WANTED: MORE ALLIED ARTISTS 1950s SF AND HORROR FILM DVD RELEASES!!!!!

As it has been well over a year now since the excellent start of Warner Brothers Home Entertainment having made available the (former) Allied Artists Pictures Corporation 1950s SF B-film programmers ATTACK OF THE 50-FOOT WOMAN (1958), QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE (1958) and THE GIANT BEHEMOTH (1959) on DVD all digitally remastered and newly restored in excellent pristine quality how about making more of these high-demand AA cult classic titles available?!

FLIGHT TO MARS (1951)
THE MAZE (1954)
TARGET EARTH (1954)
WORLD WITHOUT END (1956) * This one is VERY high priority!
INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN (1956)
THE ATOMIC MAN (1956)
ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS (1957)
NOT OF THIS EARTH (1957)
THE CYCLOPS (1957)
DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL (1957)
FROM HELL IT CAME (1957)
THE DISEMBODIED (1957)
FRANKENSTEIN 1970 (1958)
WAR OF THE SATELLITES (1958)
MACABRE (1958)
THE BAT (1959)
THE COSMIC MAN (1959)
CALTIKI, THE IMMORTAL MONSTER (1959)
THE ATOMIC SUBMARINE (1959)
BLUEBEARD'S TEN HONEYMOONS (1959)
THE WASP WOMAN (1959)

and from the 1960s:

THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1960)
THE HYPNOTIC EYE (1960)
THE LAST WOMAN ON EARTH (1960)
ATLAS (1960)
TORMENTED (1960)
THE MERMAIDS OF TIBURON (1962)
CONFESSIONS OF AN OPION EATER (1962)
BLACK ZOO (1963)
THE STRANGLER (1964)
CURSE OF THE VOODOO (1965)
FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER (1965)

Don't stop now! You have only just begun tapping into this great stuff!

Jeff T.

GREAT EXPLOITATIONAL ENTERTAINMENT!!!!!

Well the annual Warner Brothers Home Entertainment online question-and-answers session was a tremendous aid in both finding out vital information from the source and for making suggestions something that we were unfortunately deprived of this year.

Hopefully retails sales for the ATTACK OF THE 50-FT. WOMAN (1958), QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE (1958) and THE GIANT BEHEMOTH (1959) DVDs were such that will warrant Warners to indeed proceed with further similar releases specifically from their Allied Artists film catalogue.

And one has to wonder just what treasures are locked away in the Warner's film vaults out of the public sight and accessibility!

As an additional incentive we can continue to convincingly hammer away the point here!

Jeff T.

A POINT OF CONJECTURE!!!!!

With the exception of Criterion none of the companies that have been listed are the "official" copyright holders of the specific films mentioned...as the poor quality of the source elements for most of those DVD titles painfully attests to!

I don't know why it is felt that Paramount should have THE MAZE (1954) under its ownership but I won't dispute this.

However on the basis of uncertainty I have listed all the titles that came to mind just in case Warner Brothers does indeed still has these films under its ownership...which it probably does!

I probably should have also included DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (1963) and CRACK IN THE WORLD (1965) to the list as well.

Jeff T.

GOOD POINT!!!!!

This has also occurred to me as well which likely in part prompted this discussion thread...that and the lack of any genuine interesting SF-Horror-Fantasy genre material being made available on DVD!

Right now the economy isn't necessarily the greatest compounded by the fact that Warner Brothers Home Entertainment did somewhat over-saturate the market with four volume box sets of its Cult Camp Classics series.

I also think that Warner Brothers has spread itself out in so many diverse directions that just so much attention can be afforded each individual project. Just to compound things further some of us are still waiting for a long anticipated Bowery Boys DVD release!

ATTACK OF THE 50-FT. WOMAN (1958), QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE (1958) and THE GIANT BEHEMOTH (1959) are still readily available and additional sales may just turn the tide to our advantage.

Generally I think that the Allied Artists film catalogue is a solid seller and all that is needed right now is some sustained encouragement on our parts.

Jeff T.

TIME WILL TELL!!!!

Well if all goes well then we will be getting DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (1963) in the bargain.

If FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER (1965) is from the legitimate copyright owner than why is the source element used in the Dark Sky DVD release missing a couple minutes of footage (the axe murder of a hapless victim)? Why didn't they go back to the original (and presumably intact) 35mm print negatives which should be in their possession?

With the initial Allied Artists DVD releases there have been several prominent DVD online information services that are eagerly cackling in anxious anticipation about stuff like ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS (1957), NOT OF THIS EARTH (1957) and whatnot so I am fairly confident we haven't heard the last of these Allied Artists films as potential DVD releases from Warner Brothers.

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956) was once part of this group as well!

Jeff T.

AN 'AMAZING' NEW TECHNICAL FEATURE!!!!!

