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Ugh, The Fury is not a good film at all. Probably one of my least favorite De Palma's, although I'm not a huge fan of his to begin with. I did, however, also watch Body Double last night, which I actually enjoyed very much. Typical of De Palma, the film owes a lot to Hitchcock and never really rises above its B-movie roots, though I still found myself really entertained. I found it interesting that the film opened around the same time as Ken Russell's Crimes of Passion, a similar film in tone and content.

Planning on pre-ordering Body Double tomorrow, along with Sexy Beast and The Disappearance, the later of which will be a blind buy, as it's not too easy to come across that title.

I'm hoping to watch Rapture tonight off of YouTube, and if I like it enough, I'll order that one too.

Body Double is a lot like Raising Cain - it was a "fuck you" to Hollywood after a problem film, in this case Scarface. DePalma said about BD after the ratings problems on Scarface that "If they want to see an X I'll give them an X!" The irony being, BD passed at R on it's first try...

I love DePalma and Body Double is a fun movie. I just found Susan Dworkin's book about the making of it for a dollar down in Long Beach, and I hope it's even half as good as the book about Bonfire of the Vanities. I'm on the fence on getting this one but I just might take the plunge if I want it enough after reading that book. Doubt this one will sell out in pre-order, but who knows.

I don't know if it's to your taste at all, especially if you didn't find The Driver a necessary purchase, but I watched Hard Times yesterday and would definitely recommend that to anyone with a taste for a tightly directed and philosophically consistent 70's action flick. I don't know if this is a really superficial or obvious observation, but having never seen a Charles Bronson film, I was struck by how much Kitano's classic "silent tough guy" persona owes to him, at least in this film... I liked this very much and would grab it without hesitation if it was on Olive - it's really sad that TT have such good taste in films and no business acumen at all.

Please post your thoughts when you get around to Rapture! I'm still bothered by that film and will rewatch soon.

repeat wrote:I don't know if it's to your taste at all, especially if you didn't find The Driver a necessary purchase, but I watched Hard Times yesterday and would definitely recommend that to anyone with a taste for a tightly directed and philosophically consistent 70's action flick.

Just ordered the DVD of Hard Times from my library earlier today. Will be watching within within the next week or so and then deciding if it warrants a purchase.

repeat wrote:Please post your thoughts when you get around to Rapture!

Will be sure to do so. I ended up watching a few other films tonight (Fear X and The Friends of Eddie Coyle), so I'll hopefully be catching Rapture tomorrow, before I purchase the latest TT titles.

From the TT Facebook page, the following page is a part of the Drums Along the Mohawk booklet and so the documentary itself must be one of the extras.

From TT's FB page:

Just as an FYI, TT's DVD of THE LEFT HAND OF GOD, a terrific little drama starring Humphrey Bogart, Gene Tierney, and Lee J. Cobb, is now down to less than 500 units remaining...well-worth checking out with tomorrow's pre-orders while stocks last...

Yes, TT has previously confirmed Becoming John Ford is an extra on Drums Along The Mohawk.

Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing review at The Arts Shelf

I was just about to submit an order for The Disappearance when I noticed it's DVD only. For $29.99 before postage?!!! Forget it.

It's not a DVD, it's just mislabeled

And the DVD icon is the only part that's mislabled. The image of the Blu-ray disc with the art and the listing in the shopping cart are correct.

It's probably a mistake.

AUDIO: English 1.0 DTS-HD MA MONO , Number: TWILIGHT54-BR and picture point to it being a blu-ray.

It does apparently feature a "Director's Cut" of the film in SD though:

Special Features: Isolated Score Track / An Interview with Stuart Cooper (10.00) / THE DISAPPEARANCE Original Director's Cut (101 minutes) presented in standard definition / An excerpt from the re-edited and re-scored U.S. release version (15.27) presented in standard definition

The HD feature presentation is presumably the theatrical cut; it runs 91 minutes.

Yeah, it's quite clearly a mistake. I should have looked closer before cancelling my order and going for Body Double instead. Now I've had to order both in a new order and email Twilight Time asking for a refund of the first order (to save $7.50 in postage). What a hassle.

Having just clicked through my purchase, I do admit to feeling a bit misled on The Disappearance. I had assumed anything like the "director's cut" would be 1) the primary cut on the disc and 2) in HD. Then again, this is Twilight Time, where extras vanish from an otherwise solid release like Major Dundee and absurd decisions to put out substandard A/V like the butchered DVD-only presentation of Violent Saturday often win out over a more patient and rigorous release strategy.

Graham wrote:Yeah, it's quite clearly a mistake. I should have looked closer before cancelling my order and going for Body Double instead. Now I've had to order both in a new order and email Twilight Time asking for a refund of the first order (to save $7.50 in postage). What a hassle.

Twilight Time have just refunded me. Credit where credit's due (pun noted), that's a lightning quick response. Impressed.

I don't believe the director's cut has ever been released on home video before, so it may be the case it isn't available in HD. It's not like TT have set a precedent of doing this, indeed they've previously only ever presented alternate versions of their films in HD.

The only other release of this film is a 4x3 DVD in the UK (of the theatrical version). TT say on their facebook that the Region A encoding (I think this is their only disc that isn't region free) is due to there being plans for a new The Disappearance release in the UK (possibly just a reissue of the old disc, which is OOP and going for nearly £100 new on Amazon), but that as far as they know it will be DVD only.

Have any of you seen The Disappearance before, or is it going to be a blind buy for all? I'm considering blind buying it myself, though it would be reassuring if anyone could tell me their thoughts on the film...

Given its scarcity I'm sure most are buying this out of faith in the director.

Ah, eff it. Pre-ordered The Disappearance, Sexy Beast, and Body Double. Also added Rapture to the mix, although I didn't get to watch that one yet.

Total cost: $127. Damn, TT is expensive. I bought 4 Criterions from Barnes and Noble yesterday for only $78.

Twilight Time hinted on their Facebook page that they will be releasing The Lion in Winter.

Edit: They now say that they haven't confirmed anything yet, though the mysterious nature of their comments leads me to believe that they may have this one in the pipeline...

This is the second time someone's mentioned an autographed giveaway AFTER the time to buy it has passed. Can those of you who clearly follow the TT Facebook page please give us a heads-up in this thread the next time this happens?

So with the Arrow usurptions, is nothing stopping Sony in the UK from releasing all of the "exclusive" Twilight Time titles since Fox has no prob licensing theirs out? I could at least understand only licensing titles to non-english speaking countries, but if the UK's getting them, what's the point?

domino harvey wrote:So with the Arrow usurptions, is nothing stopping Sony in the UK from releasing all of the "exclusive" Twilight Time titles since Fox has no prob licensing theirs out? I could at least understand only licensing titles to non-english speaking countries, but if the UK's getting them, what's the point?

They've already released Philadelphia in the U.K, and Oliver! has been announced. I don't even think either are region locked. But they came from Sony themselves, rather than a third party. Who in the U.K. has a distribution deal with Sony?

domino harvey wrote:This is the second time someone's mentioned an autographed giveaway AFTER the time to buy it has passed. Can those of you who clearly follow the TT Facebook page please give us a heads-up in this thread the next time this happens?

I'll try to.

domino harvey wrote:So with the Arrow usurptions, is nothing stopping Sony in the UK from releasing all of the "exclusive" Twilight Time titles since Fox has no prob licensing theirs out? I could at least understand only licensing titles to non-english speaking countries, but if the UK's getting them, what's the point?

The Arrow disc, like all of their MGM-sourced titles, will be locked to Region B. And I know rather fewer multiregion BD users than I do multiregion DVD ones.