Codename: Wildgeese - VHS Trailer

 

Stranger and The Gunfighter - Black and White Press Photos (part 2)

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Grand Duel - Swedish VHS Trailer

 

Return of Sabata - Star-Ciné Aventures, 244, May 1972

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High Noon Coming to 4K UHD

LVC's debut, is coming to 4K on April 16th from Kino Lorber

Screen legend Gary Cooper (Vera Cruz) won the 1952 Oscar for Best Actor in this classic tale of an aging lawman who stands alone to defend a town of righteous cowards in one of the greatest showdowns in the history of cinema. The movie also marks the first starring role for a beautiful young actress who went on to become one of Hollywood’s most beloved icons—Grace Kelly (The Country Girl). Produced by Stanley Kramer (Inherit the Wind), directed by Fred Zinnemann (From Here to Eternity) and written for the screen by Carl Foreman (The Bridge on the River Kwai), High Noon garnered a total of 4 Academy Awards, including Best Score for Dimitri Tiomkin (Rio Bravo), and now stands high as one of the most cherished and influential films of all time. Western favorites Thomas Mitchell (Stagecoach), Lloyd Bridges (Canyon Passage), Katy Jurado (Arrowhead), Otto Kruger (Duel in the Sun), Lon Chaney Jr. (The Indian Fighter), Henry Morgan (The Ox-Bow Incident), Jack Elam (Support Your Local Sheriff) and Lee Van Cleef (For a Few Dollars More) round out the rousing cast.

Special Features:

DISC 1 (4KUHD):

• Brand NEW HDR/Dolby Vision Master – From a 4K Scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative

• NEW Audio Commentary by Author/Film Historian Alan K. Rode

• NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historian/Writer Julie Kirgo

• Triple-Layered UHD100 Disc

• Optional English Subtitles

DISC 2 (BLU-RAY):

• Brand NEW HD Master – From a 4K Scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative

• NEW Audio Commentary by Author/Film Historian Alan K. Rode

• NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historian/Writer Julie Kirgo

• A Ticking Clock: Featurette (5:53)

• A Stanley Kramer Production: Featurette (14:00)

• Imitation of Life - The Blacklist History of High Noon: Featurette (9:27)

• Ulcers and Oscars - The Production History of High Noon: Featurette (12:02)

• Uncitizened Kane: Featurette (11:01)

• The Making of High Noon: Featurette (22:11)

• Theatrical Trailer

• Dual-Layered BD50 Disc

• Optional English Subtitles

Order at amazon.com

Return of Sabata - Fotogramas September 1972

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Stranger and Gunfighter - Posters (part 2)

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El Condor - Italian Photobustas (part 2)

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Stranger and Gunfighter - German Lobby Cards (part 2)

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Death Rides a Horse - CINE REVUE 1968

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Blu-ray Review: Stranger & Gunfighter (Germany)

 

The Stranger and The Gunfighter, aka Blood Money, or in this case In meiner Wut wieg‘ ich vier Zentner was recently released on Blu-ray in Germany by Explosive Media.  Don't let the black case fool you, this is not a 4k disc.  

This is the second blu-ray of this film released, with the first being a sub-par Spanish disc put out in 2015.

 

Main Menu

 

 

VIDEO:

Advertised as coming from a brand new 2k master, the overall image has a lot to be desired.  Likely this is due to the print used.  Color is somewhat faded, with an overall sepia tone.  Have you ever watched a DVD or Blu-ray where the movie looks great, and when you go to watch the trailer on the disc, the image looks muddy, washed out?  The opposite is true on this disc... the trailer (part of the extras) looks better than the actual movie.  This might be the same print used from the 2015 disc, just rescanned.

Overall it is a disappointing transfer, although it is better than the 2015 blu-ray that Divisa put out in Spain.  I hope Kino Lorber may get this one in the US, and get a nice print.

 

Screencaps below (click to enlarge!) -

 

Below is a comparison between this blu-ray, the Spanish 2015 blu-ray, and a DVD version (La Brute, Le Colt, Et Le Karate). 

Explosive Media Blu-ray (Germany)

Divisa Blu-ray (Spain)

 

DVD

 

 

AUDIO:

 

The audio is available in German, Italian, and English.

 

 

EXTRAS:

• Audio commentary with film historian Lee Broughton (in English)
• Slideshow of posters and promotional stills
• Missing scenes from Italian version (the disc feature is from a Spanish print)
• Trailer of The Stranger and The Gunfighter
• Trailer reel of other Explosive Media releases

 

I am still hopeful this film one day gets a better release, but it can fill a hole in your LVC blu-ray collection.

THE GOOD:

• English language
• Decent extras

THE BAD:

• Poor overall image
• Expensive

 

Full stats and ordering info- 

 

• Language: German, Italian, English
• Subtitles: German, English
• Number of discs: 1
• Studio: Explosive Media
• Run Time: 100 minutes

Order on amazon.de

Sabata - Spanish Program

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Day of Anger - French Program

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Lee Van Cleef Combats Hollywood ‘Heavy’ Image - May 12, 1974

 

The Marshall News Messenger

Marshall, Texas

By Nancy Anderson

May 12, 1974

HOLLYWOOD – When Lee Van Cleef walked down that dusty street in “High Noon” to take aim at Gary Cooper, he was making his first movie.

 And, less fortunately, he was establishing a screen image which eventually drove him out of the country. For how could any red-blooded all-American movie fan accept as a hero a guy who’d try to don Coop?

Nobody as it turned out, could, and Lee Van Cleef who often a suave sweetheart of a fellow had to move to Italy to erase the onus.

There he was so successful that for some years now Europeans have accepted him as both romantic and heroic while demanding to see more and more of his films.

But back ome he’s still fighting his “bad man” image, an enemy almost as hard to vanquish as the “High Noon” lawman.

Lee defines the modern screen here as “a leading man human enough to be jealous, have fears and show anger, unlike the perfect ‘pretty-boy’ hero image of earlier films”. And that’s what he’d like to play, a character who’s not all bad, not all good and who’s a challenge to an actor.

But domestic film makers have been slow to offer such roles.

In fact they are making so few pictures of late that they’re slow offering roles of any kind to anyone.

“I’m in California now” Van Cleef said recently, sipping his drink in a San Fernando Valley restaurant, “because I have a home here. I amn an American you know. I love America. I want to stay here when I’m not working in Europe, but I have to go where the work’s available.”

“I like living in California but I don’t turn pictures down just to stay here. I only turn down scripts when they don’t satisfy me.”

That he’s reached a pinnacle from which he can pick and choose scripts is rather surprising considering the fact that he began his professional life as a time and motion study engineer in his home town of Sommerville, N.J.

It was only after some persuasion that, in the 1940a, he took a fling at amateur theatricals. However, having sampled stagecraft, he found that he liked it so much that when he was introduced to producer Josh Logan and offered a chance to read for “Mr. Roberts,” he took it and got a part with the road company.

Van Cleef had looked upon the tryout for the professional stage as a lark, but it led to a18-month tour which included a stop at the Los Angeles Biltmore and from there on to “High Noon”.

“That’s where Stanley Kramer saw me,” Van Cleef remembered. “He saw me and said, “This arrogant S.O.B. I need.’

“Well, he found out just how arrogant I was when he tried to cast me, because he wanted me to do the Lloyd Bridges part, that of the deputy sheriff to Cooper, and I told him what he could do with it.’

“Then he suggested I get my nose fixed, and I told him what he could do again only in another area.’

“The next day he called me and said he wanted me to play the villain, and I said, ‘Great. That’s what I’m built for.’”

Day of Anger - German Program

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