Coming DVDs

[Precious Doll]

Fox and MGM Home Entertainment have announced the Region 1 DVD release of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Two-Disc Collector’s Edition) on 7th August 2007 priced at $19.98 SRP. A horror classic in which a small group discovers that the human race is quietly being supplanted by alien beings devoid of emotion, the edgy thriller is directed Philip Kaufman and stars Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Veronica Cartwright and sci-fi icon Leonard Nimoy. A remake of the 1956 propaganda masterpiece, this two-disc collectors edition it timed to coincide with the August theatrical release of The Invasion, the latest re-imagining of the timeless story starring Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam and Jeffrey Wright.

Features include…

Disc One: Main Feature
English Dolby Surround, Spanish Stereo and French Mono
English and Spanish subtitles
Audio Commentary by director Philip Kaufman

Disc Two: Extra Features
Re-Visitors From Outer Space or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Pod featurette
Practical Magic: The Special Effect Pod featurette
The Man Behind The Scream: The Sound Effects Pod featurette
The Invasion Will Be Televised: The Cinematography Pod featurette
Original Theatrical Trailer

[Precious Doll]

Warner Home Video have announced the Region 1 DVD release of The Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland Collection: Ultimate Collector’s Edition on 25th September 2007. Warner celebrates the incomparable talents of the legendary dynamic entertainment duo, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland with this new set which features Mickey and Judy singing, dancing, clowning and lifting spirits in the four “backyard musical’ extravaganzas that forever cemented their reputation as one of Hollywood’s most beloved screen teams. The M-G-M musical classics in this collection, finally making their first appearance on DVD, are the duo’s most famous and successful teamings: Babes in Arms, Babes on Broadway, Strike Up the Band and Girl Crazy.

This new five-disc DVD collection also includes a separate Bonus Disc of special features, with nearly three hours of essential viewing for Rooney & Garland fans, including Private Screenings with Mickey Rooney, an in-depth, deeply personal interview hosted by TCM’s Robert Osborne, and The Judy Garland Songbook, an unprecedented collection of 21 Garland movie musical numbers, both famous and rare, spanning nearly 20 years of her amazing screen career, with all songs presented in complete form. The bonus disc also features an extensive Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland trailer gallery.

Each movie in the collection has a newly-filmed, exclusive introduction by Mickey Rooney as well as vintage comedy shorts, cartoons and radio promos. Memorabilia that no fan will be able to resist rounds out the set with a portfolio of 20 collectible rare behind-the-scenes photos and a collectable guide to the set, featuring vintage memorabilia, promotional advertisements, and other rarities, along with production notes written by noted film historian John Fricke. Fricke also provides commentary on two of the films. The Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland Ultimate Collector’s Edition will be sold as a complete set only, in beautiful keepsake packaging, for $49.92 SRP.

“Our “Ultimate Collector's Edition” line is reserved for the crown jewels of the huge Warner library,” said George Feltenstein, WHV's Senior Vice President Theatrical Catalog Marketing “As we did for Fred & Ginger fans last year, we’re delighted to be doing the same for the timeless films Mickey and Judy made during M-G-M’s ‘golden age.’ We're especially thrilled that Mickey Rooney was kind enough to film new introductions. It adds a personal touch that makes this new collection all the more meaningful.”



The Films
Babes in Arms (1939)
Babes in Arms, is considered the quintessential Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland musical. Freely adapted from the 1937 Rodgers and Hart Broadway hit of the same name, it marked the producing debut of Arthur Freed, who would go on to create some of the greatest musical films in motion picture history. To direct the film, Freed hired the legendary Busby Berkeley, who had recently migrated from Warner Bros. to Metro, and Berkeley neatly handled the film’s direction and choreography, with the results being a total sensation. The film went into production immediately after the completion (but before the release of) The Wizard of Oz (1939), and Oz fans will be amused to find “The Wicked Witch of the West” actress Margaret Hamilton, once again taking on the role of screen villainess. The semi-autobiographical plot features Rooney playing Mickey Moran, the talented son of a vaudeville team, who rounds up all his fellow child entertainers to stage a fund-raiser show to help out his financially-strapped folks. Variety called it “a topflight filmusical entertainment.”

