Twilight Time Announces March/April 2014 Releases (1 Viewer)

[Rob_Ray]

Broadway Danny Rose and Mr. Hobbs are both going on preorder the second they're available.

Make that two.

 

[Moe Dickstein]

The alternate score on Used Cars sold me. Have a few others I'm interested in, so I'm going to wait until they do the next $100 bonus promo and then make an order I think.

 

[EddieLarkin]

Signed copies of The Front are coming, hopefully with this months pre-orders.

 

[Twilight Time]

NEW RELEASE UPDATE:

The tentative street date for our five March titles was March 11th, but owing to some production difficulties the 5 titles, Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia, Equus, Conrack, Fever Pitch, and All The King's Men will be arriving at SAE on "staggered" dates over the course of the next 2 weeks. The primary reason for the delay is our choice to go with "standard" blu-ray cases as opposed to "eco cases" which are proving unpopular with collectors.

As most of you know, our manufacturers, Cinram, switched all of our releases in January to eco cases without consulting us, and we insisted on returning to the standard variety. There was enough stock left at the plant to cover the February releases, but now there are none left anywhere as American manufacturers no longer want to do anything other than the "eco" version. This means we are going to be importing the sturdier "Infiniti" cases which are made in China. We are bringing in enough of these to Cinram to cover all our releases through the end of this year, but obviously at greater cost and logistical difficulty to us.

We were informed by Cinram this morning that the first delivery from China has been delayed until Monday which means the discs that remain to be packaged, at least 3 of our 5 current titles cannot be completed and shipped to SAE until the middle of next week.

We are of course sorry for the inconvenience, but this is just one of the many administrative headaches that have to be dealt with on a daily basis in order to bring our favorite films to you guys -- a little bit of patience is now required, but it will all be worth it when we finally get them in.

Thanks as always for your fantastic support,

Nick and Brian.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

NEW RELEASE UPDATE:

The tentative street date for our five March titles was March 11th, but owing to some production difficulties the 5 titles, Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia, Equus, Conrack, Fever Pitch, and All The King's Men will be arriving at SAE on "staggered" dates over the course of the next 2 weeks. The primary reason for the delay is our choice to go with "standard" blu-ray cases as opposed to "eco cases" which are proving unpopular with collectors.

As most of you know, our manufacturers, Cinram, switched all of our releases in January to eco cases without consulting us, and we insisted on returning to the standard variety. There was enough stock left at the plant to cover the February releases, but now there are none left anywhere as American manufacturers no longer want to do anything other than the "eco" version. This means we are going to be importing the sturdier "Infiniti" cases which are made in China. We are bringing in enough of these to Cinram to cover all our releases through the end of this year, but obviously at greater cost and logistical difficulty to us.

We were informed by Cinram this morning that the first delivery from China has been delayed until Monday which means the discs that remain to be packaged, at least 3 of our 5 current titles cannot be completed and shipped to SAE until the middle of next week.

We are of course sorry for the inconvenience, but this is just one of the many administrative headaches that have to be dealt with on a daily basis in order to bring our favorite films to you guys -- a little bit of patience is now required, but it will all be worth it when we finally get them in.

Thanks as always for your fantastic support,

Nick and Brian.

Thanks for the detailed update. All studios could take a lesson from your communication.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Agreed. Thanks for the update!

 

[lukejosephchung]

Thanks for letting us know about this scheduling delay and the reason for it...it's disappointing, but at least we're being kept appraised of the situation...

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

Thanks, Nick & Brian, for the heads up. I find "eco" Blu-Ray packaging ridiculous — and this is from someone who's vigilant about recycling — for something which is supposed to last forever, barring broken spindles and torn outer plastic (which I then replace and recycle).

 

[Ethan Riley]

What are "eco" cases?

