Cleopatra Entertainment To Release DVD And Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Editions Of Room 37: The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders On May 24

On Apr. 23, 1991, John Anthony Genzale died in New Orleans of mysterious causes.   The local authorities chalked it up to just another drug-related death and closed the case … they moved on.

That could have been the end of it, but Genzale’s stage name was Johnny Thunders, guitarist, songwriter and singer who came to fame with The New York Dolls in the 1970s and then with The Heartbreakers in 1980s.

When a music legend dies of causes that are never fully explained, the life and death of said legend only grows.   John Thunders’ life and death has been the subject of documentary filmmaker Lech Kowalski’s 1999 film, Born to Lose: The Last Rock and Roll Movie, and Danny Garcia’s 2014 documentary, Looking For Johnny: The Legend of Johnny Thunders.   

There have been no less than 15 albums released after his death … and now comes word that filmmakers Fernando Cordero Caballero and Vicente Cordero’s  — aka: The Cordero Brothers — Room 37: The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders, will be heading home as both DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack (with bonus CD) product offerings on May 24 courtesy of Cleopatra Entertainment.   MVD Entertainment Group will be providing sales and distribution support for the film’s home entertainment packaged media launch.

The Cordero Brothers have created a stunning dramatic recreation of the events surrounding Johnny Thunders final days in New Orleans.  Leo Ramsey (Blue Line Station) stars as Johnny Thunders, who checked into Room 37 at the St. Peter House in the French Quarter with a supply of methadone and goal of getting straight.   Only there a short time, he reported that his room had been broken into and that he had been robbed … soon thereafter he was found dead.

Of note, for the past 18-years Room 37 at the St. Peter House in New Orleans has been in constant demand by fans of Johnny Thunders.

The Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack includes a CD of the soundtrack of the Room 37: The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders, which features “Born to Lose,” “Stranded in the Jungle” and “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory,” plus nine other cuts, including New York Dolls’ Sylvain Sylvain’s “There’s Something Wrong.”

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment To Release Batman Theatrical Series As 4K Ultra HD Product Offerings On June 4

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment announced this past week that June 4 will be the street date for an 80^th Anniversary celebration of Bob Kane’s 1939 DC comic book creation, Batman.

To honor Bruce Wayne, Robin, Alfred and the rest of the Batman universe, Warner Bros. will be issuing four separate 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack editions of the films in the “Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher” series featuring Michael Keaton (Batman and Batman Returns), Val Kilmer (Batman Forever) and the George Clooney (Batman & Robin) as the Gotham City crime figher.

Additionally, on Sept. 17 all four films will be released as a boxed set.

Kit Parker Fims Tabs July 16 For The Three-Disc Blu-ray Presentation Of Noir Archive Volume 2: 1954-1956

Kit Parker Films announced this past week that a second volume of film noir treasures will be heading home on July 16 as a three-disc/nine-film Blu-ray collection.   

Titled Noir Archive Volume 2: 1954-1956, we begin — chronologically speaking — with director Hugo Haas’ 1954 film release of Bait, starring Haas (Pickup, Hold Back Tomorrow) as Marko, a hard-beaten prospector who has been in search of a lost mine for nearly two decades.   He teams up with a younger man by the name of Ray (John Agar) and as luck would have it they find the mine!

In one of the most convoluted partnership breakups ever concocted, Marko marries a woman of loose morals by name of Peggy (played by Cleo Moore — Hold Back Tomorrow, The Other Woman, etc.) and plans to use her as bait to seduce Ray into having an affair with her.  In a jealous rage he could then confront his partner, who would end up dead … except nothing goes as planned!

Director and showman extraordinaire, William Castle, served up the film noir/crime thriller, New Orleans Uncensored, in March of 1955.   It was one in a long series of director-for-hire films that Castle delivered to Harry Cohn and Columbia Pictures between 1943 and 1956 … and then he starting producing and directing his own films, and, as they say, the rest is history.

An ex-Navy vet by the name of Dan Corbett (Arthur Franz) ends up working for some shady characters in New Orleans, including killer “Zero” Saxon (Michael Ansara), but ends up working with the police to bring the mob to justice.   

