Eureka Entertainment has announced its November batch of releases. They are: Scarlet Street (1945), Stockholm After Dark: Swedish Noir (1938-1953), Wheels on Meals (1984), and Wrack and Ruin: The Rubble Film at DEFA (1946-1948).
Description: Perhaps the greatest American production by an undisputed master of cinema, Fritz Lang's Scarlet Street is the quintessential example of film noir and the perfect follow-up to his previous crime thriller The Woman in the Window. It also features the same stellar cast, as Edward G. Robinson (Double Indemnity), Joan Bennett (Man Hunt) and Dan Duryea (Criss Cross) reunite for a heart-wrenching, tragic story of a man driven to the edge by love.
In a loveless marriage and having spent 25 years as a retail cashier, Christopher "Chris" Cross (Robinson) is deeply dissatisfied with his lot in life. One night, he experiences excitement for the first time in years: he intervenes when he witnesses Johnny Prince (Duryea) attacking Katherine "Kitty" March (Bennett), becoming instantly enamored with the woman he has rescued. When she comes to believe that he is a wealthy artist, he doesn't correct her and soon Johnny, Kitty's boyfriend, comes up with a scheme to swindle a man who is as naive as he is lovestruck. But Johnny and Kitty's con can't possibly last forever.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
TWO-DISC (4K BLU-RAY/BLU-RAY) COMBO PACK RELEASE
4K RESTORATION FROM A 35MM COMPOSITE FINE GRAIN
Audio commentary by noir expert Imogen Sara Smith, author of In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City
All Your Fears Are Foolish Fancy Maybe new video essay on Fritz Lang and Scarlet Street by David Cairns, featuring the voice of director Alexander Payne as Darryl F. Zanuck
Hello, Lazy Legs a new appreciation of Fritz Lang's Scarlet Street by film historian Sheldon Hall
Femme Fatale new interview on the life and career of Joan Bennett with film historian and critic Pamela Hutchinson
Suspense three episodes of the classic thriller radio anthology starring Edward G. Robinson, "My Wife Geraldine," "The Man Who Wanted to Be Edward G. Robinson" and "You Can't Die Twice"
Original mono audio
Optional English subtitles
Limited edition O-card slipcase and interior packaging designed by Nick Wrigley
Limited edition booklet featuring a new essay on the relationship between Scarlet Street, its French source novel and Jean Renoir's La Chienne by film scholar Barry Nevin, plus select archival material
Description: Films included: A Woman's Face, June Night, While the Door was Locked, While the City Sleeps and Hidden in the Fog.
From the late 1930s onwards, Sweden became a prolific producer of crime films increasingly characterised by the noir style that eventually found popularity all over the world in the post-war period. They featured some of Sweden's most recognisable stars in the likes of Ingrid Bergman and Eva Henning, and were made with the involvement of some of its greatest writers and directors, including Hasse Ekman, Gustaf Molander and even Ingmar Bergman. Five standout examples of Swedish noir are collected here: A Woman's Face, June Night, While the Door was Locked, While the City Sleeps and Hidden in the Fog.
In A Woman's Face, Ingrid Bergman stars as a disfigured blackmailer whose facial scarring has led her to become embittered and violent until she is given an opportunity to change her ways. In June Night, Bergman plays a woman who is shot by her lover and, following a trial, flees to Stockholm in the hope of starting a new life. Directed by Hasse Ekman (Girl with Hyacinths), While the Door Was Locked follows the residents of a single apartment block over one fateful night a night that will end in tragedy. Based on a story concept by Ingmar Bergman, While the City Sleeps profiles a psychopathic young criminal as his gang of teen delinquents begins to fall apart. Finally, Hidden in the Fog stars Eva Henning as a woman suspected of murdering her husband.
Sweden's classic crime films bear all the hallmarks of film noir expressionistic cinematography, chiaroscuro lighting, femme fatales, cops, criminals and doomed romance but blend them with a distinctly Scandinavian sensibility, exploring their fascinating social and sexual themes with an unusual frankness. The Masters of Cinema Series is thrilled to present this selection of Swedish noir from astonishing restorations by the Swedish Film Institute.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Hidden in the Fog presented from a 4K restoration by the Swedish Film Institute
A Woman's Face, June Night, While the Door was Locked and While the City Sleeps presented from 2K restorations by the Swedish Film Institute
Original Swedish mono soundtracks for all five films
Optional English subtitles, newly revised for this release
New audio commentary on A Woman's Face by noir expert Imogen Sara Smith, author of In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City
New audio commentary on While the Door was Locked by crime cinema expert Sergio Angelini, host of the Tipping My Fedora podcast
New audio commentary on Hidden in the Fog by film historian David Kalat
A Woman's Case new interview on the early career of Ingrid Bergman with film historian and critic Pamela Hutchinson
Stockholm Stories new video essay on the depiction of the city in Swedish noir by film critic and author Mikaela Kindblom, director of the Filmstaden Foundation
The Bad Die Young new video essay on While the City Sleeps and juvenile delinquency in world noir by crime cinema expert Sergio Angelini
Cat Across the Road (Gunnar Skoglund, 1937) short focused on filmmaking at Gamla Filmstaden in Stockholm, featuring an early appearance by Ingrid Bergman
Rhythm of a City (Arne Sucksdorff, 1947) expressionist short depicting a day in 1940s Stockholm and winner of the 1949 Academy Award for Best Short Subject
Limited Collector's Edition Box Set
Limited edition hardbound slipcase and interior packaging featuring new artwork by Mute
Limited edition 60-page book featuring a new extended introduction to the Swedish crime film by film scholar Fredrik Gustafsson and new notes on all five films in this set by film noir expert Barry Forshaw
Description: Sammo Hung's Wheels on Meals is one of the greatest films to emerge from Hong Kong in the 1980s: perhaps the definitive martial arts comedy and a star vehicle for the most exciting triple-act in action movie history: the "Three Dragons," Jackie Chan (Police Story), Yuen Biao (Winners and Sinners) and the inimitable Sammo Hung himself (Encounter of the Spooky Kind).
