Fox releases John Ford's Tobacco Road in Germany (1 Viewer)

[Rod J]

At amazon.de John Ford's "Tobacco Road" - 1940.

Why won't they release it in the United States?

 

[John Hodson]

Okay Fox; here's the deal. Let's have a 'John Ford Collection':

Tobacco Road
When Willie Comes Marching Home
Wee Willie Winkie
The Prisoner of Shark Island
Judge Priest
Doctor Bull
Pilgrimage
The Iron Horse

If you want to chuck in Four Sons while you're at it, I won't mind a bit. In fact, you could persuade MGM to have another crack at The Horse Soldiers and include that too...

 

[Rod J]

from the UK I have the Eureka edition of "Prisoner of Shark Island" R2 (still available) and the BFI edition of Iron Horse R2 (apparently a extremely limited edition - if you didn't pre-order you missed out)

 

[Jeff_HR]

Darn good question! Any FOX insiders out there with the answer?

 

[John Hodson]

The R2 The Prisoner of Shark Island is quite superb, but I've been hoping that The Iron Horse would get the red carpet treatment in R1; a commentary and maybe a docmentary on Ford's silent films.

 

[oscar_merkx]

You're absolutely spot on.

Any special features on the German r2 dvd ?

Like they did on She Wore ....

 

[Eric Peterson]

I would love to get my hands on all of these.



I don't know that this is a reason, but I believe Europe is a pretty strong John Ford market. Alot of the great directors were brought into prominence in the 60s & 70s through younger European directors. Ford, Hawks, Hitchcock, etc... were all respected directors in the states but they didn't get near the worldwide respect until the some of the European directors started lauding them.

Just a theory!!

 

[John Hodson]

None listed at Amazon or Fox Germany.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

If it was Disney, we could blame it on the fact that "Tobacco" is in the title; of course, they could always digitally remove it. :rolleyes

 

[oscar_merkx]

Thanks John for the update

 

[Richard--W]

Probably because of Ford's caustic caricature of the southern hillbilly. His sense of humor has been accused of being in extremely poor taste, if not insulting, if not blatantly discriminating. One of his biographers -- I forget which -- wrote that it's hard to reconcile Tobacco Road as coming from the same director who made The Grapes of Wrath. I'm just speculating. I've not seen the film in three decades so I don't know, but political correctness is often a factor in whether or not an old film gets a home video release. Such is the case with Disney's Song of the South, The Man (1970) with James Earl Jones, Mandingo (1974) and its sequel Drum (1975).

 

[Jim Bur]

John: I think's its a great idea for Fox to release a John Ford collection. Warners released two John Ford collections last year,. Since Ford arguably did much of his best work for Fox, they certainly should get in on the act.

One of the problems I suspect is that Fox already individually released some of the most marketable titles that Ford directed for Fox such as "The Grapes of Wrath", "How Green Was My Valley", "My Darling Clementine", 'Drums Along the Mohawk", and they apparently licensed "Young Mr. Lincoln" to Criterion for their release (can you imagine what a great initial box set you could have had with those titles?).

They might what to do what Warners did with its John Ford-John Wayne collection. They released some new titles, however they also included enhanced re-releases of a few of the most marketable titles such as The Searchers. Fox could do a Ford boxset re-releasing a couple of the highly prized titles they have already released (with some added features and/or enhanced picture quality if possible), and then add 3-5 films that have never been released in R1, especially the masterpiece "The Prisoner of Shark Island". I would also strongly recommend they include the very entertaining adventure film "Four Men and a Prayer" with Loretta Young, David Niven, Richard Greene and George Sanders, and the aforementioned Tobacco Road, and for variety one of Ford's silent classics, and one or two of his many early sound pictures he did for Fox (i.e "The Black Watch", 'The Seas Beneath", etc.).

I think that the excellent film Judge Priest, and Dr. Bull, would best be included as part of Fox's Will Rogers collection. Two volumes have already been released as part of that collection (including Ford's "Steamboat Round the Bend"). I think the Will Rogers collection is one of the best things Fox has ever done, and I am hoping they will complete the collection in the same excellent manner that they began it.

Wee Willie Winkie, adapted from a Kipling short story, is an excellent film, however I expect it will be included as part of the ongoing Shirley Temple collection though maybe they could include it instead in a John Ford collection to perhaps enhance its marketablity.

c Jim Bur

 

[RafaelPires]

Tobacco Road has just being released in Brazil under the Fox Classics banner. and the transfer is excellent. Another recent release by Fox, not released in R1 is Beloved Infidel.

 

[Roger Rollins]

I like this film a great deal, and have also wondered why it hasn't been given a U.S. release.

I thought it might be a U.S. rights problem, like that of VIVA ZAPATA, where the author of the underlying work died before copyright renewal term (known as the REAR WINDOW decision by the Supreme Court). However, both authors of the play on which the film is based lived past the copyright renewal date, so it is a bit strange that Fox would ignore this in the U.S.

Maybe there is some other kind of obstacle that we outsiders wouldn't know about.

 

[John Hodson]

I've just learned from www.zetaminor.com that Ford's Gideon's Day is being released in the UK on August 1.

 

[Richard--W]

I second Mr. Bur's excellent suggestions.


See post #11.

 

[John Hodson]

According to Scott Eyman, of Ford's silent films (many of which as you know were westerns), around 15 have survived with portions of a further 8 intact - discoveries are being made every year. In fact, there's a Japanese DVD available of 3 Bad Men.

BTW, there are several R1 Fords available, which either aren't on offer in other countries or are available in inferior versions.

 

[Richard--W]

I have every one of Ford's films on DVD released in the USA. Or are you referring to south-of-the-border region 1's and Japanese region 1's? Maybe this is a good place to summarize and list all the foreign releases of Ford's films that aren't otherwise available in the USA.

I've been buying a lot of DVD's from Mexico lately, getting acquainted with the golden age of Mexican cinema and the work of writer - director Emilio "Indio" Fernandez, the John Ford of Mexico, whose films continually astonish me.

Many thanks.

 

[John Hodson]

I was alluding to the fact that actually the grass really is greener in R1; us 'foreigners' outside the USA usually have to come here for the best Fords on DVD. I really can't see either Tobacco Road or Gideon's Day not getting R1 releases.

As for a list of actually what's on DVD, I made a stab at that here

 

[Rod J]

Argosy Pictures/RKO from France: (English with removable subtitles)


The Fugitive 1947


Wagon Master - 1950