Imprint has released a Blu-ray of Richard Fleischer’s 1961 film Barabbas, a biblical epic about early Christians in the tradition of The Sign of the Cross, Quo Vadis, The Robe, Ben-Hur, King of Kings, and the yet to be seen The Greatest Story Ever Told, taken from the 1950 Nobel Prize-winning novel by Swedish author Par Lagerkvist.

Produced by Dino De Laurentis, the film begins with the crucifixion of Christ and ends with the crucifixion of Barabbas, the thief who was let go so that Christ could be executed instead. It deviates from the novel by inserting a lengthy sequence in which Barabbas becomes a gladiator in Rome, the producer’s ode to the recently released Spartacus.

Anthony Quinn, a double Oscar winner for his gregarious performances in Viva Zapata! and Lust for Life, effectively underplays the uncomprehending Barabbas in one of his best performances. Unlike the life affirming films that this is tradition to, Fleischer’s film is very dark, so much so that it has been called an epic noir. It takes its protagonist twenty years to become a Christian (thirty in the novel). In the end, he doesn’t go into the light, he gives his soul up to the darkness of the night after having helped set fire to the burning of Rome, thus playing into Nero’s hands in implicating his fellow Christians.

The superb supporting cast includes Silvana Mangano, Arthur Kennedy, Katy Jurado, Harry Andrews, Vittorio Gassman, Valentina Cortese, Jack Palance, and Ernest Borgnine.

Extras include a lengthy on-screen interview with Fleischer (20,000 Under the Sea, Compulsion) filmed shortly before his death in 2006 at 87.

Warner Archive has released a Blu-ray of Vincent Sherman’s 1948 film Adventures of Don Juan, Errol Flynn’s first swashbuckler since 1940, the genre having been grounded during World War II due to inability to sell to European markets where it would have excelled.

At 39, Flynn was no longer the dashing hero he was in films like 1935’s Captain Blood and 1938’s The Adventures of Robin Hood, but he was still spry enough to be convincing in the film’s many fencing scenes. Played mostly for laughs, the film’s romantic scenes are played with a wink and a nod, nothing more explicit than that being allowed in the era of Hollywood’s strict Production Code.

Aside from Flynn, the film’s best asset is Max Steiner’s score, although it was the film’s costume design that won an Oscar.

Extras include commentary from Sherman (The Damned Don’t Cry, Affair in Trinidad) and film historian Rudy Behlmer recorded shortly before Sherman’s death in 2006 less than a month before his 100th birthday.

Kino Lorber has released new and improved Blu-rays of Delbert Mann’s 1955 film Marty and John Ford’s 1959 film The Horse Soldiers.

Marty, the 1955 Oscar winner for Best Picture, Actor (Ernest Borgnine), Director, and Screenplay (by Paddy Chayefsky), is offered in two aspect ratios, the previously released 1.37:1, and the preferred 1.85:1, which includes commentary by entertainment journalists/authors Byron Beesman and Max Evry. It holds up very well with Betsy Blair, Esther Manicotti, and Augusta Ciolli providing superb support.

The Horse Soldiers, on the other hand, may look better than ever, but Ford’s only film that takes place during the Civil War is far from his best.

John Wayne and William Holden share star billing, but Wayne’s commanding officer carries the film with Holden’s doctor only intermittently given screen time. The film’s highlight remains the march of the child soldiers near the film’s end. If you want to see a Ford film about horse soldiers, though, you’re better off rewatching one or all of the films in his Cavalry trilogy: Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and Rio Grande.

Commentary is by Ford historian Joseph McBride, but even he can’t sell this one as anything more than a film for Ford completists.

Kino Lorber has also released a Fu Manchu Double Feature and two more film noir sets on Blu-ray.

The Fu Manchu Double Feature is comprised of 1929’s The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu and 1930’s The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu, both starring Warner Oland as the evil criminal genius and Jean Arthur as his ward. They make for interesting comparisons to Lon Chaney’s Mr. Wu and Oland’s similar villain in 1932’s Shanghai Express

Audio commentary on both is provided by novelist and critic Tim Lucas.

Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema VII and Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema VIII both feature three examples of the genre.

Set VII features three from 1956-1958: Bryan Haskin’s The Boss, with John Payne as a racketeer; Sidney Salkow’s Chicago Confidential, with Brian Keith as a crusading state’s attorney; and Jacques Tourneur’s The Fearmakers, with Dana Andrews as a brainwashed Korean War veteran in a cold war precursor to The Manchurian Candidate. This one is the best of the lot.

The Boss and The Fearmakers include audio commentary.

Set VIII features three from 1942 to 1946: Jack Hively’s Street of Chance, starring Burgess Meredith as an amnesiac and Claire Trevor in her first noir femme fatale role; Ford Beebe’s Enter Arsene Lupin, starring Charles Korvin as the legendary thief and J. Carrol Naish excruciatingly over the top as his nemesis; and Irving Pichel’s Tempation, starring Merle Oberon in an adaptation of Bella Donna.

Street of Chance is the cream of the crop of this group. All three feature audio commentaries.

This week’s new releases include Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and The Lost City.