This is it! The announcement of the final Criterion Blu-ray releases for 2011. And look at that, there are only four titles! It makes sense, given that many of us are kind of done with the whole spending thing near the end of December. So, two weeks with two titles each is going to do it. Surprisingly, there’s only one film new to the collection here. Ernst Lubitsch‘s Design for Living was, as far as I know, only available in a bare-bones DVD release as part of the Gary Cooper Collection from Universal up to this point. It’s going to be great to see it getting the attention if deserves on this new Blu-ray edition. While I’m also excited to see Hitchcock‘s classic The Lady Vanishes upgraded to 1080p, I’m really jonesing to get my grubby mitts on the two Seijin Suzuki titles – Branded to Kill and Tokyo Drifter. I have a feeling the new HD transfers on those already stunning widescreen Japanese-gangster epics will blow me away.
DESIGN FOR LIVING
(December 6, 2011 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.33:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural
Special Features:
- New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- “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
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Kim Morgan
THE LADY VANISHES
(December 6, 2011 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.33:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural
Special Features:
- High-definition digital restoration
- 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
- PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critic Geoffrey O’Brien and Hitchcock scholar Charles Barr
TOKYO DRIFTER
(December 13, 2011 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 2.35:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural
Special Features:
- New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Video piece featuring new interviews with director Seijun Suzuki and assistant director Masami Kuzuu
- Interview with Suzuki from 1997
- Original theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Howard Hampton
BRANDED TO KILL
(December 13, 2011 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 2.35:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural
Special Features:
- New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Video piece featuring new interviews with director Seijun Suzuki and assistant director Masami Kuzuu
- Interview with Suzuki from 1997
- New interview with actor Joe Shishido
- Original theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic and historian Tony Rayns, author of Branded to Thrill: The Delirious Cinema of Suzuki Seijun, and a statement by the film’s art director, Sukezo Kawahara
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