Dirty Harry 4K UHD (1971)

Star Clint Eastwood and director Don Siegel's hugely influential crime thriller is one of three of Eastwood's movies getting a 4K release from Warner Bros. this week. 

The city of San Francisco is being terrorised by a sniper who calls himself Scorpio, picks victims at random, and says he will keep killing unless he is paid $100,000. City mayor John Vernon is willing to cough up but reckons without no-nonsense Inspector Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) who is frequently happy to ignore the rulebook to see justice is done. 

It's almost impossible to understate the effect of DIRTY HARRY on cinema, and especially crime cinema. Responsible not just for a string of sequels, and for inspiring the entire Italian poliziotteschi genre, The Sweeney in the UK, and 1980s action movies in the US, as one of the extras on here states, it brought the Western, and its figure of 'God's lonely man' (thanks John Milius) into the urban environment. It also helps that the film is superbly written, shot and scored, with excellent support performances, especially from,Andy Robinson as the killer. Most iconic of all, of course, is Eastwood himself as Harry, likely the only man who can dress like a geography teacher and still be the essence of cool as he eats a hotdog and blows hoodlums away on a busy city street.

Warners' 4K comes with a couple of new extras and a bunch of archival ones. Generations & DIRTY HARRY is 6 minutes of academics and film-makers of different ages (including millennials) offering their positive opinions of the character. Some balance would have been fun but this is a DIRTY HARRY disc after all. The Cinematography of DIRTY HARRY, like similar pieces on Warners' other 4Ks is eight minutes about DP Bruce Surtees.

Archival material includes a commentary track from Eastwood biographer Richard Schickel, the 87 minutes BBC Arena coproduction from 2000 'Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows', DIRTY HARRY's way: a seven minute piece about the making of the film from 1971, and DIRTY HARRY: The Original, a 30 minute 2001 documentary about the character. Also, and rather out of context, is an 'Interview Gallery' which includes tiny snippets of interview footage left out of that documentary. Consequently we get clips of Patricia Clarkson (2 minutes), editor Joel Cox (3 minutes), Evan Kim (2 minutes), Andy Robinson (2 minutes) and others talking about Eastwood and their involvement with him although you are often left on your own to work out which film they're talking about. Finally from 2021 there's Clint Eastwood: A Cinematic Legacy - Fighting for Justice which is more in the same vein as the 'Reinventing the Western' piece on Warners' other discs, with the same talking heads including Mel Gibson and John Milius as well as Gene Hackman and Shane Black.

Don Siegel's DIRTY HARRY is out on 4K UHD in both regular and posh steelbook editions from Warner Bros. now

Pale Rider 4K UHD (1985)

Clint Eastwood's 1985 western is one of three classic movies featuring the star that are being released by Warner Bros. on the 4K UHD format in both regular and steelbook editions. 

It's the Gold Rush and Michael Moriarty is part of a small prospecting community. Unfortunately Big Bad Boss Richard Dysart, who is busy plundering the surrounding hills with his industrial mining operation, wants their land as well, so he sets about driving them out with those old western standbys, intimidation and violence.

During a gang raid the dog of 14 year old Megan (Sydney Penny) is shot, and as she prays over its grave for someone to come to their rescue who should ride out of the wilderness but a nameless preacher (Eastwood) on a pale horse. The preacher soon establishes himself as part of the community and of course it's not long before he has to take on the bad guys, including sheriff for hire Stockburn (John Russell) and his gang of deputies. 

When it was released in 1985 contemporary reviews could not help but compare PALE RIDER with Eastwood's first western as director, 1973's HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER, and that's not surprising. Both films begin and end very similarly, there's the suggestion that Eastwood's character is dead in both, but in PALE RIDER his character is perhaps more of a guardian angel than a vengeful spirit.

Considered by some to be inferior to the 1973 film, there's still much to appreciate here, not least the photography by Bruce Surtees of the impressive landscape. There's also a fine cast, many of whom (Moriarty, Dysart, Charles Hallahan, Richard Kiel) will be familiar to fans of fantasy cinema.

