Street Date:	November 3, 2009
Prebook Date:	October 7, 2009

Highlights:
•	Four movies for only $24.98 U.S. / $26.98 Canada per giftset make these a great value and ideal stocking-stuffer this holiday season!
•	Unforgettable iconic actors such as Clint Eastwood, Frank Sinatra, Gary Cooper and Jack Lemmon transform the screen with their legendary performances, including A Fistful Of Dollars, Guys And Dolls, Pride Of The Yankees and Some Like It Hot
•	Academy Award® winning stars such as Jodie Foster, Susan Sarandon and Nicolas Cage showcase their talent in some of MGM’s finest films, such as Silence of the Lambs, Thelma and Louise and Leaving Las Vegas.
•	There’s something for everyone, from Reese Witherspoon’s chick flicks (Legally Blonde, Man In The Moon) to Sean Connery’s thrilling adventures (Never Say Never Again, Cuba) and Mickey Rourke’s crime dramas (Desperate Hours, Pope Of Greenwich Village).

DVD Giftsets:	Length:
Clint Eastwood Star Collection	721 min.
A Fistful Of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, Hang ‘Em High
Frank Sinatra Star Collection	567 min.
The Westerner, Man Of The West, Along Came Jones, Pride Of The Yankees
Gary Cooper Star Collection	515 min.
The Westerner, Man Of The West, Along Came Jones, Pride Of The Yankees
Jack Lemmon Star Collection	506 min.
Some Like It Hot, Avanti! The Apartment, How To Murder Your Wife
Jodie Foster Star Collection	433 min.
Hotel New Hampshire, Silence Of The Lambs, Foxes, Little Man Tate
Michelle Pfeiffer Star Collection	551 min.
Love Field, Fabulous Baker Boys, Married To The Mob, Russia House
Mickey Rourke Star Collection	431 min.
Desperate Hours, Pope Of Greenwich Village, Prayer For The Dying, Harley Davidson & The Marlboro Man
Nicolas Cage Star Collection	619 min.
Valley Girl, Honeymoon In Vegas, Leaving Las Vegas, Moonstruck
Robert Downey Jr. Star Collection	393 min.
Charlie Bartlett, Back To School, Home For The Holidays, Richard III
Reese Witherspoon Star Collection	295 min.
Legally Blonde, Legally Blonde 2, Man In the Moon, SFW
Sean Connery Star Collection	421 min.
Never Say Never Again, Cuba, A Bridge Too Far, Shalako
Susan Sarandon Star Collection	324 min.
Thelma And Louise, January Man, Something Short Of Paradise, Igby Goes Down
Winona Ryder Star Collection	411 min.
Mermaids, Autumn In New York, Great Balls Of Fire, 1969

 

The titles listed for Frank Sinatra accidentally duplicate the Gary Cooper titles.

is this a bad joke?


jodie foster, nicolas cage, winona rider, robert downey jr... what no carrot top or david hasselhoff?

85 years and we get a bunch of catalog titles that have been repackaged ten billion times in a fancy new slipcase... I bet the Jack Lemmon DVDs (wheres the fortune cookie and irma la douce??) are the same ten year old non-anamorphic transfers too. Im clearing shelf space right now; someone pinch me!

Edited by MarcoBiscotti - 9/3/09 at 3:59pm

This is becuase the REAL MGM is now owned by WB!

one studio's celebration of 85 years of cinema art = legally blonde 3-pack

the other's prestigious offering = $25 interlaced barebone dvd-r

I have never been so uninterested in an announcement in my life.  85 years of MGM is more like 85 years of United Artists.  If you are going to go that route, why not release an Eddie Cantor collection and some more of the Samuel Goldwyn films,  MGM owns AIP just as much as they own UA so how about some of those films that never made it to DVD release, I mean the MGM logo is spliced on the front of those films as if MGM actually made the film and not just purchased the library.  The only stars listed that could make it 85 years is Gary Cooper and Frank Sinatra.  I can not believe there is anyone else out there to buy The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly that does not alreadyn own it along with the other films listed.  If you are going to celebrate something, give us something to celebrate.

Maybe I should tell someone how I really feel about this.

Not only does this seem like a really bad joke, but's it's just disgusting. Do you mean to tell me that people get paid to make terrible marketing decisions like this and just keep repackaging the same titles? Why would they think people would by these over again?

And we're still waiting for tons of AIP, UA, Samuel Goldwyn and Cannon films from MGM's vaults, and Fox just keeps repackaging the same 50 titles. Dear Lord, when will MGM's film library finally be out of the incompetent hands at Fox?!! Please tell me next year, because I can't take it anymore!

Q: Why do certain titles get re-released?  

A: Because they actually SELL.

Yes, but how many times are they going to sell the SAME OLD TRANSFER from the late 90's along with the same exact (if any) special features package? I don't let it get to me because I've written them off as a dead studio, which they pretty much are.

Did the UNIVERSAL HORROR ARCHIVES release of a couple of years ago sell well? I was of the understanding it did not, yet it's being re-released (happily, I might add, but still...)

And I don't see how re-re-re-releasing the same things always guarantee they'll "sell well again". At some point you gotta figure the consumer who really wants it already owns the thing, maybe twice already.

That's Entertainment ???????

Where are Samuel Goldwyn films like Wuthering Heights?



I am guessing that this will be the same thing the Warner Bros. did this year with 2 double sided discs with a movie on each side.

All movies previously released. Released as an affordable Christmas gift.

