The African Queen News

Katharine Hepburn & Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen

As I am sure all of your classic film fans know, the great film The African Queen has oddly never been on dvd officially before. We all had to catch it on tv to watch it or tape it from tv. Well, they are finally releasing  The African Queen on dvd and…Blu Ray!

According to Amazon the film will also be released on dvd, in what I will guess might be a bare bones edition with little to know special features which has become tradition now in dvd/blu ray releases. The studios want you to buy those blu rays. But do not quote me on this, hopefully there will be a two disc dvd set like they did for North by Northwest so dvd users are not left out.

Here is all of the details on the Blu Ray release. There will be a single disc edition as well as a collector’s set!

Thanks to Blu-Ray.com for the following information:

Paranount Home Entertainment has announced that it will release ‘The African Queen‘ on Blu-ray on March 23. Meticulously restored using state-of-the-art 4K digital technology, ‘The African Queen’ will now be available for a new generation to appreciate and for long-time fans to see again, as if for the first time. Legendary director John Huston’s treasured romantic adventure stars the incomparable Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart in a role that won him his only Academy Award. A six-year journey filled with challenges nearly as difficult as those faced by Rose and Charlie, the restoration process began at the source: Romulus Films —one of the film’s original production companies— provided access to the original three-strip negative at a London facility where the film was carefully scanned and digitized. The separate elements were then transferred to Los Angeles and painstakingly recombined and inspected frame by frame to ensure that every detail aligned and that any dirt and scratches were removed. To ensure that the restored picture matched the filmmakers’ original vision, Paramount arranged a screening of an MPAA archive print for the film’s original cinematographer, Academy Award winner Jack Cardiff, whose comments were recorded live during the screening. That same archival print was later screened alongside the newly restored version so that the restoration team could ensure that all of Cardiff’s notes had been addressed. The result is a vibrant, warm picture that reverentially recreates the film as it was originally meant to be seen. ‘The African Queen’ will be available as a single disc Blu-ray and also in a Commemorative Limited Edition Blu-ray box set. Special features are as follows: Embracing Chaos: Making The African Queen–This comprehensive documentary takes a look back at the production with commentary about the cast, the challenges of the filming locations and how the spectacular cinematography impacted the industry overall. Includes on-camera interviews with notable Hollywood icons, critics and crew members from the film including Martin Scorsese, Tony Huston, Richard Schickel and more, plus never-before-seen archival images and home movie footage provided by the estate of cinematographer Jack Cardiff. The Commemorative, Limited-Edition Blu-ray box set includes the above along with: An audio disc with a recording of the Lux Radio Theater presents The African Queen radio broadcast A Senitype® film frame collectible reproduction Collectible postcards featuring reproductions of images related to the film A reproduction of Katharine Hepburn’s out-of-print memoir The Making of The African Queen or How I Went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind

North By Northwest 50th Anniversary

North By Northwest Blu Ray Cover

This year marks the anniversary of many films including The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind. It is also the 50th anniversary of North By Northwest, an Alfred Hitchcock film starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint. I’m a big Cary Grant fan and a big fan of this film so I was really excited about this release. This film has been on DVD before but  on Nov. 3 it has been released again for the 50th anniversary on a two disc collector’s DVD and on Blu Ray for the first time ever. And the first Hitchcock film to make it to Blu Ray in the states.(39 Steps was released in the UK)  The DVD and Blu Ray both feature two new documentaries as well as the other features that came with the earlier DVD. With the Blu Ray you get a 44 page booklet. A biography on Cary Grant called Cary Grant: A Class Apart is featured on both versions for the Cary fans.

Blu Ray Screencapture

Note the boy plugging his ears in the background since he knows a gun shot is coming up. Hehe. Overall it is a great purchase for Blu Ray owners especially but for those who still use DVDs like I do as well.

Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant