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To celebrate the release of Room at the Top, on Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital from 11th March, we are giving away Blu-Rays to 2 lucky winners!

Based on the best-selling novel by John Braine, Room At The Top is Jack Clayton’s debut feature and is one of the earliest examples of the ‘Kitchen Sink Drama’ that helped pave the way for the incoming ‘British New Wave’ of film-makers. Featuring the first open reference to sex as well as the earliest depiction of adultery in a British film, it was a controversial film for the era and was initially refused a certificate by the censors before eventually securing an “X” certificate.

Starring Laurence Harvey, Simone Signoret, Heather Sears and Donald Wolfit, the film went on to become a major box-office success and opened the floodgates for more adult orientated movies.

The film also gained widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for six Academy Awards,...

Once an upstart and now a company to contend with, Britain’s Indicator continues their series of Hammer Studio releases with Hammer Volume Six: Night Shadows, a purely generic subtitle fit for any horror film, Hammer or otherwise. What isn’t generic is Indicator’s winning formula—top notch image quality and boatloads of extra materials including documentaries, commentaries, image galleries—the works. The films in their latest set are already available stateside in more than adequate Blu ray versions—but Indicator’s work prevails on the sheer magnitude and quality of their content.

Hammer Volume Six: Night Shadows

Blu ray – Region B

Indicator

Starring Barbara Shelley, Peter Cushing, Herbert Lom, Jennie Linden

Cinematography by Arthur Grant, John Wilcox

Directed by John Gilling, Peter Graham Scott, Terence Fisher, Freddie Francis

The Shadow of the Cat – 1961

Directed by John Gilling

Starring André Morell and Barbara Shelley

Cat lovers of all stripes...

The Phantom of the Opera

Blu ray

1962 / 84 min. / 1:85:1, 1:66:1, 1:33:1

Starring Herbert Lom, Heather Sears, Michael Gough

Cinematography by Arthur Grant

Directed by Terence Fisher

Hammer Studios made their mark by viewing Universal’s classic horror films through a contemporary lens—which for the late 50’s and early 60’s meant more explicit sex and violence—albeit sex and violence served up with baroquely beautiful cinematography and Byzantine art direction—like Roger Corman they offered “brilliance on a budget”. If the artists at Hammer felt intimidated by Universal’s shadow it never showed—but there was noticeable excitement when their 1962 adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera was announced with a production floated by plenty of money, a full blown operatic score, and Cary Grant in the lead. It never happened that way, of course.

What did happen was this: the 11th-hour exit of their fickle star...

We have an eclectic slate of Blu-ray and DVD releases headed our way this week, led by Scream Factory’s Collector’s Edition of the Hammer Films version of The Phantom of the Opera. If you’re into killer kid horror, you’ll definitely want to check out Mikey, and for those of you looking to indulge in some new genre stories, The Wretched is easily one of the biggest surprises for this writer to come along in 2020.

Other releases for August 11th include Aquaslash, American Sasquatch, Skin Walker, Ozone, Watch Me Die and a double feature of The Lady Kills and Pervertissima.

Mikey: Collector’s Edition

Mikey Kelvin has been a bad boy, only nobody knows exactly how bad. Tragic and Deadly ''accidents'' seem to happen all around Mikey. So, from foster family to foster family and from school to school he goes, leaving a trail of unanswered questions.

Scream Factory's Hammer Films collection just keeps growing! New this week from the label comes the 1962 version of The Phantom of the Opera. Directed by one of Hammer's better-known directors, Terence Fischer, this iteration of the classic tale stars the great Herbert Lom as the Phantom and Professor Petrie. Also onboard are Heather Sears as Christine, and Hammer alums Edward de Souza as kindly opera producer Harry and Michael Gough as the lecherous opera owner Lord Ambrose d'Arcy. You all know the Gaston Leroux story: young ingenue opera singer...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Scream Factory continues to bring Hammer horror films to Blu-ray with their Collector's Edition release of 1962's The Phantom of the Opera, and we've been provided with the full list of bonus features ahead of its August 11th debut.

You can check out the official press release with complete details below, and if you're interested in the adaptations of Gaston Leroux’s classic novel, be sure to read Heather Wixson's Phantom Thread column!

Press Release: Herbert Lom stars as “The Phantom” in Hammer Films’ celebrated production of Gaston Leroux’s horror classic. Arriving on Blu-ray August 11, 2020 from Scream Factory, this Collector’s Edition of The Phantom of the Opera is a new 2K scan from the interpositive, with both 1.85:1 and 1.66:1 aspect ratio options available.

The release of this acclaimed film is loaded with bonus features, including new audio commentary with film historians Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson,...

