British distributors Eureka Entertainment have revealed that they are planning to add a number of exciting titles to their impressive Blu-ray catalog. Amongst them are John Cassavetes's
Too Late Blues (1961), Billy Wilder's
Ace in the Hole (1951), Richard Fleischer's
Violent Saturday (1955), Lindsay Anderson's
If.... (1968), and Kim Mordaunt's
The Rocket (2013).
Too Late Blues
Too Late Blues was the second feature film directed by legendary director John Cassavetes (
A Woman Under the Influence). After his pioneering independent film Shadows, Cassavetes made his major studio directorial debut with this gritty drama about jazz musicians. Music legend (Bobby Darin) plays a bandleader who scuffles from gig to gig with his band, trying to keep body and soul together without betraying his muse. Sex symbol Stella Stevens (
The Nutty Professor) plays a would-be singer with a dark past who meets Darin at a party and joins his band. The two fall deeply in love, but their world comes crumbling down after Darin and his band are involved in a bar fight and Darin is overcome by fear and is unable to fight back… the humiliation causes him to reject her and his band mates. The stellar cast includes Vince Edward (TV's Ben Casey) and Cassavetes regular Seymour Cassel (Minnie and Moskowitz). Street date: June 30th.
Harold And Maude
Hal Ashby's cult black-comedy. Harold (Bud Cort) is a death-obsessed teenager who hangs around in cemeteries and drives a hearse. When he attends a funeral and meets his polar opposite Maude (Ruth Gordon), a life-loving 79-year-old, a strange love affair ensues. However, the offbeat nature of their pairing, and their defiance of social convention, causes upset all around. With music by Cat Stevens. Street date: June 23rd.
The Rocket
Selected to represent Australia in the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 86th Academy Awards. A ten year old boy, Ahlo, who is believed to bring bad luck, is blamed for a string of disasters. When his family loses their home and are forced to move, Ahlo meets the spirited orphan Kia and her eccentric uncle Purple: an ex-soldier with a purple suit, a rice-wine habit and a fetish for James Brown. Struggling to hang on to his father's trust, Ahlo leads his family, Purple and Kia through a land scarred by war in search of a new home. In a last plea to try and prove he's not cursed, Ahlo builds a giant explosive rocket to enter the most lucrative but dangerous competition of the year: the Rocket Festival. As the most bombed country in the world shoots back at the sky, a boy will reach to the heavens for forgiveness. Street date June 2.
Violent Saturday
Three men decide to rob a bank in a small town. But things go terribly wrong and they trigger a series of crises. Street date: April 3rd. Starring Victor Mature, Richard Egan, and Stephen McNally. Street date: May 19th.
Boomerang!
Director Eli Kazan won critical acclaim for this vividly portrayed, suspense full 1947 true crime drama set in Connecticut, where the events actually happened. When a beloved priest is gunned down, the local police chief (Lee J. Cobb) is under enormous pressure to find his murder, and, base only on vague descriptions, he undertakes a massive manhunt, eventually arriving at both suspects (Arthur Andrews) and a confession. But the state's attorney (Dana Andrews) is determined to convict only if it's right to do so. Also starring Jane Wyatt, Cara Williams, Sam Levene, Ed Begley and Karl Malden, Boomerang is gripping noir entertainment from start to finish. Street date: May 19th.
Ace in the Hole
One of the most scathing indictments of American culture ever produced by a Hollywood filmmaker, Academy Award-winner Billy Wilder's
Ace In The Hole is legendary for both its cutting social critique and its status as a hard-to-find cult classic. Kirk Douglas gives the fiercest performance of his career as Chuck Tatum, an amoral newspaper reporter caught in dead-end Albuquerque who happens upon the story of a lifetime-and will do anything to ensure he gets the scoop. Wilder's follow-up to
Sunset Boulevard is an even darker vision, a no-holds-barred expose that anticipated the rise of the American media circus. Street date: April 28th.
If....
Allegorical drama from director Lindsay Anderson in which a group of non-conformist students lead a revolt against their oppressive masters at an English private school. Parallels are drawn in the film between the bullying, inflexible and snobbish approach of the schoolmasters to their pupils, led by the rebellious Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell), and the dysfunction and injustice of the British class system at large. As Mick and his gang of cohorts indulge in acts of petty disobedience, such as heading into town to try and seduce a local waitress, the school's acts of retribution, led by Rowntree (Robert Swann), become increasingly cruel and malicious. Finally, the students are provoked into open rebellion, the bloody nature of which shocked a number of commentators at the time and led to claims that the film aimed to provoke a violent uprising in society as a whole. Street date: April 21.
The War Lord
Medieval drama starring Charlton Heston. While rebuilding a castle tower on the coast of Normandy in order to strengthen the authority of his master the duke, the knight Chrysagon (Heston) falls for a local woman, Bronwyn (Rosemary Forsyth). Although she is about to be wed, Chrysagon exercises the ancient rite of 'le droit du seigneur' in order to claim the bride on her wedding night, thus sparking a local war, and the hatred of his jealous brother, Draco (Guy Stockwell). Street date: April 14th.
Nashville
Robert Altman's Nashville is an explosive drama and a human comedy that delineates and interweaves the lives of 24 major characters during five days in the country music capital of the world. Although its setting is Tennessee, Nashville is a much broader vision of our culture, a penetrating and multi-level portrait of America at a particular time and place. Five Academy Award nominations including Keith Carradine's Oscar-winning song "I'm Easy." Street date: May 26th.
Note: On April 14th, Eureka Entertainment will also release on DVD
The Brittas Empire: Complete Series 1-7.