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Other than John Wayne are Screen Icons being ignored on DVD?

post #1 of 70
5/31/03 at 8:51am
Thread Starter 
I asked this question because in my opinion he is well represented on DVD in Region 1. Sure, there are some missing gems like "The High and the Mighty", "Hondo", "Fort Apache", "Flying Leathernecks", "Back to Bataan" and we're also lacking a decent DVD release of "McLintock" also a better transfer for "The Quiet Man" but overall the various studios have done a great job releasing his films to DVD. IMO, only Humphrey Bogart comes even close as an older screen icon having his films released on DVD, however, like Wayne, several of his best have still not been released yet. Hopefully, later this year that will be addressed by Warner along with James Cagney, Errol Flynn, and Bette Davis lack of DVD product.






Crawdaddy
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post #2 of 70
5/31/03 at 9:13am
For older iconic film stars, Wayne is very well represented. I'd add Jimmy Stewart to that list as well, although he may not be at the same percentage as Wayne and certainly has a number of films still awaiting release.

Humphrey Bogart is improving but still has a ways to go, particularly with his earlier films and some of his more notable titles ( High Sierra, Dark Passage, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen off the top of my head. ) Robert Ryan ( one of your and my favorites ) is dreadfully under-represented on DVD.

If you add more contemporary stars into the equation, perhaps the individual with the best representation is Clint Eastwood - particularly when Warner Bros. releases additional Eastwood titles this fall. I also believe that most of Robert DeNiro's films have hit DVD with True Confessions, Jacknife, and Stanley & Iris being among the films still missing in action.

- Walter.
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post #3 of 70
5/31/03 at 9:17am
There is quite a bit of Marilyn Monroe available. Someone more knowledgeable than I can chime in and let us know which gems are still missing.

We need only EAST OF EDEN to make our James Dean collections complete.
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post #4 of 70
5/31/03 at 9:51am
Walter, you may be glad to know that Treasure Of Sierra Madre is rumoured (and the it's a 'good' rumour, for once!) to be comimg out later in the year. A search should yeild this information.

Great film!


Gordy
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post #5 of 70
5/31/03 at 11:24am
As for that generation of screen icons I'm satisfied with Wayne's representation on DVD. Although I would like to add Hondo & a decent version of The Quiet Man to my collection.

Jimmy Stewart is well represented also but with a glaring absentee (for me at least) of The Naked Spur.

With the exceptions of Suspicion & Gunga Din I'm fairly satisfied with Cary Grant's DVD catalog.

A Treasure 2-disc set is due this fall which improves Bogart's catalog somewhat. I still need to pick up some titles that were already released.

James Cagney's representation is a joke. No Public Enemy, White Heat, Angels With Dirty Faces, Roaring Twenties, etc. It seems a big odd that none of these are out on DVD, especially since Warner's niche back then was the Gangster film.

Errol Flynn's representation is not much better than Cagney's. Robin Hood is due in the fall but what about Captain Blood, The Sea Hawk, The Dawn Patrol, etc.

Gary Cooper's catalog isn't bad but I'm far from satisfied especially without his earlier adventure classics such as Beau Geste & Lives of a Bengal Lancer & also a personal favorite obscure Western Man of the West

Mark of Zorro is due this fall but Tyrone Power's DVD catalog is seriously lacking without The Black Swan, Blood and Sand, Nightmare Alley, etc.

So all in all I don't have a point to this post except it gives me a chance to gripe about titles not on DVD.
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post #6 of 70
5/31/03 at 11:52am
Its interesting what stars are still remembered today and those that are forgotten at least according to the studio chiefs who decide what will sell on DVD.

