Official Film Noir on Blu-ray Thread

[MifuneFan]

A Blu-ray release of Le Samourai is coming out in Japan on May 27th. . No word on whether their source is different from the one in France. Also, sadly no English subs on it. I love the classy cover

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Le-Sa...lu-ray/152366/

[spanky87]

I was going to watch Detour on Hulu since it expires after today, but the quality looks like a very bad VHS.

Anyone know if any of the DVD releases look any better?

[John_Drake]

I believe the Image release wins by a nose.

[noirjunkie]

Originally Posted by John_Drake

I believe the Image release wins by a nose.

The Image release definitely has the best clarity and contrast. I'm hoping that someone will eventually step up and put it on blu.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by John_Drake

I believe the Image release wins by a nose.

Originally Posted by noirjunkie

The Image release definitely has the best clarity and contrast. I'm hoping that someone will eventually step up and put it on blu.

The Image was a Wade Williams release, which are always solid (well, I haven't seen all of the WW titles, but every one I have has been aces).

[MifuneFan]

Great news from Cinelicious Pics

Originally Posted by spiffnme

FINALLY I can tell you about our next release!

The 4K restoration will have its world premiere at the 7th Annual TCM Classic Film Festival, which runs from April 28 through May 1 in Hollywood.

Cinelicious Pics has announced that it will re-release in theaters and on VOD and Blu-ray this Summer its new 4Kdigital restoration of director Leslie Stevens' long-missing 1960 thriller PRIVATE PROPERTY, starring iconic American character actor Warren Oates (TWO-LANE BLACKTOP, THE WILD BUNCH) in his first significant screen role. A major rediscovery for noir and crime fans, PRIVATE PROPERTY has long been considered a lost feature until UCLA Film & Television Archive recently located and preserved the only known film elements.

Director Stevens, who died in 1998, was a protégé of Orson Welles, and went on to create the classic sci-fi series "THE OUTER LIMITS" (1963 - 65), and direct the wonderfully-weird supernatural feature INCUBUS (1966) starring William Shatner. PRIVATE PROPERTY was Stevens' first feature as director.The 4K restoration will have its world premiere at the 7th Annual TCM Classic Film Festival, which runs from April 28 through May 1 in Hollywood.


Following a very brief release in the early 1960s, the film had essentially vanished -- until now. Three years ago David Marriott, now Cinelicious Pics' Director of Acquisitions, sat in on an early screening of UCLA Archive's initial preservation of PRIVATE PROPERTY (which, once completed, would go on to premiere at the UCLA Festival of Preservation in March of 2015).

"I was completely bowled over by the film," Marriott recalls. "A sort of hothouse late-period film noir, PRIVATE PROPERTY is deeply bizarre and incredibly compelling. Considering the talent involved - director Stevens, cameraman Ted McCord, actor Warren Oates - it's very rare to rediscover a completely lost crime film like this."

"We're thrilled to be showcasing a discovery of this caliber at the TCM Classic Film Festival," said Charles Tabesh, senior vice president of programming for Turner Classic Movies (TCM) "Our mission at TCM is to bring audiences great classic films and to help them discover unknown classics, such as Private Property."

PRIVATE PROPERTY begins as two homicidal Southern California drifters (played to creepy perfection by Warren Oates and Corey Allen) wander off the beach and into the seemingly-perfect Beverly Hills home of an unhappy housewife (played by Leslie Stevens' real-life spouse, Kate Manx). Shimmering with sexual tension and lensed in stunning B&W by master cameraman Ted McCord (THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, EAST OF EDEN), PRIVATE PROPERTY is both an eerie, neo-Hitchcockian thriller and a savage critique of the hollowness of the Playboy-era American Dream.
Warren Oates delivers his first great screen performance here as one of the murderous vagabonds, years before he emerged as one of the finest character actors of his generation; his bizarre, voyeuristic Lennie-and-George relationship with the underrated Corey Allen (James Dean's hot rod rival in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE) is fueled by a barely-suppressed homoeroticism. Shot almost entirely in the Beverly Hills home where director Stevens and lead actress Manx lived at the time, PRIVATE PROPERTY has a deeply unnerving autobiographical feel to it. (Manx tragically committed suicide several years after the film opened.)

"In considering titles for Cinelicious Pics' first round of restorations and re-releases, PRIVATE PROPERTY immediately leapt to mind as a film crying out for restoration and re-release theatrically and on Blu-ray and VOD," commented Paul Korver, Cinelicious Pics' Founder. "Working with our colleagues at UCLA Film & Television Archive and utilizing the talents of our parent company, Cinelicious, we'll be re-releasing the film using the best possible elements."

