December 2010 Bing Crosby

December 2010: Bing Crosby

by John Gallagher

THE BING CROSBY COLLECTION: Universal Home Entertainment celebrates the King of Crooners with their latest Backlot Series release THE BING CROSBY COLLECTION, six films from five unsung Paramount workhorses (Frank Tuttle, Norman Taurog, Eddie Sutherland, Elliott Nugent and two from Wesley Ruggles). One of the biggest stars of screen and radio in the 30s and 40s, Bing had already starred in more than two dozen movies for Paramount (plus loanouts to MGM, Columbia and Universal) before the studio teamed him with Bob Hope for THE ROAD TO SINGAPORE (1940), lifting Bing and Bob to super stardom. All but one Bing movie in this collection pre-dates the ROAD comedies, and also gives us a chance to appreciate some unsung journeyman directors.

The hugely popular Jack Oakie is really the star of Wesley Ruggles’ delightful Pre-Code COLLEGE HUMOR (1933), with Richard Arlen (WINGS) joining him as college football heroes (Arlen plays a surprisingly dark character for a Depression-era collegiate comedy). Crosby has a supporting role as a singing professor romancing blonde ingénue Mary Carlisle, warbling his hit “Learn to Croon.” The strong cast includes George Burns and Gracie Allen in one of their first features, John Ford favorite Joe Sawyer (THE INFORMER), former Our Gang star Mary Kornman, Preston Sturges fave Jimmy Conlin, and comedy savant Grady Sutton.

Directing since 1917, Ruggles (1889-1972) spent the 20s and early 30s directing hits like the breakthrough Clara Bow college comedy THE PLASTIC AGE (1925), the Ronald Colman Devil’s Island drama CONDEMNED (1929), the epic Western CIMARRON (Oscar for Best Picture of 1931), NO MAN OF HER OWN (1932), the only movie to co-star Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, the neglected pulp adventure THE ROAR OF THE DRAGON (1932), the Mae West smash I’M NO ANGEL (1933), the lost deMaupassant thriller THE MONKEY’S PAW (1934), and the Lombard-George Raft dance drama BOLERO (1934). He teamed with screenwriter Claude Binyon on COLLEGE HUMOR, and they collaborated on a string of hit Paramount comedies -; SHOOT THE WORKS (1934) with Oakie, ACCENT ON YOUTH (1935) with Sylvia Sidney, TRUE CONFESSION (1937) with Lombard, and three Claudette Colbert romcoms, THE GILDED LILY (1935), THE BRIDE COMES HOME (1935) and I MET HIM IN PARIS (1937). Ruggles and Binyon, in fact, were often mentioned along with Frank Capra & Robert Riskin, Ernest Lubitsch & Samson Raphaelson, John Ford & Dudley Nicholas, and William Wellman & Robert Carson as pre-eminent writer-director teams. Ruggles and Binyon added another hit to the Paramount program with SING, YOU SINNERS (1938), a tuneful romantic comedy drama about three brothers (n’er do well Bing, straight and narrow Fred MacMurray, baby bro Donald O’Connor) and their long suffering mother (the wonderful Elizabeth Patterson), loaded with heart and sentiment, and a cast of lovable actors. Mickey Rooney was originally cast as the 12-year-old kid brother and even recorded his playback tracks before being called back to home studio MGM. Assistant director Arthur Jacobson found a new kid with vaudeville experience, and Donald O’Connor made his screen debut; his rendition of the Hoagy Carmichael-Frank Loesser song “Small Fry” with Crosby and MacMurray is particularly memorable.

