Archive for the 'Eureka! Masters of Cinema' Category
October 14th, 2020 by Gerard Iribe
“What about Japan? ” asked Zanuck. “Would you like to shoot a picture there? ” “Holy mackerel, Darryl, now you re talking! ” When offered the opportunity to film an entire movie in Japan, (Fox would be the first major American studio to do so) Samuel Fuller jumped at the opportunity and the result is House of Bamboo, a lushly photographed, cold-as-ice film-noir like no other. Japan, 1954. A military train is robbed of its cargo by a ruthless gang of professionals led by the sadistic, but brilliant, Sandy Dawson (the incomparable Robert Ryan). Weeks later, one of the thieves lies dying in a Tokyo hospital, shot by his own accomplices. Recently released convict Eddie Spanier (Robert Stack) arrives in Tokyo, and joins up with the gang, impressing Sandy so much he quickly becomes his “ichiban” (number one man), greatly displeasing the former favorite, Griff (Cameron Mitchell). But is Eddie all he seems? Also starring the beautiful Shirley Yamaguchi, House of Bamboo is a stunning, brutal masterpiece, featuring incredible widescreen photography by Joe MacDonald, and hard-boiled dialogue and action that is the Fuller trademark. House of Bamboo full is presented in full 1080p on Blu-ray from Fox’s 2K restoration House of Bamboo is released on Blu-ray December 7, 2020! Continue reading ‘‘House of Bamboo’ on Blu-ray December 7, 2020!’
October 14th, 2020 by Gerard Iribe
Featuring a staggering central performance from the young Petr Kotlár alongside a star-studded international ensemble including Udo Kier, Stellan Skarsgård, Harvey Keitel, Julian Sands and Barry Pepper. The Painted Bird has won ecstatic acclaim, with The Guardian’s Xan Brooks describing the film as “a monumental piece of work” rewarding the film with a five-star review. The film follows the journey of a boy, entrusted by his Jewish parents to an elderly foster mother in an effort to escape persecution. Following a tragedy, the boy is on his own. Wandering through the desecrated countryside, the boy encounters villagers and soldiers whose own lives have been brutally altered, and who are intent on revisiting this brutality on the boy. When the war ends, the boy has been changed, forever. Shot in crisp black and white 35mm – Václav Marhoul’s The Painted Bird does far more than simply depict the horror of war. It is an unflinching examination of the very worst of humanity. The Painted Bird is released on Blu-ray in the UK November 16, 2020! Continue reading ‘‘The Painted Bird’ on Blu-ray November 16, 2020!’
October 13th, 2020 by Gerard Iribe
Death, dementia, dark arts… it’s just another day in the forbidding and fascinating world of the Inner Sanctum! Get ready for unlimited thrills and chills as all six classic Inner Sanctum Mysteries come to Blu-ray in the UK for the first time ever! Based on the popular radio shows of the 1940’s, horror icon Lon Chaney, Jr. (The Wolf Man), gives timeless performances in six spooky feature-length films. Inner Sanctum Mysteries will be released in the UK on Blu-ray December 7, 2020! Continue reading ‘‘Inner Sanctum Mysteries’ on Blu-ray December 7, 2020!’
September 21st, 2020 by Gerard Iribe
Ronny Yu (The Phantom Lover; Warriors Of Virtue; The Bride of Chucky) directs The Bride with White Hair; a highly operatic fable based on a well-known martial arts novel with Leslie Cheung (A Better Tomorrow; Farewell, My Concubine) and Brigitte Lin (Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain; Police Story) as doomed lovers caught in the crossfire of warring clans. Cheung plays Zhuo Yihang, a rebellious but extremely talented swordsman of the Wudang Sect (aka the Wu-Tang Clan, a fictional martial arts sect that appears in many wuxia novels and films). One day he meets and falls in love with Lian Nichang (Lin), the adopted daughter of a rival cult led by the villainous Ji Wushuang. Zhuo convinces Lian to leave the cult to be with him, a decision which will ultimately lead to death and betrayal. With beautiful cinematography by Peter Pau (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and over-the-top action sequences, The Bride with White Hair is one of the best swordplay fantasy films ever made, and Eureka Classics is proud to present the film from a brand new 4K restoration in its UK debut on Blu-ray. Continue reading ‘‘The Bride with White Hair’ on Blu-ray November 9, 2020!’
