MGM Lean & Hitchcock Releases (1 Viewer)

[Charles H]

MADELINE and THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS have never appeared on any form of homevideo and have rarely been shown on television. The cover art for the Lean dvds indicates that masters must exist from Carlton and I am surprised that they are not available in R2. The complete THE SOUND BARRIER and HOBSON'S CHOICE are available as a double feature.

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Dick, I have heard that people trying to buy the latest Midnite Movies in Best Buy had their copies... 'confiscated' at the checkout. It looks a bit fishy. Sony up to her old tricks again... :frowning:

 

[Armin Jager]

Which is a shame since they are very remarkable films. I just had a David Lean seminar at university and both films seem never to have recovered in reputation properly from their not terribly successful initial release (the same goes for RYAN'S DAUGHTER).
THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS is an excellent triangle drama with carefully balanced and drawn characters which avoids every cliche and has many great visual sequences. MADELEINE is in its modenity an absolutely stunning precursor to films of the 60s (L'AVVENTURA) with its opaque story without getting bogged down in its gimmick like Antonioni's ponderous bores. It's visually very evocative and a great showcase for Ann Todd. These are two films which are essential classics and not some forgettable minor works by Lean (that would be something like the readily available BLITHE SPIRIT).

 

[MichaelScott]

Anyone hear anything about the David Lean Collection??...What the heck is the hold up, I really want Blithe Spirit in region 1.

 

[DeeF]

Rope was one of the five films (Rear Window, Vertigo, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Trouble with Harry, Rope) which were owned at the end by the Hitchcock estate, and were released in the 80s. All of these movies have been released by Universal on DVD.

 

[DavePattern]

Sony are due to release their first Hitchcock DVD ("Suspicion") next month in Italy.

Apart from that, there doesn't seem to any movement on releasing the titles that MGM had scheduled for last year - it's a crying shame that Criterion had to make their three best Hitchcock DVDs "out of print" due to MGM aquiring the rights

 

[MichaelScott]

Well, I am sure MGM didn't get the rights to just sit on them forever..The whole SONY thing through everthing off. The Hitchcock's will come out sooner or later, I am a little more concerned with the David Lean Collection. As far as I know Brief Encounter is still in print for Criterion.

 

[Terry H]

Any info on the David Lean Collection?

 

[Ruz-El]

Or an MGM Hitchcock collection? I recently got both the Masterpiece, and Warners Signiture sets, and would gladly wait a few months to watch them so I could get the missing MGM films and watch all of them in order.

 

[Craig Beam]

Why wait, Russell? Dig into those sets now, and then again later when the MGM titles finally show up. These films are certainly worth multiple viewings.

 

[Jo_C]

A note or two on the underlying rights to the Hitchcock films, starting with ROPE...WB did indeed distribute it here in the states, MGM outside the U.S. (if you saw the ROPE trailer and noticed the MGM credit, it was its international trailer). The copyright was renewed by United Artists Television. Before the Hitchcock estate bought ROPE, it was part of the pre-'48 package UA (and its predecessor company Associated Artists Productions) bought for television. Had the estate not bought it, it would have would up again at WB, as the classic WB library was purchased by Turner, and Turner is now part of WB.

UA continues to hold ROPE's copyright today, even though the underlying rights are held by the Hitchcock estate. The other "lost" films, "Rear Window", "Vertigo", "The Man Who Knew Too Much", and "The Trouble With Harry", are also held by the estate. All Universal owns of these films is their distribution. They have nothing to do with outright ownership.

"Psycho" is a different story. Paramount released it, but was produced under Hitchcock's television production unit. Years later Universal acquired the distribution rights as the studio had by then become Hitchcock's home. Shamley Productions (Hitchcock's company) still holds copyright today, but Universal owns all other rights, including remake rights (forget about that crazy remake of some years back).

