Lionsgate starting to work on its Republic catalog? (1 Viewer)

[Douglas Monce]

Having distribution rights, and having accesses to the original film elements maybe two different things. The owners of the actual film elements (in the case of most of the Republic library that is Paramount) may not be in a big hurry to find the best elements for a third party.

Also the original elements for some films may not exist anymore. It might be a case like RKO where elements were destroyed to recover the silver content. I know as recently as the early 90s there were some good elements of the Spy Smasher and The Masked Marvel because Republic released them on VHS. I wonder if Paramount now has those?

Doug

 

[Stefan Andersson]

Dick, Oscar, Jeffrey: sorry for taking so long in answering. My bad: I was referring to the Criterion LD of BODY SNATCHERS, but I misremembered. This LD stuck in my mind because it was 2.35 (very desirable after watching P & S TV copies of a masked print) but of course the hospital sequences are still there. Doubt very much if there is an LD without them.

 

[ChrisPearson]

The Republic library includes the Betty Boop, Screen Songs, KoKo The Clown, Animated Antics, Stone-Age and Color Classics cartoons from the Fleischer studio, plus the 1942-1950 non-Popeye cartoons from the Famous studio.

Gulliver's Travels has been dropped from the upcoming Popeye V2:

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/classic/p...onus-materials

 

[dana martin]

Damn , I was looking forward to seeing what WB would do with that animated feature, but I have to agree that it was sounding kind of crowded, for a two disc set, as for the rest of the Fleischer material, if Lionsgate wanted to do these they would need to step up and do these correctly.

 

[Robert Crawford]

It's been so many years since I watched this film that I can't remember when the last time I've seen it? Perhaps, all the way back to the "Million Dollar Movie" on Channel 9 or "Late Show/Late, Late Show/Late, Late, Late Show" on Channel 2 days back in NYC.

Anyhow, I forgot how good of a western this film is and why Gregory Peck was one of my favorite actors. This isn't a well known western, but it's a good one with some fine character actors in it like Ward Bond, Lon Chaney Jr, Neville Brand and Steve Brodie as well as some great action scenes. The dvd video presentation is mediocre at best, but it's not terrible either, considering how these film elements were probably treated over the last 55 years or so. Let's remember, this was a Cagney production, yes those Cagneys, James and his brother William's production company after James left Warner. The film was distributed by Warner. By the way, I got this from Amazon for $9 and it was an amount well spent for such a good western that I can enjoy time and again for many years to come.





Crawdaddy

 

[ted:r]

Pretty much off topic, but...

Man, both of those bring back memories. I think I first saw "The Roaring Twenties" on MDM. And often I flash back to the LS animation with the Charlie Chaplin thing. Remember when you could see B&W movies on regular TV? Now its hard to find B&W anywhere on the dial, unless TVLand is replaying "Andy Griffith".

Sometimes, I guess, progress is over-rated.

(I know...I'm turning into a curmudgeon...but I tell ya, Scrooge was under-rated...)

 

[James 'Tiger' Lee]

I think it is most unlikely that the film was to be released at 1.33:1. By that time, all Hollywood films were widescreen of some nature. Most likely Siegel intended the film to be 1.85:1

 

[Fabian Kusch]

More of it here (some in German and French)

A whole thread is dedicated to the AR debate and the previous releases of IOTBS.

 

[James 'Tiger' Lee]

That article doesn't seem right. Why would they be making an 4:3 film three years after everyone else had gone widescreen. I suspect it was composed for 1.85:1. They'd have to pull some pretty damn awful tricks to get scope out of a film composed for academy

 

[Jack Theakston]

Correct. INVASION was shot for 1.85:1, which is why the SuperScope adaptation is "less compromised" than if it were truly an Academy ratio film cropped down.

The confusion, as always, is that in shooting, they exposed a full frame negative, but half of that was not meant to be seen, of course.

 

[WadeM]

I guess with Gregory Peck, Ward Bond & Lon Chaney Jr, it's worth a try! I passed on this one at first, but I'm hoping I'll be pleasantly surprised.

 

[CineKarine]

DVD Empire is listing a 10/14 Lionsgate release of One Touch of Venus (48)....who would have thought? Nice surprise.

 

[Mike*HTF]

This is definitely unexpected and very welcome, thanks!

 

[Dick]

Jack, what is your source of information?

 

[Jay E]

DVD Empire is also listing Arch of Triumph for 10/14 release.

 

[Jack Theakston]

For one, the fact that Allied Artists made it company policy that 1.85 was their aspect ratio of choice two years before INVASION was shot.

I might be wrong that the AR was 1.85:1 exactly. It might have been even composed for 2:1. But it certainly wasn't shot for the Academy ratio.

 

[Dick]

If Lionsgate is indeed going deep into the Republic catalog, I hope they spend some serious time and money on a full restoration of THE QUIET MAN, as well as release an OAR of THE PAWNBROKER.

 

[JeffT.]

Back in the late 1990s (the former) Republic Pictures Home Entertainment released a VHS tape of the U.K.-based Amicus Pictures' first (and best) horror screen anthology DR. TERRORS HOUSE OF HORRORS (1965) with Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Donald Sutherland, Michael Gough, Bernard Lee and Roy Castle.

It has definitely already been released aboard utilizing a beautifully restored and digitally remastered anamorphic widescreen video transfer.

When are we going to see a similar DVD release in North America which is long overdue?! We are always lagging behind in the real interesting film and television properties.

Jeff T.

 

[James 'Tiger' Lee]

The UK DVD is anamorphic but a German print for some reason

And if you think the DVD scene in the US is behind, you should see the UK. Hardly any cult titles at all on DVD by comparison

 

[CineKarine]

Lionsgate has now added ULYSSES (54) for a Oct. 24th release. (source: DVDEmpire)

If this pace keeps up, we might get JOHNNY GUITAR sooner than we thought!