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

[Matt Hough]

OMG! And I think it's her second greatest performance ever after The Nun's Story. I never tire of watching her in it and love her plucky determination and how cleverly she is able to figure out much of what's going on. I also think Richard Crenna is criminally underrated in this.

 

[Nick*Z]

Too many good Crawford titles MIA: my vote would probably be for Mildred Pierce as the Warner pick of the day. It would really be something if Warner also considered The Damned Don't Cry, Humoresque and Flamingo Road. Of these, I think only Mildred and Flamingo looked stellar on DVD, ergo, it wouldn't be a stretch for it to make the leap to Blu.

I would absolutely love to see A Woman's Face, Susan and God and When Ladies Meet come up for such consideration. All three look fairly abysmal on DVD. But I fear they're considered 'minor' Crawford and therefore unworthy.

No one's really chatted about Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Judy Garland or Norma Shearer - huge stars in their day who are poorly represented on DVD - MOD or otherwise. Isn't there anyone here who would love to see Shearer in Romeo and Juliet, The Barretts of Wimpole Street or Marie Antoinette? What about Gable in Idiot's Delight, Strange Cargo, Red Dust, Test Pilot, China Seas, Honky Tonk and Boom Town?

Garland always seemed like a natural to have her catalog exploited. But we're still missing a good chunk of her work. Life Begins for Andy Hardy, Ziegfeld Girl, In the Good Old Summertime, Summer Stock, Presenting Lily Mars, The Clock.

Lana Turner ought to be in line here too. She was Metro's most popular pin up during the war years. Weekend at the Waldorf, The Three Musketeers, Cass Timberlane, Green Dolphin Street, The Bad and the Beautiful.

And then there are the great one's which don't really fit into any of the aforementioned categories but definitely deserve consideration.

Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939), The Shop Around the Corner, The Philadelphia Story, Adam's Rib, Mrs. Parkington, The White Cliffs of Dover, Random Harvest, National Velvet, Cabin in the Sky, The Great Ziegfeld, The Good Earth, King's Row, Old Acquaintance, Scaramouche (Stewart Granger), The Prisoner of Zenda (Ronald Colman). Too much good stuff left by the waste side because profitability seems to be waning. We'll see - and of course, sincerely hope for better things.

 

[JohnMor]

OMG! And I think it's her second greatest performance ever after The Nun's Story. I never tire of watching her in it and love her plucky determination and how cleverly she is able to figure out much of what's going on. I also think Richard Crenna is criminally underrated in this.

I agree, Matt. She gives a phenomenal performance in it. Plus, the whole point is you want someone the audience loves and feels for in that situation. If it wasn't upsetting to watch, there'd be no suspense in the story.

"Do I have to be the world's champion blind lady??!""And another thing... it's winter. It's dark early now. So why does everyone keep fiddling around with the blinds??"

 

[Richard Stammer]

I bet if Frank had been in "The Alamo", the Sinatra girls would be all over MGM about restoring it.

I can just see Frank in The Alamo, "Yo Tony, pass me that flintlock!"

 

[classicmovieguy]

I agree, Matt. She gives a phenomenal performance in it. Plus, the whole point is you want someone the audience loves and feels for in that situation. If it wasn't upsetting to watch, there'd be no suspense in the story.

"Do I have to be the world's champion blind lady??!""And another thing... it's winter. It's dark early now. So why does everyone keep fiddling around with the blinds??"

There is that. I also can't stomach watching poor Olivia de Havilland and Ann Sothern being mauled around in "Lady in a Cage". What a nasty film that was.

 

[Randy_M]

Your statement "the best version of the film we (or maybe just I because maybe I'm alone in this) have ever seen" sums up my attitude as well. I consider myself a fan of the film, not the disc. I don't spend my time viewing a disc looking for edge enhancement, excessive DNR, haloing, etc. My wife will tell you when I'm watching a BD I am totally immersed in the film. Now, when I see something that just sticks out (Spartacus, The Big Red One), etc, I notice it but I'm not running my magnifying glass over the screen like Sherlock Holmes so I can post a "Gotcha" on a forum. And I read a LOT of those. I just want the films, in the best possible condition (realistically).

I do feel there's a feeling of desperation in many of us BD fans.......streaming seems to be the direction home video is going towards, "leasing" copies of films vs. owning them is where the studios apparently want us to go......so we feel that if our favorite film(s) aren't released on BD soon, they never will be. Now, that may or may not be the reality, but I do believe it's a perception among many of us. I certainly feel that way.