The two UA-released features you mention worth explaining too. They were originally Walter Wanger productions. While Republic/Paramount holds the film elements, they do not own underlying rights. Wanger sold most of its library to the Caidin family (under Caidin Film Company), and in turn Caidin sold its holdings to Castle Hill Productions, where the rights stand today. Warner Bros. holds some ancilliary distribution rights, including theatrical and home video, under license from Castle Hill.

I believe "To Catch A Thief" is the only Hitchcock film released by Paramount that Paramount itself owns outright today.

If I'm wrong, do correct me.

 

[MichaelScott]

Actually I'm more concerned with the MGM titles, since they arn't out except for OOP Criterions..I've heard there are some rights problems which is why Rebecca, Notorious, Spellbound, etc..were delayed. That MGM found out they don't really have the rights to distribute these.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

My understanding was the converse. While they may have the video distribution rights for the Selznick films, there are issues with the rights to the films controlled by Carlton ("39 Steps", "The Lady Vanishes", "Young and Innocent", etc.). This version would better explain why the David Lean set has been suspended indefinitely as well. Also, MGM has released numerous other Selznick titles from the ABC library such as "Duel in the Sun" and "Portrait of Jennie".

Regards,

 

[Ruz-El]

Good point Craig! I plan on picking up a cheapo PD set of his early films, and then I'll probably dive in.

 

[Craig Beam]

TCM just aired almost all of Hitchcock's early films last week, and I captured every one of 'em on my DVR. From an admittedly cursory scan through them, they beat the pants off of the PD editions. I'd bet these are the same transfers used in the superior Carlton/German editions.

 

[Haggai]

I watched the '34 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much on TCM, and it did look really good. It was preceded by the Studio Canal logo.

 

[David D H]

According to dts's website, Lowry have restored "Sabotage", "Young and Innocent" and "The Lady Vanishes". Hopefully for the MGM box set.

 

[CameronMcC]

Over at the dvd talk boards, the rumor stands that the Hitchcock titles are held by Disney at this point, as both the Anchor bay and criterion sets stated the copyright was owned by abc. I have never been able to verify that as fact, and don't know exactly where the rumor about Disney owning the titles started.

I would love someone to shed some light on the subject for me.

 

[Damin J Toell]

Dude, this isn't a rumor. The Hitchcock Selznick titles are owned by ABC, which is now owned by Disney. You seem to act like it's some strange, unconfirmed mystery. The Criterion releases say "American Broadcasting Companies" right on the back of the case (see image below). Do you need proof that Disney owns ABC? Disney's in-house restorationist at the time, Scott MacQueen, is boldly credited in the booklets for each Criterion release, and even says he performed the restorations "For The Walt Disney Company." Would you like me to have a Disney board member call you at home to give you a rundown of what they own? Or have Scott MacQueen tell you that Disney really gave him a paycheck after he restored the films?



The "rumor" started from fact. It's just one of those things that happened.

DJ

 

[Patrick McCart]

How would United Artists hold the copyright? They don't own any of the other copyrights for Warner Bros. films formerly in the UA TV package. They only renewed the copyright when it was in their ownership. We can assume that it became the sole property of the Hitchcock Estate some time between 1975 and 1980.

It seems like the way Rope moved from rights holder to rights holder went like this:

- Hitchcock's independent Transatlantic produces the film, releases it through Warner Bros.

- Warner Bros. keeps ownership of the film until selling it to Associated Artists Productions in 1957 (along with the rest of the pre-1949 features)

- United Artists Television purchases AAP in 1960's

- United Artists Television renews the copyright for Rope in 1975.

- Some time between 1975 and 1980, Alfred Hitchcock buys back the film.

- United Artists TV, along with its parent company UA merge with MGM in 1981.

- Turner buys pre-1986 MGM catalog, plus the Associated Artists Productions package, and Gilligan's Island

- Turner merges with Warner Bros. in late 1990's


So, there's really no way United Artists could still hold the copyright to Rope.