The Kino release comes with an enthusiastic and informative audio commentary by filmmakers Howard S. While this low-budget, black-and-white, 1962 post-Western is in many ways the antithesis of Douglas’s signature blockbuster Spartacus, you could also see it as the flip side of the same coin, showing off the kind of lustrous leading man presence seldom in circulation today. But that doesn’t mean he’s ridden off into the cinematic sunset, not with Kino Lorber’s exceptionally timely Lonely Are the Brave Blu-ray release. Handsomely profiled against the night sky, Douglas turns around and amiably says, “I understand,” giving his amigo a wink and beaming smile from that chiseled, jut-jawed, famously dimpled face.ĭouglas, who died this past February at the remarkable age of 103, may have been the last bona fide matinee idol from Hollywood’s classic era (we also lost centenarian Olivia de Havilland in 2020). The friend explains that he has a family he’s now responsible for, unlike the wild and rootless Jack, whose only real home is on the range. As misfit cowboy Jack Burns in what the late, legendary actor called his favorite role, Douglas leans on a window ledge, chomping at the bit to bust out of jail, after trying-and failing-to persuade his boyhood buddy to escape with him.

Halfway into the lofty, uneven trail blazed by Lonely Are the Brave, keep a lookout for a fleeting close-up that catches the essence of Kirk Douglas, Movie Star. Produced by Edward Lewis directed by David Miller screenplay by Dalton Trumbo cinematography by Philip Lathrop edited by Leon Barsha production design by Alexander Golitzen music by Jerry Goldsmith starring Kirk Douglas, Gena Rowlands, Walter Matthau, Michael Kane, William Schallert, and Carroll O’Connor Blu-ray or DVD, B&W, 107 min., 1962.

Does lonely screen have sound