Extras new to Warners' 4K release include The Diary of Sydney Penny which is seven minutes of reminiscence from the actress. The Cinematography of PALE RIDER is an eight minute piece in which a number of academics discuss the contribution of Director of Photography Bruce Surtees to the picture. 

        Finally, there's Clint Eastwood: Reinventing the Western which includes interview footage with Mel Gibson, James Mangold, Kevin Costner, Frank Darabont, Morgan Freeman, Martin Scorsese and Sir Christopher Frayling in a compact 18 minute journey through Eastwood's contributions to the Western genre. It's the same extra that's also available on Warners' 4K of THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES. If you want a longer piece on Eastwood the film-maker, then Richard Schickel's 2010 feature length documentary The Eastwood Factor is also on here.

Clint Eastwood's PALE RIDER is out on 4K UHD from Warner Bros. on Monday 28th April in both regular and steelbook editions.

 

Motor Psycho (1965)

 

The film Russ Meyer made just before his classic FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! (also 1965) gets the top class treatment of being released in 4K by Severin Films on UHD and Blu-ray, scanned and restored from the original 35 mm negative.

MOTOR PSYCHO is 74 black and white minutes of hoodlums and Meyer's trademark gravity-defying large breasted women. Three bikers (all suffering from war trauma, it turns out) descend on a desert town to rape and kill. When they attack Gail (Lane Carroll who would go on to appear in George Romero's THE CRAZIES) they figure without her husband, localveterinarian Cory (Alex Rocco) who sets off in pursuit, picking up the bountiful Ruby (Haji), whose husband (Coleman Francis, director of Tor Johnson starrer THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS) has been killed by the gang, along the way. The inevitable desert confrontation follows.

Working with a minimal budget, MOTOR PSYCHO is fast-paced and benefits from a snappy script with some great biting dialogue, especially between Haji and her soon to be late husband. The crisp black and white photography of the desert locations gives them a better sense of eeriness than colour, and the concept of a collection of women with similar physical attributes in a small desert town adds to the sense of slight otherworldliness. 

Severin's 4K transfer is, as with all their other 4K Meyer releases, out of this world. Who would ever have thought any of the films of Russ Meyer (and certainly a more obscure one like MOTOR PSYCHO) could be made to look this sparkling?

The disc comes with a new commentary track by academic Elizabeth Purcell and film-maker Zach Clark which discusses not just this film but other Meyer films in context with it. On the Blu-ray (which comes with the UHD if you get that) there are also archival interviews with Haji and Alex Rocco that last about 21 minutes.

Russ Meyer's MOTOR PSYCHO is out from Severin Films in a UHD / Blu-ray combo, or just the Blu-ray, on Monday 28th April 2025

The Outlaw Josey Wales 4K UHD (1976)

Clint Eastwood's second western as both star and director (the first was 1973's HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER) gets a 4K UHD release in both regular and steelbook editions from Warner Bros.

The American Civil War is nearing its end. Before it does Missouri farmer Josey Wales's (Eastwood) wife and son are killed and his house burned to the ground by raiding Union soldiers. Wales becomes a soldier but when the war finishes he refuses to surrender, which is just as well as the rest of his unit are massacred in a betrayal, with only his old commanding officer Fletcher (John Vernon) allowed to remain alive to then pursue Wales.

Josey makes his way down through Texas with the intention of heading to Mexico. Along the way he picks up a rag tag group of followers and hangers on that include elderly Cherokee Lone Watie (Chief Dan George), a Navajo woman, Moonlight, (Geraldine Kearns), a dog and various others. All the while he is being pursued not just by Fletcher and the Union army but by bounty hunters keen to pick up the reward on his head. He eventually settles in an abandoned ranch with his group but the harsh American west has not yet finished with him.

