Home Entertainment
January 22, 2007
"Director's Showcase: Take Two Collection" From Warner Home Video
(January 22, 2007 - Burbank, CA) – On May 22, Warner Home Video (WHV) will showcase a second group of films honoring the powers behind the camera with first-time DVD releases of "Prince of the City" 2-Disc Set, "Steelyard Blues," "Straight Time" and "Whose Life Is It Anyway?" Featured directors are Sidney Lumet, John Badham, Ulu Grosbard, Lee Grant, Daryl Duke and Alan Myerson. The films have all-new transfers and include bonus features such as commentaries, featurettes and vintage interviews. Each title will sell individually for $19.97 SRP and orders due April 17.
"Prince of the City" 2-Disc Set (1981)
“The first thing a cop learns is that he can’t trust nobody but his partners,” detective Danny Ciello tells an assistant D.A. “I sleep with my wife but I live with my partners. I will never give them up.” From Robert Daley’s riveting book about New York City police corruption investigations, director/co-writer Sidney Lumet’s film portrays a squad that pays a terrible price when one in its ranks does just that. Treat Williams (as Ciello, inspired by real-life undercover narcotics cop Robert Leuci) leads a terrific ensemble cast which includes Jerry Orbach, Bob Balaban and Lindsay Crouse in a standout performance as Leuci’s wife. This gripping film, which features 130 locations and 126 speaking parts, won Lumet a New York Film Critics Best Director Award and an Oscar® nomination (with Jay Presson Allen) for the screenplay.
DVD Special Features:
• New featurette "Prince of the City: The Real Story"
• Theatrical trailer
• Languages: English & Français (dubbed in Quebec)
• Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only) "Steelyard Blues" (1972) Klute collaborators Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland reunite in a more lighthearted vein for this funny, freewheeling fable from writer David S. Ward and producers Tony Bill and Michael and Julia Phillips, the team behind the same year’s Academy Award®-winning Best Picture "The Sting." Alan Myerson directs Fonda as Iris, a good-natured hooker whose clientele includes a Who’s Who of City Hall. But she’s faithful to free-spirited parolee Jesse Veldini (Sutherland), who’s itching to resume his career as a demolition derby driver. Veldini’s return could ruin the reelection campaign of his ambitious DA brother (Howard Hesseman) – so steps are taken to make the ex-jailbird toe the line. Peter Boyle, John Savage and Garry Goodrow co-star. DVD Special Features • Vintage featurette "Would You Believe? Peter Boyle!"
• Theatrical trailer
• Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only) "Straight Time" (1978) After years behind bars, Max Dembo faces Straight Time. He hopes it will mean a new life, a job, a place to call home, perhaps even a girl of his own. Instead, it’s a one-way ticket to disaster. Dustin Hoffman plays Max, a freed con trapped by an indifferent criminal system and his self-destructive bent. Before and during production, Hoffman apprenticed himself to Edward Bunker, the ex-con whose book No Beast So Fierce inspired the movie. The resulting experience is intensely real and superbly acted by Hoffman and a terrific ensemble (Theresa Russell, Harry Dean Stanton, Gary Busey, M. Emmet Walsh and Kathy Bates). As Newsweek’s David Ansen wrote, "Straight Time" “has an edgy, lingering intensity.” DVD Special Features • Commentary by Dustin Hoffman and director Ulu Grosbard
• Vintage featurette "Straight Time: He Wrote It for Criminals"
• Theatrical trailer
• Languages: English & Français
• Subtitles: English, Français, Español, Português & Chinese (feature film only) "Whose Life Is It Anyway?" (1981) In this searing screen version of the hit Broadway play by Brian Clark, Richard Dreyfuss plays gifted sculptor Ken Harrison -- a hospitalized quadriplegic, jousting with physicians, teasing nurses and striving to persuade hospital authorities and the justice system that he can’t be denied one of the few choices he has left. John Badham directs a compelling cast, including John Cassavetes, Christine Lahti and Bob Balaban. DVD Special Features • Commentary director John Badham and composer Arthur B. Rubinstein
• Theatrical trailer
• Subtitles: English (feature film only) With operations in 90 international territories Warner Home Video, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, commands the largest distribution infrastructure in the global video marketplace. Warner Home Video’s film library is the largest of any studio, offering top quality new and vintage titles from the repertoires of Warner Bros. Pictures, Turner Entertainment, Castle Rock Entertainment, HBO Home Video and New Line Home Entertainment.# # #
• Theatrical trailer
• Languages: English & Français (dubbed in Quebec)
• Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only) "Steelyard Blues" (1972) Klute collaborators Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland reunite in a more lighthearted vein for this funny, freewheeling fable from writer David S. Ward and producers Tony Bill and Michael and Julia Phillips, the team behind the same year’s Academy Award®-winning Best Picture "The Sting." Alan Myerson directs Fonda as Iris, a good-natured hooker whose clientele includes a Who’s Who of City Hall. But she’s faithful to free-spirited parolee Jesse Veldini (Sutherland), who’s itching to resume his career as a demolition derby driver. Veldini’s return could ruin the reelection campaign of his ambitious DA brother (Howard Hesseman) – so steps are taken to make the ex-jailbird toe the line. Peter Boyle, John Savage and Garry Goodrow co-star. DVD Special Features • Vintage featurette "Would You Believe? Peter Boyle!"
• Theatrical trailer
• Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only) "Straight Time" (1978) After years behind bars, Max Dembo faces Straight Time. He hopes it will mean a new life, a job, a place to call home, perhaps even a girl of his own. Instead, it’s a one-way ticket to disaster. Dustin Hoffman plays Max, a freed con trapped by an indifferent criminal system and his self-destructive bent. Before and during production, Hoffman apprenticed himself to Edward Bunker, the ex-con whose book No Beast So Fierce inspired the movie. The resulting experience is intensely real and superbly acted by Hoffman and a terrific ensemble (Theresa Russell, Harry Dean Stanton, Gary Busey, M. Emmet Walsh and Kathy Bates). As Newsweek’s David Ansen wrote, "Straight Time" “has an edgy, lingering intensity.” DVD Special Features • Commentary by Dustin Hoffman and director Ulu Grosbard
• Vintage featurette "Straight Time: He Wrote It for Criminals"
• Theatrical trailer
• Languages: English & Français
• Subtitles: English, Français, Español, Português & Chinese (feature film only) "Whose Life Is It Anyway?" (1981) In this searing screen version of the hit Broadway play by Brian Clark, Richard Dreyfuss plays gifted sculptor Ken Harrison -- a hospitalized quadriplegic, jousting with physicians, teasing nurses and striving to persuade hospital authorities and the justice system that he can’t be denied one of the few choices he has left. John Badham directs a compelling cast, including John Cassavetes, Christine Lahti and Bob Balaban. DVD Special Features • Commentary director John Badham and composer Arthur B. Rubinstein
• Theatrical trailer
• Subtitles: English (feature film only) With operations in 90 international territories Warner Home Video, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, commands the largest distribution infrastructure in the global video marketplace. Warner Home Video’s film library is the largest of any studio, offering top quality new and vintage titles from the repertoires of Warner Bros. Pictures, Turner Entertainment, Castle Rock Entertainment, HBO Home Video and New Line Home Entertainment.