Flicker Alley: Melies, First Wizard of Cinema in March

Continuing their compilation trend of early cinema, **Flicker Alley** has announced a March 11th release date for Georges Melies - First Wizard of Cinema (1896 - 1913). Fresh on the heels of Discovering Cinema & Saved from the Flames, Flicker Alley is really starting to crank things out with this 13 hour and 173 film collection. The 5-Disc DVD set will retail for $89.99, but is available at Classicflix.com for only $64.99. Details below.



Specialty DVD Supplier Flicker Alley Announces Unprecedented and Definitive, 5-Disc Set “GEORGES MÉLIÈS: FIRST WIZARD OF CINEMA"

A Thirteen Hour Collection of 173 Rare, Rediscovered, Original films, Plus Le Grand Méliès by Georges Franju, Makes Its Home Video Premiere on March 11th

(Los Angeles, CA) Flicker Alley, LLC, a specialty supplier of fine silent films and classic cinema programming, in association with Film Preservation Associates, today announced that the company will release “GEORGES MÉLIÈS: FIRST WIZARD OF CINEMA (1896-1913)” on DVD March 11, 2008. Film historian Georges Sadoul called Melies “the father of narrative cinema, and the first man in the world to decide consciously that he wanted to make films.” His seminal fantasy and science fiction films still retain the power to entertain and delight more than 100 years later. This collection marks the first occasion that this key filmmaker has received a major home video retrospective anywhere in the world.

The 5-disc DVD set, which will carry a suggested retail price of $89.95, includes Méliès’s first film, Partie de Cartes and his last, Voyage de la Famille Bourrichon, and brackets more than 170 others. Included are the celebrated and famous journey films, among them A Trip to the Moon, The Impossible Voyage, The Kingdom of Fairies, The Merry Frolics of Satan, The Palace of the Arabian Nights, and The Conquest of the Pole. Fifteen films are reproduced from partial or complete hand-colored original prints, thirteen are presented with the original English narrations written by Méliès. The duration of these films ranges from less than half a minute (The Misfortunes of an Explorer, 1900), to more than half an hour (Conquest of the North Pole, 1912). Also included is a filmed tribute, Le Grand Méliès (1953) by Georges Franju in its original English version, and a substantial booklet containing essays by filmmaker Norman McLaren and historian John Frazer.

This unparalleled collection, several years in the making and produced by Eric Lange and David Shepard, calls for a re-evaluation of the early years of cinema by scholars and historians, for it reveals Méliès to have been the most accomplished filmmaker in the world during that time. For example, his 1896 film The Nightmare has seven shots with exact matches on cuts, when Lumiere, Edison and Biograph films of that year were one shot each. By 1902, Méliès was making wondrous films such as Gulliver's Travels Among the Lilliputians, which are enormously entertaining even today.

The films were gathered from archives and collectors all over the world. Pictorial quality of most of the films is remarkably good; in addition, they have been digitally stabilized and cleaned as necessary. New music has been commissioned for all of the original Méliès films by some of the finest practitioners of silent film accompaniment, including Brian Benison, Eric Beheim, Frederick Hodges, Robert Israel, Neal Kurz, Alexander Rannie, Joseph Rinaudo, Rodney Sauer and the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, and Donald Sosin.

“GEORGES MÉLIÈS: FIRST WIZARD OF CINEMA (1896-1913)” is the third DVD title to be released under the Flicker Alley-Film Preservation Associates production and distribution agreement, following “DISCOVERING CINEMA”-- featuring documentaries on the birth of sound and color cinema -- released in September 2007, and “SAVED FROM THE FLAMES,” released January 22, 2008.

