Blu-ray Review Hold Back the Dawn Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Matt Hough]

Matt Hough submitted a new blog post

Hold Back the Dawn Blu-ray Review

Continue reading the Original Blog Post.

 

[t1g3r5fan]

Great review, Matt! I'll definitely have to pick up a copy now!

 

[Andrew Budgell]

Can't wait to get my hands on this one! Matt, your wonderful review coincided with Dame Olivia de Havilland's 103rd birthday yesterday!

 

[Matt Hough]

Can't wait to get my hands on this one! Matt, your wonderful review coincided to Dame Olivia de Havilland's 103rd birthday yesterday!

Oh! I wish I had been aware of it then or I would have mentioned it in the review. She is one remarkable lady.

 

[lark144]

For those of you who are not yet aware, B&N.com has HOLD BACK THE DAWN as well as many other Arrow BDs @ 50% off. HOLD BACK THE DAWN ships on July 7th, according to B&N's website.

 

[battlebeast]

I can’t wait to get this; I have only seen it once... in a not so great... how shall we say? “Under the table” presentation, because it was never released on DVD.

I am very happy to add it to my Nominees collection!

 

[Matt Hough]

I think you will be very pleased with its quality presentation.

 

[PMF]

Billy Wilder must have been a genius. Yes, we know of his brilliant ear for dialogue and his impeccable eye for casting and directing; but it didn't stop there; for as of late, I've really taken in the arch and beauteous Black and White work of those cinematographers that Mr. Wilder had selected to fulfill his stories. Consider that Billy Wilder, himself, garnered 21 Oscar nominations for 14 of his films; yet behind these impressive numbers are 11 - perhaps even 13 - nominations for his DPs, which are as follows (alphabetically):

Daniel L. Fapp: "One, Two, Three"

Charles B. Lang: "Arise, My Love"(*), "A Foreign Affair", "Sabrina", "Some Like It Hot"

Joseph LaShelle: "The Apartment", "Irma La Douce" (color) and"The Fortune Cookie"

John Seitz: "Five Graves to Cairo", "Double Indemnity", "The Lost Weekend" and"Sunset Blvd".

Leo Tover: "Hold Back the Dawn"(*)

Thought I''d post these collective findings as a notable look-see for those cinematography buffs and all others who are reveling in the recent outpouring of the Billy Wilder BDs and their wonderful transfers.

Now, cinematography aside, all we've got remaining from the BD wish-list of Billy Wilder's personal 21 nominations is "Ball of Fire" (1941); to which he was nominated for Best Writing.

(*) denotes Billy Wilder films to which he wrote, but did not direct; thus the 11 versus 13 possibility.

 

[MartinP.]

I always wondered why this film was never released on VHS or DVD and rarely seen on TV, especially since most films with a lot of Oscar nominations (this one had 6), including Best Picture (but not director), found their way onto home media. I'd only ever seen it once on someone's copy they had from somewhere, on a VHS tape. And at the time was glad to have done so.

Matt Hough's rather perfect review of the film touches all the right notes, including my least favorite part of the film, "Impressionable, inexperienced teacher Emmy Brown's (Olivia De Havilland) tiresomely mischievous students"...one wonders why parents would let their young children go on a long trip across a border to Mexico with any teacher.

 

[battlebeast]

I always wondered why this film was never released on VHS or DVD and rarely seen on TV, especially since most films with a lot of Oscar nominations (this one had 6), including Best Picture (but not director), found their way onto home media. I'd only ever seen it once on someone's copy they had from somewhere, on a VHS tape. And at the time was glad to have done so.

Matt Hough's rather perfect review of the film touches all the right notes, including my least favorite part of the film, "Impressionable, inexperienced teacher Emmy Brown's (Olivia De Havilland) tiresomely mischievous students"...one wonders why parents would let their young children go on a long trip across a border to Mexico with any teacher.

Perhaps the film elements needed a lot of work?

Perhaps this is the same reason SKIPPY hasn’t been released, either.