Warner Home Video’s new DVD presents the home video premiere of the film as originally released in 1939. Previous video incarnations represented the film as it was cut for reissue after the end of World War II, when M-G-M removed a charming sequence featuring Mickey and Judy impersonating Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt. At the time, Metro felt the public would not want to see the recently deceased F.D.R. parodied on film, but unfortunately, the studio did not retain any film materials from this deleted number, as it had been cut out of all negatives and prints. Using a recently discovered collector’s print as source material, the sequence “Roosevelt” sequence (a/k/a “My Day”) has been permanently restored to the film.

DVD Special Features:
Introduction by Mickey Rooney
Commentary by historian John Fricke
Vintage Our Gang short Duel Personalities
Classic cartoon The Mad Maestro
1939 Newsreel with Mickey and Judy
Audio-only bonuses:
Leo Is on the Air radio promo
3 different radio shows with Rooney and Garland
Theatrical Trailer

Strike up the Band (1940)
Mickey plays Jimmy Connors, the leader of his high school band hoping to compete in a nationwide radio contest. Judy is his girlfriend and chief vocalist. Famed orchestra leader Paul Whiteman appears in the film, which is highlighted by a massive Busbv Berkeley production number called “Do The La Conga” and Mickey shows off his percussive skills in the “Drummer Boy” sequence. The film also features the Oscar-nominated song “Our Love Affair” and a rousing finale with the Gershwins’ title tune.

DVD Special Features:
Introduction by Mickey Rooney
Pete Smith specialty comedy short Wedding Bills
Classic cartoon Romeo in Rhythm
“Do the La Conga” stereo remix version
Audio-only bonuses:
Leo Is on the Air radio promo
Millions for Defense radio special with Mickey and Judy
Additional radio show with Rooney and Garland
Theatrical Trailer

Babes on Broadway (1941)
This musical treat showcases the teenage duo’s talents as they come up with the idea to produce a show to send orphaned children on a country holiday, as well as to promote their beginning careers. The film gave Mickey and Judy the opportunity to introduce the now-famous ballad “How About You’, as well as Mickey’s unforgettable impersonation of Carmen Miranda. The film ends with a massive Busby Berkeley production extravaganza, which was one of the highlights of M-G-M’s hit musical compilation That’s Entertainment! in 1974.

DVD Special Features:
Introduction by Mickey Rooney
Pete Smith Specialty comedy short How to Hold Your Husband Back
Classic cartoon Dance of the Weed
Audio-only bonuses:
Two Leo Is on the Air Radio Promos
Radio Show Adaptation of Merton of the Movies with Rooney and Garland
Chin Up! Cheerio! Carry On Song Demo performed by composer Burton Lane
Theatrical Trailer

Girl Crazy (1943)
George and Ira Gershwin’s 1930 Broadway hit served as the basis for Mickey and Judy’s last starring picture together. The tunes are sublime -- "Embraceable You," "Fascinating Rhythm," “Bidin’ My Time,” and a beautiful Garland solo on "But Not for Me." The plot has rich playboy Rooney, sent away to an all-male college out West as a way of keeping him in check, and the only gal in town is Judy, the granddaughter of the school's dean. Busby Berkeley staged the colossal dude-ranch finale to the Gershwin standard, "I Got Rhythm”, with Mickey, Judy, and a cast of hundreds, all accompanied by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra. Look for a special appearance by a very young June Allyson singing “Treat Me Rough.”

DVD Special Features:
Introduction by Mickey Rooney
Commentary by historian John Fricke
Vintage short Hollywood Daredevils
Classic cartoon The Early Bird Dood It
I Got Rhythm stereo remix version
Audio-only bonus: Bronco Busters Outtake
Theatrical Trailer

The Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland Collection- Bonus Disc
Private Screenings with Mickey Rooney - 1996 TCM special hosted by Robert Osborne
The Judy Garland Songbook- A superb collection of 21 complete, magical Judy Garland musical numbers spanning her many films from 1936-1954
Mickey and Judy Trailer Gallery

[Damien]

Ohhhh, I'm so excited! Set your calendars for 8/14, and bring your shoulder pads!

It was in its second season that Dynasty started being fun. Before that it was just a Dallas clone which took itself way too seriously.

[Penelope]

Ohhhh, I'm so excited! Set your calendars for 8/14, and bring your shoulder pads!

[Big Magilla]

Thanks, Damien, for bringing this to our attention.