ABOUT THE BLACKHAWK FILMS COLLECTION
Blackhawk Films was founded in 1927 as a producer of film advertising for merchants and as a distributor of regional newsreels. In 1934, the company made its mark as a distributor of 16mm sound films, eventually establishing several regional offices before WWII. In 1947, the company moved into sales of used film and soon thereafter began distributing 8mm and 16mm prints of Laurel and Hardy silents from Hal Roach Studios, as well as titles from other key suppliers such as Fox Movietone News, Killiam Shows and National Telefilm Associates. Film historian and preservationist David Shepard joined Blackhawk in 1973 as Vice President and eventually acquired the Blackhawk Films library in 1987, when he founded Film Preservation Associates.
ABOUT FILM PRESERVATION ASSOCIATES
Under the Blackhawk Films Collection banner, Film Preservation Associates has produced over 150 high-quality restorations and presentations of silent films for the home video market, released through independent distributors such as Image Entertainment and Kino on Video. David Shepard has produced many notable titles, including “The Art of Buster Keaton,” a special edition DVD of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World (1925), the hand-colored silent version of Cyrano de Bergerac, and the 7-disc DVD “Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Film 1894-1941,” hailed by the New York Times as “one of the major monuments of the DVD medium.”
ABOUT FLICKER ALLEY

Flicker Alley, LLC was founded in 2002 out of Jeffery Masino’s passion for silent films, his fascination with film preservation and a desire to bring filmmakers and films from this era to new audiences and renewed recognition. Each Flicker Alley project is the culmination of many hundreds of hours of research, digital restoration and music production. The company has partnered with Turner Classic Movies on several historic cable broadcast joint ventures, including three previously unavailable silent films produced by Howard Hughes, and three rarely viewed Rudolph Valentino films. Flicker Alley is currently preparing new digital editions of two rarely seen films by French master Abel Gance—J’Accuse (1919) and La Roue (1922), both making their Turner Classic Movies broadcast debut in Spring 2008.


ARTWORK UPDATE: Shirley Temple, Vol. 6

--Artwork added to previous announcement--
--Does not include the Boxed Set artwork which hasn't been released--







**20th Century Fox** has announced an April 22nd release date for Shirley Temple - America's Sweetheart Collection, Vol. 6. The set will include two new to DVD titles, Stowaway (1936) and Young People (1940) as well as Wee Willie Winkie (1937) which was just released last month in the Ford at Fox set.

As with previous Shirley Temple sets, bonus features are slim (a Wee Willie Winkie Restoration Comparison). And while previous releases included both the original black and white as well as a colorized version, it appears they've only colorized Wee Willie Winkie in this set. Among the stars are Shirley Temple, Alice Faye, Robert Young, Victor McLaglen, Cesar Romero, Jack Oakie, Eugene Pallette & Arthur Treacher. The 3 DVD set will be sold as a complete set or as singles. Singles are available at Classicflix.com for only $10.99 while the set is available for $23.99.


ARTWORK & SPECS UPDATE: Bette Davis Centenary

--Artwork added to previous announcement--
--Does not include the Boxed Set artwork which hasn't been released.--

NOTE: All About Eve (Special Edition) & Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte have bonus material not on previous editions. See details below.

NICE ARTWORK!!!










First Warner and now Fox. Celebrating the year that would have been Bette Davis' 100th Birthday, **20th Century Fox** has announced an April 8th (her birthday is April 5th) release date for The Bette Davis Centenary Celebration Collection. The titles are:

All About Eve (Special Edition) (1950)
From the moment she glimpses her idol on Broadway, Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) strives relentlessly to upstage Margo Channing (Bette Davis). Cunningly stealing Margo's role, Eve then disrupts the lives of Margo's director boyfriend (Gary Merrill), and her other friends in this juicy, witty drama.

Joseph Mankiewicz's "captivating" (Variety) 1950 Best Picture Academy Award-winning film about backstage backstabbing earned an Oscar nomination for star Bette Davis in the performance many consider her finest. Nominated for a record 14 awards, the scintillating film also led to Oscars for Mankiewicz as Director and Writer, the honors also went to Sound Recording and Costume Design, and George Sanders was named Best Supporting Actor.