 

[PMF]

Dear Arrow,

You have given us Billy Wilder's "The Apartment", "The Major and the Minor" and "Hold Back the Dawn" with fantastic transfers on BD. Many of the Billy Wilder fans here at Home Theater Forum are also eagerly awaiting a BD release of BALL OF FIRE (1941). Although I am certain that Arrow knows of this film, it couldn't hurt a bit to remind everyone of its place in the Billy Wilder canon.

BALL OF FIRE received 4 Oscar nominations for:
Best Actress - Barbara Stanwyck
Best Music - Alfred Newman
Best Sound - Thomas T. Moulton
Best Writing - Billy Wilder and Thomas Monroe

Of Billy Wilder's 21 Oscar nomination for Writing, Directing and Producing, BALL OF FIRE now remains to be the only film not yet released on BD. Yes, I wonder if it will be Arrow who will be the distributor to complete this list; as your competitors of Criterion, Warner Archives and Kino Lorber all have Billy Wilder interests at hand; as they, too, have collectively released many of his important titles on BD.

One thing is for certain; whomever releases BALL OF FIRE (1941) is going to be the recipient of whatever sales this title incurs. I, for one, can't wait to see who claims its BD distribution rights.

Think Billy, think BD, think Ball of Fire.

 

[MartinP.]

Perhaps the film elements needed a lot of work?

Perhaps this is the same reason SKIPPY hasn’t been released, either.

Oh, man I hope not, SKIPPY is such a wonderful film.

AMPAS had a screening of it that I attended in 2003 or maybe 2004, in their "Great to Be Nominated" series that decade. (The series was the film each year that had the most Oscar nominations that didn't win Best Film.) No complaints of the print at that screening. Jackie Cooper, himself, was at the screening for an interview and Q&A. This film should be out there. I had hope that it would a couple years ago when people talked about Norman Taurog being the youngest Best Director winner for Skippy and that Damien Chazelle could be the youngest if he won for La La Land, which he did.

(Around that same time AMPAS had a screening with a live orchestra of the 1928 Harold Lloyd silent film Speedy, and for awhile I would mix up which film was which.)

 

[battlebeast]

Oh, man I hope not, SKIPPY is such a wonderful film.

AMPAS had a screening of it that I attended in 2003 or maybe 2004, in their "Great to Be Nominated" series that decade. (The series was the film each year that had the most Oscar nominations that didn't win Best Film.) No complaints of the print at that screening. Jackie Cooper, himself, was at the screening for an interview and Q&A. This film should be out there. I had hope that it would a couple years ago when people talked about Norman Taurog being the youngest Best Director winner for Skippy and that Damien Chazelle could be the youngest if he won for La La Land, which he did.

(Around that same time AMPAS had a screening with a live orchestra of the 1928 Harold Lloyd silent film Speedy, and for awhile I would mix up which film was which.)

Imagine if that Q&A with Cooper was filmed and included as a bonus feature? But that'll always be the dream...

 

[MartinP.]

Imagine if that Q&A with Cooper was filmed and included as a bonus feature? But that'll always be the dream...

Warren, AMPAS always records all of these Q&A's and/or interviews that they have in conjunction with screenings. Back then, they didn't have an Oscars youtube channel, but the recent Q&A's they do are all posted online (youtube) afterwards...or sections of them. Otherwise they are available at their library, though I don't know if they are just for researchers or the general public. I know of at least one instance when one of the Q&A's was included as an extra with a film and that was an anniversary release of the 1981 film Pennies from Heaven.

 

[battlebeast]

Warren, AMPAS always records all of these Q&A's and/or interviews that they have in conjunction with screenings. Back then, they didn't have an Oscars youtube channel, but the recent Q&A's they do are all posted online (youtube) afterwards...or sections of them. Otherwise they are available at their library, though I don't know if they are just for researchers or the general public. I know of at least one instance when one of the Q&A's was included as an extra with a film and that was an anniversary release of the 1981 film Pennies from Heaven.

Well that is great news!