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Posted: |
Jul 12, 2016 - 6:36 PM
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By: |
johnjohnson
(Member)
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Independent U.S. distributors Olive Films have announced that they will release on Blu-ray new 4K restorations of two classic films: Fred Zinnemann's High Noon (1952), starring Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Lon Chaney Jr., Lloyd Bridges, and Katy Jurado, and Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar (1954), starring Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Scott Brady, Mercedes McCambridge, and Ward Bond.
The upcoming Blu-ray releases will be part of the distributors' new line, Olive Signature.
High Noon
The myth and poetry of the old west come alivein Fred Zinnemann's (Julia) classic western, High Noon (1952). One of the great treasures of the American cinema, the film stars the legendary Gary Cooper as lawman Will Kane, a marshal who stands alone to defend a town of cowardly citizens against a gangof killers out for revenge. Engaged in the fight of his lifetime, Kane stands to lose everything when the clock strikes noon– his friends, his honor, and his Quaker bride, played by Grace Kelly inoneof her first screen roles. Unfolding in real time, the tension builds aswe race ever closer to the climactic duel from which the film takes its name. For his career-defining role, Cooper would goonto win the Oscar for Best Actor. High Noon's stellar cast also includes Lloyd Bridges (Try and Get Me), Thomas Mitchell (It's a Wonderful Life), Katy Jurado (Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid),Otto Kruger (Saboteur),Lon Chaney (The Wolf Man), Henry Morgan (Strategic Air Command), Jack Elam (Hannie Caulder) and Lee Van Clef (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly).
High Noon won a total four Academy Awards including Best Editing, Best Score (Dimitri Tiomkin, The Old Man and the Sea) and Best Song,"Do Not Forsake Me, OhMy Darlin'," written by Tiomkin and Ned Washington and sung by Tex Ritter. High Noon also received Oscar nominations for Best Picture (Stanley Kramer, producer), Best Director (Fred Zinnemann) and Best Screenplay (Carl Foreman).
Special Features and Specs:
NEW 4K restoration
Optional English SDH subtitles
"A Ticking Clock" - Academy Award nominee Mark Goldblatt on the editing of High Noon
"A Stanley Kramer Production"" - Michael Schlesinger on the eminent producer of High Noon
"Imitation of Life: The Blacklist History of High Noon" - with historian Larry Ceplair and blacklisted screenwriter Walter Bernstein
"Ulcers and Oscars: The Production History of High Noon" - a visual essay with rarely seen archival elements, narrated by Anton Yelchin
"Uncitizened Kane" - an original essay by Sight & Sound editor Nick James
Theatrical trailer
STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 20.
Johnny Guitar
Johnny Guitar stars Oscar winner Joan Crawford (Best Actress, Mildred Pierce) as Vienna, a saloon owner with a sordid past. Persecuted by the townspeople, Vienna must protect her life and property when a lynch mob led by her sexually repressed rival, Emma Small (Oscar winner Mercedes McCambridge, Best Actress, All the King's Men), attempts to frame her for a string of robberies she did not commit. Enter Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb), a guitar-strumming ex-gunfighter, who once was —and perhaps still is—in love with Vienna. With the leads at their operatic best, the table is now set for an epic showdown in this one-of-a-kind western from director Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without a Cause).
A bizarrely veiled allegory for the McCarthy-era Red Scare, Johnny Guitar was misunderstood upon its initial release. One of the most original takes on the western genre — the women are far tougher than the men —Johnny Guitar is praised by fans, filmmakers, and critics alike as groundbreaking.
Boasting superb supporting performances, Johnny Guitar features Ernest Borgnine (Marty), Scott Brady (The China Syndrome), Ward Bond (The Searchers), Paul Fix (To Kill a Mockingbird),Royal Dano (The Outlaw Josey Wales) and John Carradine (Stagecoach). Notably, Johnny Guitar's indelible title song was a collaboration between the Academy Award-winning composer Victor Young (Around the World in Eighty Days), and co-writer and songstress Peggy Lee.
Special Features and Specs:
NEW 4K restoration
Optional English SDH subtitles
Video Introduction by acclaimed director Martin Scorsese
Audio commentary with historian and critic Geoff Andrew
"Tell Us She Was One of You: The Blacklist History of Johnny Guitar" - with historian Larry Ceplair and blacklisted screenwriter Walter Bernstein
"Is Johnny Guitar a Feminist Western?: Questioning the Canon" - with critics Miriam Bale, Kent Jones, Joe McElhaney andB. Ruby Rich
"Free Republic: The Story of Herb Yates and Republic studios" - with archivist Marc Wanamaker
A critical appreciation of Nicholas Ray with critics Miriam Bale, Kent Jones, Joe McElhaney and B. Ruby Rich
"My Friend, the American Friend" - Nicholas Ray biographical piece with Tom Farrell
"Johnny Guitar: The First Existential Western" - an original essay by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum
Theatrical trailer
STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 20.
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=19386
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I LOVE both of these films! High Noon, is easily recognized as a great, classic western.
And then there is Johnny Guitar.
HOW can you describe this amazing mess of a movie? I think it is the most over-the-top hilarious western that I've ever seen!
Seriously! I recommend that everybody should see Johnny Guitar for the many unintentional laughs you will get from it!
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Posted: |
Jul 12, 2016 - 11:58 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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A new transfer of HIGH NOON will be welcomed by those who thought the previous Olive Blu-ray to be deficient in picture quality, and a missed opportunity., Well, at least Olive didn't miss the opportunity to get people to buy the title again. As a further enticement, the new release also contains all-new extras, not included on the earlier Blu-ray or DVD releases.
JOHNNY GUITAR is another title that was widely criticized on its first Olive Blu-ray iteration. The Eastman negative no longer exists, so the most recent incarnations of the film have been inexpertly struck from separation masters. We'll see if the new release changes this. There's also the question of the film's aspect ratio. It is supposed to be 1.66:1, but all prior video releases have been at 1.33:1. We'll also see if the new release changes that. As for special features, the earlier Blu-ray had only the 3-minute Martin Scorsese introduction to the film. So the new release will provide added value there.
The pricing for these editions put them at the standard $40 Criterion level. The special features seem to promise Criterion-level background information. The question is whether the picture and sound quality will match Criterion. If they do, Olive could gain a whole new level of respect.
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