Universal's Classic Western Round-Up Volumes 1 and 2 fell below the radar for two reasons, Universal's crappy packaging which makes both sets look like the myriad of public domain western packages available and their usual lack of promotion.

Canyon Passage, aside from being Tournour's first western, is also notable for Hoagy Carmichael's Oscar nominated ballad, Old Buttermilk Sky which he sings in the film.

King Vidor's The Texas Rangers is one of the best westerns of the 30s with a cast that includes Fred MacMurray, Jack Oakie, Jean Parker and Lloyd Nolan. It was remade as Streets of Loredo with William Holden and William Bendix.

Kansas Raiders, directed by Ray Enright, isn't that bad a film, focusing on the early days of Jesse James and his stint with Quantrill's Raiders. Audie Murphy is Jesse James, Brian Donlevy is Quantrill, Tony Curtis is Kit Dalton, Dewey Martin is James Younger and Richard Arlen is a union officer.

Raoul Walsh's The Lawless Breed is about John Wesley Hardin as played by Rock Hudson. Future TV western stars Hugh O'Brian and Dennis Weaver are in the cast.

The second set in the collection features James P. Hogan's routine The Texans (1938) with Joan Bennett, Randolph Scott, May Robson, Walter Brennan and Robert Cummings; John Farrow over-reaching California (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck, Ray Milland, Barry Fitzgerald and Anthony Quinn; Budd Boetticher's exciting The Cimarron Kid (1952) with a good Audie Murphy performance and Boetticher's less remembered The Man From the Alamo with Glenn Ford and Hugh O'Brian in his Golden Globe award winning role.

[Damien]

Dave Kehr -- hands down the best writer at the New York Times (well, okay there is Paul Krugman) -- recently wrote this about Canyon Passage:

Classic Western Round-Up: Volume 1
There is one excellent reason to pick up Universal's ''Classic Western Round-Up: Volume 1,'' and that is Jacques Tourneur's 1946 ''Canyon Passage,'' a western that resembles no other and remains one of the great unsung achievements of American filmmaking.

There are two more good reasons to pick up the set: King Vidor's handsome, rarely seen ''Texas Rangers'' from 1936, and Raoul Walsh's ''Lawless Breed,'' a colorful 1953 vehicle for a young Rock Hudson.

The ringer here, and there had to be one, is ''Kansas Raiders,'' a dull Audie Murphy vehicle from 1950 that has the small virtue of functioning as a palate-cleanser between the other grand dishes on the menu. With the two-disc set listing for a reasonable $26.98, you can consider ''Kansas Raiders'' a freebie, though, like all the films in the box, it has been given a first-class presentation in what looks to be a spanking-new Technicolor print.

But back to ''Canyon Passage.'' This rainy, nocturnal Western comes right before the great film noir ''Out of the Past'' in Tourneur's filmography, and stands in a similar relationship to its genre: a reflective, lyrical interpretation of a set of themes and images most often associated with violence.

This was the first western directed by the French-born Tourneur (1904-1977), and consciously or not, he seems to be breaking most of the established rules of the game. It is, for one thing, the only western I know in which space seems to flow vertically rather than horizontally, following the ups and downs of the mountainous terrain in which the film is set, rather than playing out along ''the horizon line of history,'' as Andrew Sarris described John Ford's epic visualization of the West.

The setting is a small settlement in an isolated Oregon valley, somewhere in the unexplored country that extends -- infinitely, it would seem -- west from Denver. The outpost is densely populated, even though you feel you could hold it in the palm of your hand: there's the restless local entrepreneur, who dreams of founding a shipping empire (Dana Andrews); the tinhorn gambler (Brian Donlevy) engaged to the spirited frontier woman (Susan Hayward); the proper English rose (Patricia Roc) who lost her family in an Indian raid, and is drawing the Andrews character's attention; the thuggish interloper (Ward Bond) who threatens to disrupt the delicate peace with the surrounding Indians; and, most remarkably, a local bard (the great Hoagy Carmichael), a lunar figure who observes the action from a distance (''the moon is my silver saddle,'' he sings, strumming on his faithful lute) and seems ultimately and magically to preside over the fates of these star-crossed characters.

The little settlement is tenuous and unstable, a condition made real by Tourneur's arrangement of tiny shops and homes clinging to the steep side of a valley. There is no level playing field here, and no easy way of separating the good citizens from the bad, the progressives from the hustlers, and the racist thugs from the settlers reluctantly facing up to the moral nature of their mission.