Noticeably different in style to HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER and indeed to what could be considered the 'classic' American western, THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES is an epic in the true meaning of the word - the story of the lengthy journey of a single man and the challenges he has to face. Wales himself is not the typical American western hero, either, preferring to avoid violence and finding peaceful solutions whenever possible (of course sometimes there isn't one). At well over two hours it really is quite the sprawling epic tale, but it justifies its length and the pacing never feels sluggish.

Warners' 4K looks fantastic, with an image so crisp you'd swear the film could have been made yesterday. Extras include a commentary track from Eastwood biographer Richard Schickel, and two archival pieces: Eastwood in Action (8 minutes) from when the film was made and a Making Of from 1999 that runs about half an hour and is narrated by John Milius.

New extras include An Outlaw and a Hero (7 minutes) in which academics discuss the character of Josey Wales, and Cinematograph of an Outlaw (8 minutes) in which the same team returns to discuss the work of DP Bruce Surtees on the movie) Finally, there's Clint Eastwood: Reinventing the Western which includes interview footage with Mel Gibson, James Mangold, Kevin Costner, Frank Darabont, Morgan Freeman, Martin Scorsese and Sir Christopher Frayling in a compact 18 minute journey through Eastwood's contributions to the Western genre.

Clint Eastwood's THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES is out on 4K UHD from Warner Bros. on Monday 28th April in both regular and steelbook editions.

Up! (1976)

"(Not the Pixar Disney Film...Obviously)"

...although Russ Meyer was tagged in publicity of the period as 'The Walt Disney of Skin Flick'. Anyway, the film the producer-director-cinematographer-editor and all-round auteur made in between SUPERVIXENS (1975) and BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRAVIXENS (1979) is now getting to join those two movies in getting a 4K UHD and Blu-ray release from Severin Films, scanned and restored from the original 35 mm negative.

UP! was obviously conceived as a follow-up to SUPERVIXENS in its attempt to recreate another crazy world filled with sexually-inspired daftness featuring women with enormous breasts. The mix isn't quite as successful this time around, but if you like Meyer's other films and have a penchant for his singular and colourful take on storytelling then this will satisfy your desire for more of the same quite nicely.

After some extremely dubious sexual shenanigans Adolf Hitler is murdered in his bath by a black-gloved piranha-wielding killer. Meanwhile immensely busty Margo Winchester (Raven de la Croix) arrives in the small American town where Hitler was 'hiding out' (in his castle on the hill). Who was responsible for Hitler's death swiftly takes second place to Margo's interactions with all the men in the immediate area in yet another of Meyer's depictions of weird small town life in rural America. 

We do find out who killed Hitler in a crazy climax that features as much large-breasted naked running through countryside as the rest of the film (which is a lot). Francesca 'Kitten' Natividad acts as a kind of bouncy naked Greek chorus to regularly remind you what's supposed to be going on. Before the climax there's some surprisingly graphic business in a bar that culminates in the use of both an axe and a chainsaw. All this plus almost as many shots of wobbling fried eggs as wobbling breasts to keep the discerning viewer entertained.

As with the other films they have released, Severin's 4K transfer is absolutely stunning, with colours at least as eye-popping as some of the camera angles. Extras on their UHD / Blu-ray set include an archival interview with Raven de la Croix which goes some way to explaining why she wasn't cast in Meyer's next film. New to this release is a commentary track from film, academic and UP! enthusiast Elizabeth Purchell which spends a good 20 minutes talking about Meyer's career up to the film before getting stuck in to the action.

Russ Meyer's UP! is out from Severin Films in a UHD / Blu-ray combo or just the Blu-ray on Monday 28th April 2025

Four Flies on Grey Velvet 4K Restoration (1971)

 

The third in writer-director Dario Argento's celebrated 'Animals' trilogy is getting a new 4K restoration from Shameless, in both Blu-ray and limited edition UHD releases.