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

NEW RELEASE UPDATE:

The tentative street date for our five March titles was March 11th, but owing to some production difficulties the 5 titles, Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia, Equus, Conrack, Fever Pitch, and All The King's Men will be arriving at SAE on "staggered" dates over the course of the next 2 weeks. The primary reason for the delay is our choice to go with "standard" blu-ray cases as opposed to "eco cases" which are proving unpopular with collectors.

As most of you know, our manufacturers, Cinram, switched all of our releases in January to eco cases without consulting us, and we insisted on returning to the standard variety. There was enough stock left at the plant to cover the February releases, but now there are none left anywhere as American manufacturers no longer want to do anything other than the "eco" version. This means we are going to be importing the sturdier "Infiniti" cases which are made in China. We are bringing in enough of these to Cinram to cover all our releases through the end of this year, but obviously at greater cost and logistical difficulty to us.

We were informed by Cinram this morning that the first delivery from China has been delayed until Monday which means the discs that remain to be packaged, at least 3 of our 5 current titles cannot be completed and shipped to SAE until the middle of next week.

We are of course sorry for the inconvenience, but this is just one of the many administrative headaches that have to be dealt with on a daily basis in order to bring our favorite films to you guys -- a little bit of patience is now required, but it will all be worth it when we finally get them in.

Thanks as always for your fantastic support,

Nick and Brian.

Thanks for the update. I'm a big supporter of "Buy American" and keep it here as much as possible but what can you do when stupid American CEOs show their cheapskate colors instead of getting out there and competing. A lot more that could be said but I'll leave it there.

Oh any news on a blu release for Skatetown USA and Thank God Its Friday?

 

[TravisR]

What are "eco" cases?

The cases that have the die-cut recycling logo in one side and the other side has a few lines of plastic connecting to the spindle behind the disc so that the studios can save money on cases (but pretend that they care about recycling).

 

[bruceames]

Signed copies of The Front are coming, hopefully with this months pre-orders.

That would be awesome. I'll be crossing my fingers.

 

[Twilight Time]

LOW QUANTITY UPDATE:

AS GOOD AS IT GETS (about 600 left)
THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES (about 600 left)
BYE BYE BIRDIE (about 700 left)
LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (about 800 left)
THE DRIVER (about 850 left)
HARD TIMES (about 900 left)

THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT and BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA are moving very briskly too -- more than half the stock gone on both already.

 

[Robert Crawford]

LOW QUANTITY UPDATE:

AS GOOD AS IT GETS (about 600 left)
THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES (about 600 left)
BYE BYE BIRDIE (about 700 left)
LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (about 800 left)
THE DRIVER (about 850 left)
HARD TIMES (about 900 left)

THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT and BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA are moving very briskly too -- more than half the stock gone on both already.

By the way, great job on Thunderbold and Lightfoot. I'll finish listening to your audio commentary later this weekend.

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

LOW QUANTITY UPDATE:

AS GOOD AS IT GETS (about 600 left)
THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES (about 600 left)
BYE BYE BIRDIE (about 700 left)
LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (about 800 left)
THE DRIVER (about 850 left)
HARD TIMES (about 900 left)

THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT and BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA are moving very briskly too -- more than half the stock gone on both already.

Well as The Thing would put it....aawwww Crap!! Now I have to juggle the budget (namely delaying planned Amazon purchases) to get the three on this list that I really really want; Bye Bye Birdie, Thunderbolt & Lightfoot and Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.

Guess that Stripes, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, License to Drive and Somewhere in Time will have to wait. (Nick Redman, I hope you're happy).

Oh and prices for my three TT selections on Amazon are already beginning to skyrocket. Got my SAE cart set up, now to wait a week or so for the planned funding.

Now TT, when we gonna see Skatetown USA and Thank God Its Friday?

 

[ROclockCK]

By the way, great job on Thunderbold and Lightfoot. I'll finish listening to your audio commentary later this weekend.

Well, it's a doozy of a commentary Robert...almost as much fun as watching this eccentric little buddy/caper/road movie/love story.

