It would feel wrong to not acknowledge that today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nicholas Ray (then known as Raymond Nicholas Kienzle). To add a little substance to the post, it’s worth noting that his widow Susan Ray has been involved in reconstructing Nick’s experimental final film We Can’t Go Home Again and it will play at this year’s New York Film Festival, as well as during a special event in October at Film Forum. I plan to definitely be at one or both of these showings. Also, Turner Classic Movies has some plans for Ray during the month of October and will be showing many of his movies on the channel, including some relative rarities like Wind Across the Everglades.

What’s the current status of Ray on DVD/Blu-ray? A recent R2 DVD of Born to Be Bad came out from Odeon. It can be had quite cheaply from online retailers. Only Bigger Than Life and King of Kings are available on Blu-ray at the moment but one would imagine that Rebel Without a Cause might see a release sooner rather than later from the reissue-obsessed WB. Johnny Guitar still, inexplicably, is not available in R1, though can be had on DVD in pretty much every country in Europe. I even picked up a steelbook for it in Spain last year. Hot Blood has a made-on-demand disc via the Columbia Classics service but is also available in the UK on proper DVD. Knock on Any Door has been released in a few countries but not yet the U.S. The Lusty Men, Born to Be Bad, A Woman’s Secret and Wind Across the Everglades should all be Warner Bros. properties and likely destined for the Warner Archive treatment, where they would join Party Girl. Run for Cover is also missing from the marketplace but can be streamed from Netflix. The DVD essentials in R1 are still In a Lonely Place, On Dangerous Ground, Bitter Victory, They Live By Night, and Rebel.