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A Few Words About A few words about...™ Warner Bros. Home Video & The WB Archive Collection -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

atfree

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Another Warner's release I'd love to see on BD:

Seven Days in May

You can still get the DVD as part of a TCM 4-film set, but the standalone DVD is apparently OOP as it goes for over $60 bucks on Amazon Marketplace.

It would likely be a WAC release vs WHV if it ever comes to pass.....
 

Yorkshire

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Me too, Alex.

My (immediate) Warners Wants List:

Fury (1936)
Key Largo
The Set-Up
Gun Crazy
Whose Life is it Anyway?
Bad Day at Black Rock
The Big Sleep
Seven Days in May
Wait Until Dark

Steve W
 

atfree

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Yorkshire said:
Me too, Alex.

My (immediate) Warners Wants List:

Fury (1936)
Key Largo
The Set-Up
Gun Crazy
Whose Life is it Anyway?
Bad Day at Black Rock
The Big Sleep
Seven Days in May
Wait Until Dark

Steve W
Super list....each of those would be an instant purchase for me as well. IF Warner's starts releasing their catalog classics on BD at a decent pace, I may have to get a second job!
 

trajan

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Hope to see from Warner---- RYANS DAUGHTER---LOCAL HERO---THE GOODBYE GIRL---PENNIES FROM HEAVEN---GOODBYE MR CHIPS---FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD---ALICE DOEST LIVE HERE ANYMORE--PACIFIC HEIGHTS---SUMMER OF 42---MICHAEL COLLINS.--THE CARDINAL.
 

atfree

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This is probably wishful thinking (but then again, aren't ALL our posts in this thread wishful?) but I would love a BD of this:

51kwQkwT33L._SY300_.jpg
 

Paul Rossen

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trajan said:
Hope to see from Warner---- RYANS DAUGHTER---LOCAL HERO---THE GOODBYE GIRL---PENNIES FROM HEAVEN---GOODBYE MR CHIPS---FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD---ALICE DOEST LIVE HERE ANYMORE--PACIFIC HEIGHTS---SUMMER OF 42---MICHAEL COLLINS.--THE CARDINAL.
Isn't The Cardinal from Columbia Pictures, thus Sony?
 

Peter Apruzzese

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The Cardinal - plus the Preminger films Advise and Consent and The Human Factor - appears to be with Warner. They're available for streaming via the Warner Archive.
 

Ed Lachmann

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I have the German THE CARDINAL, which is not the greatest looking BD. It is a Concorde release and there is no WB logo to be seen which suggests that it is not really official. Still, if "official" WB international offices are starting to put some of their catalogue out in Europe, I hope that they finally allow BDs of films like LAND OF THE PHARAOHS, HELEN OF TROY, IVANHOE, SCARAMOUCHE and THE SILVER CHALICE. Seems the historical epics are far more popular overseas than here.
 

Allansfirebird

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The main one on my wishlist, as a big David Lean fan, would be Ryan's Daughter. It feels wrong to have any Lean films on anything less than 1080p.
 

AshJW

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As far as I know:
Ed Lachmann said:
I have the German THE CARDINAL, which is not the greatest looking BD.
It got a restauration by TLEFilms. And according to Torsten Kaiser the material was not in the best condition.
 

Alan Tully

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I have the German THE CARDINAL, which is not the greatest looking BD. It is a Concorde release and there is no WB logo to be seen which suggests that it is not really official. Still, if "official" WB international offices are starting to put some of their catalogue out in Europe, I hope that they finally allow BDs of films like LAND OF THE PHARAOHS, HELEN OF TROY, IVANHOE, SCARAMOUCHE and THE SILVER CHALICE. Seems the historical epics are far more popular overseas than here.
Ha, we share the same tastes in old movies Ed. I decided not to let the lack of a Blu-ray release stop me enjoying these films (the film is the thing). Last weekend I watched my DVD of Helen Of Troy & really enjoyed it, some of it looked great & some of it looked a bit dated & faded. I also watched Scaramouche & that DVD looks stunning (I have the French DVD as Warner never released it in the UK, the good thing about that is the French included the silent version as an extra - not that I've ever watched it). I also watched The Cheap Detective, a great looking DVD from Paramount. This weekend, The Land Of The Pharaohs.
 

Douglas R

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Ed Lachmann said:
I have the German THE CARDINAL, which is not the greatest looking BD. It is a Concorde release and there is no WB logo to be seen which suggests that it is not really official.
It's official because it bears the Hollywood Classics logo. They are the European agents for the major Hollywood studios and license titles to labels like Concorde. The film itself never had a Warner Bros logo of course, having originally been distributed by Columbia.
 