 

Winona Ryder ????????????
By the Time MGM was sold in 1986 Winona Ryder wasn't even starring in films?

The old (Real)  MGM Never featured a film with Winona Ryder

(lol)

People, it's very simple.  Store shelves are VERY small and can only fit so many titles.  Popular DVD titles that were released back in 2000 are no longer on shelves.  Catalogue titles stay there 3-6 months and then they are gone.  When the title is pushed out the studios must come up with these stupid repackages to get them back on the shelf where new fans/buyers will see them at their favorite Wal-Mart and pick them up. 

It doesn't matter what Ryder was doing or not doing.  I could sit here and tell you three thieves at MGM and how much money they stole and from whom to get MGM going.  I could tell you which state they were stealing this money.  Does anyone buying these titles care?  No.


<<<Did the UNIVERSAL HORROR ARCHIVES release of a couple of years ago sell well? I was of the understanding it did not, yet it's being re-released (happily, I might add, but still...)>>>>

 

The entire run sold out so I'm not sure who would consider that a failure.

"Store shelves are very small"? If so, why is that? It's because of their choice to keep them small. These stores like Best Buy are HUGE with the capacity to fit thousands of DVDs in them ---- if they wanted to stock them.

And I don't know where you're getting the info about that HORROR ARCHIVES set selling out; on the contrary, they were Best Buy Exclusives, and the shelves were overstocked with dozens of unsold copies of these for a long time. Thus were the observations of virtually any horror fan like myself who reported back. 

It makes me sick the way what's-left-of-MGM usurps the histories of the studios they bought/inherited and claims it as their own because all but the last 23 years of their history is owned by someone else. MGM, the once-great home of Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, Gene Kelly, Tom & Jerry, and more stars than there are in the heavens (a claim only Carl Sagan would dare dispute), deserves a birthday bash, but the party would have to be thrown by WB.

I also despise how the current MGM logo is tacked onto movies they didn't make. I find it tacky and dishonest.

How does this zombie studio stay afloat? They have been struggling since the 1960s (some would argue earlier), yet every few years they get bounced around to a new owner who thinks they can do things better. There were rumors the studio would be shut down about 20 years ago after Giancarlo Paretti's antics darn near did the deed. They've had so many owners that even I, who am usually knowledgeable about these things, find it hard to keep up with them all. For those who don't know, there was:

—Loew's Inc. (1924-1954): The forced divestiture of the studio due to the 1948 Paramount decree was finalized in 1954. Louis B. Mayer was ousted three years earlier.
—An independent company (1954-1967): The departure of Dore Schary, the death of Louis B. Mayer, the closure of animation, the budget overruns on Raintree County, and the first time they lost money all happened in 1957.
—Edgar Bronfman, Sr. (1967-1969): The age of 2001: A Space Odyssey and "Lion Power"
—Kirk Kerkorian (1969-1986; under him the studio razed the backlot, sold all the props, built the original MGM Grand in Las Vegas [destroyed by fire in 1980], and in 1981 bought UA from Transamerica)
—Ted Turner (74 days in 1986, which caused the Culver City studio to be sold to Lorimar and the library split when he kept it for himself)
—Kerkorian again (1986-1989)
—Pathé Communications (1989-1991): Giancarlo Paretti's company. He sacked everyone, stopped the James Bond franchise, was involved in a series of lawsuits and securities fraud charges, leading to:
—Credit Lyonnais (1991-1993)
—Kerkorian, round 3 (1993-2004): The period in which James Bond was revived and the studio was listed on the NYSE.
—The Sony/TPG Capital/DLJ/Providence Equity consortium (2004-present): The state we are in now.

Their survival through all this seems to be through sheer luck.

I wish they'd just find a permanent home, preferably with Time Warner so at least the unreleased titles could be added to the dreaded Warner Archive (I know it's not as good as an in-store release, but it's better than nothing) and the entire MGM library would be in one place. Even if subjected to the Warner Archive treatment, there are many movies that have HD masters for MGM HD that could be down-converted to DVDs.

Kerkorian was just an investor who was only interested in being able to tell his friends he owned a movie studio and "knew" famous actors. Does anyone know who, then, would currently have the rights to Runaway Train? All I remember is that silver "MGM/UA" sticker on the VHS tape I had 20 years ago. Obviously this was a United Artists production but the film was shot in 1985/86, around the time of Turner's acquisition. So this would fall under WB? I would kill for a special edition of this film in a remastered widescreen version - such a great movie but I can't bring myself to re-buy that abomination that currently exists, which, incidentally, is hard to find.

Runaway Train was a Cannon Film.  Cannon was taken over by Pathe' Communications in 1988, a company which was controlled by Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti, whom also would acquire Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during that same period.  The Cannon Group soon became a part of MGM, which now controls their library.  In shorter terms, MGM has the rights and though the DVD is out-of-print, they would be the ones to release it again.

Also MGM retains all control over the United Artists Product, past and present, except for several pictures that reverted back to their owners.  Just about any UA film from the late 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, to the present is controlled by MGM, not Warner Brothers, they only control actual MGM films from 1986 and back.

Kerkorian wanted to use the cash flow and sale of assets of MGM to fund his expansion into Las Vegas.  He rarely used his connections in the industry and only went to a film set a couple of times.  Peter Bart of Variety tells a great story of when Kerkorian called him (Bart was then an executive at MGM) and wanted to visit a film set of a movie in production and asked who he need to ask permission to visit.  Bart told him yourself, you own the studio.  It was at that moment Bart realized Kerkorian never thought of himself as owner, but as custodian.