The Good Boss

Unseen by American audiences for thirty years, Claude Chabrol's Les Bonnes Femmes is a triumphant rediscovery: a deft blend of frank eroticism, moments of Hitchcockian suspense and cinematic derring-do that characterizes the best films of the French New Wave.

The colossally popular Zatoichi films make up the longest-running action series in Japanese history and created one of the screen’s great heroes: an itinerant blind masseur who also happens to be a lightning-fast swordsman. As this iconic figure, the charismatic and earthy Shintaro Katsu became an instant superstar, lending a larger-than-life presence to the thrilling adventures of a man who lives staunchly by a code of honor and delivers justice in every town and village he enters. The films that feature him are variously pulse-pounding, hilarious, stirring, and completely off-the-wall. This deluxe set features the string of twenty-five Zatoichi films made between 1962 and 1973, collected in one package for the first time.

In the ruins of Hiroshima an ex-soldier, Hirono Shozo, dealing on the black market just to survive, shoots and kills the drunken yakuza who attacked his colleagues. Sent to jail, Shozo shares a cell with another yakuza who has his boss, Yoshiwara, bail Hirono out and give him a place in their organisation. Hirono soon proves his loyalty and rapidly rises through the ranks, culminating in his undertaking a dangerous hit on a rival gang boss that lands him back in jail.
Meanwhile, the gang wars continue unabated in his absence??

Mob boss Louie Ricarno is leaving "the game," quitting the beer-running rackets and settling down in Florida to write his memoirs and live the good life with his new bride. Yet Ricarno's past returns to spoil his happiness, plunging him back into an underworld of violence and payback. Top-billed Lew Ayres, just two months removed from his success in All Quiet on the Western Front, plays Ricarno in a machine-gunning Pre-Code saga directed by Archie Mayo. Adding extra excitement is James Cagney in his second film, giving a live-wire portrayal as a trusted mob lieutenant who secretly romances the boss' wife. Billed sixth but given much screen time in the film's first hour, Cagney confidently serves notice of an actor on the rise.

A trio of exceptional performances by Glenn Ford, Ernest Borgnine, and Rod Steiger form the center of Jubal, an overlooked Hollywood treasure from genre master Delmer Daves. In this Shakespearean tale of jealousy and betrayal, Ford is an honorable itinerant cattleman, befriended and hired by Borgnine’s bighearted ranch owner despite his unwillingness to talk about his past. When he becomes the object of the attentions of the owner’s bored wife (Valerie French) and is entrusted with a foreman’s responsibilities, his presence starts to rankle a shifty fellow cowhand, played by Steiger. The resulting emotional showdown imparts unparalleled psychological intensity to this vivid western melodrama, featuring expressive location photography in Technicolor and CinemaScope.

When a mutual friend is killed by a mob boss, two con men, one experienced and one young try to get even by pulling off the big con on the mob boss. The story unfolds with several twists and last minute alterations.

When a mutual friend is killed by a mob boss, two con men, one experienced and one young try to get even by pulling off the big con on the mob boss. The story unfolds with several twists and last minute alterations.

Jean-Louis Trintignant plays a french contract assassin hired by a Los Angeles crime family, ostensibly to perform a hit on some other mafia target. But simultaneously, as he arrives to do his job, a slaying occurs inside the household of the mob boss supposed to employ him. Suspicion is deliberately cast against Trintignant from within that very family. From that moment on, Trintignant is on the run from the police, and the minions of two different mob families. What makes his escape hazardous is that the real murderer shares all the information known about him to aid in his capture and death.