Home Theater Forum - View Single Post - Movies not on DVD caught in 'rights hell'

Charles H · 03-07-2007, 02:59 PM

I suspect that the Moss Hart estate (Kitty Carlisle?) have held up the video rights to WINGED VICTORY and LADY IN THE DARK. (LADY was about to come out on vhs but was abruptly pulled; it was shown on AMC ages ago.) Then there is the very mysterious case of BOOMERANG. Nobody seems to know what happened there. There are no video releases of the Bob Hope films THE CAT AND THE CANARY and NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH (both announced at one time for VHS) and LET'S FACE IT. My own holy grail is WHERE'S CHARLEY?, but the Frank Loesser estate believes it is an inferior representation of the original show. Pauline Kael and I beg to disagree. Warners was going to release JEALOUSY, the 1929 Paramount version of THE LETTER, but nothing has been heard recently about that. Maybe on THE UNFAITHFUL dvd? And the disapproval of the Maugham estate of Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly's CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY may be why it has not been released in the USA. I wonder if story rights to Otto Preminger's THE THIRTEENTH LETTER, a remake of LE CORBEAU have prevented it from being put on home video?

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03-07-2007, 02:59 PM	#6 of 65
Charles H Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Local Time: 01:37 AM Local Date: 07-20-2008 Posts: 984	Re: Movies not on DVD caught in 'rights hell' I suspect that the Moss Hart estate (Kitty Carlisle?) have held up the video rights to WINGED VICTORY and LADY IN THE DARK. (LADY was about to come out on vhs but was abruptly pulled; it was shown on AMC ages ago.) Then there is the very mysterious case of BOOMERANG. Nobody seems to know what happened there. There are no video releases of the Bob Hope films THE CAT AND THE CANARY and NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH (both announced at one time for VHS) and LET'S FACE IT. My own holy grail is WHERE'S CHARLEY?, but the Frank Loesser estate believes it is an inferior representation of the original show. Pauline Kael and I beg to disagree. Warners was going to release JEALOUSY, the 1929 Paramount version of THE LETTER, but nothing has been heard recently about that. Maybe on THE UNFAITHFUL dvd? And the disapproval of the Maugham estate of Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly's CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY may be why it has not been released in the USA. I wonder if story rights to Otto Preminger's THE THIRTEENTH LETTER, a remake of LE CORBEAU have prevented it from being put on home video?