BONUS FEATURES:
  • Audio Commentary by Celeste Holm, Christopher Mankiewicz and Kenneth Geist (Joseph L. Mankiewicz Biographer)
  • Audio Commentary by Sam Staggs (Author of All About "All About Eve")
  • Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
  • Joseph L. Mankiewicz: A Personal Journey
  • The Real Eve
  • The Secret of Sarah Siddons
  • AMC Backstory: All About Eve
  • Bette Davis Promotion
  • Ann Baxter Promotion
  • MovieTone News:
    • 1951 Academy Awards Honor Best Film Achievements
    • 1951 Hollywood Attends Gala Premiere of "All About Eve"
    • Holiday Magazine Awards
    • Look Magazine Awards
  • Restoration Comparison
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Theatrical Pressbook Gallery
  • Advertising Gallery
  • Still Gallery
Phone Call from a Stranger (1952)
A plane crash leads one grateful survivor to reclaim his lost love. Shelley Winters and Bette Davis star.

BONUS FEATURES:
  • Restoration Comparison
  • Theatrical Teaser
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Interactive Pressbook Gallery
  • Poster Gallery
  • Lobby Card Gallery
  • Still Gallery
The Virgin Queen (1955)
Bette Davis and Joan Collins vie for the love of Sir Walter Raleigh. Rich in historical detail. Davis is dynamic.

BONUS FEATURES:
  • Virgin Territory: The Making of The Virgin Queen
  • Restoration Comparison
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • TV Spots
  • Interactive Pressbook Gallery
  • Poster Gallery
  • Lobby Card Gallery
  • Still Gallery
Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte and
Charlotte Hollis (Bette Davis) has been closeted in her mansion since the grisly murder of her married lover many years earlier. When the country wants to tear down the house to build a highway, the spinster's relatives and friends appear to rally behind her, but each slowly preys on her mind until the gruesome rumors of the last forty years appear to be coming true. On hand are cousin Miriam (Olivia de Havilland), Dr. Drew Bayliss (Joseph Cotten), Jewel Mayhew (Mary Astor) and the scariest inhabitant of all, loyal servant Velma (Oscar® nominee Agnes Moorehead).

BONUS FEATURES:
  • Hush...Hush, Sweet Joan: The Making of Charlotte
  • Bruce Dern Remembers
  • Wizard Work - Vintage Featurette Narrated by Joseph Cotten
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Galleries
  • Interactive Pressbook Gallery
  • Poster's
  • Lobby Card
  • Still's
The Nanny (1965).
Accused of drowning his little sister in the bath, 10-year old Joey (William Dix) is sent away to an institution for therapy even though he claims the Nanny (Davis) is responsible. When he returns home, suspicion is quickly aroused again as his mother (Wendy Craig) is poisoned and his aunt suddenly dies. But Joey continues to insist the Nanny is responsible, turning life into a deft cat-and-mouse game between the equally shady woman and her young charge.

BONUS FEATURES:
  • Interactive Pressbook Gallery
  • Poster Gallery
  • Lobby Card Gallery
  • Still Gallery
  • Theatrical Trailer
The set will retail for $49.98, but is available at Classicflix.com for only $37.99. Individual titles will retail for $19.98, and are available at Classicflix for $14.99.

Shirley Temple, Vol. 6 in April - 3 DAY SPECIAL PRICE

**20th Century Fox** has announced an April 22nd release date for Shirley Temple - America's Sweetheart Collection, Vol. 6. The set will include two new to DVD titles, Stowaway (1936) and Young People (1940) as well as Wee Willie Winkie (1937) which was just released last month in the Ford at Fox set.

As with previous Shirley Temple sets, bonus features are slim (a Wee Willie Winkie Restoration Comparison). And while previous releases included both the original black and white as well as a colorized version, it appears they've only colorized Wee Willie Winkie in this set. Among the stars are Shirley Temple, Alice Faye, Robert Young, Victor McLaglen, Cesar Romero, Jack Oakie, Eugene Pallette & Arthur Treacher. The 3 DVD set will be sold as a complete set or as singles. Singles are available at Classicflix.com for only $10.99 while the set is available for $23.99. However, for 3 days only (until January 27th), we'll have it for the SPECIAL PRE-ORDER PRICE of $19.99.



