FLICKER ALLEY: The Lost World Debuts on Blu in September

Flicker Alley has announced the Blu-Ray premiere of the silent creature feature The Lost World.
Unlike previous Flicker releases this is a Blu-Ray release only. There's no word if the DVD, originally released in 2001 from Image, will be updated. Bonus content is below.
The Lost World will be available on September 12th.

FLICKER ALLEY: Early Women Filmmakers Anthology Arrives in May

Flicker Alley has announced May 23rd as the release date for their 6-disc Early Women Filmmakers: An Anthology combo set. Click here for details.

FLICKER ALLEY: Behind the Door Debuts on DVD and Blu in April

Flicker Alley has announced the DVD and Blu-Ray premiere of the silent war drama Behind the Door. Click here for details.

FLICKER ALLEY: Children of Divorce Debuts on Home Video in December

Flicker Alley celebrates their 50th release with the home video premiere of the silent drama Children of Divorce. Click here for details.

FLICKER CINERAMA: Best of Cinerama and Russian Adventure Arrive in November

Over a year since their last Cinerama releases, Seven Wonders of the World and Search for Paradise, Flicker Alley continues their quest to make Cinerama available on home video with the release of Cinerama's The Best of Cinerama and Russian Adventure. Click here for details.

FLICKER: Timothy's Quest Premieres on Blu

Flicker Alley has announced the release of Timothy's Quest (1922) on Blu-Ray. Click here for details.

Two Film Noir Classics Debut on Blu in April

Flicker Alley announced film noir classics Too Late for Tears (1949) and Woman on the Run (1950) will debut on Blu-Ray on April 19th. Click here for details.

The Inhuman Woman Premieres on Blu in February

Flicker Alley has announced February 23rd as the release date for The Inhuman Woman on Blu-Ray. Click here for details.

Lost Sherlock Holmes Film Found and Debuting in October

Flicker Alley has announced a release date of October 27th for Sherlock Holmes starring William Gillette. Click here for details.

French Serial, The House of Mystery, Debuts on DVD in April

Flicker Alley has announced a release date of April 7th for the French serial The House of Mystery (also known as La Maison du mystère). Click here for details.

FLICKER CINERAMA: Seven Wonders and Search for Paradise (3-DAY SPECIAL PRICE)

Twelve months since their last Cinerama releases, Cinerama Holiday and South Seas Adventure, Flicker Alley continues their quest to make Cinerama available on home video with the release of Cinerama's Seven Wonders of the World and Search for Paradise. Click here for details.

ARTWORK UPDATE: Cinerama Holiday & South Seas Adventure

-- SLIGHT CHANGE IN COVER ART FOR FLICKER'S UPCOMING CINERAMA RELEASES --
-- UPDATED ARTWORK ADDED TO PREVIOUS ANNOUNCEMENT --



ORIGINAL ANNOUNCEMENT

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

Cinerama Holiday (Blu-Ray / DVD) October 22nd Flicker Alley Retail: $39.95, Our: $34.99

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WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

Cinerama South Seas Adventure (Blu-Ray / DVD) October 22nd Flicker Alley Retail: $39.95, Our: $34.99

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Flicker Alley has announced two more Cinerama releases: Cinerama Holiday (Blu-Ray / DVD) and Cinerama South Seas Adventure (Blu-Ray / DVD).

Both are Blu-Ray/DVD combo sets with a street date of October 22nd. Each will come with loads of bonus features (below).

It’s winter in Switzerland, it’s summer in New England, it’s daybreak on the desert, it’s dancing till dawn, it’s spring in Paris, it’s jazz in New Orleans…it’s every holiday you ever dreamed of…come true!

 

Cinerama Holiday was the 2nd of the original, 3-panel Cinerama travelogues. Released in 1955, the motion picture crisscrosses two hybridized travelogues of the “Cinerama camera accompanied” vacations of two adventurous, real-life, married couples. We meet first, Fred and Beatrice Troller, from Zurich, Switzerland, who upon their arrival on the first transatlantic flight to ever land in Kansas City, unload their motor scooter and begin a panoramic tour of America, which begins with them driving up Fremont Street in Las Vegas and catching a casino floor show. Meanwhile, Betty and John Marsh, leave their Kansas City home to take off on the same plane the Troller’s arrived on, for a return flight to Switzerland where this couple take in an outdoor ice show in St. Moritz, and where John rides a bobsled, beginning their European vacation. The latter of which provides just one of the film’s obvious, immersive, “thrill” sequences accentuated by the three-camera/curved-view format.

