Don Siegel "Babyface Nelson" (1 Viewer)

[Santee7]

I've actually always loved this great early Siegel picture. And though I think Rooney's performance owes more then a bit to Cagney as Cody Jarret I remember it as a very strong picture. Having said that I've only seen it as a bad vhs/tv rip. Its never been on either a true vhs or dvd release. Are the original elements lost to the sands of time? I would figure since Siegel was sort of at least a cult figure someone would have taken an interest in releasing this picture. From the grainy version I saw years ago I thought it was at least in the same category as Siegel's The Lineup.
Anyway I hope I placed this in the right place. I know we are not to ask distributors for requests so wanted to put this out there.

 

[Robin9]

I believe Baby Face Nelson was a United Artists production which indicates that it is now owned my MGM. I haven't seen the film in several decades but I'd love to see it again. It has a wonderful collection of supporting actors and the screenplay was written by Daniel Mainwaring who was the author of the novel Build My Gallows High which was made into that classic crime movie Out Of The Past for which he wrote the screenplay under a pseudonym. Baby Face Nelson also has Hal Mohr, one of the great masters, as cinematographer.

I suppose it's possible that Kino-Lorber might be able to obtain a decent transfer from MGM and release a disc; possibly one of the European boutique labels too.

 

[Santee7]

Would love to see that happen. All that exists now are clearly pirated versions.
One guy told me it was "public domain" which always means bad dupe.
Hope someone finds this orphan and gives it a new birth!

 

[LouA]

I saw this in a theater way back when, and really liked it. The film doesn’t play on TV often , so a Blu-ray would be nice. Another Rooney crime film from this era was The Last Mile. The two films might make a good double feature!