Harold Lloyd Trust signs DVD deal ! (1 Viewer)

[Derek_McL]

Not many details yet but according to Annette Lloyd the Harold Lloyd Trust has signed a DVD deal with New Line entertainment to release this great silent comedian's films. See here :

http://p079.ezboard.com/ftheharoldll...D=1 652.topic

Apart from the Lord of the Rings films I don't know a great deal about New Line, what are their DVDs generally like ? Is this a good decision ? I know its something fans have been waiting for a long time for.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

New Line was one of the very first studios to put out feature-packed special editions. (They were originally called "The Platinum Series.") They also do the Infinifilm series, but for some reason, after an interesting start (Thirteen Days) the Infinifilm titles generally have tended to be pretty blah (the movies, not the features).

This is good news indeed!

 

[Mike~Sileck]

I Thought Blow and esp. The Butterfly Effect were great movies....so did many people. Also, Final Destination 2 was a pretty good movie and from the 3rd movie plans, must have done pretty well...

I love New Line dvd releases, I've yet to be disappointed by one.

Mike

 

[Tim_C]

Harold Lloyd is the actor in "Safety Last" and "The Freshman," correct? I've seen portions of both of those films and would love to see more.

I hope New Line does a good job with these DVDs. I love silent films, but I have very few in my collection since the DVDs tend to be of varying quality. I do realize that it can be hard to find good transfers and extras of films that are so old... I'm always excited to see releases like Kino's DVD of "Metropolis," Fox's "Sunrise" and Criterion's upcoming "The King of Kings."

(Anyways) I'm excited - this could be really great.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Excellent!

I'd expect some top-notch DVD's. Judging by how the restorations look on TCM, a lot of the DVD's should be nothing short of spectacular. Speedy, a 1928 film, looked like it was shot just a few years ago.

 

[Steve...O]

Although WAAAAAY overdue, this is excellent news. Harold Lloyd has labored in relative obscurity for too long. Thanks to the TCM showings and the upcoming DVDs he may be finally getting his due.

Steve

 

[Keith Paynter]

I had a suspicion something might have happened recently when I saw that Harold Lloyd clips (in extremely good shape BTW) started showing up in a recent automotive ad campaign - don't remember the car, but the HL footage was stunning!

I had tapes of old 16mm prints of a Time-Life series that ran on PBS many years ago, and if this is true, I look forward to high quality versions of Safety Last and Why Worry (which I actually found funnier than the former).

 

[Kirk Tsai]

Agreed!

 

[Geremia P.]

Harold Lloyd owned the masters to most of his films and took meticulous care over the decades. These should look spectacular on DVD.

 

[Eric Peterson]

This is great news. I've only seen "Safety Last", and have always wanted to see more.

Now if we can get some Keystone Cops & Fatty Arbuckle, 20s Coemedy will be nearly covered.

 

[Charles H]

Kino recently released a "Harold Lloyd Collection" containing GRANDMA'S BOY and 7 pre-1922 two reelers.

I hope that New Line will release all of his talkies as well as a definitive version of THE SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK (the sequel to THE FRESHMAN), which has fallen into some disreputable pd representations. The Hughes estate probably owns the best print. I believe that the abbreviated Hughes-edited version MAD WEDNESDAY is owned by Universal.

Lloyd didn't approve of either version, let alone his experience making what would become his final film, but the picture--directed by Preston Sturges--has a fascinating history.

 

[obscurelabel]

I hope these will be un-edited. I had read about a rather belabored joke in "The Freshman" (I believe, it's been a long time) about Harold practicing his cheerleading upstairs ("Bam! Pow! Zap!") and his father (uncle?), overhearing this, thought it was his crystal radio set picking up transmissions from China. This joke about "radio liars" would probably be lost on anyone not raised in the 20s (as I was not) and when I saw a print of this in the 80s, everything relating to this gag after the cheerleading cheers had been excised. Probably a justifiable creative choice, as modern audiences would probably have gone "Huh?" but a complete presentation should include it.

I think that other edits have been done for re-issues and TV showings over the years (as long ago as the 1940s and 50s) but it would be nice to have everything there, misunderstood current references and all.

 

[streeter]

New Line doesn't exactly have a track record with older films, but just about everything else they've done has been great. This is wonderful news!

 

[Brian PB]

As I posted elsewhere:

Startling news, way out of left field. I wonder what (if any) concessions Suzanne & the Trust had to make in order to broker this deal? Or maybe New Line's pockets are so deep after the success of LOTR that they paid the full asking price.

A quick search of DVD Empire shows that the oldest film New Line has released on DVD is The Mack from 1973 (most of their catalogue dates from the mid-80s onward), so expect a bit of a learning curve with these 80-year-old silents.

A very peculiar deal, but I'll be glad to have a number of Lloyd's masterpieces finally available on DVD (e.g. The Freshman, The Kid Brother, Safety Last, For Heaven's Sake, Speedy).

 

[Patrick McCart]

I think that it had more to do with New Line following the Trust guidelines.

They turned down Criterion and Kino Video, even.

 

[Scott Leopold]

This is fantastic news! I'm a huge fan of Harold Lloyd, and have been dying to hear this for some time now.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

This seems like a very weird fit, since New Line doesn't have any track record at all that I recall of licensing other people's films, and certainly nothing at all involving silents and early sound. But considering New Line almost always has exemplary transfers, and the source material has already been extensively restored, I don't see any serious reason for concern. It will certainly be nice to have some classic Lloyd on DVD as opposed to the weaker, early PD stuff.

 

[Eric Peterson]

Any new word on these DVD releases. I see that the films are finally starting their theater tour, and they'll be in Chicago in early July. The Harold Lloyd website has been down for months, and I'm really starting to wonder if this is really going to happen.

 

[TimJS]

Eric:

Word is November. If New Line/other majors publish their November slates & Lloyd isn't listed, that may be the appropriate time to worry.

Tim

 

[Jason Seaver]

I saw The Freshman as part of the Harold Lloyd series at the Brattle Theater Friday night, and this joke was in there. If these nice-looking new prints the basis of the video release, there shouldn't be much to worry about.

I'll be interested to hear what gets done with Welcome Danger. The "newly discovered silent version" screened as part of the series really doesn't seem to work very well.

So far, my favorite is probably Girl Shy, with Safety Last a close second.