Henry King

[Scharphedin2]

Henry King (1886 – 1982)




Filmography

The Brand of Man (Short, 1915)

Who Pays? (Serial, 1915) – Episode 12 available on the National Film Preservation Foundation’s Treasures Box, Vol. III. This particular episode was directed by Harry Harvey, and written by King, who also plays a starring role in the film.

The Nemesis (Short, 1915)

Should a Wife Forgive? (Short, 1915)

Little Mary Sunshine (Short, 1916)

When Might Is Right (Short, 1916)

The Oath of Hate (Short, 1916)

Pay Dirt (Short, 1916)

Shadows and Sunshine (Short, 1916)

Joy and the Dragon (Short, 1916)

Twin Kiddies (Short, 1917)

Scepter of Suspicion (Short, 1917)

Told at Twilight (Short, 1917)

Sunshine and Gold (Short, 1917)

Vengeance of the Dead (Short, 1917)

Souls in Pawn (Short, 1917)

In the Hands of the Law (Short, 1917)

The Mainspring (Short, 1917)

The Bride’s Silence (Short, 1917)

The Climber (Short, 1917)

Southern Pride (Short, 1917)

A Game of Withs (Short, 1917)

The Mate of the Sally Ann (Short, 1917)

King Social Briars (Short, 1918)

Beauty and the Rogue (Short, 1918)

Powers That Prey (Short, 1918)

Hearts or Diamonds? (Short, 1918)

Social Briars (Short, 1918)

Up Romance Road (Short, 1918)

The Ghost of Rosy Taylor (Short, 1918)

The Locked Heart (Short, 1918)

Hobbs in a Hurry (Short, 1918)

All the World to Nothing (Short, 1918)

When a Man Rides Alone (Short, 1919)

Where the West Begins (Short, 1919)

Brass Buttons (Short, 1919)

Some Liar (Short, 1919)

A Sporting Chance (Short, 1919)

This Hero Stuff (Short, 1919)

Six Feet Four (Short, 1919)

23 ½ Hours’ Leave (1919)

A Fugitive from Matrimony (1919)

Haunting Shadows (1919)

The White Dove (1920)

Uncharted Channels (1920)

One Hour Before Dawn (1920)

Help Wanted – Male (1920)

Dice of Destiny (1920)

When We Were 21 (1921)

The Mistress of Shenstone (1921)

Salvage (1921)

The Sting of the Lash (1921)

Tol’able David (1921) Image Entertainment (R1)

The Seventh Day (1922)

Sonny (1922)

The Bond Boy (1922)

Fury (1923)

The White Sister (1923)

Romola (1924)

Sackcloth and Scarlet (1925)

Any Woman (1925)

Stella Dallas (1925)

Partners Again (1926)

The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926) MGM (R1) – also as part of Gary Cooper: MGM Movie Legends Collection

The Magic Flame (1927)

The Woman Disputed (1928)

She Goes to War (1929)

Hell Harbor (1930)

The Eyes of the World (1930)

Lightnin’ (1930)

Merely Mary Ann (1931)

Over the Hill (1931)

The Woman in Room 13 (1932)

State Fair (1933)

I Loved You Wednesday (1933)

Carolina (1934)

Marie Galante (1934) Alpha (R1) / Laserlight (R1)

One More Spring (1935)

Way Down East (1935)

The Country Doctor (1936)

Ramona (1936)

Lloyd’s of London (1936)

In Old Chicago (1937) 20th Century Fox (R1, R2 UK)

Seventh Heaven (1937) Suevia (R2 ES)

Alexander’s Ragtime Band (1938) 20th Century Fox (R1)

Jesse James (1939) 20th Century Fox (R1)

Stanley and Livingstone (1939)

Little Old New York (1940)

Maryland (1940)

Chad Hanna (1940)

A Yank in the R.A.F. (1941) 20th Century Fox (R1 & R2)

Remember the Day (1941)

The Black Swan (1942) 20th Century Fox (R1) / Suevia (R2 ES)