Roberto (Michael Brandon) is a drummer with a successful prog jazz band. He's happily married, lives in a glossy modern early 1970s house, and has a circle of arty friends. But someone is following him. One night, when Roberto gives chase and finds himself in an abandoned theatre, he ends up killing the mysterious man - or so he thinks. 

What's more worrying (aside from the fact that he's in an Argento film) is the weirdly-masked individual who photographs him in the act and then leaves  the photos lying around, that is when they're not whispering to him or leaving a dead cat on one of his shelves. Then the killings start, with the final one providing a clue as to who the killer is.

We're firmly in Italian giallo-land with FOUR FLIES. The concept of the final image a victim sees being imprinted on the retina is at once ingenious and ridiculous - giallo in a nutshell, if you like. No spoilers here, though - you'll have to watch the film to find out what I'm talking about.

And, as with so much of this sort of cinema, who cares? FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET is so stylish, with endearing characters (Jean-Pierre Marielle's private investigator channels Eddi Arent from the Rialto Edgar Wallace mysteries) and a style that's still impressive over fifty years later. 

Shameless' new transfer is a big improvement over their previous Blu-ray release, and  there are some excellent new extras as well. Foremost amongst these is a 41 minute interview with Michael Brandon who remembers everything about the production and his time in Rome, including tea with Fellini (although how could one ever forget that?). There's a new 31 minute interview with Argento where he talks not just about the film but his three animals trilogy and his life leading up to them being made. 

An archival 41 minute interview with co-writer and assistant director Luigi Cozzi has been ported over and you get introductions to the film from both Brandon (new) and Cozzi (archival). You also get English opening and closing credits, trailers, a TV spot and an image gallery. Finally, the limited edition UHD disc includes a booklet by Alan Jones, two art cards, and a poster all inside a slipcase.

Dario Argento's FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET is out in a 4K Restoration in both limited UHD and regular Blu-ray editions on Monday 28th April 2025

The Coffee Table - Blu-ray Release (2022)

 

After its successful UK release on digital from Second Sight last year, Caye Casas' excruciating, shocking and at times hilarious (depending on your sense of humour) horror film gets a disc release, with a limited edition offering some extra features as well.

The film opens with married couple Jesús (David Pareja) and Maria (Estefania de los Santo) in a furniture shop where Jesús wants to buy a coffee table that Maria is distinctly unimpressed by. Over the course of their conversation we learn that Maria has made all the major decisions in the relationship, right down to the naming of their newborn son.

They buy the table and take it back to their flat. Jesús' brother and his much younger girlfriend are coming over for tea, while the 13 year old girl upstairs is under the delusion that Jesús wants to run away with her but has yet to tell his wife. Maria goes shopping, leaving Jesús to mind the baby.

So far, so Alan Ayckbourn or Fawlty Towers-type in its set up for something to happen that needs to be covered up and will cause mounting tension throughout the rest of the film. It's this event that results in the following hour  displaying some of the broadest swings between humour and horror ever put on screen. Many, of course, will not find the film funny at all and it likely takes a very special kind of black sense of humour to appreciate it. Suffice to say this is a film you probably need to think twice about viewing if you're a parent, and even if you're not it's definitely going to be a bit much for some.

New extras on Second Sight's Blu-ray include a commentary track by 'extreme cinema enthusiasts' (a good choice) Zoe Rose Smith and Amber T, interviews with the director (23 minutes), stars David Pareja (15 minutes) and Estenfania de los Santos (12 minutes), and DP Alberto Morago (11 minutes). Rebecca Sayce contributes a 19 minute visual essay that looks at the film from the perspective of post partum depression and anxiety, and we get two Casas short films: RIP and Nada SA (both 16 minutes). The limited edition comes with a 120 page book with new writing on the film and six art cards with a rigid slipcase to keep it all in.

Caye Casas' THE COFFEE TABLE is out in both limited and standard edition Blu-ray sets from Second Sight on Monday 28th April 2025