Future Warner Gangster Collections?

Last Warner chat I asked the same question: Nothing planned was the response.

Are there any decent gangster films left that were actually made by Warners? (Maybe Doorway to Hell and The Star Witness?) I always wished they had dropped the "Warners" part of the title so they could have included some MGM films like The Secret Six and Beast in the City.

Maybe not enough for another Gangster collection, but certainly plenty of titles for another Warners Tough Guys collection, featuring Cagney, Robinson and Bogart in gritty urban settings.

Cagney: Sinner's Holiday, Blonde Crazy, Taxi!, The Crowd Roars, Winner Take All, Hard To Handle, Jimmy The Gent, and a number of others

Robinson: The Widow From Chicago

Bogart: Racket Busters, King of the Underworld, You Can't Get Away With Murder, It All Came True

Unfortunately, they released many good candidates in the Archives...

I know WHV already dumped a bunch of his titles into the Archive, but is there something wrong with adding John Garfield to this list?  After all, he is one of the "City Boys" (along with Cagney & Bogart, as dubbed by film historian Robert Sklar in his book of the same title).  Of the titles left in his filmography, THEY MADE ME A CRIMINAL, EAST OF THE RIVER, and BLACKWELL'S ISLAND could be fit into "Tough Guys" or "Gangsters" sets.  

Hopefully, WHV are waiting for the right Noir set to unleash THE BREAKING POINT and NOBODY LIVES FOREVER already.  The former, in particular, deserves better than the Archive especially since Eddie Muller discussed working on a DVD of this film several years ago.  I'm not sure if a commentary was recorded or just planned.  The latter was restored with the assistance of Muller's Film Noir Foundation several years ago and both films have performed well in Muller's Noir City festivals around the country.

Considering the high esteem with which Noir-centric writers (and frequent DVD commentators) like Muller and Kim Morgan hold Garfield, I'm still surprised at the constant snubbing the actor gets.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrianRi 

Maybe not enough for another Gangster collection, but certainly plenty of titles for another Warners Tough Guys collection, featuring Cagney, Robinson and Bogart in gritty urban settings.

 

Cagney: Sinner's Holiday, Blonde Crazy, Taxi!, The Crowd Roars, Winner Take All, Hard To Handle, Jimmy The Gent, and a number of others

 

Robinson: The Widow From Chicago

 

Bogart: Racket Busters, King of the Underworld, You Can't Get Away With Murder, It All Came True

 
John, I think you've got a good point, although to me, Garfield's acting style occupies an interesting  place in film history. He's kind of a bridge between the older, presentational styles of Bogart, Cagney, and Robinson, and the method-type acting style of Brando, Clift, and James Dean.

And speaking of Garfield, when the hell is Warners going to release The Sea Wolf? Whether it's through the archives or not, it should have been released already, I think. It's a grade-A film with great performances from both Robinson and Garfield.

I mostly agree with your assessment of acting styles, but I don't think that that is the point with regards to a series like this and I still think Garfield's work, particularly early on, is more akin to Cagney, Robinson, Bogart than it is to Clift, Dean, and Brando.  Historically, Garfield was Warner Bros.' heir to the Cagney throne ("the new Cagney").  Many of the parts that Cagney and Bogart rejected, had outgrown, etc. went to the young Garfield, just as the "Garfield roles" later went to actors like Dane Clark after Garfield left the Warner fold.

Examples include:

EAST OF THE RIVER (rejected by Cagney before the studio foisted it upon Garfield)

OUT OF THE FOG (was set to star Bogart, but co-star Ida Lupino refused to work with him again after having such a miserable time on HIGH SIERRA).

Yes, THE SEA WOLF is way overdue, indeed.  The Garfield estate is said to own a rare 16mm print with extra footage that doesn't exist in regular release prints of the film.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrianRi 

 

 
John, I think you've got a good point, although to me, Garfield's acting style occupies an interesting  place in film history. He's kind of a bridge between the older, presentational styles of Bogart, Cagney, and Robinson, and the method-type acting style of Brando, Clift, and James Dean.

 

And speaking of Garfield, when the hell is Warners going to release The Sea Wolf? Whether it's through the archives or not, it should have been released already, I think. It's a grade-A film with great performances from both Robinson and Garfield.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Traveling Matt 

A family member informed me of a commercial running on TCM advertising both a Gangsters collection and a James Cagney collection. I've searched online and have come up empty. Has anyone heard about these?

Two of the latest volumes in the "TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection" series.  4 films / each, on 2 double-sided discs; all films previously released in WHV's Cagney and Gangsters box sets.