OLIVE FILMS ANNOUNCES THEIR MAY RELEASES!!!!
Olive Films have announced their May lineup! First up: Two-time Academy Award® nominee Vincent Gardenia (Supporting Actor nods for Bang the Drum Slowly – 1974 and Moonstruck – 1988) is featured in the comic free-for-all Cold Turkey. Next: Robert Wise, two-time Academy Award® winner for directing (1962 – West Side Story, shared with Jerome Robbins; 1966 – The Sound of Music) and the renowned film editor of Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, helms the twisted film noir Odds Against Tomorrow. Lastly! A career highlight, director Roger Corman’s A Bucket of Blood has much in common with his black-humor horror flick The Little Shop of Horrors and the post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi gem Gas-s-s-s. Let’s look at these films in more detail!
COLD TURKEY
Cold Turkey, writer-director Norman Lear’s (TV’s All in the Family) satirical comedy, stars Dick Van Dyke (Mary Poppins) as Reverend Clayton Brooks, a minister in the small town of Eagle Rock, Iowa who takes up the challenge presented by ad exec Merwin Wren (Bob Newhart, TV’s The Bob Newhart Show), a mouthpiece for Hiram C. Grayson (Edward Everett Horton, Top Hat; Brazil) of the Valiant Tobacco Company: any city or town in America that can give up smoking for 30 days will receive a $25 million dollar check. Based on the addictive nature of the nation, Valiant is positive that their publicity stunt won’t cost them a dime.
And so begins the comic tale of the residents of Eagle Rock and their struggle to butt out and grab the dough. The supporting cast of Cold Turkey is a veritable smorgasbord of comedic talent including Tom Poston (TV’s Newhart), Jean Stapleton (TV’s All in the Family), Pippa Scott (Auntie Mame), Vincent Gardenia (Moonstruck), Bob and Ray (Author! Author!), Barnard Hughes (Midnight Cowboy), Barbara Cason (TV’s Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman), Judith Lowry (The Trouble with Angels), M. Emmet Walsh (What’s Up, Doc?) and Paul Benedict (TV’s The Jeffersons).
STREET: 5/29/18
SRP: $29.95
YEAR: 1971
GENRE: COMEDY
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 102 mins
RATING: PG-13
VIDEO: 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio; COLOR
AUDIO: MONO
ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW
Odds Against Tomorrow, Academy Award winner Robert Wise’s (West Side Story) taut film noir, stars Academy Award® nominee Robert Ryan (Supporting Actor, Crossfire – 1948) as Earle Slater, a racist ex-con looking to make a quick buck, and Harry Belafonte (Carmen Jones) as Johnny Ingram, a nightclub performer with gambling debts and in need of some cash.
Recruited by disgraced cop David Burke (Ed Begley, Academy Award® winner for Supporting Actor, Sweet Bird of Youth – 1963) to help with a bank heist, Slater and Ingram become bitter allies in their greed and shared rage against the world. But a pivotal moment will send both men toward a cataclysmic outcome that is anything but black and white.
Odds Against Tomorrow features supporting performances by Academy Award® winner Shelley Winters (Supporting Actress, The Diary of Anne Frank – 1960; Supporting Actress, A Patch of Blue – 1966) as Lorry, Slater’s apprehensive girlfriend, and Academy Award® winner Gloria Grahame (Supporting Actress, The Bad and the Beautiful – 1953) as Helen, Slater’s emotionally damaged neighbor. Written for the screen by Nelson Gidding (The Haunting) and Abraham Polonsky (Academy Award® nominee, Writing, Original Screenplay – Body and Soul, 1948), who due to the Blacklist was fronted by novelist John O. Killens, Odds Against Tomorrow is photographed by Joseph C. Brun (Academy Award® nominee, Cinematography, Black & White, Martin Luther – 1954) and edited by three-time Academy Award® nominee Dede Allen (Dog Day Afternoon – 1976, Reds – 1982 shared with Craig McKay, Wonder Boys – 2001).
STREET: 5/29/18
SRP: $29.95
YEAR: 1959
GENRE: DRAMA
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 96 mins
RATING: N/R
VIDEO: 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio; B&W
AUDIO: MONO
A BUCKET OF BLOOD
In the immortal words of Hippocrates, “Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting …” Hippocrates was onto something.
A Bucket of Blood, directed by Roger Corman (The Trip), is the best of the genre hyphenates, a black-comedy-beatnik-culture-horror film. The masterful Corman (recipient of an honorary Academy Award® in 2010 for “his rich engendering of films and filmmakers”), often referred to as the Pope of Pop Culture, delivers on every level in a film packed with notable character actors including cult-favorite Dick Miller (The Trip, The Wild Angels) in the lead role of Walter, a busboy who dreams of creating the perfect work of art. Also featured are Barboura Morris (The Trip, The Haunted Palace) as Carla, the woman of Walter’s dreams, and Bert Convy (Semi-Tough) as undercover cop Lou Raby.
Influenced by the artists that circle his orbit at The Yellow Door Café, busboy Walter ventures into the world of sculpting where he can nurture the Rodin that lives inside of him. The downside is that his subjects are dead – by his hand. His beginnings, both humble and accidental, start with a small statue called “Dead Cat.” Unfortunately, “Dead Cat” is followed by “Murdered Man.” By the time we reach Walter’s interest in the female form …. well, you get the picture.
A Bucket of Blood is written by Charles B. Griffith (Death Race 2000), photographed by Jacques R. Marquette (Burnt Offerings), edited by Anthony Carras (The Comedy of Terrors), with music by Fred Katz (The Little Shop of Horrors) and art direction by Dan Haller (Pit and the Pendulum).
STREET: 5/29/18
SRP: $14.95
YEAR: 1959
GENRE: COMEDY HORROR
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 66 mins
RATING: N/R
VIDEO: 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio; B&W
AUDIO: MONO
