Olive Films Press Release: February 2018 Releases

NewCOMING IN FEBRUARY 2018
ON DVD & BLU-RAY

​

Olive Films is proud to announce the following February 2018 releases:

• Birdman Of Alcatraz
• Five On The Black Hand Side
• Great Balls Of Fire!
• The Hallelujah Trail
• Hair

US+CANADA
PREBOOK: 2/13/18
STREET: 2/27/18

BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ DVD 
CAT: OF1398
UPC: 887090139816
SRP: $24.95

BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ BD 
CAT: OF1399
UPC: 887090139915
SRP: $29.95
BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ

BURT LANCASTER
(Elmer Gantry, Twilight’s Last Gleaming, The Island of Dr. Moreau)
KARL MALDEN
(Patton, On the Waterfront, TV’s The Streets of San Francisco)
THELMA RITTER
(Boeing, Boeing; Rear Window; All About Eve)
BETTY FIELD
(Bus Stop, Picnic, BUtterfield 8)
NEVILLE BRAND
(Stalag 17, Riot in Cell Block 11, Only the Valiant)
EDMOND O’BRIEN
(The Shanghai Story, The Barefoot Contessa, The Wild Bunch)
TELLY SAVALAS
(The Dirty Dozen, Kelly’s Heroes, TV’s Kojak)

Directed by
JOHN FRANKENHEIMER
(The Manchurian Candidate, Black Sunday, All Fall Down)

Birdman of Alcatraz received a total of four Academy Award® nominations in 1963 including Best Actor (Burt Lancaster), Best Supporting Actor (Telly Savalas), Best Supporting Actress (Thelma Ritter) and Best Black & White Cinematography (Burnett Guffey).

YEAR: 1962
GENRE: DRAMA
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 149 mins
RATING: N/R
VIDEO: 1.66:1 Aspect Ratio; B&W
AUDIO: MONO

EXTRA

• Audio commentary by Kate Buford, author of Burt Lancaster: An American Life

Birdman of Alcatraz, director John Frankenheimer’s (The Manchurian Candidate) biographical drama, stars Burt Lancaster (Elmer Gantry) as Robert Stroud, the “birdman” of the title, who, as the film begins, is incarcerated at Leavenworth Prison for murder, a sentence that will eventually lead him to Alcatraz. Seeing his days stretch out to life without parole for the murder of a prison guard, Stroud will pass his days in solitary confinement caring for a baby sparrow, an act which eventually blossoms into caring for an array of birds sent as gifts to fellow inmates.

Birdman of Alcatraz offers supporting performances by Thelma Ritter (who would receive an Academy Award® nomination for Best Supporting Actress) as Stroud’s mother; Karl Malden as prison warden, Harvey Schoemaker; Betty Field (Picnic) as Stroud’s future wife, Stella; Telly Savalas (The Dirty Dozen) as fellow inmate Gomez; Neville Brand (Stalag 17) as Bull, a prison guard who befriends Stroud; and Edmond O’Brien (The Wild Bunch) as Thomas E. Gaddis, the author of the book based on Stroud’s life. Birdman of Alcatraz was photographed by Burnett Guffey (Academy Award® winner for From Here to Eternity – 1954, Bonnie and Clyde – 1968) and scored by Elmer Bernstein.

FIRST TIME ON
BLU-RAY!

US+CANADA
PREBOOK: 2/13/18
STREET: 2/27/18

FIVE ON THE BLACK HAND SIDE DVD 
CAT: OF1400
UPC: 887090140010
SRP: $19.95

FIVE ON THE BLACK HAND SIDE BD 
CAT: OF1401
UPC: 887090140119
SRP: $29.95
FIVE ON THE BLACK HAND SIDE
LEONARD JACKSON
(The Color Purple, Boomerang, The Brother from Another Planet)
CLARICE TAYLOR
(Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon; Play Misty for Me; Sommersby)
VIRGINIA CAPERS
(Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, What’s Love Got to Do with It, House of Women)
GLYNN TURMAN
(Cooley High, The River Niger, TV’s A Different World)
D’URVILLE MARTIN
(Black Caesar, Hammer, Hell Up in Harlem)
DICK ANTHONY WILLIAMS
(The Jerk, The Deep, The Mack)
JA’NET DUBOIS
(TV’s Good Times, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, A Piece of the Action)
GODFREY CAMBRIDGE
(Friday Foster, Cotton Comes to Harlem, Watermelon Man)

Directed by
OSCAR WILLIAMS
(The Final Comedown, Hot Potato, Death Drug)

Five on the Black Hand Side quite literally starts with a bang when Godfrey Cambridge (in a cameo role as himself) rear ends a car while ogling a group of young women.