Another area sadly lacking are musical films and musical stars :

Judy Garland : the Babes movies with Mickey Rooney (another under-represented star), For Me and My Gal, Girl Crazy, Meet Me In St Louis (supposed to be coming next year), The Pirate, Easter Parade, In the Good Old Summertime, Summer Stock

Fred Astaire : All the musicals with Ginger Rogers,
You'll Never Get Rich, You Were Never Lovelier, Ziegfeld Follies, The Band Wagon

Busby Berkeley : GoldDiggers of 1933 and 1935, Footlight Parade, Dames, The Gang's All Here

Al Jolson : The Jazz Singer (supposed to be in the works), The Singing Fool, Mammy, Go Into your Dance,Swanee River, Rose of Washington Square, The Jolson Story, Jolson Sings Again

Alice Faye : Alexander's Ragtime Band,On the Avenue, Tin Pan Alley, Hello,Frisco,Hello

So many lesser musical stars too with little or no DVDs.

What studios release is definitely influencing people about who they do and don't remember from Hollywood's golden age.

A recent poll on TV in the UK purported to be the 100 Greatest Movie Stars but failed to mention James Cagney, Greta Garbo,Spencer Tracy and Errol Flynn. I think their poor or non-existent representation on DVD might have had something to do with it.
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post #7 of 70
5/31/03 at 3:44pm
It's interesting to recall that Wayne was in more movies prior to his 1939 career launching 'Stagecoach', than he made afterword's.
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post #8 of 70
5/31/03 at 4:09pm
Yes but many of those were forgettable B-movies. Even some of these have appeared on DVD and the first attempt to turn him into a star in Fox's The Big Trail is coming soon.

Wayne is the most popular star of the sound era and made some classics like most of his movies with John Ford and Howard Hawks. A few of his other films were over-rated, many more were forgettable yet as a movie star Wayne can't be beat because of his longevity and popularity. That's probably why he's so well represented on DVD.

Yet audience popularity doesn't always equal DVD releases.

Clark Gable was the King of Hollywood and the top box office star of the 1930s while Wayne was trapped on the
B-movie treadmill till Stagecoach.

Yet DVD releases of those cheap B-movies vastly outnumber the classy As Gable starred in at MGM.

In fact only two 30s' Gable movies have made it to DVD : Columbia's It Happened One Night and Gone with the Wind. Where are the King of Hollywood's teamings with Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Spencer Tracy and Charles Laughton ?
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post #9 of 70
5/31/03 at 4:25pm
James Stewart is indeed catching up nicely. But who I'm still missing a lot of, is Henry Fonda.

And I don't just mean Once Upon a Time in the West.

Oh, and speaking of westerns, we need more of Jack Palance. Perhaps not an icon, but remarkable enough.


Cees
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post #10 of 70
5/31/03 at 9:03pm
Thread Starter 
The following are 51 "A" films that John Wayne appeared in that are out on DVD in Region 1:
  • Angel and the Badman
  • Big Jake
  • Brannigan
  • Cahill: US Marshall
  • Cast a Giant Shadow
  • Chisum
  • The Conqueror
  • Dark Command
  • Donovan's Reef
  • El Dorado
  • Flame of the Barbary Coast
  • Flying Tigers
  • Hatari
  • Hellfighters
  • How the West Was Won
  • In Harm's Way
  • In Old California
  • Jet Pilot
  • A Lady Takes a Chance
  • Legend of the Lost
  • McLintock
  • North to Alaska
  • Operation Pacific
  • Reap the Wild Wind
  • Red River
  • Rio Bravo
  • Rio Grande
  • Rio Lobo
  • She Wore A Yellow Ribbon
  • Stagecoach
  • The Alamo
  • The Big Trail
  • The Comancheros
  • The Cowboys
  • The Fighting Kentuckian
  • The Fighting Seabees
  • The Greatest Story Ever Told
  • The Green Berets
  • The Horse Soldiers
  • The Longest Day
  • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence
  • The Quiet Man
  • The Sands of Iwo Jima
  • The Searchers
  • The Shootist
  • The Sons of Katie Elder
  • The Undefeated
  • The War Wagon
  • They Were Expendable
  • True Grit
  • The Wake of the Red Witch
The following are 25 films in which James Stewart appeared in that are out on DVD in Region 1:
  • Anatomy of a Murder
  • Bell, Book and Candle
  • Bend of the River
  • Destry Rides Again
  • Harvey
  • How the West Was Won
  • It's a Wonderful Life
  • Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
  • Night Passage
  • Rear Window
  • Rope
  • Shenandoah
  • The Far Country
  • The Flight of the Phoenix
  • The Glenn Miller Story
  • The Man Who Knew Too Much
  • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence
  • The Man From Laramie
  • The Philadelphia Story
  • The Rare Breed
  • The Shootist
  • The Shop Around the Corner
  • Vertigo
  • Winchester 73
  • You Can't Take It With You