''The Indians live here,'' says a mule-skinner played by Andy Devine. ''We're on their land. They ain't likely to forget that.'' He concedes without a second thought that the original residents occupy the moral high ground.

It's been said that ''Out of the Past,'' with its careful moral gradations reflected in the range of Tourneur's famously subtle lighting, is less a film noir than a film gris, painted in half-tones. ''Canyon Passage'' achieves something similar in Technicolor, trading that process's burning hot tones for a naturalistic palette of browns, greens and grays. Many dialogue scenes take place outdoors, where Tourneur is able to use a soft light filtered through a canopy of leaves to cast a silent spell of intimacy.

''Canyon Passage'' has a plot -- something to do with a mounting threat from the hostile Indian bands that surround the village -- but it's really about the shifting loyalties and affections of the main characters. We sense from the beginning that the pairings are wrong (if only because the stars, Mr. Andrews and Ms. Hayward, have been coupled with the supporting players, Ms. Roc and Mr. Donlevy), a guarantee -- in fiction from Shakespeare on -- that they will be correct in the end.

All of the beauty in ''Canyon Passage'' lies in the invisible connections Tourneur's moving camera makes between the characters and the off-kilter landscape, comparing and contrasting, lifting up and looking down. Thank you, Universal, for treating this treasure with the respect it deserves. (Universal Home Video, $26.98, not rated)

[Precious Doll]

Optimum Home Entertainment have announced the UK DVD release of four classic Westerns on 27th August 2007. Barebones, priced at £12.99 each and all making their UK DVD debuts are…

Canyon Passage (1946)
Jacques Tourneur’s (Out of the Past, Cat People) first Western is a lost classic, regarded by some as an equal to the work of the great John Ford.

Dana Andrews plays Logan Stuart a scout turned general store and freight company owner, based in the mining settlement of Jacksonville, Oregon. Logan's best friend is George Camrose (Brian Donlevy), a banker and express company owner with an addiction to poker. When a gambling debt turns sour leading to accusations of murder, George is sentenced to death by a kangaroo court but Logan helps him escape. Meanwhile, Indians go on the warpath when the town’s brutish Bragg (Ward Bond) kills a young Indian woman.

Also featuring Susan Hayward and Patricia Roc as women vying for Logan’s attentions and the incomparable Hoagy Carmichael as a wandering minstrel, Canyon Passage is a deft blend of action, romance and colourful location scenery.

Seminole (1953)
Directed by the great Budd Boetticher (Ride Lonesome, Comanche Station and East of Sumatra), Seminole is notable for offering a sympathetic representation of Native Americans.

Rock Hudson stars as officer Lance Caldwell who is assigned to Fort King in the Everglades. A boyhood friend of Seminole Indian chief Osceola (Anthony Quinn), Caldwell opposes the maniacal Major Degan’s (Richard Carlson) plans to wipe out the local Seminole tribe. Caldwell is rescued by Osceola after a violent battle and finds himself swiftly court-martialled. When Osceola returns to Fort King in an attempt to initiate peace he is brutally murdered and Caldwell framed for the crime. Can truth prevail?

Superior western fare tautly scripted from his own story by Charles K. Peck Jr., Seminole thrillingly meshes action, betrayal and racial politics. Look out for Lee Marvin as surly cavalry Sergeant Magruder.

The True Story of Jesse James (1957)
A welcome return to the western genre for Nicholas Ray after Hot Blood, Bigger Than Life and Rebel Without A Cause, The True Story of Jesse James offers a compelling look at the Jesse James legend.

As Jesse James (Robert Wagner, Broken Lance) attempts to evade the law, those who know him best – his brother Frank (Jeffrey Hunter, The Searchers), wife (Hope Lange, Peyton Place) and mother (Agnes Moorehead, All That Heaven Allows) – ponder the question, "What turned this simple farm boy to a life of lawlessness?" And as Jesse continues his ride into notoriety, the key events in his life are scrutinized in a desperate attempt to close in on him for good.

Featuring a compelling performance from Wagner as one of the key anti-establishment figures in American history, Ray freely adapts the original Nunnally Johnson script, depicting James as an archetypal Ray character, beset by feelings of disenchantment and disillusioned by the cruelties of adult life.

