Fox to release Mr. Moto Volume 1 in August (1 Viewer)

[Steve...O]

The Creepy Classics website has a blurb up stating that Fox will release a 4 DVD collection of Peter Lorre's Mr. Moto films in August. They list 8/1 as the release date. This release had been rumored for quite some time so I'm glad to see it happen. I've been told that the prints, which had been restored by Fox several years ago, look stunning.

Of course, Fox is continuting to slap a $60 MSRP on these. The link to the story is here

http://www.creepyclassics.com/script...=/cctoday.html

(you may have to scroll down a bit)

Incidentially, CreepyClassics was the first website to put up the blurb about Chan Volume 1 so they must have a good pipeline into Fox.

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MR. MOTO COLLECTION - Volume One (Four Disc Set) Release Date: August 1, 2006
Peter Lorre and the best character actors oft he 1930s star in the Mr. Moto series. The first volume here will includet he following great features: MR. MOTO TAKES A CHANCE (1938), THE MYSTERIOUS MR. MOTO (1938), THANK YOU MR. MOTO (1937) and THINK FAST MR. MOTO (1937)! (Fox DVD Box Set/List Price 59.98
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[GregoryMesh]

August 1 is Tuesday. And Amazon already has it for pre-order

 

[Bert Greene]

We'd been hearing rumblings about this for a while, but now that it's definate, I'm really thrilled. I love the "Moto" films, and there are a number of them I haven't seen in over twenty years. Looking forward to the restorations. I hope they sell well enough, and maybe then Fox might revive some of their other series films, like Michael Shayne and even the Jones Family.

 

[Steve...O]

One restored Moto has aired on FMC and it looked wonderful. The other films are said to look just as good. "Mr. Moto's Last Warning" is being rescued from public domain world for Volume 2 of this set. The copies of Moto films that are in circulation now don't look all that great so being able to get top flight discs is very welcome news.

I bought the Michael Shayne disc that Fox released to zero fanfare last year and was very pleased at the presentation. I hope they release more, but I have a feeling Fox is going to be looking at a lot of unsold inventory of $50 and $60 box sets so they may assume people aren't interested in classic films.

 

[JohnPM]

Over at Davis DVD, they've announced a four title box Of Mr. Moto features for August 1, with a $59.98 price. Great to see these features finally getting out.

http://greenbriarpictureshows.blogspot.com/

 

[Matt Hough]

I'm thrilled about the releases of both the MOTO and CHAN boxes by Fox. As for their pricing, well, looks like nothing has changed from the laserdisc days. [sigh]

 

[Robert Crawford]

Again, Fox has this boxset priced too high and I seriously wonder how that's going to affect the sales.

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=61528

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Again, I don't think this is a bad price at all. $15 per film is not high, and of course we know that the set will be discounted. So what will that be -- something like $12 per movie (or less)? They can't just go and give 'em away. Incidentally, I've never seen any of the Mr. Moto films and I'll be doing a blind buy.

 

[Robert Crawford]

For the average dvd buyer which you're not, this price will most likely be available at some of the major retailers without being discounted which means it won't generate many blind buys from the larger segment of potential purchasers. That is my concern, that the average dvd buyer won't buy enough of these units which will in turn might affect future similar releases.




Crawdaddy

 

[JohnPM]

Wouldn't it be interesting to know just how many units of these library titles they generally sell. I would think a lot of it moves through Amazon, Planet, and the like ... and Amazon often ranks the older titles among it's biggest sellers of the week. Obviously, this stuff is doing well for Fox, or they wouldn't be announcing so many additional releases. I mean, who would have dreamed two years ago that we'd have Fox Laurel and Hardy, Will Rogers, Charlie Chan, and Mr. Moto?

http://greenbriarpictureshows.blogspot.com/

 

[Ruz-El]

The price point on these Mr. Motto, Charlie Chan sets aren't terrible, but they are high, especially with Warner putting out boxsets with all sorts of quality extras like featurettes, shorts cartoons, etc.

I was planning on picking both these up as a blind buy, but I well probably only get Moto, as I like Peter Lorre.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

It's not that I don't understand your concern, Robert (I do!) - but if you think about it, the average DVD buyer isn't interested in older titles like this one no matter what the price. Would you agree?

 

[Robert Crawford]

Lately, I've seen a lot of average dvd buyers roaming BB or CC that are from my generation or older and they are definitely might be interested in these older titles. I know we have a tendency to think only the twentysomething crowd buys dvds, but it's not always the case in 2006. Also, something to remember about these Moto titles. Not one of them goes beyond 68 minutes, so essentially, if you're shopping at BB or CC, you're paying close to $15.00 per title that runs a little over an hour each. IMO, that's overpriced!




Crawdaddy

 

[Matt Hough]

Seems like Fox would have learned its lesson with the first season of THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW. It was overpriced and sold poorly. Once they got feedback, they priced the second and third seasons (after a LONG break between seasons 1 and 2) much more reasonably, and they sold very well.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

I know how much you hate "back and forth" talk, but I don't think that only twentysomething's buy DVD's - far from it, actually - but even the older people I know seem somehow more in tune with "today" than "yesterday" when it comes to their purchases. That's bizarre to me, but it seems to occur a lot.

As for the length of a film, I NEVER can buy into that logic. I would rather pay $15 for a 68 minute film which I thoroughly enjoy as opposed to a 120 minute feature that isn't as good. To me the value is in the entertainment, not the running time.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Just because you don't buy into that logic doesn't make it untrue for others. Each of us make certain considerations before we spend our money and IMO, the pricing of these short films at almost $15.00 each is counterproductive to increasing units sold. In time, we'll see which way the public votes on this matter, but I'm afraid Fox will look at these results as non-interest in Mr. Moto instead of reevaluating their price structure.





Crawdaddy

 

[Ruz-El]

I'm 31 and have quite a few of the Warner titles in my collection. Allot of my friends bugged the hell out of me for buying these, stating they were a waist of money. After actually watching the movies and than finding out I got most of the box sets for the price of what 2 of the titles would of sold for seperately, they came around and have actually picked up similar sets.

That said, Fox's pricing on Moto and Chan is high, especially for 4 movies that are basically bare bones is pretty high, and deffinately content comes into play. These sets are coming on the heels of Warners feature filled Tough Guys Colelction, and comepteing agains the feaure filled Jimmys Stewart set. There is deffinately more value in the Warner sets that is going to come into play to people like me who aren't fans of the series, but would like to check them out due to word of mouth. I have to agree with Ron on this one.

Not to take anything away from Joe, I totally agree that ultimately the movies themselves are most important. It's just that sometimes it's nice to pick the creamiest icing on the cake.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Yes, but a lot of times some fans have gone back and forth as to what's important to them (extra icing or no icing at all), but I've always found that their emphasis on which is more intriguing varies from company to company, depending on which one they're supporting at the time.

Hey, don't get me wrong -- I wish the films were $5 each. But I used to pay $25 each for VHS tapes in the 1980s, so $15 or lower per title is much better!

 

[Robert Crawford]

And I offered why others might not see it the same way as you do and the same is true in regard to my stance. Anyhow, like you alluded to already, I easily tire of back and forth exchanges, especially when opinions are expressed and entrenched with little else to expand upon so here's hoping that I am wrong and Fox continues to release classic product like Mr. Moto in the future.




Crawdaddy

 

[Steve...O]

Amen. If Fox gets their pricing structure to a reasonable level and they continue to release the high quality of product they're known for, I'll be up for anything they release.