A few words about...™ The Errol Flynn Signature Collection - Volume 2 - Page 2

Re: A few words about...™ The Errol Flynn Signature Collection - Volume 2

I received my set today from amazon. It looks wonderful, I have really grown to like the slim packaging. The only complaint I have is the lack of commentaries. Only One. It seems that in the past we could count on Warner for a commentary for every film in a box set like this. Examples: Film Noir Vol. 1,2,3, Gangsters and also The Tough Guys Collection. But recently they have not put out as many with their releases, which is a shame I think. I wonder why this is the case.

Re: A few words about...™ The Errol Flynn Signature Collection - Volume 2

The upcoming Doris Day Volume 2 and James Cagney Signature Collection sets do not have a single non-archival extra.

Regards,

Re: A few words about...™ The Errol Flynn Signature Collection - Volume 2

Thats such a shame.

Re: A few words about...™ The Errol Flynn Signature Collection - Volume 2

There are also no newly-produced extras for the following:

TCM Spotlight - Katharine Hepburn Collection
The John Wayne Film Collection
World War II Collection Volume Two: Heroes Fight for Freedom
Lucille Ball Film Collection
The Original Nancy Drew Movie Mystery Collection
Steelyard Blues

The Cult Camp Classic will have plenty of newly produced extras including commentaries on the "Volume 1: Sc-Fi Thrillers" and the "Volume 4: Historical Epics" sets, but not on the other two volumes.

The SEs for "Rio Bravo" and "The Cowboys" will have plentiful extras. And there will be documentaries and/or commentaries on "Prince of the City", "Straight Time", and "Whose Life Is It Anyway?".

All of the above catalog titles are scheduled to come out before the end of June, so it would be hard to generate a ton of newly produced extras and keep up this pace, which I think is great, so I have mixed feelings about the situation.

Regards,

Re: A few words about...™ The Errol Flynn Signature Collection - Volume 2

Getting back to the Flynn Collection: I just watched ADVENTURES OF DON JUAN. I had always known it was a pretty good film, but had always considered more of a 3-star effort, as opposed to 4-star films such as ROBIN HOOD and tHE SEA HAWK, et al. However, after seeing this beautifully mastered disc, I am inclined to bump it up to 3-1/2 stars.

I seemed to remember it as being overly light-hearted and silly-ass, and it does rather begin that way. But in the last third, it turns serious and almost grim. Flynn performs his action scenes in a new way. No longer the impudent and overly confident swordsman of 10 or more years before, he takes an intense and violent approach to the action scenes (and the stunt doubling is almost seamless). As Ken said in his review, Flynn's Don Juan is a wiser, more cynical and world-weary character than those he'd played before.

I am including a couple of captures. In the first, note the costume worn by Viveca Lindfors as the Queen. THose of you who think you do not need a HDTV for SDDVD should look at a scene like this:



The pattern on her dress gives a standard TV a bad case of the strobing jitters, but is rock-solid on a HDTV display.

Also, the next shot is rare for 1948 Hollywood. A passionate kiss between Don Juan and the Queen leaves a strand of saliva between their lips:



Pretty hot stuff for its day, I'm sure. Don't know if I ever noticed it while watching the film on VHS or on TCM broadcasts.

Re: A few words about...™ The Errol Flynn Signature Collection - Volume 2

The saliva has always been easily visible even on the worst prints of "AoDJ."