Limited Editions: Film Rarities Reach Blu-ray

By Christopher P. Jacobs
Movies Editor

“Twilight Time,” a new video subsidiary of movie soundtrack specialists Screen Archives Entertainment, has recently started licensing off-beat and often obscure older films from Columbia and 20th Century Fox. They’ve selected titles with a certain critical, director, star, or genre appeal that the studios have little or no interest in bothering with, and bring them to Blu-ray in editions of only 3,000 units, available exclusively from them for three years, and not in any stores. Due to budgetary constraints they use only the transfers and bonus features the studio provides, rather than producing their own, but in keeping with their soundtrack album heritage, they take care to include isolated music scores.

Their titles are available only at standard suggested retail prices (typically $30-$40 plus shipping), and even at that price they need to sell half to two-thirds of the total run just to break even on production costs. They have no illusions that there is enough demand to support the $10-$20 discount prices commonly seen on mass-marketed major studio product which is expected to sell in the tens of thousands of units. Only their original 1985 version of “Fright Night” has sold out so far. Films with less rabid fans have sold a few hundred to a couple thousand copies, the higher prices usually deterring casual blind-buying. For people who like the particular movies, however, they’re certainly well-worth the premium cost, as the picture and sound are always collector-conscious quality.

Just released this week from Twilight Time are Joshua Logan’s film of the classic play “Picnic” (1955) and the obscure John Huston African adventure “The Roots of Heaven” (1958), with Errol Flynn and Orson Welles. Scheduled for upcoming months are Delmer Daves’ Biblical adventure “Demetrius and the Gladiators” (1954), Fritz Lang’s noir thriller “The Big Heat” (1953), the restored version of Sam Peckinpah’s western “Major Dundee” (1965), and the film versions of hit plays “Bell, Book and Candle” (1958) and “Pal Joey” (1957). In November and December they released the following two very, very different films on Blu-ray.

Cy Endfield’s entertaining version of “Mysterious Island” (1961) is a decent Charles H. Schneer-produced sequel to Jules Verne’s classic sci-fi adventure “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” which had been a Disney hit in 1954. A strong cast of British character actors, including Michael Craig, Joan Greenwood, and Herbert Lom, support American leads Michael Callan and Gary Merrill. It has a good share of action but benefits greatly from the special effects of Ray Harryhausen.

A substantial chunk of the first half involves a daring balloon escape from a Confederate prison during the Civil War. After crash-landing, the men try to survive on a deserted island, dealing with gigantic plants and animals, and soon discover two shipwrecked women to help them. Memorable scenes include conflicts with giant crabs and giant honeybees. When pirates attack, they need the help of Captain Nemo, who has retired to this island after his submarine was damaged. It’s a fun Saturday matinee type of movie in the tradition of the other Schneer-Harryhausen films.

Picture quality is generally outstanding. The sharp, colorful, film-like HD transfer reveals the extra grain in the special effects shots that might be less noticeable on standard video, but also shows just how sharp much of the “Dynamation” process of combining animated models with live-action could actually be. Audio is excellent, with the 5.1 DTS-HD showing off the great Bernard Herrmann music score, and an original mono track option. Bonuses are sparse, including a nice little 8-page color illustrated pamphlet, an isolated music track (stereo with sound effects at a few portions where the separate score no longer survived), plus the original trailer and a TV spot, both in HD. English closed captions are available. Random copies also get a free refrigerator magnet!

“MYSTERIOUS ISLAND” on Blu-ray
Movie: B / Video: A / Audio: A / Extras: C+

“Rapture” (1965) is an off-beat independent production directed by John Guillermin that deserves to be much better known, both for its stunning black-and-white CinemaScope cinematography and its brilliant performance by the barely 15-year-old Patricia Gozzi (who’d recently starred in the Oscar-winning “Sundays and Cybéle”). In this touching coming-of-age drama, Gozzi stars as Agnes, an emotionally fragile and suppressed teenage girl who lives with her strict, old retired-judge father (Melvyn Douglas) and their earthy house-maid (Gunnel Lindblom) in a remote house on the coast of Brittany.

For companionship, Agnes builds a scarecrow from an old suit of her father’s to place in their garden, treating it like a living being. Only a week later, an escaped convict (Dean Stockwell) takes the scarecrow’s clothing and hides in their barn, and Agnes is convinced her scarecrow has come to life just as she wished. For various reasons of their own, all of the house’s inhabitants want to protect the young fugitive, and the plot quickly develops into a much more complex character study of all the central figures.

The film virtually disappeared after a brief release, despite a few good reviews. It remains, however, the director’s own personal favorite of his career, though he’s better-known for Hollywood films like “The Towering Inferno,” “The Blue Max,” and the 1976 version of “King Kong,” and did interesting work in 1950s England like “Song of Paris” and “The Crowded Day” (both on a region-free Blu-ray from the BFI).

Picture quality is absolutely superb on this Twilight Time Blu-ray, crisp film-like textures and rich contrast range doing justice to Marcel Grignon’s lovely, atmospheric images. Audio is the original mono, with decent clarity but not quite the range of the “Mysterious Island” soundtrack. The only bonus features are an 8-page booklet and the isolated music track of Georges Delerue’s excellent score (which sounds louder and a bit richer on the DTS 2.0 music-only track).

“RAPTURE” on Blu-ray –
Movie: A / Video: A+ / Audio: A- / Extras: C-

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