Kit Parker Films Has A New 2K Film Restoration Of Director Francis D. Lyon's Crazylegs Ready For DVD Release On Feb. 07

Kit Parker Films, with sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, announced this past week that director Francis D. Lyon’s 1953 sports biopic, Crazylegs, starring football legend Elroy 'Crazylegs' Hirsch, Lloyd Nolan (Airport, Michael Shayne: Private Detective, Bataan, Guadalcanal Diary, etc.) and Joan Vohs (Lure of the Swamp, Vice Squad, Girls’ School), will be making its long over-due DVD debut on Feb. 07, 2023.

This is a new 2K film restoration and, as near as we can document, this is the first home entertainment (including VHS) exposure for the film.

It is rare that a college football player gains fame at two rival universities in the Big 10, but that’s exactly what Elroy Hirsch did at both Wisconsin in 1942 and the following year at Michigan.   From 1944 until 1946 he was a U.S. Marine … and then made the transition to professional football, where he became a legend.

The film opens with Crazylegs Hirsch leading the Los Angeles Rams to the 1951 championship and after all depart the stadium, Hirsch joins his former high school coach, Win "Brock" Brockmeyer (played by Lloyd Nolan), on the field where they go back in time through a series of flashback sequences and we learn of Hirsch life (he married his high school sweetheart, Ruth — played by Vohs) and his sports career.

All of the action scenes are from real games and feature Hirsch — for the clever use of footage, editor Cotton Warburton would receive the first of two Oscar nominations … he would win in 1965 for his work on Mary Poppins.  Indeed, Warburton after his nomination for Crazylegs became a Disney fixture, editing such classics as The Absent Minded Professor, Son of Flubber, The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, That Darn Cat!, The Love Bug and many more.

Bonus features included with this DVD debut of Crazylegs from Kit Parker Film on Feb. 07 are two featurettes — “Hall Bartlett and the Power of Film” and “Haller and Forty” — plus four vintage football programs: Frank Leahy and His Football Forecasts (1955), Football Parade of 1948, Touchdown Thrills of 1948 and Touchdown Thrills of 1949.

 

 

Director Catherine Meyburgh's Kentridge And Dumas In Conversation On DVD From Icarus Films On Jan. 31

Icarus Films announced this past week that documentary filmmaker Catherine Meyburgh’s 2009 art world-themed film, Kentridge and Dumas in Conversation, will make its long-overdue DVD debut on Jan. 31.

Meyburgh, who is an award-winning sound designer and film editor by trade, had the very good fortune of capturing an intimate discussion of Marlene Dumas and William Kentridge featuring their works, from drawings, paintings and their respective involvement in the world of film.

Marlene Dumas was born in Cape Town, South Africa and grew up in the world of apartheid, and found expression of the inequities she witnessed through her art.  Most notably “Evil is Banal” (1984), “The Painter” (1994), “Dorothy D-Lite” (1998), the Yoko Ono-inspired “Jen” as well as the controversial “The Neighbor” (2005) are among her celebrated works.  

Her conversation mate, William Kentridge, was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and took a somewhat different route to fame in the art world.  While, Dumas was immersed, educationally, in the art culture in both South Africa and The Netherlands, Kentridge’s formal education was in Politics and African studies, before abruptly changing direction and studying fire arts at the Johannesburg Art Foundation … thus setting him on a course of blending history and politics with his art.

He is noted for such eclectic works as “Arc/Procession: Develop, Catch Up, Even Surpass” (1990), the animated short film titled Felix in Exile (1994), the visually-impressive, “Sleeper-Red” (1997) and the avant-garde film exhibition in 2008 titled I am not me, the horse is not mine. 

Two very different artists — in both approach and style — Meyburgh captured them on film discussing their works, their respective backgrounds and the process/inspirations that have brought both of them to international fame.

Kentridge and Dumas in Conversation on DVD this coming Jan. 31 from Icarus Films also includes footage of both artists at work in their respective studios.

 

 

Bayview Entertainment Looks To Jan. 31 For The Blu-ray Debut Of A Night Of The Undead

As reported in August, Bayview Entertainment’s acquisition of the UK’s famed horror and cult-cinema distributor, Vipco, would add a wealth of genre-themed films to Bayview’s release schedule going forward.

A prime example is the Blu-ray debut on Jan. 31 of the Vipco-produced film from co-directors Kenny Scott Guffey and Jake C. Young (aka: Jake Eastwood) titled A Night of the Undead.

Was George Romero’s 1968 iconic horror tale, Night of the Living Dead, just a movie … or something more?  

For generations the lore of his flesh-consuming undead has grown to almost mythical status.  It was just a movie, right?   Or, perhaps, a story about what really happened in the Pennsylvania countryside.

This is the question that a quartet of British podcasters want to know.   Real?  Just a legend? 

The group of intrepid investigators includes Adam (Mason Johnson), Judy (Mckenzie Clay — Boone: The Vengeance Trail), Piper (Brianna Phipps — Robin Hood: The Legend Begins) and Brady (Denny Kidd), who set out to see if Romero’s movie was really part of an elaborate cover-up of what really took place back in 1968.

They find the original, now long-abandoned farm house, and decide to launch their podcast from there — of course supplies, booze, and perhaps some “other distractions” (wink wink, nod nod) might be needed between broadcasts.  Things soon go south … are the events of 1968 being repeated!!