Deadly Companions (1961)
A Western set in the late 1860s, Sam Peckinpah's first feature as director offers a tantalising glimpse into the future of one of American cinema’s most uncompromising filmmakers.

Yellowleg (Brian Keith, The Parent Trap), a former sergeant in the Union army takes up with a couple of ne’er do wells (Chill Wills, The Alamo and Steve Cochran, The Best Years of our Lives) and attempts to pull off a daring bank robbery. In the ensuing shoot out he accidentally kills the nine-year-old son of dance-hall hostess Kit Tilden (Maureen O'Hara, The Quiet Man). Riddled with remorse, Yellowleg seeks atonement by escorting the funeral procession through dangerous Apache territory to the gravesite of Kit’s husband.

Though less driven by the violent, visual pyrotechnics that defined later Peckinpah works, The Deadly Companions looks forward to The Wild Bunch in its shot of a children fighting with sticks in the street and a sequence featuring a hypocritical parson holding a church service in a saloon. Ripe for re-discovery, this is a powerful and surprisingly moving parable about the powers of redemption.

[Precious Doll]

Great to see Senso getting a decent release at last.

Optimum Home Entertainment continues their aggressive release schedule with four additional titles scheduled for release in July…

9th July 2007

The Conquest of Everest - £12.99 - Nominated for the Oscar and winner of the BAFTA for Best Documentary Feature, this is the inspiring story of man’s first conquest of the world’s highest mountain. Made in 1953, the film documents the breathtaking ascent of Everest by Hunt, Hillary, Tensing et al, directed by fellow expedition member George Lowe.

Barebones, the film is presented in 1.33:1 Full Frame with English Mono audio.

Senso - £17.99 - Venice. 1866. After a night walking the empty streets of the ancient city together, a countess (Alida Valli, The Third Man) falls in love with an Austrian officer (Farley Granger, Strangers on A Train) and becomes his mistress. War breaks out and separates them until she eventually finds him again in the throes of battle against the Italians. Betraying both her principles and her cause, she tries to reform him with cruel and tragic consequences for them both…

Directed by Italian legend Luchino Visconti, Senso makes its UK DVD debut, remastered and presented in 1.33:1 Full Frame with Italian Mono and English subtitles. There are no listed extras.

23rd July 2007

Silent Tongue - £17.99 - The last River Phoenix film to be released – a year after his premature death - Silent Tongue has never been out before on UK DVD. Written and directed by Pulitzer Prize winner Sam Shepard, the film is a haunting Western about a plainsman who will do anything to help his son get over the death of his Native American wife and baby in childbirth. Also stars Dermot Mulroney, Richard Harris and Alan Bates.

Specs are TBC.

The Minus Man - £12.99 - Unavailable in the UK before, The Minus Man is a psychological thriller starring Owen Wilson as a serial killer named Vann. After dispatching of his latest victim on a lonely highway, Vann moves to a sleepy sea-side town and in with unhappily married couple Doug (Brian Cox) and Jane (Mercedes Ruehl). Quietly and insidiously insinuating his way into the fabric of the town, Vann patiently waits for his latest target to reveal himself. Just as the last was an asthmatic junkie (Sheryl Crow) who screamed for him to put her out of her misery, Vann believes the next victim will somehow welcome his “intervention” in their lonely and pointless life. However, increasingly frequent blackouts, a burgeoning relationship with a postal clerk (Janeane Garofolo) and the dogged determination of a pair of cops soon threaten to unmask the killer at last…

A barebones release, specs are TBC.

--------------

Also scheduled for a July release but not yet officially announced is a 7-Disc Dirk Bogard Screen Icons collection (expected to include Accident, The Servant, The Blue Lamp, King & Country, The Sleeping Tiger, Hunted and The Spanish Gardener) and a 5-Disc James Mason Screen Icons collection (expected to include 5 Fingers, The Man Between, Man in Grey, Odd Man Out, and The Bells Go Down). Look out for news items on those just as soon as the press releases come in…

[Precious Doll]

Optimum Home Entertainment have announced the UK DVD release of three titles starring Gerard Depardieu on 9th July 2007. Buffet Froid (previously released by Warner) joins two titles making their UK DVD debuts in July - Helas Pour Moi and Camille Claudel.

Priced at £17.99 each, Buffet Froid is listed as “Fully re-mastered” while all titles are presented in their original aspect ratios with French Stereo sound and English subtitles. There are no extras.

