GOLDWYN BLU: Guys and Dolls, Hans Christian Andersen

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

Guys and Dolls (Blu-Ray) November 6th Warner Bros. Retail: 34.99, Our: $30.99

---

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

Hans Christian Andersen (Blu-Ray) December 18th Warner Bros. Retail: 34.99, Our: $30.99

---

Wasting no time with their recent acquisition of the Goldwyn library, Warner Bros. has announced Blu-Ray Book releases for Guys and Dolls (1955) and Hans Christian Anderson (1952).

Bonus features should be numerous, but are not forthcoming.

KINO: The Penalty (Blu) & Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

The Penalty (Blu-Ray) October 23rd Kino Retail $29.95, Our: $23.99

---

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians October 30th Kino Retail $14.95, Our: $12.99

---

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (Blu-Ray) October 30th Kino Retail $19.95, Our: $15.99

---

Kino has announced the Lon Chaney morbid chiller The Penalty (Blu-Ray) for release on October 23rd. It is unknown whether the bonus features will carry over from the standard release.

Also coming this October 30th on both DVD & Blu-Ray is 1964's cheesefest Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Bonus features include the “The Retro Holiday Film Festival” which features:

• Vintage Max Fleischer Holiday Cartoons
• Seasons Greetings from Classic TV Stars
• Howdy Doody’s Christmas Story
• Rare, Remastered Holiday Commercials
• And much, much more!

FLICKER: This Is Cinerama, Windjammer in September

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

This Is Cinerama (Blu-Ray / DVD Combo) September 25th Flicker Alley Retail: 39.99, Our: $29.99

---

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

Windjammer (Blu-Ray / DVD Combo) September 25th Flicker Alley Retail: 39.99, Our: $29.99

---

Flicker Alley will mark the 60th anniversary of Cinerama with the release of This Is Cinerama (Blu-Ray / DVD Combo) and Windjammer (Blu-Ray / DVD Combo) on September 25th.

Loads of bonus features accompany these combo sets. Details below.




This Is Cinerama (Blu-Ray / DVD Combo)
On the evening of September 30, 1952, the shape and sound of movies changed forever with the introduction of Cinerama. This unique widescreen process was launched when television was deemed a major threat to US film exhibition. Fred Waller, Cinerama's creator, had indeed labored that long on his dream of a motion picture experience that would recreate the full range of human vision. It used three cameras and three projectors on a curved screen 146° deep.

In celebration of the 60th Anniversary of its premiere, Flicker Alley is proud to present THIS IS CINERAMA, exactly as seen by over 20,000,000 viewers in its original roadshow version. You will travel around the world with Cinerama, from Venice to Madrid, from Edinburgh Castle to the La Scala opera house in Milan, and concluding with a flight across America in the nose of a B-25 bomber.

BONUS FEATURES:

• Audio commentary track - With John Sittig (Cinerama, Inc.), Dave Strohmaier (Cinerama Historian), Randy Gitsch (Locations background), and Jim Morrison (original crew member).
• Remastering A Widescreen Classic - 19 minutes / Before and after demonstrations on the film's remastering process.
• The This Is Cinerama “Breakdown Reel” - B&W / 9 minutes - Footage originally projected interstitially during the interruptions of any Cinerama performance.
• Alternate Act II European Opening - Color / 2 minutes
• Fred Waller Radio Interview - 15 minutes / A slideshow featuring an original 1952 radio interview with Fred Waller on the eve of opening night.
• This Is Cinerama Trailer - 3 minutes / A new recreation in HD of the film's trailer.
• TV Spots - This Is Cinerama and 7 Wonders of the World - One minute each.
• Tribute to New Neon Movies - 15 minutes / A short film celebrating the Cinerama revival in Dayton, OH from 1996 to1999, where a local projectionist set up Cinerama for special screenings to people from all over the country.
• Tribute to New Cooper Theatre - 4 minutes / Remembering the first Super Cinerama in Denver, CO.
• This Is Cinerama Behind The Scenes Slideshow - 6 minutes / Featuring images from the production and original exhibition of the film.
• Promotion and Publicity Image Gallery

Windjammer (Blu-Ray / DVD Combo)
Come onboard the magnificent Norwegian square-rigger as it sails its spectacular 17,000 mile journey, manned by a crew of young sailors-in-training, all photographed in the widescreen splendor of Cinemiracle, Cinerama’s only true competitor to thrill 1950’s audiences by sheer size and clarity. Now digitally remastered, the color, the music, the true artistry of this classic is reborn.

Embarking from Oslo, Norway, the ship sets out across the Atlantic with storm-tossed stops in Madeira, where New Year’s festivities entice the young crewman to enjoy Portuguese musical celebrations and heart racing rides in basket sleds down steep cobblestone streets. After that, it is on to Willemstad, Curacao, where the boys take part in Dutch festivities. They catch a courtyard performance of Pablo Casals in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, they’re greeted by native steel bands and Calypso singers.