The Song of Bernadette (1943) 20th Century Fox (R1 & R2)

Wilson (1944)

A Bell for Adano (1945)

Margie (1946)

Captain from Castile (1947) 20th Century Fox (R1) – also as part of Tyrone Power: Cinema Classics Collection

Deep Waters (1948)

Prince of Foxes (1949) 20th Century Fox (R1) – also as part of Tyrone Power: Cinema Classics Collection

Twelve O’Clock High (1949) 20th Century Fox (R1 & R2)

The Gunfighter (1950) 20th Century Fox (R1) – also as part of the Fox Western Classics Collection / 20th Century Fox (R2 UK) / Fox Pathé (R2 FR)

I’d Climb the Highest Mountain (1951)

David and Bathsheba (1951) 20th Century Fox (R1 & R2 UK)

Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie (1952)

The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) 20th Century Fox (R1 & R2 UK) – also as part of the Ernest Hemingway Film Collection / also available in dozens of public domain editions

O. Henry’s Full House (segment “The Gift of the Magi,” 1952) 20th Century Fox (R1)

King of the Khyber Rifles (1953)

Untamed (1955)

Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955) 20th Century Fox (R1)

Carousel (1956) 20th Century Fox (R1 & R2 UK) – available as stand alone disc, and as part of various Sets, including the Rodgers & Hammerstein Box Set.

The Sun Also Rises (1957) 20th Century Fox (R1 & R2 UK) – also as part of the Ernest Hemingway Film Collection / Suevia (R2 ES) / Cinema Club (R2 UK)

The Bravados (1958) 20th Century Fox (R1 and R2) – also available as part of Triple Western Feature

The Old Man and the Sea (uncredited, 1958) Warner Brothers (R1)

This Earth is Mine (1959)

Beloved Infidel (1959)

Tender Is the Night (1962)


Forum Resources

Jesse James x 3 (King, Lang, Ray)

Tender is the Night (King, 1962)

Western Classics (Rawhide, The Gunfighter, Garden of Evil

The Winning of Barbara Worth (King, 1926)


Recommended Web Resources

55th San Sebastian Film Festival – Program for Henry King retrospective with synopses and stills from many of his films.

Bright Lights Film Journal – “An Immovable Feast?: Another Look at Henry King’s The Sun Also Rises” (Gordon Thomas, February 2007, Issue 55)

Fandango – Filmography with brief synopses of King’s films.

Images Journal – “30 Great Westerns: The Gunfighter” (Elizabeth Abele, Issue 10)

IMDb

[Scharphedin2]

Fellow forum member What a Disgrace suggested a thread on Henry King, as there is very little information available on this particular director, and a quick thrawl through the internet and a handful of film history books reveals that Henry King indeed is still very much a “subject for further research.” The brief, scattered comments and capsules on King and his career by critics and historians mainly describe him as a disciple of Griffith, who was a meticulous and highly skilled craftsman – qualities that translated into “authoritarian” or “dictatorial” in the testimonies of stars that he worked with. For a while in the forties he appears to have been Zanuck’s favorite in-house director, working on such major pictures as The Song of Bernadette, Wilson (Fox’ most expensive film up to that point) and Twelve O’clock High, as well as The Gunfighter, which was seen by Zanuck as a prestige project. King’s long list of credits testify that the Hollywood establishment knew his worth, and someone else who also knew his worth early on, was the Russian film pioneer and theoretician V.I. Pudovkin, who famously singled out King’s 1921 backwoods drama Tol’able David to describe “the correct use of plastic material,” which is basically to say that King understood how to efficiently narrate through the arranging and juxtaposition of images in his films.