YEAR: 1973
GENRE: COMEDY
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 96 mins
RATING: PG
VIDEO: 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio; COLOR
AUDIO: MONO

Fed up with patriarch Mr. John Henry Brooks Jr.’s (Leonard Jackson, The Color Purple) tyrannical rule, Mrs. Brooks (Clarice Taylor, Play Misty for Me) and the Brooks children — Booker T. Washington (D’Urville Martin, Black Caesar), Gideon (Glynn Turman, Cooley High) and the soon-to-be-married Gail (Bonnie Banfield) are a family in revolt. But it’s the impending nuptials, along with fiancé Marvin’s (director Carl Franklin, One False Move) insistence that the wedding be a traditional African ceremony that’s the catalyst for all the dramedy. Adding to the fun is Ja’Net Dubois (Willona on TV’s Good Times) as firebrand Stormy Monday. With a colorful assortment of eccentric friends and neighbors, and topics ranging from black identity to gender equality, you have “a real clean scene with a lot of laughter in between.”

Five on the Black Hand Side is directed by Oscar Williams (The Final Comedown), written by Charlie L. Russell (based on his stage play) and co-stars Virginia Capers (What’s Love Got to Do with It), Dick Anthony Williams (The Jerk), Sonny Jim (Malcolm X) and Godfrey Cambridge (Friday Foster).

FIRST TIME ON
BLU-RAY!

US+CANADA
PREBOOK: 2/13/18
STREET: 2/27/18

GREAT BALLS OF FIRE! DVD 
CAT: OF1402
UPC: 887090140218
SRP: $24.95

GREAT BALLS OF FIRE! BD 
CAT: OF1403
UPC: 887090140317
SRP: $29.95

GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!

DENNIS QUAID
(Breaking Away, Undercover Blues, The Day After Tomorrow)
WINONA RYDER
(Heathers, Beetlejuice, TV’s Stranger Things)
ALEC BALDWIN
(The Departed, Beetlejuice, TV’s 30 Rock)
TREY WILSON
(Raising Arizona, Bull Durham, Twins)
STEPHEN TOBOLOWSKY
(Groundhog Day, Memento, Mississippi Burning)

Directed by
JIM MCBRIDE
(The Big Easy, Breathless, The Wrong Man)

Dennis Quaid (Undercover Blues) shares the screen in Great Balls of Fire! with Academy Award® nominees Winona Ryder (Best Supporting Actress, The Age of Innocence – 1994; Best Actress, Little Women – 1995) and Alec Baldwin (Best Supporting Actor, TheCooler – 2004).

YEAR: 1989
GENRE: BIOGRAPHICAL DRAMA
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 108 mins
RATING: PG-13
VIDEO: 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio; COLOR
AUDIO: STEREO

Dennis Quaid (The Day After Tomorrow) and Winona Ryder (TV’s Stranger Things) star in the biographical drama Great Balls of Fire!, directed by Jim McBride (The Big Easy). Quaid portrays rock ‘n’ roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis in a film that traces his rise to fame and scandalous personal life, including his marriage to his 13-year-old cousin, Myra Gale Brown (Ryder). Seated comfortably between soap opera and docudrama, Great Balls of Fire! offers the viewer a look inside the life of a gifted artist and his Icarus-like rise in the music world. But what goes up …

Featured in supporting roles are Alec Baldwin (TV’s 30 Rock) as Lee’s cousin, the pre-televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, Trey Wilson (Raising Arizona) as legendary music producer Sam Phillips, Stephen Tobolowsky (Groundhog Day) as music promoter Jud Phillips, with Lisa Blount (An Officer and a Gentleman) and John Doe (Road House) as Lois and J.W. Brown, Myra’s parents.


US+CANADA
PREBOOK: 2/13/18
STREET: 2/27/18

THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL DVD 
CAT: OF1404
UPC: 887090140416
SRP: $24.95

THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL BD 
CAT: OF1405
UPC: 887090140515
SRP: $29.95

THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL

BURT LANCASTER
(From Here to Eternity, Elmer Gantry, Twilight’s Last Gleaming)
LEE REMICK
(Days of Wine and Roses, Anatomy of a Murder, The Omen)
BRIAN KEITH
(The Parent Trap, Nickelodeon, TV’s Family Affair)
MARTIN LANDAU
(Ed Wood, North by Northwest, TV’s Mission: Impossible)
JIM HUTTON
(Walk, Don’t Run; Major Dundee; Where the Boys Are)

Directed by
JOHN STURGES
(The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven, Bad Day at Black Rock)

The Hallelujah Trail’s 70mm Panavision frame can scarcely contain the number of Academy Award® winners and nominees including director John Sturges (Best Director nominee, Bad Day at Black Rock – 1956), Burt Lancaster (Best Actor winner, Elmer Gantry – 1961), Lee Remick (Best Actress nominee, Days of Wine and Roses – 1963) and Martin Landau (Best Supporting Actor winner, Ed Wood – 1995).

YEAR: 1965
GENRE: COMEDY, WESTERN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 155 mins
RATING: N/R
VIDEO: 2.35:1 Aspect Ratio; COLOR
AUDIO: MONO

Burt Lancaster (Elmer Gantry) and Lee Remick (Days of Wine and Roses) star in The Hallelujah Trail, the widescreen comic western extravaganza directed by John Sturges (The Magnificent Seven) from a screenplay by John Gay (The Courtship of Eddie’s Father) based on the novel by Bill Gulick.