By the time they arrive in New York, the Cinemiracle cameras offer a kaleidoscopic treat of color and sound. An encounter with the U.S. Navy Task Force makes for a grand promenade of ships, including a gigantic aircraft carrier.

Underwater shots of frogmen and a submerged submarine are thrilling, and when the sub emerges from the depths to reveal the Windjammer, Cinemiracle becomes the star of this breathtaking story. Morton Gould’s top-notch score, along with a fine variety of music throughout the picture, sounds perfect in Cinemiracle’s 7-channel sound recording. Seen digitally, the film hasn’t looked and sounded as good since its original theatrical engagements, over 50 years ago.

BONUS FEATURES:

• The Windjammer Voyage: A Cinemiracle Adventure - 2012 / A new documentary on the film’s original production - 56 minutes.
• Windjammer Gets A "Facelift" featuring before and after demos on the film’s remastering - 14 minutes.
• The Windjammer Breakdown Reel - 14 minutes
• The Christian Radich Today at the Aalbourg Denmark Tall Ships Festival 2010 - 7 minutes
• Windjammer Trailer - 3 minutes / New recreation from the original 1958 release trailer.
• Windjammer Behind The Scenes Slideshow - 9 minutes / Featuring images of the production, the original exhibition, and original publicity of the film.

About the SmileBox Curved Screen Format
These Cinerama publications are set up in a format which illustrates to a modern audience how different and special the Cinerama experience was when originally exhibited in theatres. The innovative curved screen "look" used in these Cinerama remasterings was developed and designed with input from film historians, award winning 3D graphics experts, digital engineers, and Oscar winning cinematographers.

A long period of tests included projecting the original 3 panel Cinerama focus charts on the Seattle Cinerama 146 degree screen, while checking for horizontal and vertical distortions. From such effort, SmileBox was developed to take full advantage of the HD 16 x 9 frame, and yet maintain a 146 degree effect that would approximate what people saw in Cinerama theaters 60 years ago.

Owing to certain limitations, the producers believe that this SmileBox format will approximate a “Cinerama effect” on flat 16 x 9 monitors, or when projected on screen.

OLIVE: Letter from an Unknown Woman, Three Secrets in October

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

Letter from an Unknown Woman October 16th Olive Films Retail: $24.95, Our: $17.99

---

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

Letter from an Unknown Woman (Blu-Ray) October 16th Olive Films Retail: $29.95, Our: $21.99 SPECIAL 3-Day Price $17.98

---

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

Three Secrets October 16th Olive Films Retail: $24.95, Our: $17.99

---

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

Three Secrets (Blu-Ray) October 16th Olive Films Retail: $29.95, Our: $21.99 SPECIAL 3-Day Price $17.98

---

More great titles are coming from Olive Films as they have announced the DVD and Blu-Ray release of Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) and Three Secrets (1950).

Streeting on October 16th, both Blu-Ray's will have a special pre-order price of $17.98 until Sunday.

Bonanza - Season 4 in October

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

Bonanza - Season 4, Vol. 1 October 2nd Paramount Retail: 39.99, Our: $29.99

---

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

Bonanza - Season 4, Vol. 2 October 2nd Paramount Retail: 39.99, Our: $29.99

---

On the heels of the just released Season 3, Paramount has announced Bonanza - Season 4, Vol. 1 & Bonanza - Season 4, Vol. 2 for release on October 2nd.

As with Season 3, Volume 1 will be a 5-disc set and Volume 2 will consist of four discs.

WARNER ARCHIVE: Gene Kelly Non-Musicals, Plus The Hanging Tree

Gene Kelly gets highlighted this week with a wave of six non-musicals from the Warner Archive Collection. They are:

• Black Hand (1950) - J. Carrol Naish, Teresa Celli, Marc Lawrence, Frank Puglia
• Crest of the Wave (1954) - John Justin, Bernard Lee
• The Cross of Lorraine (1943) - Jean-Pierre Aumont, Cedric Hardwicke, Richard Whorf, Joseph Calleia
• The Devil Makes Three (1952) - Pier Angeli, Richard Rober, Richard Egan
• The Happy Road (1956) - Barbara Laage, Michael Redgrave
• Pilot No. 5 (1943) - Franchot Tone, Marsha Hunt, Van Johnson, Alan Baxter

Also out is The Hanging Tree (1959) starring Gary Cooper, Maria Schell, Karl Malden and George C. Scott and The Last Challenge (1967) starring Glenn Ford, Angie Dickinson, Chad Everett, Gary Merrill and Jack Elam.

These newest additions to the Warner Archive Collection have been posted over at WBShop and will be available here at ClassicFlix on August 28th for $17.99. However, for 3 days only (until July 20th), we'll have them for the unbeatable price of $14.98.

These new DVDs add to the total of over 1,000 Warner Archive titles exclusively available for rent at ClassicFlix.com.

