Kino

[Tommaso]

Are the Von Stroheims part of Transit Films? I wonder the likelihood of MoC releasing this...

Transit Film is a German company handling (or, rather not handling...) the films owned by FWMS. The Stroheims are all American films, so Transit doesn't have anything to do with it. Which of course doesn't mean that MoC can't get their hands on Stroheim. However, and with nothing against all the excitement about "Foolish Wives" going blu, I'd much rather see someone finally release "The Wedding March". Nothing seems to have come from the rumours that CC might be doing it.

[HerrSchreck]

What? I thought Transit handled all films with vaguely german sounding directors/names. . . .

[onedimension]

FWIW, Kino's Facebook page just posted

Tarkovsky's NOSTALGHIA will be playing at BAM from May 31 - June 13 on 35mm. You don't want to miss this!

Hopefully a sign of a new print, and Kino having the DVD/blu rights.

[ZHansen]

Good news: Per John Ewing at the Cleveland Cinematheque, Kino has indeed created a new print of Nostalghia (screening there in August, I believe). Bad news: it may be the last 35mm print Kino ever makes...

[manicsounds]

Awesome that Kino is releasing "City Of Life And Death"

I finally rewatched the movie, this time by the Kino Blu-ray and watched the 2-hour documentary on disc 2.
First, this is NOT the same 2 hour behind the scenes featurettes on the Hong Kong disc, but a 2011 created documentary, using interviews with the cast and crew post release with pre-production footage, behind the scenes footage, etc. They even talk about the funding troubles, delays, the director's appendicitis, and arguments. Quite informative, but it's unfortunately made in PAL format converted to NTSC, and the picture quality suffers because of it. (Although the PQ doesn't look that great looking anyway.)

Also, Kino should've commissioned new subtitles. The burned in English subs are sometimes too short and too quick, some parts are unsubbed, and there are occasional spelling and grammar errors as well. Regardless, it is the best English-friendly version out there.

[knives]

Has there been any word of a Night of the Haunted release?

[Finch]

Kino Video will add two more titles to its Blu-ray catalog in September: Mario Bava's 5 Dolls for an August Moon a.k.a Island of Terror (1970), starring William Berger, Edwige Fenech, Ira von Fürstenberg, and Maurice Poli, and Jean Yarbrough's The Devil Bat (1940), starring Bela Lugosi, Suzanne Kaaren, and Dave O'Brien.

5 Dolls for an August Moon

George Stark, a wealthy industrialist and playboy, gathers a group of bourgeois friends at his isolated island beach house for the weekend. His guest of honor is Gerry Farrell, a brilliant chemist who has discovered a remarkable new formula. Farrell doesn't care to discuss business, but the businessmen in attendance are determined to talk money - in the millions. Each of them angers the others with secret bids and back alley deals, spawning an atmosphere of distrust, exacerbated by the sexual intrigue in the air between the men and their various wives and mistresses. Suspicions begin to rise when the guests begin to turn up dead, one by one. Street date: September 3rd.

The Devil Bat

Bela Lugosi is a well-meaning scientist, driven mad by his greedy bosses. He seeks his revenge in the only way he knows how: by breeding a race of Devil Bats to do his sinister bidding! The town's only hope is an intrepid reporter who must investigate the deaths and determine what, if any, connection they have to a mysterious new type of aftershave that's being used around town.....The Devil Bat rivals Lugosi's work with Ed Wood for campy 50's chills and will have you thinking twice before your next shave. Street date: September 17th.

[krnash]

Kino Video will add two more titles to its Blu-ray catalog in September: Mario Bava's 5 Dolls for an August Moon a.k.a Island of Terror (1970), starring William Berger, Edwige Fenech, Ira von Fürstenberg, and Maurice Poli, and Jean Yarbrough's The Devil Bat (1940), starring Bela Lugosi, Suzanne Kaaren, and Dave O'Brien.

