Warner Archive Discussion Thread (The Announcements/The Films) (5 Viewers)

[Charles Smith]

Why do I have Stop the World, I Want to Get Off on my want list, as being Warner Archive? Did it get announced at some point, but hasn't been released?

 

[JoHud]

It certainly hasn't been released and I don't remember it ever being announced. Wishful thinking perhaps?

 

[Charles Smith]

I don't make my lists that way, but I definitely have something screwed up. Must investigate. Thanks!

 

[rdimucci]

My impression is that NIGHT OF THE IGUANA ,THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY, 36 HOURS, YOUR CHEATIN' HEART, A PATCH A BLUE, and even THE HILL were fairly successful films. So I'm going with 1962's ALL FALL DOWN, with Warren Beatty. THE LOVED ONE is my second pick. Yet another possibility is 1963's THE HOOK, with Kirk Douglas. And was 1963's THE HAUNTING, a success?

 

[Doug Bull]

One would think that It needs to be a film that has the potential for good sales.
Money and profit nearly always come first in any commercial venture.
Star names = sales.

Which film fits that criteria best?

 

[Bob Cashill]

Warner put THE HAUNTING on Blu last year.

 

[Mark-P]

Well both "The Loved One" and "Your Cheatin' Heart" are now available on Warner Archive Instant in HD so I would say that either would be a strong possibility for the cryptically announced upcoming WAC Blu-ray release.

 

[MattPriceTime]

Good to see more of those TNT adaptions coming out. I've gotta eventually pick some of those up. I have like fading memories of some of them, but other stuff really does come first.

 

[kingfish]

i remember the hook with kirk douglas. it was a pretty cool flick. i am still waiting for the naked and the dead. hopefully warner will also manage to put the lighthorsemen on dvd as well.

 

[Robin9]

I'm waiting impatiently for The Dark At The Top Of The Stairs. No idea why this one is being delayed.

 

[azjazzman]

I'm waiting impatiently for The Dark At The Top Of The Stairs. No idea why this one is being delayed.

Rights problem.

 

[Robin9]

Rights problem.

Thank you. Any details?

 

[azjazzman]

Thank you. Any details?

Don't know the details...assume it has to do with William Inge's heirs.

I do know that Warners has been and continues to work on sorting out the rights issues and that DARK is fairly high on their priority list. It sometimes takes years for all the legal issues to be ironed out, but hopefully we will see a WAC release before too long. 2013 was Inge's 100th.

 

[Robin9]

Don't know the details...assume it has to do with William Inge's heirs.

I do know that Warners has been and continues to work on sorting out the rights issues and that DARK is fairly high on their priority list. It sometimes takes years for all the legal issues to be ironed out, but hopefully we will see a WAC release before too long. 2013 was Inge's 100th.

Again, thank you.

I'm surprised the problem involves Williams Inge's estate as both Picnic and Splendour In The Grass seem to have bypassed any legal difficulties. Picnic, of course, came out not long ago on Blu-ray.

 

[JPCinema]

A Splendor in the Grass Blu Ray would be splendid!

 

[Ejanss]

Just off the future wish-list for a second, and wandering tangentially off-topic, but didn't know which other thread to ask:

Recently used my free 2-week Instant Warner Archive streaming trial to watch, among one or two others, the Gene Kelly/Stanley Donen It's Always Fair Weather (the one where Kelly dances with trash-can lids on one foot, and roller-skates through an amazing NYC soundstage), and...does anyone have a decent analysis of this strange little duck of an MGM musical?
I knew, being a late-50's musical, it had the same problems that always bugged me about White Christmas--namely, a serviceman comedy for returning WWII-sentimental ex-Korea vets, with the Big Show now having to be done for television--but despite the title, ended up with probably the second-most dark, downbeat and depressing Freed musical behind "An American In Paris". I'd tuned in to see the reunion of Kelly, Donen, and Comden & Green, and was expecting a little of the snark of Singin' in the Rain and The Band Wagon, but I feel like I'm missing some central metaphor, like the confusion of male identity in the 50's after the war years, or the looming breakup of the MGM Freed unit, as the 50's musical was winding down.