For genre-fans this homage to Romero’s classic tale is a must-see on Blu-ray from Bayview Entertainment in the New Year (Jan. 31 street date).

 

 

 

Arrow Video Restores Director Daniel Haller's The Dunwich Horror For Blu-ray Release On Jan. 10

Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has a new 2K film restoration (from the original 35mm camera negative) of director Daniel Haller’s 1970 film adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s 1933 short story, The Dunwich Horror, ready for the Blu-ray marketplace on Jan. 10.

The film is noted — beyond the H.P. Lovecraft connection — for both newcomer Curtis Hanson’s script (his first screen credit … he would, in 1998, win the Oscar for his L.A. Confidential script … and become a noted director with such films as The Bedroom Window, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, The River Wild, 8 Mile and the aforementioned L.A. Confidential) and Sandra Dee in the starring role — very different from her Gidget, Tammy Tell Me True and Tammy and the Doctor roles of the late ‘50s early ‘60s.

Nancy Walker (Sandra Dee) is a student at Miskatonic University, who has a job in the school’s library, which puts her in the right place at the right time to meet Wilbur Whateley (played by the late Dean Stockwell).   That will be a life-changing experience for her!!

It seems that Whateley is the great-grandson of the local legend, Oliver Whateley of Dunwich, who was hung by the town folk way-back-when for being a demon; perhaps even Satan himself.   Just a legend; a story … a myth.

However, Wilbur takes this stuff seriously and has become fixated with the University’s copy of “Necronomicon,” a mysterious book of ancient spells.  He has one spell in mind and it involves the alluring Miss Walker.

The Dunwich Horror is a great ride, featuring a neat twist involving an unseen twin brother … who is even more dangerous than Wilbur.

Bonus goodies include commentary with Guy Adams and Alexandra Benedict and a trio of featurettes — “The Door into Dunwich,” “After Summer After Winter” and “The Sound of Cosmic Terror.”

 

 

 

Mill Creek Entertainment's Ultraman Max Collection Arrives On DVD This Coming Jan. 24

Mill Creek Entertainment’s vast Ultraman franchise will grow by 39 new episodes in the New Year with the Jan. 24 DVD launch of Ultraman Max.

Launch in the summer of 2005, this 19^th “Ultra” series ran through April of the following year and features Touma Kaito (Sota Aoyama) as a down on his luck young man whose dreams of becoming a DASH member seem hopeless — he failed the entrance exam.

But, his courage at a critical moment in the opening episode finds his redemption in the form of bonding with Ultraman Max.   The battle is on episode after thrilling episode for this new DASH recruit as monsters from space continue their attacks on Earth with only Ultraman Max (and a few friends) standing in their way.

But, will Giga Berserker be too much for him?   Jan. 24 with the six-disc collection of Ultraman Max to discover the answer.

The series is presented in Japanese with English subtitles.

 

 

 

Director Francesco Cinquemani’s The Ghosts of Monday On DVD And Blu-ray From Cleopatra Entertainment On Jan. 24

Cleopatra Entertainment, with sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has set Jan. 24 as the release date for both DVD and Blu-ray editions of director Francesco Cinquemani’s The Ghosts of Monday.

A good magician uses misdirection to set up a good trick and that’s what Cinquemani (Christmas Thieves, Beyond the Edge, Lockdown Generation) uses in this classic haunted house thriller.  The obvious … and then the twist!

First, we have the haunted house.   The Hotel Gula on the Island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean, where a series of unexplained deaths have occurred over the years.  Perfect.

Next, you have the “victim pool,” which comes packaged as a television production crew on location to shoot a reality show about the aforementioned unexplained killings.  

So how do you make something we’ve likely seen several times before interesting … magic and misdirection.

It begins with the tension between the show’s producer, Eric (Mark Huberman — Vikings: Valhalla, Band of Brothers), and the show’s star/host Bruce (Julian Sands — Warlock, Arachnophobia, Naked Lunch, etc.), who just so happens to be the father of Eric’s ex-wife, Sofia (Marianna Rosset), who is also part of the production.   Bruce just wants to get this segment shot and in-the-can, suggesting that they fake it … a few spirits (some CGI) and call it a day.

That doesn’t sit well with Eric.   And, it doesn’t help that Sofia is getting bad vibes from the new owners of this horror hotel … and starts seeing “things.”

From the beginning, Eric just doesn’t seem “right” … there is something off about him.   There is something definitely off about Sofia.   But, that’s to be expected in a haunted house thriller.

It’s the third act is where the misdirection of filmmaker Francesco Cinquemani pays off … the twist; the reveal; the terror.  

The Ghosts of Monday on DVD and Blu-ray on Jan. 24 to learn the film magician’s secret.

 

 

 

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Moves Writer/Director Ol Parker's Romantic Comedy Ticket To Paradise Swiftly Home On Dec. 13

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment looks to Dec. 13 as the street date for Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack and DVD editions of writer/director Ol Parker’s romantic comedy, Ticket to Paradise, starring Julia Roberts and George Clooney.

The ARR is a swift-to-market 53 days and domestic box office receipts currently stand at $65.1 million.

Bonus goodies include four featurettes — “Return of the Dynamic Duo,” “Destination Wedding,” “Production in Paradise” and “Keep a Straight Face.”