5 Dolls for an August Moon

George Stark, a wealthy industrialist and playboy, gathers a group of bourgeois friends at his isolated island beach house for the weekend. His guest of honor is Gerry Farrell, a brilliant chemist who has discovered a remarkable new formula. Farrell doesn't care to discuss business, but the businessmen in attendance are determined to talk money - in the millions. Each of them angers the others with secret bids and back alley deals, spawning an atmosphere of distrust, exacerbated by the sexual intrigue in the air between the men and their various wives and mistresses. Suspicions begin to rise when the guests begin to turn up dead, one by one. Street date: September 3rd.

The Devil Bat

Bela Lugosi is a well-meaning scientist, driven mad by his greedy bosses. He seeks his revenge in the only way he knows how: by breeding a race of Devil Bats to do his sinister bidding! The town's only hope is an intrepid reporter who must investigate the deaths and determine what, if any, connection they have to a mysterious new type of aftershave that's being used around town.....The Devil Bat rivals Lugosi's work with Ed Wood for campy 50's chills and will have you thinking twice before your next shave. Street date: September 17th.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or one of the Murnau titles would be great, but hey- another crappy Bela Lugosi throwaway flick works too, right?

[Kauno]

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or one of the Murnau titles would be great, but hey- another crappy Bela Lugosi throwaway flick works too, right?

No worky work. And once again there will be no subtitles, thanks Kino on Video. You are no better than Olive.

[Gregory]

They'll probably announce more for October but more likely Redemption Films stuff rather than classics. Kino-Lorber definitely isn't the Kino of old, and I'm unclear on what K-L has the rights to now and what's with Cohen.

[Minkin]

5 Dolls for an August Moon

I'm not sure why anybody bothers with any of the Kino Bava titles (other than region locking). Arrow has gone far above and beyond on all of their Bavas - making the Kinos seem barebones in comparison (Kino hasn't even included the Italian audio for any of them - as far as I can tell).

Re: Devil Bat
Hopefully it turns out better than Kino's job with White Zombie (which will probably be bettered by VCI). The $24.95 SRP doesn't leave much hope though - probably will be lucky if we get a non-waxy version included.

When did Kino drop off a cliff in terms of quality/special features/films announced/level of excitement or care?
Everything seems to be: "I'll wait for the eventual superior MOC/Arrow/VCI/AE/Cohen/etc"

[TMDaines]

When did anyone ever care for Kino over other labels? I think for the most part people have gone with them when there's no alternative. They have some exclusive Blu-rays and English-friendly DVDs, but they don't usually stand up to the competition too long.

[knives]

That's certainly the key. Kino's secret weapon is their daring. Nobody would release many titles that they do.

[drdoros]

That's certainly the key. Kino's secret weapon is their daring. Nobody would release many titles that they do.

As a graduate of Kino High and a mentee of Don Krim, I can say that there is a lot of great things I can say about the company's history and what it has meant to cinema. I'm not really involved since Don died, but a lot of us distributors were encouraged by Don to do our best and there's a lot of us around because of him.

[Moe Dickstein]

Their three weapons are surprise, fear, and an almost fanatical devotion to the pope...

[knives]

Also I am 90% sure this is false.

making the Kinos seem barebones in comparison (Kino hasn't even included the Italian audio for any of them - as far as I can tell).

I only have their Hatchet for the Honeymoon, but it features a Tim Lucus commentary and Italian dub.

[Minkin]

Also I am 90% sure this is false.

making the Kinos seem barebones in comparison (Kino hasn't even included the Italian audio for any of them - as far as I can tell).

I only have their Hatchet for the Honeymoon, but it features a Tim Lucus commentary and Italian dub.

Most have some special features, and Lisa and the Devil actually has quite a few, but as a whole, its rather pathetic - especially in comparison to Arrow (just compare the two Black Sundays for a prime example).

Checking again, neither DVDBeaver nor Bluray.com mention anything about the Italian tracks (including Hatchet for the Honeymoon). So unless they are all wrong, Kino hasn't included any Italian audio - only the English dubs/tracks.
Since we're on the subject, I thought it odd that you (knives) didn't mention the Arrow releases in your 70s? guide for Bava - only mentioning the Kinos (don't want to start a fight, but the Arrows are indeed superior - unless you were just going by region A titles alone).

[knives]

I'm region A locked and really lazy so will just mention region A releases if there are multi options.

