Kino Lorber has announced their October releases that they’ll be pumping out onto home video with the assistance of Scorpion Releasing, Code Red and Zeitgeist Films and man oh man do they have a good month planned!
As we near the end of the year I’m always fascinated to see what title home video distribution labels put out in the last quarter. If you’re looking to get something on a year end list putting it out closer to the end of the year makes the most sense. When titles are fresh on people’s minds, they tend to do better. Same basic concept that applies to theatrical releases and award’s season. I’m not sure if Kino Lorber operates with this mindset, but they’re putting out some titles in October that are likely to find themselves on one of my year end lists.
Per usual, Kino Lorber will be offering a lot of variety for the month of October by putting out some action, some docs, some drama, some comedies and anything else you can think of. A number of titles peak my fancy, including the new releases from the filmography of director Jean-Luc Godard, but the movie that rises above all the rest is Roy Colt and Winchester Jack. This is a western from Mario Bava and I love me some Mario Bava. Everything new Bava title I get to add to my collection, the closer I get to being complete as a person.
Check out the full range of titles and details below!
Kill and Kill Again (Scorpion Releasing, Blu-ray)
Blu-ray Street Date: October 3, 2017
Director: Ivan Hall
Starring: James Ryan, Anneline Kriel, Michael Mayer, Marloe Scott Wilson, Bill Flynn
1981 / Action / 100 min / PG / Color
Synopsis:
A Scorpion Release! James Ryan is back in this exciting sequel to the box office hit Kill or Be Killed, Ryan plays Steve Chase, a four-time World Martial Arts Champion. Chase is hired to save Nobel Prize winning chemist, Dr. Horatio Kane, from the hands of a demented billionaire named Marduk and his martial arts army. Steve enlists the aid of four martial arts experts, and is accompanied by Dr. Kane’s daughter, Kandy (Anneline Kriel, Someone Like You). En route to Marduk’s stronghold, they are ambushed, but finally make it to the fortress, only to be put in an arena to fight for their lives. The excitement builds to a thrilling and dramatic conclusion in this box office smash. Now see it for the first time in HD from a brand new master from the original IP.
Bonus Features:
Audio interview with star James Ryan | On-camera interview with writer John Crowther | Isolated music track from the original 3 track Mag sound | Original Theatrical Trailer
Harold & Lillian (Zeitgeist Films, Blu-ray and DVD)
Blu-ray and DVD Street Date: October 3, 2017
Director: Daniel Raim
Starring: Lillian Michelson, Harold Michelson, Danny DeVito
Documentary / 94 min / NR / Color
Synopsis:
Movie fans know the work of Harold and Lillian, even if they don’t recognize the names. Working largely uncredited in the Hollywood system, storyboard artist Harold and film researcher Lillian left and indelible mark on classics by Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Mel Brooks, Stanley Kubrick, Roman Polanski and many more. Through an engaging mix of love letters, film clips and candid conversations with Harold and Lillian, Danny DeVito, Mel Brooks, Francis Ford Coppola and others, this deeply engaging documentary from Academy Award nominated diretor Daniel Raim offers both a moving portrait of a marriage and a celebration of the unknown talents that help shape the films we love.
