Please release "Twilight's Last Gleaming" (Warner Bros.?) - Page 4

Ron,

My last inquiry was 9 mos. ago; any news?

Bob Engleman

So we seem to have a title that seems STUCK in concrete in terms of moving toward a possible release. And "PROBLEMS", that are out of WB's immediate control ( Heaven knows who has the CONTROL) are keeping it stuck solid. My best guess, and it is that of a TOTAL outsider ( AS opposed to the "guesses" or TRUE knowledge of a true insider ) is that we will NEVER see this title released. What a shame.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff_HR 

So we seem to have a title that seems STUCK in concrete in terms of moving toward a possible release. And "PROBLEMS", that are out of WB's immediate control ( Heaven knows who has the CONTROL) are keeping it stuck solid. My best guess, and it is that of a TOTAL outsider ( AS opposed to the "guesses" or TRUE knowledge of a true insider ) is that we will NEVER see this title released. What a shame.

As so many people want this movie on DVD (or Blu-ray), it would be good customer relations and good manners for Warners to explain to their loyal customers why there is such a long delay. 
 

Well, I'm certainly glad I held onto my laser disc copy of TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING though I would upgrade to DVD in a minute.

I also have kept my LaserDisc version. Unfortunately Thomas T, you will be waiting longer that a minute to upgrade!

Dave Kehr reported that Olive Films plans to release this, as well as some other intriguing titles, sometime in 2010/11.

The full quote can be found in 'Dave K''s post of July 27, 9:52am, here.

Yes, Warner's rights did expire many years ago, which is why it was cancalled out of Burt Lancaster's box set. I was involved with both Warner and Bavaria in having the elements returned to Bavaria, but kept quiet until an announcement can be made.

If this is the same package deal, there could also be a Samuel Fuller film as well as a little seem Jeff Bridges film from 1978.

Quote:

Originally Posted by walter o 

Yes, Warner's rights did expire many years ago, which is why it was cancalled out of Burt Lancaster's box set. I was involved with both Warner and Bavaria in having the elements returned to Bavaria, but kept quiet until an announcement can be made.

 

If this is the same package deal, there could also be a Samuel Fueller film as well as a little seem Jeff Bridges film from 1978.

I was hoping the little seen Jeff Bridges film might be "Hearts of the West", however, according to IMDB, the film is listed as 1975.

This is interesting.  One wonders if WHV's rights expired years ago why were they planning on a release (or at least saying they were)?  One can only surmise at this point but a best guess would be that they were fighting with Bavaria over these rights and were using these quasi-public statements in an effort to bring the public to their side?

Now it all makes sense.  WHV could not release the title because they did not own the rights, but were in discussion concerning re-acquiring those rights.  They lost the discussion and now someone else has them.  As we were told months or years ago, when we can tell you why this film is delayed you will understand. 

This looks to be a situation where the rights went to Paramount/CBS (previous VHS/LD releases were by Key Video and CBS/Fox), and Paramount/CBS has now licenced the film to Olive as part of their most recent package with that distributor. It seems that Paramount at this time is only interested in releasing its "tentpole" catalogue titles under the Paramount banner, while licencing others to Olive, Legend or Lionsgate. The Legend releases of Paramount titles have been very good, and the titles released by Olive so far, while mostly barebones, have garnered generally good reviews in terms of transfer quality. It's not the best outcome, but far from the worst.

Olive Films is mostly a retailer that specializes in selling mostly art house and independent films.  They have recently become more renown for picking up several titles from the neglected Paramount library, which appear to be released in waves of 3 or 4 titles a month starting this July.  They also license indies according to their website:

http://www.olivefilms.com/Olive_Films_Opus.38/

Olive appears to be expanding its licensing operations, now that news of them licensing titles from Bavaria and Gaumont have surfaced.

I predict that, while the TLG print will look very nice, it will likely be lacking in extras, which appears to be the case with the Paramount titles (only one appears to have any sort of special feature).  However, I could be wrong.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephen_J_H 

This looks to be a situation where the rights went to Paramount/CBS (previous VHS/LD releases were by Key Video and CBS/Fox), and Paramount/CBS has now licenced the film to Olive as part of their most recent package with that distributor. It seems that Paramount at this time is only interested in releasing its "tentpole" catalogue titles under the Paramount banner, while licencing others to Olive, Legend or Lionsgate. The Legend releases of Paramount titles have been very good, and the titles released by Olive so far, while mostly barebones, have garnered generally good reviews in terms of transfer quality. It's not the best outcome, but far from the worst.

CBS only had the home video rights via Lorimar, who picked up the Allied Artist catalog. (like PAPPILON, CABARET, MAN WHO WOULD BE KING).

Quote:

Originally Posted by walter o 

CBS only had the home video rights via Lorimar, who picked up the Allied Artist catalog. (like PAPPILON, CABARET, MAN WHO WOULD BE KING).

