Imprint Films has announced its upcoming releases for April 2023, which are now available for pre-order.

This month the Australian distributor is releasing a new ‘Essential Film Noir Collection,’ which includes the films Rope of Sand (1949), Appointment with Danger (1950), The Enforcer (1951), Beware, My Lovely (1952) & Jennifer (1953)’; the first of their ‘Tales of Adventure’ collection which includes the films, Arabian Nights (1942), The Desert Hawk (1950), Zarak (1956), A Thousand and One Nights (1945) and Omar Khayyam (1957). Imprint is also producing the worldwide first release of ‘The Haunting of Julia (1977) on Blu-Ray.

Here’s information on April’s releases and links to pre-order them. If you decide to pre-order all of them, Imprint Films does a package for all the monthly releases.

Essential Film Noir: Collection 4 – Imprint Collection #210 – #213

Rope of Sand (1949) – Imprint Collection #210

After a two-year hiatus, Mike Davis (Burt Lancaster) returns to the same African city where he was tortured and left for dead at the hands of a sadistic Police Commandant (Paul Henreid). Originally innocent of all charges, Mike is back to claim the diamonds he had supposedly stolen two years ago. He enlists the help of an alcoholic stranger (Peter Lorre) and the doctor (Sam Jaffe), who had helped him back to health. The diamond syndicate head (Claude Rains) recruits a nightclub temptress Suzanne Renaud (Corinne Calvet) to seduce and betray Mike as an alternate to brute force.

This suspense-noir classic was directed by William Dieterle (Dark City).

Starring Burt Lancaster, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, Paul Henreid & Sam Jaffe.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2021 4K scan

• NEW Audio commentary by film historian Samm Deighan

• NEW Interview with film professor Jose Arroyo

• Trailer

• Original Aspect Ratio 1.37:1

• Audio English LPCM 2.0 Mono

• Optional English HOH subtitles

Appointment with Danger (1950) – Imprint Collection #211

Postal Inspector Al Goddard (Alan Ladd) is assigned to investigate the murder of a fellow officer. The only witness to the crime is Sister Augustine (Phyllis Calvert), who identifies the photograph of one of the assailants. This leads Goddard to a seedy hotel where he learns that the assailant is a member of a gang headed by Earl Boettiger (Paul Stewart), and he soon discovers that the gang is planning a million dollar mail robbery. This classic film noir also features the stars of Dragnet, Jack Webb and Harry Morgan, as Stewart’s Henchmen.

This was Alan Ladd’s final Film Noir and was directed by Lewis Allen (The Uninvited).

Starring Paul Stewart, Alan Ladd, Phyllis Calvert, Jan Sterling & Jack Webb.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2021 4K scan

• NEW Audio commentary with professor and film scholar Jason Ney

• NEW Interview with Film Noir specialist Frank Krutnik

• NEW Video featurette on director Lewis Allen

• Trailer

• Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1

• Audio English LPCM 2.0 Mono

• Optional English HOH subtitles

The Enforcer (1951) – Imprint Collection #212

Humphrey Bogart (The Maltese Falcon) is in fine form as a crusading District Attorney out to convict the head of a vicious murder-for-hire ring. But when his star witness is killed, Bogart must race against time to find the evidence he needs to bring down the mob boss. Told in a series of flashbacks, this tense, tough-as-nails crime thriller on the cutting edge of film noir was based on actual Murder, Inc. Trials.

Stylishly directed by Bretagne Windust (June Bride) with un-credited help from Raoul Walsh (Pursued) and beautifully shot by the great Robert Burks (North by Northwest).

Starring Humphrey Bogart, Zero Mostel, Ted de Corsia & Everett Sloane.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2021 4K scan

• NEW Audio commentary by noir expert and Film Noir Foundation board member Alan K. Rode

• Original aspect ratio 1.37:1

• Audio English LPCM 2.0 Mono

• Optional English subtitles

Beware, My Lovely (1952) – Imprint Collection #213

Helen Gordon (Ida Lupino) hires Howard Wilton (Robert Ryan) as a handyman to do chores around her house. She doesn’t know what she’s let herself in for. Insecure and paranoid, Wilton thinks everyone, including Helen, is against him. He suffers from memory lapses and extreme mood swings. She’s soon a prisoner in her own house after Wilton locks the doors and tears out the telephone. His mood swings from violence to complacency but after Helen gets a message to the police via a telephone repairman, she finds he is still in the house. …Beware, My Lovely.

