Bette Davis Collection Vol 2- May 30

I guess Warner is saving some of her better films for future volumes.




Crawdaddy

She made over 50 films for Warner's, and all of these are excellent choices. WB could easily create 5 or 6 more boxed sets of her films without getting to the dregs....

...and I'm so pleased they're re-doing JEZEBEL. It deserves to look as good as NOW, VOYAGER, etc.

Thanks Warners! This looks like a great set.

Another Davis film, "Satan Met a Lady", will be included in "The Maltese Falcon" package as an extra.

I can see "Three on a Match" showing up in one of the pre-code sets at some point.

I don't think we'll be lacking any BD over the next few years.

Steve

OLD ACQUAINTANCE!!!!!!!!!

One of my favorite Davis films, which was NEVER ON VIDEOTAPE AND NEVER ON LASER DISC..... this is great news. I'm also crazy about MARKED WOMAN. It isn't as well known as some of her 40s films, but I think her performance is remarkable, and its a very underrated film. It was the first film she did after she went on strike against WB. She was forced to return, but the results were the better scripts that she had been fighting for and MARKED WOMAN was the first of these. BOGART is great in the picture, too.

I can't wait to hear more about this new docu about Bette. The documentaries that Warners does (via their Turner Entertainment Company partnership with TCM) has resulted in some superb work. Last year gave us Garbo, Flynn, and Cary Grant alone. All were quite superb. I'm sure Bette will be given the same treatment.

A remastered JEZEBEL is long overdue, as the old disc was muddy and awful, and I'm delighted to look forward to THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER, in which Bette's verbal jousts with Ann Sheridan and Monty Wooley are priceless.

Last but not least, I can only imagine the goodies WB has in store for a double disc on BABY JANE. Bring it on!

Excellent! For once, my procrastination has paid off. I have been thisclose so many times on Baby Jane and Jezebel. I considered Jezebel just this past weekend.

Great news.

With the amount of great work she did for the studio, Warner could be putting out Garbo-sized box sets easily! Even still, am very excited about this release. I've never even seen Marked Woman, and the home video debut of Old Aquaintance is very welcome.

Can't wait for Volume 3 already!

Someone HAD to mention her in this thread, so it may as well be me: Does this mean that the Joan Crawford set that was released simultaneously with Bette Davis Volume 1 didn't do so well? I'd love to see some '30s MGM Crawford which is grossly underrepresented on DVD.

What excellent news! Warners is really surpassing last year's DVD output.

I have Marked Woman on VHS and I totally agree it is a very overlooked film. It may not have been a "pre-code" but its concessions were few and it is a very well-made picture. As Roger Rollins mentioned in his post this film has quite a history, and it really is a pivotal, essential Bette Davis film.

Great news! Hopefully OLD ACQUAINTANCE will have a director's commentary like MR SKEFFINGTON had last year.

Out of curiosity, does anyone have an idea if this boxset will be released with thinpacks rather than amarays?

re: Joan Crawford, my guess is that WB is possibly thinking of releasing a box every other year. Bette Davis has a huge number of popular titles that are being marketed with some less-known ones and can sustain a few consecutive years with box-sets. Joan Crawford probably has less of these, as most of her more well known titles are already out (e.g. THE WOMEN, MILDRED PIERCE, HUMORESQUE) or they're saving the MGM titles for a different box.

Are there any more details on this package?

ARRRGGGH! Still no release for the superior epic All This And Heaven, Too!!!! What gives? ATAHT was a better picture than Old Acquaintance!!! This was a popular and critical success based upon a bestselling novel of the day, in which was based on a historical scandal of the French 1840s. And let's not forget Bette's marvelous costars- Charles Boyer and Barbara O'Neil (Oscar-nominated as the bitchy Frances Duchesse dePraslin- a far cry from her saintly Ellen O'Hara in GWTW) Does anyone have an inkling when this film (and the trash classic Beyond The Forest) will be finally put out on disc?

Maybe, in volume 3 or 4?