Even without the three films in which Wayne makes nothing more than a cameo role in, he has a huge lead over Stewart.




Crawdaddy
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post #11 of 70
5/31/03 at 9:10pm
Thread Starter 
On second thought, John Wayne might have more films out on DVD than any actor.

Here are the 13 Bogart films on DVD in Region 1:
  • Casablanca
  • Dark Victory
  • Dead Reckoning
  • Desperate Hours
  • In A Lonely Place
  • Key Largo
  • Sabrina
  • Sahara
  • Sirocco
  • The Barefoot Contessa
  • The Big Sleep
  • The Caine Mutiny
  • The Harder They Fall
  • The Maltese Falcon





Crawdaddy
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post #12 of 70
5/31/03 at 10:16pm
I think Wayne is well represented in both the quantity of titles available and the overall quality of many of the releases. However, there are very few Wayne movies with any special features. The Quiet Man has a commentary track but the picture is so horrible it's not even worth it. The Alamo has a 30 minute documentary but I believe it's been shortened from the laser. The Comancheros had a commentary track on the laser but Fox didn't include it on the DVD. With most of Wayne's A-list movies already released, it's doubtful that we'll ever see a John Wayne DVD with some decent special features. The only hope is for a special edition of The Searchers or Red River. Still, Wayne fans can't complain much because the movie is what counts and most of his films were cleaned up quite nice for their DVD release. I'd still like to see an anamorphic The Longest Day.

Another screen icon that's well represented is Burt Lancaster with 24 of his films on DVD:

Apache
Atlantic City
Birdman of Alcatraz
Elmer Gantry
Field of Dreams
From Here to Eternity
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
Lawman
Local Hero
Run Silent Run Deep
Scorpio
Seven Days in May
Sweet Smell of Success
The Crimson Pirate
The Island of Dr. Moreau
The Kentuckian
The Killers
The Professionals
The Swimmer
The Train
The Unforgiven
Valdez is Coming
Vengeance Valley
Vera Cruz
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post #13 of 70
5/31/03 at 10:49pm
Make that 25 John, I just finished re-watching a Burt Lancaster film not in your list - Sorry, Wrong Number.

- Walter.
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post #14 of 70
5/31/03 at 10:55pm
Thread Starter 
I forgot about Burt Lancaster and he is definitely well represented on DVD. Some other films of his on DVD are "Airport" and "Brute Force".
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post #15 of 70
5/31/03 at 11:02pm
Thread Starter 
Also, add these Lancaster titles to the list.
  • Buffalo Bill and the Indians
  • Separate Tables
  • Separate But Equal
  • The Cassandra Crossing
  • The Gypsy Moths
  • The Hallelujah
  • Ulzana's Raid
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post #16 of 70
5/31/03 at 11:11pm
Other R1 DVDs that contain Stewart credits ( if only in some cases as cameos ) are:

Airport '77
The Big Sleep (1977)
Made For Each Other ( Madacy )
On Our Merry Way ( Kino )
Pot O' Gold ( Madacy )

I seem to recall reading about more Stewart films forthcoming in the fall, although I can't recall any details. Certainly I would love to see The Naked Spur ( for Robert Ryan also ), The Spirt of St. Louis, The Stratton Story, Magic Town and Call Northside 777 eventually be released.

