I’m sure anyone who cares has heard this by now, but George Lucas has already caved to fan pressure (and maybe he intended to all along–$$$$$$), and later this year the first three Star Wars movies will be available in two disc sets with the original, unaltered cuts. And yes, Han will again shoot first. The other disc will contain the altered versions.
Fox, who happily seems to be growing a spine in terms of ignoring the politically correct crowd, is releasing a four movie set of some of the best Warner Oland Charlie Chan movies in June, but has also announced a four movie set of Peter Lorre Mr. Moto films. (Fox dithered on releasing these films, fearing complaints, but the fact they invested $2 million remastering the entries in both series probably won the day.)
I just hope these sell. Unlike Warners, who has packaged zillions of box set–the Val Lewton one, for example–that give you huge amounts of movies and extras for a very small price, Fox continues to perhaps overcharge for their sets. Both the Chan and Moto sets, again featuring four films each, retail for $60. You can probably find them for around $40, which in the days of video would have been a good price, but now that’s a tad high.
Let’s take Amazon. They are pre-selling the four-disc Chan set, with four movies and a scattering of extras, for $41. Meanwhile, the Val Lewton set costs $48 at Amazon (and can be found elsewhere on the Web for about $42), and features eight films, many of them authentic horror classics, along with a feature length documentary on Lewton and six full commentary tracks by recognized genre experts, etc. If you’re the kind that would actually listen to all that (and I am), you’re getting three to four times as much bang for your buck.
Fox will also release the 1946 murder thriller Shock, in which Vincent Price is a headshrinker who finds himself in charge of an amnesiac patient he realizes saw him kill his wife. Not a classic, but anything with Price is worth a look. John Stanley (presumably the author of the Creature Feature Movie Guide) provides a commentary.