Mission Impossible - Season 4 in May

**Paramount Home Video** has announced a May 13th release date for Mission Impossible - The Complete Fourth Season. The set will retail for $49.99, but is available at Classicflix.com for only $35.99.


Silent Ozu - Eclipse Series 10 in April

**Criterion** has announced an April 22nd release date for Silent Ozu: Three Family Comedies - Criterion Eclipse Series 10. The 3-Disc DVD set will retail for $44.95, but is available at Classicflix.com for only $32.99. The titles are Tokyo Chorus (1931), I Was Born, But... (1932) and Passing Fancy (1933). Consistent with Criterion's Eclipse line, it will contain no bonus features and will only be sold as a boxed set. Details below.


In the late twenties and early thirties, Yasujiro Ozu was working steadily for Shochiku studios, honing his craft on dozens of silent films in various genres, from romantic melodramas to college comedies to gangster pictures—and, of course, movies about families. In these three droll domestic films—Tokyo Chorus, I Was Born, But . . . , and Passing Fancy, presented here with all-new scores by renowned silent-film composer Donald Sosin—Ozu movingly and humorously depicts middle-class struggles and the resentments between children and parents, establishing the emotional and aesthetic delicacy with which he would transform the landscape of cinema.

Tokyo Chorus (1931)
Combining three prevalent genres of the day - the student comedy, the salary-man film, and the domestic drama - Ozu created this warmhearted family comedy, and demonstrated that he was truly coming into his own as a cinema craftsman. The setup is simple: Low wage-earning dad Okajima is depending on his bonus, and so are his wife and children, yet payday doesn't exactly go as planned. Exquisite and economical, Ozu's film alternates between brilliantly mounted comic sequences and heartrending working-class realities.

I Was Born, But...
(1932)
One of Ozu's most popular films, I Was Born But . . . is a blithe portrait of the financial and psychological toils of one family, as told from the rascally point of view of a couple of stubborn little boys. For two brothers, the daily struggles of bullies and mean teachers is nothing next to the mortification they feel when they realize their good-natured father’s low-rung social status. Reworked decades later as Ozu's Technicolor comedy Good Morning, it's a poignant evocation of the tumult of childhood, as well as a showcase for Ozu's expertly timed comedy editing.

Passing Fancy (1933)
The first of many films featuring the endearing single-dad Kihachi (played wonderfully by Takeshi Sakamoto), Passing Fancy is a humorous and heartfelt study of a close, if fraught, father-son relationship. With an ever more sophisticated visual style and understanding of fragile human relationships, Ozu seamlessly weaves rib-tickling comedy and weighty family drama for this distinguished precursor to a brilliant career.



Pride of the Yankees - Collector's Ed. in March - SPECIAL 3 DAY PRICE

One of last years worst "Anniversary" marketing gimmicks was MGM's attempt to capitalize on the 65th anniversary of The Pride of of the Yankees (1942). Released in April, it simply changed the cover art from the 2002 release, but left the disc contents and disc art the same with NO BONUS FEATURES!

**MGM** has now made up for that by announcing the March 18th release date for The Pride of the Yankees - Collector's Edition. With a plethora of bonus features (below), this DVD edition will certainly be the one to have. It will retail for $14.98, but is available at Classicflix.com for only $10.99. However, until this Monday, January 21st, we'll have it for the SPECIAL PRE-ORDER PRICE of $7.98.

NOTE: The cover art circulating at different sites is merely last years "65th" edition. Cover art for this edition is yet to be released.