[Zot!]

Yeah, Kino's been churning out so many throwaways lately. It's strange that they had a brief dalliance with great blu-ray releases, which surprised everyone.

[Gregory]

They're still the only game in town for even some of their newer blu-rays. Off the top of my head: College, Scum, Little Fugitive, The Penalty, Les Vampires, at least some of the Selznicks, etc. not to mention their DVD set of King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis.

[knives]

Yeah, that is an absolutely essential DVD set especially for the upcoming genre project and ongoing '70s one. Kino remains great for budget releases of idiosyncratic material.

[JonasEB]

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or one of the Murnau titles would be great, but hey- another crappy Bela Lugosi throwaway flick works too, right?

Of course, when MOC doesn't release these things it's, "Oh, the Germans just don't have it ready yet."

What does Kino get for the same? "Fuck those guys!"

Re: Devil Bat Hopefully it turns out better than Kino's job with White Zombie (which will probably be bettered by VCI). The $24.95 SRP doesn't leave much hope though - probably will be lucky if we get a non-waxy version included.

Of course, if anyone else had released that edition of White Zombie, they would be excused for the condition of the source materials. Really, that transfer itself looks completely fine like many other titles of that vintage and, in case we've forgotten (perhaps willfully - I wouldn't doubt it), the Kino Blu-ray does have a non-DNR/filtered version of the film on it. Kino hasn't actually done what you're casually accusing them of doing but I guess that doesn't count for anything.

When did Kino drop off a cliff in terms of quality/special features/films announced/level of excitement or care?
Everything seems to be: "I'll wait for the eventual superior MOC/Arrow/VCI/AE/Cohen/etc"

Their Blu-ray transfers haven't dropped off in quality, special features have always been limited with Kino, it is a shame that their announcements have become more limited but I thought we've established why that is (Cohen has the former Rohauer library that Kino used to have/restorations of prime expected silent material from Europe just isn't coming,) and as to the last part, hardly anybody here ever cut Kino any slack, even during their stellar Blu-ray run since 2009. This is all very ridiculous.

As mentioned above - Les Vampires on Blu-ray, no one else has done this yet. Way Down East on Blu-ray. The Keatons, Strike on Blu-ray (yeah, yeah, yeah, English intertitles...never mind that it looks great) So many other good things.

No matter what they do, they can't win.

[matrixschmatrix]

I think it's more a question of 'what have they done for us lately', as nearly all of your examples are a year or more old- there was a time when I bought more or less every single release Kino put out on blu, and they were somewhat comparable to Criterion or MoC both in terms of picture quality and extras, and it represented an enormous and impressive leap from their habits in putting out DVDs (where the rarity of the tiles was often the only recommendation.) They've fallen back from that pinnacle a bit, in my eyes, but that doesn't mean they're not still one of the major distributors of older movies on blu.

[Gregory]

Jonas, I agree with the general thrust of what you're saying, but to reply to this:

When did Kino drop off a cliff in terms of quality/special features/films announced/level of excitement or care? Everything seems to be: "I'll wait for the eventual superior MOC/Arrow/VCI/AE/Cohen/etc"

Their Blu-ray transfers haven't dropped off in quality, special features have always been limited with Kino, it is a shame that their announcements have become more limited but I thought we've established why that is (Cohen has the former Rohauer library that Kino used to have/restorations of prime expected silent material from Europe just isn't coming,) and as to the last part, hardly anybody here ever cut Kino any slack, even during their stellar Blu-ray run since 2009. This is all very ridiculous.

Their blu of Blue Angel offers a lot less than the old DVD version. They could have included both versions and ported over the extras easily enough it seems. Their They Made Me a Fugitive has some strange problem with the transfer toward the end that may point to a need for better quality control. That's just a couple examples. I want to cut them slack, and often do, but sometimes it seems like they're just not trying that hard or are taking their customer base for granted.

Plus, The Devil Bat is pretty terrible.

[swo17]

'what have they done for us lately'

Awful Dr. Orloff, Black Sabbath, College, Foolish Wives, Little Fugitive, Of Human Bondage, and Scum, all from this year.