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The disc of the year has finally arrived and it’s 1000 worth the wait. William Cameron Menzies’ flight into schoolboy paranoia now really looks like it ought to hang in the Louvre; the entire show is inspired Modern Art. When Martians conduct a brain-snatching takeover of Middle America little David MacLean must save the day, with an assist from an astronomer buddy and a sexy city nurse. The review is mostly concerned with how the new Ignite release looks and sounds. The rejuvenation of this fantasy masterpiece will turn fans of the 1950s sci-fi boom back into delighted ‘Gee Whiz’ kids.

Invaders from Mars

Blu-ray

Ignite Films

1953 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 81 min. / Street Date September 27, 2022 that was the plan … delivery expected . . . ? / Available from Ignite Films / 55.00

Starring: Helena Carter, Arthur Franz, Jimmy Hunt, Leif Erickson, Hillary Brooke, Morris Ankrum, Max Wagner, William Phipps, Milburn Stone, Janine Perreau, Barbara Billingsley, Peter Brocco, Richard Deacon,...

It’s the final theatrical western of the legendary director Budd Boetticher, and he also wrote the screenplay! Ace cinematographer Lucien Ballard was behind the camera, and Audie Murphy produced and plays Jesse James! This disc release is a gift to die-hard western fans that want to see everything, but the film itself remains a mystery — oddly nihilistic and cruel, but also awkward, with amateurish acting, slack direction and a TV-movie appearance. The one gotta-see factor for completists is Victor Jory’s three scenes as Judge Roy Bean: he nails the sleazy, gross-out charm of the Texas threat to civilization, chewing the scenery like a pro.

A Time for Dying

Region Free Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1969 (1982) / Color / 1:85 widescreen + 1:37 Academy / 72 min. / Zeit zum Sterben / Street Date March 22, 2022 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99

Starring: Richard Lapp, Anne Randall, Robert Random, Beatrice Kay, Victor Jory, Audie Murphy, Burt Mustin, Peter Brocco,...

This remarkable black comedy is often listed as a horror film yet it has more nervous laughs than shivers. It’s a solid idea: cruelly marginalized old folks get madder than hell and just won’t take it any more. Or maybe they simply go nuts. The cast of ‘over seventies’ playing over eighty is just marvelous, and one murderous little pixie is a delight: Paula Trueman. Things do become absurd but the universally-understood premise stays firm. . . we’ll all be there sooner or later. “A Murder A Day Keeps the Landlord Away.”

Homebodies

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1974 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 96 min. / Street Date November 2, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Peter Brocco, Frances Fuller, William Hansen, Ruth McDevitt, Paula Trueman, Ian Wolfe, Linda Marsh, Douglas Fowley, Kenneth Tobey, Wesley Lau.

Cinematography: Isasdore Mankovsky

Art Director: John Retsek

Film Editor: Peter Parasheles

Original Music: Bernardo Segáll

Written by Larry Yust, Bennett Sims,...

This remarkable little black comedy is often listed as a horror film yet it has more nervous laughs than shivers. It’s a solid idea: cruelly maginalized old folks get madder than hell and just won’t take it any more. Or maybe more accurately, they simply go nuts. The cast of ‘over seventies’ playing over eighty is just marvelous, and one murderous little pixie is a delight: Paula Trueman. Things do become absurd but the universally-understood premise stays firm. . . we’ll all be there sooner or later. “A Murder A Day Keeps the Landlord Away.”

Homebodies

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1974 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 96 min. / Street Date November 2, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Peter Brocco, Frances Fuller, William Hansen, Ruth McDevitt, Paula Trueman, Ian Wolfe, Linda Marsh, Douglas Fowley, Kenneth Tobey, Wesley Lau.

Cinematography: Isasdore Mankovsky

Art Director: John Retsek

Film Editor: Peter Parasheles

Original Music: Bernardo Segáll

Written by Larry Yust,...

Viavision’s second deluxe Film Noir boxed finds real variety in the film style, with entries that range from low-budget efforts to a picture filmed on location in Mexico. Richard Conte solves a notorious movie studio murder in Hollywood Story, Gig Young is a cop who considers going crooked in City that Never Sleeps, Glenn Ford dodges murderous treasure hunters in Plunder of the Sun and Steve Cochran’s cop really does go rogue in Private Hell 36.