September 4th, 2020 by Gerard Iribe
Eureka Entertainment to release WAXWORKS, Paul Leni’s expressionist anthology masterpiece, on Blu-ray presented from a new 2K restoration on home video for the first time in the UK. Available as a part of The Masters of Cinema Series November 9, 2020. The first print run of 2000 copies will be presented with a Limited Edition O-Card Slipcase. As there is no surviving original negative of Waxworks, this newly restored edition—a joint effort by the Deutsche Kinemathek and Cineteca di Bologna, L’Immagine Ritrovata (with funding from the German Commission for Culture and the Media)—is composed of contemporary prints and additional film materials from archives around the world. The elements, including English intertitles, were scanned in 4K resolution and then restored in 2K. Presented by The Masters of Cinema Series and Flicker Alley in a special Blu-ray edition, there is an option of two new scores to accompany the film: one by the Ensemble Musikfabrik (commissioned by ZDF/ARTE), and the second by composer Richard Siedhoff. Continue reading ‘‘Waxworks’ on Blu-ray November 9!’
September 3rd, 2020 by Gerard Iribe
In Tokyo, a mysterious radioactive liquid is dissolving people into slimy, sentient, seemingly indestructible, blobs of destruction! Part-Japanese gangster noir, part-gooey body melting horror, The H-Man (Bijo to Ekitai-ningen – ‘Beauty and the Liquid People’) is one of the most unique sci-fi films of the 1950s. A series of mysterious catastrophes sweep the globe, causing the world’s scientists to conclude that beings from another planet are attacking Earth, and the world must unite to defend itself in a gigantic battle in outer space! With wonderful special effects sequences by Eiji Tsuburaya (Godzilla, Ultraman), and a rousing score by Akira Ifukube (Godzilla), Battle in Outer Space is a glorious sci-fi extravaganza. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present two classics of Japanese sci-fi cinema, both directed by the great Ishirō Honda, for the first time ever on home video in the UK. Continue reading ‘‘Ishiro Honda Double Feature’ on Blu-ray November 16!’
September 2nd, 2020 by Gerard Iribe
One of the most iconic Japanese kaiju, Mothra has appeared in over a dozen feature films. Presented here is her debut, a gloriously vibrant piece of filmmaking that forever changed how kaiju eiga would be produced in Japan. Following reports of human life on Infant Island, the supposedly deserted site of atomic bomb tests, an international expedition to the heavily-radiated island discovers a native tribe and tiny twin female fairies called “Shobijin” who guard a sacred egg. The overzealous expedition leader kidnaps the Shobijin to exhibit in a Tokyo stage show but soon they summon their protector, hatching the egg and releasing a giant caterpillar. When Mothra arrives in Japan and transforms into her final form, the nation and its people face their destruction. Psychedelically colorful, with an intelligent, benevolent protector as its lead kaiju, Mothra was radically different to every other monster movie that had come before it, and it remains a classic of the genre to this day. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Ishirō Honda’s Mothra on Blu-ray for the first time on home video in the UK. Continue reading ‘‘Mothra’ on Blu-ray November 16, 2020!’
August 21st, 2020 by Gerard Iribe
Waxworks (Das Wachsfigurenkabinett) was the final film Paul Leni directed in Germany before striking out for Hollywood, where he made such classic genre films as The Cat and the Canary, The Man Who Laughs, and The Last Warning. Its sophisticated medley of genres was in fact what inspired Universal s Carl Laemmle to invite Leni to come to Hollywood, as Laemmle was hoping to capitalize on the emerging comedy-horror craze of the 1920s. Stylistically, Waxworks was celebrated as a late example of German Expressionism. Its stylized sets (designed by Leni), fantastical costumes, chiaroscuro lighting, and startlingly bold performances are characteristic of that cinematic movement and contribute to the film’s lasting appeal. As the original German version of Waxworks) has not survived, this newly restored English edition – a joint effort by the Deutsche Kinemathek and Cineteca di Bologna, L Immagine Ritrovata (with funding from the German Commission for Culture and the Media) – is composed of vintage exports prints and additional film materials from archives around the world. The elements, including English intertitles, were scanned in 4K resolution and then restored in 2K. Presented by Flicker Alley and Eureka Entertainment in a Blu-ray/DVD dual-format edition, there is an option of two scores to accompany the film: a new piano score by Richard Siedhoff and a new instrumental score by Bernd Schultheis, Olav Lervik, and Jan Kohl, commissioned by ZDF/ARTE and performed by Ensemble Musikfabrik. Continue reading ‘‘Waxworks’ [Flicker Alley] on Blu-ray November 17!’
August 21st, 2020 by Gerard Iribe
Stephen King’s Sleepwalkers is a classic horror story that takes a perfect Normal Rockwell town and turns it inside out. Brian Krause, Mädchen Amick (Twin Peaks), and Alice Krige (Chariots of Fire) star in this terrifying tale of modern-day vampires who move from small town to small town to prey on virtuous young women. Imperceptibly inhuman to everyone except for felines, these vicious shape-shifters have their eyes on a new victim: Tanya (Amick), who has fallen for Charles, the new boy at her school. Making its debut on Blu-ray in the UK, Eureka Classics is proud to present Stephen King’s Sleepwalkers. Continue reading ‘‘Sleepwalkers’ [Eureka Classics] on Blu-ray October 19!’
