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I think the fact an additional Lewton title was also not only announced but cancelled probably indicated that sales were just altogether nowhere in the vicinity they needed to be for The Body Snatcher (cancelling something already announced and dated seems to be an extreme measure meaning they just could not justify the potential loss) - so I really don’t think there’ll be any further from Shout. I don’t think putting it in a box will magically fix the fact the releases apparently cost a lot to license and/or produce and don’t sell very well when they don’t have the words “Cat People” in the title.

I wonder if Criterion had the chance to license all of the Lewton horror films and passed or if Warners had already licensed several titles to other companies. I can't imagine a box of those titles (with Cat People gracing the cover) would have been any more of a difficult sell as several other ambitious projects Criterion has put out, like the Zatoichi set, but then again nobody's accused me of having my finger on the pulse of the paying public.

Some of this is on Shout: their titles are expensive and they chose to lead with a film that’s not really a horror movie. They should have put several titles in a collection and sold it as “Val Lewton’s Crypt of Horrors” (or whatever)— if they can sell those $60 sets of four Universal b-horrors, they can sell these, they just did it wrong and don’t want to adjust

I don’t imagine Shout would have went the individual release route unless they absolutely needed to - which leads me to my belief that there’s something particularly expensive about licensing or producing these titles. Because in principle they could of course still do a box (which, if it included Walked with a Zombie, would still be able to coast off arguably the second biggest title) but there’s been no indication that’s going to happen. Oh well - glad we got the three we got!

Maybe if the licence for I Walked With A Zombie reverts back to Warner or Shout! sub-licences it (can they do that?), Kino can step in or Criterion which they should have done in the first place. I don't know who else in the US would get I Walk With A Zombie outside of those two. Arrow might.

Some more titles have been added to Shout/Screams OOP list. Most notably:
Vampire Lovers
Ninja III (both releases)
The Town that Dreaded Sundown
The Evictors

Universal Horror Collection: Vol. 6 (8/25/20 release):

- The Black Castle (1952)
- Cult of the Cobra (1955)
- The Thing That Couldn't Die (1958)
- The Shadow of the Cat (1961)

dwk wrote: Thu Feb 20, 2020 4:42 pm Special Edition of Glengarry Glen Ross is coming from Shout Factory on April 28th.

Updated release June 2. Looks like a great package
Bonus Features...
-NEW 4K Transfer From The Original Camera Negative
-NEW A Conversation With Director James Foley
-NEW "God Bless Ricky Roma" – Actor Joe Mantegna Remembers Working With David Mamet
-Audio Commentary With James Foley
-Audio Commentary With Actor Jack Lemmon
-Scenes With Bonus Audio Commentary With Actors Alec Baldwin And Alan Arkin, Cinematographer Juan Ruiz Anchía And Production Designer Jane Musky
-"A.B.C. (Always Be Closing)" Documentary

FrauBlucher wrote: Wed May 06, 2020 7:39 pm -Audio Commentary With Actor Jack Lemmon

Looks like I can offload my Pioneer Special Edition Laserdisc.

FrauBlucher wrote: Wed May 06, 2020 7:39 pm

dwk wrote: Thu Feb 20, 2020 4:42 pm Special Edition of Glengarry Glen Ross is coming from Shout Factory on April 28th.

Updated release June 2. Looks like a great package
Bonus Features...
-NEW 4K Transfer From The Original Camera Negative
-NEW A Conversation With Director James Foley
-NEW "God Bless Ricky Roma" – Actor Joe Mantegna Remembers Working With David Mamet
-Audio Commentary With James Foley
-Audio Commentary With Actor Jack Lemmon
-Scenes With Bonus Audio Commentary With Actors Alec Baldwin And Alan Arkin, Cinematographer Juan Ruiz Anchía And Production Designer Jane Musky
-"A.B.C. (Always Be Closing)" Documentary

I hope Foley's brilliant After Dark, My Sweet eventually gets a release as stacked as this.

A Midnight Clear
Release: May 26, 2020

Bonus Features
NEW “A Look Back at A Midnight Clear” With Writer/Director Keith Gordon, And Stars Ethan Hawke, Frank Whaley And Ayre Gross
Audio Commentary By Keith Gordon And Ethan Hawke
Deleted Scenes With Commentary By Keith Gordon
Trailer

I've only seen A Midnight Clear once but I loved it, excited to see this again. I think the commentary was recorded back around the time The Chocolate War came out on DVD but the release was cancelled.

dustybooks wrote: Fri May 08, 2020 2:12 am I've only seen A Midnight Clear once but I loved it, excited to see this again. I think the commentary was recorded back around the time The Chocolate War came out on DVD but the release was cancelled.