[Professor Echo]

Director Stevens, who died in 1998, was a protégé of Orson Welles, and went on to create the classic sci-fi series "THE OUTER LIMITS" (1963 - 65), and direct the wonderfully-weird supernatural feature INCUBUS (1966) starring William Shatner. PRIVATE PROPERTY was Stevens' first feature as director.

Stevens did some marvelous work for television and was a very talented writer/producer/director. He was also a wonderfully eccentric guy and nice person, according to my girlfriend, who was his gym workout partner at Lorimar Studios before first WB and then Sony took them over. I've been a fan of his work for a long time, so PRIVATE PROPERTY is a bit of a grail for me.

[Vlad Draculi]

I haven't seen The Naked City, but it is my list of 50 noirs, so I'm going to assume it is a Noir.

[gates70]

Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema is only $50 on Amazon.ca for those interested. That's cheap for us Canadians for 5 Kino movies. I've personally never seen any of them so I'm thinking of a blind buy.

[Jobla]

PRIVATE PROPERTY (1960) has been a holy grail for me since 1960, as I mentioned in a couple of other threads. Like INCUBUS, I never expected to be able to actually buy it on home video, so this is truly great news.

PRIVATE PROPERTY looks to be an early example of a "roughie," far ahead of its time in American cinema. I'm sure that Something Weird Video would have loved to release this film, but it even exceeded their grasp.

[silverlakephil]

I didn't realize there was a Blu-ray release of Fritz Lang's The Woman in The Window until I read the review on DVDBeaver. However, the PQ is no better then the DVD. Probably another cheap Spanish bootleg? How can they get away with this worthless release?

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film5/blu-r...ow_blu-ray.htm

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by silverlakephil

I didn't realize there was a Blu-ray release of Fritz Lang's The Woman in The Window until I read the review on DVDBeaver. However, the PQ is no better then the DVD. Probably another cheap Spanish bootleg? How can they get away with this worthless release?

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film5/blu-r...ow_blu-ray.htm

Ugh yeah that's terrible. Considering it's really just an SD transfer blown up, I'm not sure I should even add it. I do hope we get a proper release one day

[DistrictOfMisery]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Ugh yeah that's terrible. Considering it's really just an SD transfer blown up, I'm not sure I should even add it. I do hope we get a proper release one day

I hope so as well, this film had some of the most outstanding and moody cinematography I have ever seen.

[MifuneFan]

The 4K-restored release of The Third Man is down to £9.99 at Amazon UK, which is about $17 shipped. It's region free.


https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-T...Blu-ray/130991

[silverlakephil]

Originally Posted by silverlakephil

I didn't realize there was a Blu-ray release of Fritz Lang's The Woman in The Window until I read the review on DVDBeaver. However, the PQ is no better then the DVD. Probably another cheap Spanish bootleg? How can they get away with this worthless release?

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film5/blu-r...ow_blu-ray.htm

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Ugh yeah that's terrible. Considering it's really just an SD transfer blown up, I'm not sure I should even add it. I do hope we get a proper release one day

Yeah, don't include it. Somebody might make the mistake of purchasing it.

[Arkadin]

or maybe come up with some specific mark to place besides particularly poor releases.

[The Great Owl]

This morning, I pre-ordered the Film Detective Blu-ray (BD-R) of The Red House. Given this label's track record for their BD-Rs so far, I'm expecting a big improvement over the Film Chest Blu-ray.

It's such a great film, as well. A cool coming-of-age flick of sorts combined with noir.

[silverlakephil]

Last night, I attended a screening of Naked Alibi/Suddenly (1954) at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood which is currently having a Sterling Hayden retrospective. Naked Alibi was shown in a restored 35mm print and it looked pretty good. The movie itself was ok, but its stars, Sterling Hayden and Gloria Grahame were in better Noirs IMO previously, The Asphalt Jungle and The Big Heat respectively.

[docc]

Originally Posted by gates70

Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema is only $50 on Amazon.ca for those interested. That's cheap for us Canadians for 5 Kino movies. I've personally never seen any of them so I'm thinking of a blind buy.

The price is right given that to buy separately here would cost us over $125 easily. Haven't seen Bullet For Joey or Storm Fear but the other three are top notch entertainment so this is for me a no brainer.

[noirjunkie]

Some bad news today from the Film Noir Foundation's March newsletter:

"In other news, Olive Films will release a Blu-ray edition of Try and Get Me! (1951) on April 19—but, just so everyone knows (and we've been asked a lot!) this Olive release is not produced from the FNF's 2012 restoration and contains no special features."

This is both puzzling and frustrating.