One of the first ‘kitchen sink realist’ films of the British New Wave is also one of the best English films ever — believable, absorbing, and emotionally moving. The adaptation of John Braine’s novel launched Laurence Harvey as a major star, and English films were suddenly touted as being just as adult as their continental counterparts. It attracted a bushel of awards, especially for the luminous Simone Signoret. Unlike the average Angry Young Man, Joe Lampton’s struggle feels universal — bad things happen when ambition seeks a way through the class ceiling, ‘to get to the money,’ as says Donald Wolfit’s character.

Room at the Top

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1959 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date January 14, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Laurence Harvey, Simone Signoret, Heather Sears, Ambrosine Phillpotts, Donald Wolfit, Donald Houston, Hermione Baddeley, Allan Cuthbertson, Raymond Huntley, John Westbrook, Richard Pasco, Ian Hendry, April Olrich,...

“Rise Of The Angry Young Man”

By Raymond Benson

Along with the French New Wave that kick-started in 1959, Britain had its own informal New Wave of what was referred to as the “angry young man” or “kitchen sink” dramas. They began on the stage with such playwrights as John Osborne. Filmmakers like Jack Clayton, Tony Richardson, Lindsay Anderson, and Karel Reisz are most often associated with the movement, which presented gritty, realistic tales of domestic or socio-economic situations involving working class families and/or single protagonists struggling to get ahead in an England that hadn’t quite pulled herself out of the post-war doldrums.

Room at the Top was one of the first—and best—of the bunch, and even more remarkable is that it was Jack Clayton’s feature directorial debut. Made on a low budget in stark black and white (photographed by the great Freddie Francis), Room stars...

Writer-director Elio Petri scores big in his first feature, the story of a heel suspected of murder. Is he a killer, or just an average guy trying to get ahead, who uses women to his advantage? Marcello Mastroianni impresses as well in a serious role, with Salvo Randone shining as the police inspector trying to pry a confession from him. Beautifully restored in HD; the show is from a time when Italian film was at its zenith.

The Assassin

Blu-ray + DVD

Arrow Video USA

1961 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 97 min. / Street Date April 18, 2017 / L’Assassino / Available from Arrow Video

Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Micheline Presle, Cristina Gaioni, Salvo Randone, Andrea Checchi, Francesco Grandjacquet, Marco Mariani, Franco Ressel.

Cinematography: Carlo Di Palma

Film Editor: Ruggero Mastroianni

Original Music: Piero Piccione

Written by Tonino (Antonio) Guerra, Elio Petri, Pasquale Fest Campanile, Massimo Franciosa

Produced by Franco Cristaldi

Directed by Elio Petri

Fans of Elio Petri...

The Phantom of the Opera: The Motion Picture

Written by Gerry O’Hara and Duke Sandefur

Directed by Dwight H. Little

United States, 1989

Nearly 30 years went by since the 1962 Hammer Films production of The Phantom of the Opera until the ghoulish fiend made his way back onto the silver screen. An interesting turning point for the property, if it can be described as such, came in 1986, when arguably the most popular interpretation of the story ever graced not the movie theatres but rather the opera houses. Andrew Lloyd Weber’s sensational stage adaptation was all the craze in the 1980s and is still recognized as a tremendous success and achievement today. As such, it was only natural that filmmakers would want to pounce on the popularity of the title and produce yet another version, to say nothing of the fact that the rights had gone into the public domain by 1989. Enter producer Menahem Golan,...

The Phantom of the Opera

Written by John Elder

Directed by Terence Fisher

U.K., 1962

Hammer Film Productions is one of the oldest, most respected film studios to ever earn significant popularity. Founded in 1934 in England, the production company earned an outstanding sequence of success in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s by re-appropriating several well known horror stories like The Mummy and Dracula, as well as concocting several original concepts. Even in 2015, long after the studio’s heyday, cinephiles continue to look back at and appreciate the work Hammer put out during those three illustrious decades. Being such specialists in breathing new life into old horror tales, it would only seem befitting that they would try their hand at a new adaptation of French author Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera novel.

Transplanting the action over to home soil in London, this iteration of The Phantom of the Opera...

Robert Montgomery, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Forsaking All Others Joan Crawford on TCM: Mildred Pierce, Flamingo Road, When Ladies Meet Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Forsaking All Others (1934) A woman pursues the wrong man for almost twenty years. Dir: W. S. Van Dyke. Cast: Robert Montgomery, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable. Bw-83 mins. 7:30 Am I Live My Life (1935) A flighty society girl tries to make a go of her marriage to an archaeologist. Dir: W. S. Van Dyke. Cast: Joan Crawford, Brian Aherne, Frank Morgan. Bw-97 mins. 9:15 Am Love On The Run (1936) Rival newsmen get mixed up with a runaway heiress and a ring of spies. Dir: W. S. Van Dyke. Cast: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone. Bw-80 mins. 10:45 Am When Ladies Meet (1941) A female novelist doesn't realize her new friend is the wife whose husband she's trying to steal. Dir: Robert Z. Leonard.