STACK #203 Sep 2021

FILM FEATURE

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The boutique Blu-ray label delivers a massive and mixed bundle this month, from big screen BritishTV comedy and cult sci-fi, to acclaimed Chinese cinema and Michael Caine as a working-class James Bond. Words Scott Hocking NEWFROM IMPRINT FILMS

film to cult status. This British-Australian co-production from with Oscar-winning director Tony Richardson ( Tom Jones ) also features Aussies Frank Thring and Diane Craig in supporting roles. Extras include a new audio commentary by film scholar Adrian Martin and new interviews on the making of the film. Oliver Reed, Diana Rigg and Telly Savalas assemble for The Assassination Bureau (1969), a cheeky British crime-caper based on a posthumously published Jack London

A Reflection of Fear (1972) is a seldom- seen bizarro horror-thriller involving a young girl who suspects something sinister is afoot when her estranged father shows up with his new bride-to-be. Featuring a killer final twist and an all-star cast including Robert Shaw ( Jaws ), Sally Kellerman ( M.A.S.H. ) and Sondra Locke (the future partner of Clint Eastwood), Imprint brings the film to

B ased on Terence Rattigan's 1948 stage play, The Browning Version (1951) follows an unpopular schoolmaster, Andrew Crocker-Harris (Michael Redgrave), who is forced into early retirement and must come to terms with his failed career and marriage. A slice of British realism, this literate drama won the Best Actor and Screenplay awards at Cannes in 1951 and was adapted again in 1994 with Albert Finney in the leading role and director Mike Figgis ( Leaving Las Vegas ) at the helm. The title refers to poet Robert Browning's translation of the Greek tragedy Agamemnon – a parting gift to Crocker-Harris from a pupil. Imprint's Limited Edition Hardbox includes both the 1951 and 1994 version on Blu-ray in new 2K transfers, along with new audio commentaries and interviews, theatrical trailers, archival interviews and more.

novel. Set in 1906, Rigg plays an aspiring reporter who discovers the title organisation and takes drastic measures to bring it down. Extras include a tribute to Diana Rigg video essay and new audio commentary by the BFI's Vic Pratt and critic Kim Newman. The Harry Palmer Collection compiles all three films featuring the titular spy, played by Michael Caine, into a Limited Edition Hardbox. The hero of Len Deighton's best- selling novels, Harry Palmer is a working- class version of James Bond who isn't shy in turning on his Cockney charm to get results. And the 007 connection doesn't end there – all three Palmer films are produced by longtime Bond co-producer Harry Saltzman.

Blu-ray for the very first time with a new audio commentary by critic Lee Gambin, and audio interviews with Sondra Locke and actor Gordon Devol. Australia's most notorious bushranger is given the biopic treatment in Ned Kelly (1970). But what sets this Kelly film apart from the others, besides it being the first one in colour, is the casting of Rolling Stones' frontman Mick Jagger in the title role, which has since elevated the

22 SEPTEMBER 2021

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