Imprint Films has announced five new titles to join the collection on Blu-Ray in December: Film Focus: Marlon Brando – Volume 1 (1957-1967), Directed By…Sidney Lumet – Volume 1 (1964-1973), Lenny (1974), Islands In The Stream (1977), and King Of The Gypsies (1978). These represent two collections from Hollywood legends, an Academy Award-nominated drama from Bob Fosse, an Ernest Hemmingway adaptation, and the feature film debut from Eric Roberts.
Imprint Films is a specialty label based out of Australia whose releases can be played in Blu-Ray players worldwide, including U.S. players. All first pressings of each release will have strictly limited-edition deluxe packaging along with new transfers, audio commentaries, exclusive bonus features & more. Details on these films can be found below:
Film Focus: Marlon Brando – Volume 1 (1957-1967)
Street Date: December 27, 2023
Synopsis: One of the greatest actors of all time, Marlon Brando, brings six powerful performances to this Limited Edition boxset.
- Sayonara (1957)
- The Fugitive Kind (1960)
- One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
- The Ugly American (1963)
- Bedtime Story (1964)
- A Countess From Hong Kong (1967)
Limited Edition 6-Disc Hardbox. 1500 copies only.
Sayonara (1957)
This moving Korean War drama won four Academy Awards, starring Marlon Brando as an American Air Force fighter pilot who falls in love with a Japanese actress (Miiko Taka), and finds himself having to contend with a cruel military policy.
Directed by Pulitzer Prize winner Joshua Logan (South Pacific, Picnic), and based on the novel of the same name by James A. Michener, also a Pulitzer Prize winner.
Featuring performances from Patricia Owens (The Fly), James Garner (The Great Escape), Martha Scott (The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur), Ricardo Montalbán (Star Trek), Red Buttons (Pete’s Dragon), and Tony Award and Golden Globe nominated actress and singer Miyoshi Umeki (Flower Drum Song), who won an oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in this film.
Tackling racism and prejudice head-on, Sayonara was number one at the US box office for five consecutive weeks on release, described by the New York Times as a “beautiful, sentimental tale”, with Brando’s leading performance giving “eccentricity and excitement to a richly colourful film”.
Special Features & Technical Specs:
- 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K scan
- NEW Audio Commentary by cinema author & critic Matthew Asprey Gear
- NEW Audio Commentary by film historian Stuart Galbraith IV, including interviews with John Waxman, son of composer Franz Waxman, and Yayoi Winfrey, writer-director of War Brides of Japan
- Theatrical Trailer
- Isolated Score and Effects Track in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
- Audio LCPM 2.0 Mono
- Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
- Optional English HOH Subtitles
The Fugitive Kind (1960)
Directed by Sidney Lumet and written by Tennessee Williams, The Fugitive Kind brings Williams’ play Orpheus Descending to life.
This “piercing account of loneliness and disappointment in a crass and tyrannical world” (New York Times) follows a handsome drifter (Brando) with a guitar… and a past. When he takes a job as a store clerk in Two Rivers, Mississippi, his strong and silent demeanour attracts not only the local party girl, but also the shopkeeper’s exotic wife, leading to an explosive love triangle.
Starring Academy Award winners Marlon Brando, Joanne Woodward (Rachel, Rachel), Anna Magnani (The Rose Tattoo), and winner of the Triple Crown Of Acting, Maureen Stapleton (Reds, Cocoon).
Special Features & Technical Specs:
- 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 4K digital restoration, approved by director Sidney Lumet
- NEW Audio Commentary by critic Adrian Martin
- NEW Video featurette on The Fugitive Kind (2023)
- Theatrical Trailer
- Audio LPCM 2.0 Mono
- Original Aspect Ratio 1.66:1
- Optional English HOH Subtitles
One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
This Academy Award-winning Western is Marlon Brando’s sole directorial credit, which he also stars in as revenge-driven Rio. Quentin Tarantino named this as one of his three favourite Westerns.
After robbing a Mexican bank, Dad Longworth takes the loot and leaves his partner, Rio, to be captured. After five hard years in prison, Rio escapes and travels to California to kill Dad.
Legendary Oscar-winning actor Karl Malden (A Streetcar Named Desire, On The Waterfront) co-stars with Brando, alongside Pina Pellicer and Slim Pickens (Dr. Strangelove, Blazing Saddles).
Special Features & Technical Specs:
- 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a remastered 4K scan
- NEW Audio Commentary by author of “A Million Feet Of Film: The Making Of One-Eyed Jacks”, Toby Roan
- NEW An Authentic Death: Pursuing One-Eyed Jacks – an all-new documentary exploring the making of the film featuring interviews with author/film historian C. Courtney Joyner, author/historian Henry Parke, producer/director Michael Priest, western film historian Mike Malloy, and western historian Rob Word
- NEW Hugo Friedhofer Goes West: Scoring One-Eyed Jacks – an all-new featurette about the Western scores of the legendary composer with “Friedhofer” biographer/film music historian Linda Danly
- NEW Surviving Billy The Kid – Video Essay with Mike Siegel on the making of One Eyed-Jacks
- NEW Promoting One Eyed Jacks – Photo Gallery
- Theatrical Trailer
- Audio LPCM 2.0 Mono
- Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
- Optional English Subtitles
The Ugly American (1963)
Marlon Brando travels to Southeast Asia in this epic adventure, based on the novel by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer, and labelled “one of Brando’s best performances” (New York Daily).
A compassionate American ambassador to the strife-torn Southeast Asian nation of Sarkhan is met with suspicion from the locals as tries to keep the Communists in the north from overrunning the weakened democracy in the south.
Kukrit Pramoj appears in the film as Prime Minister of fictional country Sarkhan, who went on to be the thirteenth Prime Minister of Thailand in 1975.
Special Features & Technical Specs:
- 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K scan
- NEW Audio Commentary by film historian Scott Harrison
- Newsreel world premiere of “The Ugly American” in Bangkok 1963
- Theatrical Trailer
- Audio LPCM 2.0 Mono
- Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
- Optional English HOH Subtitles
Bedtime Story (1964)
Bedtime Story, the hit comedy later remade into Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) and The Hustle (2019), stars Marlon Brando and David Niven as hilarious con artists.
Caddish Freddy Benson enjoys setting up elaborate ruses to seduce women. Suave Lawrence Jameson likes to pose as a prince to swindle the wealthy. When the two men meet, each perceives the other as an interloper and a threat.
Special Features & Technical Specs:
- 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K scan
- NEW Audio Commentary by film Historian Lee Pfeiffer with film Historian Paul Scrabo
- Vintage promotional film
- Theatrical Trailer
- Audio LPCM 2.0 Mono
- Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
- Optional English HOH Subtitles
A Countess From Hong Kong (1967)
Directed, written, produced and scored by Charlie Chaplin, this romantic comedy is Chaplin’s final film (and his only film in colour), and marks his final screen appearance. The film was in development for over thirty years, based on Chaplin’s meeting of Russian performer Moussia Sodskaya.
Starring Hollywood legends Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren, as well as Tony Award-winning Sydney Chaplin (son of Charlie).
In Hong Kong, the ambassador returning to America meets a refugee Russian countess without a passport, who he decides to hide in his cabin.
Special Features & Technical Specs:
- 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K scan
- NEW Audio Commentary by film historian Lee Pfeiffer with film historian Paul Scrabo
- NEW Audio Commentary by Chaplin biographer Jeffrey Vance
- NEW Interview with actor Michael Medwin
- Newsreel from the world premiere, New York 1967
- Newsreel from a 1967 press conference
- Photo Gallery
- Theatrical Trailer
- Audio LPCM 2.0 Mono
- Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
- Optional English HOH Subtitles
Directed By…Sidney Lumet – Volume One (1964-1973)
Street Date: December 27, 2023
Synopsis: Six films from the prolific and influential director Sidney Lumet are collected in this Limited Edition 7-disc boxset, including a brand NEW feature documentary One Step Further: Becoming Lumet.
- The Pawnbroker (1964)
- The Group (1966)
- The Deadly Affair (1967)
- Child’s Play (1972)
- The Offence (1973)
- Serpico (1973)
Limited Edition 7-Disc Hardbox. 1500 copies only.
The Pawnbroker (1964)
This groundbreaking drama features a critically acclaimed performance by Academy Award winning actor Rod Steiger (On The Waterfront, In The Heat Of The Night), and is based on the novel by Edward Lewis Wallant.
A WWII Nazi death camp survivor takes refuge in misery and a bitter condemnation of humanity while managing a Harlem pawnshop subjected to an endless parade of prostitutes, pimps and thieves.
Also starring Morgan Freeman in his feature film debut, Geraldine Fitzgerald (Arthur), Brock Peters (To Kill A Mockingbird, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home), and Jaime Sánchez (The Wild Bunch, Carlito’s Way), The Pawnbroker is preserved in the Library Of Congress’ National Film Registry.
