Radiance Films Announces July Releases
HomeRadiance Films Announces July Releases
Posted April 5, 2023 05:20 PM by Webmaster
Radiance Flms has announced its July batch of Blu-ray releases. They are: The Iron Prefect (1977), Thieves Like Us (1974), O.C. and Stiggs (1985), Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995), and Big Time Gambling Boss (1968).
The Iron Prefect
Description: Based on the true story of the Iron Prefect, Cesare Mori, who was sent to Sicily for an Eliot Ness-in-The Untouchables style clean up of the mafia. Mori approaches organised crime on the island with uncompromising force even in the face of mass murders designed to scare him off. Pasquale Squitieri (The Climber) directs this stunning period piece which won the David di Donatello award for best film and features spaghetti western icon Giuliano Gemma brilliantly playing against type as the titular hero, winning him an award for his performance at the prestigious Karlovy Vary Film Festival. Alongside Gemma are the cream of international film from the period with co-stars Claudia Cardinale (The Day of the Owl) and Francisco Rabal (Sorcerer), the key surveyor of Italy's civic cinema screenwriter Ugo Pirro (The Working Class Goes to Heaven) and legendary composer Ennio Morricone (Once Upon a Time in America).
Special Features and Technical Specs:
UK STREET DATE: JULY 17.
O.C. and Stiggs
Description: O.C. and Stiggs are a pair of sharp teens who carry out a vendetta against middle-class neighbour Mr. Schwab as his insurance company has cancelled O.C's grandfather's retirement policy. From characters created by Ted Mann and Tod Carroll of the National Lampoon (the magazine that ushered in the biggest comedy of the era in Animal House), Robert Altman brought O.C. and Stiggs to the screen, a blazing satire of 1980s America. A precursor to delinquent characters like Wayne and Garth and Beavis and Butthead the film has been described as "cooler than Ferris. As savage as Heathers" (Hunter Stephenson). Beautifully shot with visual anarchy to match its acerbic screenplay, O.C. and Stiggs features a sensational cast including Jane Curtin (Third Rock From the Sun), Paul Dooley (Sixteen Candles), Jon Cryer (Hot Shots!), Dennis Hopper (Blue Velvet), Melvin Van Peebles (Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song) and others, presented on Blu-ray for the first time.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Thieves Like Us
Description: A group of criminals daringly escape from prison in depression-era Mississippi. They survive by robbing banks and hole up with a gas station attendant where injured Bowie (Keith Carradine, Nashville) falls in love with the attendant's daughter Keechie (Shelley Duvall, 3 Women). Made within one of the great runs of back-to-back classics by any filmmaker, Robert Altman followed multi-award-winning classics like M*A*S*H and The Long Goodbye with Thieves Like Us, an adaptation of Edward Anderson's pulp novel. Previously adapted by Nicholas Ray as They Live by Night, Altman's film takes a more faithful approach to the source material, preserving the original tone and period of the novel, going back to historical and American myth themes that Altman mined so brilliantly in his earlier McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Critically praised, noted critic Pauline Kael described it as "the closest to flawless of Altman's films – a masterpiece."
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Welcome to the Dollhouse Standard Edition
Description: Junior high school student Dawn "Wiener-dog" Wiener is perpetually teased by her classmates and tormented by the school bully, Brandon. All she wants is to be popular and that would certainly help her emerging crush on the lead of her brother's garage band. Todd (Happiness) Solondz's celebrated coming-of-age comedy won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and young star Heather Matarazzo was awarded Best Debut Performance at the prestigious Independent Spirit Awards. Perfectly capturing the growing pains of youth and suburbia with startling intensity, Welcome to the Dollhouse was widely praised on release with Janet Maslin of the New York Times describing it as a "mordantly hilarious suburban comedy - excruciatingly funny."