July 31st, 2020 by Gerard Iribe
Director Robert Englund (the iconic Freddy Krueger from the Nightmare on Elm Street series) dials up a gothic tale of high-tech horror in 976-EVIL. High school underdog Hoax (Stephen Geoffreys – Fright Night) fills up the idle hours in his seedy little hometown fending off the local leather-jacketed thugs, avoiding his overbearing mother (Sandy Dennis) and dreaming of a date with trailer park temptress Suzie (Lezlie Deane), But his quietly desperate life takes a terrifying turn when his cousin introduces him to an unusual new hobby – phoning in for his “horrorscope”. Hoax is hooked up with a compellingly hideous demonic force that slowly begins to overtake his entire life and now there’s more than just a phone bill to pay for anyone who ever dared cross “the neighborhood nerd”. Continue reading ‘‘976-Evil’ on Blu-ray October 19, 2020!’
July 23rd, 2020 by Gerard Iribe
Happily married Alice’s (Emilie Piponnier) life is turned upside down when she discovers her husband (Martin Swabey) has spent all their money on prostitutes and they are now a year behind on their mortgage. In a last-ditch bid to support herself and her child, Alice becomes a high-end escort, which challenges her perceptions of life and love. At times bitterly funny but always brutally honest, the film traces Alice’s journey to her own kind of freedom. Writer-director Josephine Mackerras’ powerful debut feature won the Grand Jury Award at last year’s SXSW, and the ‘Spirit of The Festival Award’ at the 27th Raindance Film Festival, and stars Emilie Piponnier in a breakout performance.
Continue reading ‘Alice (Movie Review)’
July 13th, 2020 by Gerard Iribe
Eureka Entertainment to release THIS GUN FOR HIRE, a highly influential film-noir starring Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd, presented on Blu-ray from a 4K scan of the original film elements. Available for the first time in the UK as part of the Eureka Classics range September 14, 2020! One of the most revered film-noir hits of the 1940s, This Gun for Hire was also the debut teaming of Veronica Lake, in one of her sultriest and most iconic roles, and Alan Ladd. Following the success of the film, the duo would go on to team up in several more features, although This Gun for Hire remains their most fondly remembered pairing. Ladd as a frightening yet oddly sympathetic hit man was only fourth-billed in this defining early noir, yet it became the breakout role that turned him into a star. As The New York Times said of Ladd upon the film’s 1942 release, “He is really an actor to watch. After this stinging performance, he has something to live up to or live down.” Lake is nightclub chanteuse Ellen, and her police detective boyfriend Michael (Robert Preston) is on the hunt for assassin-for-hire Philip Raven (Ladd), after Raven performed a hit on a chemist with a secret formula and a taste for blackmail. When Raven’s employer Gates (Laird Cregar) double crosses him after the job is done, Raven seeks revenge, and his path crosses with Ellen after she is hired to perform at Gates’ club. Raven learns that the stolen formula is for a poison gas that is to be sold to the Japanese, and his pangs of conscience and revelations of his tortured past turn Ellen’s fear into compassion, just as dangerous forces close in on Raven. But Ellen is still unsure if Raven can be trusted… Continue reading ‘‘This Gun for Hire’ on Blu-ray September 14, 2020!’
July 3rd, 2020 by Gerard Iribe
Released to critical acclaim in 1997, the year of the Hong Kong handover, Fruit Chan’s Made in Hong Kong was praised as an anarchic masterpiece, a powerful distillation of urban alienation and youthful despair. Moon (Sam Lee) is a small-time triad, stuck in an endless cycle of pointless violence with no hope of escape. After he and his friends witness the suicide of a young girl, they embark on a journey to deliver two letters she had on her when she died. Produced on a shoestring budget, with non-professional actors and using discarded film reels for stock, the film was rescued from obscurity and fully restored in 4K in time for its 20th anniversary in 2017, thanks to the Far East Film Festival, in collaboration with Andy Lau’s Hong Kong production company, Focus Film. Continue reading ‘‘Made in Hong Kong’ on Blu-ray September 21, 2020!’
