Eureka Entertainment has announced its July batch of Blu-ray releases. They are: Beasts Unleashed (1955-1956), Into the Forest: Folktales at DEFA (1957), and Laurel & Hardy: The Silent Years (1929).
Description: The 1950s was the decade of the creature feature. At the dawn of the Atomic Age, American cinemas were awash with marauding aliens from outer space, giant irradiated insects, robots on the rampage, monsters from the depths and dinosaurs rediscovered in the modern world. The Beast with a Million Eyes and The Beast of Hollow Mountain are two of the most entertaining films among them, presented together in the spirit of the science fiction double features of the 1950s.
The Beast with a Million Eyes, produced and purportedly co-directed by the legendary Roger Corman, follows a family living on an isolated ranch in the California desert. After an unidentified flying object crash lands somewhere near their farm, animals and people begin acting strangely – leading to a confrontation with a threat not of this planet. From a story by the legendary special-effects artist Willis O'Brien (a mentor to Ray Harryhausen and the animator of King Kong), The Beast of Hollow Mountain sees a cowboy living in Mexico discover that his cattle are being eaten by a prehistoric monster.
Representing two of the standout science fiction cycles of the 1950s, The Beast with a Million Eyes and The Beast of Hollow Mountain recall the era of double-bills, drive-ins and delirious monster mayhem. Eureka Classics is thrilled to present both films on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
High-definition transfers
Original English mono audio
Optional English subtitles (SDH)
Terror from Beyond the Stars – new interview with science fiction expert Mark Bould on The Beast with a Million Eyes and alien invasion cinema in the 1950s
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth – new interview with critic Kim Newman on The Beast of Hollow Mountain and the resurgence of dinosaur films in the 1950s
Original theatrical trailers
Limited edition O-card slipcase featuring new artwork by Mute [2000 copies]
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by genre film expert Christopher Stewardson on special effects artist Paul Blaisdell and The Beast with a Million Eyes and a new essay by film journalist Sean McGeady on Weird Westerns and The Beast of Hollow Mountain
Description: Between 1950 and 1989, the East German studio DEFA produced a huge number of Märchenfilme, or adaptations of popular fairy and folktales. By turns macabre, heartwarming, odd, whimsical and occasionally downright frightening, these visually arresting and luridly colourful pictures drew on the works of authors such as Wilhelm Hauff, Hans Christian Andersen and, above all, the Brothers Grimm. Some of the finest – and darkest – DEFA folktales include The Devil from Mill Mountain, The Singing Ringing Tree, Rumpelstiltskin, Little Red Riding Hood and The Devil's Three Golden Hairs.
In The Devil from Mill Mountain, a greedy miller attracts the ire of forest spirits when he and his accomplices disguise themselves as demons to burn down a rival mill. In The Singing Ringing Tree, a young prince must find a legendary tree to win the heart of an icy princess – and risks being transformed into a bear if she fails to fall in love with him. Rumpelstiltskin follows a young woman whose boastful father claims she can spin straw into gold, leading her to make an ill-advised pact with a magical imp. Then, the eponymous Little Red Riding Hood sets off to see her sick grandmother, relying on her friends the rabbit and the bear to help her evade the cunning fox and the big bad wolf. Finally, The Devil's Three Golden Hairs sees an unfortunate young man tasked with travelling into hell to retrieve three golden hairs from the Devil himself.
