … and as Captain August Robertson in The Knick television series) took time out from his long career in front of the camera (which began way back in 1975 with Day of the Locust) to direct The Mill, which stars none other than Austin Hines (son of Grainger and Mamas and the Papas recording legend, Michelle Phillips) … you might call the production a family affair.

In any case, Shawn (Austin Hines) takes his friends (aka: the victim pool), Amber (Tiffany LeShai McMinn), Madison (Kelly Ray — The Shrieking, Zombies Anonymous), Whitney (Leah Marie Parker — The Trim Reaper) and the nerdy Cari (Blaire Welch) and their respective “dates,” Kyle (Catori Swann) and Jesse (Austin James), plus goofball Nick (Robert Rainbolt), out to the shuttered mill.    

Naturally, the locals claim all sorts of things have gone on out there since it closed down (other parties, perhaps) … but legend has it that the place is haunted, the result of a gruesome industrial accident.

Once assembled, the group hears strange noises, they share a few jokes and swap horror tales … and then they do what college kids do, they split up to enjoy the company of the one they are with.   And, one by one they die at the hands of an unseen killer.  

Who survives the night?   Who is the killer?   What is the twist?  Is the legend about this textile mill actually true?   No answers here, you have to catch The Mill on DVD from Bayview Entertainment on May 11 to find out what haunts the place!!  

 

 

 

Arrow Video Tabs May 25 As The Street Date For The Blu-ray Collection Titled Weird Wisconsin: The Bill Rebane Collection

Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, will be bringing the four-disc Blu-ray set titled Weird Wisconsin: The Bill Rebane Collection to market on May 25.

If it was a genre film made in Wisconsin between 1974 and 1987, it was most likely directed by cult favorite, Bill Rebane.   Oh sure, there were the exceptions from time to time during the period, Don Keeslar did Bog in 1983 and Mystery Science Theatre 3000 co-creator Jim Mallon gave us the 1987 horror/comedy, Blood Hook, but the rest of the time it was pretty much Rebane.

Arrow Video has assembled five from this period, plus his debut effort from 1965, Monster A Go-Go, co-directed and finished by none other than Hershell Gordan Lewis — it is important to note that connection, since Rebane worked for Lewis for a number of years in the realm of radio (which is another whole story).

Rebane had started on a film he titled Terror at Halfday, with June Travis (retired local actress who was active in film in the late ‘30s — Little Orphan Annie, The Marines are Here … as Della Street in the 1936 Perry Mason film, The Case of the Black Cat, etc.), Peter Thompson and 7-foot, 7-inch former sideshow performer, Henry Hite as the giant space alien (saves on special effects if you actually have a giant playing a giant space alien), as early as 1963, but at some point ran out of money (a lesson learned).  

He parleyed the experience into a gig with Germany’s Studio Bendestorf (Rebane, it should be noted, speaks five languages fluently) and set up domestic offices for the studio to attract “named” American talent to do film work in Germany.   This gave him the resources to pack up his family and buy a “farm” in Wisconsin, which was promptly turned into a film and television production facility (commercials, films, corporate productions, etc.).   He called it “The Shooting Ranch” … it was a great success.

Which, is a nice segue to the other five films in the Weird Wisconsin: The Bill Rebane Collection from Arrow Video on May 25.   These are: Invasion from Inner Earth (1974, written by his wife, Barbara, with Paul Bentzen), The Alpha Incident (1978, with Ralph Meeker), The Demons of Ludlow (1983, Paul Bentzen, a Rebane regular, is joined by Carol Perry), The Game (1984, with Carol Perry, Tom Blair, etc.) and Twister's Revenge (1988).

This collection comes packed with extras, including the six-part production of Straight Shooter, which documents Rebane’s production and direction of the six films included in the collection, and the feature-length documentary titled Who is Bill Rebane?, hosted by film historian and critic David Cairns.  There are also outtakes, extensive still galleries and more!

 

 

 

VCI Entertainment's New 2K Film Restoration Of Director William D. Russell's The Green Promise Heads To DVD On June 08

VCI Entertainment announced this past week that a new 2K film restoration of director William D. Russell’s 1949 film release of The Green Promise will be heading to the DVD marketplace on June 8.

The film, which was financed by an oil executive who knew Howard Hughes, was Hughes’ first production after taking over RKO in May of 1948.   It was put together as a “family film,” with 4H Club members being auditioned to star in the movie.   And, it is true, several members of the cast are indeed 4H Club members, including Jessie Wexford, played by ten-year old Jeanne LaDuke (her only screen appearance).

One of the 4H Club members, who was also ten-years old at the time, is none other than Natalie Wood, who portrays, Susan, one of the four motherless Matthew kids.   Keen eyes will also spot another young actor who would become a television mainstay, Martin Milner (Route 66, Adam-12), he too is a 4H Club member.

The backbone of the story has the head-strong “Matthews” (Walter Brennan), buying a farm and trying to make a go of it with his four children, including the eldest daughter, Deborah (Marguerite Chapman — Destroyer, Flight to Mars, Man Bait, The Seven Year Itch), who catches the eye of the local Ag Agent, David Barkley (Robert Paige — Son of Dracula, Highway Patrol, Flying G-Men).   

Of course, “Papa” does just about everything wrong, from fathering his four kids to running the farm, but he finds redemption by the film’s end as the locals come to his aid during his family’s darkest hour.  

Happy ending, family values and the virtues of becoming a 4H Club member … who can ask for more!!

Bonus features include five vintage Pathé Newreels from the period.

 

         

 

 

Director John Lee Hancock's The Little Things On DVD And Blu-ray From Warner Bros. Home Entertainment On May 04

Enough is enough.  This past week Warner Bros. Home Entertainment announced that director John Lee Hancock’s serial killer thriller, The Little Things, starring Denzel Washington, Rami Malek and Jared Leto, will be heading home as both DVD and Blu-ray product offerings on May 4.

Why is it that “enough is enough?”   Theatres need to reopen, this film should have been a theatrical blockbuster, but instead the box office receipts are a paltry $12.9 million.

How do the economics work if a studio makes an A-list film for a reported budget of $30 million and takes in less than half of that number theatrically?  Long term, it doesn’t work.  This craziness has to stop … sooner, rather than later.

For the record, the ARR for The Little Things is 95 days.

As to bonus features, there is the featurette titled “A Contrast in Styles” that is common to both SKUs … exclusive to the Blu-ray edition is the additional featurette titled “Four Shade of Blue.”

 

 

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Looks To May 18 For The 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack Debut Of The Last Action Hero

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced this past week that director John McTiernan’s summer of 1993 action flick, Last Action Hero, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, will be getting a 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack release on May 18.

Remastered from the original camera negative, this selection for the 4K Ultra HD format was based on a poll of film fans sponsored by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Bonus goodies include commentary from director John McTiernan, an alternate ending, plus deleted and alternate scenes (remaster for 4K Ultra HD presentation), a vintage behind-the-scenes featurette and the AC/DC music video titled “Big Gun.”