Buffet Froid (1979)
From the Oscar-winning director of another Depardieu classic: Trop Belle Pour Toi, Betrand Blier brings us this blackly comic tale of a young unemployed man Alphonse, his neighbour, policeman Inspector Morvandieu and their unwitting involvement in a series of murders. An impressionistic look at life and alienation in modern city that also stars Bernard Blier, Carole Bouquet and Jean Carmet.

Helas Pour Moi (1993)
Based on the Greek myth of Amphitryon and Alcmene, Helas Pour Moi sees Jean-Luc Godard transplant the story to a tiny Swiss village, the story narrated by a publisher named Klimt who travels there to explore the veracity of the extraordinary tale. Depardieu plays Simon, whose body was apparently briefly inhabited by God wishing to experience physical love: having been inspired by the beauty of Simon’s wife Rachel. Within this narrative framework, Godard continues to push the boundaries of linear cinema with a contemplative, spiritual vision that is both perplexing and revelatory to the viewer whilst undoubtedly mesmeric in its imagery and tone.

Camille Claudel (1988)
Camille Claudel (Isabelle Adjani) was a gifted sculptress whose talents were perhaps never fully realized as she struggled for control over her artistic and emotional destiny following a tumultuous 15-year relationship with Auguste Rodin (Depardieu). This award-winning film tells the story of their affair, from Rodin’s hiring of Camille as his assistant, through her transformation to mistress and muse, to the eventual decline of their relationship and subsequently her mind.

[Precious Doll]

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment have announced the Region 1 DVD release of 20 Million Miles to Earth: 50th Anniversary Edition on 31st July 2007 priced at $24.95 SRP. Sony marks the half-century milestone of one of the earliest films by stop-motion animation genius Ray Harryhausen with this 50th Anniversary Edition of 20 Million Miles to Earth. The film, which depicts the destruction of Rome by a reptile from the planet Venus, was directed by Nathan Juran (The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, First Men ‘in’ the Moon) and stars William Hopper (The Bad Seed) and Joan Taylor (Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers). In addition to the pristine, digitally-restored black & white original, the classic film will now be available in a newly colourized version supervised by Harryhausen himself.

In a recent interview, Harryhausen said “I am thrilled that this film is finally being seen in colour. I had wanted to do the film in colour in the 1950s, but our budget was not large enough to accommodate that luxury. Now, thanks to the marvellous advances made in the colourization process by San Diego’s Legend Films and others, audiences will be able to see 20 Million Miles to Earth as I originally intended.”

The two-disc set also features extensive bonus features including commentary by Harryhausen and multiple featurettes.

Features include:
English Mono and English subtitles
Audio Commentary by Ray Harryhausen and Other Visual Effects Specialists
Featurettes:
Remembering 20 Million Miles to Earth
Tim Burton Sits Down with Ray Harryhausen
The Joan Taylor Interview
Colourization
Mischa Bakaleinikoff: Film Music’s Unsung Hero
A Video Discussion of 20 Million Miles to Earth’s 1957 marketing and advertising campaign by producer Arnold Kunert
Still and Production Art Gallery
Sneak Peek of Digital Comic Book 20 Million Miles More

[Precious Doll]

Very similar to the package released in the US late 2005...

Optimum Home Entertainment have announced the UK DVD release of Harold Lloyd: The Definitive Collection on 9th July 2007. Harold Lloyd was one of the great comic stars of the cinema, a genius on a par with Chaplin and Keaton. Born in Burchard, Nebraska, on April 20, 1893 Lloyd was acting at an early age with theatrical repertory companies. He made his film debut as an extra in a 1913 one-reel film for the Edison Film Company. He became friends with another extra, Hal Roach, and when Roach formed his own film company, he invited Lloyd to join him.

Lloyd’s initial comic characterization was a tramp character called Willie Work. After a series of partings over money and subsequent reconciliations, Roach and Lloyd created a new character, called Lonesome Luke, which became popular, despite Lloyd’s dislike of imitating Charlie Chaplin, which the film distributor, Pathé, demanded.

Then Lloyd found the idea that was to become his trademark, and change him from a good comedian to a major star: the glasses. Lloyd persuaded Roach and his distributor to abandon Lonesome Luke and in 1917 Lloyd shed grotesque comedy clothes and characterizations for a pair of horn-rimmed glasses. In doing so, Lloyd created an American archetype, an optimistic and determined go-getter sporting spectacles and a toothy smile.

