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Release: July 3, 2012

$7.99

Description

The two features on this Blu-ray publication honor the extraordinary lives of filmmaking team Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack as their "distant, difficult and dangerous productions" evolved from pure documentary (Grass), through semi-documentary (Chang) and semi-fiction (The Four Feathers), to their fictional apogee in King Kong (1933). The Most Dangerous Game is a superb, pre-Code action-adventure film. Based upon a famous short story by Richard Connell, it follows big game hunter, Bob Rainsford, (Joel McCrea), as he becomes quarry for another, the opulently deranged Count Zaroff, (floridly played by Leslie Banks). Utilizing some of the amazing sets made for King Kong, the film is sometimes thought of as a place-holder to keep key cast and crew available during Kong’'s lengthy animation schedule. This included actors Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Noble Johnson and Steve Clemento, as well as editor Archie Marshek, composer Max Steiner, sound effects expert Murray Spivak, illustrators Mario Larrinaga and Byron Crabbe, and optical effects wizards Vernon Walker and Linwood Dunn. The strong story and theme, excellent production values, vigorous action and fast pacing make The Most Dangerous Game an exciting and more than satisfying entertainment after eighty years. Both picture and sound are scrupulously restored in high definition from the original 35mm studio fine grain master positive, and there is a full-length optional audio essay by Rick Jewell, Professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and author of The RKO Story and The Golden Age of Cinema: Hollywood 1929-45. Gow is not only a true curiosity but also in many ways a key influence of later Cooper and Schoedsack productions including King Kong. The footage in Gow was produced by Edward A. Salisbury, a wealthy British adventurer, who in 1920 set sail in an 80-ton yacht equipped with a motion picture laboratory to, in his words, catch and hold for history a photo record of the fast–disappearing races of the South Seas Islands”. Cooper and Schoedsack were among the cameramen on this two-year expedition that documented genuine head-hunters and cannibals along its route. The material was originally released as four separate films in the silent era and was consolidated as the film Gow, The Headhunter for an illustrated lecture by expedition member William Peck. Peck recorded his own cringe-inducing commentary in 1931. Gow was reissued as an exploitation film into the 1950s under the title Cannibal Island, but it was made with a serious purpose. True to Salisbury’s intent, it indeed documents vanished cultures and is brilliantly illuminated here with an exclusive audio essay by Matthew Spriggs, Professor of Archaeology at the Australian National University and author of The Island Melanesians. Gow is mastered for this edition in high definition from the original 35mm fine grain master positive.

Release: November 17, 2020

$7.99

Description

Rio Grande, the third and final installment in John Ford’s loosely-conceived Cavalry Trilogy (preceded by Fort Apache and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon) stars John Wayne as Lt. Col. John Kirby Yorke (the role he inhabited in Fort Apache) alongside Maureen O’Hara (in the first of five films she’d co-star in alongside Wayne) as his estranged wife, Kathleen, a woman set on keeping their son, Jefferson (Claude Jarman Jr., The Yearling), now under Yorke’s command, out of harm’s way. Filmed throughout Moab, Utah and the majestic Professor Valley – photographed in exquisite gradations of black and white by Stagecoach cinematographer Bert Glennon – Rio Grande offers nuanced observations on love, family, and honor, while firmly adhering to the western genre, showing Ford at his most measured and mature as a storyteller. Written by James Kevin McGuinness (Men of Boys Town) based on the Saturday Evening Post story by James Warner Bellah, Rio Grande features J. Carrol Naish and a supporting cast of familiar faces, many of them from the Ford stock company of actors including Harry Carey, Jr., Ben Johnson, Victor McLaglen, Chill Wills, and Grant Withers." "OLIVE SIGNATURE FEATURES - New High-Definition digital restoration - Audio commentary by Nancy Schoenberger - ""Telling Real Histories"" – Raoul Trujillo on representations of Indigenous Americans in film - ""Songs of the Rio Grande"" – Marc Wanamaker on the Sons of the Pioneers - ""Strength and Courage"" – Patrick Wayne on his father - ""Bigger Than Life"" – with Claude Jarman, Jr. - Visual essay by Tag Gallagher - ""The Making of Rio Grande"" – with Leonard Maltin - Essay by Paul Andrew Hutton - Theatrical trailer RIO GRANDE (OLIVE SIGNATURE)

Release: May 15, 2018

$7.99

Description

Flicker Alley and Cinerama Inc. are pleased to announce the long-awaited re-release of This is Cinerama, now beautifully restored from the original three-panel, six-perforation camera elements. Presented in a deluxe Blu-ray edition, this is the most extensive and thorough restoration yet of the film that changed the shape and sound of the movies forever! On the evening of September 30, 1952, This is Cinerama premiered at the Broadway Theatre in New York City. Robert C. Ruark of The New York World Telegram said of the event: “I have just looked at the movies’ answer to television, whether or not the movies know it yet.” Indeed, this unique, widescreen process was launched when television was deemed a major threat to US film exhibition. Fred Waller, Cinerama’s creator, dreamed of a motion picture experience that would recreate the full range of human vision. Using three cameras and three projectors on a curved screen 146° deep, Cinerama created an immersive cinematic event, wowing 20 million viewers in its original roadshow version. Now, audiences can experience the forerunner to all modern widescreen formats once again, and in a brand-new, definitive restoration. From Venice to Madrid, from Edinburgh Castle to the La Scala opera house in Milan, and all across America in the nose of a B-25 bomber, travel around the world with Cinerama, presented in the one-and-only Smilebox® curved screen simulation.

Release: September 13, 2016

$10.99(Not Free for Subscribers)

Description

The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Ninth Season (BD) (BD) Prepare to enter phase nine of television’s perpetual laughter experiment as THE BIG BANG THEORY successfully fuses the elements of science and sitcom. Our two genius roommates – Leonard and Sheldon ¬– and their friends are back once again (smarter, but no wiser). Last season, Sheldon went soul-searching (on a train, of course) and was prepared to make some substantial revisions on his Relationship Agreement with Amy, when everything changed. Leonard, meanwhile, was off to Vegas with Penny to finally tie the knot in the season finale. Howard finds himself alone with Bernadette after the sudden passing of his mother; while Raj is not only talking to women – he’s getting exclusive with Emily (Laura Spencer). Together, they will all learn that life is far more complicated outside of the lab as love and friendship never produce predictable results!