OLIVE FILMS PRESENTS - Olive Signature (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

- Olive Signature -
The Standard In Fan-centered Entertainment

You asked and now Olive Films—The place where film fans come first—has delivered. Introducing Olive Signature, a new series of DVD/Blu-ray titles for the loyal Olive Films fan. Highlighting cult favorites, time-honored classics, and under-appreciated gems, each Olive Signature edition boasts pristine audio and video, newly designed cover art, and an abundance of exciting bonus material. Coveted editions of the films you know and love, Olive Signature is our gift to the many fans, aficionados, and cinephiles who hold these films near and dear. Olive Signature, the standard in fan-centered entertainment.

About Olive Signature

• Updated fan editions of the films you know and love
• Presented in pristine audio and video
• Featuring newly designed cover art
• Loaded with special bonus material

Olive Films proudly presents the following Olive Signature titles:

• HIGH NOON - DVD/BD
• JOHNNY GUITAR - DVD/BD

Available on DVD & BLU-RAY


HIGH NOON

GARY COOPER (The Pride of the Yankees, Meet John Doe, Love in the Afternoon)
GRACE KELLY (Rear Window, High Society, Dial M for Murder)
THOMAS MITCHELL (It’s a Wonderful Life, Gone with the Wind, The Dark Mirror)
LLOYD BRIDGES (Try and Get Me, Airplane!, TV’s Sea Hunt)
KATY JURADO (One-Eyed Jacks, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, Trapeze)
OTTO KRUGER (Saboteur, Duel in the Sun, Lulu Belle)
LON CHANEY (The Wolf Man, The Defiant Ones, Billy the Kid)
LEE VAN CLEEF (For a Few Dollars More, The Quiet Gun, Escape from New York)
JACK ELAM (Once Upon a Time in the West, Hannie Caulder, Rio Lobo)

Directed by
FRED ZINNEMANN (Julia, A Man for All Seasons, From Here to Eternity, Oklahoma!)


YEAR: 1952
GENRE: WESTERN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 85 mins.
RATING: N/R
ASPECT RATIO: 1.37:1 Aspect Ratio; B&W
AUDIO: MONO

OLIVE SIGNATURE FEATURES

• Mastered from new 4K restoration
• “A Ticking Clock” - Academy Award-nominee Mark Goldblatt on the editing of High Noon
• "A Stanley Kramer Production" - Michael Schlesinger on the eminent producer of High Noon
• “Imitation of Life: The Blacklist History of High Noon” - with historian Larry Ceplair and blacklisted screenwriter Walter Bernstein
• “Ulcers and Oscars: The Production History of High Noon” - a visual essay with rarely seen archival elements, narrated by Anton Yelchin
• “Uncitizened Kane" - an original essay by Sight & Sound editor Nick James
• Theatrical trailer

The myth and poetry of the old west come alive in Fred Zinnemann’s (Julia) classic western, High Noon (1952). One of the great treasures of the American cinema, the film stars the legendary Gary Cooper as lawman Will Kane, a marshal who stands alone to defend a town of cowardly citizens against a gang of killers out for revenge. Engaged in the fight of his lifetime, Kane stands to lose everything when the clock strikes noon – his friends, his honor, and his Quaker bride, played by Grace Kelly in one of her first screen roles. Unfolding in real time, the tension builds as we race ever closer to the climactic duel from which the film takes its name. For his career-defining role, Cooper would go on to win the Oscar® for Best Actor. High Noon’s stellar cast also includes Lloyd Bridges (Try and Get Me), Thomas Mitchell (It’s a Wonderful Life), Katy Jurado (Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid), Otto Kruger (Saboteur), Lon Chaney (The Wolf Man), Henry Morgan (Strategic Air Command), Jack Elam (Hannie Caulder) and Lee Van Clef (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). High Noon won a total four Academy Awards including Best Editing, Best Score (Dimitri Tiomkin, The Old Man and the Sea) and Best Song, “Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin’,” written by Tiomkin and Ned Washington and sung by Tex Ritter. High Noon also received Oscar® nominations for Best Picture (Stanley Kramer, producer), Best Director (Fred Zinnemann) and Best Screenplay (Carl Foreman).

Available on DVD & BLU-RAY

JOHNNY GUITAR

JOAN CRAWFORD (Mildred Pierce, Sudden Fear, Possessed)
STERLING HAYDEN (The Godfather, Dr. Strangelove, 1900)
MERCEDES McCAMBRIDGE (Giant, All the King’s Men, A Farewell to Arms)
SCOTT BRADY (The China Syndrome, He Walked by Night, Gremlins)
WARD BOND (The Searchers, The Maltese Falcon, It’s a Wonderful Life)
BEN COOPER (The Rose Tattoo, Arizona Raiders, The Eternal Sea)
ERNEST BORGNINE (The Wild Bunch, The Dirty Dozen, Marty)
JOHN CARRADINE (Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, The Sentinel)

Directed by
NICHOLAS RAY (Rebel Without a Cause, Bigger Than Life, The Lusty Men)


YEAR: 1954
GENRE: WESTERN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 110 mins
RATING: N/R
VIDEO: 1.66:1 Aspect Ratio; COLOR
AUDIO: MONO

