Posted Fri Sep 16, 2011 at 10:40 AM PDT by Tom Landy
Criterion will bring Alfred Hitchcock and Ernst Lubitsch classics to Blu-ray in December.
In an early announcement to retailers, Criterion has revealed the 1935 comedic mystery 'The Lady Vanishes' for Blu-ray on December 6.
In Alfred Hitchcock’s most quick-witted and devilish comic thriller, the beautiful Margaret Lockwood, traveling across Europe by train, meets a charming spinster (Dame May Whitty), who them seems to disappear into thin air. The younger woman turns investigator and finds herself drawn into a complex web of mystery and high adventure. Also starring Michael Redgrave, 'The Lady Vanishes' remains one of the great filmmaker’s purest delights.
The Blu-ray will feature a 1080p transfer and supplements will include: Audio commentary by film historian Bruce Eder; Crook’s Tour, a 1941 feature-length adventure film starring Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne as Charters and Caldicott, their beloved characters from The Lady Vanishes; Excerpts from François Truffaut’s legendary 1962 audio interview with director Alfred Hitchcock; Mystery Train, a video essay about Hitchcock and The Lady Vanishes by Hitchcock scholar Leonard Leff; Stills gallery of behind-the-scenes photos and promotional art; and a booklet featuring essays by critic Geoffrey O’Brien and Hitchcock scholar Charles Barr.
Criterion will also be bringing 'Design for Living' to Blu-ray on the same date.
Gary Cooper, Fredric March, and Miriam Hopkins play a trio of Americans in Paris who enter into a very adult “gentleman’s” agreement, in this continental pre-Code comedy freely adapted by Ben Hecht from a play by Noël Coward, and directed by Ernst Lubitsch. A risqué relationship comedy and a witty take on creative pursuits, it concerns a commercial artist (Hopkins) unable—or unwilling—to choose between the equally dashing painter (Cooper) and playwright (March) she meets on a train en route to the City of Light. 'Design for Living' is Lubitsch at his most adroit, an entertainment at once debonair and racy, featuring three stars at the height of their allure.
The Blu-ray will feature 1080p video, an uncompressed monaural soundtrack, and supplements will include: "The Clerk," starring Charles Laughton—director Ernst Lubitsch's segment of the 1932 film If I Had a Million, which he made just before Design for Living; Selected-scene commentary by film professor William Paul; Play of the Week: A Choice of Coward, a 1964 British television production of the play Design for Living, introduced on camera by playwright Noël Coward; New interview with film scholar and screenwriter Joseph McBride on Lubitsch and Ben Hecht's screen adaptation of the Coward play; and a booklet featuring an essay by film critic Kim Morgan.
Suggested list price for each Blu-ray is $39.95.
You can find the latest specs for 'The Lady Vanishes' and 'Design for Living' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where they're indexed under December 6.
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