Frank Tuttle (1892-1963) was a terrific comedy director who could also turn his talents 360 degrees to hard-boiled pulp (THE GLASS KEY, I STOLE A MILLION, THIS GUN FOR HIRE, LUCKY JORDAN, HELL ON FRISCO BAY) as well as helming vehicles for stars like Eddie Cantor (KID BOOTS, ROMAN SCANDALS), Louise Brooks (LOVE ‘EM AND LEAVE ‘EM, THE CANARY MURDER CASE), Gary Cooper (ONLY THE BRAVE), Clara Bow (TRUE TO THE NAVY, LOVE AMONG THE MILLIONAIRES, HER WEDDING NIGHT, NO LIMIT), Carole Lombard (IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE), Cary Grant (LADIES SHOULD LISTEN), Jack Benny (COLLEGE HOLIDAY), and seven Bing Crosby pictures, including the new collection’s HERE IS MY HEART (1934). It’s a pure vehicle for Bing, playing a millionaire posing as a waiter to woo European princess Kitty Carlisle on a transatlantic cruise; his hit song here is Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin’s “June in January.”

(Incidentally, Tuttle’s best film, the 1932 Lubitsch-like Pre-Code confection THIS IS THE NIGHT, with Thelma Todd, Lili Damita, and in his screen debut, Cary Grant, has its TCM debut on January 9th at 8 pm; it is not to be missed. Tuttle’s posthumously published memoir They Started Talking is available from Bear Manor Media at www.bearmanormedia.com).

Even though it’s available on Universal’s Carole Lombard collection of a couple of years ago, WE’RE NOT DRESSING (1934) is included in the set, an adaptation of “The Admirable Crichton” with Bing, Carole, Ethel Merman, Burns and Allen and Leon Errol stranded on a tropical island. It’s a time honored situation, from DeMille’s 1919 MALE AND FEMALE to Wertmuller’s SWEPT AWAY (1974) and even GILLIGAN’S ISLAND. Director Norman Taurog (1899-1981) had one of those remarkable Hollywood Professional careers, starting in 1920 with comedy shorts, later specializing in kids’ pictures (SKIPPY, HUCKLEBERRY FINN, BOYS’ TOWN, ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, YOUNG TOM EDISON) and guiding vehicles for Maurice Chevalier (A BEDTIME STORY, WAY TO LOVE), Eddie Cantor (STRIKE ME PINK), Deanna Durbin (MAD ABOUT MUSIC), Fred Astaire (BROADWAY MELODY OF 1940), and Judy Garland (LITTLE NELLIE KELLY, PRESENTING LILY MARS, GIRL CRAZY). He ended his career with six Martin and Lewis pictures and nine Elvis Presley opuses.

Edward Sutherland’s MISSISSIPPI (1935, with uncredited direction by Ruggles) is a highlight of the collection. A lavish recreation of 1840s life on a Mississippi showboat, it’s grand entertainment with Bing crooning "It's Easy to Remember And So Hard to Forget," winning chemistry with leading lady Joan Bennett, and the inimitable, show-stopping, scene-stealing W. C. Fields as steamboat Commodore Jackson. Fields tells some of his most outrageous tall tales and indulges in a hilarious poker game. Director Sutherland (1895-1973) was an old comedy hand, starting as Chaplin’s assistant director on THE KID (1920), A WOMAN OF PARIS (1923) and THE GOLD RUSH (1925), guiding crony Fields in six movies, including INTERNATIONAL HOUSE (1932) and POPPY (1936), one-time wife Louise Brooks in IT’S THE OLD ARMY GAME (1926), Clara Bow, Jean Harlow and Jean Arthur in THE SATURDAY NIGHT KID (1929), Eddie Cantor in PALMY DAYS (1931), Lombard in UP POPS THE DEVIL (1931), Douglas Fairbanks Sr. in MR. ROBINSON CRUSOE (1932), Crosby in TOO MUCH HARMONY (1933), CHAMPAGNE WALTZ (1937), and DIXIE (1943), Mae West in EVERY DAY’S A HOLIDAY (1937), Laurel and Hardy in THE FLYING DEUCES (1939), Abbott and Costello in their debut ONE NIGHT IN THE TROPICS and John Barrymore in THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (1941). The horror gem MURDERS IN THE ZOO (1933), starring Lionel Atwill, available in TCM’s Universal Cult Horror Collection, stands out in Sutherland’s filmography for its genre elements, and one of the grisliest openings ever in a pre-60s studio movie. What a memoir Eddie Sutherland could have written!