Under the watchful eye of its owner Frank Wallingham (Brian Keith, The Parent Trap), the Wallingham Freighting Company is bound for Denver with forty wagons of whiskey to quench the town’s thirst. But there are others who have plans of their own for the load of libations including temperance leader Cora Templeton Massingale (Remick), who wants it destroyed, the Sioux Indians who want it for themselves, ditto the Denver citizens militia, as well as the Irish teamsters hired as wagon drivers. Fearing that the shipment may not reach its destination, Colonel Thaddeus Gearhart (Lancaster) assigns Captain Paul Slater (Jim Hutton; Walk, Don’t Run) to safeguard the cargo, unaware that Slater’s fiancée, Louise (Pamela Tiffin, Harper) – who also happens to be the Colonel’s daughter – has fallen under the powerful spell of Cora’s temperance message.

Rounding out the cast in this comic free-for-all are Donald Pleasence (Halloween), Martin Landau (Ed Wood), Dub Taylor (Bonnie and Clyde), John Anderson (Ride the High Country), Tom Stern (The Spy Who Came in from the Cold) and Val Avery (Black Caesar).

The Hallelujah Trail was photographed in the Ultra Panavision 70 format by three-time Academy Award® winner Robert Surtees (KingSolomon’s Mines – 1951, The Bad and the Beautiful – 1953, Ben-Hur – 1960), costumed by eight-time Academy Award® winner Edith Head (The Sting – 1974), with a rousing score by Academy Award® winner Elmer Bernstein (Best Music, Original Music Score, Thoroughly Modern Millie – 1968).

The Hallelujah Trail is sourced from the best available elements.

US+CANADA
PREBOOK: 2/13/18
STREET: 2/27/18

HAIR DVD 
CAT: OF1406
UPC: 887090140614
SRP: $19.95
HAIR

JOHN SAVAGE
(The Deer Hunter, The Onion Field, Salvador)
TREAT WILLIAMS
(Prince of the City, Smooth Talk, The Ritz)
BEVERLY D’ANGELO
(Coal Miner’s Daughter, National Lampoon’s Vacation, The Sentinel)
ANNIE GOLDEN
(Twelve Monkeys, I Love You Phillip Morris, TV’s Orange Is the New Black)
DORSEY WRIGHT
(The Warriors, Vamp Bikers, The Hotel New Hampshire)
DON DACUS

Directed by
MILOS FORMAN (Amadeus, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Man on the Moon)

Hair boasts an array of Academy Award® winners including its director, Milos Forman (Best Director for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus), film editor Alan Heim (Best Editing, All That Jazz) and costume designer Ann Roth (Best Costume Design, The English Patient).

YEAR: 1979
GENRE: MUSICAL, DRAMA
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 121 mins
RATING: PG
VIDEO: 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio; COLOR
AUDIO: STEREO

From the opening strains of the “Aquarius” anthem, director Milos Forman’s (Amadeus) film adaptation of Hair proves that it is not only a masterful interpretation of the 1968 Broadway musical sensation, but that it is pure cinematic entertainment.

Based on the Gerome Ragni, James Rado and Galt MacDermot stage musical, Hair stars John Savage (The Deer Hunter) as country boy Claude Hooper Bukowski, a Vietnam draftee who embarks on an adventure of a lifetime when he meets a group of counterculture hippies: Berger (Treat Williams, Smooth Talk), Jeannie (Annie Golden, TV’s Orange Is the New Black), Hud (Dorsey Wright, TheWarriors) and Woof (Don Dacus). Introduced to a world of free love and hallucinogens, Claude’s eyes are also opened to the darker side of class, race and big city life when he becomes infatuated with a beautiful debutante, Sheila (Beverly D’Angelo, Coal Miner’s Daughter).

At turns both comic and dramatic, Hair boasts a catalog of adeptly performed musical numbers including the title tune along with “Good Morning Starshine,” “I Got Life,” “Where Do I Go,” “Let The Sun Shine In” and a heartbreaking rendition of “Easy to Be Hard,” a showstopper for performer Cheryl Barnes in her screen debut.

Directed by Milos Forman, two-time Academy Award® winner for Best Director (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – 1976, Amadeus – 1985), Hair is written for the screen by Michael Weller (based on the musical play by Gerome Ragni & James Rado and Galt MacDermot) with music composed, arranged and conducted by Galt MacDermot. Featured players include Charlotte Rae (TV’s The Facts of Life), Nell Carter (TV’s Gimme a Break),

Melba Moore (Lost in the Stars) and a special cameo appearance by director Nicholas Ray (The Savage Innocents). Technical credits include cinematography by Miroslav Ondrícek (Amadeus, Ragtime); choreography by Twyla Tharp (Amadeus); vocal arrangements by Thomas Pierson (Manhattan); film editing by Stanley Warnow (Woodstock) and Alan Heim, A.C.E. (Academy Award® winner, Best Editing, All That Jazz– 1980) with costumes by Ann Roth (Academy Award® winner, Best Costume Design, The English Patient – 1997).