Warner Archive Collection New Releases: Waiting for Walt

WITH CHRISTOPHER GUEST, PARKER POSEY, VINCENTE MINNELLI, GENE KELLY, ROBERT TAYLOR, LUCILLE BALL & ANNE SHIRLEY
WAITING FOR GUFFMAN (1996) New to Blu-ray with a 2017 1080p HD Remaster
Christopher Guest’s community theater improv comedy mockmentary was an instant classic when it hit the screens twenty-one years ago, and its warm heart and arch touch has only increased in regard. Corky St. Clair (Guest), a truly off off-off-off-off-off-Broadway director, is commissioned with creating Blaine, Missouri’s Sesquicentennial celebration show. But Corky creates chaos when he informs his crew of dedicated amateurs that Broadway maven Guffman is coming to check out the show. Also starring Fred Willard, Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey, David Cross, and Eugene Levy. Blaine looks – and sings! – sharper than ever before thanks to this new patriotically perfect 1080p presentation. Special Features: Commentary by Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy; Additional Scenes with Optional Commentary; Theatrical Trailer (HD). 16×9 Widescreen
BRIGADOON (1954) New to Blu-ray with a 2017 1080p HD Remaster
MGM’s legendary Freed unit takes on a musical of legend with this Cinemascope adaptation of the classic stage musical fantasy of the Scottish Highlands, helmed by the maestro of movies, Vincente Minnelli. Gene Kelly and Van Johnson star as a pair of Yanks lost in the wilds of Scotland who come across the fabled village of Brigadoon. Blessed to an all-or-nothing existence, the town appears but one day a century, then slips back into the mists of time. If a villager leaves, Brigadoon is doomed, but if an outsider loves someone in the village enough, he may join them in their time-sealed existence. So, who up for both in the same day? Cyd Charisse plays the village lass who enchants Gene’s cynical New York heart (naturally). Shot on the lot, Brigadoon is a testament to the extraordinary craftsmen at hand at Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer, and their work shines under the careful and yet invisible hand of Minnelli. The film’s palette has been painstakingly recovered in this new HD presentation, restoring even more glamour to the magical romance. Special Features: Outtake Musical Numbers “Come to Me, Bend to Me,” “From This Day On” and “Sword Dance”; Audio Outtake “There but for You Go I”; Theatrical Trailer (HD). 16×9 Letterbox
LONGMIRE: THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON (2016) New to Blu-ray
Journey back to the Big Sky wonders and New West dangers of Absaroka County and see them in frost-nipped, ice-crystal clear 1080p HD. The lauded camerawork of the crew of Longmire, deftly delivered via he celebrated Red HD camera, stand best revealed via the high-bandwidth of Blu-ray Disc. So, grab an ice-cold can of Rainier and get ready to watch five years of plot threads start knitting together in a lure that may prove Sheriff Walt Longmire’s (Robert Taylor) undoing. Picking up where the season four cliffhanger ended, Walt has been assaulted in his home and Dr. Donna (Ally Walker) is missing. Walt’s search for her is hampered by one big hitch – thanks to trauma, he has no memory of the incident. Things continue to coalesce as loyalties are stressed beyond what they can bear as Vic (Katee Sackhoff) is forced to revisit the nightmare that is Chance Gilbert (Peter Stormare); Jacob Nighthorse continues to demonstrate his innocence to Cady (Cassidy Freeman); Ferg (Adam Bartley) struggles with a series of successors to Bailey and Henry (Lou Diamond Philips) puts life and soul in jeopardy by attempting to take on the mantle of a legend. 16×9 Widescreen
RKO RARITIES
BEAUTY FOR THE ASKING (1939) New to DVD
Queen of the B’s Lucille Ball infuses all the complications of this romantic business comedy with pure delight.The society pages are shocked by the news that millionairess Flora Barton (Frieda Inescourt) has abruptly married an unknown salesman Denny Williams (Patric Knowles) but not as shocked as humble manicurist Jean Russell (Lucille Ball), Denny’s intended. Reeling at Denny’s callous treatment, Jean redoubles her efforts to crack into the beauty biz and teams up with his now-wife Flora, who is seeking a project for her now restless husband to run. Befriending Flora, Jean dispatches Denny to her West Coast salon and drafts Flora into a beauty school crash course to help Flora keep her man. Behind Jean’s selfless acts, however, beats a selfish heart that still loves Denny…
FULL CONFESSION (1939) New to DVD
From its nearly silent, searing opening, tracking a desperate man as he plunges, first into crime and then killing, Full Confession, under John Farrow’s taut direction, plunges us headlong into the externalized world later synonymous with Film Noir. Victor McLaglen stars as Pat McGinnis, a brute with a sensitive soul who falls afoul of fate thanks to wanting to impress his love, Molly Sullivan (Sally Eilers). Getting sent up on a minor charge to avoid a murder wrap, Pat becomes the pet project of Father Loma (Joseph Calleia). Befriending Molly, Loma brings her to see Pat and begins Pat’s process of parole. After a near-fatal incident brings a full confession out of Pat, Loma now knows that Pat did the deed for which innocent family man Michael O’Keefe (Barry Fitzgerald) faces the chair. With his silenced sealed by the sanctity of confession, Father Loma begins a relentless pursuit of Pat’s soul in order to save two souls.
SORORITY HOUSE (1939) New to DVD
Working class grocer gal Alice Fisher (Anne Shirley) thinks her post-secondary school life will be spent stocking shelves at her dear old dad’s (J.M. Kerrigan) market when he surprises her with the funds to attend her dream school, Talbot College. Country mouse Alice soon gets caught up in campus cat shenanigans when an errant article of her undergarments catches the eye of Big Man on Campus Bill Loomis (James Ellison) and the ire of Bill’s ‘pin,’ sorority queen Neva Simpson (Doris Davenport). While Neva works to keep Alice exiled in the dreary, weepy world of the ‘dreeps’ who don’t make the cut, Bill conspires to make simple lass a hot commodity with the class-conscious society snobs of the sororities. Meanwhile, Alice’s roommates cynical Dotty (Barbara Read) and sorority wannabe Merle (Adele Pearce) provide the Greek chorus to Alice’s dilemma. Directed by John Farrow with a screenplay by Dalton Trumbo.

 

NOTE: These DVDs are Manufactured on Demand (MOD); to order, fans must visit The Warner Archive Collection, WB Shop.com, Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

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