Bonus Features:
Deleted Scenes | Lillian’s Life Lessons | Harold’s Film School Seminar: Camera Angle Projection | Bonus short film: Storyboarding ‘The Graduate’ | Storyboards and Production Art | Booklet featuring original art and Filmmaker Magazine interview with director Daniel Raim | U.S. Theatrical Trailer
Roy Colt and Winchester Jack (1970) (Kino Classics, Blu-ray and DVD)
Blu-ray and DVD Street Date: October 10, 2017
Director: Mario Bava
Starring: Brett Halsey, Charles Southwood, Marilù Tolo
1970 / Comedy-Western / 85 min / NR / Color / Italian with optional English subtitles
Synopsis:
An unlikely film from the maestro of European horror, Roy Colt and Winchester Jack is a ribald comedy that spoofs the newly-minted conventions of the spaghetti Western. Brett Halsey and Charles Southwood star as two brawling buddies in search of a cache of gold coins. Along the way, they compete for the affection of a Native American woman (Marilù Tolo) but join forces when confronted by a common enemy: a maniacal Reverend-turned-gangleader (Teodoro Corrà)
Bonus Features:
New 2K restoration from the original 35mm negative | Italian dialogue with optional English subtitles | Audio commentary by Tim Lucas, author of Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark | Partial English-language soundtrack | Original intermission cards
Deadly Hero (Code Red, DVD)
DVD Street Date: October 10, 2017
Director: Ivan Nagy
Starring: Don Murray, James Earl Jones, Treat Williams, Lilia Skala, Hank Garrett, Josh Mostel, Danny DeVito, Beverly Johnson, Debbie Harry
1975 / Action / 102 min / R / Color
Synopsis:
A Code Red Release! Don Murray (Hoodlum Priest, Bus Stop) plays Lacy, a blatantly bigoted New York cop, whose rabid hatred forces him into a bloody rampage in order to save himself and his job in this gritty and riveting 1975 cop drama. This controversial cop drama dealing with racial tensions was way ahead of its time and is even more relevant in today’s precarious social climate. James Earl Jones (The Great White Hope, Star Wars) and Treat Williams (Prince of the City, Once Upon a Time in America) co-star in this tough, underrated New York Cop film, directed by Ivan Nagy (Skinner) and written by Don Petersen (Target).
Bonus Features:
Interview with star Don Murray | Interview with director Ivan Nagy
Maniac! (aka Assault on Paradise) (Code Red, Blu-ray and DVD)
DVD Street Date: October 10, 2017
Director: Richard Compton
Starring: Oliver Reed, Deborah Raffin, James Mitchum, Stuart Whitman, John Ireland, Paul Koslo
1977 / Action / 90 min / PG / Color
Synopsis:
A Code Red Release! A Native American (Paul Koslo, Mr. Majestyk, The Laughing Policeman) travels around a resort town, murdering cops and rich people with a high-powered crossbow, while demanding that the town’s richest residents pay him money to stop the killings. The richest man in town (Stuart Whitman, Eaten Alive, Strange Shadows In An Empty Room) hires a mercenary (Oliver Reed, Burnt Offerings, The Hunting Party) and a tracker (Jim Mitchum, Trackdown, Blackout, Moonrunners) to stop this mad man, while a reporter (Deborah Raffin, The Dove, The Sentinel, God Told Me To) gets close to the story. Also starring John Ireland (The Incubus, Tomorrow Never Comes, Welcome To Arrow Beach) and directed by Richard Compton (Macon County Line, Welcome Home Soldier Boys) now watch this action classic in widescreen for the first time, from a brand new HD master.
Bonus Features:
Interview with actor Paul Koslo | Audio commentary with producer Peter Macgregor-Scott | Alternate credits
La Chinoise (Kino Classics, Blu-ray and DVD)
Blu-ray and DVD Street Date: October 17, 2017
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Starring: Anne Wiazemsky, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Juliet Berto
1967 / Comedy-Drama / 96 min / NR / Color / French with English subtitles
Synopsis:
La Chinoise is a pop-art masterpiece by Jean-Luc Godard that both channels and parodies the revolutionary energies of Paris in 1967. Disillusioned by their suburban lifestyles, a group of middle-class students, led by Guillaume (Jean-Pierre Léaud) and Véronique (Anne Wiazemsky), form a small Maoist cell and plan to change the world by any means necessary. After studying the growth of communism in China, the students decide they must use terrorism and violence to ignite their own revolution.
Bonus Features:
Booklet essays by Richard Hell and Amy Taubin | Audio commentary by film historian James Quandt | Trailers | Interviews with actor Michel Semeniako, Asssistant director Charles Bitsch | 2nd assistant director Jean-Claude Sussfeld
Le gai savoir (Kino Classics, Blu-ray and DVD)
Blu-ray and DVD Street Date: October 17, 2017
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Starring: Juliet Berto, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Jean-Luc Godard
1969 / Drama / 92 min / NR / Color / French with English subtitles
Synopsis:
While alone in an abandoned television studio, two militants, Émile Rousseau (Jean-Pierre Léaud) and Patricia Lumumba (Juliet Berto), have a discourse on language. Referring to spoken word as “the enemy” – the weapon used by the establishment to confuse liberation movements – the two deconstruct the meanings of sounds and images in an attempt to “return to zero” and truly experience the joy of learning.