Special Features & Technical Specs:
- 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K scan
- NEW Audio Commentary by writer/producer Phoef Sutton, writer/NPR commentator Mark Legan, and author/film historian C. Courtney Joyner
- NEW Cinema of the Pilpul: A Talmudic View of Early Holocaust Cinema – Video Essay
- The Guardian Interview: Rod Steiger (1992)
- Theatrical Trailer
- Audio LPCM 2.0 Mono
- Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
- Optional English HOH Subtitles
The Group (1966)
A BAFTA nominated social satire, The Group stars an incredible female ensemble cast including Candice Bergen (Gandhi, The Domino Principle, Bite The Bullet), Jessica Walter (Play Misty For Me, Archer), and Academy Award nominees Joan Hackett, Elizabeth Hartman, and Shirley Knight.
A group of eight young women from a certain single-sex liberal arts college face the inevitable pressures to sand the rough edges off their personalities and to surrender their independence to the men in their lives and the institutions they represent.
Based on the 1963 novel by Mary McCarthy.
Special Features & Technical Specs:
- 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K scan
- NEW Audio Commentary by critic Adrian Martin
- Theatrical Trailer
- Audio LPCM 2.0 Mono
- Original Aspect Ratio 1.66:1
- Optional English HOH Subtitles
The Deadly Affair (1967)
Sidney Lumet directs the legendary James Mason stars in this thrilling spy film with an incredible score by Quincy Jones, based on John le Carre’s debut novel ‘Call For The Dead’.
Puzzled by the sudden suicide of a man he’s recently investigated, a British secret agent persists with his inquiries despite being warned off by the Foreign Office. What he uncovers has dire consequences…
Special Features & Technical Specs:
- 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K scan
- Special Features TBC
- Audio LPCM 2.0 Mono
- Original Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
- Optional English HOH Subtitles
Child’s Play (1972)
James Mason, Robert Preston and Beau Bridges star in this 70’s psychological mystery directed by Sidney Lumet, based on the Broadway play by Robert Marasco.
At an exclusive boys’ school, a new gym teacher is drawn into a feud between two older instructors, and he discovers that everything at the school is not quite as staid, tranquil and harmless as it seems.
Variety called Child’s Play as “a taut and suspenseful drama” where “Sidney Lumet’s direction catches the mood and spirit of an unhealthy situation and he makes every move count”, and the Los Angeles Times described James Mason’s performance as ranking “with the best portrayals in his long, impressive career”.
Special Features & Technical Specs:
- 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K scan
- NEW Audio Commentary by film historian Howard Berger
- NEW Video Essay by author/critic Kat Ellinger
- NEW Interview with production designer Philip Rosenberg
- Theatrical Trailer
- Audio LPCM 2.0 Mono
- Original Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
- Optional English HOH Subtitles
The Offence (1973)
A thrilling neo-noir crime drama starring Sean Connery as a troubled police detective, The Offence is based on John Hopkins’ stage play This Story Of Yours.
A burnt-out British police detective finally snaps whilst interrogating a suspected child molester.
With impressive performances from Ian Bannen (nominated for a BAFTA for his role in this film), Trevor Howard (The Third Man), and Vivien Merchant (Frenzy, Alfie), Sidney Lumet’s direction of this bold piece is explosive and disturbing.
Special Features & Technical Specs:
- 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K scan
- NEW Audio Commentary by film historians Lee Pfeiffer, Tony Latino & Paul Scrabo
- NEW Video Essay by film historian Howard Berger
- NEW Interview with assistant director Michael Stevenson
- Interview with composer Harrison Birtwistle
- Interview with stage director Christopher Morahan
- Interview with assistant art director Chris Burke
- Interview with costume designer Evangeline Harrison
- Theatrical Trailer
- Audio LPCM 2.0 Mono
- Original Aspect Ratio 1.66:1
- Optional English HOH Subtitles
Serpico (1973)
Sidney Lumet’s Academy Award nominated biographical crime drama masterpiece features a gripping performance from Al Pacino, acclaimed by critics and audiences alike.
Serpico presents a city in decay both literally and morally, as everybody is in on the take, and the cops and criminals are almost interchangeable.