With more than a score of his films readily available on DVD, Henry King can hardly be said to be neglected. Although most of these releases rest on my shelves, I cannot even claim to have watched all of them. However, a brief run through of some of these titles may be useful in opening the ball on King. Aside from his famous silent picture Tol’able David, which is floating around as an Image Entertainment/Blackhawk release, some of the earliest of King’s films available on DVD are the Tyrone Power/Alice Faye/Don Ameche pairings in the Irving Berlin Bonanza Alexander’s Ragtime Band, and In Old Chicago, a sort of Fox cash-in on the success of San Francisco. Then there are three wonderful adventure/swashbuckler flicks out from Fox, also all starring Power. There are the westerns Jesse James, The Gunfighter and The Bravados, and the literary adaptations of Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and The Snows of Kilimanjaro (which, up until Fox’ formal release, probably had more pd releases than any other film in history), F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night, and O’Henry’s Full House featuring one segment by King.

The huge Jennifer Jones star vehicle The Song of Bernadette was released on DVD early on, and is an excellent showcase for King’s detailed and careful directing on a large scale. Jones is of course wonderful, as she is in color and cinemascope ten years later in another great Henry King picture – Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (with the additional attraction of one of the most wonderful and unapologetically romantic scores ever composed for a Hollywood film by Alfred Newman). Twelve O’Clock High and the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Carousel are other high profile Henry King films that Fox has kept available to the public through several DVD releases.

If King is not discussed to any great length, it may well be less due to the quality of those pictures that are available, than to the fact that such a small part of his enormous oeuvre is available to see. Especially, when it comes to his silent films, which comprise more than half of his total number of films (not including the great number of films he acted in, prior to becoming a director), and of which the only one available is Tol’able David.

Henry King spent much of his career making films for 20th Century Fox, and created many, many critical and box office successes for the studio, so is it just possible that he may be honored with his own Box at Fox release somewhere down the line?

[tryavna]

For a while in the forties he appears to have been Zanuck’s favorite in-house director, working on such major pictures as The Song of Bernadette, Wilson (Fox’ most expensive film up to that point) and Twelve O’clock High, as well as The Gunfighter, which was seen by Zanuck as a prestige project.

Absolutely! I've always suspected that King replaced John Ford as Zanuck's go-to guy when Ford went off to WWII and then later fell out with Zanuck. In fact, I can picture Ford directing several of King's best films: The Gunfighter, A Bell for Adano, and perhaps even Twelve O'Clock High. (Not that I necessarily think that Ford should have directed those films -- just that he probably would have if had stayed at Fox.)

However, for whatever reason, King is another one of those directors (like Vidor, Stevens, etc.) whose later films I just don't care for very much. Apart from The Bravados, most of them are fairly dull, and Carousel is simply terrible.

One additional point to make is that King graduated to directing from starring, which seems to have been rather atypical for directors of his generation. (Griffith, Borzage, Walsh, etc. all acted, but I don't think of any of them was a genuine star. King was.) As Scharph points out, the episode of Who Pays? that's available on the Treasures III set features King in the lead male role.

[What A Disgrace]

You were not kidding about Carousel. And maybe I'm a bad person, but I couldn't make it through Love Is A Many Splendored Thing, either. The only other real disappointment of the films I've seen was Captain of Castille, which didn't seem to know which way it was going (I guess Prince of Foxes might be the same way; but it had Orson Welles and Everett Sloane to hold my interest, and wasn't nearly so long).

I suggested a thread on King before delving into his work and revisiting a couple of movies of his I've seen in high school, and with The Bravados coming next week in the mail (a rental), my journey is nearing its end for now. A few key works...The Gunfighter, The Winning of Barbara Worth, (I can't seem to rent them; does Netflix stock the two?), A Bell for Adono, and any number of unavailable silent films and earlier films still elude me. I'm glad I sought this director's work out.

I was surprised by The Song of Bernadette, on a couple of levels (I had first seen it in high school, but didn't remember it well). First of all, apparitions of any kind *still* terrify me, though I wouldn't say I was dangerously pneumatiphobic. I know the Lady (and for that matter, the Virgin Mary) was supposed to be a vision of inspiring beauty, but am I alone among the secular members of this board to find the very idea of this Lady horrifying beyond words? Secondly and more importantly...is it my imagination, or did the film not seem to have total faith in the miraculous power of this vision? I'm particularly thinking about the man whose eye is hurt, but seemingly cured by the spring...and later on in the film, you see him stumbling to find his trowel, which is right in front of him. I'm sure this isn't just something a mason would notice! Even if its just my imagination, I thought the movie was *very* effective. The scene where the Sister (the one played by Gladys Cooper) expresses her...misgivings about Bernadette is particularly stunning.