BONUS FEATURES:
  • The Making of Pride Of The Yankees featurette
  • The Man Behind The Iron Horse featurette – Discusses the real Lou Gehrig
  • What He Left Behind featurette – A look at the Lou Gehrig memorabilia currently housed at the Baseball Hall of Fame
  • Always featurette – A look at the hit song that came from the film
  • Lou Gehrig’s Disease: The Search For A Cure featurette - An interview with baseball? great Curt Schilling discussing Lou Gehrig’s Disease and the latest developments in fighting it
  • Curt Schilling: A Legend on a Legend – Baseball star Curt Schilling discusses Lou Gehrig

ARTWORK UPDATE: Screwball Comedies


--Artwork added to previous announcement--









**Universal Studios** has announced an April 22nd release date for for it's next wave of Universal Cinema Classics promoted as Screwball Comedies. It doesn't get much better than this wave with some of Universal's best holdings: The Major and the Minor (1942), She Done Him Wrong (1933), Easy Living (1937) and Midnight (1939). Consistent with the Universal Cinema Classics line bonus features are slim, but each does include an introduction by TCM Host Robert Osborne. Each DVD will retail for $14.98, but is available at Classicflix.com for only $10.99.


More Bette Davis! The Virgin Queen, Phone Call, The Nanny in April

First Warner and now Fox. Celebrating the year that would have been Bette Davis' 100th Birthday, **20th Century Fox** has announced an April 8th (her birthday is April 5th) release date for The Bette Davis Century Celebration Collection. Details are still sketchy, but we know that the titles will be: All About Eve (1950), Phone Call from a Stranger (1952), The Virgin Queen (1955), Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte and The Nanny (1965). The set will retail for $49.98, but is available at Classicflix.com for only $37.99. Individual titles will retail for $19.98, and are available at Classicflix for $14.99.

Note: All About Eve and Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte have already been released on DVD and it's unclear at this time whether these will be re-issues or special editions of some type. More details to come.

Major and the Minor, She Done Him Wrong, Easy Living in April

**Universal Studios** has announced an April 22nd release date for for it's next wave of Universal Cinema Classics promoted as Screwball Comedies. It doesn't get much better than this wave with some of Universal's best holdings: The Major and the Minor (1942), She Done Him Wrong (1933), Easy Living (1937) and Midnight (1939). Consistent with the Universal Cinema Classics line bonus features are slim, but each does include an introduction by TCM Host Robert Osborne. Each DVD will retail for $14.98, but is available at Classicflix.com for only $10.99.

The Hands of Orlac, Secrets of a Soul in February

**Kino** has announced a February 19th release date for The Hands of Orlac (1924) and Secrets of a Soul (1925). Both will be available individually and in a new boxed set entitled The German Expressionism Collection. The other two titles in the set will be the previously released The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) and Warning Shadows (1922).

The Hands of Orlac and Secrets of a Soul will retail for $29.95, but can be purchased for $21.99 while The German Expressionism Collection will retail for $69.95, but can be purchased for $50.99 at Classicflix.com. Details below.






Four German Silent Classics in a New Beautiful Thin-Pak Boxed Set.

The Hands of Orlac (1924)
Reuniting the star and director of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Hands of Orlac (Orlacs Hande) is a deliciously twisted thriller that blends grand guignol thrills with the visual and performance styles of German Expressionism. Based on a novel by medical-horror novelist Maurice Renard, it charts the mental disintegration of a concert pianist (Conrad Veidt, The Man Who Laughs) whose hands are amputated after a train crash, and replaced with the hands of an executed murderer. When Orlac's father is murdered by the dead man's hands, Orlac begins a steady descent toward madness. Produced in Vienna, the hotbed of psychoanalysis, The Hands of Orlac is writhing with innuendo and Freudian imagery. This Kino edition was mastered in HD from a 35mm print restored by the F.W. Murnau Foundation, supplemented with additional footage from the Raymond Rohauer Collection.

NO BONUS FEATURES

Secrets of a Soul (1925)
In the 1920s, film studios around the world sought to capitalize on the public's curiosity about the newborn science of psychoanalysis. In 1925, Hans Neumann (of Ufa's Kulturfilm office) contacted members of Sigmund Freud's inner circle with a plan to make a dramatic film that explores the mystifying process of the interpretation of dreams. With the help of noted psychologists Karl Abraham and Hanns Sachs, and under the direction of G.W. Pabst (Pandora's Box), Secrets of a Soul was completed.