More Henry Fonda, James Cagney, Robert Ryan, and Edward G. Robinson would also be welcome.

- Walter.
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post #17 of 70
5/31/03 at 11:46pm
More Van Heflin, Damnit!

High Sierra was said to be coming later this year too, iirc.
wasn't this mentioned in the chat?


actually, someone i really want to see more of is John Garfield.
Really looking forward to getting Pastman in '04.
wouldn't mind owning the 'Daughters' films either.
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post #18 of 70
6/1/03 at 2:04am
Wayne might be well represented on DVD, but I would really like at least some of the releases to given a slightly higher profile with SE features, as befits a star of his stature.

I have Artisan's Rio Grande, which is decent enough, but I'd love to see two-disc versions of The Searchers and Stagecoach (it would also be a more fitting tribute to one of Americas great directors...). I might also add that Artisan's almost unwatchable The Quiet Man SE, is more an insult than a tribute.

Warners have promised us more Bogart (the new Casablanca and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre ), Cagney and Flynn (I can hardly wait for The Adventures of Robin Hood), and they can only applauded; but I'd really love to the more outstanding classics - White Heat, Dead End, Public Enemy, The Sea Hawk, Captain Blood, Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep et al - given the SE accolade these giants of cinema deserve.

---
So many films, so little time...
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post #19 of 70
6/1/03 at 3:03am
Excellent thread! Thanks Robert.

On a slightly different note: my priorities for films to go to DVD are always in this order: (1) Movies not available yet on DVD, (2) Movies that got a bad transfer (image- or sound-wise) and then (3) SE's of movies that are already available.

To be frank: I really do like SE's (lots of interesting extras) very much, but I cannot understand people who are pushing for special editions of films that got an excellent transfer on DVD already, while there are so many films begging to be released on DVD at all.

Sorry, that's how I feel about it.


Cees
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post #20 of 70
6/1/03 at 3:57am
Yes my point exactly. How many times do you actually listen to the audio commentary on a DVD compared to actually watching the film ? There are so many classics missing and stars who have few or no DVDs. Frankly there's enough Wayne,Stewart,Grant and Monroe already. What worries me is that once you go back to the 30s : the early years of sound, DVDs of Fox, Paramount, MGM, Warners and RKO classics get very thin on the ground. The way technology is moving these days many films from that period may never see the light of day on DVD and the films the general public and the studio executives perceive as classics from the past will be reduced even further.
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post #21 of 70
6/1/03 at 3:59am
Cees, The Quiet Man has had a vanilla release, an SE, and I'd kill to see it released again with a proper restoration and transfer. There's little point in putting any movies on DVD if their going to be subjected to the kind of DVD humiliation Artisan has heaped on this John Ford classic.

And if we an have re-release, on release of There's Something About Mary, Terminator 2 et al, there's room on this DVD planet for a better edition of The Maltese Falcon.

Fox and Warners in particular have raised the bar so high in terms of restoration and extras, that when it comes to classics, if I see even a half-decent transfers of movies I admire on bare-bones discs, I have to admit to being disappointed.

---
So many films, so little time...
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post #22 of 70
6/1/03 at 4:14am
The problem with restoration is it takes time and there are so many movies competing for that time.

The RKO library is apparently in a poor condition but it doesn't seem to be high up in Warners' priorities (originally they didn't produce the films)to invest the time in restoring the films as they have been sitting in that condition for a couple of years.

To me unless the films are in an absolutely terrible state a bare bones release is better than none at all. In a few years the DVD format while still in use might have become outdated and then we are back to square one with the "obvious" classics. So I'm sorry but frankly I moan when I see the umpteenth edition of a film already available on DVD.

