New on Blu-ray: IVANHOE (1952) Starring Robert Taylor and Elizabeth Taylor

BUY FROM AMAZON

Product Description: When Richard the Lionhearted was waylaid on his return from the Crusades, loyal Saxon knight Wilfred of Ivanhoe (Robert Taylor) ventured forth to raise the needed ransom...but calculating Prince John (Guy Rolfe) had grown accustomed to the throne, and would take any measures necessary to bring his quest to a fatal end. Vivid, panoramic MGM take on Sir Walter Scott's historical romance co-stars Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Emlyn Williams, and Finlay Currie.

"The Entertainment Factor is supported by its audience. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission."

Find out more about this DVD/Blu-ray release after the jump.

New on Blu-ray: THE EMPEROR WALTZ (1948) Starring Bing Crosby and Joan Fontaine

BUY FROM AMAZON

Product Description: From Billy Wilder, the brilliant director of Five Graves to Cairo, The Lost Weekend, Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot and Witness for the Prosecution, comes this delightful musical comedy starring screen greats Bing Crosby (Road to Morocco, Going My Way) and Joan Fontaine (Kiss the Blood off My Hands, Suspicion). American gramophone salesman Virgil Smith (Crosby) wants to sell his wares in pre-WWI Austria. To get the ball rolling, he hits on the idea of going straight to the top and selling one to Emperor Franz Joseph (Richard Haydn, No Time for Love, The Sound of Music). First off, the palace guards think he’s carrying a bomb and he’s arrested. He subsequently meets Countess Johanna von Stolzenberg-Stolzenberg (Fontaine) and, after the usual misunderstandings, falls in love with her. She falls in love with his dog, Buttons. The relation is fraught with obstacles and the emperor thinks royal blood marrying a commoner is bad darts altogether—what is to become of Smith and his countess? Co-written by Wilder and his frequent collaborator Charles Brackett (A Foreign Affair, Arise, My Love), this charming farce garnered Oscar nominations for its wonderful score by Victor Young (The Paleface) and elegant costumes by Edith Head (Sabrina) and Gile Steele (The Heiress).

"The Entertainment Factor is supported by its audience. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission."

Find out more about this DVD/Blu-ray release after the jump.

New on Blu-ray: ALFRED HITCHCOCK - 4-FILM COLLECTION (The Wrong Man / Dial M for Murder 3D / I Confess / Suspicion)

BUY FROM AMAZON

Product Description: Alfred Hitchcock directs these anxiety-inducing classics, beginning with Suspicion, starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine as newlyweds. In I Confess, Montgomery Clift plays a priest accused of murder. Grace Kelly is caught in a dangerous romantic triangle in Dial M for Murder. Finally, The Wrong Man finds Henry Fonda confused with a look-alike bank robber. Experience Hitchcocks masterpieces with this edge-of-your-seat 4-film collection.

"The Entertainment Factor is supported by its audience. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission."

Find out more about this DVD/Blu-ray release after the jump.

New on Blu-ray: KISS THE BLOOD OFF MY HANDS (1948) Starring Joan Fontaine and Burt Lancaster

BUY FROM AMAZON

Product Description: Screen legends Joan Fontaine (Rebecca, Suspicion, The Bigamist) and Burt Lancaster (Desert Fury, I Walk Alone, The Train) star in Kiss the Blood off My Hands, a classic film noir about fate and love amongst the most unlikely individuals. Former POW Bill Saunders (Lancaster), now living in England, is scarred with unstable and violent tendencies. After killing a man in a bar fight, he flees the scene and manages to find cover in the home of Nurse Jane Wharton (Fontaine), who agrees to take him in and believes his story that the killing was an accident. Now in love, Nurse Wharton tries to secure Saunders a job delivering medical supplies when he’s released from prison after serving time for fighting with a police officer. Things take a turn, however, when a racketeer (Robert Newton, Odd Man Out) who witnessed Saunders’ murder threatens to turn him into the police unless he agrees to assist in a crime. Beautifully shot in glorious black-and-white by the great Russell Metty (Touch of Evil, The Lady Gambles) and stylishly directed by Norman Foster (Journey into Fear, Woman on the Run).

