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Myopic Harry Palmer, the great cook, lover and reluctant spy, returns to where his trouble with the British Army began. This time he’s tangled up in a political snarl that might have dire consequences: not only are the Russians involved, ex-Nazis are on the payroll. Israel may have an agent in the field, and not necessarily working in Her Majesty’s interest. Michael Caine’s star quality shines through in this second Harry Palmer spy yarn, filmed on German locations in high style by Guy Hamilton.

Funeral in Berlin

Blu-ray Disc

Paramount Pictures

1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 102 min. / Street Date May 26, 2020 / 20.49

Starring: Michael Caine, Oskar Homolka, Paul Hubschmid, Eva Renzi, Guy Doleman.

Cinematography: Otto Heller

Film Editor: John Bloom

Production Designer: Ken Adam

Original Music: Konrad Elfers

Written by Evan Jones from the novel by Len Deighton

Produced by Charles D. Kasher & Harry Saltzman

Directed by Guy Hamilton

All three...

At the end of his career, Fritz Lang returned to Germany and a producer who gave him a big budget to remake a silent classic in color, with an international cast and locations in remote India, including a palace never seen in a movie before. The two-movie, 200-minute epic was chopped in half for America and dubbed in English. Seen in its full Eastmancolor glory, The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb form an old-fashioned storybook tale, with its special charm lying in our knowledge of Fritz Lang’s fixation on fatalism and intricate patterns of betrayal and intrigue. Plus the films contain the erotic highlight of the decade, the spectacle of star Debra Paget’s scorching ‘temple dances’ before an all-male audience of admirers.

Fritz Lang’s Indian Epic

The Tiger of Eschnapur

and The Indian Tomb

Blu-ray

Film Movement Classics

1959 / Color / 1:33 flat full frame / 203 min. / Street...

Often relegated to a cursory mention as one of the great filmmaker’s late-career trifles, Fritz Lang’s “Indian Epic”—comprising The Tiger of Eschnapur (Der Tiger von Eschnapur) and The Indian Tomb (Das Indische Grabmal), both from 1959—is more like a charming throwback to his earliest work than it is an indication of any waning productivity. Its supporting roots stretch from the early 1920s, when Lang and his soon-to-be-wife Thea von Harbou began drafting an adaptation of her 1918 novel, “The Indian Tomb.” Owing in part to Lang’s relative inexperience, though, the project was turned over to Joe May, who directed the subsequent two-part feature in 1921, which would itself be remade by Richard Eichberg in 1938. Lang bristled at the creative theft (as he saw it anyway) and went packing to Ufa, promptly flourishing as one of the preeminent filmmakers in the world. Later, after more than two decades in Hollywood,...

Distributor plans a 2019 theatrical, digital, home entertainment and Svod release.

Film Movement Classics has acquired Us and English-speaking Canadian rights to Fritz Lang Indian Epic, the two-part cliffhanger comprising The Tiger Of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb.

The distributor plans a 2019 release as a theatrical double feature followed by digital and home entertainment release, and a launch on FilmMovement’s Svod platform, Film Movement Plus.

After more than two decades of exile in Hollywood, Lang triumphantly returned to his native Germany to direct the two-part cliffhanger in 1959 from a story he co-authored nearly 40 years earlier.

Film Movement president Michael Rosenberg,...

Think, “I Was a Teenage Empress.” A trio of movies tell an optimized version of the life of a 19th century Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. It’s fuzzy history designed to prop up German morale, but the film is graced with the incredible presence of a teenaged Romy Schneider, whose beauty and personality became a sensation in the European film world.

The Sissi Collection:

Sissi

Sissi The Young Empress

Sissi The Fateful Years of an Empress

The Story of Vickie

Blu-ray

Film Movement

1955, 1956, 1957 / Color / 1:78 widescreen & 1:33 flat full frame / 102, 107, 109 min. / Street Date November 14, 2017 / 74.95

Starring: Romy Schneider, Karlheinz Böhm, Magda Schneider, Uta Franz, Vilma Degischer, Josef Meinrad, Gustav Knuth.

Cinematography: Bruno Mondi

Film Editor: Alfred Srp

Original Music: Anton Profes

Produced by Karl Erlich, Ernst Marischka

Written and Directed by Ernst Marischka

I’m fascinated by National Epics, movies that individual countries might take as a film...

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman

Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, whose dazzling and innovative visual effects work on fantasy adventure films such as Jason And The Argonauts and The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad passed away in 2013 at age 92. In 1933, the then-13-year-old Ray Harryhausen saw King Kong at a Hollywood theater and was inspired – not only by Kong, who was clearly not just a man in a gorilla suit, but also by the dinosaurs. He came out of the theatre “stunned and haunted. They looked absolutely lifelike … I wanted to know how it was done.” It was done by using stop-motion animation: jointed models filmed one frame at a time to simulate movement. Harryhausen was to become the prime exponent of the technique and its combination with live action. The influence of Harryhausen on film luminaries like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and...

I'll trade you two RKOs for two Warners', an even swap! This quartet of movie-magic wonderments offer a full course on old-school film effects wizardry at its best. Willis O'Brien passes the baton to disciple Ray Harryhausen, who dazzles us with his own effects magic for the first '50s giant monster epic. And the best monster thriller of the decade is offered at its original widescreen aspect ratio. It's all special enough to merit a mid-week review. Special Effects Collection Blu-ray The Son of Kong, Mighty Joe Young, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Them! Warner Home Video 1933-1954 / B&W / 1:37 Academy - 1:85 widescreen / 335 min. / Street Date October 27, 2015 / 54.96 or 19.98 separately Starring Robert Armstrong, Helen Mack,, Frank Reicher, Victor Wong; Robert Armstrong, Terry Moore, Ben Johnson, Frank McHugh; Paul Christian, Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway, Kenneth Tobey, Donald Woods, Lee Van Cleef; James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon, James Arness, Onslow Stevens,...