If you wish to see the two provided posters included in this discussion thread in all their full glory simply click them with your cursor and they will miraculously e-x-p-a-n-d in size!

Very nice!

Jeff T.

WARNER'S DWINDLING AA FILM INVENTORY!!!!!

Well the way things are going we may end up with just a few Allied Artists film titles in the original inventory but it (still) remains to be seen just what Warner Brothers will come up with?!

I remember seeing FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER (1965) along with CURSE OF THE VOODOO (1965) on a doublebill and surely an intact pristine print must still be in circulation somewhere.

Jeff T.

WARNER'S B-FILM LIBRARIES!!!!!

I think that one of the inherent problems with Warners Brothers Home Entertainment is that B-films (with the occasional exception) aren't exactly their forte.

Warner generally has its head in the clouds with its stellar (and ultra expensive) signature collection of screen classics...which may please someone like Robert Osborne but the greater buying public out there? Forget it!

How many more Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwick and Joan Crawford collections are necessary before the DVD department declares absolute bankruptcy?! Humphrey Bogart and Errol Flynn are one thing but Warner is carrying a point to ridiculous extremes...and I well know how this sounds!

It is unfortunate that this discussion thread must compete with the current MGM MIDNITE MOVIES one for attention and support (as this one likely inspired the other) but many enlightened online DVD information services are bemoaning the absences of elusive favourites like NOT OF THIS EARTH (1957) and ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS (1957) among others and they are all to found right here.

It may well prove to be that some of the errant 1940s Mongram produced Charlie Chan films with Sidney Toler and Roland Winters are also under the auspices of Warner Brothers.

Jeff T.

ROGER CORMAN'S 1950s ALLIED ARTISTS SF TRILOGY!!!!!

There may well be something in what you say as (fairly) recently TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES aired both ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS (1957) and DEATH RACE 2000 (1975) which may have come from the selfsame distributor.

But unless there are further Allied Artists DVD releases forthcoming from Warner or another online questions-and-answers session with the DVD division reps nothing is conclusive...at least in my opinion!

Some "informed" sources adamantly claim that Roger Corman now has the rights to NOT OF THIS EARTH (1957), ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS (1957) and (possibly) WAR OF THE SATELLITES (1958) while others just as certain refute this.

This I can say with certainty B-film product like the ANDY HARDY movies would probably outsell much of the "high class" material of questionable commercial interest that Warner has in recent years chosen to focus on.

The point being that under the current regime this fun stuff is always unreasonably being either waylayed indefinitely...or completely ignored entirely!

Jeff T.

ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS (1957)!!!!!

"You are about to land in a lonely zone of terror...on an uncharted atoll in the Pacific! You are part of the 'Second Scientific Expedition' dispatched to this mysterious bit of coral reef and volcanic rock. The first group has disappeared without a trace! Your job is to find out why! There have been rumours about this strange atoll...frightening rumours about happenings way out beyond the laws of Nature...."--The opening prologue narrative from the syndicated television version of ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS (1957).

Unfortunately if Warner Brothers Home Entertainment doesn't still possess this Allied Artists 1950s SF B-film double feature programmer (originally cobilled with NOT OF THIS EARTH) our chances are slight that it will be readily made available on DVD.

From the mid to late 1960s at least six of our local tv stations used to air ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS (1957) endlessly until it completely disappeared from sight in the late 1960s. On some U.S. stations it could still be seen in the early to mid 1970s.

As I vividly recall the print circulated in our region was in absolutely pristine condition.

The original theatrical version ran approximately 66 minutes in length and to expand it to more comfortably fit a 90 minute time slot an opening narrative prologue, additional scenes of the planet Earth seen out in Space, a lengthy series of nuclear explosions and a pre-main title teaser preview (comprised of an exciting scene culled from the body of the film itself) were added!

After virtually 40 years since I last saw this entertaining Roger Corman gem it was recently aired on TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES but it was disappointingly the 66 minute theatrical version sans all the interesting additions which is the way I remember it.

Jeff T.

THE MERMAIDS OF TIBURON!!!!!

Gorgeous looking colour stock film footage taken from THE MERMAIDS OF TIBURON (1962) featuring Diane Webber were extensively used in the VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA episode "The Mermaid"!

Jeff T.

SLOW MOTION?!!!!!

I have heard mention of the alleged "slowed down" scenes too (discussed in a 1965 issue of CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN magazine which I still have) but have never seen any evidence of this myself that I can recollect in the Allied Artists 1950s SF films that were handled in the expanded manner and aired on television.

The main drawback to the revised tv syndicated versions which are likely forever lost to posterity by now anyway is that the actual theatrical screen image scope wasn't maintained so assuming Warner (or whomever) went back to the original 35mm print negatives it would be the shorter doublebill programmer versions without these bonus flourishes (ie. ATTACK OF THE 50 FT. WOMAN).

Jeff T.