Cult DVDs
Good news! Warners is opening its archives to release obscure cult DVDs.
I came across an interesting article by Chris Nashawaty entitled Warner Bros.’ new DVD service: What rare find are you excited to watch? Apparently, Warners is releasing some obscure titles which may be considered cult DVDs for puchase. The price is $19.95 each, which seems a bit steep to me. The author addressed this issue by acknowledging that it is a good move on Warners’ part to find a new DVD revenue stream but also asked if any of the released titles are worth shelling out $20 for.
The article mentions a 1962 title called All Fall Down, Warren Beatty’s second film after Splendor in the Grass, from director John Frankenheimer (Birdman of Alcatraz, The Manchurian Candidate) and also starring Eva Marie Saint. The page also includes a great black and white still from that film of Eva Marie Saint dancing with a young Warren Beatty.
The great variety of the fare is evidenced by the article’s description of overlooked notables, such as Francis Ford Coppola’s small 1969 film, The Rain People; the 1971 L.A. drug film Dusty and Sweets McGee; Budd Boetticher’s 1959 western Westbound; Noel Coward’s 1931 witty film Private Lives with Robert Montgomery and Norma Shearer; and four films starring Greta Garbo. So it includes everything from a ‘70s drug saga to Garbo films.
The most interesting picks he mentioned were the titles that may be considered cult DVDs:
the 1968 Robert Altman NASA bomb Countdown starring a youthful Robert Duvall and James Caan; El Condor, a Mexican western from 1970 starring Lee Van Cleef and Jim Brown; an overlooked 1973 western with Burt Reynolds called The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing directed by cult favorite Richard C. Sarafian (The Bear); a cult B-grade adventure from 1975 entitled Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze; 1977’s coming-of-age movie about college basketball entitled One on One, starring Robby Benson, a pretty young Annette O’Toole, and G.D. Spradlin as the coach, who you may remember from The Godfather Part II; and Oxford Blues, a rowing film about an American who hustles his way into Oxford played by Rob Lowe with Ally Sheedy as his love interest.
It is encouraging that Warners is making these cult DVDs available. There is no sense in keeping them on the shelf.
