OLIVE: Cry Danger, Young at Heart in October

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

Cry Danger October 15th Olive Films Retail: $24.95, Our: $17.99

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WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

Cry Danger (Blu-Ray) October 15th Olive Films Retail: $29.95, Our: $21.99

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WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

Young at Heart October 15th Olive Films Retail: $19.95, Our: $14.99

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WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

Young at Heart (Blu-Ray) October 15th Olive Films Retail: $29.95, Our: $21.99

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Two more from Olive titles are scheduled for October 15th: Cry Danger (1951) and Young at Heart (1954).

Both will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray with this being Cry Danger's debut on both.

TCM VAULT: Sony's Film Noir Classics, Vol. 4 in August

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: TITLES:

Film Noir Classics, Vol. 4 (TCM Vault) August 6th Sony So Dark the Night (1946), Johnny O'Clock (1947), Walk a Crooked Mile (1948), Between Midnight and Dawn (1950), Walk East on Beacon! (1952)

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Sony's Film Noir Classics sets continue with Film Noir Classics, Vol. 4 due on August 6th.

Released via the TCM Vault line, all five films are new to DVD. Bonus features abound like previous Vault releases. Available exclusively for purchase at TCM.com, this set will be available for rent here at ClassicFlix and nowhere else!


Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, The Film Foundation and Turner Classic Movies again partner to present the fourth collection in this series, Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics IV.

These five films, all fully restored and remastered and never before released on DVD, showcase the work of directors Joseph H. Lewis, Robert Rossen, Gordon Douglas and Alfred L. Werker—all of them masters at creating taut and atmospheric visions from morally-strained hard-boiled stories.

The collection also highlights the genre-defining cinematography of Burnett Guffey and George E. Diskant, and iconic performances by film noir mainstays Dick Powell, Evelyn Keyes, Lee J. Cobb, Dennis O'Keefe and Edmond O'Brien, who excelled at revealing the raw heart that beat beneath noir's tough exteriors.

So Dark the Night (1946)
Director Joseph H. Lewis (Gun Crazy, 1950) established his reputation as a talented stylist by wrangling a complicated story—of a Parisian detective (Steven Geray) who falls in love while on vacation, only to see the woman murdered—into a taut and atmospheric film noir.

Overcoming the challenges of recreating the French countryside in Canoga Park, California, and working with a cast of virtual unknowns, Lewis and noir cinematographer extraordinaire Burnett Guffey craft one of the great surprise endings in all of noir, which would inspire such films as Possessed (1948) and Memento (2000).

Johnny O'Clock (1947)
Johnny O'Clock (Dick Powell) is a junior partner in a posh casino with Guido Marchettis (Thomas Gomez), but is senior in the eyes of Nelle (Ellen Drew)—Guido's wife and Johnny's ex. This love triangle leads to a web of complications, leaving Police Inspector Koch (Lee J. Cobb) to unravel the threads of deceit and a murdered casino employee's sister (Evelyn Keyes) to tug on Johnny's heartstrings before it's too late.

Applying Raymond Chandler's dictum that a good plot is an excuse for a series of exciting scenes, rookie director Robert Rossen strings together tense vignettes—brought vividly to life by cinematographer Burnett Guffey.

Walk a Crooked Mile (1948)
Director Gordon Douglas drew on mounting anti-Communist fervor to create one of the first Cold War films—the tale of an FBI agent (Dennis O'Keefe) and a Scotland Yard detective (Louis Hayward) who must bust a spy ring led by a ruthless agent (Raymond Burr) working to infiltrate an atomic research facility.

Producer Eddie Small stood tall in a battle against FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to produce the film without interference, arguing the Bureau was fair game for fictionalization. But Hoover had the last word, writing The New York Times to say the FBI had not sanctioned the film.

Between Midnight and Dawn (1950)
Dan Purvis (Edmund O'Brien) and Rocky Barnes (Mark Stevens) are lifelong pals who survived WWII and continue their armed service as uniformed prowl car boys on the night shift in LA. But their friendship is tested by their ongoing battle with a ruthless racketeer (Donald Buka), the love they share for a beautiful radio announcer (Gale Storm) and Dan's uncompromising and exaggerated sense of justice.