Essential Film Noir Collection 1

Blu-ray (Region-Free)

Viavision [Imprint] 18, 19, 20, 21

1947-1957 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 327 min. / Street Date October 28, 2020 / Available from Viavision [Imprint] / 149.99

Starring: Richard Conte, Julia Adams; Gig Young, Mala Powers, Marie Windsor; Glenn Ford, Diana Lynn, Patricia Medina; Ida Lupino, Steve Cochran, Howard Duff.

Directed by William Castle, John H. Auer, John Farrow, Don Siegel

Viavision’s noir series throws a wide net, with two debuts on Blu-ray and one full debut on home video.

Happy Monday, dear readers! We have a brand new slate of home media releases to look forward to as we head into a new month, and there are some great films coming out on Tuesday that genre fans will definitely want to pick up. Rlje Films is finally releasing Horror Noire on both Blu-ray and DVD this week, and they’re also bringing home arguably the most talked-about horror film of 2020 as well: Rob Savage’s Host. Kino Lorber is showing some love to Dark Intruder with their new 2K Blu, and Code Red is giving us more reasons to fear the water with their Blu-ray for The Great Alligator.

Other releases for February 2nd include Satan’s Blood, Sky Sharks, Deadcon, and Hellkat.

Dark Intruder

Brand New 2K Master! Dark Intruder stars Leslie Nielsen (Forbidden Planet) as Brett Kingsford, an Occult expert who is brought in by police to help...

The Balcony

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1963 / 84 min.

Starring Shelley Winters, Peter Falk

Cinematography by George Folsey

Directed by Joseph Strick

When Jean Genet died in 1986, France’s Minister of Culture proclaimed “Jean Genet has left us and with him, a black sun that enlightened the seamy side of things… Genet was liberty itself, and those who hated and fought him were hypocrites.”

“Liberty” was likely meant as an intentionally ironic description of the artist who spent part of his literary life working from a jail cell. He was an inveterate thief and proud of it; even after his success he manned a bookstall by the Seine stacked with stolen merchandise. During the occupation of France he was once again behind bars, piecing together a novel using a pencil and brown paper. The book was called Our Lady of the Flowers and was published in France in 1943 and in England in 1949. Hailed by Jean Cocteau,...

One of Fritz Lang’s least-known thrillers had aspects that appealed to him, and he certainly applied his personal viewpoint and visual talents. It’s a period Gothic with women in corsets, about a deranged writer who lets his desires get out of hand. It may be actor Louis Hayward’s best work. Jane Wyatt is the suffering wife, but the real honors go to Dorothy Patrick, in an all-too brief appearance.

House by the River

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1950 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 83 min. / Street Date January 14, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Louis Hayward, Lee Bowman, Jane Wyatt, Dorothy Patrick, Ann Shoemaker, Jody Gilbert, Peter Brocco, Howland Chamberlain, Sarah Padden, Kathleen Freeman, Will Wright, Carl Switzer.

Cinematography: Edward Cronjager

Film Editor: Arthur D. Hilton

Original Music: George Antheil

Art Direction: Boris Leven

Written by Mel Dinelli from a novel by A.P. Herbert

Produced by Howard Welsch

Directed by...

Sam Fuller turns the crime film inside-out with this tale of on infiltrator taking down the syndicate. Vengeful Cliff Robertson uses both the mob and the cops to wipe out the hoods that killed his dad, with the help of two women, one of them a hooker with a heart of gold. The show feels like a ’30s throwback with a precociously violent streak, spiked with a healthy helping of what the critics would call Fuller’s ‘Cinema Fist.’

Underworld U.S.A.

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1961 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 98 min. / Street Date March 20, 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Cliff Robertson, Dolores Dorn, Beatrice Kay, Paul Dubov, Robert Emhardt, Larry Gates, Richard Rust, Gerald Milton, Neyle Morrow, Peter Brocco, Bernie Hamilton.

Cinematography: Hal Mohr

Film Editor: Jerome Thoms

Original Music: Harry Sukman

Written, Produced and Directed by Samuel Fuller

Samuel Fuller’s successes with distributor-producer Robert Lippert...

Robot roll call! This also-ran robotic fantasy from the 1950s is precisely the kind of movie one would expect from Republic, a two-fisted anti-Commie tract for juveniles. The studio comes up with an impressive robo-hero, but short-changes us when it come time for action thrills. Still, as pointed out in Richard Harland Smith’s new commentary, Tobor filled the the kiddie hunger for sci-fi matinees, at least until Robby the Robot came along.