The old DVD had the commentary, but it was not in the OAR.

Keith Gordon is one of my favourite commentary providers period. Just fabulous to listen to, and incredibly smart.

FrauBlucher wrote: Wed May 06, 2020 7:39 pm

dwk wrote: Thu Feb 20, 2020 4:42 pm Special Edition of Glengarry Glen Ross is coming from Shout Factory on April 28th.

Updated release June 2. Looks like a great package
Bonus Features...
-NEW 4K Transfer From The Original Camera Negative
-NEW A Conversation With Director James Foley
-NEW "God Bless Ricky Roma" – Actor Joe Mantegna Remembers Working With David Mamet
-Audio Commentary With James Foley
-Audio Commentary With Actor Jack Lemmon
-Scenes With Bonus Audio Commentary With Actors Alec Baldwin And Alan Arkin, Cinematographer Juan Ruiz Anchía And Production Designer Jane Musky
-"A.B.C. (Always Be Closing)" Documentary

The Blu-ray.com page does not mention the commentary with Baldwin, Arkin, etc. Was this info direct from Shout!?

Tattoo (Bob Brooks, 1981) coming in August. Anyone seen it?

It's notable for being racy apparently as Bruce Dern initially said the sex scenes were real. Luis Bunuel's daughter in law Joyce Bunuel co-wrote it.

It’s one of the films I jotted down from those 42nd Street Forever comps, so it at least had a compelling trailer!

It is definitely in the tradition of the 'kidnapped victim getting involved in Stockholm syndrome (or it is just playing along until they get the right moment to escape?) erotic games with their kidnapper' subgenre which runs from The Collector through Yasuzo Masumura's classic (and still best and most transgressive) entry Blind Beast, as well as Irezumi (the word for tattoo in Japanese). This probably reached its apex/nadir with Boxing Helena in the early 90s, and now we are getting twists on such tales with films like Pet.

Hey thanks for the replies. I’ll definitely get Tattoo. Also Colin’s other suggestions are intriquing as well. Boxing Helena hopefully has a decent DVD or Blu-ray out there, or...?

I get the impression that everyone wants to forget that Boxing Helena exists after the critical mauling and general embarrassment it caused (Wasn't this also the film that Kim Basinger was due to star in but pulled out of at the last minute and then got sued by the production over? And that turned out to have been the better move for her career!), so I would not hold out much hope for anything more than a bare bones DVD, if that, unless it gets an enormous push towards being re-evaluated by a label like Arrow. It feels as if it is currently at the Exorcist II or Cats level of notoriety, which is both understandable and a bit of a shame since I could totally see it fitting in with the trend of Shannon Tweed erotic thrillers if it had only come out four or five years later!

Though I am hoping that it at least gets namechecked somewhere in Mark Cousins' fourteen hour "Women Make Film" documentary!

colinr0380 wrote: Tue May 19, 2020 8:00 amso I would not hold out much hope for anything more than a bare bones DVD

Boxing Helena had a laserdisc release with a lot of extras, none of which have ever been ported to DVD, so it'd nice if some label could put out a release with at least those extras.

The Shout Factory blu ray of Mario Bava's Danger: Diabolik looks a lot like an upscale, but I wonder if DNR is most to blame. The color looks improved vis a vis the Paramount DVD and the day-for-night scenes look a bit clearer. There is DNR everywhere, however, making the improvements pretty negligible. When the image is mostly still you see the faintest hint of a grain structure. But once actors or the camera starts moving everything blurs and smears. There never seems to be a hard edge on anything. There's two audio commentaries on the disc, one of them new to this release. This isn't marketed as a special edition or anything––I mean, it's nice to have it back in print, and it's better than the Brazilian blu ray, which was even less detailed and very desaturated and unquestionably a muddy upscale––but there's no information suggesting the Shout Factory disc has been remastered, or given any special transfer. Michel Piccoli's performance is still wonderful. But nothing else about this release is up to par, as far as I can see. Is this one of those movies where the original negative is no longer around? The other Bava pictures have had such great releases, even Kill, Baby, Kill!