New on Blu-ray: THE MAVERICK QUEEN (1956) Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan & Scott Brady

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Product Description: Sensational Barbara Stanwyck tangles with Butch Cassidy and the treacherous Sundance Kid as Kit, the "Maverick Queen," in this Zane Grey Western classic! A feisty saloonkeeper who stands above the law, Kit has allied herself with Butch Cassidy (Howard Petrie) and his "Wild Bunch" of outlaws. Though Sundance (Scott Brady), Butch's sharp-shooting lieutenant, wildly pursues her affections, Kit has fallen for Jeff (Barry Sullivan), the gang's mysterious new member. But Jeff is secretly a Pinkerton detective, acting undercover to infiltrate and destroy Cassidy's Bunch. As Sundance’s suspicions and jealousy of Jeff become murderously aroused, Kit, whose allegiance is turned by love, triggers a final fiery shootout with the West's most colorful and notorious outlaw gang! The Maverick Queen dazzles in blazing "Trucolor" and was the first film shot in Republic Pictures' "Naturama" widescreen process, showcasing the gorgeous Western scenery.

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New on Blu-ray: HE WALKED BY NIGHT (1948) Starring Richard Basehart and Scott Brady

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Product Description: Starring Richard Basehart (Time Limit), Scott Brady (Undertow) and Jack Webb (Appointment with Danger), this film noir classic was the inspiration not only for TV’s Dragnet (also with Webb) but for many other subsequent “ripped-from-the-headlines” crime dramas. Taken from actual case files, He Walked by Night is the suspenseful, action-packed tale of a manhunt for the most cunning criminal in the history of the LAPD. With a combination of ingenuity, state-of-the-art technology, sweat and sheer determination, the police painstakingly track down a brilliant, elusive thief and cop-killer (chillingly played by Basehart in only his third film) who seems to have the ability to vanish into thin air. But can they catch him before he murders again? This gritty, groundbreaking police procedural features direction by Alfred L. Werker (Shock) and an uncredited Anthony Mann (T-Men) with stunning cinematography by John Alton (Raw Deal).

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New on Blu-ray: FILM NOIR - THE DARK SIDE OF CINEMA XIV (Undercover Girl / One Way Street / Appointment with a Shadow)

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Product Description: This collection features three film noir classics:

UNDERCOVER GIRL (1950) – The Inside Story of America’s Daring Police Women! NYPD cop Christine Miller (the wonderful Alexis Smith, Conflict, The Turning Point) goes undercover to investigate her father’s killing in this electrically charged thriller directed by noir master Joseph Pevney (Shakedown, Female on the Beach). Posing as a drug buyer named Sal Willis, Christine infiltrates a narcotics ring in order to take down the crooks responsible for her father’s death. But blackmail, gunplay, murder and other duplicities await her as she embarks on her most dangerous case. The sterling cast also features Scott Brady (Undertow), Richard Egan (Violent Saturday), Gladys George (The Maltese Falcon), Edmon Ryan (Topaz), Gerald Mohr (Gilda), Royal Dano (Man in the Shadow), Connie Gilchrist (Flesh and Fury) and Regis Toomey (The Big Sleep).

ONE WAY STREET (1950) – Menacing Mason vs. Dangerous Duryea! Screen great James Mason (Odd Man Out, The Man Between, North by Northwest) stars in this south-of-the-border film noir about a stolen fortune, a borrowed woman and a man too many. After stealing an L.A. gangster’s money—and his girlfriend—the crooked Dr. Frank Matson (Mason) hides out in a small Mexican village. When the townspeople take him in, he decides to live an honest life in Mexico. But, in true noir fashion, destiny awaits the doc in fatalistic Los Angeles. Co-starring Dan Duryea (Scarlet Street, Storm Fear) as the maniacal mobster and Märta Torén (Spy Hunt, Deported) as his moll, One Way Street was the first U.S. picture from prolific Argentine director Hugo Fregonese (Blowing Wild, Black Tuesday, Marco Polo).

APPOINTMENT WITH A SHADOW (1957) – Was This the Man They Hunted...or the Killer Who Hunted Them? Alcoholic reporter Paul Baxter (George Nader, The Female Animal, The Unguarded Moment) has drowned his career in liquor. A comeback opportunity presents itself when Baxter is a bystander at the arrest of a notorious criminal. But he suddenly finds himself up against a wall and at the wrong end of a deadly set-up in Appointment with a Shadow, a compelling CinemaScope noir co-starring Joanna Moore (Touch of Evil, Ride a Crooked Trail), Brian Keith (Chicago Confidential, The Rare Breed) and Virginia Field (Waterloo Bridge, The Earth Dies Screaming), helmed by Richard Carlson (director of Riders to the Stars and star of Creature from the Black Lagoon) and co-written by suspense specialist Alec Coppel (Vertigo, Moment to Moment).

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New on Blu-ray: FILM NOIR - THE DARK SIDE OF CINEMA XII - Undertow (1949), Outside the Law (1950), Hold Back Tomorrow (1955)

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Product Description: This collection features three film noir classics.

UNDERTOW (1949) – Best known for fright fare such as House on Haunted Hill, The Tingler and Let’s Kill Uncle, cult director William Castle turns his lens on guns and gangsters for the film noir gem Undertow. Scott Brady (I Was a Shoplifter) stars as Tony Reagan, a gambler just out of wartime military service. No longer interested in wagers and speculations, Reagan wants only to open up a mountain vacation lodge. Before this can take place, however, he is framed for murder and forced to go on the run from both the police and the unknown killers. Dorothy Hart (Larceny) and Peggy Dow (Shakedown) play the love interests in this serpentine tale of mob-and-moll double-crosses, with John Russell (Yellow Sky), Bruce Bennett (Mildred Pierce) and future star Rock Hudson (The Tarnished Angels) in his second film appearance.