Elliott Nugent directed Crosby in WELCOME STRANGER (1947), reuniting him with co-star Barry Fitzgerald from GOING MY WAY (1944), the Leo McCarey picture that won seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Actor (Bing) and Supporting Actor (Fitzgerald). GMW writer Frank Butler uses the same formula as the previous film; this time around Crosby and Fitzgerald are doctors instead of priests. It’s an over-earnest, occasionally touching drama with lots of songs and lots of schmaltz. Nugent (1896-1980), the son of vaudeville great J. C. Nugent, started as an actor in collegiate comedies before turning to directing, building an interesting body of work that included some fine Pre-Codes (THE MOUTHPIECE, LIFE BEGINS, THREE-CORNERED MOON); the Crosby-Miriam Hopkins SHE LOVES ME NOT (1934); Harold Lloyd’s next-to-last movie PROFESSOR BEWARE (1938); five Bob Hopes including THE CAT AND THE CANARY (1939); an adaptation of a play he co-wrote with James Thurber, THE MALE ANIMAL (1942) with Henry Fonda and Olivia deHavilland; Danny’s Kaye’s debut UP IN ARMS (1944), and a long out-of-circulation adaptation of THE GREAT GATSBY (1949) starring Alan Ladd.

The movies in THE BING CROSBY COLLECTION are beautifully crafted vintage Hollywood entertainments, and Universal has even more Crosby Paramounts for a Volume Two if this set sells. It’s heartening to see the studio’s commitment to the Backlot Series; as always, a bonus is that these sets enable us to discover some worthy neglected directors.

KINO releases THE COMPLETE METROPOLIS on Blu-ray and DVD; Roger Ebert has called the restoration of Fritz Lang’s 1927 German sci-fi masterwork “the film event of the year,” and it is indeed a miraculous feat after seeing bad dupes for years, clean, crisp, with the original Gottfried Huppertz score performed by Berlin’s Rundfunk Orchestra and presented in 5.1 Stereo Surround sound. Twenty-five minutes of footage discovered two years ago at the Buenos Aires Museo del Cine have been incorporated into the film, extending scenes and adding sequences that flesh out the characters and add various backstories. The found footage represents one fifth of the entire film that had not been seen since the Berlin premiere in 1927, reconstructed by Anke Wilkening of the Murnau Stiftung (Murnau Foundation), which serves as caretaker for virtually all pre-1945 German films, and Martin Koerber, film department curator of the Deutsche Kinemateque. The restoration premiered last February at the Berlin Film Festival, and had its North American debut at the first-ever TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, to great critical and popular acclaim. It is truly an amazing and wonderful time for cinephiles when such an important and influential museum piece can be brought to stunning new life nine decades after its first release. Kino includes the documentary VOYAGE TO METROPOLIS about the making and restoration of the film, and an interview with Paula Felix-Didier, the Museo del Cine curator who found the lost footage.

DOUGLAS SIRK (1900-1987) directed 35 movies for the old Hollywood studio system, and like a handful of artists (Ford, Walsh, Wellman, Capra, McCarey, LaCava, Vidor, Milestone, Curtiz, Minnelli) was able to put a stylistic mark on each one. Best known for his striking 50s Universal melodramas (ALL I DESIRE, MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION, THERE’S ALWAYS TOMORROW, ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, WRITTEN ON THE WIND, IMITATION OF LIFE), Sirk lived to enjoy retrospective critical accolades for his body of work. TCM’s DOUGLAS SIRK: FILMMAKER COLLECTION gathers three of his lesser known works (1951’s THUNDER ON THE HILL, and the Rock Hudson vehicles TAZA, SON OF COCHISE from 1954 and the 1955 CAPTAIN LIGHTFOOT), along with one of his masterworks, THE TARNISHED ANGELS (1957). Claudette Colbert stars as a nun in the Gothic melodrama THUNDER ON THE HILL, fighting for the innocence of convicted murderess Ann Blyth. Sirk had a strong creative bond with Rock Hudson, making him Universal’s top star with MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION, directing him first in the Western as TAZA, SON OF COCHISE, and as a 19th Century Irish rebel in the terrific CAPTAIN LIGHTFOOT. The high point of their collaboration was Sirk’s adaptation of William Faulkner’s novel Pylon, about barnstorming pilots in the ‘20s. Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone (Rock’s co-stars in Sirk’s WRITTEN ON THE WIND) play a married couple in a Depression-era aerial flying circus at New Orleans’ Mardi Gras; Hudson a troubled reporter who falls for Malone. Faulkner deemed THE TARNISHED ANGELS the best film based on one of his books. Each film is introduced by Robert Osborne, accompanied by extensive original promotional materials.

SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT has aggressively launched SCREEN CLASSICS ON REQUEST, a program similar to the Warner Archive On Demand program, with more than 100 titles spanning 75 years of Columbia Pictures history. The first titles include Frank Borzage’s prescient anti-Fascist drama NO GREATER GLORY (1934), THE GUILT OF JANET AMES (1946) with Glenn Ford, THE JUGGLER (1953) with Kirk Douglas, STORM CENTER (1956) with Bette Davis, THE PUMPKIN EATER with Anne Bancroft and Peter Finch, GENGHIS KHAN (1965) with Omar Sharif and James Mason, Arthur Penn’s surreal drama MICKEY ONE starring Warren Beatty, THIEVES (1996) with Catherine Deneuve, a series of JUNGLE JIM adventures with Johnny Weissmuller, even episodes of HART TO HART. Two highlights of these first 100 titles are Joseph Newman’s noir classic 711 OCEAN DRIVE (1950) with Edmond O’Brien, featuring a tense climax atop Boulder Dam, and the colorful comedy-drama about modern gypsies in Los Angeles HOT BLOOD (1956), directed by Nicholas Ray in between his 50s classics REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE and BIGGER THAN LIFE. Starring Jane Russell and Cornel Wilde, it’s been something of a missing link in Ray’s canon, and worthy of a look. Columbia has done a wonderful job preserving its catalogue; to peruse all the available titles, head to www.Columbia-Classics.com.

TCM has been unveiling its seven-part mini-series documentary MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD, narrated by 2002 NBR Career Achievement Award winner Christopher Plummer. The series spans the invention of moving pictures, silent pioneers Edison, Porter and Griffith, through the birth of the studio system, the advent of sound, the Golden Age of the ‘30s and ‘40s to the changes of the 50s and 60s, in episodes entitled “Peepshow Pioneers (1889-1907),” “The Birth of Hollywood (1907-1920),” “The Dream Merchants (1920-1928),” “Brother, Can You Spare a Dream? (1929-1941),” “Warriors and Peacemakers (1941-1950),” “The Attack of the Small Screens (1950-1960),” and “Fade Out, Fade In (1960-1969).” Blessed with on-camera interviews with just about every important film historian (including Scott Eyman, Leonard Maltin, Robert Birchard, Richard Koszarski, Thomas Schatz, David Thomson, Marc Wanamaker, Aljean Harmetz, Charles Musser and NBR William K. Everson Film History Awardees Jeanine Basinger, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Osborne and Molly Haskell) and filmmakers Samuel Goldwyn Jr., Sidney Lumet, Richard Zanuck and Gore Vidal. Produced very much in the style of the Kevin Brownlow-David Gill HOLLYWOOD (1980) mini-series (tied up from exhibition for years due to clearance issues on clips), MOGULS & MOVIES is an excellent and entertaining introduction to Hollywood history for the uninitiated; hardcore cineastes won’t find much new information (the coverage of the first Hollywood, Fort Lee, New Jersey, being an exception) but it’s highly recommended for those who wish to expand their basic knowledge of our cinematic legacy.