Has anyone seen any of the other silent films by this director? I've only seen Tol'able David, and I thought it was a great movie...especially the fight. Wow.

And I would not be surprised to see an At Fox box released next year. Would probably buy it, too.

[Danny Burk]

Has anyone seen any of the other silent films by this director? I've only seen Tol'able David, and I thought it was a great movie...especially the fight. Wow.

WHITE SISTER is quite good, with an excellent Gish performance. I haven't seen the '33 remake, so I can't compare, although the latter doesn't seem to have much of a reputation. ROMOLA is deadly dull, although beautiful to look at with lavish sets and costumes. Colman is wasted in the latter, but William Powell makes for a good villain in his early pre-nice-guy phase. STELLA DALLAS is the best of the lot, and almost criminal that it's not better known today. I prefer it to the '37 remake even though that is a good film itself. I haven't looked at Netflix but I'd be surprised if they didn't have WINNING OF B. WORTH; you've probably heard about the flood scene, which is the standout and really makes the film. The print is gorgeous and probably from the camera neg, although there is an overpoweringly strong yellow tint through nearly the whole film.

[domino harvey]

I've been reading about the Selznick/Jones relationship and so I've been tallying up the films involved and I must say, the Song of Bernadette stunned me. 160 minutes flew by like nothing in King's steady hands, and the beautiful handling of tricky material somehow never turns maudlin-- this film is brilliant and I can't believe I'd never heard it talked up before. Needless to say, I'm very eager to see more by King. What's a good place to go from here?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Especially, when it comes to his silent films, which comprise more than half of his total number of films (not including the great number of films he acted in, prior to becoming a director), and of which the only one available is Tol’able David.

Not so. The Winning of Barbara Worth is available on DVD as stated in the list of films, Unknown Video have released Little Mary Sunshine (there wouldn't be many films from 1916 where the star is still alive!) and Grapevine Video have released The White Sister and Romola.

[HypnoHelioStaticStasis]

I wanted to resurrect this thread to talk a little about King's extraordinary The Gunfighter, which I saw for the first (but not last) time a short while ago. It's not often that a film makes me want to pontificate about it, especially on a forum as well-versed in film as this one, but I think it warrants a great deal of discussion.

It's a film that sneaks up on you, gradually making you conscious of its impending sense of tragedy, but also one that (in the right frame of mind) signals the end of any preconceived notions one might have of the western genre at this time. When I say frame of mind, I mean that literally. Maybe its just me being the history nut I am, but I tend watch films and place other aspects of artistic expression in the context of seeing it when it was made. Perhaps that's a reductive notion, and maybe prevents from being as critical as I would like to be, but it's just my way. Anyway, I digress...

This was made in the time before Peckinpah, Leone and the majority of Mann's western output. Winchester 73 was made the same year-1950-, but in weighing the two films side by side, I found The Gunfighter a far richer and rewarding experience, not because its pessimism and fatalism speak to me, but because it is a far less self-conscious film than Mann's, which seems to know it is a psychological deconstruction of the western, and it cues the audience in almost at once using low camera angles and silence, signaling a refusal to give the audience what it expected. Not that it's any less of a film for that, but it's a different one.

To me, the classical style of King's western is essential in enhancing the themes inherent in the layered story and turn of events. It presents itself as basically any other western, featuring all the Fordian tropes of men riding on the horizon line, men drinking alkeehawl, genteel school marms, punk kids trying to make names for themselves. It's all there up on the screen, pleasurable in its familiarity.

