Speculation on WB June 2007 western and/or adventure releases (1 Viewer)

[Conrad_SSS]

That was my thought exactly....

 

[Jim Bur]

As Jay and Conrad noted, subsequent events have made it clear that Warners was referring to their impending Cult Classics Collection, especially the volume containing Land of the Pharaohs, etc.

At the forum Warners was asked about a release of a box set of early cinemascope westerns, adventure films, and epics such as Drum Beat, The Command, Moonfleet, King Richard and the Crusades, and the Silver Chalice. (2 westerns, 2 adventure films and 1 biblical epic). Warners responded that there were going to be releasing in June some films that were similar to those films that the questioner had mentioned.

I then started this thread so that we could have the fun of speculating on which films Warners might have been referring to. For my part, I guessed completely wrong, and the only one I eventually got right was that they would be soon releasing the biblical epic Land of the Pharaohs.

Subsequently, Warners announced their Camp Classic releases, which appears to have been met with enthusiastic response.

I too would like to see more swashbucklers, and also more westerns. Back about 15 months ago I started a thread where we listed many of the outstanding adventure and historical epics which Warners and the other studios had not yet released on DVD.

I must say that in the intervening months Warners has done a terrific job in releasing previoulsy unreleased classic adventure films and historical epics. In the last 10 months, Warners has released among other outstanding films from this genre, Captain Horatio Hornblower, A Tale of Two Cities, both sound versions of The Prisoner of Zenda, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Adventures of Don Juan, Treasure Island, The Lost Patrol, Billy Budd, The Three Musketeers, China Seas, etc. I think they have done right by the fans of the classic adventure film in the last year. I'm also looking forward to Northwest Passage as part of a Spencer Tracy boxset, and hopefully they will announce that sometime in the near future.

I'm not sure as to what other adventure films we might get this year from Warners (I haven't been doing too well on my predications lately) however since they said they had a Burt Lancaster promotion coming up later this year, I would hope we might see films like His Majesty O'Keefe. Most of the remaining better unreleased swashbucklers that Warners has in its library star Stewart Granger who was MGM's top swashbuckler in the 1950's. Warners said at the chat they were considering releasing Moonfleet possibly next year, so possibly we will be seeing that film and maybe All the Brothers Were Valiant, Beau Brummell, etc sometime in the future. Warners also has one remaining good unreleased Flynn swashbuckler in its library, The Dark Avenger (aka The Warriors), and I agree that Trader Horn would be an excellent release.

Since Warners has done such a good job on adventure and historical epics in the last 10 months, most of the remaining outstanding unreleased adventure films are controlled by Fox, and a few by Universal. Howevever, the good news is that Fox is also starting to do an excellent job in getting adventure and historical epics out. In the last 10 months Fox released The Black Swan, The Call of the Wild, Soldier of Fortune, and has scheduled for release in a matter of weeks, Les Miserables, The Black Rose, Son of Fury, Captain From Castille, Blood and Sand and Prince of Foxes. I'm also hoping that once Warners gets around to releasing a Spencer Tracy boxset, Fox will follow suit with a Spencer Tracy boxset of its own, hopefully including Stanley and Livingstone, which is arguably along with Northwest Passage, Tracy's best film. Fox also has in its library numerous other outstanding unrleased adventure films and historical period films such as Under Two Flags, Untamed, Slave Ship, The Prisoner of Shark Island, Kidnapped (1938 version), Clive of India, Lloyds of London, King of the Kyber Rifles, The Bowery, Four Men and a Prayer, This Is My Affair, etc.

Universal doesn't seem to have been as diligent as Warners or Fox about releasing adventure or historical epics. However, they are showing improvement in that they have a set of 4 low budget pirate films set for release in May, with the good news is that one of them is Against All Flags with Flynn. Universal has also has Unconquered on the schedule for May. The glaring omission from Universal is its continued failure to release If I Were King and Kipling's The Light That Failed. If I Were King is one of the greatest movies of its type ever made. My only hope is that since Univeral released a box set of Preston Sturges directed films last December, perhaps they will later this year release a boxset of Preston Sturges scripted films (they did this during the VHS days), and include If I Were King since Sturges wrote the script for that film. Another way Universal could release this film is as a double feature with The Light That Failed, which is a great film in its own right, since both these films star Ronald Colman. Another outstanding Universal adventure film that remains unreleased is Souls at Sea with Gary Cooper.

I would also add, that while Warners has done a great job recently in releasing classic adventure and historical epic films, the one area they have severely neglected are westerns. Their record of releasing western films so far in 2007 had been bleak, however I'll save that subject for a later post.

c Jim Bur

 

[ryanCollins]

they should release all the 1950s allied artists and mongram western and western releated films too.