PETE KELLY’S BLUES (1955) Blu-ray Disc. Prolific writer-producer-director Jack Webb may be best remembered for his police work, but his passion for Jazz was legendary. A life-long fan with an enormous collection of Jazz LPs, Webb first explored the intersection of the Jazz Age and the Days of Mob on a radio series of the same name. With Dragnet’s smash out success from radio to TV to the big screen, Webb had the leeway to have another go at the material, only now as big budget full-color feature. Joining Jack for this Kansas City Blues big screener is one snazzy combo of artists, expert beat hitters of both the musical and the dramatic kind, including Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Andy Devine, Edmond O’Brien, Lee Marvin and Janet Leigh. It’s 1927 and Pete Kelly (Webb) just wants to make the scene with his band, the Big Seven, when the mob muscles in with a pay-to-play proposition. Too bad for the local crime lord (O’Brien), Kelly is a cornetist who can’t back down… Presented in pristine 1080p HD with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround. SPECIAL FEATURES (all in 1080p HD): Original Theatrical Trailer (COLOR/CinemaScope)/ Alternate Theatrical Trailer/ (B&W/CinemaScope)/ Vintage 1955 Warner Bros. Short ‘GADGETS GALORE’/ Vintage 1955 Warner Bros. Cartoon ‘THE HOLE IDEA². 16×9 Widescreen.
Adieu Sugarfoot, and Adios!
SUGARFOOT: THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON (1960-61) Will Hutchins continues to charm as the amiable Tom Brewster, part-time correspondence law student, full-time Western do-gooder, as he ambles along from “the Mexicali border to the rollin’ hills of Arkansas” in his fourth and final season. Tom¹s final suite of 9 sagebrush sagas sees him trying to increase the peace between Native Americans and settlers, cutting his teeth in courtroom cross-examination, and gaining a sidekick-for-life (Jack Elam). Adding depth to the adventures is the shared ³Warner Bros. Western Hero-verse², a true narrative innovation in the early days of TV that not only had heroes crossover, but allowed characters to travel between shows, such as Teddy Roosevelt (Peter Breck) who encounters Sugarfoot in ³Man from Medora² while on his way to meet Bronco the same TV season. 2-Disc, 9-Episode Collection.
Dark Tableaus
THE DAY THEY ROBBBED THE BANK OF ENGLAND (1960) Aldo Ray top lines this caper heist flick that delivers more than just the expected twists as well as featuring the big screen breakthrough of a young Peter O’Toole. Ray plays Norgate, the man with the plan, who leads a crew to rob the Bank of England for more than just the moolah. Norgate, although from the States, is a loyal son of Eire, and the gang are in it for the IRA and home rule. O’Toole plays a bank guard, befriended by Norgate, who becomes one of the bigger obstacles the crew must overcome on their way through the sewers to the vaulted riches. Directed by John Guillermin. 16×9 Widescreen.
THE PASSWORD IS COURAGE (1962) Based on the biography of real-life WWII Ms Sgt. Charlie Coward, Dirk Bogarde plays a prisoner of war who won’t play by the rules. Under the auspices of famed suspensers Andrew and Virginia Stone, the film leavens the nail-biting escape sequences with moments of lightness and levity, raising the stakes with each daring escapade. Finally making contact with Polish underground, Charlie crosses the line from Geneva Convention protected prisoner to spy saboteur, only to discover that his optician contact, Irena (Maria Perschy), has more than captured his eye. 16×9 Widescreen.
GUNS OF DARKNESS (1962) Anthony Asquith directs David Niven and Leslie Caron in this politically sober suspense drama depicting the high deeds of little man when circumstances fall into chaos. Niven plays a typical British Peter Pan public school lad whose refusal to grow up is estranging his relationship with his much younger spouse (Caron). After a New Year’s palace coup, with a deposed South American dictator (David Opatoshu, every inch a sympathetic devil) in their care, the couple dares everything in a quixotic bid to spirit the ex-presidente to sanctuary across the border. 16×9 Widescreen.