And Warner's picked up Lorimar in 1988, which is why they have the Allied Artist (Monogram) catalog.  The rights for TLG ended up with Bavaria Film, Germany's main film company.  I know the film was filmed at the studio, and I understand it was one of three production companies and for some reason the rights reverted back to them.  Lorimar was also one of the production companies, but they released the film through Allied Artists.  Allied Artists went broke in 1979 and was acquired by Lorimar.  At that time Lorimar was basically a television producer (Dallas, Falcon Crest, The Waltons) and with their relationship with CBS had them to distribute the films and off network shows to TV.  This included home video rights at the time.  Since that time those agreements have ended and Warner's has control of most of those films and TV shows.  None of them ended up at CBS/Paramount. 

TLG was just a film that Warner's lost the rights due to contracts ending.  Evidently, they thought the film was important enough to try to re-acquire those rights and I will also voice my opinion in that I wish they would have.  They would have done a great job and it would not have been an Archive Release.  While the Olive releases look good and the reviews are also good, they are bare bones.  But since this is not a Paramount license then maybe they will access to more for extras.

Personally I think the majors are really starting to slide in terms of their releases so I'm more and more happy as folks like Shout, Olive and various others get these rights.  I hope more companies like these as well as the likes of Blue Underground and Synapse can pick up these titles that we've been waiting on for such a long time.

Does Olive at least put English subtitles on their releases?  Looking at their website linked above these appear to be rather pricey releases albeit on pressed discs rather than DVD-R.

With Warners we would have gotten more content and a first rate presentation for (likely) a lower price. 

I can't think of a single instance where it would be desirable that Warner loses out to another party in terms of getting to release something.  Although their output has slowed dramatically and I am not the biggest fan of how the Archive program has been executed, their retail pressed releases are still top notch.

To be honest, I had never seen this movie before.  However reading the enthusiastic comments from Ron and all the others over the past several year has kept this title on my radar looking forward to an eventual WHV stellar release.  This news can't be anything but disappointing.

It does make one wonder how a deep pocketed major can lose out to an independent.  Has the budget for the Classic Catalog Division at WHV been slashed that much?  Looks that way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve...O 

Does Olive at least put English subtitles on their releases?

* Puts in Dark City *

.....

Sadly, it does not appear so.  They're still new, so perhaps consumer requests will help...

My conversation with Bavaria indicates they would like to do some extras, and I have made suggestions on extras they can do for both TLG and FEDORA, so hopefully, they can do some extras on the DVD's.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein 

 

 

In the meantime, I do know that Warner had

some really cool plans for the title.  I am very

concerned about the rights going to Olive Films.

Who are they?  What have they released?  Are

they conscious about quality the way Warner is?

 

So, yeah, the cat is out of the bag as far as

what the delay was in getting TLG out on DVD.

However, I am not particularly happy that the

rights fell out of Warner's hands. 

Ron, the individual (I would go so far as to say the 'bigwig') at Olive Films to whom you would want to speak is already a member of your Forum.  Look at posts # 12, 15, 16 & 18 in this thread:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/298200/did-olive-films-license-a-number-of-titles-from-paramount

While I think Warner would've marketed this title for less than Olive and may have included more extras, I'm in no way disappointed. Elated would more closely describe my feelings that (1) I'll be able to view this movie in its OAR, (2) it may have deleted scenes and (3) it should be far superior to my Key Video VHS.

Bob Engleman

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave B Ferris 

 

I was hoping the little seen Jeff Bridges film might be "Hearts of the West", however, according to IMDB, the film is listed as 1975.

 

I think the Bridges film is Winter Kills.

I think it's more likely to be "Somebody Killed her Husband," which has never been on DVD.  I'm not even sure if it was ever on VHS.  And it was released in 1978.

As for TLG, I'd prefer to get a DVD with lots of extras, but I'll take whatever I can get.  Especially since I've been hearing about this WB version for at least three years.

It is about TIME this Top Secret saw the light of day. And I'm not surprised in the least that it was a "Right" issue all along. I VERY strongly suspected that was the problem. If this is to be a bare bones DVD release, FINE. But PLEASE put subtitles on it at the bare minimum! I'd RATHER have a more elaborate BD release, but BEGGARS can't be TOO picky! I'll take a bare bones uncut DVD release with, I hope a correct Aspect ratio & a Video Resolution better than my LD. Hopefully this release WON'T be more than 1 year away!

Wikipedia: The is the definite article in English. »

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff_HR 

It is about TIME this Top Secret saw the light of day. And I'm not surprised in the least that it was a "Right" issue all along.

While I think most of us thought it was some type of rights issue, either with music, story or even the director's estate in some way, I don't think any of us realized the Warners did not have any rights to the film what so ever.  This was truly a strange tale.  And then we all immediately thought that Paramount had lost the rights to three Preminger films, but miracles of miracles, Paramount hadn't and has now leased those rights to Olive for DVD.  A strange year for stories from the Rights Issue File.

Given that this seems to be at least the second time HTF was, shall we say, "detoured" by  WB sources, I'm glad I've made the decision to record the Bowery Boys movies off of TCM. Relying upon their "plans," whether it's from inside or outside sources, doesn't seem to be a safe bet anymore.