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Coming next month on BD: Beyond a Reasonable Doubt and While the City Sleeps

Two of Lang's worst!

domino harvey wrote:Two of Lang's worst!

I have to agree... wake me when they announce Human Desire.

Well, I like While the City Sleeps, and it was one of his own favorites. This is welcome because the DVD looked soft as hell. The UK DVD is possibly in the wrong aspect ratio (it's not matted to widescreen, and even then it seems to be losing some portions on the side), but the image on that disc is much sharper, as if it came from the OCN while the Warner Archive DVD came from a bad dupe. I hope they rectify all of this because it'll be the first time the film's been presented in the best possible quality for home viewing.

mteller wrote:wake me when they announce Human Desire.

Human Desire is with Sony. I believe the other Lang films Warner has are Clash by Night, Fury, Moonfleet, and Rancho Notorious.

Just discovered that David Bordwell addressed the different aspect ratios of While the City Sleeps on his blog in December 2010.

FWIW, Dave Kehr actually champions While the City Sleeps in one of his essays on Lang in When Movies Mattered: Reviews from a Transformative Decade where he actually expressed a preference for Lang's American films over his German films.

Well While the City Sleeps made it to no 14 on this forum's Lang List project, it was in a few people's top 10 and my top 4, so not exactly among his worst!

Count me among the camp that likes these two films, and is excited to see them coming to Blu-ray. I'm hoping that more archive DVD only titles of this nature will hit Blu-ray - the strawberry blonde, Wichita, stars in my crown, and so many more are exciting prospects.

What A Disgrace wrote:Count me among the camp that likes these two films, and is excited to see them coming to Blu-ray. I'm hoping that more archive DVD only titles of this nature will hit Blu-ray - the strawberry blonde, Wichita, stars in my crown, and so many more are exciting prospects.

Same here, especially with the three you mentioned. Wichita alone looks horrible on whatever the hell was used for their DVD.

david hare wrote:on the much loathed HTF

Ok, i understand the loathing of most people about bluray.com.
But, is there any thread here that explains the loathing towards HTF?

captveg wrote:

mteller wrote:wake me when they announce Human Desire.

Human Desire is with Sony. I believe the other Lang films Warner has are Clash by Night, Fury, Moonfleet, and Rancho Notorious.

I like While the City Sleeps a lot but I would commit murder for a blu-ray of Fury

The optimist in me continues to assume that the great films of the 20s and 30s not on blu ray are mostly due to lack of quality elements, and not studio indifference.

hearthesilence wrote:FWIW, Dave Kehr actually champions While the City Sleeps in one of his essays on Lang in When Movies Mattered: Reviews from a Transformative Decade where he actually expressed a preference for Lang's American films over his German films.

The Cahiers crowd adored these two movies as well (Rivette even gave Beyond a Reasonable Doubt the coveted “masterpiece” rating on le conseil des dix), so I guess I always assumed that they were generally regarded as two of Lang’s best. My surprise at finding that’s not the case here probably says more about my rather hermetic reading habits than it does the opinions of this board, though...

Rivette's review is one of the silliest works of film criticism (if one can call it that) ever penned

domino harvey wrote:Rivette's review is one of the silliest works of film criticism (if one can call it that) ever penned

I’m not familiar enough with Rivette’s filmography to go as far as Rosenbaum does here, and maybe I’m just used to wading through Godard and Rivette’s hammy obtuseness, but I certainly don’t find that review unreadable or even uninsightful (not that you said it was either).

captveg wrote:

mteller wrote:wake me when they announce Human Desire.

Human Desire is with Sony. I believe the other Lang films Warner has are Clash by Night, Fury, Moonfleet, and Rancho Notorious.

Human Desire has a very nice 1080p rip floating around online. Is this streaming on Amazon in the US?

It's streaming in HD on .co.uk too but it's not included in Prime. £3.49 to rent or £7.49 to buy digital.

The artwork, year, and cast and crew details are for the Lang, but the description tantalising reads, "Centerfold Shannon Tweed stars in this story of lust and betrayal, where money is no object and looks CAN kill."