HBO Entertainment offers all ten parts of the brilliant World War Two mini-series THE PACIFIC on DVD and Blu-ray, along with loads of extras. Winner of eight Emmys including Outstanding Mini-Series and Outstanding Special Visual Effects, from the executive producers of BAND OF BROTHERS (Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Gary Gooetzman) and JOHN ADAMS (Hanks, Goetzman), the series follows the real-life combat odyssey of three Marines (James Badge Dale, Joe Mazzello, Jon Seda) through the Pacific Theatre of war, from Guadalcanal. Peleliu, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and finally V-J Day. Directors Timothy Van Patten (three episodes), Jeremy Podeswa (three episodes) and David Nutter (two episodes) expertly balance emotion with the action, and the period production values are of course impeccable. The extras explore the war in the Pacific in detail with a series of featurettes including “Anatomy of the Pacific War,” profiles of the veterans who were interviewed for the series’ scripts, and a making-of documentary. The Blu-ray of THE PACIFIC includes these as well “THE PACIFIC Enhanced Viewing,” a 10-part, 10-hour picture-in-picture experience and “THE PACIFIC Field Guide,” an interactive study of the campaigns.

OLIVE FILMS continues its release of desirable catalogue titles with a diverse trio of movies. The NBR named Geraldine Page Best Actress and SUMMER AND SMOKE to the Top Ten Films of 1961 list. It’s one of the finest adaptations of a Tennessee Williams play (expanded from his one-act “Eccentricities of the Nightgale”). Passion, repression, lust -; the playwright’s preoccupations make for ripe drama, directed by Peter Glenville (BECKET, the 1964 NBR Best Film), with exceptional performances from Page, Laurence Harvey and Rita Moreno. Ronald Neame’s ESCAPE FROM ZAHRAIN (1962) casts an admirably restrained Yul Brynner as a political rebel in a fictitious Arab oil country as he eludes the fascist military with a motley crew of escapees -; young acolyte rebel Sal Mineo, American embezzler Jack Warden and psycho killer Anthony Caruso. The movie is one long chase, handled most effectively by Neame (TUNES OF GLORY, THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE). Joseph Strick’s TROPIC OF CANCER (1970) is a real curiosity, a disjointed but fascinating adaptation of what is probably an unadaptable book by Henry Miller, that benefits from Paris location work. Rip Torn stars in an endlessly interesting portrayal of the bar-hopping, bed-hopping author of personal erotica, with Ellen Burstyn as Miller’s wife, in her last film as Ellen McRae (birth name Edna Rae Gilooly). There’s a good deal of gratuitous nudity (including Burstyn) in the picture, which, with the explicit language, earned the movie an “X” rating. The story goes that Paramount production chief Robert Evans lost a bet with Miller; the payoff was to finance this movie!

The latest release from Image Entertainment’s Classic Artists series is JIMI HENDRIX: THE GUITAR HERO, narrated by ex-Guns N Roses Slash, a well done addition to the series. Concert and archival interviews with the guitar great are supplemented by new and revealing interviews with Stephen Stills, former Traffic guitarist Dave Mason, former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, The Animals’ Eric Burdon, The Jefferson Airplane’s Joey Covington, former Cream bandmates Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker, The Monkees’ Mickey Dolenz (incredibly, The Jimi Hendrix Experience actually opened for the Pre-Fab Four at some gigs) and especially younger brother Leon Hendrix. There have been many docs on Hendrix, but this one really presents a good deal of previously unheard reminiscences. There’s a 20-page full color booklet, extended interviews, Henry Diltz’ silent footage of The Monkees/Hendrix 1967 tour, and Jimi’s full performance of “Hey Joe” at The Marquee in London.

CLASSIC MOVIES ON BLU-RAY: Some recent Blu-ray releases from Warner Home Video highlight the joys of vintage favorites in this format. Cooper and Schoedsack’s KING KONG (1933), Frank Lloyd’s MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935), and the John Huston/Humphrey Bogart greats THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) and THE TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE (1948) make for sensational viewings of movies we’ve seen dozens of times, yet never looking as pristine or sounding as good. On Blu-ray, it’s probably as close to seeing them on opening day as we can get.

