New Release Tuesday! This week there a ton of 4K, two great new titles from Criterion, an Aztec Mummy box set, and lots more!
ADVENTURES OF DON JUAN (1948) (WARNER ARCHIVE)
Errol Flynn (The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood) stars in this Oscar-winning swashbuckling yarn as the legendary lover who romances the queen and saves the country from treason.In this later-career swashbuckler, Flynn is a warmer, wittier version of his earlier characters as he plays Don Juan, the Spanish lover who fights to save the Spanish queen (Viveca Lindfors) from the snares of the evil Duke de Lorca. (BLU-RAY)
AZTEC MUMMY COLLECTION (1964)
BOB’S BURGERS MOVIE (2022)
DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS (1995) (CRITERION)
The bone-deep disillusionment of postwar film noir becomes a powerful vehicle to explore America’s racial injustices in Carl Franklin’s richly atmospheric Devil in a Blue Dress, an adaptation of the hard-boiled novel by Walter Mosley. Denzel Washington has charisma to burn as the jobless ex-GI Easy Rawlins, who sees a chance to make some quick cash when he’s recruited to find the missing lover (Jennifer Beals) of a wealthy mayoral candidate in late-1940s Los Angeles—only to find himself embroiled in murder, political intrigue, and a scandal that crosses the treacherous color lines of a segregated society. Featuring breakout work by Don Cheadle as Rawlins’s cheerfully trigger-happy sidekick, this stylish mystery both channels and subverts classic noir tropes as it exposes the bitter racial realities underlying the American dream. (BLU-RAY + 4KULTRAHD)
DRIVE MY CAR (2021) (CRITERION)
Only Ryusuke Hamaguchi, with his extraordinary sensitivity to the mysterious resonances of human interactions, could sweep up international awards (including the Oscar for Best International Feature) and galvanize audiences everywhere with a pensive three-hour movie—presented in nine languages and adapted from Haruki Murakami stories—about an experimental staging of an Anton Chekhov play. With Drive My Car, the Japanese director has confirmed his place among contemporary cinema’s most vital voices. Two years after his wife’s unexpected death, Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) arrives in Hiroshima to direct a production of Uncle Vanya for a theater festival and, through relationships with an actor (Masaki Okada) with whom he shares a tangled history and a chauffeur (Toko Miura) with whom he develops a surprising rapport, finds himself facing up to his emotional scars. This quietly mesmerizing tale of love, art, grief, and healing is ultimately a cathartic exploration of what it means to go on living when there seems to be no road ahead. (BLU-RAY and DVD)
DUAL (2022)
ENTER ARSENE LUPIN (1944)
The charming French thief Arsène Lupin (Charles Korvin, Temptation) steals a priceless emerald from the beautiful English heiress Stacie Kanares (Ella Raines, The Web) while en route to Paris on the Orient Express. However, he becomes so infatuated with Stacie that he reroutes himself to Great Britain in order to return the jewel. Meanwhile, her cousin Bessie (Gale Sondergaard, The Spider Woman Strikes Back) schemes to murder Stacie in order to claim her inheritance. Lupin is determined to intervene to save Stacie’s life, but doing so puts him at risk of being captured by the dogged cop Ganimard (J. Carrol Naish, Beau Geste). The most lovable rogue in mystery fiction leaps to the screen in this thrilling film noir directed by action-adventure ace Ford Beebe (Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe). (BLU-RAY)
FORTUNE FAVORS LADY NIKUKO (2021)
From acclaimed director Ayumu Watanabe (Children of the Sea) and STUDIO4°C (Tekkonkinkreet, Mind Game) comes a heartwarming and moving comedy-drama with touches of magical realism. Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko is about an unconventional family and the bonds that they share in their sleepy seaside town. Brash single mother Nikuko is well-known for her bold spirit, much to the embarrassment of Kikuko, her pensive yet imaginative daughter. In contrast to her mother, Kikuko wants nothing more than to fit in as she navigates the everyday social dramas of middle school. Life in the harbor is peaceful until a shocking revelation from the past threatens to uproot the pair’s tender relationship. (BLU-RAY and DVD)