OUTSIDE THE WALL (1950) – Richard Basehart (He Walked by Night) stars as Larry Nelson, paroled from prison after serving nearly half of his thirty-year sentence. Larry is determined to not fall into the clutches of the law again and takes a quiet job at a country sanitarium. There he meets and falls for a gold-digging nurse, Charlotte Maynard (Marilyn Maxwell, Race Street), and he knows the only way to enter her web is to make a lot of fast money. So when Larry learns that the sanitarium is a front for a robbery syndicate, he soon finds himself a clay pigeon for the gang. Meanwhile, sweet-and-wholesome nurse Ann Taylor (Dorothy Hart, Undertow) does her best to help Larry out of the unpleasant situation. Also starring Swedish sensation Signe Hasso (The House on 92nd Street), Outside the Wall is a classic noir story of an ex-con’s struggle to go straight.

HOLD BACK TOMORROW (1955) – What Strange Law Answered His Last Request...to Bring THIS Beautiful Woman to His Cell? Hollywood great John Agar (Sands of Iwo Jima, Shield for Murder) stars as Joe, a death row inmate with one final request before his impending hanging: to spend the night with a woman. The police bring him a down-on-her-luck former “waitress” named Dora, played by femme fatale extraordinaire Cleo Moore (On Dangerous Ground, The Other Woman). At first these two tormented souls meet with disdain, but soon gain each other’s respect. After a night of raw and unexpected passion, Joe informs Dora that, with her love, he will not be afraid to die. The nihilistic noir two-hander Hold Back Tomorrow comes written, produced and directed by Czech star and cult auteur, Hugo Haas (The Girl on the Bridge, Bait).

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New on Blu-ray: FILM NOIR - THE DARK SIDE OF CINEMA XI (A Woman’s Vengeance / I Was a Shoplifter / Behind the High Wall)

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Product Description: This collection features three film noir classics.

A WOMAN’S VENGEANCE (1948) – Charles Boyer (When Tomorrow Comes), Ann Blyth (Thunder on the Hill) and Jessica Tandy (The Birds) star in A Woman’s Vengeance, a gripping noir mystery from acclaimed director Zoltán Korda (The Four Feathers). When his invalid wife Emily (Rachel Kempson, The Captive Heart) dies of a heart attack, it frees Henry Maurier (Boyer) to marry his young mistress (Blyth). Confiding her suspicions that Henry murdered her patient, Emily’s nurse (Mildred Natwick, Against All Flags) is encouraged by a neighbor (Tandy) to tell the police. Suddenly Henry finds himself wrongly convicted and awaiting his fate while the family doctor (Sir Cedric Hardwicke, The Lodger) races against time to find the real killer and save his life. Visionary author Aldous Huxley (Brave New World) adapted the screenplay from his own short story, “The Gioconda Smile.”

I WAS A SHOPLIFTER (1950) – Mona Freeman (Flesh and Fury) stars as the titular kleptomaniac in the sensational crime story, I Was a Shoplifter. Cop Jeff Andrews (Scott Brady, Undertow) agrees to go undercover to shadow the sticky-fingered Faye Burton (Freeman), a judge’s daughter who has been coerced into working for a professional shoplifting ring run by ruthless pawnbroker Ina Perdue (Andrea King, The World in His Arms). Jeff finds himself falling in love with Faye while working to crack the gang of thieves. Directed by Charles Lamont (Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man), shot by Irving Glassberg (Larceny) and featuring Tony Curtis (The Square Jungle), Charles Drake (Deported) and Rock Hudson (The Tarnished Angels), I Was a Shoplifter is a fast-paced film noir treat.

BEHIND THE HIGH WALL (1956) – Tom Tully (The Turning Point) and Sylvia Sidney (Sabotage) star in the riveting prison-break noir, Behind the High Wall. A group of convicts escape from the big house, killing a guard, kidnapping the warden, Frank Carmichael (Tully), and forcing a reluctant inmate, Johnny Hutchins (John Gavin, Midnight Lace), to accompany them. However, when a car crash kills everyone except for Frank and Johnny, the wicked warden steals $100,000 of the escapees’ loot, then accuses the innocent Johnny of the guard’s murder in order to cover up his own crime. Directed by Abner Biberman (The Price of Fear), Behind the High Wall is a crackerjack thriller that plays out to a harrowing conclusion, with fine supporting turns by Betty Lynn (TV’s The Andy Griffith Show), John Larch (Play Misty for Me) and Barney Phillips (Ruby Gentry).

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Classic Movies: HE WALKED BY NIGHT (1948) - Special Edition

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When a Los Angeles police officer is savagely gunned down, a city-wide manhunt ensues for his cunning and ruthless killer.

But finding the murderer, chillingly played by Richard Basehart in only his third film, proves difficult for Detective Marty Brennan (Scott Brady) and his colleagues as Basehart's Roy Morgan is always one step ahead of the law. Will modern police methods and sheer determination be enough to find the elusive cop-killer before he strikes again?

Visually stunning, cinematographer John Alton's brilliant use of light and shadows shine in this groundbreaking police procedural that paved the way for the TV series Dragnet; which itself spawned an entire sub-genre of television crime-dramas that are still popular to this day.

Based on true events, He Walked by Night was directed by Alfred L. Werker, along with an uncredited Anthony Mann (who is believed to be responsible for the film s most iconic scenes). Co-written by John C. Higgins (Raw Deal) and Crane Wilbur (The Phenix City Story), it also features Jack Webb who went on to create and star in the aforementioned Dragnet.

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