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Big Time Gambling Boss Standard Edition
Description: Tokyo, 1934. Gang boss Arakawa is too ill and a successor must be named. The choice falls on Nakai, but being an outsider he refuses and suggests senior clansman Matsuda instead. But Matsuda is in jail and the elders won't wait for his release, so they appoint the younger and more malleable Ishido to take the reins. Clan honour and loyalties are severely tested when Matsuda is released, resulting in an increasingly violent internal strife. An atmospheric tale of gangland intrigue written by Kazuo Kasahara (Battles Without Honour and Humanity) and starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, (Lone Wolf and Cub, The Bounty Hunter Trilogy) and genre legend Koji Tsuruta, Big Time Gambling Boss is one of the all-time classics of the yakuza genre. Paul Schrader called it the richest and most complex film of its type, while novelist Yukio Mishima hailed it as a masterpiece. Radiance Films is proud to present this crucial re-discovery for the first time ever on Blu-ray.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
The Iron Prefect
Description: Based on the true story of the Iron Prefect, Cesare Mori, who was sent to Sicily for an Eliot Ness-in-The Untouchables style clean up of the mafia. Mori approaches organised crime on the island with uncompromising force even in the face of mass murders designed to scare him off. Pasquale Squitieri (The Climber) directs this stunning period piece which won the David di Donatello award for best film and features spaghetti western icon Giuliano Gemma brilliantly playing against type as the titular hero, winning him an award for his performance at the prestigious Karlovy Vary Film Festival. Alongside Gemma are the cream of international film from the period with co-stars Claudia Cardinale (The Day of the Owl) and Francisco Rabal (Sorcerer), the key surveyor of Italy's civic cinema screenwriter Ugo Pirro (The Working Class Goes to Heaven) and legendary composer Ennio Morricone (Once Upon a Time in America).
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- 2K RESTORATION from the original negative presented with Italian and English audio options
- Uncompressed mono PCM audio
- Archival interview with director Pasquale Squitieri and star Giuliano Gemma (2009)
- New interview with Squitieri biographer Domenico Monetti (2023)
- New appreciation of Giuliano Gemma and the film by filmmaker Alex Cox (2023)
- Original trailer
- New and improved English subtitles for Italian audio and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for English audio
- Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters
- Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Italian cinema expert Guido Bonsaver and an original article on the real-life Cesare Mori and his Mafia raid as depicted within the film
- Limited edition of 2000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
- REGION-A/B "LOCKED"
UK STREET DATE: JULY 17.
O.C. and Stiggs
Description: O.C. and Stiggs are a pair of sharp teens who carry out a vendetta against middle-class neighbour Mr. Schwab as his insurance company has cancelled O.C's grandfather's retirement policy. From characters created by Ted Mann and Tod Carroll of the National Lampoon (the magazine that ushered in the biggest comedy of the era in Animal House), Robert Altman brought O.C. and Stiggs to the screen, a blazing satire of 1980s America. A precursor to delinquent characters like Wayne and Garth and Beavis and Butthead the film has been described as "cooler than Ferris. As savage as Heathers" (Hunter Stephenson). Beautifully shot with visual anarchy to match its acerbic screenplay, O.C. and Stiggs features a sensational cast including Jane Curtin (Third Rock From the Sun), Paul Dooley (Sixteen Candles), Jon Cryer (Hot Shots!), Dennis Hopper (Blue Velvet), Melvin Van Peebles (Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song) and others, presented on Blu-ray for the first time.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- High-Definition digital transfer
- Uncompressed mono PCM audio
- A new documentary featurette on the making of the film by critic Hunter Stephenson featuring new interviews with the cast and crew (2023) - more details to be confirmed
- New interview with camera operator Robert Reed Altman (2023)
- Altman on O.C. and Stiggs archival featurette (2005, 8 mins)
- Trailer
- Gallery of rare images
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and new artwork by Time Tomorrow
- Limited edition booklet featuring archival writings by Robert Altman about the film and his approaches to filmmaking
- Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
- REGION-B "LOCKED"
Thieves Like Us
Description: A group of criminals daringly escape from prison in depression-era Mississippi. They survive by robbing banks and hole up with a gas station attendant where injured Bowie (Keith Carradine, Nashville) falls in love with the attendant's daughter Keechie (Shelley Duvall, 3 Women). Made within one of the great runs of back-to-back classics by any filmmaker, Robert Altman followed multi-award-winning classics like M*A*S*H and The Long Goodbye with Thieves Like Us, an adaptation of Edward Anderson's pulp novel. Previously adapted by Nicholas Ray as They Live by Night, Altman's film takes a more faithful approach to the source material, preserving the original tone and period of the novel, going back to historical and American myth themes that Altman mined so brilliantly in his earlier McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Critically praised, noted critic Pauline Kael described it as "the closest to flawless of Altman's films – a masterpiece."