Starring Robert Ryan, Ida Lupino, Taylor Holmes & Barbara Whiting.

Premier Blu-ray release worldwide.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2021 4K scan

• NEW Audio commentary with professor and film scholar Jason Ney

• NEW Interview with author and programmer Pamela Hutchinson

• Original Aspect Ratio 1.37:1

• Audio English LPCM 2.0 Mono

• Optional English HOH subtitles

Jennifer (1953) – Imprint Collection #213

Agnes Langsley (Ida Lupino) gets a job, through Jim Hollis (Howard Duff), as caretaker of an old and vacated estate. The owner’s cousin, Jennifer, was the last occupant and mysteriously disappeared. Agnes soon begins to believe that Jennifer was murdered and that Jim, whom she has fallen in love with, is responsible.

Starring Ida Lupino, Howard Duff & Robert Nichols.

Premier Blu-ray release worldwide.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2021 4K scan

• Original Aspect Ratio 1.37:1

• Audio English LPCM 2.0 Mono

• Optional English HOH subtitles

Tales of Adventure: Collection 1 – Imprint Collection #214 – #217

Arabian Nights (1942) – Imprint Collection #214

Prepare for every wish to be answered in the dazzling film spectacular Arabian Nights! See the passionate romance, lavish riches and exotic splendor of this classic fable that was “beautifully mounted in Technicolor” (Leonard Maltin), and nominated for four Academy Awards.

Jon Hall, Maria Montez and Sabu star in this lush, epic story of two half brothers who battle each other for the power of the throne and the love of a sensual, gorgeous dancing girl, Scheherazade. It’s a thrilling adventure you can’t afford to miss!

Starring Maria Montez, Jon Hall & Sabu.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K scan from the original negative

• NEW Audio commentary by film historians Michael Schlesinger and C. Courtney Joyner

• NEW Video essay on “Maria Montez” by film historian Phillipa Berry

• NEW Video featurette on composer Frank Skinner with film music historian Preston Jones

• NEW Interview with author & film historian Kim Newman on Maria Montez, Jon Hall and Sabu adventure films.

• Introduction by Turner Classic Movies Host Robert Osborne

• Trailer

• Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1

• Audio English LPCM 2.0 Mono

• Optional English HOH subtitles

The Desert Hawk (1950) – Imprint Collection #215

A dashing hero battles impossible odds in the lavish Technicolor adventure The Desert Hawk. To prevent the evil Prince Murad (George Macready) from gaining more power by marrying Shaharazade (Yvonne De Carlo), the Caliph’s daughter, the freedom fighter known as the Desert Hawk (Richard Greene) tricks her into marriage. Enraged to discover the Hawk has stolen both Shaharazade and her dowry, Murad plots to have the princess killed and her husband framed for her murder. Learning that Shaharazade escaped her death only to be sold into slavery, the Hawk soars into action to find a way to defeat Murad and save the royal princess.

Starring Yvonne DeCarlo, Richard Greene & George Macready.

Premiere Blu-ray release worldwide.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2023 2K scan from the original negative

• NEW Audio commentary by film historians Phoeff Sutton and Mark Jordon Legan

• NEW Audio commentary by film historians Jonathan Rigby & Kevin Lyons

• NEW Video featurette “Jeff Chandler at Universal” with film historian/author C. Courtney Joyner, film historian Michael Schlesinger, and more

• Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1

• English LPCM 2.0 Mono

• Optional English subtitles

Zarak (1956) – Imprint Collection #216

Zarak Khan (Victor Mature, Kiss of Death) is banished from his village after it’s revealed that he is in love with his father’s youngest wife, Salma (Anita Ekberg, La Dolce Vita). He becomes the ruthless leader of an outlaw band on the India-Afghanistan border, and the British colonial government dispatches Army Major Ingram (Michael Wilding, Stage Fright), to hunt down Zarak and his men. The outlaws enlist a sadistic tribal leader to aid their fight against the British. Terence Young directs the adventure, made all the more entertaining by its cast of old British standbys: Finlay Currie, Patrick McGoohan, and Andre Morell, to name a few.