Werner Krauss, who had played the deranged Dr. Caligari six years earlier, stars as a scientist who is tormented by an irrational fear of knives and the irresistible compulsion to murder his wife. Driven to the brink of madness by fantastic nightmares (designed by Ernö Metzner and photographed by Guido Seeber in a brilliant mix of expressionism and surrealism), he encounters a psychoanalyst who offers to treat the perplexing malady.

Includes illustrated film notes detailing the controversies surrounding the project.

NO BONUS FEATURES

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)
The most brilliant example of that dark and twisted film movement known as German expressionism, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a plunge into the mind of insanity that severs all ties with the rational world. Director Robert Wiene and a team of designers crafted a nightmare realm in which light, shadow and substance are abstracted, a world in which a demented doctor and a carnival sleepwalker perpetuate a series of murders in a small community.

This Kino on Video edition is taken from a 35mm print restored by the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv of Germany, featuring the original color tinting and toning. The title translation is by Kinograph Montréal.

New and improved English subtitle translation.

BONUS FEATURES:
  • A 43-minute condensation of Robert Wiene's Genuine: The Tale of a Vampire (1920)
  • Behind-the-Scenes footage of Robert Wiene on the set of I.N.R.I.
  • Two musical scores to choose from:
    • Music composed and performed by Donald Sosin
    • Contemporary orchestral score by Rainer Viertblöck
  • Gallery of more than 40 photos, posters and production sketches
Warning Shadows (1922)
German expressionist cinema was at its height in the 1920s, and few films embodied the movement as much as Warning Shadows. Directed by Arthur Robison, this classic tale of psychological horror remains his best known work, celebrated for its outrageous visual style and notorious for its attempt to make a purely visual feature film - in other words, a film with no intertitles (except, of course, the opening credits).

A mysterious traveler and illusionist who performs shadow puppetry arrives to provide some entertainment at an otherwise routine dinner party. The host of the party is already mad with jealousy over the presence of his wife's four suitors, but when the puppet show begins, passions overtake reason and reality is not what it appears to be. Shadows, reflections and silhouettes are the dominant imagery, and the film boasts the extraordinary camerawork of Fritz Arno Wagner, the German cinematographer who is renowned for his work with Fritz Lang (Spies, M) and F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu).

Although this marks the first time the film has been released on DVD in the United States, Warning Shadows has long been considered a landmark work by champions of the German cinema. Lotte Eisner, in her book "The Haunted Screen," declared that director Robison "handles phantoms with the same mastery as his strange illusionist," while Siegfried Kracauer, in "From Caligari to Hitler," simply stated that Warning Shadows "belongs among the masterpieces of the German screen."

NO BONUS FEATURES

Bette Davis Collection, Vol. 3 in April - SPECIAL 3 DAY PRICE

**Warner Home Video** has announced an April 1st release date for The Bette Davis Collection, Vol. 3. The set will include The Old Maid (1939), (1940), All This, and Heaven TooThe Great Lie (1941), In This Our Life (1942), Watch on the Rhine (1943) & Deception (1946). The 6 DVD set will be sold only as a complete set and will retail for $59.92, but is available at Classicflix.com for only $44.99. However, until this Thursday, January 10th, we'll have it for the SPECIAL PRE-ORDER PRICE of $39.99.

Stars include: Bette Davis, Miriam Hopkins, George Brent, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Donald Crisp, Charles Boyer, Mary Astor, Olivia de Havilland, Dennis Morgan, Charles Coburn, Paul Lukas and many more. Full details below:



The Old Maid (1939)
Based on an Edith Wharton novel and Pulitzer Prize-winning play, The Old Maid tells the sad story of Charlotte, a woman whose circumstances force her to give up her illegitimate child and pose as the child’s “old maid” aunt, thereby facing a lifetime of maternal sacrifice. As Charlotte, Bette Davis gives one of her most nuanced performances, aging from wide-eyed girl to gray-haired martinet. Miriam Hopkins provides effective counterbalance with her portrayal of Charlotte’s effusive cousin, who raises the little girl. Two women, one child – and a brilliant example of melodrama as art.