But the brilliance of the film is that it is all for naught, that none of these tropes signify anything but falsehoods, that the legend is legend, nothing more. The eponymous gunfighter played by Gregory Peck has killed less men than his status dictates, and the last few, it seems, quite reluctantly. Men claim to have known him and seen him in territories he hasn't even set foot in. This is a man haunted by the way the Old West works, by the self-perpetuating myths that make their world relevant and exciting. He is a victim of the system, but he is also one that clearly indulged in it too long before he realized just what he was caught up in.

Without giving too much away for those who haven't seen it (and by all means, do), the end is expected but twisted in a way that is not as obvious as one is led to believe. And the violence is so palpable that it's utterly shocking.

I can elaborate more, but I'd like to hear some other opinions first. Hope this post was coherent.

[myrnaloyisdope]

Can anyone confirm the existence of 1932's The Woman in Room 13?? It's supposed to be pretty awful, but it's got Myrna Loy, so I'd love to know if its floating around somewhere. It's got no votes on imdb, and doesn't appear to be in the UCLA or MoMA archives. So anyone know about this film?

[colinr0380]

I liked The Gunfighter a lot too, with the pathetic young punk trying to make a name for himself contrasted with the nobility of the gunfighter trying to retire. The aspect I found most interesting was wondering whether we are meant to care about Peck because of his gunfighting past - it gives him a reputation he cannot shake off but at the same time lends his wish to settle down a poignancy that it wouldn't otherwise have had. There is the suggestion that you need to create the bad reputation that others define you by in order to then gain the nobility of mending your ways later on. It also flatters the townspeople that such a notorious man would actually be envious of their simple and anonymous way of life. Though the town itself seems close to tipping over into violence (such as in the subplot of the father of a man Ringo had previously killed desperately wanting revenge) and almost unhealthily fascinated with killing. The children playing in the street outside the saloon are just the most unselfconscious expression of this interest among everyone.

I thought the use of the kid trying to make his name as a gunfighter was very interesting - the thing that makes him so pathetic to the rest of the town would seem to be the posturing he does without the action to back it up. If he were to settle down to a quiet life instead of pursuing Ringo he wouldn't become notorious but he also would not be special and would not be able to be praised or become noble for trying to reform himself. Being good would just be something expected of an 'ordinary' person, while it would be something praiseworthy for a bad guy to try and mend his ways.

However while the townsfolk seem to treat him as 'the boy who cried wolf', the aspect of the character that makes him pathetic in the opinion of the film (and to Ringo, who likely sees an echo of himself in the boy) is the way that he willingly sacrifices the possibility of a normal life (with the life changing moment coming about through a stroke of 'luck' rather than any particular skill with a firearm) without fully considering the consequences of his actions. The kid is just looking for a short term notoriety and the associated perks (set against the minor inconvenience of run ins with the law), while Ringo seems to know how hollow this is in the long term, when there is nowhere left to go.

It is also an interesting comment on celebrity culture – when your reputation takes on a life of its own and everyone knows you, or at least think they know what you are like through gossip and hearsay, how do you modify their opinions? What happens when your reputation inspires jealousy or copycats, or threatens the structure of society by becoming too powerful and seductive? And does chasing this celebrity inevitably lead to a lonely life and a fatal end as the fitting climax to your story, and as a way of restoring the status quo for the majority?

[Sloper]

Nice to see some discussion on The Gunfighter – my favourite western.

Hypno, you’ve really put your finger on what makes this such a great film. You mention Mann’s psychological approach; the Freudian Red River is another good example of this sort of thing; and obviously High Noon feels very involved in the politics of early ‘50s America. But The Gunfighter has an unparalleled authenticity to it, as you say an unselfconscious – but at the same time very insightful – attempt to evoke a bygone era. Some reviewers commented that Gregory Peck resembles a figure taken straight out of a 19th-century photograph; his moustache alone is a small masterpiece of make-up artistry. It sounds like a cliché, but the setting of this film really feels like a living (and lived-in) town, not like a studio creation, not only because of the wonderful art direction, but also because of King’s (and the script’s) eye for detail. Even the most peripheral characters have personality, and little moments like the guy in the barber shop saying ‘Do you have to put your foot on my chair?’ or the old men fighting in the street with the onlookers lethargically goading them on (‘Ah, go for his eyes!’) make you feel very ‘at home’ in the film – not in a sentimental way, but it helps us understand what Ringo envies and desires so much, and what the townsfolk want to preserve. The lack of music, except at the beginning and end, also helps.

