From DVDTIMES

Warner Home Video have announced the Region 1 DVD release of six films as part of their "Director's Showcase"

Sweet! I can't wait for Prince of the City and Straight Time. Very nice...

Which was the first director's showcase? The one with Petulia?

So, is it safe to assume that we will be getting these random releases of important/near important titles each month? I hope so because that would mean many, many more surprises down the line. Bring them on!

If Badham is involved with the release of Whose Life Is It Anyway?, then don't be surprised if it is in black and white. Apparently, it was simultaneously shot in bw and color (both in 2.35:1) but only the color version has ever saw the light of day. Perhaps the negatives of the bw version were never cut or completed, but even if that is so, I wouldn't put it past Badham desaturating the color version, either completely or to substantial degree, as he did with Dracula. Funnily enough, I was searching for info on this film and the bw version yesterday! Mario Tosi's work usually has strong colors, so it would as bad as altering Peter Murton and Brian Ackland-Snow's production design on Dracula. Definitely Dreyfuss' strongest performance, though he himself was so strung out on coke at that time that he doesn't remember the production, so an interview or commentary involving him would be strange.

Payday is a film that I have wanted to see for a long time. Folk legends, Ian and Sylvia Tyson contributed to the soundtrack.

Owen Roizman was the cinematographer on Straight Time, so that has also been on my list and from what I have heard, it is one of Hoffman's best performances.

Prince of the City is already scheduled for a UK release in March and I have it pre-ordered, but as this R1 release is definitely a 2-disc, it has made me think twice. Great film, very long and after watching Lumet's, The Offense and Dog Day Afternoon this week, I am greatly looking forward to seeing Prince of the City again and for the first time in its OAR. And I hope that the specs are not complete, as I'd love to hear a Lumet commentary and if Lumet prefers the longer (4-hour?) cut, then surely we should be seeing that, too.

Until today, I had not even heard of Tell Me a Riddle, which is apparently quite moving, though with boring passages. Only 43 votes at the IMDb - Warner certainly have more popular films wanted on DVD.

Specs are now up at DVD Times. I'm surprised that Lumet didn't record a commentary for Prince of the City.

[quote]Warner Home Video have announced the Region 1 DVD release of six films as part of their “Director's Showcaseâ€

Why are these being called "Director's Showcase"? Only one director of notable acclaim is even being included. Some of these don't even have director's commentary. I don't get it.

As am I. I could've sworn that I read somewhere (maybe one of the Warners chats) that he had in fact recorded a commentary for this movie. Perhaps, these specs are incomplete?

Love the extras listed for Straight Time, though. Very niiiice.

because they want to make money.
By marketing something as a quality product, when really it is not.

I found the source. According to the on-line chat with executives from Warner Home Video, held on Tuesday, February 21st on The Home Theater Forum:


Hmm...

Delayed until May 22nd. Payday and Tell Me a Riddle are now MIA.

DVD Times review of Prince of the City. Does anybody know what on earth happened to the R2 that was supposed to be released in March?

Been twenty five years since I have seen PRINCE OF THE CITY, but I never forgot it. No one knows cops and no one knows the city like Lumet.
The DVD Times review indicates that Treat Williams failed to become a big star because he lacked charisma. Could have fooled me. The truth is that his career was derailed by a drug problem which he fully acknowledges, and is now in the past.

Prince of the City is an extraordinary film. It was a long wait to finally see it, but I was blown away by Treat Williams' perfromance. Another prime example of how clueless the Academy is.

The transfer is but hit and miss: one minute, the image is detailed and dense, and the next it is soft and a bit contrasty. I chalked this down to the documentary-esque style, typical of Andrzej Bartkowiak at that time.

And I fully agree with Belmondo's comment that no filmmaker knows cops like Lumet and a R1 release of The Offence (MGM) is long overdue (it's available in the UK).

All I can say is that I warn anyone going into this film that you may end up forming a wildly different opinion than the review above. By all means, see it for yourself, but I cannot give this film any recommendation whatsoever.

First of all, I had the worst reaction to this film possible. I don't think it's any good and I felt Lumet worked overtime to repeat every beat he thought was the success in Serpico and failed. The film suffers from an overwhelming number of shortcomings, including uninspired early 80's TV-style camerwork, monotone acting (short of Jerry Orbach, who is wonderful) and a poorly though out "the system is corrupt" script that relies on every contrivance imaginable.

Once again, Lumet convinced me that he has no idea how the system of law actually works and he (as co-writer) turns every single character into a cartoon who is either a niave victim, bumbling dogooder or evil nemesis. Williams' character never, ever moves beyond three notes - "oh no, the jig is up!", "yeah I'll do this it's fun" and "aw crap, what have I done" - for three hours, repeatedly. There is no character depth, and instead of relying on any, Lumet pulls a Spielberg and handfeeds us the emotional weight of the consequences through gag-inducing bookends and cliched altercations with his wife.