I only started collecting media about 4 years ago and now have over 400 BD's and I only collect films that I love. I never "collected" DVD's because I thought there would always be a "bigger and better" home media format just around the corner. I had a few of my faves (Where Eagles Dare, The Guns of Navarone, Ben-Hur, LOA, the Bond films, Disney for my kids) on DVD but not a "collection" by any means and I upgraded those to BD as soon as they became available.

I've now come to believe that BD is the last mass-market physical format we'll see. Oh, 4k might be a niche market for some but it will have even less market than BD does and correspondlingly fewer older titles will ever be released in 4k physically. So, just recently I've started collecting DVD's of many of my favorite catalog titles that I feel (rightly or wrongly) will never see the light of day on BD. I just ordered George Washington Slept Here, The Gazebo, Above Suspicion, The Horn Blows at Midnight, Operation Crossbow, The Heroes of Telemark, The Shop Around the Corner, and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo because I've come to doubt that they will ever see a BD release. Better to have them in the best possible version than not at all. And in my hands, not in the cloud.

Thanks for mentioning "The Gazebo" being available in DVD (MOD) - I had no idea that this title is out, and I ordered it right away. Guess I should check the Warner's Archive site more often.

 

[Bryan^H]

I would start saving up now. For those who love classic cinema, it's going to be an expensive year.

RAH

I love expensive years! Thank you for the good news.

 

[atfree]

Thanks for mentioning "The Gazebo" being available in DVD (MOD) - I had no idea that this title is out, and I ordered it right away. Guess I should check the Warner's Archive site more often.

No problem. Watched it yesterday. Very good transfer but I had to crank the mono sound up to hear some dialog. Very underrated film IMO.

 

[Jacksmyname]

Bogart! Flynn! Sinatra!
Thanks for a great post, Robert!

 

[John Doe]

Why is the WB ignoring Cary Grant?

The Philadelphia Story
Arsenic and Old Lace
Bringing Up Baby
Gunga Din

all great classics.

 

[davidmatychuk]

Also: Suspicion, Sylvia Scarlett, My Favorite Wife, Destination Tokyo, Night And Day, The Bachelor And The Bobby-Soxer, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, all on Warner Home Video DVD. And: Once Upon A Honeymoon, None But The Lonely Heart, Crisis, Every Girl Should Be Married, Room For One More, In Name Only, Dream Wife, Mr. Lucky, Suzy, and The Toast Of New York, all on Warner Archive MOD DVD.

 

[lukejosephchung]

Warner Archives Collection has JUST announced on their Facebook page today that "The Great Race"(1965)is coming to blu-ray on Sept. 9th, 2014...AND it's the full 160-minute roadshow cut!!! This will make for a very nice 58th Birthday present for me that day...

 

[atfree]

WHV and WAC are certainly stepping up their game. "The Great Race" is at or near the top of my most-wanted list. Based on past WAC releases, I expect this to be a near-perfect BD.

 

[trajan]

Thank you Warner so much for THE GREAT RACE. i also hope you have some love for RYANS DAUGHTER and LOCAL HERO.

 

[Peter Neski]

their Art Department is the worst

 

[aPhil]

I'm kind of surprised that I have never find anyone mentioning the (generally) unseen Bela Lugosi movie, "Genius at Work."

With Warner having released their other Lugosi RKO films on well transfered standard def DVD's
("You'll Find Out," "The Body Snatcher," "Zombies on Broadway),
and with so many awestruck Lugosi fans looking at poor transfers of other films just to get a glimpse of him,
why does "Genius at Work" (even if it's not a very good film) seem to be forgotten?

 

[calvinm]

I'm just praying that when Warner Archive gets around to releasing the new restoration of The Lusty Men that they'll do so on Blu-Ray. Fantastic to see them releasing Out of the Past. The Great Race isn't really my cup of tea.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

'John Doe' has a good point in Warner ignoring the Cary Grant catalog.
It' s hard to believe that 'The Philadelphia Story' still lacks a Blu ray release so far down the track, given its credentials.
But then, it's just as hard to fathom out why Bogart's 'The Big Sleep' hasn;t been released, let alone even ONE of the Astaire/Rogers classics.
But despite all that, Warners has given us so many catalog gems. It's just that we want them ALL. NOW!

 

[Mark-P]

I know there have been lots of requests for The Great Race. With this WAC announcement, it looks like Warner really is going to be an embarrassment of riches in the coming year!
By the way, George Feltenstein is going to be interviewed later today on the Frank DeCaro Show. If you don't know who Frank DeCaro is, please DON'T ask!

 

[dana martin]

Why is the WB ignoring Cary Grant?

Same could be said about Bette Davis and James Cagney