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cover
art for SPHE's release of "Icons of Adventure", available June 2008
click on the image to purchase |
The first
eagerly anticipated release of the Hammer/Columbia films hit shelves in the USA
this week in a special 2-disc set from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
The Icons
of Adventure set includes four rarely-seen Hammer titles including The
Pirates of Blood River, The Devil-Ship Pirates, The Stranglers of
Bombay and The Terror of the Tongs. Of these, only Devil-Ship
Pirates has been legitimately released on dvd before - by Warner Bros in the
UK several years ago.
Each of the
titles has been remastered in "high-definition", and is featured in its original
aspect-ratio. The disc is supplemented with obscure (non-Hammer) shorts from the
Columbia catalogue, and each feature has a commentary moderated by Marcus Hearn.
Contributors include Jimmy Sangster, David Z Goodman and Don Mingaye.
Last year
an
announcement on the official Hammer Films website revealled that DD Home
Entertainment in the UK had reached a deal with Sony and Hammer to release 13 of
the much-sought after titles starting last autumn. During the summer of 2007
DD's parent company was bought over and the company became Simply Home
Entertainment - and it now appears that the rights to release the titles did not
transfer with the arrangement.
The release
in the US of these titles is a significant development in terms of the Hammer
catalogue. As we have reported
previously, the Columbia titles are amongst those most frequently offered by
bootleggers and includes a number of classic horrors, comedies and war pictures.
Columbia hold rights to something like 25 titles, few of which have legally seen
the light of day on any domestic format (including laserdisc, vhs, and dvd).
Icons of Adventure
Features:
The Pirates of Blood River
The Devil-Ship Pirates
The Stranglers of Bombay
The Terror of the Tongs
Aspect
Ratio: All 16x9 enhanced. Presented in 2.35:1 (The Terror of the Tongs in
1.66:1). NTSC. Colour (Stranglers of Bombay is B&W)
Sound: English; French (DUB).
Subtitles: English; French
Extras: Commentaries; Merry Mutineers; The Great Adventures of Captain Kidd -
chapter one
SSP: $24.96
To order ICONS
OF ADVENTURE,
click
here. |
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