Join the Sixties generation DVD

Warner Archive Collection New Releases August 27: Monsterpiece Theater NOTE: These DVDs are Manufactured on Demand (MOD); to order, fans must visit The Warner Archive Collection (www.WarnerArchive.com or www.wbshop.com) The Paramount of Macabre TARGETS (1968) Peter Bogdanovich makes his directorial debut (thanks to some help from B-Movie maestro Roger Corman) and hits the ground stunning in this masterwork meditation on the nature of horror and entertainment in the ante-celluloid age. Boris Karloff, in a true career-capping performance, plays an aging horror star eager to escape into retirement but gets caught up in the undertow of repertory revival. Tim O'Kelly plays an insurance agent whose mind harbors America's true horror - and violently cracks under the strain. Their two paths collide at a drive-in for a climax that cements Targets as a master thesis thatšs unites art house and grind house that is both reflective and prescient. Shot by the equally esteemed László Kovács. 16x9 Widescreen   FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL (1971) Terence Fisher makes his directorial denouement in the final Peter Cushing Hammer Frankenstein flick. This installment finds the mad doctor pretending to be a mad doctor in a madhouse thanks to some skeletons in the asylum director's closet. Thanks to some ill-advised bodysnatching, a young protégé for the Baron (Shane Briant) arrives as an inmate and becomes the perfect apprentice from hell. The two set about restoring a monsterwork (David Prowse) of the doctor's, but the creature proves beyond the pair's control. 16x9 Widescreen   LADY IN A CAGE (1964) Golden-age great Olivia De Haviland takes a spin in Grand Dame Guignol and delivers an altogether different - and masterful - kind of chiller. Thanks to an electrical failure, a temporarily invalided rich widow (de Haviland) finds herself trapped in her home elevator. Hovering nine feet above the floor, she's suspended between two worlds - her life of cloistered privilege and the nightmare world of the have-nots outside after her home is subject to a series of invasions. Trapped without a Virgil to guide her out of hell, she is subject to torment and bears witness to depravity before her psyche pushes her to make a stand. James Caan plays the tormenter-in-chief in his first major film role, while Jeff Corey and Ann Sothern play the derelicts who usher in the blood-dimmed tide. Directed by Walter Grauman. 16x9 Widescreen   LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH (1971) HP Lovecraft, 20th Century Providential heir to the legacy of Poe, would have whole-heartedly approved off this modest haunter from the early seventies that has risen from the grave of neglect to be embraced as a true cult classic. Leaving the horror mostly unseen, whispered, or suggested, writer-director John Hancock enlists our own feverish imaginings into the mix, creating a truly haunted piece of unsettling cinema. Recent asylum inmate Jessica (Zohra Lampert) is spirited away from the big city to the wild woods of a small Connecticut island (Christmas in Connecticut this ain't!) following her release by her cellist spouse. But this island proves as shadowy as Innsmouth when Jessica finds herself stranded between madness and murder. 16x9 Widescreen   Motion Picture Masterpieces - Back in Print! HALLELUJAH (1929) King Vidor used his well-earned cinema influence to create this milestone that is simultaneously a significant cultural and technological achievement. The first major feature film to star an all African-American cast, Vidor also shot AND recorded sound on location, a feat of audio wizardry made all the more marvelous thanks to the film's musical nature. Hallelujah also affords us the opportunity to see the great (and mostly stage bound) Nina Mae McKinney strut her considerable stuff. The film follows the fortunes of Zeke (Daniel L. Haynes), a poor cotton farmer that succumbs to the temptations of Chick (McKinney), a mercenary honky-tonk girl, who finds salvation in religion, only to fall into sin again... But it might not be Zeke's soul that is at stake. Special Features include a commentary by Black Cultural Scholars, Donald Bogle and Avery Clayton and two musical shorts featuring the Nicholas Brothers and Nina Mae McKinney.   DAVID COPPERFIELD (1935) David O. Selznick oversaw this George Cukor adaptation of the beloved Dickens' classic, and produced a film as timeless as its source. Graced with an extraordinary cast united in proving that there are indeed "no small parts," David Copperfield also brought child prodigy Freddy Bartholomew before the world's screens for the first time. Thanks to a recommendation from Charles Laughton, W.C. Fields dons the shabby dress-spats of Mr. Micawber and demonstrates his ample gifts for the dramatic - along the occasional pratfall. Also stars Edna May Oliver, Basil Rathbone, Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan, Elsa Lanchester, Una O'Connor and Roland Young. Special Features include two Technicolor musical shorts, a classic cartoon and an audio only Leo is on the Air radio promo.   MARIE ANTOINETTE (1938) Originally slated to be produced by her wunderkind spouse Irving Thalberg, Norma Shearer turned the production into a bittersweet triumph following his untimely demise, delivering one of the greatest performances in a career studded with greatness. The film's sympathetic take on the fall of the House of Bourbon is sweetened thanks to the sensitive portrayals found in the superb supporting cast with a young Robert Morley's Louie XVI leading the way. Directed by W.S. Van Dyke and also starring Tyrone Power, John Barrymore, Anita Louise, and Henry Daniell. Special Features include two vintage shorts.   HIS MAJESTY, O'KEEFE (1954) Burt Lancaster plays the swashbuckling merchant king O'Keefe in this adaptation of the book based on his real-life feats. Marooned on the South Sea Island of Yap after a mutiny, Captain O'Keefe eyes the copious amounts of cocoanut at hand and foresees a fortune in the copra (cocoanut oil) trade. Journeying to civilization and back, O'Keefe achieves an empire by heeding the non-Westerners around him and defying the empires intent on exploitation. But the throne might cost him his soul... A sweeping epic with romance, sea battles, land wars and more drama than you can shake a palm at, all ably stitched together thanks to an iconic, yet modern, star turn from Lancaster. Also stars Andre Morell and Joan Rice, shot on location by Byron Haskin. Special Features include a "Make it a Warner Night at the Movies" collection with a Joe McDoakes comedy short and cartoon both from 1954! 16x9 Widescreen   Independent Voices 1 MILE ABOVE (2011) Inspired by an astounding true underdog tale, 1 Mile Above depicts a young man's cycling journey to the highest point in Tibet. Shuhao (Bryan Chang) is a twenty-four-year-old Taiwanese university graduate whose older brother Shuwei dies unexpectedly on a bicycle trek to Lhasa. Now, Shuhao decides to fulfill his brother's final wish and sets out to complete the journey himself taking him to the highest points in Tibet. Unfortunately, Shuhao is a most inexperienced biker... A thrilling and compelling true story of adventure, endurance and redemption. 16x9 Widescreen   INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS (2000) Just prior to World War II, an extraordinary rescue operation aided the youngest victims of Nazi terror. Ten thousand Jewish and other children were transported from German-held lands to foster homes and hostels in Great Britain. Some built new family ties. Some endured the Blitz. Some, amazingly, found ways to liberate their own parents from Hitler's tyranny. And all have unforgettable stories to tell. From award-winning filmmaker Mark Jonathan Harris and producer Deborah Oppenheimer (whose mother was one of the 10,000 children), comes this superb, documentary filled with rare archival footage and featuring gripping remembrances by the child survivors, rescuers and parents of the heroic Kindertransport. Judy Dench narrates. Special Features include two feature-length audio commentaries, bonus interviews and more. 16x9 Widescreen | Contents/Site Map | Home | Resources | Reviews | Links | E-mail: mail@onvideo.org © 1996 -- 2013 OnVideo. All rights reserved