BONUS FEATURES:
  • Warner Night at the Movies 1939 short subjects gallery:
    • Vintage newsreel
    • Technicolor historical short Lincoln in the White House
    • Howard Hill sports short Sword Fishing
    • Classic cartoons The Film Fan and Kristopher Kolumbus
    • Trailers of The Old Maid and 1939’s Confessions of a Nazi Spy
All This, and Heaven Too (1940)
Bette Davis is at the height of her phenomenal screen career, with co-star Charles Boyer in their only film together. The plot is rich in mystery and grand emotion; a powerful period drama honored with three 1940 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.

From Rachel Field’s fact-based bestseller, the story follows Henriette (Davis), governess at the Paris home of the Duc de Praslin (Boyer) and his jealous wife (Barbara O’Neil). When governess and nobleman are drawn to each other, the Duchess erupts in fury…and meets a bloody fate. Soon Henriette and the Duc face a world eager to believe that the Duc murdered his wife. And that gentle Henriette was a willing accomplice.

BONUS FEATURES:
  • Commentary by The Women of Warner Bros. author Daniel Bubbeo.
  • Warner Night at the Movies 1940 short subjects gallery:
    • Vintage newsreel
    • Technicolor patriotic short Meet the Fleet
    • Classic cartoons Hollywood Daffy and Porky’s Last Stand
    • Trailers of All This, and Heaven Too and 1940’s Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet
  • Audio-only bonus: Radio show adaptation with the film’s stars
The Great Lie (1941)
Tempestuous, ambitious concert pianist Sandra Kovac (Mary Astor) shares a bond with down-to-earth Maggie Van Allen (Bette Davis) and her little boy Pete. Sandra’s chic New York friends can’t imagine what the two women have in common. What they don’t know is that Pete is actually Sandra’s son – and the son of the heroic aviator (George Brent) that both women love. Powerful emotions rage against a backdrop of powerful music in the film that earned Astor a 1941 Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her stellar performance opposite the legendary star who always gives a tour-de-force performance. This story of a great passion, a great sacrifice…and a great lie showcases two great actresses.

BONUS FEATURES:
  • Warner Night at the Movies 1941 Short Subjects Gallery:
    • Vintage newsreel
    • Broadway Brevities short At the Stroke of Twelve
    • Oscar-nominated Technicolor Sports Parade short Kings of the Turf
    • Hollywood Novelty short Polo with the Stars
    • Classic cartoon Porky’s Pooch
    • Trailers of The Great Lie and 1941’s The Strawberry Blonde
In This Our Life (1942)
Two-time Best Actress Oscar winners and lifelong friends Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland square off as sisters (guess who’s the bad one) in In This Our Life, a must-see for fans of melodrama at its juiciest. Director John Huston, fresh from his The Maltese Falcon success, includes a cameo role for his father Walter, just as he did in Falcon. And Max Steiner’s powerful music underscores the film’s driving emotional force.

What Stanley Timberlake wants, she takes. So, on the eve of her marriage to another, she runs off with her sister’s husband, the first of many betrayals that lead to disaster…and to a compulsively watchable brew of deceit, racial bigotry, latent incest and violent death.