June 27th, 2020 by Gerard Iribe
Illicit passion, greed, robbery, and murder collide in Criss Cross, a crime suspense tale from a true master of the genre, Robert Siodmak (The Killers). Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster Novecento, Birdman of Alcatraz) is a hardworking armoured car driver with a fatal attraction to his ex-wife Anna (Yvonne DeCarlo The Munsters), who’s now married to notorious hoodlum Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea Winchester 73). Unable to stay away from her, Steve has a secret tryst with Anna … only to be discovered by Dundee. To cover up their affair, Steve convinces Dundee that he only met with Anna to get Dundee’s help in robbing an upcoming payroll shipment he will be driving. The hood falls for the ruse, which triggers a series of harrowing events that ultimately lead to violence and death. From a new 4K restoration, The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present this essential film noir in its UK debut on Blu-ray. Continue reading ‘Criss Cross [Masters of Cinema] (Blu-ray Review)’
June 27th, 2020 by Gerard Iribe
From Sergio Corbucci, the legendary director of Django, Navajo Joe, The Great Silence, Companeros and The Mercenary comes The Specialists (Gli Specialisti, aka Drop Them or I ll Shoot) , a thrilling spaghetti western starring French music and film great Johnny Hallyday (The Man on the Train, Détective, Vengeance). Notorious gunfighter Hud Dixon (Hallyday) arrives in Blackstone, a town where his brother was wrongfully accused of robbing a bank and lynched for it. As Hud seeks revenge, he starts to discover the truth behind the stolen loot, and has to contend with an idealistic sheriff, a beautiful and seductive female banker, a corrupt businessman and a one-armed Mexican bandit, who was once his friend. Also starring Gastone Moschin (The Conformist, Caliber 9), Françoise Fabian (Belle de Jour, My Night at Maud s), and gorgeously filmed by Dario Di Palma (The Seduction of Mimi, The Oldest Profession), Eureka Classics is proud to present Gli Specialisti on Blu-ray from a new 4K restoration. Continue reading ‘The Specialists [Eureka Classics] (Blu-ray Review)’
June 27th, 2020 by Gerard Iribe
After enjoying fantastic success with Fritz Lang’s two-part “Indian Epic” in 1959, German producer Artur Brauner signed the great director to direct one more film. The result would be the picture that, in closing the saga he began nearly forty years earlier, brought Lang’s career full-circle, and would come to represent his final celluloid testament by extension: his final film masterpiece. The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse [Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse] finds that diabolical Weimar name resurfacing in the Cold War era, linked to a new methodology of murder and mayhem. Seances, assassinations, and Nazi-engineered surveillance tech all abound in Lang’s paranoid, and ultimate, filmic labyrinth. One of the great and cherished “last films” in the history of cinema, The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse provides a stylistic glimpse into the 1960s works on such subjects as sex-crime, youth-culture, and LSD that Lang would unfortunately never come to realize. Nonetheless, Lang’s final film remains an explosive, and definitive, closing statement. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Fritz Lang’s final film on Blu-ray. Continue reading ‘The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse [Masters of Cinema] (Blu-ray Review)’
June 15th, 2020 by Gerard Iribe
Between 1920 and 1929, Buster Keaton created a peerless run of feature films that established him as “arguably the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies”. Collected here are three further films from that era; Our Hospitality, Go West and College. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present all three films from brand new restorations in their UK debuts on Blu-ray. Eureka Entertainment to release BUSTER KEATON: 3 FILMS (Volume 3), a further collection of unparalleled films from the silent comedy genius. Presented for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK, from brand new restorations, as part of The Masters of Cinema Series. The Limited Edition Three Disc Box Set (3000 copies ONLY) will be available August 24, 2020. Continue reading ‘Buster Keaton: 3 Films (Volume 3) [Masters of Cinema] on Blu-ray August 24, 2020!’
June 12th, 2020 by Gerard Iribe
Only the second Hollywood film directed by Billy Wilder, the riveting World War II spy thriller Five Graves to Cairo is an underrated early gem from the filmmaker, who would ascend to the industry’s highest ranks with his next project, Double Indemnity. Five Graves demonstrates that Wilder and screenwriter Charles Brackett who would collaborate on thirteen films, winning screenplay Oscars for The Lost Weekend and Sunset Boulevard were already working at the peak of their powers, delivering an espionage yarn that never lets up on the suspense. The only survivor in his unit after a battle with Rommel’s soldiers in North Africa, British Corporal Bramble (Franchot Tone) staggers through the desert until arriving at the largely deserted Empress of Britain hotel, staffed only by owner Farid (Akim Tamiroff) and his French employee Mouche (Anne Baxter). While Bramble hopes to hide there, the hotel doesn’t remain deserted for long Rommel (a scene-stealing Erich von Stroheim) and his men arrive and take over the building as new headquarters. Bramble assumes the identity of a recently killed waiter…only to soon discover that this waiter was also serving as a German spy, a role Bramble now has to adopt for his own survival. And while Mouche knows Bramble’s true identity, she has her own reasons for not wanting to aid in his plot. Continue reading ‘‘Five Graves to Cairo’ [Masters of Cinema] on Blu-ray August 17, 2020!’