Hard to believe, but Thunderbolt and Lightfoot was actually new cinematic turf for me. Beats me why I never got around to it theatrically or via previous home video releases, but that has happened with several of these TT showcases. Great entertainment though, and very nicely presented. As an aside, having driven through much of rural Montana, it's shocking how little has changed after 40 years.

So that TT 'party-time' commentary was just icing on the proverbial cake here...and what made it so gull-durn fascinatin' was that despite the obvious fun Dobbs, Redman, and Kirgo were all having, I actually learned a lot about this film and its place in not only mid-70s Hollywood filmmaking, but also the careers of its principal players. Huzzah!

Next up was The Eddy Duchin Story, and it's not like every day you get to see a brand new Kim Novak movie. Not only was she radiant in this picture, but very different in style than many of her other roles, which alone made it frequently mesmerizing, at least to me. Ditto for Power, who convinced me he actually knew how to play the pi-anna. Hey, that was some neat sleight of hand there Tyrone!

The big winner here though was the sound - almost wall-to-wall music, expertly played and recorded for CinemaScope 4-track magnetic. Pity that only the music and effects mixdown survives for the isolated treatment, but after 60 years, I'm grateful for even that. Visually, I'll just defer to Richard Gallagher's review - this transfer was not without some issues, many of which clearly originated with the production (see both trailers for a retro glimpse at how much of that was native to the original look of the film) - but none of it was a deal breaker. Even with the wizard-like efforts of Grover Crisp and his team, alas, Columbia has clearly had its share of problems with early 'Scope stocks too...especially with opticals, like the almost continuous dissolves in this picture. None of that bothered me deeply because The Eddy Duchin Story was just such a satisfying movie.

...all 3 of them! What I really wasn't expecting here was the unusual 3-part structure of this story. Yes, I understand it's somewhat unavoidable when art is trying to mimic life like this, but really, there were 3 (okay, maybe 2 1/2) distinct storylines here, each with its own 2 or 3 part plot and character arc. Even in the traditional 3-act screenplay, you have a short 1st act, followed by a longer 2nd act, and finally a shorter 3rd act. However, in The Eddy Duchin Story we have this long 3-part 1st storyline, followed by a short 2-part 2nd storyline, and then a long-ish 3-part 3rd storyline...all apparently held together by Eddie's over-arching life story. Amazingly, this rather unconventional story structure worked, although in retrospect, it seems pretty bold for an A-list Hollywood picture of that era.

Spoiler

4 years later a big deal was made about star Janet Leigh's totallyunexpected 1st-Act death in Psycho, but Kim Novakwas there first in The Eddy Duchin Story. I. Did. Not. See. That. Coming! Especially around the 55 minute mark.

 

[Moe Dickstein]

Just an FYI on License To Drive - keep the DVD if you have it, none of the significant amount of extras carried over to the Blu-Ray.

 

[Jari K]

I'm sure most of you know this, but there's some false advertising when it comes to Wild at Heart:"David Lynch’s tantalizing road classic, on Blu-Ray for the first time."The film is already on Blu-ray at least in the UK, Scandinavia and France. Probably in many other countries based on the dubs and subs.( All Blu-ray releases have the R-rated version, also TT.)Some people have mentioned this on TT's Facebook page, but no avail.

 

[FoxyMulder]

I'm sure most of you know this, but there's some false advertising when it comes to Wild at Heart:"David Lynch’s tantalizing road classic, on Blu-Ray for the first time."The film is already on Blu-ray at least in the UK, Scandinavia and France. Probably in many other countries based on the dubs and subs.( All Blu-ray releases have the R-rated version, also TT.)Some people have mentioned this on TT's Facebook page, but no avail.

I have the UK original release with the speech coming through the front 3 speakers, i like it like that, it still has plenty of split activity through the front 3 speakers, the image quality is very good, i can't see the TT being better so i'll stick with what i have.

 

[Jari K]

With the UK's Lynch box set, you'll get some short films etc. If you want the extras from the MGM disc, you need to keep the old DVD (TT has the usual Isolated score, though).