"The Entertainment Factor is supported by its audience. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission."

Find out more about this DVD/Blu-ray release after the jump.

Classic Movies: LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (1948) - Olive Signature Edition

<< BUY NOW >>

Product Description: From Max Ophüls, the legendary director of such film classics as The Earrings of Madame de… and Lola Montès, comes a timeless tale of love and obsession. In Vienna during the early 20th century, Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdan, Gigi), a concert pianist whose amorous ways have eclipsed his musical talent, is preparing to flee the city on the eve of a duel to be fought over a recent dalliance when he receives a Letter from an Unknown Woman. Moved by its contents, he'll come to realize that the author is not a stranger, but Lisa Berndle (Joan Fontaine, Rebecca), a woman he's known since her youth and discarded as he has so many others before her. But this time, Stefan's cavalier behavior will have tragic repercussions.

Featuring the master filmmaker's trademark gliding camera, baroque imagery and lush atmospherics (courtesy of cinematographer Franz Planer, The Big Country; art director Alexander Golitzen, Phantom of the Opera; set decorators Russell A. Gaussman, The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry and Ruby R. Levitt, Chinatown), Max Ophüls' Letter from an Unknown Woman, based on Stefan Zweig's novella of the same name, is written for the screen by Howard Koch (Casablanca) and produced by John Houseman (They Live by Night).

Find out more about this DVD/Blu-ray release after the jump.

Classic Movies: REBECCA (1940) - Criterion Collection

<< BUY NOW >>

Product Description: Romance becomes psychodrama in Alfred Hitchcock's elegantly crafted Rebecca, his first foray into Hollywood filmmaking. A dreamlike adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel, the film stars the enchanting Joan Fontaine as a young woman who believes she has found her heart's desire when she marries the dashing aristocratic widower Maxim de Winter (played with cunning vulnerability by Laurence Olivier). But upon moving to Manderley her groom s baroque ancestral mansion she soon learns that his deceased wife haunts not only the home but the temperamental, brooding Maxim as well. The start of Hitchcock's legendary collaboration with producer David O. Selznick, this elegiac gothic vision, captured in stunning black and white by George Barnes, took home the Academy Awards for best picture and best cinematography.

Find out more about this DVD/Blu-ray release after the jump.

R.I.P. Joan Fontaine (1917–2013)

Today we have lost another Hollywood legend. Academy Award-winning actress Joan Fontaine has passed away at the age of 96. She is best known for her roles in Alfred Hitchcock's thrillers "Rebecca" (1940) and "Suspicion" (1941). Fontaine was nominated for the Academy Award for the former and won the coveted award for the latter. Two years later she was once again nominated for an Oscar for her part in Edmund Goulding's musical melodrama "The Constant Nymph". She has also starred in classics such as "Gunga Din" (1939), "The Women" (1939), Jane Eyre (1943), "Ivanhoe" (1952), "The Bigamist" (1953), "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" (1956) and "Island in the Sun" (1957). Joan Fontaine is survived by her daughter, Debbie Dozier.

---

     RELATED POSTS :

• R.I.P. Peter O'Toole (1932 - 2013)
• R.I.P. Paul Walker (1973 – 2013)
• FAST & FURIOUS 7 Production Delayed Indefinitely
• NEWS UPDATE: Colin Firth, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Purge 2, Insidious: Chapter 3
• NEWS UPDATE: New Release Dates, Friday the 13th Reboot, Kubrik's Napoleon, Quentin Tarantino's Next Film
• 2014 Independent Spirit Awards Nominations Announced
• NEWS UPDATE: X-Men Apocalypse, Amanda Seyfried, Indiana Jones, 22 Jump Street, Freddy Mercury Biopic

---