Columbia's Treatment of It's Back-Catalogue (1 Viewer)

[Aaron Silverman]

Was your TV in zoom mode?

 

[ArthurMy]

Aaron - you think?

 

[john mcfadden]

Neighbors -Belushi's last film , avalable in r2 but wheres the region 1 release ?

 

[PeterMano]

Columbia really hasn't been trying lately. I was quite pleased with efforts like It Happened One Night, Lost Horizon, His Girl Friday. But, their lackluster efforts with big name titles like On The Waterfront and From Here To Eternity left me scratching my head. These were big films in their respective years, each won eight academy awards and they deserved a much better overall treatement than what they got. Heck, crap films today get two disc special edition treatments. Certainly, these films are far more deserving of special status. Okay transfers, a few special features, but nothing to write home about. The Wild One got a better transfer than On The Waterfront.

 

[David_Blackwell]

Major Dundee comes out in June (with new footage).

 

[ChrisPearson]

Arthur, Peter Mano answers your question for me. I'm specifically thinking of Twentieth Century at the moment, however. This really should have been a special edition in the Columbia Classics style – commentary, docs, a decent cover – but that line seems to have been abandoned in favour of the bargain-basement approach. The assumption seems to be that classics fans will buy anyway, so there's no need to make any effort except to design a trashy cover that might hook in a few of the non-initiated. I'm not impressed.

 

[ArthurMy]

Well, I'll only say that I just don't care about the extra bonus material in eighty percent of the special editions, because I find those extras uninteresting, poorly done, with the usual suspects blabbing away. So, for me, Columbia is doing just fine - I've got the movies, most of which have excellent transfers (TRANSFERS - film elements are a whole different story - see comments in another thread re the Columbia flood and lost negatives). If the Warners Gangster collection had come out without any of the extras I wouldn't care one bit (after having watched them). I'm all about the movie. Anything else is just "extra" and, while I know that those extras are important to some, I'm just not one of the some.

 

[Brian PB]

Yes, Arthur, but the problem is that Columbia continues to charge Premium prices for a middling product (barebones classic titles). Now if the additional cost went towards a restoration of the battered film elements or an extensive "digital restoration/clean-up", then that additional cost might be justified. To my eyes, Columbia's DVD picture quality (again, only considering classic titles) seldom approaches (and rarely exceeds) that of Warner or Fox (both of which sell their DVDs at lower prices, and with additional content).

 

[Chris Cheese]

Exactly, my biggest problem is that they charge $25 a piece for those barebones discs. Buying all the WB Gangsters discs by themselves would be cheaper than that, and that's including the commentaries, documentaries, and other extras. If I had to pay $10-15 for the barebones discs, that'd be fine with me. $25 is just too much.

 

[ArthurMy]

Premium prices? I don't know where you shop, but I paid under fifteen dollars for my latest batch of Columbias, which include My Sister Eileen, Behold a Pale Horse, Strangers When We Meet, Twentieth Century, It Happened to Jane. All prices were 13.96 except BAPH, which was 14.95. No tax, no shipping. All via amazon.com.

So, again, I don't care about barebones, the transfers on the above are all excellent (Twentieth Century is as good as the FILM ELEMENTS will permit), and the prices are fine.

You all seem to want to create this horrid perception of Columbia - it goes on and on. I'm not buying it and will always speak up about it, because, as I've said many times, despite some really stupid decisions on a few titles, most of their DVD transfers are great, and they have a great catalog.

Oh, and I just got the Blue Lagoon 2-pack - I paid 14 bucks from a local store. Two movies, commentary track and a few extras. Seems like a deal to me. Same with Karate Kid.

So, really, please come back and explain your problems in light of this post.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Let me add my perspective about Columbia's price structure. For years, their dvds were overpriced compared to studios like Warner and Fox. However, in the last year, they have made strides to reduce the MSRP of their dvds. One of the reasons for that change was due to retailer buyers not purchasing their products because frankly, they didn't sell many units of Columbia's catelogue titles due to their high prices. Studios like Warner, MGM, Fox and Paramount sold more units than Columbia's catelogue titles. Of course, it goes without saying that titles like Spider-Man 2 sold like hotcakes because it was a recent blockbuster film.

Anyhow, Paramount had the same problem too at one time, but they changed their price structure about 2 years ago, when they reduced their dvd prices. At the moment, most of Columbia's catelogue titles are priced similar to Warner dvd titles. However, Fox, Universal and Paramount titles are still about $5.00 cheaper than both Columbia and Warner. Furthermore, Warner has a well-earned reputation among the membership as one studio that consistently output good presentations with their dvds while Columbia's perception has been spotty, at least as it pertains to this forum's membership.

For a time, I boycotted buying Columbia titles which was my way of protesting their prior price structure. This wasn't easy for me, since I bought my first dvd during the summer of 1997, and have since, collected a hugh dvd library that is fast approaching 3000 in number. Anyway, over the last couple of months, I have dropped my personal boycott because Columbia has made an effort to become more competitive with their prices and hopefully, such pricing will continue to be comparable to their competitors. In closing, I hope Columbia takes a second look in releasing such titles as "Ship of Fools, "Cowboy" and "Anatomy of a Murder" in their OAR.







