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BLU CRITERION: Red River, Ace in the Hole in May
Criterion has scheduled May street dates for their Blu-Ray / DVD Combo's of Howard Hawks' Red River (1948) and Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole (1951).
Red River will be a 4-disc set (presumably with 2 DVDs and 2 Blu-Rays) with all new bonus features. Ace will be a 3-disc set (presumably with 2 DVDs and 1 Blu-Ray) with bonus features carrying over from their previous 2-disc release.
No matter what genre he worked in, Howard Hawks played by his own rules, and never was this more evident than in his first western, the rowdy and whip-smart Red River. In it, John Wayne found one of his greatest roles as an embittered, tyrannical Texas rancher whose tensions with his independent-minded adopted son, played by Montgomery Clift in a breakout performance, reach epic proportions during a cattle drive to Missouri, which is based on a real-life late nineteenth-century expedition.
Yet Hawks is less interested in historical accuracy than in tweaking the codes of masculinity that propel the myths of the American West. The unerringly macho Wayne and the neurotic, boyish Clift make for an improbably perfect pair, held aloft by a quick-witted, multilayered screenplay and Hawks's formidable direction.
BONUS FEATURES:
Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole (A.K.A. The Big Carnival) is legendary for both its cutting social critique and its status as a cult classic. Kirk Douglas gives the fiercest performance of his career as Chuck Tatum, an amoral newspaper reporter caught in dead-end Albuquerque who happens upon the story of a lifetime-and will do anything to ensure he gets the scoop. Wilder's follow-up to Sunset Boulevard is an even darker vision, a no-holds-barred exposé that anticipated the rise of the American media circus.
BONUS FEATURES:
Red River will be a 4-disc set (presumably with 2 DVDs and 2 Blu-Rays) with all new bonus features. Ace will be a 3-disc set (presumably with 2 DVDs and 1 Blu-Ray) with bonus features carrying over from their previous 2-disc release.
No matter what genre he worked in, Howard Hawks played by his own rules, and never was this more evident than in his first western, the rowdy and whip-smart Red River. In it, John Wayne found one of his greatest roles as an embittered, tyrannical Texas rancher whose tensions with his independent-minded adopted son, played by Montgomery Clift in a breakout performance, reach epic proportions during a cattle drive to Missouri, which is based on a real-life late nineteenth-century expedition.
Yet Hawks is less interested in historical accuracy than in tweaking the codes of masculinity that propel the myths of the American West. The unerringly macho Wayne and the neurotic, boyish Clift make for an improbably perfect pair, held aloft by a quick-witted, multilayered screenplay and Hawks's formidable direction.
BONUS FEATURES:
- New 4K digital restoration of the rarely presented original theatrical release version, the preferred cut of director Howard Hawks, with monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- 2K restoration of the longer version of Red River
- New interview with filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich about Red River and the two versions
- New interview with critic Molly Haskell about Hawks and Red River
- New interview with western scholar Lee Clark Mitchell about western genre literature
- Audio excerpts of a 1972 conversation between Hawks and Bogdanovich
- Excerpts from a 1970 audio interview with novelist and screenwriter Borden Chase
- More!
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoffrey O'Brien and a 1991 interview with Hawks's longtime editor Christian Nyby; a new paperback edition of Chase's original novel, previously out of print
Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole (A.K.A. The Big Carnival) is legendary for both its cutting social critique and its status as a cult classic. Kirk Douglas gives the fiercest performance of his career as Chuck Tatum, an amoral newspaper reporter caught in dead-end Albuquerque who happens upon the story of a lifetime-and will do anything to ensure he gets the scoop. Wilder's follow-up to Sunset Boulevard is an even darker vision, a no-holds-barred exposé that anticipated the rise of the American media circus.
BONUS FEATURES:
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Audio commentary by film scholar Neil Sinyard
- Portrait of a '60% Perfect Man': Billy Wilder, a 1980 documentary featuring in-depth interviews with Wilder by film critic Michel Ciment
- 1984 interview with Kirk Douglas
- Excerpts from a 1986 appearance by Wilder at the American Film Institute
- Excerpts from an audio interview with co-screenwriter Walter Newman
- Stills Gallery
- Theatrical trailer
- PLUS: Essays by film critic Molly Haskell and filmaker Guy Maddin