Bonus Features:
Booklet essays by Richard Hell and Adam Nayman | Trailers | Audio Commentary by Film Critic Adrian Martin
Titanic (Kino Classics, Blu-ray and DVD)
Blu-ray and DVD Street Date: October 17, 2017
Director: Herbert Selpin
Starring: Sybille Schmitz, Hans Nielsen, Kirsten Heiberg
1943 / Action-Drama / 85 min / NR / B&W / German with English subtitles
Synopsis:
Launched in the midst of World War II, this epic production was intended as a Grand Hotel on the Atlantic, filled with romance and intrigue, laced with strong anti-British and -American sentiment, and climaxing with a spectacular recreation of humankind’s most notorious maritime disaster. But the Tobis production was almost as doomed as the ocean liner itself, with the arrest and subsequent “suicide” of director Herbert Selpin (replaced by an uncredited Werner Klingler). For years, Titanic was withheld from release (largely because its scenes of panic might be demoralizing to wartime audiences), though some of the effects footage did appear, uncredited, in the 1958 British film A Night to Remember. Restored in 2004 by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, Titanic can now take its place among the most important disaster films of the 20th Century.
Bonus Features:
Audio commentary by Gaylyn Studlar, co-editor of Titanic: Anatomy of a Blockbuster | Original 1912 Newsreel | White Star Line promotional film, offering a tour of the Olympic, Titanic’s sister ship | Theatrical Trailer
Revenge of the Dead (Code Red, DVD)
DVD Street Date: October 17, 2017
Director: Pupi Avati
Starring: Gabriele Lavia, Anne Canovas, Paola Tanziani, Cesare Barbetti, Bob Tonelli
1983 / Horror / 89 min / R / Color
Synopsis:
A Code Red Release! Mystery, science fiction and horror fuel this pulse-pounding supernatural thriller from Italian director Pupi Avati (House of the Laughing Windows). Not your usual zombie flick, but a thought-provoking puzzler steeped in ancient mysteries, Revenge of the Dead will make you believe the dead can walk again. Stefano, a budding novelist, (Gabrielle Lavia, Beyond The Door, Deep Red) receives the innocent gift of a used typewriter from his wife on their wedding anniversary. While changing the ribbon, he discovers the typed imprint of writing left by the previous owner. Fascinated by this startling essay, Stefano uncovers the experiments of scientist Paolo Zeder whose claims of places where death ceases to exist intrigue the young writer. Obsessed with finding the truth about Zeder’s theories, Stefano is led on a terrifying journey where he is confronted with an occult conspiracy to reanimate the dead! Now see this terrifying tale in HD!
Bonus Features:
Interview with director Pupi Avati | Interview with Star Gabriella Lavia
The Terror Within II (Code Red, DVD)
DVD Street Date: October 17, 2017
Director: Andrew Stevens
Starring: Andrew Stevens, Stella Stevens, Chick Vennera, R. Lee Ermey, Barbara Alyn Woods
1991 / Horror / 90 min / R / Color
Synopsis:
A Code Red Release! In this exciting sequel to The Terror Within, Andrew Stevens (The Fury, 10 to Midnight, The Seduction) returns in a world gone mad as the last human colony struggles to survive underground beneath a land of nightmarish mutants who seek to destroy them. But when the mutant break occurs inside humanity’s final stronghold, the battle for survival pits the human colonists against their deadly invaders miles below the earth’s surface. Also starring R. Lee Ermey (The Rift, Full Metal Jacket, Fletch Lives), Stella Stevens (The Manitou, Arnold, Slaughter), Barbara Alyn Woods (TV’s One Tree Hill and Honey I Shrunk the Kids), Chick Vennera (High Risk, Yanks), Burton Gilliam (Blazing Saddles) and Clare Hoak (Masque Of The Red Death). Now see this terrifying sequel in HD! Directed by the film’s star Andrew Stevens (Illicit Dreams, Scorned, Night Eyes Three).