Lloyd retained the “Glass Character” (as Lloyd called his comic persona) throughout the rest of his motion picture career, which spanned 34 years and over 200 comedies. Among his most famous films are Grandma's Boy (1922), Safety Last! (1923), The Freshman (1925), The Kid Brother (1927), Speedy (1928), and Movie Crazy (1932), all included here amongst many other gems in this most comprehensive of collections.

This 9-disc collection holds 16 features and 12 short films along with exclusive extra features.

A breakdown of each disc follows…

Disc 1:

Features: Safety Last! and Girl Shy
Shorts: An Eastern Westerner (24mins)
Extras: Safety Last! commentary and mini biographies (29mins)

Disc 2:

Features: The Cat’s Paw and The Milky Way
Extras: Harold’s Hollywood Featurette (8mins)

Disc 3:

Features: Why Worry?, Dr. Jack and Feet First

Disc 4:

Features: The Kid Brother
Shorts: Bumping into Broadway (25mins) and Billy Blazes, Esq. (13mins)
Extras: Home Movies (28mins), Leonard Maitlin Featurette (20mins)

Disc 5:

Features: Hot Water
Shorts: Now or Never (35mins), High and Dizzy (26mins) and Get Out and Get Under (25mins)
Extras: Greenacres Featurette (15mins), Remembering Harold Featurette (11mins), Keep ‘Em Rollin Featurette (15mins) and Finding Harold Featurette (3mins)

Disc 6:

Features: Speedy and Grandma’s Boy
Shorts: Never Weaken (29mins) and Haunted Spooks (25mins)

Disc 7:

Features: A Sailor-Made Man and For Heaven’s Sake
Shorts: Number, Please? (25mins), Among Those Present (35mins) and I Do (24mins)

Disc 8:

Features: Movie Crazy and Welcome Danger
Extras: From the Vault (47mins)

Disc 9:

Features: The Freshman
Shorts: From Hand to Mouth (22mins) and Ask Father (13mins)

[Precious Doll]

Optimum Home Entertainment have announced the UK DVD release of Screen Icons: Jean-Paul Belmondo on 25th June 2007 priced at £34.99. A key face of the French New Wave and one of France’s most famous actors, Jean-Paul Belmondo was born in 1933 in Neuilly-sur Seine. As a youth Belmondo trained as a boxer before deciding that his future lay in acting. After a number of attempts, he finally gained admittance to the Paris Conservatoire in 1952.

Making the transition from stage to screen in the mid-fifties, Belmondo notched up impressive early credits, including Les Copains du Dimanche (1957) and his first co-starring role with fellow French idol Alain Delon in Sois Belle et Tais-Toi. After turning in a restrained performance in Chabrol’s Á Double Tour, Belmondo forever seared himself onto the consciousness of critics, public and filmmakers alike in Godard’s A Bout De Souffle. With his inimitable, roguish smile, unique looks, and witty yet moody performance as doomed thief and Bogart aficionado Michel Poiccard, Belmondo perfectly embodied the cool youthful rebellion guiding Godard's trailblazing cinematic style. Re-united with Godard on numerous occasions, most notably perhaps on the similarly audacious romance-musical-gangster-road movie Pierrot Le Fou, the other director with whom Belmondo is perhaps most closely associated is noir master, Jean Pierre Melville (Le Doulos).

Continuing to test himself with challenging roles and working with Europe’s finest filmmakers throughout the 1960s and early 70s (with Alain Resnais’ complex quaisi-historical drama Stavisky being a particular highlight), Belmondo also managed to segue into more commercial fare and entertaining genre pictures that emphasized a lean physique and charismatic loner persona. A hard-edged action thriller, Le Professional is a perfect and popular example of this strand of Belmondo’s career.

After an amazing film career spanning thirty years (receiving a Cesar in 1989 for his performance in Itinéraire D'un Enfant Gaté), Jean-Paul Belmondo remains one of the most popular and best-loved personalities in France and he has received France’s highest accolade, the Legion of Honour.

This Screen Icons collection features five of the aforementioned titles including Godard’s A Bout de Suffle and Pierrot Le Fou, Chabrol’s A Double Tour, Georges Lautner’s Le Professionel and Alain Resnais’ Stavisky.

