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03-07-2007, 11:30 AM
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#1 of 65 
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Movies not on DVD caught in 'rights hell'
I'd like to talk about those films that have yet to appear on DVD (or any other form of home video) due to disputes regarding either the ownership of the particular title or the material it was based on (play/book/Broadway musical) A few come to mind:
Letty Lynton- this Joan Crawford film was the subject of an infamous civil suit in which MGM lost to the author of a play. It seems that MGM failed to get the rights to a hit Broadway play Dishonored Lady by Edward Sheldon, which in turn was based on the notorious Madeline Smith case of the 1800s. As a result, MGM decided to do its own version of the Smith case, but with modern-day charcters played by joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery and Nils Asther. The movie was a box-office bonanza, but Sheldon sued and won the right to have the film removed from circulation.
http://www.faculty.piercelaw.edu/red...heldon.mgm.htm
(This was a VERY bad time for MGM in the courts- at the same time they had to deal with a slander suit regarding Rasputin and the Empress, which led to the now familiar credit 'This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance between characters and actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental"- yeah, they lost that case, too!)
Then there's the time-travel fantasy Berkeley Square starring Leslie Howard as a 1930s man who winds up in the 1800s and falls in love (sound familiar, Christopher Reeve fans?), and its part-Techincolor (in the past sequences) remake I'll Never Forget You a.k.a. The House In The Square starring Tyrone Power. Both of these films are apparently caught in a rights dispute over the source material and are scarely seen today.
Also, the Samuel Goldywn version of Porgy and Bess is being held up by the estate of George Gershwin (supposedly they're not too thrilled with it), kinda like the situation with the Irving Berlin estate holding on to Annie Get Your Gun until a few years ago.
I've also heard that the Bette Davis trash classic Beyond The Forest may also be in a rights dispute, but I can't find anything to prove this.
I'm sure this is only the tip of the iceberg: there are probably a lot of films out there that haven't seen the light of day in years due to courtroom litigation (like a few Orson Welles films and of course Jerry Lewis' The Day The Clown Cried). Okay- the thread is now open! |
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03-07-2007, 12:42 PM
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#2 of 65
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Re: Movies not on DVD caught in 'rights hell'
Visconti's THE STRANGER has been held up for decades, I believe because of a dispute with the Camus estate.
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03-07-2007, 01:12 PM
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#3 of 65
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Karine Philippot
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Location: Montreal
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Re: Movies not on DVD caught in 'rights hell'
The Constant Nymph (43) and the earlier 30s version are both tied up to the estate of Margaret Kennedy, author of the book which inspired the films. And what a shame - Fontaine's Nymph is one of the greatest films ever made and a prize jewel in Warner history in every single way.
Sergeants 3 (62), the Rat Pack version of Gunga Din, has been tied up for years in a legal battle between Frank Sinatra’s estate and the studios (now MGM).
The Joker Is Wild (57), with Sinatra, has some rights problems involving its music that Paramount has not been able (willing?) to clear. I believe With a Song in My Heart (52) is in the same sort of predicament.
Not sure if Alan Ladd's version of The Great Gatsby (49) is caught up in a similar situation or if Paramount is just being capricious. Does anyone know?
Apparently, Money from Home (53) (Damon Runyon striking again?) and Three Ring Circus (54) (reason?) are in a rights no-show as well.
DVD wish list: The Accused (48), Three Comrades (38), Waterloo Bridge (40), Margie (46), I'll Get By (50), The Constant Nymph (43), Holiday Affair (49), The Voice of the Turtle (47), The Barretts of Wimpole Street (34), Her Twelve Men (54), The Lost Moment (47), I Walk Alone (48), The Glass Menagerie (50), These Three (36), The Bride Wore Red (37), The Best Things in Life Are Free (56), Midnight Lace (60), Knock on Wood (53), Private Worlds (35), The Rat Race (60), Ramona (36), Lizzie (57), Every Girl Should Be Married (48), Remember the Night (40), Easy to Love (53), Born to Be Bad (50), Backfire (50), About Mrs. Leslie (54), It's a Great Feeling (49), Three Sailors and a Girl (53), Let's Be Happy (57), You Came Along (45), The Unguarded Moment (56), The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady (50), Athena (54), Johnny Guitar (54), Blossoms in the Dust (41), All My Sons (48), The Purple Mask (55), Tin Pan Alley (40), The Girl from Missouri (34), The Affairs of Susan (45), Thousands Cheer (43), Pitfall (48) ...
Last edited by CinéKarine : 03-07-2007 at 01:21 PM.
