Arrow Video have today announced their September 2017 home entertainment release, which includes a unique Brit chiller, a Seventies Hollywood classic, a Mario Bava masterpiece, a superb Italian murder mystery and an Oscar-winning British comedy classic.
THE GHOUL
A Film by Gareth Tunley
Cast: Tom Meeten, Alice Lowe, Rufus Jones, Geoffrey McGivern, Dan Renton
Release Date: 4 September, 2017
From executive producer Ben Wheatley (Kill List, Free Fire) comes a mind-bending British psychological thriller to sit alongside such classics of the genre as Nicolas Roeg and Donald Cammell’s Performance, David Lynch’s Lost Highway and Christopher Nolan’s Following.
Chris is a homicide detective called to London to investigate a strange double murder. Both victims appear to have continued moving towards their assailant despite multiple gunshots to the face and chest.
On a hunch, and with the help of an old colleague – and former girlfriend – Chris decides to go undercover as a patient to investigate the suspect’s psychotherapist, the mysterious Alexander Morland, who has a taste for the occult…
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
– High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) / Standard Definiton DVD presentation
– Original 5.1 audio (uncompressed on the Blu-ray)
– Optional English subtitles for the hard-of-hearing
– Filmmakers’ commentary
– Interviews with the cast and crew
– The Baron, a 2013 short film by Gareth Tunley, starring Tom Meeten and Steve Oram (Aaaaaaaah!, Sightseers)
Trailer
FIRST PRESSING ONLY:
– Booklet featuring writing on the film by Adam Scovell, author of Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful and Things Strange
THE DAY OF THE JACKAL
A Film by Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Edward Fox, Michael Lonsdale, Cyril Cusack
Release Date: 4 September, 2017
In 1971, Frederick Forsythe shot to bestseller status with his debut novel, The Day of the Jackal – taut, utterly plausible, almost documentarian in its realism and attention to detail.
Two years later, director Fred Zinnemann (High Noon) turned a gripping novel into a nail-biting cinematic experience.
August 1962: the latest attempt on the life of French President Charles de Gaulle by the far right paramilitary organisation, the OAS, ends in chaos, with its architect-in-chief dead at the hands of a firing squad. Demoralised and on the verge of bankruptcy, the OAS leaders meet in secret to plan their next move.
In a last desperate attempt to eliminate de Gaulle, they opt to employ the services of a hired assassin from outside the fold. Enter the Jackal (Edward Fox): charismatic, calculating, cold as ice. As the Jackal closes in on his target, a race against the clock ensues to identify and put a stop to a killer whose identity, whereabouts and modus operandi are completely unknown.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
– High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
– Original uncompressed mono audio
– Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
– New interview with Neil Sinyard, author of Fred Zinnemann: Films of Character and Conscience
– Two rare archival clips from the film set, including an interview with Fred Zinnemann
– Theatrical trailer
– Original screenplay by Kenneth Ross (BD-ROM content)
– Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Peter Strain
FIRST PRESSING ONLY:
– Collector’s booklet featuring new writing by critic Mark Cunliffe and film historian Sheldon Hall
THE SUSPICIOUS DEATH OF A MINOR
A Film by Sergio Martino
Cast: Claudio Cassinelli, Mel Ferrer
Release Date: 11 September, 2017
In the wake of the success of Dario Argento’s ground-breaking giallo The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, numerous other directors stepped forward to try their hand at these lurid murder-mysteries.
At the forefront was Sergio Martino (The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh, Torso), whose sensual 70s thrillers starring Edwige Fenech and George Hilton are widely celebrated as some of the best the genre has to offer.
The final of Martino’s six gialli, The Suspicious Death of a Minor combines conventional giallo trappings with elements of the then flourishing ‘poliziotteschi’ crime thrillers.
