British distributors Eureka Entertainment have confirmed that they will add three new titles to their Blu-ray catalog in November: John Ford's The Quiet Man (1952), George Stevens' Shane (1953), and Byron Haskin's Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964).
A futuristic retelling of Daniel Defoe's classic story, Robinson Crusoe on Mars has gained a beloved cult reputation ever since its debut in the years leading up to the space race. As a mingling of speculative science-fiction with an extraordinary visual design, it proved to have a significant influence on fantasy filmmaking on both the big and small screen.
Paul Mantee plays American astronaut Kit Draper, stranded (with his pet monkey in tow) on the Red Planet after an emergency crash landing. Now he must find ways to adapt and survive, physically and emotionally, in the alien landscape - but he may not be as alone as he thought...
Shot in magnificent Techniscope, Robinson Crusoe on Mars is a landmark for fans of genre cinema, and remains a uniquely charming and thrilling adventure, filled with contemplative humanity and wild imagination.
Special Features:
Gorgeous 1080p presentation of the film on Blu-ray
Original theatrical trailer
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
24-page booklet featuring an essay on the film, rare archival imagery, and MORE!
One of the landmark and most enduring Westerns of the 1950s, George Stevens' Shane struck a chord with audiences at the time of its release, and continues to influence admirers today, even as it served as a template for the series of groundbreaking spaghetti-westerns of Sergio Leone.
Alan Ladd plays the titular gunslinger, the archetypal ''man alone'' who wanders into town and shortly afterward becomes embroiled in a conflict between a group of Wyoming homesteaders and the nefarious cattle baron who has designs to wrest away their land. As the conflict escalates, and a romance develops between Shane and homesteader Marian Starrett (Jean Arthur in her last screen role before an early retirement from motion pictures), a who's-who of studio system character talent revolves through the production - Van Heflin, Jack Palance, Elisha Cook, Jr. - before the proverbial ride into the sunset...
Writing in The New York Times in 2001, Woody Allen said: ''Shane, I think, is [Stevens'] masterpiece. I've seen it many, many times. Certainly more than 20.''
Special Features:
Gorgeous 1080p presentation of the film on Blu-ray
Full length audio-commentary by George Stevens, Jr. and Ivan Moffat
Original theatrical trailer
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
24-page booklet containing writing on the film, archival imagery, and MORE!
An exemplary entry in the filmography of master director John Ford, The Quiet Man contains all the aspects that mark Ford s work: a poetic, deeply felt sentiment for an unregainable past, for tradition and ceremony, for the country of Ireland and its emigrant bloodlines, for the camaraderie within community, and for the profound yet mutable bond of the marital union. Within a seven-decade career filled with high points, The Quiet Man represents one of Ford's highest, and from his richest period.
Set in the 1920s, The Quiet Man stars John Wayne as Sean Thornton, an Irish-born American who has travelled to his birthplace of Innisfree to lay claim to his family farm. Although warmly embraced by the denizens of the village, Thornton s outsider status is thrown into relief when the abrasive landowner Squire Will Danahan (Victor McLaglen) objects both to the turnover of the land, and to the handing over of his sister Mary Kate s (Maureen O Hara) dowry to the man whose community stature now threatens to show up his own. What follows is a confrontation with custom and with the personal past, all before an unforgettable extended brawl sprawling the entire very countryside whereupon nothing less hinges than the peace of Innisfree itself.
Winton Hoch s astonishing Technicolor cinematography (for which he won an Academy Award) has cemented the images of The Quiet Man within the minds and hearts of viewers across the decades. This is a film that, with its epic, yet intimate, canvas and its near-Shakespearean sense of character only grows in power over time and the more times it is seen. It is an ideal entry-point into Ford s massive body of work, and a summation of his art; as a result, Ford was awarded the 1952 Oscar for Best Director.
Special Features:
Gorgeous 1080p restoration of the film on Blu-ray, years in the making
New and exclusive video essay on the film by Ford expert and scholar Tag Gallagher
The Making of THE QUIET MAN documentary
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
36-page booklet featuring the words of Ford, writing on the film, rare archival imagery, and MORE!