High Noon
Directed by Fred Zinnemann
Starring: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Lloyd Bridges, Thomas Mitchell, Lon Chaney Jr., Katy Jurado, Ian MacDonald, Lee Van Clef, Robert J. Wilke, Sheb Wooley
Theatrical Release Date: July 30, 1952
Available now on Blu-ray

There it is, that faint, catchy tune written by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington, and sung by Tex Ritter that continuously makes its way back in High Noon. It’s beautiful, it’s in nearly every frame, and finally is pervading the entire film, pretty much conquering it. Do not forsake me oh my darling. There it is again. It’s a most haunting tune that astonishingly places us inside the head of Will Kane (Gary Cooper), a well respected marshal of a well established Wild West town desperately seeking to maintain its civilization rather than succumbing again to barbarism.

Design For Living
DVD | Blu-ray
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Starring Gary Cooper, Frederic March, Miriam Hopkins
The Criterion Collection
Release date: December 6, 2011

Now this is what this writer calls a change of pace.

Just a month following the release of what may be the company’s most important and dense release to date, The Three Colors Trilogy, the geniuses over at The Criterion Collection have come back with their sole new addition for the month of December, and it’s about as far from the meditative triptych of masterful art cinema as a single uproarious comedy could be.