“Lumet’s toughest, most provocative film in years… a galvanising and disquieting film… galvanising because of Al Pacino’s splendid performance in the title role and because of the tremendous intensity that Mr. Lumet brings to this sort of subject.” – New York Times
Special Features & Technical Specs:
- 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K scan
- Theatrical Trailer
- Audio LPCM 2.0 Mono / DTS HD 5.1 Surround
- Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
- Optional English & English HOH Subtitles
“One Step Further: Becoming Lumet” – Feature Documentary
An all-new documentary detailing the first half of this celebrated filmmaker’s career; from his early beginnings as director for television, to the release of Serpico. Produced by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures.
Special Features & Technical Specs:
- 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray
- NEW A Perfectly Outrageous Cut: Editing Lumet – an all-new featurette with award winning editor Alan Heim discussing his working relationship with Sidney Lumet.
- NEW His Favourite Protagonist: Designing Lumet – an all-new featurette with production designer Philip Rosenberg discussing his collaborations with Sidney Lumet.
- NEW Man With No Anger: Scoring Lumet – an all-new featurette with film music historian Daniel Schweiger discussing acclaimed composer Quincy Jones and his collaboration with Sidney Lumet.
Lenny
Street Date: December 27, 2023
Synopsis: The story of acerbic 1960s comic Lenny Bruce, whose groundbreaking, no-holds-barred style and social commentary was often deemed by the establishment as too obscene for the public.
Directed by influential dancer and choreographer Bob Fosse, the director of Cabaret and All That Jazz, Dustin Hoffman gives an acclaimed performance as Lenny Bruce, alongside Valerie Perrine (Superman, Superman II), who won a BAFTA for her role in this film.
Based on the Julian Barry play of the same name, and nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Screenplay, and Cinematography.
1500 copies only.
Special Features & Technical Specs:
- 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray
- NEW Audio Commentary by film historian/filmmaker Daniel Kremer
- Audio Commentary by film historians Nick Redman and Julie Kirgo
- NEW Dead Neon: The Many Faces of Lenny Bruce on Film – Video Essay
- NEW Video Essay on the career of actress Valerie Perrine by author/critic Kat Ellinger
- NEW On Fosse Time: Editing Lenny – an interview with editor Alan Heim on his collaborations with director Bob Fosse
- Trailers From Hell: Robert Weide
- The Lenny Bruce audio files
- Isolated Music & Effects track
- Audio LPCM 2.0
- Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
- Optional English HOH Subtitles
- Limited Edition slipcase with unique artwork
Islands In The Stream
Street Date: December 27, 2023
Synopsis: War. Freedom. Loyalty. Love. Manhood. Ernest Hemingway’s most powerful themes are gloriously captured in the motion picture epic Islands In The Stream.
George C. Scott and director Franklin J. Shaffner, who teamed so memorably in Patton, reunite in this compelling version of ‘Papa’ Hemingway’s posthumous novel. Scott plays Thomas Hudson, a sculptor whose self-imposed isolation in the Bahamas is ended by two forces: the visit of his sons, and the outbreak of World War II.
The film is touching in its details of a father’s love, and heroic in its defiance of tyranny. The rich sweep of a literary legend washes over Islands In The Stream.
1500 copies only. Worldwide first on Blu-ray!
Special Features & Technical Specs:
- 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray
- NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historian Samm Deighan
- NEW Survival Scars: Franklin J. Schaffner as Auteur – Video Essay by Daniel Kremer
- Trailer
- Audio LPCM 2.0
- Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
- Optional English Subtitles
- Limited Edition slipcase with unique artwork
King Of The Gypsies
Street Date: December 27, 2023
Synopsis: In the criminal and violent world of modern-day Gypsies based in New York City, their ‘king’ Zharko Stepanowicz passes his leadership to his unwilling grandson, leaving the skipped father resentful.
This critically acclaimed crime drama stars Eric Roberts in his feature film debut, alongside Sterling Hayden, Shelley Winters, Susan Sarandon, Brooke Shields, Annette O’Toole and Judd Hirsch.
Based on the 1975 book King of the Gypsies by Peter Maas.
1500 copies only.
Special Features & Technical Specs:
- 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray
- NEW Audio Commentary by film historian/filmmaker Daniel Kremer
- NEW Interview with editor Paul Hirsch
- Trailers From Hell: Michael Schlesinger on “King of the Gypsies”
- Vintage Interview with actor Eric Roberts (1978)
- Trailer
- Audio LPCM 2.0 Mono
- Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
- Optional English HOH Subtitles
- Limited Edition slipcase with unique artwork
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.