Claudio Cassinelli (What Have They Done to Your Daughters?) stars as undercover cop Paolo Germi, on the trail of a Milanese criminal outfit following the brutal murder of an underage prostitute. But a killer-for-hire is also on the prowl, bumping off witnesses before they have a chance to talk…
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
– Brand new 2K restoration of the film from the original camera negative produced by Arrow Video exclusively for this release
– High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
– Original mono Italian and English soundtracks (lossless on the Blu-ray Disc)
– English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
– Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
– New audio commentary by Troy Howarth, author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films
– New interviews with director Sergio Martino and cinematographer Giancarlo Ferrando
– Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Chris Malbon
FIRST PRESSING ONLY:
– Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Barry Forshaw
KILL, BABY… KILL!
A Film by Mario Bava
Cast: Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Erika Blanc
Release Date: 11 September, 2017
In 1966, after a three-year hiatus, director Mario Bava (Black Sunday, The Girl Who Knew Too Much) returned to his preferred stomping ground of horror, conjuring up a spine-tingling tale of Gothic terror whose influence would resonate within the genre for years to come.
In the early 20th century, pathologist Dr Paul Eswai (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) is summoned to a remote Carpathian village to perform an autopsy on a woman who died under mysterious circumstances.
With the locals convinced they are being haunted by the spirit of a young girl who died years ago, can the steadfastly rational doctor find a logical explanation to the strange goings-on… or will his rational beliefs be destroyed by the dark secret that lies within the crumbling walls of the ancient Villa Graps?
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
– Restored 2K high definition digital transfer
– High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
– Original mono Italian and English soundtracks (lossless on the Blu-ray Disc)
– English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
– Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
– New audio commentary by Tim Lucas, author of Mario Bava – All the Colors of the Dark
– The Devil’s Daughter: Mario Bava and the Gothic Child, a new video essay by critic Kat Ellinger
– Kill, Bava, Kill!, an interview with assistant director Lamberto Bava
– Yellow, Semih Tareen’s short film homage to the cinema of Mario Bava
– Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys
FIRST PRESSING ONLY:
– Collector’s booklet featuring new writing by critic Travis Crawford
A FISH CALLED WANDA
A Film by Charles Crichton
Cast: John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin
Release Date: 18 September, 2017
In 1988, John Cleese teamed up with the veteran Ealing Comedy director Charles Crichton (The Lavender Hill Mob) to produce another classic of British comedy, the three-time Academy Award-nominated A Fish Called Wanda.
Cleese plays Archie Leach, a weak-willed barrister who finds himself embroiled with a quartet of ill-matched jewel thieves – two American con artists played by Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline, Michael Palin’s animal-loving hitman and London gangster Tom Georgeson – when Georgeson is arrested.
Only he and Palin know the whereabouts of the diamonds, prompting plenty of farce and in-fighting as well as some embarrassing nudity and the unfortunate demise of some innocent pooches…
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
– Brand-new 4K restoration from the original negative, produced by Arrow Films exclusively for this release
– High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
– Original English mono audio (uncompressed LPCM)
– Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
– Commentary by writer and star John Cleese
– Brand-new appreciation by Vic Pratt of the BFI National Archive
– Brand-new interviews with composer John Du Prez, production designer Roger Murray-Leach, executive producer Steve Abbott and makeup supervisor Paul Engelen
– John Cleese’s Final Farewell Performance, a 1988 documentary on the making of A Fish Called Wanda featuring interviews with actors Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Palin, Kevin Kline and director Charles Crichton
– Something Fishy, a 15th anniversary retrospective documentary featuring interviews with Cleese, Curtis, Kline and Palin, executive producer Steve Abbott and director of photography Alan Hume
– Fish You Were Here, a documentary on the film’s locations hosted by Robert Powell
– 24 deleted/alternative scenes with introductions by Cleese • A Message from John Cleese, a tongue-in-cheek introduction recorded for the film’s original release
– Gallery
– Trivia track
– Theatrical trailer
FIRST PRESSING ONLY:
– Booklet featuring writing on the film by Sophie Monks Kaufman