Seventy-seven years after it played around the clock in multiple Manhattan movie palaces in the depths of the Depression, KING KONG is still one of the adventure genre’s crowning achievements. From the prehistoric jungles of Skull Island to the concrete canyons of Manhattan, KING KONG delivers the goods to this day. Newly remastered, it’s never looked or sounded better. Visual Effects vets Ray Harryhausen and Ken Ralston provide an audio commentary that chronicles Willis O’Brien’s pioneering special effects, with archival interview excerpts from producer-director Merian C. Cooper and Fay Wray. The feature documentary I’M KING KONG! THE EXPLOITS OF MERIAN C. COOPER is a fascinating journey through the life of Kong’s creator, who, at various times in his life, was a soldier of fortune, Soviet POW, director of silent location epics GRASS (1925) and CHANG (1927), RKO production chief, World War Two Air Force Colonel, partner with John Ford in Argosy Pictures, and pioneer in Technicolor and Cinerama. The seven-part documentary RKO PRODUCTION 601: THE MAKING OF KONG, THE EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD; original test footage from CREATION, the aborted 1930 O’Brien dinosaur adventure, with commentary by Harryhausen; the reconstructed Lost Spider Pit Sequence; and the theatrical trailer are also included.

WHV celebrates the 75th anniversary of MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935 Best Picture Oscar and NBR Top Ten) with a gorgeous restoration from the recently discovered original camera negative. Clark Gable (sans trademark mustache) stars as Fletcher Christian in the true story of the revolt against tyrannical Captain Bligh, played by Charles Laughton with his usual relish, aboard H. M. S. Bounty, bound from England to Tahiti in 1789. The remakes (Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard, 1962 and THE BOUNTY, Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins, 1984) have many merits, but still can’t top the original. Special features include the 1935 featurette PITCAIRN ISLAND TODAY, revisiting the remote South Pacific island where the mutineers found sanctuary; an Academy Award newsreel; and theatrical trailers for the ’35 and ’62 versions. (Oscar sidenote: this is the only time in Academy history that three stars -; Gable, Laughton, Franchot Tone -- from the same film were nominated for Best Actor; Victor McLaglen took the prize that year for John Ford’s expressionistic drama THE INFORMER, the NBR’s pick for Best Film). There’s also a handsome 30-page booklet on the film, crammed with photos from the archives of FrankLloydFilms.com, an excellent tribute site run by the director’s grandson. MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY will also be available for permanent download and digital rental through ITunes, Amazon Video on Demand, PlayStation Store and Xbox LIVE Zune Video Marketplace.

Bogie gets the royal treatment on DVD with HUMPHREY BOGART: THE ESSENTIAL COLLECTION, a box set of 24 of the actor’s best (along with the TCM documentary THE BROTHERS WARNER and commentaries, vintage cartoons and shorts, newsreels, radio shows and blooper reels), and the aforementioned Blu-rays of FALCON and TREASURE. THE MALTESE FALCON, John Huston’s directorial debut, made Bogie a romantic leading man as private eye Sam Spade, and this classic is still great fun, graced with a cast including Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Mary Astor, Ward Bond, and, in an unbilled cameo as a corpse, the director’s father Walter Huston. Special features include commentary by Bogie biographer Eric Lax, the featurette THE MALTESE FALCON: ONE MAGNIFICENT BIRD, makeup tests, blooper reels, three radio adaptations (two with the original cast, one with Edward G. Robinson as Spade), and four shorts from 1941 (newsreel, musical short, two cartoons).