The full WB press release is on another website, and has the following paragraph




So those of your who are let down that your preferred Davis film may not have been included by WB here, it looks like your wishes will come true. All that is required is patience.

Each film has its own story when it comes to state of film elements, and what amount of time and money goes into creating photochemical restoration. I don't try to second guess WB. They've earned my trust...and about half my take home pay!

One of the most forgotten--and rarely seen--of the Bette Davis films is PAYMENT ON DEMAND, a film she made for RKO in 1948 before ALL ABOUT EVE but released afterwards in 1951. Wouldn't mind seeing on THE CATERED AFFAIR with a commentary by Rod Taylor, Debbie Reynolds, and Ernest Borgnine. Or THE SCAPEGOAT.

Roger,

can you post a link to the press release? Thanks.

If the Crawford box set didn't do well, surely the fact that many of the titles were previously issued had something to do with that. (Three of five, I believe?) That's the main reason why I didn't buy it...although to be honest, her 1930s films at MGM are much more interesting to me than her post-MGM output.

The Crawford boxed set had THREE new releases, gorgeously restored and remasterd: HUMORESQUE, POSSESSED (1947) and THE DAMNED DON'T CRY, plus repackaged versions of MILDRED PIERCE and THE WOMEN.

It was a great set, and if you bought it, and owned the previous 2, you could sell off your old horrid snappers and still buy the 5 title box for less than the retail price of just the three new ones.

According to industry data I've seen, both boxed sets did very well. I think we will likely see more Crawford films soon as well. The timely tie-in here is obviously the new feature documentary. TCM & WB already did one for Joan (it's on the Mildred Pierce disc). It's time something decent was done for Bette, too!

THE BETTE DAVIS COLLECTION VOLUME 2 ON DVD MAY 30

Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? Two-Disc Special Edition, Jezebel (Both Newly Restored & Remastered)

Old Acquaintance (Home Video Debut), Marked Woman, The Man Who Came To Dinner (All Three New to DVD)

Bonus Features Include Stardust: The Bette Davis Story Narrated by Susan Sarandon (Exclusive to the Collection), Commentaries from Experts, Featurettes and Documentaries

Burbank, Calif. February 13, 2006 - On May 30, Warner Home Video honors one of the most acclaimed and admired actresses of her generation with the debut of The Bette Davis Collection Volume Two. Following on the heels of the spectacular success of WHV's first Davis collection released last year, the studio has prepared another set of releases that are sure to please the huge fan base that still recognizes Miss Davis as one of the screen's great legendary talents.

Highlighting this new Collection are the revered 1962 thriller Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? newly remastered and available as a Two-Disc Special Edition and a new edition of the classic Jezebel, which earned Davis her second Best Actress Academy Award® and has been restored from the original camera negative and remastered for optimum picture quality. Also featured in the Collection are The Man Who Came To Dinner, Marked Woman and Old Acquaintance -- all making their DVD debuts. Old Acquaintance is making its long-awaited home video debut, having never been available in prior years on either videocassette or laserdisc. All three of these other films have been meticulously restored from their original nitrate camera negatives for superior presentation.

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Two-Disc Special Edition will be available for $26.99 SRP, while the single disc titles will sell individually for $19.97 SRP. The price for the entire seven-disc Collection is $59.92 SRP.

The extensive bonus materials include an additional bonus disc containing the exclusive-to-the-Collection Stardust: The Bette Davis Story, a brand-new feature length documentary narrated by Susan Sarandon, which has been produced and directed by Emmy-winning documentarian Peter Jones (Goldwyn, Glorious Technicolor).