By Lee Pfeiffer 

The three Harry Palmer feature films (The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain) have had a rather cluttered history in terms of their video releases. Surprisingly, producer Harry Saltzman didn't stick with one studio in terms of their theatrical releases, as he did with the James Bond films which he co-produced with Cubby Broccoli. Instead, each of the Palmer films was financed by and released by a different studio. Thus, in the ensuing decades, the video rights to these films have been convoluted. The titles have remained consistently available to consumers in some countries, while in others (including the USA), they have appeared and disappeared from the marketplace for years at a time. Now the Warner Archive has reissued Paramount's original DVD version of Funeral in Berlin as a burn-to-order title. The original film, The Iprcress File, was internationally acclaimed as the "thinking man's 007" movie.

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman

Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, whose dazzling and innovative visual effects work on fantasy adventure films such as Jason And The Argonauts and The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad passed away last month at age 92. In 1933, the then-13-year-old Ray Harryhausen saw King Kong at a Hollywood theater and was inspired – not only by Kong, who was clearly not just a man in a gorilla suit, but also by the dinosaurs. He came out of the theatre “stunned and haunted. They looked absolutely lifelike … I wanted to know how it was done.” It was done by using stop-motion animation: jointed models filmed one frame at a time to simulate movement. Harryhausen was to become the prime exponent of the technique and its combination with live action. The influence of Harryhausen on film luminaries like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson,...

On the heels of the Toronto International Film Festival with its focus on the films and filmmakers of Mumbai, the Tiff Cinematheque presents, as part of its fall offerings, a series on the relationship between German Expressionist films and those of Indian cinema pre-Bollywood. Renowned Indian cinema curator Meenakshi Shedde presents a programme that highlights the links between Indian and German filmmaking, and includes a slate of films that illustrate a fantasy India as seen in German films such as Franz Osten’s Light of Asia as well as films that inspired and influenced Indian cinema, such as Josef von Sternberg’s classic 1930 film The Blue Angel, which was remade by V. Shantaram as Pinjra in 1972.

Indian Expressionism runs at the Tiff Bell Lightbox from November 14 to 21. Film screenings include (all information via the Tiff Press Office):

Wednesday, November 14 at 6:15 p.m.

Light of Asia (Prem Sanyas/Die Leuchte Asiens)

Franz Osten,...

Indian films influenced by German expressionism will be screened at a series titled ‘Indian Expressionism’ at the Toronto International Film Festival’s Bell LightBox. The film package, curated by Indian critic and consultant, Meenakshi Shedde will run from 14th to 21st November, 2012.

German Expressionism refers to a series of creative movements in Germany prior to the First World War. The movement sought for change by experimenting with bold, new ideas and artistic styles.

The films to be screened are:

Light of Asia (14th November, 6:15pm)

Hindi: Prem Sanyas / German: Die leuchte asiens

Dir.: Franz Osten / Starring: Himansu Rai and Seeta Devi

Light of Asia (1925) is an Indo-German co-production based on the life of Buddha. This is a silent film with English intertitles.

The Blue Angel (14th November, 8:30pm)

German: Der Blaue Engel

Dir.: Josef Sternberg / Starring: Marlene Dietrich and Emil Jannings

The Blue Angel (1930) is a German film with English subtitles.

Originally released in two separate parts (Der Tiger von Eschnapur & Das Inische Grabmal) and shown to audiences over two consecutive nights, Fritz Lang’s complete Indian Epic finally makes its way into UK homes via this splendid new DVD release from Masters of Cinema (Spine #106 & 107).

Part one (Der Tiger von Eschnapur) introduces us to the leads that form the three points of the central love triangle in this 3 hour plus, two part epic, a Western architect Harald Berger (Paul Hubschmid), mixed race dancer Seetha (Debra Paget) and Maharaja Chandra (Walter Reyer). While the plot and much of the dramatic tension hangs on the friction in the relationships between these three characters there is a distinct lack of romance across the two films and it is one of the film’s few weaknesses, and perhaps one of Lang’s career in general. Although the romantic feelings between the characters may be...

If you think Quentin Tarantino invented the splitting up of one movie into two then think again. Although it’s a trend at the moment, Fritz Lang pulled this stunt way back in 1958 with his Indian Epic.

Believing audiences would be bored sitting through a movie pushing four hours he and the producers re-cut it into two instalments: The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb. It's a strange reason, really, given it was produced during the age of the historical-religious epic.

Although leaving Nazi Germany for Hollywood in the mid 1930s and becoming a Us citizen Lang was enticed back to his homeland to make an exotic action adventure yarn set in India. After years of battling studios bosses and churning out, admittedly, excellent B-pictures, the project gave Lang an opportunity to paint a movie on a broad canvas much like he was allowed to do in the 1920s...

The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present this two-part adventure epic directed by the legendary Fritz Lang (Metropolis, M, etc) in the UK for the first time on home video. Widely regarded as one of the most beautiful colour films in the history of cinema, Der Tiger von Eschnapur / Das indische Grabmal (Fritz Lang’s Indian Epic) is released on DVD on 18 April 2011.

See synopsis and disc details below:

Synopsis:

Fritz Lang returned to Germany on the eve of the 1960s to direct this enchanted penultimate work, a redraft of the diptych form pioneered in such silent Lang classics as Die Spinnen; Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler.; and Die Nibelungen. Although no encapsulating title was lent at the time of release to what is, effectively, a single 3-hour-plus film split in two, the work that has come to be referred to in modern times as “the Indian epic” (consisting...