June 2013 has been an incredible month for rare and long-overdue vault releases on DVD, Blu-ray and DVD-R; so many great titles have been issued over the past 20-plus days, in fact, that we've decided to break them down into separate posts highlighting each week. So hang onto your remotes - here comes part one of the Super Post!
June 11
Classic Drama: Warner Archives covers the A and B list this week with a slew of vintage titles from the Warner, MGM and Monogram libraries. At the top of the list: the DVD debut of The Painted Veil (1934), with Greta Garbo (billed simply as "Garbo" in the opening credits) as an Austrian bride who accompanies medico husband Herbert Marshall to China, where she encounters and falls for rakish George Brent in this high-gloss adaptation of the novel by W. Somerset Maugham. There's also Howard Hawks' Air Force (1943), a still-exciting war drama about the crew of a B-17 bomber as they prepare for war over the Pacific in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack. John Garfield, John Ridgely, Gig Young and Harry Carey are the men aboard the Mary Ann in this Oscar-winner that skillfully blends wartime action with finely drawn character portraits.
And on the down-and-dirty side of things, WA has a trio of hot-blooded melodramas from the budget-conscious Monogram Pictures. The "ripped from the headlines" potboiler Black Market Babies (1945) starsKane Richmond, best known as the screen's Shadow (and Spy Smasher), as a scurrilous hood working an adoption agency scheme with alcoholic doctor Ralph Morgan, who delivers babies born out of wedlock and sells them to childless couples at top dollar prices. Richmond continues to till the weed of crime in Don't Gamble with Strangers (1946), which teams him with Bernadene Hayes as a pair of card sharps who take over a gambler's casino in order to fleece its high-roller patrons. Things go awry (as they usually do) when Richmond dumps Hayes in order to bilk a wealthy heiress (Gloria Warren). Both pictures are solid bits of B-noir courtesy the prolific director William Beaudine. Completing the Monogram hat trick is the delirious Women in Bondage (1943), with Gail Patrick as a German national swept into the degradations of the Nazi Party upon her return to her home country. Director Steve Sekely treads the line between wartime propaganda and exploitation through references to "pagan baptisms," forced sterilization and other atrocities, all made palatable as condemnation of fascism.
The rest of the classic drama output for June 11 reads as follows: WA brings William Friedkin's controversial thriller Cruising (1980), with Al Pacino as a New York detective investigating murders inthe gay community, back to the DVD fold. It's essentially the same disc as their deluxe edition from 2007, with two making-of documentaries and commentary by Friedkin. Warner also has Otto Preminger's final directorial effort, The Human Factor (1979), an all-star adaptation of the Graham Greene novel about a low-ranking intelligence official (Nicol Williamson) accused of leaking secrets to the Soviets. John Gielgud, Richard Attenborough, Derek Jacobi and Iman lead the supporting cast. And Fox Cinema Archives has full-frame presentations of Confirm or Deny (1941), a wartime romance directed by Archie Mayo and an uncredited Fritz Lang (and based on a story by Samuel Fuller) with Don Ameche and Virginia Mayo as a war correspondent and censor, respectively, who fall in love; Paris After Dark (1943), with George Sanders and Brenda Marshall as French resistance fighters; William Wyler's Oscar-winning WWII documentary The Fighting Lady (1944), which offers gritty footage of combat in the Pacific and narration by (then Navy Reserve lieutenant) Robert Taylor; and Battle at Bloody Beach (1961), with Audie Murphy as a American businessman who joins Filipino insurgents during the Japanese occupation in order to find his missing wife (Dolores Michaels).
Arthouse: Criterion has a new Blu-ray edition of Wild Strawberries (1957), the film which brought international acclaim to writer/director Ingmar Bergmar. Fellow filmmaker Victor Sjostrom stars as a
medical professor whose return to his former university spurs a re-examination of his life's achievements and failures, as well as a greater understanding of his own approaching mortality. At once wistful, funny and moving, Wild Strawberries is one of Bergman's greatest films, as well as one of his most approachable efforts and its combination of human drama and poetic fantasy wielded enormous influence on world cinema. The Criterion Blu-ray features an introduction and behind-the-scenes footage by Bergman, as well as commentary and an essay by film scholar Peter Cowie and a 90-minute documentary on Bergman's life and work. Meanwhile, Bergman's frequent collaborator, Liv Ullman, is featured in the rarely-seen Zandy's Bride (1974; Warner Archives), which reunites her with Emigrants and New Land director Jan Troell. Ullman is typically excellent as p a Scandinavian mail order bride sent to live with a brutish rancher (Gene Hackman) in California's Big Sur region. It's well acted by its leads and a supporting cast featuring Harry Dean Stanton, Eileen Heckart and Susan Tyrrell, and the Big Sur locations are gorgeous, but it's also relentlessly downbeat, and Hackman's character frequently generates more revulsion than sympathy.