Often dubbed the "Fifth Warner Brother" for her confrontational, take-charge approach, Bette Davis earned an impressive 10 Oscar® nominations (winning twice for her roles in Dangerous and Jezebel) during the course of her legendary 60-year career. Davis was born Ruth Elizabeth Davis on April 5, 1908 in Lowell, Massachusetts and made her Broadway debut in 1929 in "Broken Dishes" before settling in Hollywood in 1931. Following a short stint with Universal, she signed a long-term contract with Warner Bros. where she made more than 50 films and was the studio's most bankable asset until 1949. Her breakthrough performance (and first Oscar nomination) in Of Human Bondage opened the studio's and Hollywood's eyes to her immense talent and led to such classic films as Dark Victory, The Letter, Now, Voyager, The Little Foxes and All About Eve. Davis starred in more than 100 films, was the highest paid woman in America in 1942, became the first female honored with the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award and was named the first woman president of the Motion Pictures Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Fans of Miss Davis will be pleased to know that they can look forward to future collections with new DVD releases containing more of the astounding films she made at Warner Bros. during her 17 year tenure with the studio. Some of these additional films (such as All This, And Heaven, Too, Dangerous, In This Our Life, The Corn Is Green, Watch On The Rhine and many others) are currently being restored from their original nitrate camera negatives, in anticipation of further Bette Davis DVD collections.

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

The legendary dispute between rival divas Bette Davis and Joan Crawford fueled the fire both on- and off-screen in Director Robert Aldrich's Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Its Grand Guignol story of an aging ex-vaudeville child star (Davis) waging a psychotic reign of terror over her crippled ex-movie star sister (Crawford) became a smash hit and nabbed Davis her 10th Academy Award nomination for her acid portrayal of the title role. Nominated for an impressive five Academy Awards (winning for Best Costume Design), Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? is a mirthful masterpiece of the macabre.

DVD Special Features:

· New 16x9 digital transfer from the original camera negative and restored audio elements (Enhanced for widescreen televisions)

· Commentary by author and film historian , Charles Busch and film historian John Epperson (a/k/a "Lypsinka")

· 3 fabulous documentary profiles of the movie and its 2 immortal stars:

o Bette and Joan: Blind Ambition (A new making-of documentary)

o All About Bette, Biographical profile, hosted by Jodie Foster

o Film Profile: Joan Crawford

· Vintage featurette "Behind the Scenes with Baby Jane"

· The Andy Williams Show

· Theatrical Trailer

· Languages: English & Français

· Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)


Jezebel

Nobody is better than Bette when she's bad and Jezebel gave her a meaty role she could sink her teeth into. Davis plays Julie, a New Orleans beauty whose constant attempts to goad fiancé Pres Dillard (Henry Fonda) to jealousy backfire. One of the most powerful moments in the film is when Julie wears a scandalous red dress to the White Ball, a moment so powerful that audiences decades later vividly remember seeing Davis in that red dress, although the film itself is in black & white. Angry and disgraced, Pres breaks their engagement and leaves town. Julie is remorseful until Pres comes home --married to another woman.

Jezebel is also noted for its sumptuous sets and lavish costumes, Fay Bainter's Oscar-winning performance and William Wyler's vivid direction, highlighted by a horrifying recreation of a yellow fever epidemic. But the film's greatest strength is Davis, whose titanic talent has never been better displayed than in Jezebel and the film won Davis the 1938 Best Actress Academy Award.

DVD Special Features:

· New digital transfer from the original nitrate camera negative and restored audio elements

· Commentary by film historian Jeannine Basinger

· New featurette Jezebel: Legend of the South

· Vintage 1938 Warner Bros. musical short Melody Masters: Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra

· Classic 1938 Warner Bros. cartoon The Mice Will Play

· Theatrical trailer

· Subtitles: English, Français & Español (Feature Film Only)


The Man Who Came To Dinner (1942)

