Warner Brothers Films of the Fifties (1 Viewer)

[frankBiondo]

Does anyone have any idea why the WB films of the 50's for the most part have not been shown on TCM since they acquired the right to their library a few year back from MGM ?

 

[William Miller]

TCM rarely shows Warner Bros. films from the 50's & 60's.

This goes back to the original Ted Turner purchase of his big film library. He bought M-G-M, RKO and United Artists which at that time included all of the pre-1948 Warner Bros. movies that UA had previously purchased. This is what TCM was set up with.

In the meantime, through corporate mergers, TCM is now part of the same company that now owns all of the Warner Bros. film library. But for reasons that are unknown to me, that still did not change their policy of basically not showing the post-1948 WB titles. They do every once in a while but not too often. The list is very long of great WB films that they have never shown or only shown one time.

What makes it even more mysterious is they are now starting to show some great titles from the Universal and Columbia library which they have to pay for. That is great news but it makes the post-1948 WB ban more puzzling. (Check out the upcoming TCM schedule for many Universal and Columbia titles that have never been released on home video plus other titles that have not been broadcast in years.)

I have contacted TCM about this situation and I got a wishy-washy reply that they do occasionally show the missing WB titles but no explanation why probably 90% of them have never been shown on TCM.

 

[Charles H]

There are terrific films from this period: SOUTH SEAS WOMAN, THE DESERT SONG, HELL ON FRISCO BAY, STORY OF MANKIND, GOODBYE, MY FANCY, COME FILL THE CUP, THREE SAILORS AND A GIRL, ROOM FOR ONE MORE, THE IRON MISTRESS, SHE'S WORKING HER WAY THROUGH COLLEGE, SO THIS IS LOVE, SO BIG, THE STORY OF WILL ROGERS, THE BREAKING POINT, THE JAZZ SINGER, I WASA A COMMUNIST FOR THE FBI, THE BEGGAR'S OPERA, CRY IN THE NIGHT, THE GIRL HE LEFT BEHIND, TOWARDS THE UNKNOWN, SERENADE, PETE KELLY'S BLUES, AMERICAN DREAM, TOP SECRET AFFAIR, THE HELEN MORGAN STORY, TOO MUCH, TOO SOON, WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES, HOME BEFORE DARK, TROUBLE ALONG THE WAY, BIG JIM McCLAIN, THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS, THE SINS OF RACHEL CADE, SUSAN SLADE, RAMPAGE, ACT ONE, ISLAND OF LOVE, YOUNGBLOOD HAWKE, THE BATTLE OF THE VILLA FIORITA, THE THIRD DAY, THE PHYNXX, THE SHUTTERED ROOM, THE FAMILY WAY, THE SEAGULL, GUNS OF DARKNESS, ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE, GUNS OF DARKNESS.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

My theory on this is that those titles were already sold as exclusive cable/satellite deals to other cable stations. When the contracts expire, I bet TCM will be showing those movies. The problem is, the contracts might run for another ten or twenty years for all I know.

 

[Richard M S]

I have often wondered why some of those post-1950 Warner Brothers films have not been shown either, but mystery is the right word for the Columbia pictures.

After 30 years of being a movie buff, (I am 42 now) I have NEVER seen a showing in New York City or on local TV of what is supposed to be Ann Miller's best "B" Musical, Reveille With Beverly from 1943.

Then in looking at the upcoming TCM guides, I see it is not only scheduled for March 14 on TCM, but almost all of her "B" musicals are going to be shown at the Film Forum in NEW prints in a few months.

 

[Steve...O]

TCM just entered into a deal with Columbia/Sony which is why so many Columbias are starting to show up. That's great news in my opinion. They also entered into a 40 year deal with the owners of the Hal Roach library which is also great news. With so many of those studios product not on DVD it's great to get them exposure again.

As a prior poster said, many of those post 1950 Warners are probably tied up with other distributors. I'm sure TCM will have to walk a fine line with these. Anytime they run a post 1960 film their message board is flooded with complaints about them going the way of AMC. It's too bad the market probably wouldn't support a TCM2 channel which would allow them to exploit more titles from their library, including their more "recent" titles and maybe specialized programming like an hour or two devoted to short subjects as opposed to using them as filler.

 

[JPCinema]

The titles that were mentioned have not shown up anywhere in years!!!!!!
If TCM does not own them....who does?

 

[Garysb]

Warner Bros. owns the films. What people are saying is that these films are probably syndicated or contracted to other cable channels and therefore are not available to be shown on TCM. These could be some minor cable channels which are not available widely and therefore many people have not seen these films lately.

 

[Garysb]

Wow that is great news. I hope that means they will start showing the pre MGM Our Gang comedies.

 

[Mark Philp]

Even though TCM and Warner Bros. are owned by Time-Warner, they are in seperate divisions. TCM doesn't have any special rights to Warner Bros. films. If they want to show them they have to lease them like anybody else. It would be the same way if HBO wanted to run one of the films that TCM had in their library (which now belong to T-W). If for example, TCM wanted to show "Them!" and some channel, say,The Sci-Fi Channel wanted it too, they'd both have to bid on it.

No doubt, TCM has a programming budget to work within and perhaps they've been able to get a better bang for their buck from Columbia, Universal and Paramount.