What could go into a Comedy Classics Vol. 2 Collection from Warners? (1 Viewer)

[MarcoBiscotti]

What remaining screwballs under license from Warner Bros/MGM back titles could be used to put together another choice selection of films? Are there enough quality selections left to do another box set similar to the first?

 

[RafaelPires]

If they would not go into a Ginger Rogers set, I would choose Vivacious Lady, Bachelor Mother and Tom, Dick and Harry.
I'd also include Forsaking All Others (Crawford, Gable and Montgomery), Honeymoon for Three (Ann Sheridan, George Brent), George Washington Slept Here (Sheridan and Jack Benny), Design for Scandal (Rosalind Russell, Walter Pidgeon), Four's a Crownd, The Perfect Specimen, The Male Animal, Strawberry Blonde, Boy Meets Girl...
There are so many films that could be included in this selection.

 

[Jefty]

lots of good ones in there--how many were in the first set? (I wound up getting them all individually, so I can't remember) 7?

I would pick:
--Bachelor Mother
--Tom, Dick, and Harry
--The Great Man Votes (no, no, this is not a Garson Kanin set)
--Vivacious Lady
--Strawberry Blonde (not 100% comedy, what with all of that death and prison, but it's damned funny in addition to being wonderfully emotionally involving)
--The Devil & Miss Jones (if Warners owns the rights to it--it was released through RKO--this thing is awesome and deserves a much wider audience)
--and Four's A Crowd (although I've never seen it--and suspect that it might not be the equal of these others--but I really really want to see it!)

as Rafael hints, though, a Rogers set really ought to have been done by now, and if she gets one (they could tack on Romance in Manhattan, which I love and maybe In Person or Fifth Avenue Girl, which I also love, despite its bizarre aspects), then we can include:

--the Sky's the Limit (I think it's hilarious, anyway)
--Forsaking All Others (love that one too--but it'll probably get into a Gable or Crawford set at some point, right?)
--The Hucksters (ditto?)
--or maybe some rambunctious Warner things like Three Men on a Horse, Brother Rat, Larceny Inc., Princess O'Rourke, etc... Daughters Courageous is a magnificent comedy too, in my book, but maybe others see it as more purely dramatic--and that one would go in a Lane Sisters box, if we lived in a world I controlled....

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Good calls, and let's add 'Page Miss Glory' to the list also!

I'm hoping that Warners does another one of these sets in the new year. I was under the impression that the first set sold well and I haven't seen it on retail shelves in a long, long time. It's been a couple of years since the first box and there's been no talk of a follow-up but I think it'd be a perfect vehicle for getting more of Warners classic comedies out on DVD. The first set was right up there with any of the noir packages or Warners other top-tier sets in my opinion. I'd love to see a follow-up in 2008!

 

[Charles H]

Jack Benny: GEORGE WASHINGTON SLEPT HERE/THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT; Bob Hope: BACHELOR IN PARADISE/A GLOBAL AFFAIR (or THE IRON PETTICOAT; if they have access to that, it would be a real coup!); Red Skelton: A SOUTHERN YANKEE/MERTON OF THE MOVIES and thethree WHISTLING (in the Dark, in Brooklyn, and in Dixie) movies; Buster Keaton (THE PASSIONATE PLUMBER/WHAT, NO BEER?); FAST AND LOOSE/FAST COMPANY/FAST AND FURIOUS.

 

[Karl R]

My idea would be for a 4-disc set of double features, using many of the titles already mentioned above (and below):

Tom, Dick, and Harry/Vivacious Lady
A Damsel in Distress/Bachelor Mother
The Devil and Miss Jones/The Mad Miss Manton
It's Love I'm After/The Great Garrick

[posted edited for corrections]

 

[Corey]

Fox owns The Farmer's Daughter and Theodora Goes Wild is owned by Universal.

 

[Roger Rollins]

Nope...

Disney owns The Farmer's Daughter...
Originally an RKO film that became part of the Selznick library purchased by ABC which was purchased by Disney. The Selznicks are under license to MGM for another few months.

Theodora Goes Wild is a Columbia Picture.

 

[DavidBC]

It's Love I'm After with Bette Davis, Leslie Howard and Olivia De Havilland.

 

[Karl R]

My bad on Theodora Goes Wild. I had meant to put The Mad Miss Manton in the double feature with The Devil and Miss Jones, but cut-and-pasted the wrong title. (But, if anyone from Sony is reading this...)

Since The Farmer's Daughter is in licensing hell, I'll replace it with two 1937 WB titles: the aforementioned It's Love I'm After, along with The Great Garrick.

 

[Charles H]

My guess is that THE DEVIL AND MISS JONES is now owned by Lions ("It ain't going to happen!") Gate since it was brought out on VHS by Republic. It's a shame because THE DEVIL AND MISS JONES is a terrific comedy. LionsGate is also sitting on GUEST WIFE, IT'S IN THE BAG, THE SENATOR WAS INDISCREET, and MR. PEABODY AND THE MERMAID, as well as some great noirs.

 

[Miguel M Santos]

Anything with Myrna Loy without William Powell (THIRD FINGER, LEFT HAND is the only one that comes to mind, but there are others); and I'd love to get all the Ann Sheridan/Olivia de Havilland/Bette Davis titles mentioned.

 

[booklover]

Hollywood Party. Not exactly a classic, but then, neither is "Gold Raiders".

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

I just recorded William Keighley's GEORGE WASHINGTON SLEPT HERE off of TCM, imo better than Mr. Blandings with Jack Benny in Cary Grant's role. I wish that Warners would give this title a proper DVD release outside of the Archives. I would've loved a second collection of Screwballs...

 

[ahollis]

It is rumored that GEORGE WASHINGTON SLEPT HERE will be in the next wave or the one after that from Warner Archives. The cover art has already been seen.

 

[ahollis]

Double post sorry.

 

[cadavra]

Originally Posted by Karl R

My bad on Theodora Goes Wild. I had meant to put The Mad Miss Manton in the double feature with The Devil and Miss Jones, but cut-and-pasted the wrong title. (But, if anyone from Sony is reading this...)


[COLOR= #0000ff]Way ahead of you; THEODORA is available now on one of the two Screwball Comedy sets we released in August.

Mike S.[/COLOR]

 

[Steve...O]

It's a darn shame that the great Jack Benny has been relegated to the Archive. He deserves better...both HORN BLOWS and G WASHINGTON are very funny films and would have been cornerstones of a pressed WHV set.

Mike, I have both of the Sony Screwball sets and they are fantastic! Congrats to you and your team at Sony.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Steve, it's a damn shame that apparently all existing back catalog titles have been relegated to the Archive. Two years ago I would have held out hope for classics like the above and other underrated gems like, Sunday In New York, A Thousand Clowns, etc. which could have sustained their own individual releases and should have been issued on their own merits if properly marketed (Fonda, Robards). No more, as WHV is apparently only issuing once-in-a-blue-moon multi-discsers with assured sales like Esther Williams or the MGM biggies. What I would like to know is whether or not we'll ever see releases like Merrill's Marrauders again or if it's all Archive all the way from here on out?