GAMES (1967)
James Caan (The Godfather, Misery), Katharine Ross (The Graduate, The Legacy) and Simone Signoret (Room At The Top, Diabolique) star in this psychological thriller from the director of What’s The Matter With Helen? Paul (Caan) and Jennifer (Ross) are a pair of wealthy Upper East Side socialites who like to amuse themselves by playing twisted and occasionally sadistic mind games. But when a mysterious woman (Signoret) shows up at their door and begins to exhibit uncanny psychic abilities, the rules change … and the stakes become higher (and deadlier) than ever before. (BLU-RAY)
GOD TOLD ME TO (1976)
A rooftop sniper guns down 14 pedestrians on the streets of New York City. A mild-mannered dad takes a shotgun and blows away his wife and children. A cop goes on a sudden shooting spree at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. And each of these unlikely killers makes the same dying confession: “God told me to.” Now a repressed Catholic NYPD detective (Tony Lo Bianco of THE HONEYMOON KILLERS and THE FRENCH CONNECTION) must uncover a netherworld of deranged faith, alien insemination and his own unholy connection to a homicidal messiah with a perverse plan for the soul of mankind. (BLU-RAY + 4KULTRAHD)
HELL HIGH (1989)
When high school football hero Jon-Jon (Breaking Bad’s Christopher Cousins) quits the team, he winds up falling in with a group of outcasts led by the sadistic Dickens (played to unhinged perfection by the late Christopher Stryker). With a willing new recruit in tow, the gang’s youthful hijinks soon spiral into a night of abject horror when they decide to play a cruel prank on the home of their teacher Miss Storm – who, unbeknownst to the youngsters, harbors a dark and tormented past. (BLU-RAY)
JFK REVISITED: COMPLETE COLLECTION (2021)
An official selection of the Cannes Film Festival, this feature-length film presents a fresh look at the vast archive of material that has recently been placed into public record. Thirty years after acclaimed director Oliver Stone’s first examination of JFK’s assassination, Stone reassesses the horrific event that shaped a generation. Using newly declassified and reexamined documents, Stone presents a compelling, thought-provoking documentary narrated by Whoopi Goldberg and Donald Sutherland. (BLU-RAY & DVD)
LET THEM ALL TALK (2020)
A famous author goes on a cruise trip with her friends and nephew in an effort to find fun and happiness while she comes to terms with her troubled past. (DVD)
LION OF THE DESERT (1980)
Two-time Oscar winner Anthony Quinn (Lawrence of Arabia) stars as Omar Mukhtar, the brilliant Bedouin leader who waged a 20-year guerilla war against the invading Italian tank armies led by General Rodolfo ‘The Butcher’ Graziani (Oliver Reed, Gladiator) and increasingly furious fascist dictator Benito Mussolini (Academy Award winner Rod Steiger, In the Heat of the Night). Oscar winner John Gielgud (Arthur) co-stars with a cast of thousands in this action-packed epic produced and directed by Moustapha Akkad (The Message) that remains one of the most provocative historical dramas of our time. (BLU-RAY + 4KULTRAHD)
THE MATRIX TRILOGY
The Complete Matrix Trilogy presents the complete adventures of machine battling truth-seekers Neo (Keanu Reeves), Trinity (Cary-Anne Moss) and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) in all three of the Wachowski’s ground-breaking monumental sci-fi feature films. (4KULTRAHD)
MESSAGE, THE (1976)
It was a movie seven years in the making, filmed in two separate versions with a cast of thousands, and featuring an Oscar-nominated score by Maurice Jarre (Doctor Zhivago, Ryan’s Daughter). This is the epic story of the prophet Mohammad, whose holy revelations defied a pagan society and changed the world forever. Two-time Academy Award winner Anthony Quinn (Lawrence of Arabia) stars in this landmark international hit produced and directed by Moustapha Akkad (Lion of the Desert) which remains the most powerful and acclaimed movie ever made about the birth of Islam. (BLU-RAY + 4KULTRAHD)