After a string of high-powered, emotional performances, Bette Davis took a rare back seat to another performer with the uncharacteristic role of an unflappable secretary in The Man Who Came to Dinner. Monty Woolley reprised his George S. Kaufman/Moss Hart Broadway triumph as the imperious "Sheridan Whiteside" in this delightful, lightning-paced farce. The Man Who Came to Dinner focuses on famed author Whiteside (Woolley), an esteemed critic who possesses a sharp mind and an acid tongue. While on a lecture tour in Ohio, Whiteside slips on some ice and is confined to the home of a bourgeois couple (Billie Burke & Grant Mitchell). He proceeds to plunge the household into complete chaos, ruling the place like a czar and meddling in everyone's love life. Davis's star wattage was seriously rivaled by Hollywood's "Oomph Girl," Ann Sheridan, who had one of the best roles of her career as a Broadway star (a thinly-veiled caricature of Gertrude Lawrence). In fact, the film was a veritable roman-a-clef, with Woolley's character a dead ringer for critic Alexander Woollcott, "The Great Schnozola" Jimmy Durante as "Banjo" (an on-the-mark takeoff of Harpo Marx) and Reginald Gardiner as "Beverly Carlton" (spoofing Noel Coward).

DVD Special Features:

· New featurette The Man Who Came to Dinner: Inside a Classic Comedy

· Vintage 1942 Warner Bros. Joe McDoakes comedy short , So You Think You Need Glasses

· Vintage Warner Bros. musical short featuring the singing group Six Hits and a Miss

· Theatrical trailer

· Subtitles: English, Français & Español (Feature Film Only)


Marked Woman (1937)

Warner Bros. was justifiably famous in the '30s for its series of gritty, hard-hitting male-centric gangster dramas ripped from the newspaper headlines (Little Caesar, The Public Enemy), but Marked Woman offered a rare depiction of the women victimized by the mob. Bette Davis (who won a Best Actress award for the role from the Venice Film Festival) plays Mary Dwight in a fictionalized account of the real-life prostitutes whose testimony put gangster Lucky Luciano behind bars.

Marked Woman marked the return to the screen by Davis, who waged a long battle against Warner Bros. in an effort to have greater control over her screen material. While she lost the battle, she won the war and the respect of the studio who greeted her return with this strong film. Davis tore into the role with all the passion at her considerable command and made audiences sit up and take notice. The picture is also notable as the fourth (of six) screen pairings of Davis with Humphrey Bogart (Casablanca, To Have and Have Not), who has a rare good-guy role (as a crusading prosecutor), since at this point in his career he was mostly playing vicious second leads in gangster yarns.

DVD Special Features

· New featurette Marked Woman: Ripped from the Headlines

· 2 classic Warner Bros. cartoons:

o Porky's Hero Agency

o She Was an Acrobat's Daughter

· Theatrical trailer

· Subtitles: English, Français & Español (Feature Film Only)


Old Acquaintance (1943)

Bette Davis's most notable Hollywood feud was with the volatile, beautiful and talented Miriam Hopkins (Trouble in Paradise, The Story of Temple Drake, These Three) whose abundant screen-stealing abilities caused sparks to fly during their first film together, The Old Maid (1939). Re-teaming the two temperamental actresses gives their onscreen chemistry together an electrifying jolt.

In Old Acquaintance, writer Kit Marlowe (Davis) possesses one thing all her own: literary acclaim. But the rest of her life is lived second-hand. Her melodramatic best friend Millie (Hopkins), who pens trashy potboilers, has the husband Kit loves and child Kit yearns to call her own. Yet through 20 years of friendship, Kit keeps her claws sheathed as volatile Millie smashes crockery and has the vapors. Then when Kit meets an exciting new man, Millie throws a tantrum - and the claws finally come out. Often hilarious and always moving, Old Acquaintance (remade as 1981's Rich and Famous) is the delicious tale of two lifetimes. Davis and Hopkins are simply magnificent as they love, blame, battle and forgive their way through a dead-on depiction of what we all gain - and lose - in a lasting friendship.

Long desired by film buffs, Old Acquaintance was one of a handful of truly great films that never made it to home video during the technology's first 25 years. WHV is proud to finally bring this beloved Davis classic to DVD for its home video debut, restored from its original nitrate film elements.