The following month, April of 1955, director Fred Sears saw his film adaptation of Caryl Chessman’s best-selling novel, Cell 2455, Death Row, hit theatres nationwide.   Chessman (played by William Campbell — Escape from Fort Bravo, Love Me Tender The Naked and the Dead, etc.) was convicted and sentenced to death for a series robberies and sexual assaults in the Los Angeles area in 1948 and ends up on death row in San Quentin … the story relates how he got there.

More of a social commentary and crime drama than a film noir, but welcomed in this terrific collection nonetheless … the great irony is that five years later Chessman is executed for “non-lethal” crimes, and yet today California’s prisons are packed with the condemned — who have committed unspeakable and unredeemable acts of torture and murder — who will never meet Chessman’s fate. 

Director Phil Karlson’s June of 1955 film adaptation of novelist Jack Finney’s 1954 pulp fiction, 5 Against the House, is next up in the collection.

Starring Guy Madison, Brian Keith, Kerwin Mathews and Kim Novak, we follow the plans to rob the Harold’s Club in Reno when a group of college kids stumble upon a casino cage hold-up gone wrong … and begin to speculate on what it would take to actually pull such a thing off.   

During the summer months of 1955, writer/director Andrew L. Stone delivered The Night Holds Terror, featuring Jack Kelly, Vince Edwards, John Cassavetes and Hildy Parks.   Gene (Jack Kelly) is on his way home from Edward’s Air Force Base and happens to pick up a hitchhiker by name of Vic (Vince Edwards), who immediately kidnaps his benefactor and picks up two of his buddies, Robert (Cassavetes) and Luther (David Cross) … they are all three escaped convicts.  

The initial plan is to waste Gene, but they end up making him take them back to his place where his wife, Doris (Hildy Parks) and kids await.  A hostage drama, with all the sexual trappings unfolds … of note, in October of the same year director William Wyler’s The Desperate Hours, starring Humphrey Bogart, Fredric March and Martha Scott opened theatrically, it is eerily similar in tone and theme.

Right after Labor Day in 1955, the British import from director Arthur Lubin, Footsteps in the Fog, hit these shores.   This Victorian-era piece, starring murderer Stewart Granger and blackmailer Jean Simmons, finds the pair spending the entire film trying to one-up the other in their game of cat and mouse.   A terrific twist at the end does them both in!

It’s October, the traditional Halloween promotional season, and you’d think that a film with “Dark Web” in the title would be a horror entry complete with spiders and the like, but director Vernon Sewell’s Spin a Dark Web was another British film noirish crime thriller imported for domestic consumption.   

Faith Domergue stars as Bella, the over-sexed sister of SoHo mob boss Rico Francesi (Martin Benson), who spots an ex-G.I. by the name of Jim (Lee Patterson) and convinces her brother to give him a “job” … Jim, enamored with the seductive Bella is a little too slow to realize that he is way in over his head!!

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas in 1955, a normally “dead time” for the movies, director Nathan Juran’s The Crooked Web hit theatres.   Not near as good as Highway Dragnet (1954), but fun just the same, a duplicitous scheme unfolds involving stolen Nazi gold.   

Army buddies Stan (Frank Lovejoy) and Frank (Richard Denning), with Frank’s carhop “sister,” Joanie (Mari Blanchard — as Queen Allura in Abbott and Costello Go to Mars), along for the trip back to Germany, head overseas to recover it, but nothing is as it seems.   Is Stan being set up for a double-cross?   And Joanie seems just a little too friendly (happy) to be with her brother … what’s that all about?   

Kit Parker Films Blu-ray release of Noir Archive Volume 2: 1954-1956 wraps up with the Christmas-of-1956 film release of director Fred Sears’ Rumble on the Docks, starring future teen idol James Darren (Gidget, Gidget Goes Hawaiian) in his screen debut.   Darren is sort of a West Side Story wannabe gang member who gets involved with the big time rackets and has to find a way out of the jam he’s gotten himself into.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Picks May 14 For The Release Of DVD And Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Editions Of Happy Death Day 2U

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment will be celebrating an unusual event on May 14.   What could that possibly be?   How about “Death Day,” as opposed to the celebration of a birthday or some other milestone?