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03-07-2007, 01:29 PM
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#4 of 65
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Re: Movies not on DVD caught in 'rights hell'
Ooh boy- it's worse than I thought! Of course, everyone loses in this situation, but the public most of all.....
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03-07-2007, 01:33 PM
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#5 of 65
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Karine Philippot
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Location: Montreal
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Re: Movies not on DVD caught in 'rights hell'
The Blue Veil (51) is also in litigation - another supremely beautiful film.
Spring Parade (40) Universal lost the rights to the film in 1945, after the scriptwriter of the Austrian original sued. Universal had the chance to buy the property back years later but refused.
DVD wish list: The Accused (48), Three Comrades (38), Waterloo Bridge (40), Margie (46), I'll Get By (50), The Constant Nymph (43), Holiday Affair (49), The Voice of the Turtle (47), The Barretts of Wimpole Street (34), Her Twelve Men (54), The Lost Moment (47), I Walk Alone (48), The Glass Menagerie (50), These Three (36), The Bride Wore Red (37), The Best Things in Life Are Free (56), Midnight Lace (60), Knock on Wood (53), Private Worlds (35), The Rat Race (60), Ramona (36), Lizzie (57), Every Girl Should Be Married (48), Remember the Night (40), Easy to Love (53), Born to Be Bad (50), Backfire (50), About Mrs. Leslie (54), It's a Great Feeling (49), Three Sailors and a Girl (53), Let's Be Happy (57), You Came Along (45), The Unguarded Moment (56), The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady (50), Athena (54), Johnny Guitar (54), Blossoms in the Dust (41), All My Sons (48), The Purple Mask (55), Tin Pan Alley (40), The Girl from Missouri (34), The Affairs of Susan (45), Thousands Cheer (43), Pitfall (48) ...
Last edited by CinéKarine : 03-07-2007 at 01:49 PM.
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03-07-2007, 03:23 PM
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#7 of 65
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Re: Movies not on DVD caught in 'rights hell'
Rumor has it that MISSISSIPPI with Bing Crosby and W.C. Fields is in rights hell, but hardly anybody has noticed because so few of Fields films were released on VHS or DVD (the new DVD set will rectify a lot of that, although MISSISSIPPI isn't flowing yet). Ditto, of course, Abbott & Costello in IT AIN'T HAY.
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03-07-2007, 03:30 PM
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#8 of 65
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Re: Movies not on DVD caught in 'rights hell'
I believe Bob Hope's THE CAT AND THE CANARY is held up because of issues with the original owners of the source material (the play) that its based on.
Supposedly, THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED wasn't completed, either...There was an article on it, and it was mostly finished, but not quite. I believe the financing there was international and muddled so that would also be a nightmare to untangle...not that Jerry Lewis will ever let it out!
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03-07-2007, 06:36 PM
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#9 of 65
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Re: Movies not on DVD caught in 'rights hell'
Ironically I saw BERKELEY SQUARE at a film convention in 1990. I wish I could recall more of it!
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03-07-2007, 07:34 PM
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#10 of 65
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Re: Movies not on DVD caught in 'rights hell'
I'd have to add "Titicut Follies" (1967). According to IMDB:
Quote:
The only American film banned from release for reasons other than obscenity or national security, Titicut Follies was filmed inside the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Bridgewater, a prison hospital for the criminally insane. After the Commonwealth of Massachusetts sued the filmmakers, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the film constituted was an invasion of inmate privacy and ordered the withdrawal of the film from circulation.
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I suppose this is one film that possibly will never show up on DVD.
"I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me."
My 25 most wanted DVDs: Chilly Scenes Of Winter (1979); The Dead (1987); The African Queen (1951); Johnny Guitar (1954); The Sterile Cuckoo (1969); The Friends Of Eddie Coyle (1973); The Rain People (1969); Abe Lincoln In Illinois (1940); Far from the Madding Crowd (1967); Shanghai Express (1932); Rachel, Rachel (1968); The Tall T (1957); Love with the Proper Stranger (1963); The Wind (1928); Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (1973); The Magnificent Ambersons (1942); Ruggles Of Red Gap (1935); Greed (1925); The Effect Of Gamma Rays On Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds (1972); Ride The Pink Horse (1947); The Pumpkin Eater (1964); Man Of The West (1958); The Go-Between (1970); Sons And Lovers (1960); The Criminal Code (1931)
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03-07-2007, 08:03 PM
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#11 of 65
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Location: St Louis
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Re: Movies not on DVD caught in 'rights hell'
Olson and Johnson's HELLZAPOPPIN is held up over rights issues. Universal doesn't want to pay royalties to the writers (or the estate of the writers) of the original Broadway play. It was released on DVD in Australia.
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