John Wayne Centennial DVD Sets From WB and Paramount (1 Viewer)

[Joel Fontenot]

So...

The Quiet Man is still MIA?

 

[Robert Crawford]

Unfortunately, neither studio in today's announcements have the rights to "The Quiet Man".




Crawdaddy

 

[WadeM]

I'll be getting Warners' new set of films & Universal's a couple of weeks later on June 12 when we'll finally get Rooster Cogburn in a new anamorphic widescreen transfer! Along with Hellfighters & The War Wagon in new anamorphic widescreen transfers, and a rehash of Reap the Wild Wind and The Spoilers.

 

[Jay Gregory]

My copy of In Harm's Way is 16x9 (and approx. 2.35:1.)

I have the American Heroes Collection repackaging, BTW.

In fact, I'm not aware of any Paramount Waynes I own (and I've got most of them) that aren't 16x9. Of course, I haven't actually played most of them recently (unlike In Harm's Way, which I just confirmed is 16x9.)

 

[Mark Edward Heuck]

Now, see, the short-sightedness of Paramount relicensing the Republic library back to Lionsgate becomes manifest; classics like THE QUIET MAN, WAKE OF THE RED WITCH, and SANDS OF IWO JIMA could have been included in this package easily if they had decided to keep them in-house as originally planned.

Now the best we can hope for is the same drab versions that Lionsgate put out before with maybe just a new cover treatment.

 

[seanOhara]

I own all the Paramount titles except The Big Jake, and I don't plan on double-dipping on True Grit unless the price drops under $10. Now, if they'd done special editions of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, In Harm's Way, Hatari, and Donovan's Reef, I'd snap them up.

I'm not familiar with any of the films in the Warner box (except for Big Jim McLain's reputation) but they sound interesting, and honestly I've never seen a John Wayne movie I didn't like. The Cowboys is a movie I loved as a kid, but I never picked up the current edition, and Rio Bravo is one of my favorite Westerns, so those are definite buys.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I stand corrected on that title as well as the other Paramount titles being anamorphic presentations. Therefore, the only Wayne title coming out from Paramount that I'm going to buy initially is the True Grit SE because it appears they have revisited that title while the others have no such inclination as far as improved PQ.

 

[John Hodson]

Art now up at DVD Times.

 

[Eric Peterson]

That's exactly what I was thinking. It would be nice to have both versions, so a clarification on this would be very nice.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

...unless you are the guy slated to review seven new John Wayne titles and another four WHV "director's showcase" releases scheduled for that date, in which case you hope it comes somewhat gradually.

Regards,

 

[jim_falconer]

You certainly have an envious job! Especially looking forward to your review of "Tycoon". Seeing what a spectacular job Warner has done in the past transferring Wayne's RKO films onto DVD ("She Wore A Yellow Ribbon", "Flying Leathernecks", etc.), I'm very curious to see how this 1947 Technicolor print will look.

 

[Jay Gregory]

I agree, but I suspect we'll be disappointed. However, hope springs eternal.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

I'm confused by this press release.

It indicates that Warner and Paramount are 'combining' their DVD libraries, which would lead one to assume that they'll be cross-licensing titles to include in some sort of boxed set.

I don't see that from the details posted at DVDTimes though.

It looks as if Warner Bros. will be releasing their 6-disc "John Wayne Collection" and than two more separate Special Editions of 'The Cowboys' and 'Rio Bravo' (why aren't they included in the set?) as well as 'Deluxe' versions... which I'm excited to see photos and hear more about!

Than Paramount seems to simply be reissuing their Wayne titles in their own boxed set. So what's with the studio combining to honour Wayne's birthday schtick? Is it just that these sets are timed for release alongside one another as cross-promotion, or am I missing something here?

What exactly will be released from both studios and what is being offered in the way of boxed sets apart from the 6-disc collection from Warner Bros, specifically?


Sorry for the confusion, but I'd appreciate if somebody could clarify for me.. cause I'm lost.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

As an aside, seeing those images of Paramount's DVD covers next to Warner Bros. elegant artwork makes me want to puke. Plain black background with the title printed in computer font would be more appealing. Who do they hire to come up with this stuff?

 

[Ruz-El]

I'm guessing it's more a cross promotion team up thena literal combining of titles team up.

And your right, Warners really has classy covers locked up, will, them and Criterion.

 

[jim_falconer]

Basically, Paramount is just boxing up a bunch of titles already released, and making the box available on Duke's birthday...May 22nd. If Paramount didn't make the incredibly stupid mistake of handing over Republic's back catalog to Lionsgate, this would have been a prefect opportunity for them to release some new-to-DVD titles, under their "John Wayne Collection" banner.
Paramount could have really sounded the horn with a remastered version of "The Quiet Man". Instead, we get the second or third release of the same transfer, of most of these films.

 

[GregoryMesh]

Lionsgate is reissuing a bunch of Republic titles on DVD as double features on May 8, but considering all the titles were previously available, it's most likely they will use old Artisan transfers. I hope they prove me wrong. They will also release 2 boxsets of 4 titles.
Volume 1 - Flying Tigers, The Quiet Man, Sands of Iwo Jima, Wake of the Red Witch
Volume 2 - Dakota, The Fighting Kentuckian, A Lady Takes a Chance, Rio Grande

 

[Robert Crawford]

I'm not touching those releases until I read some reviews.




Crawdaddy

 

[Jim_K]

Meh. Nothing for me here, I already own the films I'd want on SD.

I would double dip in a heartbeat for the Rio Bravo SE if/when it becomes available on Blu-Ray/HD.

C'mon Warner, don't shortchange us elitist bastards, early adopters and "niche buyers". We like classic films too!

 

[dana martin]

Agreed, I was extremely unhappy to hear that Paramount did the re-licensing of the Republic Films back to Loinsgate, and while I don’t have a single problem with double feature disc. What I do have is a transfer that is the same as the original, that was done way over ten years ago. The Dukes republic output was some of the first in the format and with the change or growth of technology it should only improve. For shame on Paramount for only keeping It’s A Wonderful Life, to release as a special edition. So many great titles that reverted back would have filled out the Paramount set; in the way of possible 2 disc sets I could easily see one for The Quiet Man, and maybe something like a single disk SE for The Sands of Iwo Jima. Notoriously missing from the Lionsgate releases is The Fighting Seabees??

I just think it is a shame that it happened this way, and I also agree that along with the presentation of these on disc that I prefer the original artwork, as opposed to the floating heads and bad computer text. Really these films were sold to the public once , and the one sheet was good enough then, it should be as well now.

I am looking forward to the WB set, the question i have is and i brought this up before, does WB own the Monagram Library, a lot of great Wayne westerns in that group