 

The Swiss couple are awed by sights of the American west viewed from the “Vista-Dome” of a speeding California Zephyr train, ride a cable car in San Francisco, observe a New Orleans “jazz funeral”, a performance of “Tiger Rag” by Oscar Celestin, and visit a New England county fair, where the Ferris wheel provides another immersive cinematic experience.  Meanwhile, the American couple ski the Swiss Alps with hundreds of fellow skiers, and thereafter discover the joy of singing and “fondue” in a Swiss tavern, and then move on to Paris, where they take in the Paris Opera, the Louvre, High Mass at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, a Grand Guignol puppet show, see the spring line in a fashion show, and a floor show in the famous Lido. Both couples meet up in New York City to “finish” their movie, so to speak, and are treated to a finale of the U.S. Navy’s “Blue Angels” performing near-supersonic aerial maneuvers and landing on an aircraft carrier. And all of that’s a Cinerama Holiday!

 

Unseen theatrically since the early 1970’s, and never before broadcast or issued on home video, the picture now digitally remastered from its original camera negatives, is now newly presented in the Smilebox Curved Screen Simulation. It is a fascinating time capsule of the 1950’s, an age in which most people had yet to experience a flight in a plane.

BONUS FEATURES:

• The original Cinerama Holiday breakdown reel
• New interviews with original participants
• Original 8 mm home movies
• A demonstration and comparison of the film’s restoration
• An amazing scrapbook of images made during production
• A booklet reproduction of an original program
• And much more!

Cinerama South Seas Adventure proved to be the 5th and last of the original, 3-panel Cinerama travelogues. Released in 1958, and 4 months after the 3-panel competitor, “Windjammer: The Voyage of the Christian Radich”, it is at moments similar, although overall an entirely different tale than previously seen in the format.  Five separate stories are dramatized, woven out of a series of theoretical, island-hopping voyages that start en route to Hawaii, and after traversing the South Seas as far as Australia, end up flying back home from Honolulu.

In between, through both an adventurous shipboard passenger, a returning American WWII veteran, and the enthused narration, we're taken island hopping to stops in places lush, tranquil, and inviting, like Tahiti, Tonga and Fiji, then to and the even more exotic, primitive Pentecost Island.  Native dancing and song are celebrated alongside cultures and customs spanning thousands of years. Sailing onward to New Zealand, we're reminded it's also an island, in fact two, with an unexpected geography including volcanoes and snow-covered mountain ranges. From there we' travel on to Australia, where we follow the arrival of a new European immigrant man and his young daughter, as they get accustomed to native animals like koalas and kangaroos, and then settle in for a new life in the "outback". There, they become integral in stories illustrating life in such isolated areas, including both the "School of the Air", a classroom conducted over the radio and the Flying Doctor Service, similarly radio-dispatched.
 

Unseen theatrically since the early 1970’s, and never before issued on home video, Cinerama South Seas Adventure is the original road show version of the picture, complete with overture, intermission and exit music, now newly presented in the Smilebox Curved Screen Simulation. Now digitally remastered from the original camera negatives, the picture shines bright emitting both a panorama that is at times breathtakingly colorful, and a sparklingly clear, seven-channel sound track, as well as a fascinating time capsule of 1950’s innocence and quaintness. With a partial narration by Orson Welles, the picture also, surprisingly may be the first to chronicle primitive bungee jumping.

BONUS FEATURES:

• Interviews with original participants
• A vintage Renault promotional film as originally presented in 3-panel Cinerama
• Clips from “In The Wake of Captain Cook,” a Carl Dudley short on the South Seas with behind the scenes filming of South Seas Adventure
• Many behind the scene stills and promotional materials
• A booklet reproduction of an original program
• And much more!

FLICKER ALLEY: Laila - Silent Norwegian Epic in April

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

Laila (1929) April 12th Flicker Alley Retail: 29.95, Our: $23.99

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Flicker Alley has announced an April 12th release date for the silent Norwegian epic Laila (1929).

The single disc DVD will retail for $29.95, but is available at ClassicFlix.com for only $23.99. Bonus features are not yet known.

FLICKER ALLEY: The Lost Films of John Gilbert in July

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE: TITLES:

The Lost Films of John Gilbert July 7th Flicker Alley Retail $39.99, Our: $29.99 Bardelys the Magnificent (1926), Monte Cristo (1922)

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Flicker Alley has announced a July 7th release date for a The Lost Films of John Gilbert. The titles are the King Vidor directed Bardelys the Magnificent (1926) and Monte Cristo (1922).

The two-disc release will retail for $39.99, but it's available at ClassicFlix.com for only $29.99. Details below.

Bardelys the Magnificent (1926, 85 min.)
Based upon the novel by Rafael Sabatini and directed by King Vidor, who just one year before had directed Gilbert in the smash hit The Big Parade. In France “in an age of light loves and lively scandals,” the Marquis de Bardelys (Gilbert), casual womanizer and accomplished swashbuckler, is entranced by Roxalanne de Lavedan (Eleanor Boardman); and against a background of knavery and intrigue, he sets out to woo and win her. Lavishly mounted and superbly directed with spectacular action scenes, Bardelys is a hugely entertaining action romance given an A-plus MGM production.