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- High-Definition digital transfer
- Original uncompressed mono PCM audio
- Audio commentary by director Robert Altman
- Brand new interview with co-screenwriter Joan Tewkesbury who discusses the film and her working relationship with Altman (2023)
- Brand new interview with star Keith Carradine (2023)
- Geoff Andrew on Thieves Like Us - the critic discusses the film and its place within Altman's work
- Two classic radio plays featured in the film - The Shadow written by and starring Orson Welles and Speed Gibson of the International Secret Police starring Ed Gardner
- Trailer
- Promotional image gallery
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters
- Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by critic Pamela Hutchinson; archival writing by Robert Altman; and a piece looking at the script development from the novel by professor Alan Schroeder
- Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
- REGION-B "LOCKED"
Welcome to the Dollhouse Standard Edition
Description: Junior high school student Dawn "Wiener-dog" Wiener is perpetually teased by her classmates and tormented by the school bully, Brandon. All she wants is to be popular and that would certainly help her emerging crush on the lead of her brother's garage band. Todd (Happiness) Solondz's celebrated coming-of-age comedy won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and young star Heather Matarazzo was awarded Best Debut Performance at the prestigious Independent Spirit Awards. Perfectly capturing the growing pains of youth and suburbia with startling intensity, Welcome to the Dollhouse was widely praised on release with Janet Maslin of the New York Times describing it as a "mordantly hilarious suburban comedy - excruciatingly funny."
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- High Definition digital transfer of the film
- Interviews with Solondz and star Heather Matarazzo (2022)
- Todd Solondz's Suburban Nightmare: A visual essay by critic and author Hannah Strong on the film and its place within Solondz's work
- Audio commentary by BJ and Harmony Colangelo of the This Ends at Prom podcast
- Trailer
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- REGION-B "LOCKED"
Big Time Gambling Boss Standard Edition
Description: Tokyo, 1934. Gang boss Arakawa is too ill and a successor must be named. The choice falls on Nakai, but being an outsider he refuses and suggests senior clansman Matsuda instead. But Matsuda is in jail and the elders won't wait for his release, so they appoint the younger and more malleable Ishido to take the reins. Clan honour and loyalties are severely tested when Matsuda is released, resulting in an increasingly violent internal strife. An atmospheric tale of gangland intrigue written by Kazuo Kasahara (Battles Without Honour and Humanity) and starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, (Lone Wolf and Cub, The Bounty Hunter Trilogy) and genre legend Koji Tsuruta, Big Time Gambling Boss is one of the all-time classics of the yakuza genre. Paul Schrader called it the richest and most complex film of its type, while novelist Yukio Mishima hailed it as a masterpiece. Radiance Films is proud to present this crucial re-discovery for the first time ever on Blu-ray.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- High Definition digital transfer of the film
- Original LPCM audio
- Serial Gambling: A video essay by Chris D., author of Gun and Sword: An Encyclopedia of Japanese Gangster Films 1955-1980, on Big Time Gambling Boss's origins in the Toei studio's serialized yakuza movie production and what sets the film apart (2022)
- Ninkyo 101: In this video essay, Mark Schilling, author of The Yakuza Movie Book, delves into the history and impact of the classical style of yakuza film, the ninkyo eiga or "chivalry films" (2022)
- Gallery of original promotional stills
- Trailer
- REGION-A "LOCKED"