Colin, I think you’re right about the ambiguity of the characterisation, and Ringo is far from being a straightforwardly ‘reformed’ character. The impression we get in the first scene is that, although he is well and truly tired of being a gunfighter, he still can’t help but rile people up, condescending to the kid who challenges him (‘button up your britches, sonny, and go home’) in a way that cannot fail to make things worse. In a way it’s a film about generational conflict, with young squirts besting their elders, then growing old and realising there’s nothing left for them except to be bested in their turn; and the film’s pessimism is so cruel and unflinching that it even shows the older man’s inability to pass on his hard-won wisdom:

SpoilerShow

Ringo, at the end, saves Bromley from the gallows in order to let him go on and learn the lesson for himself, which of course means that Bromley will go on to kill a lot more people and perpetuate this cycle. Despite the apparently redemptive coda, it’s an extraordinarily bitter way to end the film, and suggests very strongly that Ringo’s violent nature is too deeply ingrained for him to be able to give it up, manifesting itself even in his vengeful dying breath. It is vengeance, after all, which greases the wheels of this whole process...

I keep meaning to watch this again to see if I can spot Mae Marsh, who apparently plays someone called ‘Mrs O’Brien’.

[Revelator]

Since the date of the original post, many more of Henry King's films have been released on DVD/Blu-Ray (though not always in optimal quality).

The White Sister (1923) -- Warner Archive R1: https://www.amazon.com/Double-Feature-W ... 004JK7654/

Stella Dallas (1925) -- Warner R1 [DVD Extra on the 1937 version, 16mm transfer]: https://www.amazon.com/Stella-Dallas-DV ... 00EKGX2P0/

She Goes to War (1929) -- Alpha R1: https://www.amazon.com/She-Goes-War-Ele ... 00IUSP7SE/

Hell Harbor (1930) -- VCI R1: https://www.amazon.com/Precode-Hollywoo ... 004C25232/

The Country Doctor (1936) -- Fox Cinema Archives R1: https://www.amazon.com/Country-Doctor-D ... 008SAPBIK/

Ramona (1936) -- Fox Cinema Archives R1: https://www.amazon.com/Ramona-Loretta-Y ... 00E5N8GO0/

Lloyd's of London (1936) -- Fox Cinema Archives R1: https://www.amazon.com/Lloyds-London-Fr ... 00QJD8YL4/

Seventh Heaven (1937) -- Fox Cinema Archives R1: https://www.amazon.com/Seventh-Heaven-S ... 00S7L1GOI/

Stanley and Livingstone (1939) -- Fox Cinema Archives R1: https://www.amazon.com/Stanley-Livingst ... 00A1AU5Z4/

Little Old New York (1940) -- Fox Cinema Archives R1: https://www.amazon.com/Little-Old-York- ... 00A1AU5ZE/

Maryland(1940) -- Fox Cinema Archives R1: https://www.amazon.com/MARYLAND-Walter- ... 00KGJO9SE/

Chad Hanna (1940) -- Fox Cinema Archives R1: https://www.amazon.com/CHAD-HANNA-Henry ... 00K8CQ3E2/

Remember the Day (1941) -- Fox Cinema Aarchives R1: https://www.amazon.com/Remember-Day-Cla ... 00BGGIUZ4/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Wilson (1944) -- Fox Cinema Archives R1: https://www.amazon.com/Wilson-Alexander ... 00BGGIUVI/

A Bell for Adano(1945) -- French R2: https://www.amazon.fr/Cloche-pour-Adano ... 015P1759M/