TWILIGHT OF HONOR (1963) MGM took advantage of a shooting hiatus for Dr. Kildare to put its white-hot star Richard Chamberlain front and center in a major feature. This courtroom drama kicks at the tattered production code as Chamberlain’s vigorous, if vainglorious, defense of an open-and-shut murder case peels away the hypocrisy and leaves a society¹s secrets exposed to the withering sun. Claude Rains co-stars as the sagacious elder counselor. Nick Adams is riveting as the unlikeable, unrepentant killer client while a debuting Joey Heatherton proves to be every bit the motive for murder. Boris Sagal directs. 16×9 Widescreen.
THE HOOK (1963) Kirk Douglas, Nick Adams, and a debuting Robert Walker, Jr, play a trio of soldiers wrestling with issues of conscience and duty in the waning days of the Korean War. After their commanding officer is killed by enemy action, the three soldiers take a North Korean pilot prisoner (Filipino film star Enrique Magalona) and set out aboard a civilian merchant marine ship, loaded down with a highly explosive cargo. Communicating with HQ via radio, the orders come down – execute the prisoner. Now each soldier in turn must see if he can sacrifice his humanity on the altar of service. 16×9 Widescreen.
OF HUMAN BONDAGE (1964) Kim Novak and Laurence Harvey pair up to bring Maugham’s searing portrayal of seduction and self-loathing to the silver screen, Sixties style. Mixing the conventions of costume drama with the iconoclastic new wave of British “kitchen sink” dramas, this version eschews some elements of lead club-footed doc Philip Carey’s (Harvey) coming-of-age to focus squarely with his torrid, tempestuous affair with bitter barmaid cum slattern, Mildred (Kim Novak). Harvey’s evocation of Carey’s inner turmoil is a lesson in measured acting, while Novak shows the sadness inherent in seduction. Robert Morley is a delight as a blowhard medical prof, a worthy predecessor to John Houseman’s Professor Kingsfield. 16×9 Widescreen.
NIGHT MUST FALL (1964) Albert Finney, fresh off of Tom Jones, takes a page from Robert Montgomery’s playbook and breaks the playboy curse by taking on the psychopath at the heart of Emlyn Williams’ oft-performed masterpiece of suspense. Director Karel Reisz amps up the horror by letting us inside the hatboxes of homicidal handyman Danny (Finney), while Mona Washbourne, Susan Hampshire and Sheila Hancock are the maiden-mother-crone incarnation that Danny seduces and slays.
THE 25th HOUR (1967) Anthony Quinn stars as a simple Romanian who only wants to work his farm and live in peace with his wife (Virna Lisi) but gets engulfed by the whirlwind of World War II, and experiences many of its terrors from a unique vantage point. At the outbreak of the war, Johann Moritz (Quinn) is taken away to a German concentration camp after local police chief Nicolai Dobresco (Gregoire Aslan) falsely accuses Moritz of being Jewish. Moritz suffers as a Concentration Camp prisoner of the Nazis, then as a branded war criminal by the Allies in this biting and moving satirical drama. Based on the novel by C. Virgil Gheorghiu.
FROM THE CARTOON NETWORK
FOSTER’S HOME FOR IMAGINARY FRIENDS, SEASON THREE (2005-06) Some friendships are too special to give up – even if they¹re imaginary! Having ³outgrown² his fantastic pal Bloo, young Mac places him in the tender care of Madame Foster¹s Home for Imaginary Friends, with one condition Mac must visit daily or Bloo will get adopted out. The third season of the beloved cartoon sees Mac, Bloo, Wilt, Eduardo, Coco, Frankie, Mr. Herriman and Madame Foster monster fighting, entering talent shows, facing fraudulent foster homes, going to Europe and tackling a flea infestation (it can¹t always be fabulous!). Two-disc, 13 Episode Collection.
THE AMAZING WORLD OF GUMBALL, VOLUME 4 (2012) 12 episodes from The Amazing World of Gumball¹s second season that follow the many misadventures of Gumball Watterson, a 12-year-old cat, and his best friend Darwin, a goldfish. An enchanting mix of multi-media, outrageous fancy and mundane domesticity, Gumball’s world amazes while still reflecting our own, and like all of us, Gumball is learning a lot about life, one lesson at a time. Even if those lessons include jousting for a lady’s affection, why you shouldn’t accept job offers from a ghost or the proper netiquette when dealing with the town giant on social media.
NOTE: These DVDs are Manufactured on Demand (MOD); to order, fans must visit The Warner Archive Collection, WB Shop.com, Amazon or Barnes & Noble.