DVD Special Features:

· Commentary by the film's director Vincent Sherman and Bette Davis Speaks author Boze Hadleigh

· New featurette Old Acquaintance: A Classic Woman's Picture

· Vintage 1943 Warner Bros. short Stars on Horseback

· Classic 1943 Warner Bros. cartoon Fin'n Catty

· Theatrical trailer

· Subtitles: English, Français & Español (Feature Film Only)


STARDUST: THE BETTE DAVIS STORY (2005)

This new, in-depth documentary Stardust: The Bette Davis Story, narrated by Susan Sarandon, tells the whole dynamic story of the woman dubbed by film historian John Kobal as "the most starry of actresses, the most actressy of stars." Utilizing vintage film clips, TV interviews, newsreels, stills and reminiscences from stars and others who knew her, Stardust paints a picture of a powerhouse who survives personal and professional ups-and-downs that would have crushed mere mortals. It's not for nothing that Bette Davis's tombstone reads "She did it the hard way."

Produced by Turner Classic Movies and Warner Home Video, this new feature-length documentary is a stylistic triumph from Emmy-Award winning documentarian Peter Jones, who has gathered an impressive gallery of talents who knew and worked with Davis to share their thoughts including Jane Fonda, Gena Rowlands, James Woods, and her former lover and director Vincent Sherman. There is also an impressive array of rare artifacts from Davis' own memorabilia and keepsakes on display to truly tell the story of a complicated, yet brilliant and immortal talent whose qualities can never be equaled.

THE BETTE DAVIS COLLECTION VOLUME 2

Street Date: May 30, 2006

Collection: $59.92 SRP; Individual Prices Noted Below

Stardust: The Bette Davis Story is in color. All Other Titles Are B&W & Not Rated

I relly hoped that "A Stolen Life", "The Corn is Green", "The Old Maid" "Beyond The Forest" "The Great Lie" Would be on the vol.2 collection But knowing that there is gonna be more Bette collections makes me happy the only thing I don't like is that I have to wait till next year to get more Bette. and also, why only 5 movies? why not 8 like the Doris Day collection. anyway im relly happy about this collection and the new documentary

also, Warners owns the rights to Payment on demand and Of human Bondage, right? becouse I would love if they got released

5 keeps the set affordable. Also, no offense to Day fans, but Bette's output is probably deeper and more salable so WB can spread her films out over a longer period of time.

Thanks to Mr. Crawford for posting the full press release. It says something about WB's packaging when I'm just as anxious to read the titles of the bonus shorts/cartoons as I am the feature. Glad to see another Benchley (Joe Doakes) short coming to DVD.

Steve

I'm dieing to see some art!

we may be waiting for a really long time for BEYOND THE FOREST.
It has not been shown on tCM for several years and no new vid or dvd release. It has literary rights problems and they have to be cleared up first.

I'm so exited, mainly about Jezebel, the closer Davis got to play Scarlett. Some say that was her screen test for Selznick. During production Selznick sent Warner a letter complaining about the many similarities between Jezebel and GWTW.
Jezebel deserved a 2 disc treatment but at least I'm glad they remastered it cause the old one looked awful on TCM.

Any artwork?

Pleeeeeaaaaaase!

Art and specs up at DVD Times here. Nice!

Lovely!
Thanks

I love the art on these (except "Baby Jane" was better the first time around), particularily Marked Woman. I love the attempt to make Old Aquaintance seem racy or provocative - "There are certain things one just doesn't do.! BUT I DID" Love old poster art!

I think alot of it has to do with which restorations are completed now and which are still ongoing, or not begun yet. They may not want to shelve the current five until they have three more ready.

Marco:

The Falcon set reportedly will also contain Dangerous Female with Ricardo Cortez as Spade. Off the top of my head, I don't know the order but I do know that the Bogart version is the second remake and I regard this version as damned near perfect. The other two are very good, however, though I remember very little about the Warren William-Bette Davis vehicle. Looking forward to seeing it again, though, since I repect Ms Davis immensely and regard Warren William as highly underrated.

Rightly or wrongly, I had heard that the transfer of Falcon to DVD was not the best, so I avoided buying it. It seems that good things come to those who wait.

PatH