Deep Waters (1948) -- Fox Cinema Archives R1: https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Waters-Dana ... 008Y1YJAE/

Prince of Foxes (1949) -- Kino Lorber Blu-Ray: https://www.amazon.com/Prince-Foxes-Blu ... 01MRW1382/

Twelve O'Clock High (1949) 20th Century Fox Blu-Ray: https://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Oclock-Hi ... 004RE29RC/

I'd Climb the Highest Mountain(1951) -- -- Fox Cinema Archives R1: ["very soft with low contrast and disappointing color"]: https://www.amazon.com/Climb-Highest-Mo ... 00J7YV0UE/

David and Bathsheba (1951) -- Kino Lorber Blu-Ray: https://www.amazon.com/David-Bathsheba- ... 01N41927R/

Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie (1952) -- -- Fox Cinema Archives R1 [extremely dark transfer]: https://www.amazon.com/Wait-till-Sun-Sh ... 00A1AU66M/

King of the Khyber Rifles (1953) -- British R2: https://www.amazon.co.uk/King-Khyber-Ri ... 00CWFY0PM/

Untamed (1955) -- Fox Cinema Archives R1 [Letterboxed in 4:3]: https://www.amazon.com/Untamed-Tyrone-P ... 00D6I7ITY/

Carousel(1956) 20th Century Fox Blu-Ray in The Rodgers & Hammerstein Collection: https://www.amazon.com/Rodgers-Hammerst ... 00IZIGFNU/

This Earth is Mine (1959) Spanish R2: https://www.amazon.com/This-Earth-NON-U ... 0053CBSRY/

Beloved Infidel (1959) -- Twilight Time Blu-Ray: https://www.amazon.com/Beloved-Infidel- ... 00AJROM9E/

Tender Is the Night (1962) -- Fox Cinema Archives R1 [Pan and Scan!]: https://www.amazon.com/Tender-Night-Jen ... 00BGGIY1E/

[rohmerin]

Tender is the Night is out in Spain, FOX, widescreen but not anamorphic.


https://www.amazon.es/Suave-noche-DVD-J ... s+la+noche

[Stefan Andersson]

Stella Dallas (1925) restored in 4K by MoMA and The Film Foundation:
https://www.labiennale.org/en/news/pre- ... henry-king

[Revelator]

Good to hear about the restoration of Stella Dallas by MoMA and The Film Foundation. I hope this will lead to a Blu-Ray release, but MoMA's previous King restoration, One More Spring (1935), remains unavailable outside the archive. Very unfortunate, since King considered it “probably his best picture, in a way,” during a 1937 interview with the New York Times. And two more of King's all-time best films that are also from from the same period--Over the Hill (1931) and State Fair (1933)--remain unavailable.

The early 30s are an under-explored area in King's career. Eight films are lost or unavailable, but we know King greeted sound head-on with the underrated (and uncharacteristically sleazy) Hell Harbor (1930) before crafting three of his best films. And even the flawed works from this period are of genuine interest: the cursed production Marie Galante (1934) has dreamlike ambience and some startling editing and camerawork, while Way Down East (1935), though hampered by the Code and studio restrictions, arguably presents a more convincing picture of small town life than Griffith.

Anyway, here are some availability updates:

Six Feet Four (1919) will be released on Blu-Ray/DVD by Grapevine Video, which recently concluded a Kickstarter campaign to present the film. I was a contributor and have already received my copy, though I haven't yet checked the visual quality. Pre-order: http://grapevinevideo.com/six-feet-four.html

O. Henry's Full House (1952), to which King contributed "The Gift of the Magi," has been released on Blu-Ray by Signal One Entertainment: https://www.amazon.com/Henrys-Full-Hous ... 08FP9Z2FR/

Untamed (1955) was released on Blu-Ray by Twilight Time and is still available: https://www.amazon.com/UNTAMED/dp/B07N4F6HTQ/

Tender is the Night (1962) was released on Blu-Ray in France: https://www.amazon.fr/Tendre-est-nuit-B ... B07N43N92Z