Bonus Features:
Interview with star R. Lee Ermey
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World (Kino Lorber, DVD)
DVD Street Date: October 24, 2017
Director: Catherine Bainbridge, Alfonso Maiorana
Starring: George Clinton, Pura Fe, David Fricke
Documentary / 102 min / NR / Color
Synopsis:
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World is a revelatory documentary brings to light the profound and overlooked influence of Indigenous people on popular music in North America. Focusing on music icons like Link Wray, Jimi Hendrix, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Taboo (The Black Eyed Peas), Charley Patton, Mildred Bailey, Jesse Ed Davis, Robbie Robertson, and Randy Castillo, Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World shows how these pioneering Native American musicians helped shape the soundtracks of our lives.
Bonus Features:
Additional Interviews | Chicago Slideshow Lecture | Discussion at Pace Gallery | From Sketch to Painting | Journal Sketches Slideshow | Memorial Event Excerpts | Struggles being a Female Artist
They Call Me Bruce? (Code Red, Blu-ray and DVD)
Blu-ray and DVD Street Date: October 24, 2017
Director: Elliott Hong
Starring: Johnny Yune, Margaux Hemingway, Raf Mauro, Lee Delano, John Fujioka, Marsha Warfield
1982 / Comedy / 87 min / PG / Color
Synopsis:
A Code Red Release! Enter the Dragon meets The Three Stooges in this uproarious comedy that The New York Times called “A Hysterically Insane and Inane Comedy Send-Up”. They Call Me Bruce is an outrageous comedy caper that takes on the mob, the FBI and just about everything else and leaves you holding your sides with laughter. This zany comedy features the celebrated Korean comic Johnny Yune (They Still Call Me Bruce) as a bumbling Bruce Lee lookalike who secretly dreams of emulating the Kung Fu king. This lovable klutz finally gets his chance when his job as an Italian chef takes him unsuspectingly into the dangerous world of the mafia. His new bosses send him off across the country delivering what “Bruce” thinks is Chinese flour, but is really cocaine. Along the way, poor “Bruce” is pursued by a wild assortment of characters, including Margaux Hemingway (Lipstick, Killer Fish) as a gangster moll who wants his precious cargo. Directed by Elliott Hong (Kill the Golden Goose).
The Salamander (Scorpion Releasing, Blu-ray & DVD)
Blu-ray and DVD Street Date: October 31, 2017
Director: Peter Zinner
Starring: Franco Nero, Anthony Quinn, Christopher Lee, Claudia Cardinale, Eli Wallach, Martin Balsam, Sybil Danning, Cleavon Little, Paul Smith
1981 / Mystery / 103 min / NR / Color
Synopsis:
A Scorpion Release! An all-star cast heads this suspense-filled movie based on Morris West’s best selling novel of political intrigue and love! In the dark underworld of treasonous Italian politics, finance and high society, Special Agent Dante (Franco Nero, Street Law, Django) must investigate the mysterious murder of a high-ranking general where the only clue at the murder scene is a calling card bearing the crest of The Salamander. Dante soon discovers a conspiracy trail leading straight to top government officials, his own superiors, and must rely on his wits to survive. Also starring screen legends Anthony Quinn (The Passage), Christopher Lee (Killer Force), Eli Wallach (Firepower) with Martin Balsam (The Stone Killer), Sybil Danning (Howling 2), Cleavon Little (Blazing Saddles), Paul Smith (Midnight Express), John Steiner (Cut And Run) and screen goddess Claudia Cardinale (Once Upon A Time In The West), with a score by the great Jerry Goldsmith (The Omen). Now see it for the first time in HD and Widescreen.
Bonus Features:
Audio commentary with producer Paul Maslansky | Original Theatrical Trailer