MINIMATA (2020)
MONSTROUS (2022)
NATIVE SON (1951)
One of the most controversial novels of its day, Richard Wright’s Native Son (first published in 1940) exposed the injustices of urban African-American life, witnessed through the eyes of Bigger Thomas, whose violent tendencies and moral confusion were the natural result of a lifetime of deprivation. In prison for murder and sentenced to death, Thomas reflects on the circumstances that led to his fate. Kino Lorber presents a new restoration of the 1951 film version of the novel, directed by Pierre Chenal and starring Richard Wright as Bigger Thomas. It is presented in association with the Library of Congress, Fernando Martin Peña and Argentina Sono Film. When it was initially released in the U.S., Native Son was heavily censored by regional state/municipal censor boards where it played. A complete 16mm print of the original Argentinian release and an incomplete 35mm duplicate negative of the uncensored cut were combined for the current restoration, the most complete version of Native Son ever shown in the United States. (BLU-RAY)
NECRO FILES (1997) (VISUAL VENGEANCE COLLECTOR’S EDITION)
An often referenced and notorious underground classic for the last 25 years, this “American Video Nasty” is finally available to a mass audience. A serial killer rises from the grave as a flesh-eating zombie maniac! Two Seattle cops, a satanic cult and a flying demon baby try to stop the lust-crazed ghoul before he can kill again. The Necro Files is stacked with intense scenes of gore and sadism, and boasts some of the most WTF moments in the history of shot on video cinema. (BLU-RAY)
NO SUDDEN MOVE (2021)
A group of criminals are brought together under mysterious circumstances and have to work together to uncover what’s really going on when their simple job goes completely sideways. (DVD)
ONE PUNCH MAN: SEASON 2 (2015)
RENO 911!: THE HUNT FOR QANON (2021)
High Seas, hijinks, and the Hunt for QAnon! The Reno Sheriff’s Department has been ordered to serve court papers to the mysterious head of QAnon, “Q.” They’re going deep undercover on Q’s Booze Cruise. (Mostly just to go on a free cruise!) (DVD)
RIGHTEOUS, THE (2021)
A former priest, Frederic Mason (Henry Czerny), anguished by the tragic death of his young daughter, finds himself wrestling with his religious convictions when a mysterious young man (Mark O’Brien) appears wounded on his doorstop in need of assistance. After he and his wife Ethel (Mimi Kuzyk) welcome him across the threshold and into their household, Frederic sees an opportunity for redemption in this mysterious and troubled lost soul, who might just be an emissary from God, or maybe the Devil… (BLU-RAY)
SACRED SPIRIT (2021) (ARROW LIMITED EDITION)
A missing girl. A community in shock. Jose Manuel lives a quiet life. He works in his modest tapas bar, takes care of his elderly mother and attends weekly meetings of the Ovni-Levante, a group of devoted UFO enthusiasts who gather after hours at the office of a local estate agent to exchange information about extraterrestrial messages and alien abductions. When their leader dies unexpectedly, only Jose is left to know the cosmic secret that could alter the future of humanity. And only Jose knows what he must do. As if Ken Loach and Aki Kaurismaki remade the The X-Files, The Sacred Spirit is a provocative, humane, and unsparing vision that marks the arrival of a unique new voice in genre cinema. (BLU-RAY)
SALT & PEPPER / ONE MORE TIME (1970)