All titles are presented in their original aspect ratios with original audio and English subtitles. Extras include:

A Bout de Suffle - Charlotte Et Son Jules, Trailer, Posters & Stills Gallery.

Pierreot Le Fou - Commentary by Jean-Bernard Pouy, trailer, Posters & DVD Sleeves gallery, German TV spot, press kit and introduction by Colin MacCabe, author of the book Godard: A Portrait of the Artist at Seventy.

[Precious Doll]

Optimum Home Entertainment have announced the UK DVD release of Family Life on 25th June 2007 priced at £17.99. This 1971 drama-documentary from acclaimed director Ken Loach (The Wind That Shakes The Barley) sees a teenage girl’s behavioural problems lead her family and doctor to try aggressive psychiatric treatments in order to cure her.

A UK DVD premiere the film has been re-mastered for this release and is presented in 1.33:1 Full Frame with English stereo sound. There are no announced extras.

[Precious Doll]

Optimum Home Entertainment have announced the UK DVD release of two films as part of their new Amicus Classics series on 25th June 2007. In I, Monster Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee star in the Amicus take on the horror staple Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde while The Beast Must Die also stars Cushing as a scientist, this time trying to find a werewolf in his midst with an audience participation twist.

Presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen and 1.33:1 Full Frame respectively, both feature English Mono audio and no extras. The Beast Must Die is “fully remastered”.

Also from Optimum on 25th June 2007 are another two titles on their Horror Classics line. Hazel Court and Dermot Walsh star in Ghost Ship as a young couple who decide to buy a luxury steamboat for a romantic getaway, but wrongly scoff at warnings that it’s haunted. Dr. Crippen is the true story of the American Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen (Donald Pleasence), who was hanged in London in 1910 for poisoning his wife, Belle, so he could be with his young lover, the darkly beautiful Ethel Le Neve. As the adulterous couple fled England, Belle’s dismembered remains are discovered in the coal cellar. Crippen and Ethel are finally arrested en route to North America by ship. Billed as the crime of the century at the time, was Crippen really guilty?

Dr. Crippen is “fully remastered”, presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen while Ghost Ship is 1.33:1 Full Frame. Both feature English Mono and no extras.

Retail on all titles is £9.99.

[Precious Doll]

Optimum Home Entertainment have announced the UK DVD release of The Anna Neagle Collection on 25th June 2007 priced at £39.99. Anna Neagle was born in Forest Gate, Essex in 1904 and was to become the most beloved star of WW2 British cinema, voted the nation’s favourite actress seven years in a row after the war. Her career began as a dancer in the chorus line at the age of 14, and by the 1920s she began to appear regularly in West End musicals. Whilst attending a performance to consider one of her co-stars for a role in his latest film, the director Herbert Wilcox was smitten by Anna, and so began one of the most enduring and successful partnerships British cinema has ever seen. The couple married in 1943 and made over 30 films together with Anna as star and Herbert as director.

This six-film collection includes…

Victoria The Great (1937) was made to capitalize on the royal fever of Coronation Summer, 1937 and features a final Diamond Jubilee sequence resplendent in Technicolor. Neagle stars as Queen Victoria opposite Anton Walbrook (The Red Shoes, The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp). The film was also a huge hit in US, the success there spawning the sequel Sixty Glorious Years (1938). These two films were fine early examples of the kind of lavish, sweeping romance that Neagle built her career on. It was the years during and after the war though that really sealed her position as the brightest star of the day. I Live In Grosvenor Square (1945) remains one of the most popular films of all time at the British box office, an enchanting wartime romance and an enduring testament to Anglo-American relations of the era. Catering perfectly to an audience in need of light-hearted escapism, Anna was equally endearing in musicals, comedies or biopics – the trio of which in this box-set is completed by The Lady with The Lamp (1951) in which she plays Florence Nightingale. Derby Day (1952) is a clever ensemble piece blending seamlessly the tales of several characters on their way to the races including Neagle’s Lady Helen Forbes. And rounding out the box-set is The Lady is a Square (1959), the last film she made before retiring from the screen and returning to her theatrical roots. She and Herbert remained married for 34 years right up until his death in 1977.

All titles have been restored and are presented in 1.33:1 Full Frame with English Mono audio. There are no announced extras.

We're waiting on confirmation but the set is looking like a HMV exclusive release.