Yes Warners and Fox should be applauded for their SEs of classics but I just wish the'd up the pace a bit.
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post #23 of 70
6/1/03 at 4:29am
Quote:
Yes Warners and Fox should be applauded for their SEs of classics but I just wish the'd up the pace a bit.

Amen to that!

And I'll agree totally that if a movie has been restored, if the transfer is top-notch, if it's in OAR, it's time to give others a chance. No problems with that at all.

But quality should be the watchword, not quantity.

---
So many films, so little time...
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post #24 of 70
6/1/03 at 5:03am
Thread Starter 
I don't think any of us that are into classic films are happy how the following movie stars have been treated on dvd with the possible exception of Bogart and Grant. Even those two stars have some great films still awaiting dvd releases.
  • Humphrey Bogart
  • James Cagney
  • Gary Cooper
  • Bette Davis
  • Errol Flynn
  • Spencer Tracy
  • Katherine Hepburn
  • Barbara Stanwyck
  • Gene Tierney
  • Montgomery Clift
  • Kirk Douglas
  • Richard Burton
  • Henry Fonda
  • Clark Gable
  • Cary Grant
  • John Garfield
  • Lana Turner
  • Robert Taylor
  • William Powell
  • Myrna Loy
  • Tyrone Power
  • Edward G. Robinson
  • George Raft
  • Joan Crawford
  • Ronald Reagan
  • Basil Rathbone
  • Paul Muni
  • Robert Mitchum
  • Judy Garland
  • Mickey Rooney
  • Gene Kelly
  • Jean Harlow
  • Greta Garbo
  • Olivia De Havilland
  • Joan Fontaine
  • Greer Garson
  • Fred Astaire
  • Ginger Rodgers
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post #25 of 70
6/1/03 at 6:12am
Let's add a few foreign actors.

I want (even) more Laurence Olivier (where are Richard III and Othello 1965?), Michael Caine, David Niven, Peter Cushing, Rex Harrison, Christofer Lee, Jean Gabin, Vincent Price, James Mason, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Peter Sellers, Marcello Mastroianni, Peter O'Toole, Julie Christie, Isabelle Adjani (I often want more Isabelle Adjani ), Audrey Hepburn, Albert Finney, Alain Delon, Anita Ekberg, mmm... probably forgetting a few...

Several of these actors/actresses could be called "icons" of the movies!

Cees
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post #26 of 70
6/1/03 at 6:44am
Thread Starter 
Cees,
Ahem, Vincent Price was born in St. Louis MO.
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post #27 of 70
6/1/03 at 6:53am
Who is Katherine Hepburn?
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post #28 of 70
6/1/03 at 6:55am
Quote:
I want (even) more Laurence Olivier (where are Richard III and Othello 1965?), Michael Caine, David Niven, Peter Cushing, Rex Harrison, Christofer Lee, Jean Gabin, Vincent Price, James Mason, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Peter Sellers, Marcello Mastroianni, Peter O'Toole, Julie Christie, Isabelle Adjani (I often want more Isabelle Adjani ), Audrey Hepburn, Albert Finney, Alain Delon, Anita Ekberg, mmm... probably forgetting a few...

Richard III is out now in R2

A fine roll call without doubt, but quite few of those are not only well represented already on DVD (Michael Caine in particular!), but can also boast some excellent discs too, sadly unlike many of stars on Roberts list.

Having said that I always hoped Criterion would get their hands on Odd Man Out...

---
So many films, so little time...
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post #29 of 70
6/1/03 at 7:25am
Indeed, Where is Katharine Hepburn, Susan Hayward, Bettie Grable, Alice Faye, Tyrone Power, Gregory Peck, Lana Turner, Richard Burton, Jean Simmons (one of the most increcible actresses)
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post #30 of 70
6/1/03 at 7:37am
Bette Davis may not be that well represented, but All About Eve sure looks good in its current DVD edition.

Very interesting thread.
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