If you own a DVD player, and you have a love of shock cinema made prior to 1961, then today is a very big day for you. Not sure why, just one of those lucky coincidences I guess, but a veritable windfall of classic terror "drops" today, as the kids say. I'm talking not one, not two, but three major releases. Let's get right into it.The Picture of Dorian Gray
Warner Home Video is finally making this 1945 gem of an Oscar Wilde adaptation available on DVD for the first time, believe it or not. I'm thinking maybe news of another version being mounted may have been the motivation. Check out Angela Lansbury back when she was hot. Oh yeah, and she was nominated for an Oscar, too.
Psycho - Special Edition
Believe it or not, this is the first time Hitchcock's most famous film has ever gotten the deluxe "special edition" treatment as a stand-alone. It's part of Universal's Legacy Series, and even without the inevitable treasure trove of bonus features, it would be worth seeing, simply because it's still one of the finest movies ever made.
Ray Harryhausen Gift Set
You may recall that a Harryhausen gift set came out from Sony a couple years ago, featuring special editions of 20 Million Miles to Earth, It Came from Beneath the Sea and Earth vs. The Flying Saucers. This is the same bunch, except this time both black-and-white and newly colorized versions (supervised by Harryhausen himself) are included. Not quite worth $80, I say. Sure, you fancy-shmancy Blu-Ray people also get a fourth flick, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad--but do you get the adorable Ymir action figure? Huh? Do ya?? Didn't think so.
VERY COOL!!
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I missed seeing the Pyscho set coming out. Now I have yet another thing to add to my list:)
ReplyDeleteFinally Psycho is out. I've been waiting for it for quite a while ever since reading about it on digitalbits.
ReplyDeleteIt first came out ten years ago, and then again in 2005 on the Hitchcock boxed set. But this is the first real quality standalone release.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's what I mean (ie. high quality release). I just have the standard VHS release.
ReplyDeleteAlso, there are some reports that the aspect ratio has been bungled, as apparently it's not anamorphic. Can you confirm or deny this? I was surprised to see a number of amazon reviews pointing this out.
EDIT: Ignore my comment.
ReplyDeleteIt seems those reviews were speaking of the previously released DVD version and not the newest one. IT still could be an issue, but I've seen nothing.
On a side note; I HATE how Amazon lumps all reviews for the same movie into each product, regardless of edition.