This Double Feature Includes Both the Original Hit and the Hilarious Sequel. SALT AND PEPPER (1968) Legendary Rat-Packers Sammy Davis Jr. (A Man Called Adam) and Peter Lawford (Ocean’s 11) are London’s coolest cats taking on England’s craziest criminals! When a sexy spy turns up dead in their ultra-cool nightclub, owners Salt (Davis) and Pepper (Lawford) are recruited by the British Secret Service to help solve the crime. But when they discover a plot to overthrow the government—and no one will believe them—they’re forced to go it alone, battling clueless cops and rioting revolutionaries in a hilarious bid to crack the case! Directed by the great Richard Donner (Superman, Lethal Weapon). ONE MORE TIME (1970) Sammy Davis Jr. (Anna Lucasta) and Peter Lawford (Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell) reprise their roles as nightclub-owners-turned-detectives—this time under the direction of comic genius Jerry Lewis (The Nutty Professor)! When his rich twin brother turns up dead, Pepper (Lawford) secretly assumes his identity—only to discover that his twin brother didn’t just die…he was murdered! Now Pepper and Salt (Davis) are plunged into a wild caper filled with devilish double-crosses and a diabolical crew of diamond smugglers with an evil plot to put them both on ice! Featuring hilarious cameos by horror greats Christopher Lee as Dracula and Peter Cushing as Dr. Frankenstein. (BLU-RAY)
SILVER SCREEN: COLOR ME LAVENDER (1997)
From the ground-breaking director of Rock Hudson’s Home Movies and From the Journals of Jean Seberg, The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender is another witty and enlightening essay on the gay undercurrents of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Dan Butler (Frasier) acts as tour guide as he uncovers a squeamish fascination with gay eroticism and camp. The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender is a rich and funny meditation on American sexual identity, film history and culture. You will never look at Westerns the same way again! (DVD)
STEELE JUSTICE (1987)
You don’t recruit John Steele… You unleash him! When the police needed someone to stop the Vietnamese Mafia, there was only one choice. The Vietnam War didn’t end for John Steele… it just changed locations. Martin Kove (The Karate Kid, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Cobra Kai) stars as Steele, a battle-hardened, spirit-scarred vet unable to find his niche in mainstream America. But when Southern California’s drug-running Vietnamese mafia murders his best friend, Steele finds a new war to fight – and unleashes an action-packed array of blazing firepower and deadly finesse known as Steele Justice. Written and directed by Robert Boris (Electra Glide in Blue) and featuring a top-notch cast that includes Sela Ward (The Fugitive), Ronny Cox (Robocop), Bernie Casey (I’m Gonna Git You Sucka), Soon-Tek Oh (Missing in Action 2), Peter Kwong (Big Trouble in Little China), Al Leong (Die Hard, Lethal Weapon), Jan Gan Boyd (Assassination) and Sarah Douglas (Superman II). (BLU-RAY)
STREET OF CHANCE (1942)
From the novel The Black Curtain by the great Cornell Woolrich (Rear Window) comes this classic film noir about an amnesiac who uncovers an ugly truth. Burgess Meredith (Rocky) is Frank Thompson, who awakens in the middle of the street with nary a clue of where he is, how he got there, or why his cigarette case and hat both have the letters “D.N.” on them. Frank tries to piece together his old life while a mysterious stranger (Claire Trevor, Key Largo) seems more interested in probing his past than his wife Virginia (Louise Platt, Stagecoach). Then there’s the matter of the murder that Frank cannot remember committing. This suspense-soaked gem, with its pulpy plot and brilliant cinematography by Theodor Sparkuhl (Among the Living), established a number of conventions that helped define the noir genre. Directed by Jack Hively (The Saint’s Double Trouble). (BLU-RAY)
TEMPTATION (1946)
In this Victorian-era film noir, the mesmerizing Merle Oberon (The Lodger) is Ruby, the new wife of wealthy archaeologist Nigel (George Brent, The Spiral Staircase). Unbeknownst to her husband, Ruby has had quite a checkered past, involving several divorces and extramarital affairs. While Nigel is out digging up an ancient mummy, Ruby takes up with Baroudi (Charles Korvin, Enter Arsène Lupin), a slick but impoverished Egyptian opportunist. When Baroudi threatens to leave Ruby unless she puts her husband out of the way, she plots to poison the unwitting Nigel, setting the stage for a spectacular revenge-and-retribution finale. Paul Lukas (The Kiss Before the Mirror) also stars in this electrifying melodrama from director Irving Pichel (O.S.S.), based on the book Bella Donna by Robert Hichens (The Paradine Case). (BLU-RAY)
