From DVD to Blu-Ray to the much-touted 4k Ultra High Definition (for the ultimate home cinema experience) there’s something out there for everyone. The packaging might have specially-commissioned artwork and essays in booklet form. The disc might have subtitles for the deaf, restored soundtrack, a ‘making of’ documentary, vintage trailers, behind-the scenes footage, interviews with cast and crew members... Discs might be limited editions at premium prices, what the industry calls an ‘elevated physical version’ of the movie.

‘Many major studios have stopped distributing their own titles on disc with the work outsourced to external companies,’ writes Tim Murray on the site Film Stories. ‘This isn’t necessarily a sign that the market for DVDs and Blu-Rays is going to disappear, however.’ In the UK the market was worth £150m last year.

Buyers are hungry for extras with academics talking about the film, audio commentary, deleted scenes, alternate endings and blooper reels. And thanks to high-tech remastering from original sources image quality on old movies has never been better.

Vincent Price started out as a second man who never quite secures the girl. His roles often suggested a cruel streak despite the affable exterior and the fruity voice. But his niche will forever be in horror films, from 1940’s The Invisible Man Returns to 1990’s Edward Scissorhands. He even lent his creepy voice to the pop video (remember them?) for Michael Jackson’s uber-hit ‘Thriller’.

One of Price’s best roles was in 1968’s Witchfinder General (a cult on par with Scottish-based The Wickerman of 1973). Its follow-up was The Cry of the Banshee (1970) which has just been released on a two-disc special Blu-Ray. This memorable Hammer horror is set in Elizabethan times and there’s much witchy woo-woo, glorious costumes, heaving bosoms, horses with flaring nostrils. The plot fairly races along. Some of the film is a tad ropey, the interior sets often look like something delivered by Temu but it’s great entertainment even if, at times, unintentionally funny.

Price became a parody of himself in a slew of often mediocre and ludicrous films and his ham-sandwich performances veered toward the campy. Hollywood never took Price seriously and the feeling was mutual. In reality, he was an intelligent and thoughtful bon vivant (he wrote several cookbooks) and had many artistic and literary interests. With his wife, actress Coral Browne, he collected modern art. When a guest visited their Hollywood home and was greeted by a huge abstract painting the hosts were asked, dismissively, ‘What’s that?’ The Prices turned to their guest and said in unison, ‘It’s called “We Like It”!’

Rita Hayworth was likewise saddled with her image. Her most famous role was the ‘goodtime girl’ Gilda (1946), a classic film noir in which she sings the provocative ‘Put the Blame on Mame’. She tossed her hair and peeled off her long, black gloves and sent men wild. During WW2 she was every GIs favourite pin-up. But she never truly fulfilled her promise: her beauty obscured her talent. She was the Love Goddess who was married five times (once to Orson Welles) and said ‘Every man I knew went to bed with Gilda and woke up with me!’ Gilda is released on super-duper 4k UHD with a host of extras from Criterion. It’s a strange film open to many murky interpretations not least of which being predatory S&M ones.

Criterion’s Trouble in Paradise (1932) features – on Blu-Ray and 4k UHD – one of the most famous film directors Ernst Lubitsch, who was said to have virtually invented modern cinema bringing a European sophistication to Hollywood fare. Made during the Depression it tells of two jewel thieves attempting to get the better of gullible rich folks in glamorous art deco surroundings. It’s all marvellous stuff full of innuendo and flimsy negligees.

It’s not just classic movies that end up on disc. The BFI have brought many neglected masterpieces to a wide audience. The little-known Strongroom (1962) is a taut and atmospheric British heist-gone-awry movie. Among a bunch of extras there’s a second film from the same director, Vernon Sewell, The Man in the Back Seat (1961). Both star Derren Nesbitt, an actor typecast as handsome, sneering bad boys (not unlike Vincent Price). He was one of the evil Nazis in 1968’s Where Eagles Dare, a movie forever available in re-runs on TV. To see Strongroom, you’ll have to get the disc.

Bluesky: @kenwilson84.bsky.social