Does anybody knows if Erroll Flynn will be ever in DVD?

Most of these are owned by either Warner or MGM, who have VHS versions in print. I think (hope) it's just a matter of time before we see these. The Adventures of Robin Hood reportedly is in the works from Warner.

The odd ducks on your list are The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, which is out of print, and Against All Flags, which also is out of print and was issued by some hole-in-the-wall label.

Erroll Flynn certainly is overdue for DVD. In addition to the ones you listed, I'd love to see Objective Burma, The Dawn Patrol, Gentleman Jim and a raft of others.

KIM, THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER and ROBIN HOOD are coming to DVD this year.

OBJECTIVE BURMA is coming next month, and Warner has just announced Flynn's THE MASTER OF BALLANTRAE for July.

I certainly hope so.
ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD
and PRINCE AND THE PAUPER are two
of my must haves.

I'll believe The Adventures of Robin Hood when I see it as Warner Brothers seem obsessed with reissuing the inferior Kevin Costner version. My worry is that Warners will stop at Robin Hood as it is the most famous Flynn title and ignore gems like Captain Blood, The Sea Hawk and They Died With Their Boots On. The studio is notoriously slow with its classics releases. As a public domain title there are numerous versions of Santa Fe Trail available,mine has an excellent print on a Marengo Films Double Feature. The other film Abilene Town with Randolph Scott has a pretty awful print.

Classic Films On DVD

While I use to criticize Warner for their lack of classic releases, I don't think such criticism is warranted today. Furthermore, I believe your worries are unfounded about them not releasing The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood, The Sea Hawk, They Died With Their Boots On and more classic Flynn films like Dodge City and Virginia City. Warner might be slow in a lot of our minds, but the quality of their releases are top notch.

By the way, we have a scheduled chat with Warner on April 22nd, hopefully, many of us will ask them about their future classic releases not announced since they're one of the few studios not heavyly into television product.




Crawdaddy

WB is only distributing the Costner Robin Hood. Morgan Creek works on their own DVDs and WB simply distributes them.

The reason you don't see a lot of Flynn from the 1930s and 1940s is because those Warner Bros. films from the time were passed around quite a lot. WB sold their entire pre-1950 catalog to Associated Artists Productions in 1957, which was merged with United Artists in 1967. UA merged with MGM in 1981, Turner bought the "AAP" portion of UA along with MGM's catalog in 1986. Turner merges with Warner in 1990s...

What about The Charge of the Light Brigade from 1936? It's out there, though it's a bare-bones release.

Dana

BTW:
Cuban Story is out on DVD. Errol bragging about his friendship with Castro.

Definitely want Robin, Seahwks, and Capt. Blood.

Peter

Danak, the Charge Of The Light Brigade DVD is not the 1936 Flynn version but the 1968 Tony Richardson remake with David Hemmings and Vanessa Redgrave.

I'm on these Flynn releases like white on rice.
So the rights to these film bounced around like a ping pong ball. What would stop any rights holder from doing a release? Did no one hold on to the rights long enough to produce a DVD release? Or did all this bouncing around make the source elements for DVD production become unusable? I'm curious.

Bouncing around through different hands generally causes the elements not to be cared for properly.





Crawdaddy

It is too bad that these classic films were not cared for properly. Shame on the rights holders.

Sorry for the partial post above. Delete it if you like.

Patrick's information is somewhat incorrect and misleading.

The pre-'49 Warner library was sold in 1956 (not 1957) to a company called PRM, Inc. PRM acquired AAP that year. Toward the end of 1957 (not 1967) United Artists began distributing the library when a subsidiary of their company purchased AAP. The division was then called United Artists Associated. MGM purchased UA in 1981 (they did not merge). The Warner, RKO & Popeye films that UA owned were transferred to MGM when Ted Turner bought MGM/UA and sold the UA part back to Kirk Kerkorian as part of the deal. Ted Turner did not buy the AAP library, as the rest of it (such as it is, including some Monogram films) still belong
to UA.

The pre-'49 library did "come home" to WB when Turner merged with Time Warner in '96.

However, none of this has anything to do with the film elements. They were never "bounced around". Once WB sold the library, everything stayed in one place, and in the late '60s, UA deposited all the original nitrate negatives with the Library of Congress. Those negatives are still there, having been there for almost thirty-five years.

Therefore, suggesting that the corporate machinations that I described earlier have anything to do with those films not being treated properly is erroneous.

It should be noted however that (for the most part) it has only been since WB regained control of its old library that the actual nitrate materials from LOC have been pulled for restoration. The results from these efforts can be seen on WB's superb DVD releases of titles like the recent MILDRED PIERCE or 42nd STREET and NOW, VOYAGER.

I'd assume the upcoming Flynn films like OBJECTIVE, BURMA and THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER will benefit from this same kind of first-class care & effort.

great news about those Flynn classics and I am looking forward to all of them

anyone picked up "Objective Burma" yet? how is it?

-thanks

OBJECTIVE, BURMA looks terrific. Aside from stock footage inherent in the original negative, it's crisp, clear & is also a damned good movie.

There are also 2 great classic WB war shorts on the disc.

It's Raoul Walsh and Errol Flynn at their finest!

A great dvd presentation.




Crawdaddy

Actually the colour short boasts a fantastic transfer (presumably the original elements had been untouched for many years and carefully stored!)

Warners have been doing a great job on their back catalogue, but there have been hiccups - I was very disappointed with The Shop Around the Corner; The Adventures of Robin Hood sounds like it will be breathtaking however; fingers crossed!

---
So many films, so little time...

Regarding The Adventures of Robin Hood, any specs yet? Either way, I hope they have an isolated musical track for Korngold's glorious music. At the very least, a feature on it.

I wasn't disappointed with "The Shop Around the Corner".




Crawdaddy

IMHO, it could have, should have, been a better restoration; but if you're happy with it, then I'm pleased for you.

---
So many films, so little time...

I'm sorry that your expectations weren't met.

It's possible that the original music-only track exists, but don't count on it. A re-recording was made of the score some time ago and it may not be perfect sync with the film.

I'd welcome a track if it's possible, though. Fantastic score.

All of the original music scoring for THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD exists. Most of the Korngold scores were preserved in their entirety via tape copies made for the Korngold family. WB has copies as well. Excerpts from the score have been commercially released by Turner/Rhino's CD soundtrack label.

Given that, we can have high hopes that the upcoming DVD will have an isolated score. Since WB indicated during their chat this will be a "deluxe" release, I think there's a good chance that this feature would be chosen for inclusion.

Re: Objective Burma

Thanks to Roger, Robert, & John for their feedback on the transfer and short extras.

If anyone comes across a full review please post.

-thanks!