Tobor the Great

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1954 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 77 min. / Street Date September 12, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Charles Drake, Karin Booth, Billy Chapin, Taylor Holmes, Steven Geray, Hal Baylor, Alan Reynolds, Peter Brocco, Robert Shayne, Lyle Talbot, William Schallert

Cinematography: John L. Russell

Production Design: Gabriel Scognamillo

Special Effects: Howard and Theodore Lydecker

Film Editor: Basil Wrangell

Original Music: Howard Jackson

Written by Philip MacDonald, Carl Dudley

Produced by Richard Goldstone

Directed by Lee Sholem...

You can tell it’s film noir — even the cabin cruiser has Venetian blinds. Ernest Hemingway’s favorite film adaptation of his work is this uncompromised story of a good man taking a criminal course on the high seas. John Garfield is again ‘one man alone’ against the system, and the moral quicksand all but swallows up Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter and Wallace Ford.

The Breaking Point

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 889

1950 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 97 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date August 8, 2017 / 39.95

Starring: John Garfield, Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter, Juano Hernandez, Wallace Ford, Edmon Ryan, Ralph Dumke, Guy Thomajan, William Campbell, Sherry Jackson, Donna Jo Boyce, Victor Sen Yung, Peter Brocco, John Doucette.

Cinematography: Ted D. McCord

Film Editor: Alan Crosland Jr.

Original Music: Howard Jackson, Max Steiner

Written by Ranald MacDougall from a novel by Ernest Hemingway

Produced by Jerry Wald

Directed by Michael Curtiz

After...

This classy Fox production was considered the epitome of sick film subject matter in the pre- Psycho year of 1959, the true story of jazz-age thrill killers Leopold & Loeb. Dean Stockwell and Bradford Dillman are the nihilistic child murderers; Orson Welles stops the show with his portrayal of Clarence Darrow, going under a different name.

Compulsion

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1959 / B&W / 2:35 widescreen / 103 min. / Street Date March 7, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Orson Welles, Dean Stockwell, Diane Varsi, Bradford Dillman, E.G. Marshall, Richard Anderson, Robert F. Simon, Edward Binns, Gavid McLeod, Russ Bender, Peter Brocco.

Cinematography: William C. Mellor

Film Editor: William Reynolds

Original Music: Lionel Newman

Written by Richard Murphy from a novel by Meyer Levin

Produced by Richard D. Zanuck

Directed by Richard Fleischer

Movies about serial killers and psychos with exotic agendas were much different before Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, which hit America in 1960 like a thrown brick.

I guess Howard Hughes wanted to go easy on Minnesota Nazis. William Cameron Menzies directs a Cold War thriller about an insidious germ warfare conspiracy -- it's an early paranoid suspense tale with apocalyptic consequences. But the story behind the movie's making -- and then remaking -- is even more fantastic. The Whip Hand DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1951 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 82 min. / Street Date February 16, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 18.59 Starring Elliott Reid, Raymond Burr, Carla Balenda, Edgar Barrier, Otto Waldis, Michael Steele, Lurene Tuttle, Peter Brocco, Lewis Martin, Frank Darien, Olive Carey, George Chandler, Gregory Gaye. Cinematography Nicholas Musuraca Film Editor Robert Golden Original Music Music by Paul Sawtell Written by George Bricker, Frank L. Moss, Ray Hamilton Produced by Louis J. Rachmil Directed by William Cameron Menzies

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Film writers Bill Warren and Tom Weaver have reported extensively on the unusual production story...

Most of us love the Trumbo-Douglas-Kubrick thinking man's leftist gladiator epic, and after several iffy disc presentations this exacting digital restoration follows through on the photochemical reconstruction done 25 years ago. It looks incredibly good, almost too good to be a Blu-ray. Kirk contributes a new featurette interview, telling us that this is the show he'll be remembered for. Spartacus Blu-ray + Digital HD Universal Studios Home Entertainment 1960 / Color / 2:20 widescreen / 197 min. / Street Date October 6, 2015 / 19.98 Starring Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, Jean Simmons, Peter Ustinov, Tony Curtis, Woody Strode, John Gavin, Nina Foch, Herbert Lom, Charles McGraw, John Ireland, Nick Dennis, John Dall, Herbert Lom, Joanna Barnes, Harold J. Stone, Peter Brocco, John Hoyt, Richard Farnsworth, George Kennedy. Cinematography by Russell Metty Music by Alex North Edited by Robert Lawrence Produced by Kirk Douglas and Edward Lewis Screenplay by Dalton Trumbo Based on the novel by Howard Fast Produced by...