The 1948 Academy Award ceremony was a very good night for the Hustons. John won Oscars for writing and directing THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE and dad Walter took home the Best Supporting Actor prize as the grizzled old prospector who takes two greenhorns (Bogart and Tim Holt) on a quest for Mexican gold mines (the NBR named the picture to its Top Ten list, gave Walter Huston the Best Actor prize and John Best Screenplay). As well as being a rousing adventure story, TREASURE also boasts what is arguably Bogart’s best performance. This edition also includes Lax’ commentary, the featurette DISCOVERING TREASURE: THE STORY OF THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, a feature doc on Huston, outtakes, cartoons, comedy shorts, newsreel, trailers and a radio adaptation with the original cast.

The great joy of these Blu-rays of movies we have seen dozens of times lies in the dazzling improvement in sound and image, truly making us feel as if we’re seeing these great motion pictures for the first time.

Some more recent classics are also new on Blu-ray. THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) Limited Edition 35th Anniversary set is spectacular, a must for Rocky fans, with 20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment offering both the U.S. and U. K. versions of the rock ‘n roll sci-fi horror spoof starring Tim Curry as Dr. Frank N. Furter, Susan Sarandon as Janet, Barry Bostwick as Brad, and co-writer/music composer and lyricist Richard O’Brien as Riff. Director Jim Sharman’s visuals are amazing, restored from the original camera negatives, and there are a slew of new specials including a vintage callback track and a “Rocky-oke” karaoke, along with extras from the previous release (O’Brien, commentary, deleted musical sequences and outtakes, alternate opening and ending, coverage of a ROCKY midnight show, and the music video for “Time Warp.”

The NBR Best Film of 2001, Baz Luhrmann’s MOULIN ROUGE!, was made for the splendor of Blu-ray, especially in the new 20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment release of the remastered film approved by the director. Luhrmann’s re-imagining of the 19th Century French music hall with contemporary music simply sparkles on Blu-ray. There are new interviews as well as footage from the previously released DVD (like Nicole Kidman’s first vocal test).

Genre fans will also be interested in Blu-rays of George Miller’s iconic apocalyptic actioner MAD MAX (1979), which also includes the DVD, commentaries and featurettes; the futuristic cop thrillers of ROBOCOP TRILOGY, directed, in order, by Paul Verhoeven, Irvin Kershner and Fred Dekker; and the truly staggering ALIEN ANTHOLOGY featuring all four ALIEN films -; Ridley Scott’s ALIEN (1979), James Cameron’s ALIENS (1986), David Fincher’s ALIEN 3 (1992), and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s ALIEN: RESURRECTION (1997) -; and endless special features ranging from screenplays to storyboards to visual effects, deleted scenes, commentaries; in short, all things ALIEN. It’s the ultimate gift set for any self-respecting sci-fi fan. MAD MAX, ROBOCOP TRILOGY and ALIEN ANTHOLOGY are all available from 20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment.

SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (2010) opened earlier this year to disappointing business and critical acclaim, but has rapidly become a bona fide cult film, with strong international support and a huge pre-order on DVDs and Blu-Rays. Bryan Lee O’Malley’s hugely popular graphic novel series is faithfully brought to cinematic life by one of the most inventive filmmakers working today, Edgar Wright (HOT FUZZ, SHAUN OF THE DEAD, and the British TV series SPACED). Michael Cera is perfectly cast as the struggling musician with the hyper-drive imagination, falling for Mary Elizabeth Winstead and battling her seven ex-boyfriends who happen to have superpowers. Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Alison Pill, Aubrey Plaza, Brandon Routh and Ellen Wong head the ensemble cast, with Jason Schwartzman doing his usually brilliant work. The dozens of bonus features include alternate and deleted scenes, commentaries, featurettes about the lengthy pre-production, the music, Wright’s blogs from the set, a digital download of the movie, and new “Pocket Blu” apps for IPad, ,IPhone, Blackberry, Androids, PCs, Mac, etc. Original, smart, funny, kinetic, visually sumptuous, SCOTT PILGRIM furthers Wright’s reputation as a genre genius, making this movie the first superhero action comedy fantasy rock ‘n roll musical … and completely fun!

John Gallagher

jgmovie@gmail.com