On June 6th, British distributors Optimum Home Entertainment will release on Blu-ray acclaimed director Sam Peckinpah's Cross of Iron (1977), starring James Coburn (The Magnificent Seven, Charade), James Mason (North by Northwest, Lolita), Maximilian Schell (Judgment at Nuremberg), and David Warner (Time After Time).

Blu-ray special features include:

Passion & Poetry - Sam Peckinpah's War: A documentary by Mike Siegel featuring James Coburn, Senta Berger, David Warner, Vadim Glowna, Roger Fritz, Katy Haber & Sam Peckinpah.
Five featurettes with 1976 on set audio interviews:
- Sam Peckinpah
- James Coburn
- James Mason
- Maximilian Schell
- David Warner
Featurette Kruger Kisses Kern
Letters From Vadim & Sam Featurette
Vadim & Sam - Son & Dad Featurette
Cutting Room Floor Featurette
Mike's Home movies Featurette - Steiner meets Kiesel again/Steiner in Japan
Before & After Restoration Comparison
German Trailer
USA/UK Trailer
USA TV-Spot

Optimum Home Entertainment have announced that on June 13th they will release on Blu-ray Charles Frend's The Cruel Sea (1953). The film is based on the famous novel by Nicholas Monserrat, which chronicles life at sea during WWII on a boat tasked with protecting convoys and seeking and destroying U-boats.

A runaway success, the novel had already sold over 4 million copies in just 2 years when Ealing decided to make the film version. Filmed aboard an actual Royal Navy corvette, The Cruel Sea tells the story of the sailors aboard the HMS Compass Rose: the bonds that form between them, the daily pressures they face and their epic struggle to overcome the enemy. Nominated for a BAFTA for Best British Film, The Cruel Sea stars Jack Hawkins, Sir Donald Sinden and Stanley Clarke, and is a gripping insight into the lives of unsung heroes at sea during the war, and the agonizing decisions and incredible peril they faced on a daily basis.

Blu-ray special features include:

Interview with Donald Sinden
Stills gallery

German distributors Koch Entertainment are preparing for Blu-ray release two classic westerns by William A. Wellman: The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), starring Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Mary Beth Hughes, and Anthony Quinn, and Yellow Sky (1948), starring Gregory Peck, Anne Baxter, and Richard Widmark. The two Blu-ray releases will be part of the company's new Western Legends in HD series.

Preliminary special features:

Yellow Sky

Original theatrical trailer
Radio excerpt with Gregory Peck
Gallery with stills from the shooting of the film, photos, and more.

The Ox-Bow Incident

Original theatrical trailer
Audio commentary by Dick Eulain and William Wellman, Jr.
Henry Fonda: Hollywood's Quiet Hero
Photo gallery
Booklet

Street date for the two releases is August 26th.

They Live looks very much like another up-converted transfer. It lacks the definition of a true HD release, with fuzzy, poorly defined detail throughout. The print is in reasonably good shape, even if I did spot the odd white or black fleck, but the aspect ratio is all over the place. The film is supposed to be presented at around the 2.35:1 aspect ratio, but due to some odd window-boxing of the image (black bars on the left and right), it's actually closer to 2.18:1 (and the ratio differs again during the opening credits). This is most annoying if you have a TV with 1:1 pixel mapping. I also spotted numerous instances of aliasing, fuelling my suspicions that this did not come from a progressive film source. Colour rendition is actually pretty decent, as are the strong black levels, but those are about the only positive things I have to say about this transfer.

Fifteen years after its UK debut, Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures (1994) is heading back to the big screen, in a digitally remastered print, courtesy of Peccadillo Pictures. On September 12th, the British distributors will also release the film on Blu-ray. Technical specs and region coding status for this release are unknown at the moment.