MGM Lean & Hitchcock Releases (1 Viewer)

[Mark Edward Heuck]

Oh, it's such a clusterfrick, but I'll try explaining.

Sony does not own the MGM library. What happened is that since Sony was an investor in the consortium that bought the studio, and they had their own distribution and home video apparatus, they took it upon themselves to shut down all of MGM's operations, calling them "redundant," and asserted control over the releases, cherry-picking some of the then-unreleased new movies for themselves.
The other investors in MGM eventually grew tired of Sony's self-serving behavior, and switched DVD distribution to Fox. So Sony has no say over MGM titles anymore, though as an investor, they do get a cut of the profits from the sales. Fox now calls the shots over what MGM titles come out, and they are much better at exploiting catalog product.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

I'm still waiting for MGM to put out "Sabotage", "The Young & Innocent" and "The Paradine Case". These are the only MGM Hitch titles I would pick up and it will be nice to finally have quality transfers of them on DVD.

 

[Craig Beam]

Agreed, Marco. Those are my three most-wanted Hitch titles. I have the Anchor Bay "Paradine," which is better than nothing, but a new transfer would be most welcome. And "Sabotage".... oh man, I want this one BAD. My favorite pre-Selznick Hitch film.

 

[Garysb]

I believe "The Paradine Case" is part of the ABC/Disney/Selznick deal which MGM will lose the rights to at the end of the year per a post earlier in this thread. Though Criterion did not put out a Paradine Case DVD, this film is part of the same ownership as "Rebecca" and "Notorious"

 

[BarryM]

So....why would Criterion be bound to delete their three Selznick Titles, and Anchor Bay had to do the same thing at the same time? If the rights went south, then whomever owns them one would think would've wanted to put them out themselves.

Instead, nothing.

Again, Ron....if you read this, would you call MGM and see if you can get some definitive clarification about these two previously announced and pulled boxsets?

Much appreciated.....