A trio of titles has been selected for today’s round of online store additions. This latest slate includes Arrow’s British Blu-ray of Joe Dante’s “The ‘Burbs” and a pair 1950s Douglas Sirk films from France’s Elephant Films: “Sign of the Pagan” and “Thunder on the Hill.”
Although best known today for melodramas like “All That Heaven Allows” and “Written on the Wind,” Douglas Sirk made his fair share of muscular action pictures, too… such as the Rock Hudson starring Irish adventure film “Captain Lightfoot,” already a staple in 4xblu’s inventory. “Sign of the Pagan” stars Jeff Chandler (who appeared in Sirk’s “Taza, Son of Cochise” earlier in 1954) as Marcian, a Roman centurion tasked with protecting Rome from the forces of Attila the Hun (who’s played by Jack Palance with the usual Palance brio; yes, there’s plenty of problematic bronzer use in this one). Clocking in at a breezy 92 minutes, “Sign of the Pagan” offers many of the trappings of 1950s historical dramas without the oppressive runtime that’s so often a characteristic of studio sword ‘n’ sandal epics.