Coming to DVD: I Married a Witch (1942) and The Uninvited (1944)

There's fantastic news to start off the week, with two much-loved films finally coming to DVD.

The Criterion Collection has announced the release of I MARRIED A WITCH (1942) and THE UNINVITED (1944), just in time for Halloween.

Both films will be out on Blu-ray in addition to DVD.

I MARRIED A WITCH will be released on October 8th. The minimal extras listed at the Criterion site include a trailer, an audio interview with director Rene Clair, and the usual booklet.

The film stars Fredric March, Veronica Lake, Susan Hayward, Robert Benchley, and Cecil Kellaway. I reviewed I MARRIED A WITCH back in 2007.

I'm even happier about the October 22nd release of THE UNINVITED, a grand "spooky old house" classic starring Ray Milland, Gail Russell, and Ruth Hussey. I wrote about THE UNINVITED in 2008.

THE UNINVITED is also the movie which gave us Victor Young's beautiful "Stella By Starlight"; a YouTube video with that music is included in a post I wrote on Gail Russell.

Criterion's extras for THE UNINVITED are a "visual essay" and a booklet with an essay by the Self-Styled Siren herself, Farran Smith Nehme.

As an interesting side note, THE UNINVITED came out on Region 2 DVD last year. The extras described on the Amazon UK site include still and poster galleries. Criterion does not list anything similar on their page, unless they're part of the visual essay.

I could wish for more extras, such as commentary tracks -- the extras for Milland's MINISTRY OF FEAR (1944) earlier this year were similarly scant -- but after so many years of waiting, it's a joy to know that these films will finally be widely available in beautiful prints.

Kudos to the Criterion Collection for making them available.