If you really love Lumet, maybe you can find a way to appreciate what he's done with this film. If you ever feel Lumet tends to create one-sided scenarios or lacks emotional and aesthetic scope, I would highly recommend avoiding Prince of the City. Again, I'm sure there are many people here who will have a wildly different opinion about it, so I can only offer my own.

Drew I see where you're coming from, but despite the film's overused characterizations, I thought Williams sold the material very well. Early in the film, during his "I'll never sell out my partners" freak out monologue, I rolled my eyes. But by the end of the scene, Williams had convinced me.

Treat played Danny as if he were a guy who grew up on cop movies. I saw Danny as what Quentin Tarantino might have been had he been a detective instead of a filmmaker. Hell, he's almost like Max Fischer, an innocent guy doing his own riff on Serpico, but without any of the hardboiled virtue. In that sense, I feel Williams made the contrived characterization work. He turned what would have been trite with another actor into a genuine naivety and helplessness. For instance, the frustrated stare he gives the prosecutor in the final courtroom scene made Danny out to be someone who never even thought twice about cheating on his wife with a junkie prostitute. Danny's expression in that scene clearly shows he wants to defend himself, but at that moment, his mind is imploding because his entire ethos has been destroyed.

I also didn't feel Lumet was handfeeding us unearned emotion. The film, to me anyway, was remarkably unsentimental for opting not to heroize or demonize Danny. He's basically a bumbling ass, and Lumet gives us the option of sympathizing with him or mocking him.

As for Lumet's authenticity to the law, I don't have a clue. I'm a pathetically gullible person, and I stupidly take movies for the truth more often than I should. I will say, however, that the scenes with the dozen or so lawyers gathered in the office were clearly Hollywood fantasy. Principal Strickland doing "My grandfather was a lawyer, my father was a lawyer" was terrible. So was the "I'll tender my resignation" guy.

Finally, in regards to Lumet's aesthetics or lack thereof, I'm fascinated by the what-if of De Palma directing this film as originally planned and Lumet directing Scarface. Surely, Lumet's Scarface would have been a classic reversal of fortune, whereas De Palma's Prince of the City had the potential to be a hypnotic tour of the hellish New York crime world of the early 80's. As a fan of both directors, I'm satisfied with the movies as they are, but I'm a bigger De Palma fan, so I think I would have preferred his interpretation.

What are the titles in the first wave of Director's Showcase series?

Sorry, did not look hard enuff

Earlier, I acknowledged that I had not seen PRINCE OF THE CITY in a long time, so I don't want to fight with DrewReiber if he has seen it more recently. Nevertheless, we can certainly discuss our differences regarding Sidney Lumet.
Lumet has explored many themes over his long career and if his "one sided scenarios" show us anything, it is that there are two sides to every one sided scenario. Sometimes there are a dozen sides, as he showed in his first effort, TWELVE ANGRY MEN.
If he sometimes seems preoccupied with the idea that the system is corrupt, then I find that to be an important theme worth exploring more than once, and I think he digs pretty deep. It is the great turmoil caused by trying to do the right thing that plagues the characters in SERPICO, PRINCE OF THE CITY, Q and A, NIGHT FALLS ON MANHATTAN and others. In the latter film, it turns out that all the cops are lying under oath and the only truthteller is the bad guy. It is not simply that the system is corrupt, it is the near impossibility of finding justice in the justice system. The defense lawyer in that movie says "I wanted to get dirty cops and I got them", but it is arguable whether justice is ever served - pretty good stuff, especially considering that NIGHT FALLS ON MANHATTAN is one of Lumet's minor movies.
So, I hope my dim recollections of the excellence of PRINCE OF THE CITY will hold up when I get the DVD. I have a feeling they will.

From DVDTimes:

I saw PERSONAL BEST in 1982 and remember it as completely transcending my expectations. (My expectations were limited by the fact that I read a review saying Mariel Hemingway does nude lesbian love scenes; at which point I stopped reading and headed for the theater at a high rate of speed). I got what I was hoping for and much more - this is one of the best, and most believable, sports movies ever made and has excellent performances from Hemingway, Patrice Donnelly and Scott Glen. The lesbian aspect is handled beautifully and is no more or less than simply one facet in the lives of certain female Olympic athletes.
I do remember that the movie had a few too many slow motion scenes of competition, but, that is a minor criticism of an unusually intelligent sports movie.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - YES! Finally. Many people will be ecstatic over this. Bravo, Warner.

Payday has intrigued me for years, so I'll definitely give it a go.

The Ritz has also raised its head from time to time in my researches. I like many of Richard Lester's films, but I'm not sure if I find the premise all that interesting. Has anyone here seen it?

Thanks, Gigi.

alternate title for this set: Hey, Here's Some Movies

I saw it on HBO many decades ago, and remember it as an entertaining mess.

There's a new Broadway version in previews now, with Rosie Perez in the role Rita Moreno played in the movie (and the original play).