Television: From BBC America comes special editions of Inferno and Mind of Evil, two of the better story arcs from the Jon Pertwee era of Doctor Who. Inferno, which closed out the venerable science fiction series' seventh season in 1970, offers two challenges to Pertwee's Third Doctor: a drilling project which releases a dangerous green slime, and an accidental visit to an alternate-universe Britain under the rule of a fascist government. Season Eight's Mind of Evil (1971) pits the Doctor against his longtime nemesis, the Master (Roger Delgado), who uses mind control on dangerous convicts to raise an army. Both double-disc sets are loaded with extras, including commentary by cast and crew members, vintage TV featurettes and, in the case of Mind of Evil, color restoration to episodes that previously existed only on black and white film.
Horror/Cult: At the top of the cult heap for June 11 is unquestionably the Enter the Dragon: 40th Anniversary Edition (Warner) Blu-ray, which offers one of the best presentations of iconic star Bruce Lee's debut as a leading man in an American action movie. First-time viewers may wonder what all the fuss is
about when faced with director Robert Clouse's deliberate pace and long, talky sequence involving co-stars John Saxon and Jim Kelly, but every time Lee enters the frame, the picture positively vibrates with the intensity of his presence. Lee may not possess the astonishing speed of Donnie Yen or the go-for-broke creativity of Jackie Chan (who appears briefly in Dragon as a henchman of main villain Master Bong Soo Hong), but four decades after his death, Lee's pure athleticism and intense focus have preserved his status as the high water mark in movie martial arts stardom. The new Blu-ray lacks the lengthy and very good Warrior's Journey documentary from the 2007 Blu-ray, but features a wealth of new and previously issued extras, including interviews with an array of figures influenced by Lee, from boxer Sugar Ray Leonard to DJ Steve Aoki, several biographical and behind-the-scenes featurettes and vintage clips and interview of Lee. Also worth your time and ducats, though diametrically opposite from Enter the Dragon, is The Manson Family (1997, Severin Films), director Jim VanBebber's highly disturbing, documentary-style depiction of Charles Manson and his followers in the days leading up to the Tate-LaBianca muders. Produced over a period of more than fifteen years, the picture details the dionsyian madness of life within the Family and the hideous crimes they committed in harrowing and often very graphic detail that trends between the twin poles of exploitation and independent drama. As both a singular accomplishment and an original comment on the Manson crimes and their impact on the cultural landscape of the period and today, the movie is nothing less than impressive. Severin's Blu-ray includes new commentary by VanBebber as well as making-of featurettes from the 2005 DVD release and deleted scenes.
Otherwise, fans of the outre can choose from Shout Factory's Blu-ray/DVD combo of Ninja III: The Domination (1984), a completely out-to-lunch hybrid of martial arts and supernatural horror with
Lucinda Dickey (Breakin') as an aerobics instructor who becomes possessed by the spirit of an evil ninja. Floating magic swords, prominent chest hair, James Hong and a can of V8 all figure prominently in this bizarro entry from the infamous Cannon Film library. And if Ninja whets your appetite for '80s trash, you can dig in with both hands and a fork to Image Entertainment's Guilty Pleasures: 1980s Collection, a three-disc smorgasbord of pop-and-schlock titles from the New World library. The set mashes together mainstream releases like Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (1985) with Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt and the still-bewildering Soul Man (1986), which helped to torpedo C. Thomas Howell's career by having him don blackface, with grindhouse fare like the sleaze-heavy Angel (1989), Fraternity Vacation (1985) with Tim Robbins and the women-in-prison parody Reform School Girls (1986) with Sybil Danning and Wendy O. Williams. Also sandwiched in the mix are Night Patrol (1984), a misbegotten vehicle for Murray "The Unknown Comic" Langston, the teen angst drama Tuff Turf (1985) with James Spader and Black Moon Rising (1986), a decent sci-fi/action thriller with Tommy Lee Jones as a car thief who makes off with an experimental super car.
Stay tuned for Part II of the Super Post!