IT CAME FROM THE BOTTOM SHELF!

The Warner Archive Collection announced four Blu-ray titles for July, including the classic screwball mystery, The Thin Man (1934).  Let’s hope that the five sequels, especially the equally good After the Thin Man (1936) will soon follow.

The July line-up also features a dancing James Cagney, a bronco-busting Clint Eastwood, and a battle-worn Jeff Chandler.  Not a bupkie in the bunch.

Here are the announcements from the Warner Archive Facebook page:

NEW 2019 1080p HD MASTER RESTORED FROM NEW 4K SCAN OF BEST ARCHIVAL ELEMENTS!

THE THIN MAN (1934)
Run Time 91:00
Subtitles English SDH
Audio DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 – English
Aspect Ratio 1.37:1, 4 X 3
Product Color BLACK & WHITE
Disc Configuration BD 50
Special Features: 1936 Lux Radio Theater Broadcast Starring Powell and Loy (Audio Only); 1957 Episode of “The Thin Man” television series – “Scene of the Crime”; Theatrical Trailer (HD)

Nick and Nora Charles cordially invite you to bring your own alibi to The Thin Man, the jaunty whodunit that made William Powell and Myrna Loy the champagne elite of sleuthing. Bantering in the boudoir, enjoying walks with beloved dog Asta or matching each other highball for highball and clue for clue, they combined screwball romance with mystery. The resulting triumph nabbed four Academy Award® nominations (including Best Picture) and later spawned five sequels. Credit W.S. “Woody” Van Dyke for recognizing that Powell and Loy were ideal together and for getting the studio’s okay by promising to shoot this splendid adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s novel in three weeks. He took 12 days. They didn’t call him “One-Take Woody” for nothing.

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FOOTLIGHT PARADE (1933)
Run Time 103:00
Subtitles English SDH
Sound Quality DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 – English
Aspect Ratio 1.37:1, 4 X 3
Product Color BLACK & WHITE
Disc Configuration BD 50
Special Features: Featurette “Footlight Parade: Music for the Decades”; 2 Vintage Warner Bros. Shorts “Rambling ‘Round Radio Row #8” and “Vaudeville Reel #1”; 4 Vintage Warner Bros. Cartoons: Honeymoon Hotel, Young and Healthy, One Step Ahead of My Shadow and Sittin’ on a Backyard Fence; Theatrical Trailer (HD)

Footlight Parade is sheer cinematic joy. In this Depression-era romp, a timid stenographer (Ruby Keeler) removes her glasses and — wow! — she’s a star. A gee-whiz tenor (Dick Powell) asserts his independence. Plucky chorines tap, greedy hangers-on get their comeuppances, and an indefatigable producer/dancer (James Cagney) and his Girl Friday (Joan Blondell) work showbiz miracles to stage live prologues for talkie houses to keep their company afloat during hard times. Honeymoon Hotel, By a Waterfall and Shanghai Lil are the shows, directed by Busby Berkeley and filled with imagination-bending sets, startling camera angles, kaleidoscopic pageantry and a 20,000-gallon-per-minute waterfall. Curtain up!

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BRONCO BILLY (1980)
Run Time 116:00
Subtitles English SDH
Audio DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 STEREO- English
Aspect Ratio 1.78:1, 16 X 9 WIDESCREEN
Product Color COLOR
Disc Configuration BD 50
Theatrical Trailer (HD)

Ask Clint Eastwood to select personal favorites from amongst his movies and you might be surprised by one choice. “It’s an old-fashioned theme,” Eastwood says, “but if, as a film director, I ever wanted to say something, you’ll find it in Bronco Billy.” “One of the funniest and most touching films you’ll see this or any year” (ABC-TV) casts Eastwood as the ace sharpshooter and head of a modern Wild West tent show. Life’s been hard for Billy and his ragtag troupe. But their luck might change – in the unlikely person of a highfalutin society dame (Sondra Locke). You may already have a favorite Eastwood role. Watch Bronco Billy and, chances are, you’ll have another.

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MERRILL’S MARAUDERS (1962)
Run Time 98:00
Subtitles English SDH
Audio DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 – English
Aspect Ratio 2.35:1, 16 X 9 LETTERBOX
Product Color COLOR
Disc Configuration BD 50
Theatrical Trailer (HD)

The place: World War II Burma. The mission: Drive a fatal wedge between an enemy linkup. The troops: the 5307th Composite Unit, led by Brig. Gen. Frank Merrill (Jeff Chandler) and manned by Stock (Ty Hardin), Chowhound (Will Hutchins), Kolowicz (Claude Akins) and other young dogfaces who, after a few weeks of basic training, have the fate of the world loaded on their backs. Maverick director Samuel Fuller, whose later The Big Red One is a benchmark work about GIs in World War II’s European theater, turned to the war in the Pacific for Merrill’s Marauders. Few moviemakers capture life among the grunts as well as Fuller. He brings you up close and personal to the intense, gritty heroics of our World War II combat veterans.