My Two Cents
Wednesday, 02 April 2025 17:15

Warner Archive bows High Society (1956) in 4K, plus Turbine’s Super Mario Bros. Movie Blu-ray 3D, Arrow’s The Cell disc replacement & Rest in Peace, Val Kilmer

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We’ve got one new disc review for you to enjoy here at The Bits today...

Tim has updated Barrie Maxwell’s 2011 Criterion Blu-ray review of Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le cercle rouge (1970) to reflect the company’s more recent 4K Ultra HD release. As long time Bits readers will know, Barrie was our dear friend and a classic cinema expert who wrote reviews and a Classic Coming Attractions column here at the site for many years. Barrie sadly passed away back in 2012. We can’t think of a better way to honor his memory than to ensure that his writing continues to find new audiences. So enjoy the review!

The big release news today is that our friends at the Warner Archive Collection have just announced their May catalog release slate, which includes not only great Blu-ray titles but also WAC’s next 4K Ultra HD release! That 4K title is none other than Charles Walters’ classic High Society (1956), starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Louis Armstrong!

The film has been remastered from new 13.5K scans of the original VistaVision negative. The 4K disc will include Dolby Vision HDR on a 100GB disc, with disc authoring and compression by Fidelity in Motion. The remastered film will also be included in the package on Blu-ray, a BD-50. [Read on here...]

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Audio will be included in both a new Dolby Atmos soundtrack mixed from original magnetic stereo sources, as well as the original 1956 Theatrical mono optical soundtrack! Extras will include a pair of featurettes (Cole Porter in Hollywood: True Love and 1956 Premiere Newsreel), the MGM CinemaScope cartoon Millionaire Droopy (1956), audio-only promo spots featuring Crosby with Kelly and Sinatra, and original theatrical trailers.

Also coming to Blu-ray in May from the Warner Archive are Irving Rapper’s Rhapsody in Blue (1945) in an Extended Pre-Release Version of 161 minutes (featuring an Overture and newly-discovered footage), John G. Avlidsen’s Lean on Me (1989), John Sturges’ Mystery Street (1950), Frank Borzage’s Three Comrades (1938), and Olivier Dahan’s La Vie en Rose (2007) also in an Extended Version of 140 minutes. The street date for all of these is 5/27. Here’s a look at the cover artwork for all of them (Amazon pre-order links will be added when available)...

High Society (4K Ultra HD) Lean on Me (Blu-ray Disc) Rhapsody in Blue (Blu-ray Disc)

Three Comrades (Blu-ray Disc) Mystery Street (Blu-ray Disc) La Vie en Rose (Blu-ray Disc)

Also today, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has just announced that Jim Gillespie’s I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) is returning to 4K Ultra HD on 6/24 in Limited Edition Steelbook packaging with both Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio. The title was previously released in 4K back in September of 2022. It appears that the same extras from the previous edition will carry over.

And our friends at Turbine in Germany have revealed another new Region Free Blu-ray 3D catalog title for release on April 16: Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) from Universal. The title will also include Dolby Atmos audio. You can pre-order it here on Turbine Shop.

In other news, Bits reader Mark S. from the Netherlands (thanks Mark!) emailed us to share that he’s received his 4K Ultra HD replacement disc for Arrow’s recent UHD release of Tarsem Singh’s The Cell (2000). As some of you may know already, the Director’s Cut version of the film had some missing frames and a repeated shot between 15:15 and 15:50 minutes into the film. In any case, replacement discs are clearly now available and they’re starting to be shipped out. You can request yours here. Here’s what Mark’s fixed disc looks like...

The Cell 4K replacement disc

Finally today, we must acknowledge a piece of sad news that just broke last night: The great actor and writer Val Kilmer has died.

For my money, if Kilmer had played no other role than Doc Holiday in Tombstone (1993), he’d still be a legend. But of course, his filmography is extensive, including Top Secret!, Real Genius, Top Gun, Willow, The Doors, Thunderheart, True Romance, Batman Forever, Heat, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Ghost and the Darkness, The Prince of Egypt, Alexander, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and still more I’ve left out. He also wrote and starred in a one man stage show entitled Citizen Twain. Kilmer had a throat cancer scare in 2015 that he managed to survive, and was the subject of a documentary on his life and work, Val (2021)—it’s well worth your time. His last big screen appearance was in Joseph Kosinski’s Top Gun: Maverick (2022), which is as fitting a final scene as any I could imagine.

There’s a quote by Doc Holiday in Tombstone that really hits home today: “There’s no normal life, Wyatt. There’s just life. Now get on with it.” Rest in peace, Val. Thanks for Ice, Doc, Perry, and so many more. We’ll miss you.

Val Kilmer (1959-2025)

We’ll leave you with a look at the cover art for Warner Archive’s April Blu-ray slate, which is finally starting to become available for pre-order on Amazon.com (just click on the cover links)...

Wacky Races: The Complete Series (Blu-ray Disc) Lili (Blu-ray Disc) Three the Hard Way (Blu-ray Disc)

Springfield Rifle (Blu-ray Disc) Clean and Sober (Blu-ray Disc) Side Street (Blu-ray Disc)

Stay tuned...

- Bill Hunt

(You can follow Bill on social media on Twitter, BlueSky, and Facebook, and also here on Patreon)

 

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