The sole surviving print was found in France in 2006; the English titles are restored according to the original script. A gap in the recovered footage is bridged with stills, titles, and footage from the original trailer so the story is complete; the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra provides a lovely score of period photoplay music. This release is possible through the graciousness of Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures.

Monte Cristo (1922, 100 min.)
Adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, and directed by Emmett J. Flynn, Gilbert is Edmond Dantes, a sailor unjustly imprisoned for twenty years, time he spends acquiring education and finesse. Later the accidental heir to a vast fortune, Dantes reinvents himself as the Count of Monte Cristo, and wreaks revenge on those symbols of the decadent monarchy that wronged him.

Fox Film spared no expense on this prestige film with lavish sets and a distinguished supporting cast. The sole surviving copy of Monte Cristo is a worn and choppy print found in the Czech Republic, but nearly complete. English titles have been restored with the help of the original script. Pianist Neal Kurz arranged and performs a score of obscure yet beautiful French music of the period.

BONUS FEATURES:

• Film historians Jeffrey Vance and Tony Maietta draw from their own extensive historical research into the life of John Gilbert to provide:
  • A full-length audio essay on Bardelys the Magnificent
    
  • An enclosed booklet
    
  • A brand-new thirty-minute documentary Rediscovering John Gilbert, featuring an on-camera interview with John Gilbert’s daughter and biographer, Leatrice Gilbert Fountain
• Plus a 200+ Image slide show

FLICKER ALLEY: Under Full Sail - Silent Cinema on the High Seas

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

Under Full Sail - Silent Cinema on the High Seas April 14th Flicker Alley Retail $29.99, Our: $23.99

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Flicker Alley has announced an April 14th release date for Under Full Sail - Silent Cinema on the High Seas. This nautical themed set contains the most complete version of The Yankee Clipper (1927) as well as four other titles.

Included is an audio reminiscence by Frank Coghlan, Jr. who played Mickey in the The Yankee Clipper. It is not known whether the interview took place specifically for this release, but could have as Mr. Coghlan is now 92.

It will retail for $29.99, but is available at ClassicFlix.com for only $23.99. Details below.

Flicker Alley, in association with the Blackhawk Film Collection, announces the release of Under Full Sail – Silent Cinema on the High Seas, a new DVD release featuring five breathtaking films that preserve the romance, grandeur and allure of windjammers sailing open waters, exquisitely photographed in the style of the time.

The Yankee Clipper (1927)
Produced by Cecil B. DeMille and directed by Rupert Julian, restored to the most complete version available since the film’s release, is a feature-length melodrama recreating the real-life race from Foo Chow to Boston for the China tea trade. The gorgeous production filmed at sea for six weeks aboard the 1856 wooden square-rigger Indiana with stars William Boyd, Elinor Fair and Frank “Junior” Coghlan. Renowned organist Dennis James, in his solo DVD premiere, accompanies the film on an original-installation 1928 Wurlitzer pipe organ recorded at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre.

Around the Horn in a Square Rigger (1933)
Filmed by noted sailor, author, and photographer Alan Villiers documenting the record-breaking 83-day voyage of the 1902 barque Parma from Australia to England in the 1933 Grain Race. Villiers writes, “We wanted to make a picture that would capture some of the stirring beauty of these ships…some glimmer of understanding of the attraction which they hold over those who sail in them.” Music by Eric Beheim.

The Square Rigger (1932), an early sound short filmed as part of Fox’s Magic Carpet of Movietone, shows life aboard the schoolship Dar Pomorza, “The White Frigate.” Built in 1909 as the Prinzess Eitel Friedrich, it was ceded from Germany to France as a prize of World War I, and was later donated to the Polish State Maritime School in 1930 where it served 50 years and trained more than 13,000 cadets.

Ship Ahoy (1928)
A unique record of the conditions and traditions of the North American lumber trade, featuring an unidentified schooner equipped with a fore and aft rig as it transports lumber from the Carolinas up the coast to a northern port. Music by Eric Beheim.

The collection is rounded off with a ten-minute sequence from Down to the Sea in Ships (1922), documenting an authentic whale hunt from the 1878 wooden ship Wanderer out of New Bedford, Massachusetts. The cameramen risk their lives to capture practices unchanged since Herman Melville immortalized them in Moby Dick. Music by Dennis James.

BONUS FEATURES:

• Audio Reminiscence by Frank “Junior” Coghlan about the filming of The Yankee Clipper
• PLUS: An enclosed booklet includes detailed program notes by film scholar and U.S. Navy marine engineer John E. Stone and an essay about the scoring of The Yankee Clipper by organist Dennis James.