Crawdaddy

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Uh, "Return" is in Foolscreen, so you really only get one. I'm surprised they didn't drop the widescreen version from the first movie, like they have on several other titles. You could sell those for a penny and I still wouldn't buy them.

 

[Bradley-E]

SONY needs to come down about $5.00 ON their catalogue titles.

 

[PeterMano]

Classic example of what's wrong with Columbia and their handling of catalog titles. I was in future shop today and thought, hey, I really need a fred astaire film with some singing and dancing. So, I saw You'll Never Get Rich, from Columbia, barebones disc at $31.99 canadian and then Funny Face from Paramount with a few extras for $7.99, or a quarter of the price. Guess which one I walked out with.

 

[ArthurMy]

Well, if you want to ignore what people here are telling you, that's just dandy. I just finished watching the wonderful Strangers When We Meet - 13.96 all in. Great movie, nice transfer, anamorphic.

I hadn't even noticed that Return to the Blue Lagoon was full screen. I would never watch it anyway. The first film looks quite luscious in its anamorphic transfer, and it's an enjoyable film with a great Basil Poledouris score. Nice commentaries, too.

Robert, I'm sure they'll revisit some of the titles they've made idiotic decisions on. In fact, two of the ones you mention, Cowboy and Anatomy of a Murder, are anamorphic widescreen in UK/region 2.

 

[Chris Cheese]

There are a few titles in particular that I'm referring to mostly (all Columbia film noirs, all at a msrp of $25 without many or any bonus features): The Big Heat, Dead Reckoning, The Harder They Fall, In a Lonely Place, and The Lady From Shanghai. I really want these films, but am I willing to pay $22 or $23 a piece for them in their current presentations? Probably not. I'm a huge film noir fan, and it kills me to not own them, but I'm also a poor college student, soon to be graduated from college, and I can't waste that much money. Were these selling for $15 a piece, I'd own every one of them.

 

[Derek Estes]

I know this is nit-picking so excuse me. But, the cover of Twentieth Century is atrocious! I can understand slimming on the extras, it can keep costs down, but to make such an ugly cover can't be smart marketing strategy. Just today I received a package of DVDs at work, with Twentieth Century, Leave Her to Heaven and The Letter. A few of my co workers like to borrow DVDs, so they came to look at what I got today, and they just looked at Twentieth Century like "What the F*#K is he watching?" and I had to laugh and explain that it is a great film, that was just a casualty of the worst graphic design I have possibly seen. Those masks! Honestly! And what I don't understand is that the old Columbia covers were so simple and classic, why make an effort to sell something so ugly. Unless you were familiar with the film, very few people are going to enticed by a film with embarrassing Drama Masks on the cover.
I'm done bitching now, better luck next time Columbia,
Derek

P.S. I also want to put a word in for the other Samuel Fuller films
Underworld U.S.A.
The Crimson Kimono
Verbotton

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

The cheapest I have seen The Big Heat is $18.44 and I would have to pay $5.98 p&p - that's $24.42! Outrageous, says I!

I worship Lang, love Noir and The Big Heat is essential for fans. But Columbia are having a laugh with the price tag.

However, I am not anti-Columbia. They restored Major Dundee and recently issused a beautifully transfered Bunny Lake, so they have won a reprieve of late.

Should they release The Tall T with a pristine transfer, I would never, ever criticize them again!

 

[ArthurMy]

We may all get our Budd Boetticher dreams coming true - I know they've got new transfers of all the Boetticher films. TCM showed a lovely letterboxed Commanche Station not so long ago. For me, Ride Lonesome is the one I'm most waiting for.

And I don't know - twenty-three bucks for one of the great noirs of all time? Obviously you weren't around in the laserdisc days or you'd know how amusing that is. Even if I'd had to pay full price for The Big Heat I would have done it.

My guess is that at some point in the near future they'll do price reductions on their older titles. Their recent stuff has been very reasonable.

 

[Herb Kane]

Count me among one of those who are, by and large, pleased with Columbia’s product. Sure, they’ve made some silly decisions, but in all fairness, all of the studios have.

I think from a classics standpoint, most of the frustration here stems from the fact that they were out of the box so quickly and so strongly with many great classic titles including those under the “Columbia Classics” banner – some of which are among the favorites in my library. And now (at least in comparison), their releases aren’t as frequent. Sure, their noirs are expensive, but I couldn’t imagine not having them. And it was not that long ago when Paramount was right up their with them and their outrageous prices… From a special features standpoint, they’re never a priority for me.

Columbia has done a terrific job with many of their recent releases from the last year or so i.e. The Gene Krupa Story, Dr. Strangelove SE and the Bunny Lake Is Missing disc - wow! I have almost all of the two waves of classics they are about to release ordered and I really can’t wait.

They have eased off on their prices - now if only they’d dig a bit deeper and give us a few more each month…