Jeff Heinrich

Hollywood producer Val Newton – or Volodymyr Ivanovich Hofschneider, a Ukrainian Jew who at five years old emigrated to America with his mother and sister – is remembered by cinephiles today for a series of 'B' horror movies he made at RKO Pictures in the early 1940s. The first was Cat People, released in 1942. Newton followed that up with no less than four more the following year: I Walked with a Zombie, The Leopard Man, The Seventh Victim and The Ghost Ship. Now the prestige New York distributor Criterion has released Zombie and Victim in a double-Blu-ray set: one a 4K UHD, the other a standard BD, both holding the two films. Zombie, directed by Jacques Tourneur (who also did Cat and Leopard), is set on a Caribbean island where a young nurse (Frances Dee) has come to take care of a woman in a coma; soon enough, she falls prey to the power of voodoo. Victim, directed by Mark Robson, is set among a cult of devil worshipers in New York City's Greenwich Village. Extras on the discs include separate audio commentaries from 2005 by Kim Newman and Stephen Jones and by Steve Haberman, a new interview with film historian Imogen Sara Smith (47 minutes), an hour's worth of 'making-ofs' audio essays from Adam Roche’s podcast 'The Secret History of Hollywood', a 2005 hour-long documentary called
"Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy," excerpts from an episode of the PBS series Monstrum, hosted by scholar Emily Zarka, called “The Origins of the Zombie, from Haiti to the U.S.” (13 mins.), and trailer for both films. The accompanying booklet has essays by critics Chris Fujiwara and Lucy Sante.

Mexico City, present day. Preparations are underway for a surprise birthday party, and the excitement that seven-year-old Sol (Naíma Sentíes) feels is soon replaced by an entirely different feeling, as she realizes the guest of honour – her father – is dying. This party will be his last, and as his mother, sisters and other relatives bustle about the family home, his daughter comes to grips with a very personal grief over what she's about to lose. Shot in the 1.33.1 aspect ratio, à la Hollywood 'Academy' framing of old, Tótem was Mexico's official submission for best international feature film at this year's Oscars. Extras on the Criterion Blu-ray, part of its Janus Contemporaries series of recent films, include a 17-minute interview with director Lila Avilés (The Chambermaid) and a two-minute trailer.

Bohemia, 900 years ago. Ondřej, an errant knight of the Teutonic Order, returns to his home village pursued by his former mentor, Armin, veteran of the Crusades. What follows is a back-and-forth, violent battle of wills culminating in the death of one man and the uncertain redemption of the other. Shot in black-and-white, The Valley of the Bees was the follow-up to Czech director František Vláčil's masterpiece, Marketa Lazarová, and still packs a punch today as an allegory of the corrosive power of misplaced faith. Augmented with new-and-improved English subtitles, the all-region Blu-ray from British distributor Second Run includes two documentary shorts Vláčil made in 1972: "The City in White" and "Karlovy Vary Promenades." There's also a new commentary by Projection Booth podcasters Mike White and Robert Bellissimo. A 24-page illustrated booklet featuring an essay by film historian Peter Hames completes the package.

Ancient Egypt, Polish-style. in the mid-1960s, writer-director Jerzy Kawalerowicz got the green light from the Communist authorities to adapt Faraon, a historical novel about (fictional) Ramses XIII by his late 19th-century compatriot Bolesław Prus that – no surprise – was a favourite of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Epic in scope and budget, the film was mainly shot in Uzbekistan, under very harsh conditions, and has now been restored in 2K by the prestigious Warsaw film studio WFDiF, supervised by Pharaoh's cinematographer, Jerzy Wójcik. Extras on Second Run's region-free Blu-ray include an in-depth discussion by film scholar Michał Oleszczyk, a 1964 Polish newsreel excerpt on the making of Pharaoh, and a trailer, as well as new-and-improved English subtitles. Rounding out this edition is a 24-page booklet with an essay by film historian Michael Brooke. Oh, and there's an 'Easter egg' extra hidden in the menu.

Mismatched characters, mismatched actors: Marlene Dietrich and Fred MacMurray play an odd couple in this 1942 comic melodrama directed by Mitchell Leisen (Remember the Night). Dietrich is a Broadway musical star bent on adopting an abandoned baby, and MacMurray is the divorced obstetrician she wants to marry so the adoption can go through. The good doctor has an odd hobby, too: he breeds rabbits. New to Blu-ray, on a region-B disc in the Indicator series of British distributor Powerhouse, the movie comes with two new extras: an audio commentary by Adrian Martin and a half-hour discussion about Dietrich by Richard Dyer. There's also the complete, hour-long Lux Radio Theatre broadcast of ‘The Lady Is Willing’ from 1943, starring George Brent and Kay Francis, an image gallery, and a 36-page illustrated booklet.

More opposites attracting: right after making Love Affair together for director Leo McCarey, Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer reunited for another romantic melodrama, When Tomorrow Comes, this time with an organized labour theme under producer-director John M. Stahl (Leave Her To Heaven). Boyer plays a concert pianist from Paris and Dunne the New York restaurant waitress he falls for, just as she and her co-workers go on strike. There are storm clouds on the couple's horizon, however – literally (cue the torrential rains). Indicator's region-B Blu-ray features a 2K restoration and three new extras: an audio commentary by film curator Eloise Ross, a 20-minute appreciation of Stahl by critic Geoff Andrew, and 20 minutes of critic Michael Brooke discussing crime novelist James M. Cain, whose 1938 magazine serial "A Modern Cinderella" inspired the film. There's also an image gallery and an onscreen gallery of all 305 pages of the film's screenplay. A 40-page booklet completes the package.

A more felicitous pairing, this time of dancer-actors Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth in a hit musical comedy of Cole Porter songs called You'll Never Get Rich, from 1941. Astaire plays a choreographer and Hayworth is a star of his troupe; Robert Benchley owns the theatre and, though married, has an eye for the ladies. Sidney Lanfield (The Hound of the Baskervilles) directs. Restored in 4K, the movie comes with a number of extras on Indicator's region-B Indicator disc: a new audio commentary by film historian Peter Tonguette, a new 20-minute look at Hayworth by critic Christina Newland; 77 minutes of audio from a 1985 public lecture given by Astaire expert John Mueller; the film's narrated and truncated Super-8 version; an optional music-and-effects audio track; an image galler; and a trailer. The accompanying booklet runs 40 pages.

Finally, it's Sylvia Sidney and George Raft's turn to pair off, but this time the couple they portray are a pair of equals – in crime. Raft plays Joe, who after a stint in jail finds work in a department store, where he falls for his winsome co-worker, Helen (Sidney's character), who turns out to have been in trouble with the law, too. Can two (ex-)cons make a right? The movie marked the third time that exiled Austrian director Fritz Lang (Metropolis) had directed Sidney, after Fury and You Only Live Once, and yet – despite a score partly composed by the great Kurt Weill, a German Jew who'd also fled the Nazis for America – it flopped. Indicator's region-B Blu-ray features a 2K restoration and three new extras: an audio commentary by Tony Rayns, a 23-minute look at Sidney by Lucy Bolton, and a half-hour on Weill by David Huckvale, at his piano. A trailer and image gallery round out the disc. The accompanying illustrated booklet runs 36 pages and includes a new essay by film historian Farran Smith Nehme.

Autumn 2024 on Blu-ray

10.2024

09.2024