ECLIPSE: Three Wicked Melodramas from Gainsborough in October

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE: TITLES:

Three Wicked Melodramas from Gainsborough October 9th Criterion Retail $44.95, Our: $35.99 The Man in Grey (1943), Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945), The Wicked Lady (1945)

---

Criterion has announced an October 9th release date for Three Wicked Melodramas from Gainsborough.

The 3-disc set will contain the previously unreleased films: The Man in Grey (1943), Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945) and The Wicked Lady (1945).

Retail will be $44.95, but it's available at ClassicFlix.com for only $35.99.

SYNOPSIS:
During the 1940s, realism reigned in British cinema—but not at Gainsborough Pictures. The studio, which had been around since the ’20s, found new success with a series of pleasurably preposterous costume melodramas. Audiences ate up these overheated films, which featured a stable of charismatic stars, including James Mason, Margaret Lockwood, Stewart Granger, and Phyllis Calvert.

Though its films were immensely profitable in wartime and immediately after, Gainsborough did not outlive the decade. This set brings together a trio of Gainsborough’s most popular films—florid, visceral tales of secret identities, multiple personalities, and romantic betrayals.

The Man in Grey (1943)
This tale of treachery put both the Gainsborough melodrama and actor James Mason on the map. The star-to-be plays Lord Rohan, a cruel nobleman who marries the naive and sweet-natured Clarissa (Phyllis Calvert) for the sole purpose of producing an heir; meanwhile, Clarissa’s conniving best friend, Hesther (Margaret Lockwood), secretly plots against her for her own nefarious ends.

The Man in Grey, directed by Leslie Arliss, was such a box-office success that Gainsborough used it as a template, launching a cycle of increasingly rococo films.

Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945)
A lurid tale, Madonna of the Seven Moons, directed by Arthur Crabtree, is among the wildest of the Gainsborough melodramas.

Set in Italy, it begins as a relatively composed tale about a respectable, convent-raised woman (Phyllis Calvert) who is haunted by the memory of being raped as a teenager. When her grown daughter returns from school, her life begins to crack up in monumentally surprising ways. Stewart Granger also plays a prominent role in this sensational tale.

The Wicked Lady (1945)
Margaret Lockwood devours the screen as a tightly wound seventeenth-century beauty with loose morals, who steals her best friend’s wealthy fiancé on the eve of the wedding. And that’s only the beginning of this piece of pulp from director Leslie Arliss: there are no depths to which this woman won’t sink.

James Mason costars, and nearly steals the movie, as a highwayman with whom our anti-heroine becomes entangled.

WARNER ARCHIVE: Forbidden Hollywood Plus MacDonald & Eddy

Warner is bringing back the Forbidden Hollywood line with the release of Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 4 and Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 5. Each 4-disc set will have four new-to-DVD titles.

Not to be outshined is the release of two MacDonald / Eddy films: Rose Marie (1936) and Maytime (1937).

These newest additions to the Warner Archive Collection have been posted over at WBShop and will be available here at ClassicFlix on August 21st.

ClassicFlix.com now exclusively offers over 1,000 Warner Archive releases for rent.

The Ernie Kovacs Collection, Vol. 2 in October

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

The Ernie Kovacs Collection, Vol. 2 October 23rd Shout! Factory Retail: $29.93, Our: $23.99

---

Shout! Factory has announced an October 23rd release date for The Ernie Kovacs Collection, Vol. 2.

The 3-disc set will retail for $29.93, but is available at ClassicFlix.com for only $23.99. Details, including bonus features are below.


SYNOPSIS:
This second volume of The Ernie Kovacs Collection digs deeper into a goldmine of comedy from television’s original genius.

Kovacs fans, both longtime and new, will marvel at the sheer invention, wit and goofy charm of these landmark programs, all presented on home video for the first time. Ernie Kovacs was a creative force of nature, and this new collection of his riches—historic, unique and endlessly entertaining—will seal his legacy.

CONTAINS:

• 8 More Episodes From His National Morning Show
• 18 Bonus Sketches Featuring Many Of His Most Beloved Characters
• 3 Complete Episodes Of His Oddball Game Show Take A Good Look
• “A Pony For Chris”—His Rare TV Pilot For Medicine Man Co-Starring Buster Keaton
• The Lively Arts Featuring The Only Existing Filmed Interview With Ernie Kovacs
• 2011 American Cinematheque Panel
• PLUS: 12-page booklet with essay

TIMELESS: Mr. Lucky, Lawless Years, Whiplash Complete Series

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

Mr. Lucky - The Complete Series October 16th Timeless Media Group Retail $34.98, Our: $27.99

---

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

The Lawless Years - The Complete Series September 25th Timeless Media Group Retail $49.98, Our: $39.99

---

WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE:

Whiplash - The Complete Series September 18th Timeless Media Group Retail $34.98, Our: $27.99

---

More TV from Timeless as they have announced the complete series for Mr. Lucky, The Lawless Years and Whiplash.

All were short-lived with Lawless lasting the longest at 47 episodes. Lucky and Whiplash are making their DVD debuts, while season 1 of Lawless was previous released by Timeless.