Exclusive to their site (FoxConnect), 20th Century Fox has released
two Elia Kazan sets on Blu-Ray -- but we have them for rent! They are:
Kazan at Fox, Vol. 1 (Blu-Ray)
Kazan at Fox, Vol. 2 (Blu-Ray)
Volume 1 consists of titles that were released before as singles on standard DVD. Most of the bonus features carry over and Panic has two new ones.
Volume 2 titles were released on standard DVD in the 18-disc Elia Kazan Collection, but were never released as singles (and are not likely to be soon). Details below.
Hailed as one of the most acclaimed and influential directors of all
time, Elia Kazan remains a true Hollywood icon. This collection presents
four of his finest films, available for the first time on Blu-Ray with
authentic high-quality picture and sound.
Boomerang (1947)
Director Elia Kazan won critical acclaim for this vividly portrayed,
suspenseful 1947 true crime drama set in Connecticut, where the events
actually happened. When a beloved priest is gunned down, the local
police chief (Lee J. Cobb) is under enormous pressure to find his
murderer, and, based only on vague descriptions, he undertakes a massive
manhunt, eventually arriving at both a suspect (Arthur Kennedy) and a
confession.
But the state’s attorney (Dana Andrews) is determined to convict only if
it’s right to do so. Also starring Jane Wyatt, Cara Williams, Sam
Levene, Ed Begley and Karl Malden, Boomerang is gripping noir
entertainment from start to finish.
BONUS FEATURES:
-
Audio Commentary by film historians Alain Silver and Jame Ursini
Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
Director Elia Kazan and producer Darryl F. Zanuck caused a sensation
with "the most spellbinding story ever put on celluloid" (Hollywood
Reporter), which won three Academy Awards including Best Picture. One of
the first films to directly tackle racial prejudice, this acclaimed
adaptation of Laura Z. Hobson's bestseller stars Gregory Peck in an
Oscar nominated role as a journalist assigned to write a series on
anti-Semitism.
Searching for an angle, he decides to pose as a Jew - and soon discovers
what it is to be a victim of religious intolerance. Dorothy McGuire,
John Garfield, Dean Stockwell and June Havoc also star in this riveting
World War II classic.
BONUS FEATURES:
-
Audio Commentary by Celeste Holm, June Havoc and Film Critic Richard Schickel
-
AMC Backstory Episode: Gentleman's Agreement
-
Fox Movietone Newsreels
Pinky (1949)
Pinky, a young nurse (Jeanne Crain), returns to her small southern
hometown, but the trip is bittersweet one: Educated in the North, Pinky
is engaged to a doctor who doesn't know that she is part black. Her
grandmother (Ethel Waters) is a proud black woman who is less than happy
to learn that Pinky's fiancee is white. Then, Pinky's friendship with a
southern aristocrat, Miss Em (Ethel Barrymore), is cause for more
scandal - and a lawsuit - when she dies and leaves her house to Pinky.
Shunned by both blacks and whites, Pinky's choices make her the
unfortunate target of bigotry in this compelling classic. This deeply
moving drama features three indelible Oscar-nominated performances from
Jeanne Crain, Ethel Barrymore and Ethel Waters.
BONUS FEATURES:
-
Audio Commentary by film historian Kenneth Geist
Panic in the Streets (1950)
In this suspenseful melodrama, a bullet-ridden corpse turns up in the
water off the New Orleans docks. To the police, he's a John Doe...until a
public health doctor (Richard Widmark) discovers he carries a virulent
strain of bubonic plague. Hundreds of officers are mobilized to track
down the killers and all who had contact with the dead man in a
desperate race against the clock before the highly contagious disease
spreads far beyond the port area and puts the entire country in peril.
BONUS FEATURES:
-
Audio Commentary by authors and historians James Ursini and Alain Silver
-
Jack Palance: From Grit to Grace
-
Richard Widmark: Strength of Characters
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
This poignant and heartwarming story, Elia Kazan's directorial debut, is
based on the best-selling novel about life in Brooklyn's Irish
tenements at the turn of the twentieth century.
BONUS FEATURES:
-
Commentary by Film Historian Richard Schickel with Elia Kazan, Ted Donaldson and Norman Lloyd
-
The Making of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
-
An Appreciation of Dorothy McGuire
-
Fox Movietone News Segments
Viva Zapata! (1952)
Marlon Brando stars as Emiliano Zapata, the hero of the 1920 Mexican
revolution. Anthony Quinn's portrayal of Zapata's hard-living brother
earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
NO BONUS FEATURES
Man on a Tightrope (1953)
The legendary Fredric March plays Karel Cernik, who courageously leads
his traveling circus in a desperate run for the German border to escape
from 1950's communist Czechoslovakia.
NO BONUS FEATURES
Wild River (1960)
Montgomery Clift is a government agent who must evacuate lands to make
way for a new dam. When an elderly woman refuses to leave, Clift falls
for her granddaughter (Lee Remick).
BONUS FEATURE:
-
Commentary by Film Historian Richard Schickel
