I am hoping that in my lifetime we will see a nice Universal box set of their four Olsen and Johnson films.
I remember way back in the laser days, they had studio day at a local laser store and the Universal representative said they were interested, but there was a rights problem for Hellzapoppin' Since then, I have heard various stories including Jerry Lewis owning the rights, as well as the guy who played the robot in the Lost in Space series owning some rights to the films. My guess is Hellzapoppin' is the film that is holding everything up. AMC showed a nice transfer of CRAZY HOUSE back in their glory days, but GHOST CATCHERS and SEE MY LAWYER I have only in horrible off the air copies from 16mm.
Of course at this point in time, I am sure the interest is minimal as far as general sales, but I still would like to see a box set. Universal did release Hellzapoppin' in Europe and it was a good, if not, great transfer. I think it showed up on Canadian cable many years back, so I guess the rights issue is USA based.
Maybe we can hope for some of these films when TCM starts showing more of the Universal stuff next year.