Starring Victor Mature, Michael Wilding, Anita Ekberg & Bonar Colleano.

Premiere Blu-ray release worldwide.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K scan from the original negative

• Special features TBC

• Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1

• Audio English LPCM 2.0 Mono

• Optional English HOH subtitles

A Thousand and One Nights (1945) – Imprint Collection #216

A clever, self-parodic version of the Aladdin tales has Aladdin (Cornel Wilde) trying to win the heart of Adele Jergens (Princess Armina). Nothing goes right for him until he discovers the magic lamp that houses the genie (Evelyn Keyes). She, in turn, falls for her new master and successfully thwarts his would-be royal romance. Loosely based on the One Thousand and One Nights medieval story.

Starring Cornel Wilde, Evelyn Keyes & Phil Silvers.

Premiere Blu-ray release worldwide.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K scan from the original negative

• Special features TBC

• Original Aspect Ratio 1.37:1

• Audio English LPCM 2.0 Mono

• Optional English HOH subtitles

Omar Khayyam (1957) – Imprint Collection #217

Omar Khayyam was among the greatest of Persian poets. He was also a brilliant mathematician. Though his quatrains were written in the 11th century, they are still popular the world over. The details of his life are unknown, so this movie invents a biography for him and includes in it his real achievements – the invention of a new calendar and the penning of those epigrammatic poems. This film has him losing the love of his life to his ruler, and foiling an assassin sect’s plot to kill that ruler, the empire’s shah. …Omar Khayyam.

Starring Raymond Massey, Anthony Caruso, Cornel Wilde, Michael Rennie & Debra Paget.

Premiere Blu-ray release worldwide.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a new 2022 6K scan from the original negative

• NEW Audio commentary by film historian Phillipa Berry

• NEW Interview with film historian Sheldon Hall

• More special features TBC

• Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1

• Audio English LPCM 2.0 Mono

• Optional English HOH subtitles

The Haunting of Julia (1977) – Imprint Collection #218

Magnus (Keir Dullea) and Julia Lofting (Mia Farrow) have a happy marriage until one morning when their daughter Kate (Sophie Ward) begins choking. Unsure what to do, Julia attempts a tracheotomy, inadvertently causing Kate’s death. Julia heads to a sanitarium to recover, and when Magnus asks that she come home, she prefers to buy a new house in London and live alone there. Magnus frets over Julia’s sanity, while Julia becomes convinced that her house is haunted by the spirit of a little girl…

Starring Mia Farrow, Keir Dullea, Tom Conti, Jill Bennett & Robin Gammell.

Includes the newly remastered CD soundtrack by composer Colin Towns, featuring 20 minutes of previously unheard music.

Housed in a 3D lenticular hardcase, with a special collector’s booklet, limited to 1500 copies.

Worldwide first on Blu-ray!

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• NEW 1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 4K scan from the original negative (2022)

• NEW Audio commentary with director Richard Loncraine and Simon Fitzjohn

• NEW & EXCLUSIVE Audio commentary with film historians Jonathan Rigby & Kevin Lyons

• NEW & EXCLUSIVE Video interview with composer Colin Towns

• NEW & EXCLUSIVE Video Interview with production designer Brian Morris

• NEW & EXCLUSIVE Video Interview with associate producer Hugh Harlow

• NEW & EXCLUSIVE Video essay by film historian Kat Ellinger

• Theatrical Trailer

• Aspect Ratio TBC

• Audio TBC

• Optional English HOH subtitles

Are you interested in picking up any of these releases? Let me know if you are in the comment section below.