DEFA's Märchenfilme were perhaps the most enduringly successful genre films produced in East Germany, remaining popular for as long as the German Democratic Republic existed – but they are criminally under-seen outside of the former Eastern Bloc. Filled with uncanny imagery and socialist messaging in equal measure, DEFA's folktale adaptations are both immeasurably important to Germany's film heritage and wildly entertaining examples of popular European cinema. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present these five Märchenfilme together for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
FIVE RESTORATIONS BY THE DEFA FOUNDATION
Original German soundtracks
Optional English soundtracks for The Singing Ringing Tree and The Devil's Three Golden Hairs
Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release
New audio commentary on The Devil from Mill Mountain by film historian Michael Brooke
New audio commentary on Rumpelstiltskin by Sam Goff, editorial director for Klassiki and host of The Klassiki Kino Club podcast
Fairytales and Nightmares – new interview with writer, broadcaster and Fortean Times columnist Bob Fischer on the history of The Singing Ringing Tree
DEFA and the Devil – new video essay on the depiction of the Devil in folktales from the Brothers Grimm to DEFA by film and literature scholar Mary Going
The Magic Scissors (Bruno J. Böttge, 1956) – short silhouette animation inspired by traditional folktales and produced by the DEFA Studio for Animation Film
Sleeping Beauty Was a Beautiful Child (Katja Georgi, 1987) – short puppet animation adapted from Sleeping Beauty by the DEFA Studio for Animation Film
The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats (Otto Sacher, 1990) – short cut-out animation adapted from the Brothers Grimm story by the DEFA Studio for Animation Film
Limited Collector's Edition Box Set [2000 copies]
Limited edition hardbound slipcase featuring new artwork by Carly A-F [2000 copies]
Limited edition 60-page collector's book featuring a new essay on DEFA's approach to folktales by East German film historian Sebastian Heiduschke, new notes on each film in this set by DEFA Märchenfilm experts Sonja Fritzsche, Qinna Shen and Elizabeth Ward, plus the Brothers Grimm stories that inspired The Singing Ringing Tree, Rumpelstiltskin, Little Red Riding Hood and The Devil's Three Golden Hairs [2000 copies]
Reversible inner sleeves featuring new artwork for each film by Carly A-F
Description: Two of the most talented comedians to ever grace the silver screen, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy had firmly established their enduring partnership by the time the age of talking pictures loomed at the end of the 1920s. As they made their final silent shorts together in 1929, they continued to build upon the double act forged in earlier films such as You're Darn Tootin', Should Married Men Go Home? and We Faw Down – and prepared themselves for success in the sound era.
This collection brings together the silent Laurel & Hardy shorts produced in 1929, as the boys reached new levels of fame and success: Liberty casts Stan and Ollie as fugitives on the run; in Wrong Again, the boys try to claim a reward by returning a lost horse to a bewildered millionaire seeking a stolen painting; That's My Wife sees Ollie forced to choose between Stan and his spouse; in Big Business, the boys go door-to-door selling Christmas trees; in Unaccustomed As We Are, Ollie invites Stan over for dinner and attracts the ire of Mrs Hardy; Double Whoopee sees the boys take jobs at a fancy hotel; Berth Marks has them cause chaos on a sleeper train; in Bacon Grabbers, Stan and Ollie are bailiffs tasked with recovering a radio; and finally, in Angora Love, they try to conceal a goat that has become very, very attached to them.
The Masters of Cinema Series is honoured to present Laurel & Hardy's final run of silent shorts, newly restored in 2K by Blackhawk Films from the finest available materials, in a special two-disc Blu-ray edition for the first time in the UK.
The set contains the following shorts: Liberty, Wrong Again, That's My Wife, Big Business, Unaccustomed As We Are (Silent Version), Double Whoopee, Berth Marks (Silent Version), Bacon Grabbers and Angora Love (Silent Version)
Special Features and Technical Specs:
NEW 2K RESTORATIONS by Blackhawk Films of Liberty, Wrong Again, That's My Wife, Big Business, Unaccustomed as We Are, Double Whoopee, Berth Marks, Bacon Grabbers and Angora Love
Scores by Robert Israel (Angora Love, Big Business and Double Whoopee), Neil Brand (Bacon Grabbers, Wrong Again and That's My Wife), Andreas Benz (That's My Wife, Unaccustomed as We Are and Berth Marks), Maud Nelissen (Big Business, Liberty) and Gaylord Carter (Big Business)
New audio commentaries on Liberty and Berth Marks by film writer Chris Seguin and Kyp Harness, author of The Art of Laurel & Hardy: Graceful Calamity in the Films
New audio commentaries on Double Whoopee, Unaccustomed As We Are and Wrong Again by film historian and writer David Kalat
New audio commentaries on Big Business and Angora Love by silent film accompanist Neil Brand
New audio commentaries on That's My Wife and Bacon Grabbers by Glenn Mitchell, author of The Laurel and Hardy Encyclopedia
New documentary by David Cairns and Fiona Watson
Alternate musical scores on select shorts including the Robert Youngson score for Liberty, newly restored by Stephen Horne
Unaccustomed As We Are alternate sound version
Alternate dubbed version of Double Whoopee
1929 sound shorts They Go Boom! and The Hoose-Gow
The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (excerpt)
Crazy Heights – Alternate Super 8 version of Liberty
Super 8 versions of Big Business, Double Whoopee and Angora Love
Stills Galleries
Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Scott Saslow [2000 copies]
Limited edition collector's booklet featuring newly written notes on each film by writer and comedian Paul Merton and a new essay on frequent Laurel & Hardy collaborator James Finlayson by silent cinema expert Chris Grosvenor [2000 copies]