Douglas R

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Billy Batson said:
In the UK, BBC2 showed Kismet in HD, & the next thing it's a Archive release. Friday week they're showing Lust For Life (1956) in HD, I wonder if the same thing will happen again?
I saw LUST FOR LIFE today. If Warner Bros release this on Blu-ray and it looks like this, people will be very disappointed. The picture was soft with dull, brownish colours. This is a film where colour is hugely important with all those (genuine) Van Gogh paintings on display. I saw the film at the NFT in the '80s and I'm sure it looked brighter and more colourful than this HD broadcast.

This is what the New York Times said about the film in 1956 which demonstrates how good the colour must have looked originally:

In "Lust for Life," the film biography which had its world première last night at the Plaza Theatre in a benefit for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Student Fellowship fund, color dominates the dramatization—the color of indoor sets and outdoor scenes, the color of beautifully reproduced van Gogh paintings, even the colors of a man's tempestuous moods. These pictorial color continuities, planned like a musical score, have more effect upon the senses than the playing of Kirk Douglas in the leading role.
 

Ed Lachmann

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Douglas R said:
It's official because it bears the Hollywood Classics logo. They are the European agents for the major Hollywood studios and license titles to labels like Concorde. The film itself never had a Warner Bros logo of course, having originally been distributed by Columbia.
Well, my two disc special edition DVD from 2003 certainly does have the WB logo all over it. So, it would seem to me that at least from 2003 THE CARDINAL, indeed, was a WB property. Maybe I'm crazy, but having the WB logo on the official DVD seems to point me in that direction.
 

Alan Tully

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I saw LUST FOR LIFE today. If Warner Bros release this on Blu-ray and it looks like this, people will be very disappointed. The picture was soft with dull, brownish colours. This is a film where colour is hugely important with all those (genuine) Van Gogh paintings on display. I saw the film at the NFT in the '80s and I'm sure it looked brighter and more colourful than this HD broadcast.
Yeah, I recorded it & had a quick zip through, it looks a bit dull & muddy. I wonder if it's the "real thing", the Best Warner can do, it is 1956 Cinemascope, so you never know. I'll watch it over the weekend, I do like this movie.I see BBC2 are showing Firecreek in HD on Sunday. I've never seen this 1968 Warner western, so worth recording it.
 

Douglas R

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Ed Lachmann said:
Well, my two disc special edition DVD from 2003 certainly does have the WB logo all over it. So, it would seem to me that at least from 2003 THE CARDINAL, indeed, was a WB property. Maybe I'm crazy, but having the WB logo on the official DVD seems to point me in that direction.
Yes, I know that the WB logo is on the Warner DVD box. What I meant was that the WB logo is not on the actual fim.

The rights to THE CARDINAL and a number of other Preminger films for European territories are held by Ignite Films of The Netherlands. The (very) small print on the Concorde BD box (and i needed a magnifying glass to read it!) says copyright is with Ignite, licensed by Hollywood Classics to Concorde. Complicated 'aint it :) .
 

Douglas R

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Billy Batson said:
Yeah, I recorded it & had a quick zip through, it looks a bit dull & muddy. I wonder if it's the "real thing", the Best Warner can do, it is 1956 Cinemascope, so you never know. I'll watch it over the weekend, I do like this movie.I see BBC2 are showing Firecreek in HD on Sunday. I've never seen this 1968 Warner western, so worth recording it.
LUST FOR LIFE was especially disappointing because the BBC showed MRS MINIVER earlier in the week which looked fabulous in HD.

FIRECREEK IMO is a not a very good film.
 

Robin9

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Douglas R said:
I saw LUST FOR LIFE today. If Warner Bros release this on Blu-ray and it looks like this, people will be very disappointed. The picture was soft with dull, brownish colours. This is a film where colour is hugely important with all those (genuine) Van Gogh paintings on display. I saw the film at the NFT in the '80s and I'm sure it looked brighter and more colourful than this HD broadcast.

This is what the New York Times said about the film in 1956 which demonstrates how good the colour must have looked originally:

In "Lust for Life," the film biography which had its world première last night at the Plaza Theatre in a benefit for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Student Fellowship fund, color dominates the dramatization—the color of indoor sets and outdoor scenes, the color of beautifully reproduced van Gogh paintings, even the colors of a man's tempestuous moods. These pictorial color continuities, planned like a musical score, have more effect upon the senses than the playing of Kirk Douglas in the leading role.
In his autobiography, Vincent Minnelli makes the point that Freddie Young was endlessly patient in experimenting to ensure the colors matched perfectly. He went on to say that having seen how diligent Freddie Young was, he - Minnelli - was not at all surprised when Freddie Young won "Oscars" for his work with David Lean. I think the problem with Lust For Life today can be summarised in one word: Anscocolor.
 

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