My Two Cents
Thursday, 10 February 2022 16:46

Nightmare Alley, Monster From Green Hell, and Hitchcock 4K, plus a look back at Dirty Harry, new Blu-ray reviews & more

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We’ve got a brand new History, Legacy & Showmanship column from our own Michael Coate for you to enjoy today, and it’s another bonus column originally meant to be posted late last year, but that took longer to complete than expected. In this installment, Michael looks back at Don Seigel’s Dirty Harry (1971) in honor of the film’s 50th anniversary. He’s joined by documentary filmmaker Gary Leva and authors Patrick McGilligan and Lee Pfeiffer, historians all. The piece is well worth your time if you’re a fan of the film.

Also today here at The Bits we have a trio of new Blu-ray reviews from Tim, including his take on the animated The Addams Family (2019) and The Addams Family 2 (2021) from Universal, and also Tom Gries’ Breakheart Pass (1976) from Kino Lorber Studio Classics. Enjoy!

The big piece of announcement news today is that Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has just officially set Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley for release on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on 3/22, with the Digital release expected on 3/8. The Blu-ray and 4K will include three featurettes (Del Toro’s Neo Noir, Beneath the Tarp, and What Exists in the Fringe). Audio will be Dolby Atmos on the 4K and DTS-HD MA on the Blu-ray SKU. The 4K will also include HDR10 high dynamic range. You can see the cover artwork above left and also below. [Read on here...]

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In other news, The Film Detective will release Kenneth G. Crane’s B-movie classic Monster from Green Hell (1957) on Blu-ray and DVD on 3/8 (SRP $24.95 and $19.95). Mastered from a new 4K scan and including both 1.85 and 1.33 versions, the disc will offer commentary by artist/author Stephen R. Bissette, the Missouri Born: The Films of Jim Davis retrospective, a rare colorized version of the film’s ending, and Don Stradley’s The Men Behind the Monsters essay in booklet form.

Lionsgate will release shark attack thriller The Requin on Blu-ray and DVD on 3/29.

RLJE Films has set The Boy Behind the Door for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 3/15.

In a bit of unofficial release news, it appears from retail sources that Universal has targeted 5/10 as the street date for their The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection: Volume 2 4K/Blu-ray box set, which—as we first mentioned here at The Bits last week—will include Saboteur (1942), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Marnie (1964), The Trouble with Harry (1955), and Family Plot (1976).

It also appears that Universal is going to be re-issuing single film SKUs of their previous Jurassic Park 4K titles on 5/10, in the build up to the theatrical release of the new sequel Jurassic World Dominion, which arrives in theaters on 6/10. You can see the trailer for the new film here...

Now then, a couple other items of note: Bits reader Michael D. (thanks, Michael!) emailed us to say that Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief is currently available in 4K Digital from Paramount on iTunes/Apple TV and elsewhere. Also recently upgraded to 4K Digital (in December) is Paramount’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. And just last night I took the time to watch Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables in 4K Digital and the new scan looks quite good. All three titles should be make great and strong-selling 4K UHD disc releases later this year.

A lot of you have asked us about the status of Warner’s Mad Max 2 4K disc replacement program. It seems that no one has gotten their replacement discs yet, nor have most people even gotten an email reply to their inquiries about it with the studio. Rest assured, you’re not being ignored. It seems to be the case that WBHE’s customer service operation simply doesn’t have the manpower to reply to everyone. But all of your information is being taken down, and you should get your discs in the mail when they’re ready. We’ve heard no reports yet of anyone getting their discs, but as soon as we do we’ll let you all know here that they’re shipping.

And finally today, I wanted to share this: Engadget has posted a very nice tribute to VFX pioneer Douglas Trumbull, who passed away a couple of days ago. The piece includes comments by those who knew him and worked with him, or were simply inspired by him, some of whom are friends of The Bits. Among them are Michael Okuda, David C. Fein, Mike Matessino, Daren Dochterman, and others. What’s more, the piece includes links to some great YouTube segments with or about Trumbull, not the least of which is his epic Tiff Presents Higher Learning lecture, which is over two hours long and in which Trumbull talks about many of the films he’s worked on and the innovations he pioneered. All of this is well worth your time.

We’ll leave you with a look at the Blu-ray and 4K cover artwork for Nightmare Alley, as well as the BD cover art for Monster From Green Hell (Amazon links will be added as they go live)...

Nightmare Alley (4K Ultra HD) Nightmare Alley (Blu-ray Disc) Monster from Green Hell (Blu-ray Disc)

Stay tuned...

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