Arrow Video has announced their UK only releases for this September and they are 4 great titles – 3 Blu-ray/DVD combo packs and 1 DVD only release. Again these are their UK only releases for September meaning they will be region B/2 so if you’re in the US you will need a region free player. Arrow also announced some US releases as well for the month of September but we’ll get to those a little late once pre-order links are available. For the time being, let’s see what goodies they’re getting across the pond!

The 4 titles include two flicks from Russ Meyer, an underrated Brian DePalma entry and an absolute gem from Joe Dante. Of these 4 releases none are currently available in the US, those Raising Cain will be getting a collector’s edition Blu-ray release from Scream Factory in September as well. So if you’re region free you’ll have some choices to make regarding that one, but the other 3 have no US dates announced as of yet, so they may be of interest to you. Now let’s get to the details!

THE SEVEN MINUTES (DVD)

BOOK, A RAPE, AND A TRIAL THAT TORE A TOWN APART!

When Twentieth Century Fox signed sexploitation maestro Russ Meyer to a multi-picture deal, this resulted in two films. The first was the legendary Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. The second was the little-seen The Seven Minutes, about a subject that could hardly have been closer to Meyer’s heart.
 
Based on the best-selling novel by Irving Wallace, The Seven Minutes is also the title of a notorious 1930s book whose belated publication in the US triggers an obscenity lawsuit, prompted by a hitherto clean-living young man raping a fellow student and leaving her for dead. But is the resulting trial a sincere exploration of links between (alleged) pornography and real-life violence or an attempted Kafkaesque stitch-up involving a shady businessman, ambitious politicians in search of a populist bandwagon, and even the Vatican?
With a dazzling cast including cult legends John Carradine, Yvonne De Carlo (The Munsters), Jay C. Flippen (The Killing), Wolfman Jack (Motel Hell), Charles Napier (The Blues Brothers) and future star Tom Selleck (Magnum P.I.), The Seven Minutes is an absorbing, intelligent and thought-provoking drama.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
• DVD presentation of the longer cut of The Seven Minutes, including the notorious sex-film studio scene
• Dolby Digital 1.0 sound, with optional English subtitles for the deaf and hearing-impaired
• Sinister Image, an interview with Russ Meyer and his former model Yvette Vickers
• Theatrical trailer
Region: B/2
Rating: 18
Duration: 113
Language: English
Subtitles: English SDH
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: Mono
Colour
Discs: 1
Release Date: 9/5/2016

Pre-order directly from Arrow.

 

BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS

When Easy Rider rewrote the box-office rulebook in 1969, Hollywood scrambled to catch up – and 20th Century Fox noticed that one particular independent filmmaker was seeing impressive returns from tiny investments. So what would happen if he was given a decent budget and the run of a Hollywood studio and told to make the ultimate Russ Meyer film?
Well, this is the result: an initially X-rated cult camp classic about an all-female rock band trying to parlay Midwestern success into a Hollywood contract with the aid of a hefty inheritance. But will they be able to maintain their trademark apple-pie wholesomeness under their new manager, the notorious Ronnie ‘Z-Man’ Barzell? Take a wild guess.

Co-scripted by film critic Roger Ebert, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is a merciless satire of Hollywood and the music business, a no-holds-barred psychedelic thrill-ride that gleefully stirs sex, drugs, rock’n’roll, fashion, lesbianism, transvestism and Nazis into one of the most riotously unhinged mainstream films ever made.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Original uncompressed PCM mono audio
• Separate music and effects track
• Audio commentary by co-screenwriter Roger Ebert
• Audio commentary by cast members Dolly Read, Cynthia Myers, Harrison Page, John La Zar and Erica Gavin
• Introduction by John La Zar
• Above, Beneath and Beyond the Valley: The Making of a Musical-Horror-Sex-Comedy
• Look On Up at the Bottom, with composer Stu Phillips discussing the film’s music
• The Best of Beyond, favourite moments selected by cast and crew members
• Sex, Drugs, Music & Murder: Signs of the Time, Baby!, a look at the late 1960s culture that spawned Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
• Casey & Roxanne: The Love Scene, discussed by participants Erica Gavin and Cynthia Myers
• Screen tests for Michael Blodgett, Cynthia Myers, Harrison Page, Marcia McBroom
• High Definition photo galleries
• Multiple trailers
• Reversible sleeve featuring two original artworks
 

Region: B
Rating: 18
Duration:
Language: English
Subtitles: English SDH
Aspect Ratio:
Audio: Mono
Colour
Discs: 1
Release Date: 9/5/2016

Pre-order directly from Arrow.

 

MATINEE

MAN… HALF ANT… ALL TERROR!

So says the advertising campaign for Mant!, the latest low-budget schlock-horror classic from cigar-chomping producer Lawrence Woolsey (John Goodman, The Big Lebowski), who more than makes up for his films’ lack of production values by festooning them with gimmicks that would turn even William Castle (The Tingler) green with envy.
 
But the most potent gimmick of all is accidental: Woolsey schedules a sneak preview of Mant! in Key West, Florida, in October 1962, unaware that the Cuban missile crisis is about to flare up.  Will the threat of genuine nuclear war distract the locals from the movie, or will they find it doubly terrifying?
 
Directed by the legendary Joe Dante (The ’Burbs), this delightful film isn’t just an affectionate love-letter to the sci-fi and horror films that he grew up with in the 1950s and 60s, it’s also a witty and intelligent exploration of the way that the most successful genre films worked by preying on the very real fears of their audiences about everything from Soviet satellite launches to atomic mutation.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
•High definition digital transfer supplied by NBC Universal
• Lossless stereo audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Paranoia in Ant Vision, a discussion with director Joe Dante about the making of the film
• Mant!, the full length version of the film-within-a-film
• Discussion with Joe Dante on the effects of Mant!
• Vintage ‘making of’ featurette
• Rare on-set footage, sourced from Joe Dante’s personal collection
• Original theatrical trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys

First pressing only: Booklet featuring new writing on the film by David Jenkins
 

Region: B/2
Rating: PG
Duration: 99 minutes
Language: English
Subtitles: English SDH
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: Mono
Colour
Discs: 2
Release Date: 9/12/2016

Pre-order directly from Arrow.

 

RAISING CAIN

Having spent the latter half of the eighties trying out new styles of filmmaking – Wise Guys’ knockabout comedy, The Untouchables’ prestige gangster pic, Casualties of War’s Vietnam movie and The Bonfire of the Vanities’ satirical misfire – Brian De Palma returned to what he knew best, the Hitchcockian psycho-thriller, for Raising Cain.

John Lithgow plays three roles: child psychologist Carter, his evil twin brother Cain, and their Norwegian father, Dr Nix, who likes to experimental on the young. Carter’s wife is concerned that her husband isn’t quite paying their daughter the right kind of attention; she’s also having an affair which, upon discovery, threatens to send him into a psychotic rage…

A relentless blend of murder, multiple personalities, cross-dressing, crazed parents, bizarre dream sequences and stunning cinematic assurance, Raising Cain harks back to those twin masterpieces Psycho and Peeping Tom, but is pure unadulterated De Palma.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
• Brand new 2K restoration from original film materials
• High Definition (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD Presentations
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Brand new interview with John Lithgow
• Theatrical trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Nathanael Marsh
• MORE to be announced!

First pressing only: Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by David Jenkins
 

Region: B/2
Rating: 15
Duration: 91 mins
Language: English
Subtitles: English SDH
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: TBC
Colour
Discs: 2
Release Date: 9/12/2016

Pre-order directly from Arrow.