Often seen as the first example of the now commonplace buddy cop movie, this film demonstrates that the genre has always been rife with tension.

Walk East on Beacon! (1952)
Director Alfred L. Werker (He Walked by Night) adapted this tale of Communist spies stealing secrets about the Manhattan Project. The source material was a Reader's Digest article by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, and the movie shares Hoover's obsession with surveillance, creating an atypical noir focused on technology rather than obsessed with character psychology.

However, the film did make abundant use of the mean streets with over 14 weeks of location shooting throughout the northeast, thus providing a rare snapshot of an era in American life—its physical locations and its mental state.

BONUS FEATURES:

• Intro
• Scene Stills
• Publicity Stills
• Movie Posters
• TCMDb Article

WARNER ARCHIVE: 11 More w/ Lots of Cooper, Powell & Keeler

WBShop has just listed eleven more Warner Archive titles as available in what we're dubbing their Cooper, Powell, Keeler wave.

You can find them HERE under the Recent Additions section. There are six Gary Cooper titles including Bright Leaf (1950) with the rest being Dick Powell and/or Ruby Keeler musicals including Flirtation Walk (1934).

All are now available for rent, but may be a couple of weeks before they are available for shipment.

Zane Grey Theatre (Season 1) in June - SPECIAL 5 DAY PRICE

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre - Season 1 June 9th, 2009 VCI Retail $39.99, Our: $27.99 $21.98 (5 days only)

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Expected for some time, VCI has officially announced the ground-breaking western anthology TV series Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre - Season 1 with a June 9th release date. All 29 episodes will be included in this digitally remastered and restored four-disc set.

It will retail for $39.99, but is available at ClassicFlix.com for only $27.99. However, for 5 days only (until April 12th), we'll have it for the SUPER-LOW SPECIAL PRE-ORDER PRICE of $21.98. BUY NOW!

Details below.



SYNOPSIS:
The original 29 first-season episodes on 4 DVDS! Digitally remastered and restored!

Wonderful tales of the Old West laden with history and adventure are presented in Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theatre, a half-hour western anthology TV series that debuted on CBS, October 5, 1956 and ran for 5 whole seasons. Dick Powell served as the host for the entire series and also starred as various characters in 15 episodes.

The series was originally based on the short stories and novels of western author Zane Grey, but as the series continued, new material was included. Aaron Spelling, who later became a legend in Hollywood, wrote twenty Zane Grey episodes. This show was unique because it was the only Western anthology on TV at the time. Anthologies were popular on early TV and were the equivalent of today’s TV movies. Because of this format, it attracted many stars who wanted to appear on it.

Zane Grey Theatre was also ground-breaking for producing five episodes which were spun-off into subsequent TV series: (1) Trackdown (2) The Rifleman (3) Black Saddle (4) Johnny Ringo & (5) The Westerner.

Directed by John English, Felix Feist, Bernard Girard, Christian Nyby and others.

Cast: Dick Powell, Ida Lupino, David Niven, (the rest in alphabetical order) Eddie Albert, Mary Astor, Ralph Bellamy, James Best, Ernest Borgnine, Lloyd Bridges, Rory Calhoun, Lee J. Cobb, Robert Culp, John Derek, Jack Elam, John Forsythe, Beverly Garland, James Garner, Sterling Hayden, Celeste Holm, John Ireland, David Janssen, Carolyn Jones, DeForest Kelley, Cloris Leachman, Jack Lemmon, Julie London, Strother Martin, Ralph Meeker, Jack Palance, Denver Pyle, Robert Ryan, Stuart Whitman, James
Whitmore (and many others).

BONUS FEATURES:

• Exclusive Video Interview with Norman Powell (Dick Powell’s son) by Joel Blumberg.
• Audio Interview on the history of Four Star Productions with author Christine Becker by Joel Blumberg
• Classic TV Commercials