If that is what you have guessed, then you’ve got it right … “Death Day.”  During the Halloween season of 2017 a little film arrived in theatres and found an audience, it was director Christopher Landon’s Happy Death Day, which followed the harrowing adventures of a college student by the name of Theresa, or simply “Tree” (a marvelous performance by Jessica Rothe — as Alexis in La La Land).  

It seems that she had somehow gotten caught up in a time loop and was forced to experience her murder at the hands of a masked figure again and again — much like Bill Murray in Ground Hog Day living the same day over and over again.  No matter what Tree does; no matter what path she takes or what plans she makes, the killer murders her.

Happy Death Day was a fun film that found a way to blend both a traditional slasher story with a wonderful mystery puzzle at the same time.   With a budget that was reported to be under $5 million, it pulled in over $55 million in domestic box office receipts, which was largely driven by word of mouth.   It was a good film and, more importantly, it was different from the cookie-cutter stuff that Hollywood tends to grind out … in the end it found an audience.   

Happy Death Day, with that level of box office performance, you just knew that a sequel had to happen.   And sure enough, director Christopher Landon and actors Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard (as Carter Davis, Tree’s eventual love-interest from the first film), Phi Vu (as Ryan, Davis’ roommate, who keeps walking in on Tree and Carter) and even Lori (Ruby Modine, unmasked as the killer) are back in Happy Death Day 2U.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment announced this past week that it will be heading home on May 14 as both DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack editions.   That date yields an ARR of 88 days and its current domestic box office hauls stands right at $28 million.

Quantum physics, time loops, an alternate dimension and another mystery killer, or is it killers(?), combine for more excitement and mystery.   It’s fun seeing all of the familiar faces from the first film experiencing the “next day” over and over … and Tree caught in a repeat of the previous day!  

As to bonus features, there are a gag reel, a deleted scene and a trio of featurettes  — “The Never-ending Birthday,” “Web of Love: Tree's Nightmare” and “Multiverse 101.”

In other release news from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, May 14 will also see the release of DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack editions of writer/director Stephen Merchant’s Fighting With My Family.

This MGM theatrical release, which chronicles the rise of WWE super star Paige (played by Florence Pugh — The Commuter), arrives with an ARR of 88 days.  Domestic box office receipts currently stand at $22.5 million.

Bonus goodies included commentary by Stephen Merchant, a gag reel, deleted and extended scenes  and a pair of featurettes — “A Family's Passion” and “Learning the Moves.”

Exclusive to the Blu-ray SKU is a director’s cut of the film.

For the period ending March 29, 2019 ... New DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD selections added to the DVD & Blu-ray Release Report's database

 

 

DVD New Additions

 

 

Acorn Media

05/07/19 — Sets No Offence: Series 3 (2 disc set)

Asylum Home Entertainment (MOD)

03/26/19 — Released Zoombies 2

Bayview Entertainment

03/26/19 — Released BodyShaping: Beginner Fitness Workout and McBetter (Italian)

Breakthrough Chinuch (MOD)

03/26/19 — Released Storyline of Chumash, Part 1, Storyline of Chumash, Part 2, Storyline of Chumash, Part 3 and Storyline of Chumash, Part 4

Big Blind Media

03/26/19 — Released Paul Zenon in Linking Rings

Breaking Glass Pictures

03/19/19 — Released Red Room

03/26/19 — Released Pinsky (Russian) and We are Boats

CBS Home Entertainment (MOD)

03/26/19 — Released Missiles of October

Cheezy Flicks

03/26/19 — Released Graveyard (aka: Persecution)

Coaches Choice/Healthy Learning

03/26/19 — Released Arkansas Wide Receiver Fundamentals and Wisconsin Badger Tight End Play

DreamScape Media

03/26/19 — Released Martina and Chrissie: The Greatest Rivalry in the History of Sports and Yukon: Wild Beauty

FilmRise (MOD)

03/26/19 — Released Bachman

Freestyle Digital Media (MOD)

03/26/19 — Released Untogether

Giant Interactive (MOD)

03/26/19 — Released 306 Hollywood (ARR of 179 days; box office: $15,077)