BONUS FEATURES:
  • Commentary by film historian Jeannine Basinger
  • Warner Night at the Movies 1942 short subjects gallery:
    • Vintage newsreel
    • Technicolor patriotic short March On, America!
    • Technicolor musical short Spanish Fiesta
  • Classic cartoon Who’s Who in the Zoo
  • Trailers of In This Our Life and 1942’s Desperate Journey
Watch on the Rhine (1943)
Lillian Hellman’s 1941 stage hit (adapted by Dashiell Hammett) retains its emotional and intellectual power in this suspenseful movie awarded the New York Film Critics 1943 Best Picture prize, and lauded as ”a distinguished film, full of sense, power and beauty” by the NY Times. The praiseworthy film about standing up for what is right, at all odds, stars Paul Lukas repeating his Broadway triumph as Kurt Muller, a German underground leader who arrives with his family in Washington, DC and soon finds the tentacles of Nazi terror have a very long reach. Lukas’ passionate performance earned him an Oscar, beating out Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca and Gary Cooper in For Whom the Bell Tolls. Bette Davis, who took on the film because she believed in its importance, portrays Muller’s wife with ringing integrity. Lucile Watson as a socialite whose complacency is “shaken out of the magnolias” and George Colouris as a shady blackmailer also memorably reprise their stage roles. The film was nominated for 3 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

BONUS FEATURES:
  • Career profile Bette Davis: A Basically Benevolent Volcano
  • Commentary by film historian Bernard F. Dick
  • Warner Night at the Movies 1943 short subjects gallery:
    • Technicolor patriotic short March On, America!
    • Musical short Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra
    • Classic cartoon The Wise Quacking Duck
    • Trailers of Watch on the Rhine and 1943’s Mission to Moscow
Deception (1946)
The three stars (Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains) and director (Irving Rapper) of Now Voyager reunite for this glamorous, angst-ridden melodrama set to a thrilling Erich Wolfgang Korngold score. A favorite of Davis fans, Deception inspired one of the best-known reviews in movie history: “It’s like grand opera, only the people are thinner. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world” (Cecelia Ager, PM).

Based on Louis Verneuil’s 1928 play Jealousy, the film tells the story of pianist Christine Radcliffe separated from her great love, cellist Karel Novak by World War II. Unexpectedly reunited with him, Christine desperately strives to hide her wartime dalliance as the mistress of a wealthy, sadistic composer (Rains), with devastating results.

BONUS FEATURES:
  • Commentary by film historian Foster Hirsch
  • Warner Night at the Movies 1946 short subjects gallery:
    • Vintage newsreel
    • Oscar-winning Technicolor Sports Parade Short Facing Your Danger
    • Technicolor Specials Short Movieland Magic
    • Classic cartoon Mouse Menace
    • Trailers of Deception and 1946’s A Stolen Life

ARTWORK UPDATE: Woody Woodpecker and Friends, Vol. 2


--Artwork added to previous announcement--



**Universal Studios** has announced an April 15th release date for The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection, Vol. 2. The three DVD set will retail for $39.98, but is available at Classicflix.com for only $33.99. Some of the bonus feature details are below with actual cartoon episodes and artwork to follow.

Relive all the hilarious, crazy adventures of Woody Woodpecker, everyone's favorite wacky red-headed bird. Also featuring some of the most beloved animated characters of all time!
  • Includes 75 Digitally Remastered and Completely Uncut Cartoons!
  • Over 8 Hours of Side-Splitting Antics!
  • Loaded with Rare Vintage Bonus Features from the Walter Lantz archive.
CONTENTS

Disc 1:

Cartoons TBD

BONUS FEATURES:
  • Creating Woody Woodpecker (Episode #2)
  • Timing a Cartoon (Episode #11)
  • Character Movement (Episode #12)
  • Photographing Animation Cels (Episode #13)
  • The Animator's Job (Episode #14)
  • Using Backgrounds (Episode #15)
Disc 2:

Cartoons TBD

BONUS FEATURES:
  • The Inking Department (Episode #17)
  • The Painting Department (Episode #18)
  • Drawing with Walter Lantz (Episode #20)
  • Sound Effects in Cartoons (Episode #22)
  • Storyboarding Woody Woodpecker (Episode #24)
  • Creating New Characters (Episode #26)
  • The Secret Weapon (TV Pilot Episode)
  • Jungle Medics (TV Pilot Episode)
Disc 3:

Cartoons TBD

BONUS FEATURE:
  • The Woody Woodpecker Show Episode #47