Eureka Entertainment has announced its June batch of Blu-ray releases. They are: Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), Madhouse (1974), and Empire of the Ants (1977).
Having begun his career as an actor celebrated for his performances in the likes of Brighton Rock, The Great Escape and Séance on a Wet Afternoon, Richard Attenborough made his directorial debut in 1969 with Oh! What a Lovely War, a satirical history of World War I told through the British music hall tradition.
Adapted from Joan Littlewood's 1963 stage musical of the same name (itself a reworking of Charles Chilton's 1961 radio play The Long Long Trail), Oh! What a Lovely War restages the events of the Great War. As the film traces the progression of the conflict from the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914 to the Armistice of November 1918, it intertwines the fortunes of the everyman Smith family with performances of popular wartime music, from the recruitment song "I'll Make a Man of You" to the airmen's anthem "The Bells of Hell Go Ting-a-ling-a-ling."
Featuring a who's who of British acting talent from Dirk Bogarde to Michael Redgrave and Maggie Smith, Attenborough's first film as director earned him a raft of BAFTA nominations and set him on the path to making A Bridge Too Far, Gandhi and Chaplin. The Masters of Cinema Series is honored to present Oh! What a Lovely War on Blu-ray for the first time anywhere in the world.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
RESTORED BY PARAMOUNT PICTURES
New audio commentary with British cinema scholars Melanie Williams and Lawrence Napper
Archival audio commentary with director Richard Attenborough
Your Country Needs You – new interview with film historian Simon Brown on depictions of World War I in British cinema, from The Battle of the Somme to 1917
Extensive making-of documentary presented in three parts: "Welcome to World War I," "The Smith Family Album" and "Keep the Home Fires Burning"
Original English mono audio
Optional English subtitles (SDH)
Limited edition O-card slipcase featuring original poster artwork [2000 copies]
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing on Oh! What a Lovely War by Andy Dougan, author of The Actors' Director: Richard Attenborough Behind the Camera [2000 copies]
Produced by Amicus Productions and released by American International Pictures, Jim Clark's Madhouse
brings together two titans of horror – Vincent Price (House on Haunted Hill) and Peter Cushing (Dr Terror's House of Horrors) – in a film about the horror genre itself.
Paul Toombes (Price) is an actor whose trademark role is the enigmatic and terrifying Dr Death, a skull-faced serial killer and the central antagonist of a long-running series of horror films. When Toombes' fiancée Ellen (Julie Crosthwait) is murdered in mysterious circumstances by an assailant dressed as Dr Death, the actor wonders if he has succumbed to madness – a question he will be forced to reckon with again when, years later, people begin dying on the set of a new television series based on his most famous character.
Better known as an editor whose credits include Marathon Man, The Killing Fields and The Mission, Jim Clark made his greatest achievement as a director with Madhouse – a genuinely original and gloriously self-aware horror film that bridges the gap between the gothic chillers of old and the more visceral genre pictures of the 1970s. Eureka Classics is proud to present Madhouse on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
High-definition transfer
New introduction to Madhouse by horror novelist Stephen Laws
Lights, Camera, Murder! – new video essay on Madhouse by horror and gothic scholar Mary Going
Audio commentary by film historian David Del Valle
Archival making-of featurette
Stills Gallery
Original theatrical trailer
Original English mono audio
Optional English subtitles (SDH)
Limited edition O-card slipcase featuring original poster artwork [2000 copies]
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing on Madhouse by genre film expert Christopher Stewardson and an archival interview with director Jim Clark conducted by John Hamilton, originally published in The Dark Side [2000 copies]
Nicknamed Mr B.I.G. by Famous Monsters of Filmland founder Forrest J. Ackerman, the writer, director and producer Bert I. Gordon built his reputation on films featuring giant monsters, from King Dinosaur to The Food of the Gods via The Amazing Colossal Man and Earth vs the Spider. In 1977, he made his final giant monster movie: Empire of the Ants, inspired by H. G. Wells' short story of the same name.
Following the illegal dumping of radioactive waste in the ocean, a barrel of toxic sludge washes up on a beach not too far from land being sold by unscrupulous developer Marilyn Fryser (Joan Collins), who brings a number of prospective buyers to view the beachfront location. All seems to be going well until Marilyn, and her clients find themselves under attack by giant irradiated ants, mutated by the chemicals introduced to their habitat and determined to destroy the human race.
Owing as much to the classic creature feature Them! as it does to H. G. Wells, Empire of the Ants is an ecological fable for the increasingly climate-conscious 1970s, presented in a monster movie package that could only have been the work of the inimitable Bert I. Gordon. Eureka Classics is thrilled to present this cult classic for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
High-definition transfer
New introduction to Empire of the Ants by Chris Cooke, filmmaker and co-director of Mayhem Film Festival
The B.I.G. Picture – interview with film historian Kim Newman focused on the life and career of cult filmmaker Bert I. Gordon
Audio commentary by writer, director and producer Bert I. Gordon
Audio commentary by film historian David Del Valle with film historian and filmmaker Michael Varrati
Radio spot
Original theatrical trailer
Original English mono audio
Optional English subtitles (SDH)
Limited edition O-card slipcase featuring original poster artwork [2000 copies]
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing on Empire of the Ants and ecological horror by genre film expert Liam Hathaway [2000 copies]