Gravitas Ventures (MOD)

03/26/19 — Released Against the Clock, Aspire to the Sky: The Wilshire Grand Story, Digital Lives Matter, Middle Men and Roof Culture Asia

Hallmark Channel

03/19/19 — Released Chesapeake Shores: Season 3 (2 disc set) and Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Home Again

Harpodeon (MOD)

03/26/19 — Released Early Films of J. Warren Kerrigan (4 silent short films: Three Million Dollars (1911), The Borrowed Flat (1911), Man's Calling (1912), The Dancer (1916))

I-Cine

03/26/19 — Released Mua Cuc Susi (12 disc set), Ngon Gio Doi Toi, Part 1 (15 disc set) and Ngon Gio Doi Toi, Part 2 (15 disc set)

Icarus Films

05/21/19 — Sets Genesis 2.0

Kino Lorber

03/26/19 — Released Bad Banks: Season One (2 disc set) and For a Few Dollars More (2 disc set) and Jivaro

Life is My Movie Ent. (MOD)

03/26/19 — Released Roadtrip Niger and True Cost

Lionsgate Home Ent.

03/26/19 — Released King of Thieves

MHz Home Entertainment

03/26/19 — Released Sandhamn Murders: Volume One (3 disc set), Sandhamn Murders: Volume Two (3 disc set) and Welcome to Hindafing (3 disc set)

MVD Entertainment Group

06/11/19 — Sets The Illusionist

Mill Creek Entertainment

06/04/19 — Sets Drop Dead Diva (12 disc set)

Monarch Home Video

03/26/19 — Released Fortune Defies Death

Motion Picture Video, LLC (MOD)

03/26/19 — Released Evil Beneath the Oldest City in America and Print Masters

NVG

03/26/19 — Released Swell

North Point Resources

03/26/19 — Released Andy Stanley: The Beginner's Guide To Predicting Your Future

PBS Direct

03/19/19 — Released NOVA: Apollo's Daring Mission

03/26/19 — Released Nature: Equus - Story of the Horse, NOVA: Pluto and Beyond and Victoria and Albert: The Wedding

PCN Productions (MOD)

03/26/19 — Released PA Books: Smiling Banjo and PCN Tours: Dangelo's Custom Built

Paramount Home Media

05/07/19 — Sets What Men Want (ARR of 88 days; box office: $54,051,616)

Passion River

03/26/19 — Released When Giants Fall

Random Media (MOD)

03/26/19 — Released Flashout

Rogue Video (MOD)

03/26/19 — Released Bloodlust and Terror

SBTN

03/26/19 — Released SBTN Voice: Finale (2 DVD/2 CD Combo Pack)

Shout! Factory

03/26/19 — Released Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger: The Complete Series (8 disc set)

Smart Mark Video (MOD)

03/26/19 — Released C*4 Wrestling: Reign of Fire - Ottawa, CN, DeathProof Fight Club: Give Us Your Money - Hamilton, ON, F1rst Wrestling: Uptown VFW 5 - Minneapolis, MN, IWA Mid-South: Battle of the Super Juniors - Jeffersonville, IN, IWA Mid-South: In Like a Lion - Jeffersonville, IN and Star Pro Wrestling: Jersey Brawl - Morganville, NJ

T-Series

03/26/19 — Released 52 Non Stop Dilbar Dilbar Remix Songs

The Teaching Company, LLC

03/26/19 — Released Great Tours: Washington D.C. (4 disc set), How to Write Best-Selling Fiction (4 disc set) and Understanding the Quantum World (4 disc set)

20^th Century-Fox Home Ent.

04/23/19 — Sets Destroyer (ARR of 116 days; box office: $1,531,237)

Universal Pictures Home Ent.

03/26/19 — Released MFKZ (French) and Midnight, Texas: Season Two (2 disc set)

05/21/19 — Sets How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (ARR of 88 days; box office: $145,739,695)

VCI Entertainment

05/21/19 — Sets Red Ryder: The Color Westerns - The Complete Cinecolor Collection (4 film set: Ride, Ryder, Ride, Roll, Thunder, Roll, The Fighting Redhead, The Cowboy and the Prizefighter)

VIZ Media

03/26/19 — Released Naruto Shippuden #37 (2 disc set)

Virgil Films & Entertainment

03/19/19 — Released The Oyster Farmers

03/26/19 — Released I Am Richard Pryor

Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.