OLIVE SIGNATURE FEATURES

• Mastered from new 4K restoration
• Introduction by Martin Scorsese
• Audio commentary with historian and critic Geoff Andrew
• "Tell Us She Was One of You: The Blacklist History of Johnny Guitar” - with historian Larry Ceplair and blacklisted screenwriter Walter Bernstein
• “Is Johnny Guitar a Feminist Western?: Questioning the Canon” - with critics Miriam Bale, Kent Jones, Joe McElhaney and B. Ruby Rich
• “Free Republic: The Story of Herb Yates and Republic studios” - with archivist Marc Wanamaker
• A critical appreciation of Nicholas Ray with critics Miriam Bale, Kent Jones, Joe McElhaney and B. Ruby Rich
• “My Friend, the American Friend” - Nicholas Ray biographical piece with Tom Farrell
• "Johnny Guitar: The First Existential Western" - an original essay by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum
• Theatrical Trailer

Johnny Guitar stars Oscar® winner Joan Crawford (Best Actress, Mildred Pierce) as Vienna, a saloon owner with a sordid past. Persecuted by the townspeople, Vienna must protect her life and property when a lynch mob led by her sexually repressed rival, Emma Small (Oscar® winner Mercedes McCambridge, Best Actress, All the King’s Men), attempts to frame her for a string of robberies she did not commit. Enter Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb), a guitar-strumming ex-gunfighter, who once was—and perhaps still is—in love with Vienna. With the leads at their operatic best, the table is now set for an epic showdown in this one-of-a-kind western from director Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without a Cause). A bizarrely veiled allegory for the McCarthy-era Red Scare, Johnny Guitar was misunderstood upon its initial release. One of the most original takes on the western genre—the women are far tougher than the men—Johnny Guitar is praised by fans, filmmakers, and critics alike as groundbreaking. Boasting superb supporting performances, Johnny Guitar features Ernest Borgnine (Marty), Scott Brady (The China Syndrome), Ward Bond (The Searchers), Paul Fix (To Kill a Mockingbird), Royal Dano (The Outlaw Josey Wales) and John Carradine (Stagecoach). Notably, Johnny Guitar’s indelible title song was a collaboration between the Academy Award-winning composer Victor Young (Around the World in Eighty Days), and co-writer and songstress Peggy Lee.

 

[aPhil]

Does this mean a new transfer since the 60th Anniversary Blu-ray of "High Noon"? If it is even better than that edition, then I'm in.

 

[Mike Frezon]

"Olive Signature"

I like the sound of that. Looking forward to what's-to-come.

 

[Vegas 1]

Count me in on those two, don't have Johnny Guitar and only DVD for High Noon.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Nice to get Johnny Guitar in its proper widescreen finally.

 

[dpippel]

Ron, the links you posted to these titles in the press release are broken.

 

[revgen]

Olive Double-Dip Series™

We'll take your money again. Thank You.

------

Kidding aside, I'm glad they are releasing proper versions of both films.

 

[Steve...O]

Nice to see that Olive is finally including SDH on these titles instead of being dismissive as they were earlier. Aside from helping those who need them it's also great for late evening viewing without waking the family.

 

[Cranston37+]

Slightly off topic but... Olive is having a BOGO sale at Deep Discount right now. Puts most titles around $10...

 

[Cine_Capsulas]

Err... So I will have to re-buy Johnny Guitar because they didn't release it properly the first time? No thanks. If I feel like watching it again, I will simply download it. One won't be able to say I didn't give them their due money the first time.

 

[Mike2001]

Hate to reward them for not doing the right thing in the first place, but if they fix The Quiet Man, I'll bite.

 

[dana martin]

curious to see the titles of this upcoming series, High Noon looks like a good choice same for Quiet Man

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Ron, the links you posted to these titles in the press release are broken.

Those links were embedded in the press release announcement. I don't have Amazon links yet.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Mastered from new 4K restoration, I'm in for double-dips.

 

[haineshisway]

Having been burned a few times, I'll wait to understand WHAT elements they're being mastered from, what the authoring is like - I shall be ever hopeful.

 

[Robin9]

Having been burned a few times, I'll wait to understand WHAT elements they're being mastered from, what the authoring is like - I shall be ever hopeful.

A prudent approach and one I too will adopt. If these are truly new 4k restorations, I'll be interested.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

When Paramount was doing the new restoration, we provided the necessary documents to insure that JG was finally mastered in the correct aspect ratio.

 

[Keith Cobby]

Are they releasing UHD versions as well as 1080p? If not, why not because it is a missed opportunity otherwise. I have High Noon but only want to upgrade to UHD now, no longer interested in incremental differences.

 

[battlebeast]

I'll bite on "High Noon ".

 

[RMajidi]

"Mastered from new 4K restoration"

..compelling, but my concern is that the much-maligned Blu-ray of The Quiet Man was also based on a 4K scan of the OCN, according to Olive's Frank Tarzi in this 2012 interview: http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=9202

There's much more to a top-notch restoration than just a 4K scan, as Mr Tarzi himself acknowledged. I'll wait for some trustworthy reviews before taking the plunge on these "Signature" re-dos.