THERE ARE NO SAINTS (2022)
WHERE THE LILIES BLOOM (1974)
A young woman struggles to keep her family together against all the odds in this deeply felt drama from producer Robert B. Radnitz (Sounder) and director William A. Graham (Change of Habit). Based on the Newberry Award-winning book by Vera and Bill Cleaver, and adapted by Earl Hamner Jr. (TV’s The Waltons), Where the Lilies Bloom tells the story of Mary Call Luthor (Golden Globe nominee Julie Gholson), who lives happily with her father and three siblings in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. Her idyllic childhood ends abruptly, however, when her father dies. Though she is the second eldest, responsible and resourceful Mary Call emerges as the head of the family, determined to do what she must to fulfill her deathbed promise to her father to keep the orphans together. As they fight to earn their living, the children discover that the greatest treasure they possess is their love and devotion to each other. Featuring music by country legend Earl Scruggs and co-starring Harry Dean Stanton (The Missouri Breaks), Jan Smithers (TV’s WKRP in Cincinnati) and Rance Howard (Huckleberry Finn), Where the Lilies Bloom is a beautifully told story for all ages. (DVD)
WHITE SAVAGE/GYPSY WILDCAT/SUDAN (1945)
This collection includes three films co-starring Maria Montez and Jon Hall. WHITE SAVAGE (1943) In this lavish fantasy-adventure from director Arthur Lubin (Francis the Talking Mule), the beautiful “Queen of Technicolor” Maria Montez (Arabian Nights) lights up the screen as Princess Tahia, ruler of Temple Island, with co-stars Jon Hall (Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves) and Sabu (Cobra Woman) as the shark-hunter Kaloe and his rascally pal Orano. Forbidden love blossoms when Orano plays Cupid for Kaloe and the princess. But trouble comes to tropical paradise when scoundrels seek the hidden treasure in Tahia’s palace pool. Turhan Bey (Sudan), Sidney Toler (King of Chinatown) and Thomas Gomez (Singapore) round out the top-notch cast of this eye-popping, breathtaking romance on the South Seas. GYPSY WILDCAT (1944) The dazzling duo of Maria Montez (Cobra Woman) and Jon Hall (Arabian Nights) star in this Technicolor caravan of action and romance. When Count Orso is found dead, a wicked baron blames a local settlement of gypsies and imprisons them in his castle. The only witness to the killing is a traveler named Carla (Montez), who wears a beautiful necklace and captures the hearts of men who encounter her. Co-starring Peter Coe (Road to Bali), Nigel Bruce (Becky Sharp), Leo Carrillo (Four Frightened People) and Gale Sondergaard (The Spider Woman Strikes Back) with direction by Roy William Neill (Black Angel), this enchanting epic features lush locations, colorful costumes and the marvelous Ms. Montez at her most smoldering. SUDAN (1945) In this sixth and final Montez/Hall starrer, Maria Montez (Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves) is simply spectacular as the vengeful Naila, ruler of the Egyptian city of Khemis. Disguised as a peasant girl, she scours the desert for those responsible for her father’s death during a slave revolt. After a series of treacherous captures and escapes, the beautiful Naila finds herself aided by the amorous pickpocket Merab and his partner-in-crime Nebka, played by Jon Hall (Cobra Woman) and Andy Devine (Canyon Passage). Directed by John Rawlins (Arabian Nights) and co-starring Turhan Bey (White Savage), George Zucco (The Cat and the Canary) and Robert Warwick (Against All Flags), this action-packed romance shines like a Technicolor jewel of the Nile. (BLU-RAY)
YELLOWJACKETS: SEASON 1 (2021)
A thriving high school girls soccer squad is left stranded in the northern wilderness after a plane crash and descend into savage clans, where survival becomes even more important than the team. (BLU-RAY & DVD)