Kino Lorber Studio Classics Acquisitions

[Feego]

I'm a bigger fan of Mae West than most (or pretty much anyone) around here, though I will admit her films are not good and that her one-note persona is not enough to carry a picture. For that reason, if you have to see one West film, I recommend her very first, Night After Night. I wrote it up here for the Pre-Code list, as well as She Done Him Wrong and I'm No Angel. Night After Night benefits from casting West in a supporting role so that you get everything you get in one of her vehicles but in a more succinct and, for some, tolerable dose. It's no masterpiece, but I found it a fun pre-coder with colorful characters and atmosphere.

[Aunt Peg]

My favourite Mae West line is "No such thing as a good girl gone bad.....only bad girls found out."

[ianthemovie]

Surprised they wouldn't do these in multi-volume boxsets. I've only seen She Done Him Wrong which was awful enough that I never bothered to track down any more Mae West films. Are any of the others recommended? I do have the last film in a WC Fields boxset that I just haven't gotten to yet.

I seem to recall My Little Chickadee being somewhat amusing as a parody of Stagecoach (it even has Donald Meek). It's helped immensely by the creative input of Fields. If I recall correctly it's predicated on the joke that West is all too willing to be ravished by the masked man who everyone else in the film sees as a rapist and the robber of her "virtue."

Her appearance in Myra Breckinridge--in which she performs a rap number called "You Gotta Taste All the Fruits" right before Raquel Welch pegs Roger Herren with a strap-on--is so bad it's not even so-bad-it's good.

[dwk]

Kino announced that they are releasing The Widow Couderc from a new 4K restoration.

[knives]

Going back to our Mae West discussion, I snapped on Klondike Annie this morning and not only is it the best West film I’ve seen, not much of a distinction, but a genuinely good film with a violent edge and harshness befitting director Walsh’s reputation. West’s hands are all over this, but it’s not really a comedy so much a von Sternberg like drama of femme fatale ripping apart the illusion of machismo with some snappy lines thrown in. It’s a mature and intelligent script by West that breaks down ideas of liberalism with a moralizing force on it. She starts off as a Rousseau and through a Calvin is able to become a sort of Malcolm X.

[DarkImbecile]

Ongoing and very enlightening audio commentary discussion moved here

[captveg]

More OOP based on previously being in the "While Supplies Last" sale and now no longer appearing on the website:

Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970) (DVD) (BD is also OOP)

EDIT: They must have tracked down some copies because as of 3/2/21 the DVD version is back on the website.

[captveg]

More OOP based on previously being in the "While Supplies Last" sale and now no longer appearing on the website:

Flesh + Blood (1985) (DVD) (BD is also OOP)
Solarbabies (1986) (DVD) (BD is also OOP)

[Glowingwabbit]

Big announcement of an underseen Lubitsch!!! Also known as The Man I Killed.

Coming Soon!
Brand New 2K Master!

Broken Lullaby (1932) Starring Lionel Barrymore, Nancy Carroll & Zazu Pitts – Shot by Victor Milner (Cleopatra) – Screenplay by Samson Raphaelson (Suspicion) and Ernest Vajda (The Merry Widow) – Directed by Ernst Lubitsch (To Be or Not to Be).

[soundchaser]

I thought this one was just ok when I marathoned Lubitsch's sound films last year, but maybe I'll get something more out of it on a second go. It's quite tonally different from anything else he ever did, I think.

[Glowingwabbit]

I thought this one was just ok when I marathoned Lubitsch's sound films last year, but maybe I'll get something more out of it on a second go. It's quite tonally different from anything else he ever did, I think.

Definitely strikes a different tone. Probably best watched on It's own. It's also just a title I never thought would get a restoration and blu ray release.

I should add that my second viewing of the film gave me greater appreciation of it.

[Gregory]

Starring Lionel Barrymore, Nancy Carroll & Zazu Pitts

ZaSu Pitts, from Eliza Susan, and it's misleading to claim she had a starring role in this.

[swo17]

Glad they're rescuing this from MOD purgatory

[knives]

I thought this one was just ok when I marathoned Lubitsch's sound films last year, but maybe I'll get something more out of it on a second go. It's quite tonally different from anything else he ever did, I think.

Alternatively, I think it is one of his best and easily his best drama.

[FrauBlucher]

They announced Milos forman's Man on the Moon for release over the summer

[domino harvey]

I’m shocked that one wasn’t already out on Blu

[captveg]

More OOP based on previously being in the "While Supplies Last" sale and now no longer appearing on the website:

Figures in a Landscape (1970) (DVD still available)
Slam Dance (1987) (DVD still available)

[JSC]

Moshé Mizrahi's Madame Rosa and Jacques Doillon's Ponette have just gone up as pre-orders for May.

[FrauBlucher]

Moshé Mizrahi's Madame Rosa and Jacques Doillon's Ponette have just gone up as pre-orders for May.

This should probably go in the Kino thread

[JSC]

Thanks, should've caught that. I just put it in the Kino thread.

[captveg]

More OOP based on previously being in the "While Supplies Last" sale and now no longer appearing on the website:

Diggstown (1992) (DVD still available)

[dwk]

Kino back on their old shit, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia looks like it is the old master used for the TT Blu not the 4K Arrow master that Kino advertised

[Gerald Christie]

I already have the excellent Arrow bluray but this is definitely disappointing for the Region A community. Let's just wait and see what Kino will end up doing. Maybe they will surprise us... Ha! I doubt it, but you never know.
I think it just goes to show you the nature of Kino. I find it quite telling that despite all the years they have been doing this and all the titles they have released as a label they still aren't as recognized and don't amount to much. I won't deny that they haven't done a lot, in terms of all the restorations they have commissioned (which other labels have used) and bringing out titles that normally wouldn't have seen the light of day (tv films like Trilogy of Terror come to mind). That being said, if a certain title is released by Kino and another label at the same time, I will always prefer or go to the other label and that says a lot. I just can't put my finger on it, but I kind of feel that they are lacking in a way and this newest development certainly doesn't help.

[EddieLarkin]

I guess they're really skimping on QC? Surely the most basic check any label should be doing when releasing a disc that has earlier editions is to compare them, or at least compare to screengrabs if discs cannot be sourced. The quickest way to ensure complaints and demands for an expensive replacement programme, is to release a Blu-ray with a major technically failing and then send it to DVDBeaver to show everyone! It really baffles me how not a single person in the company ran a quick check, especially when they surely knew two different masters were out there.

Same thing happened to Indicator with the Sinbad film, though in that instance there was only the one master previously released and so they had no reason to think they wouldn't receive that superior one. But something tells me there's almost no chance they'll let it happen again.

[andyli]

To be fair this sort of thing does happen. MoC failed to deliver the promised 4K transfer of Five Graves to Cairo, and in that instance it was Kino who kept their end of the bargain.