Maybe I'm overthinking this, but I've begun studying the strange themes that started popping up in original big-studio musicals from 1954-'60, and this would be one of the stranger ones.

 

[Rob_Ray]

Just off the future wish-list for a second, and wandering tangentially off-topic, but didn't know which other thread to ask:

Recently used my free 2-week Instant Warner Archive streaming trial to watch, among one or two others, the Gene Kelly/Stanley Donen It's Always Fair Weather (the one where Kelly dances with trash-can lids on one foot, and roller-skates through an amazing NYC soundstage), and...does anyone have a decent analysis of this strange little duck of an MGM musical?
I knew, being a late-50's musical, it had the same problems that always bugged me about White Christmas--namely, a serviceman comedy for returning WWII-sentimental ex-Korea vets, with the Big Show now having to be done for television--but despite the title, ended up with probably the second-most dark, downbeat and depressing Freed musical behind "An American In Paris". I'd tuned in to see the reunion of Kelly, Donen, and Comden & Green, and was expecting a little of the snark of Singin' in the Rain and The Band Wagon, but I feel like I'm missing some central metaphor, like the confusion of male identity in the 50's after the war years, or the looming breakup of the MGM Freed unit, as the 50's musical was winding down.

Maybe I'm overthinking this, but I've begun studying the strange themes that started popping up in original big-studio musicals from 1954-'60, and this would be one of the stranger ones.

I don't understand what the problem is with serviceman comedies involving television shows, but I think this film, and to an extent, "White Christmas" captures what the WWII veterans were experiencing in the mid-50s. The Greatest Generation had fought the most horrific war mankind had ever known and returned home to reap the fruits of that fight only to discover the inevitable letdown of the corporate rat-race, the pressures of domestic living and the mundane pleasures of that new invention, television. "This is what we fought for?" Somehow, the monotonous day-to-day existence of the placid '50s gave their nightmarish memories of the war a new sense of nostalgia.

Of course, I might be reading too much into this as "It's Always Fair Weather" isn't really very good as a musical. But it does capture the country's mood at the time.

 

[Matt Hough]

I think it's quite underrated as a musical capturing the angst buried underneath the surface calm of the characters making it one of the first truly adult musicals. And I love the Andre Previn/Comden and Green/Roger Edens score. The numbers are a tonic (Cyd's "Baby, You Knock Me Out" is quite appropriate as she's clearly a knockout here; Dolores Grey is a stitch in both of her numbers and as the two-faced smiling cobra of a TV star; the trash can lid dance and Kelly's "I Like Myself" couldn't be more entertaining).

But the truth is that the film was made under duress. The two directors were openly hostile to one another, Kelly was jealous of Michael Kidd and had his big showcase number "Jack and the Space Giants" axed from the movie, and with Roger Edens not present during its making, there was no calming presence presiding over the enterprise. Read the whole story in Hugh Fordin's terrific book about the Freed Unit. This film was a nightmare for all concerned, so the fact that I (and others) find it quite entertaining is something pretty remarkable.

 

[Robin9]

But the truth is that the film was made under duress. The two directors were openly hostile to one another, Kelly was jealous of Michael Kidd and had his big showcase number "Jack and the Space Giants" axed from the movie, and with Roger Edens not present during its making, there was no calming presence presiding over the enterprise. Read the whole story in Hugh Fordin's terrific book about the Freed Unit. This film was a nightmare for all concerned, so the fact that I (and others) find it quite entertaining is something pretty remarkable.

I've just been reading Andre Previn's No Minor Chords - lightweight memoirs but well-worth reading - and he says nothing about the making of It's Always Fair Weather. An amusing anecdote about auditioning the score but that's all.

 

[Matt Hough]

I've just been reading Andre Previn's No Minor Chords - lightweight memoirs but well-worth reading - and he says nothing about the making of It's Always Fair Weather. An amusing anecdote about auditioning the score but that's all.

In Fordin's book, he denigrates his score saying he was new to songwriting and didn't really know what he was doing. I find it a very tuneful score. I remember finding the soundtrack LP in a record store during one of my NYC jaunts and practically squealing in delight. I never thought I'd own it.