03/26/19 — Released Kim Possible

Warner Bros. Home Ent.

05/21/19 — Sets Isn’t It Romantic (ARR of 95 days; box office: $47,501,280)

Zima Entertainment

03/26/19 — Released Dibujando El Cielo (Spanish), El Dia De La Union (Spanish) and Loca Por El Trabajon (Spanish)

Blu-ray New Additions

 

Aniplex of America

03/26/19 — Released Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online, Volume 1 (2 disc set)

Cleopatra Records

07/12/19 — Sets Pretenders: With Friends (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with bonus CD)

Eastern Star

03/26/19 — Released Beyblade G-Revolution and Star Fleet X-Bomber

FUNimation

03/26/19 — Released Bikini Warriors (with Digital Copy), Darling in the FranXX, Part 1 (2 Blu-ray/2 DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy), Katana Maidens, Part 1 (2 disc set) (with Digital Copy), Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Season One (2 Blu-ray/2 DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy), Ninja Slayer (2 disc set) (with Digital Copy), Rampo Kitan: Game of Laplace - The Complete Collection (2 disc set) (with Digital Copy) and Star Blazers Space Battleship Yatmato 2202, Part 1 (2 Blu-ray/2 DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

Gravitas Ventures (MOD)

03/26/19 — Released Against the Clock, Aspire to the Sky: The Wilshire Grand Story, Digital Lives Matter, Middle Men and Roof Culture Asia

Kino Lorber

03/26/19 — Released For a Few Dollars More, Iceman Cometh (2 disc set), Jivaro 3D, Road to Morocco, Road to Singapore, Road to Utopia, Road to Zanzibar and Tarnished Angels

Life is My Movie Entertainment (MOD)

03/26/19 — Released True Cost

Lionsgate Home Ent.

03/26/19 — Released King of Thieves (with Digital Copy)

MVD Entertainment Group

06/11/19 — Sets The Illusionist

Mill Creek Entertainment

06/11/19 — Sets Double Team, Excess Baggage, Jury Duty and Opportunity Knocks

Motion Picture Video, LLC (MOD)

03/26/19 — Released Dueling Dragons, Evil Beneath the Oldest City in America, Ghosts Behind the Screen and Print Masters

PCN Productions (MOD)

03/26/19 — Released PA Books: Smiling Banjo and PCN Tours: Dangelo's Custom Built

Paramount Home Media

05/07/19 — Sets What Men Want (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

06/04/19 — Sets Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Season One (2 disc set)

Random Media (MOD)

03/26/19 — Released Flashout

Sentai FilmWorks

03/26/19 — Released Saiyuki: Complete Collection (3 disc set)

Shout! Factory

03/26/19 — Released Body Snatcher, Brighton Beach Memoir, Perfect Blue (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (Japanese), Street Fighter Collection (3 film set: The Streetfighter, Return of the Street Fighter, The Street Fighter's Last Revenge) (Japanese) (3 disc set) and Warning Sign

Smart Mark Video (MOD)

03/26/19 — Released F1rst Wrestling: Uptown VFW 5 - Minneapolis, MN

Sony Pictures Home Ent.

03/26/19 — Released Multiplicity, Squeeze and White Nights

20^th Century-Fox Home Ent.

03/26/19 — Released Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

04/23/19 — Sets Destroyer (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

Universal Pictures Home Ent.

03/26/19 — Released MFKZ (French) (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy) and Midnight, Texas: Season Two (2 disc set)

05/21/19 — Sets How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

Warner Bros. Home Ent.

05/21/19 — Sets Isn’t It Romantic (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

4K Ultra HD New Additions

Lionsgate Home Ent.

04/02/19 — Sets Hell Boy Animated Double Feature (2 film set: Sword of Storms, Blood and Iron) (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

05/21/19 — Sets Crank (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

Universal Pictures Home Ent.

05/21/19 — Sets How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack) (Digital Copy)