Fast-food chefs Thomas (Chan) and David (Biao) find themselves cooking up trouble when private detective Moby (Hung) involves them in the case of a missing heiress. The three friends need all of their daring and physical dexterity when they end up following their leads into a world of trouble, picking up pickpocket Sylvia (Lola Forner, Armour of God) along the way.
Also starring Benny "The Jet" Urquidez (Dragons Forever), who faces off against Chan in an incredible fight sequence that is legendary amongst martial-arts film fans, Wheels on Meals has to be seen to be believed. Eureka Classics is thrilled to bring this iconic piece of action cinema to 4K Blu-ray from an astonishing, brand-new restoration.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
EXCLUSIVE NEW 4K RESTORATION BY EUREKA ENTERTAINMENT FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
Optional "Spartan X" presentation of the film
Optional English subtitles, newly revised for this 4K release
Original Cantonese audio track, available in original mono (LPCM) and restored DTS-HD MA 5.1
Optional English audio from the film's original international release, featuring an alternate (and much funkier) soundtrack, available in original mono and 5.1
Alternate English dub track from the film's 2006 DVD release, available in 5.1
Custom audio option featuring the original Cantonese dialogue track mixed with the alternate soundtrack from the international release
New "hybrid" audio track created for this release
New audio commentary by East Asian cinema expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)
New audio commentary by action cinema expert Arne Venema and filmmaker Domting
New interview with Wayne Wong, author of Martial Arts Ecology
New video essay by Hong Kong cinema expert Gary Bettinson
On Giant's Shoulders archival interview with Sammo Hung
Additional archival interview with Sammo Hung
Born to Fight archival interview with Yuen Biao
Jet Fighter archival interview with kickboxing champion and martial artist Benny "The Jet" Urquidez
King of the Ring archival interview with martial artist Keith Vitali
The Inside Track archival interview with director and action choreographer Stanley Tong
Additional outtakes footage
Original theatrical trailer
International release trailer
Original Japanese Spartan X trailer
Limited Edition Hardbound Set
Limited edition hardcase featuring new artwork by Sean Longmore
Limited edition 60-page collector's book featuring a new essay by Rachael Nisbet on Lola Forner and writing on Wheels on Meals by James Oliver and Scott Harrison
Films Include : The Murderers Are Among Us Somewhere in Berlin Police Raid Marriage in the Shadows The Blum Affair
The first film studio to begin operating in post-war Germany, DEFA was officially authorised to produce films in the Soviet occupation zone in 1946. Overseen by the Soviet Military Administration, one of its primary mandates was to aid in the denazification of Germany by focusing on anti-fascist themes in films that would ruminate on the literal and figurative wreckage left behind by the Third Reich. Often shot on location in the ruins of Berlin, these early DEFA productions have come to be called Trόmmerfilme or "rubble films," and remain some of the most important pictures the studio ever made.
The first film produced in post-war Germany, The Murderers Are Among Us sees a concentration camp survivor return home to Berlin only to find a stranger living in her apartment: an ex-soldier who harbours a terrible secret. Somewhere in Berlin follows a group of children who spend their days playing in bombed-out buildings and a returning prisoner-of-war seeking a new sense of purpose. In Police Raid, a determined detective leads a crackdown on black marketeers who aim to exploit the chaos of the post-war period to their own advantage. Set during the Nazi era, Marriage in the Shadows charts the tragic life of an actor and his Jewish wife as they attempt to survive the Third Reich. Finally, The Blum Affair recounts the true case of a Jewish industrialist who was tried for murder in the 1920s.
Encompassing a range of genres including the thriller, the police procedural and the courtroom drama and ranging in visual style from expressionism to stark realism, DEFA's rubble films are bound together by a concern with the physical and psychological damage wrought by Nazism, World War II and the Holocaust.