Warner Brother's 2-Disc Special Edition Series (1 Viewer)

[John Hodson]

I can't argue against any on that list, save to add The Roaring Twenties and The Sea Hawk (and about 500 others )

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So many films, so little time...

 

[Herb Kane]

And good God... let's not forget the Thin Man series...

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

I'm surprised that John Ford's Stagecoach had not yet been mentioned. The current DVD release is over six years old and definetley in need of restoration and a new transfer.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Stagecoach would probably be a great "Night at the Movies" release. However, WB would probably need to have Lowry Digital Images work on it to get a passable video transfer for it.

The NatM program could even feature "The Lone Stranger and Porky" as the opening cartoon.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

Excellent point Patrick.

Here are a few other Warner DVD titles that would greatly benefit from receiving WB's SE treatment!

A Streetcar Named Desire
Strangers on a Train
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Cool Hand Luke
All the President's Men
American History X

I suspect WB will also release an excellent SE version of Mystic River, perhaps even as part of their 'Slip Cover Series'.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

What are the BIG Warner-owned titles not on DVD yet?

Gordon, as mentioned by Herb Kane, "BIG" can be interpreted in many different ways. Below is a list of titles that have been mentioned so far in this thread that are not available on DVD:

1931The Public Enemy
1933King Kong
1935Top Hat
1936The Petrified Forest
1936Swing Time
1937Angels with Dirty Faces
1937Captains Courageous
1938Bringing Up Baby
1939The Roaring Twenties
1940The Sea Hawk
1941Suspicion
1942The Magnificent Ambersons
1944The Mask of Dimitrios
1944Murder, My Sweet
1947Out of the Past
1949The Set-Up
1949White Heat
1950The Asphalt Jungle
1952The Narrow Margin
1953I Confess
1954Dial M for Murder
1956The Wrong Man
1964The Night of the Iguana

And here are some other fantastic Warner films that have yet to be mentioned and have also yet to be released on DVD:

1929Gold Diggers of Broadway
1931The Millionaire
1932The Mouthpiece
1932I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
1932One Way Passage
1933Gold Diggers of 1933
1933The Working Man
1933Voltaire
1933Footlight Parade
1935Captain Blood
1937They Won't Forget
1938The Dawn Patrol
1939The Old Maid
1940The Letter
1941The Sea Wolf
1941Sergeant York
1941Navy Blues
1942Kings Row
1942Gentleman Jim
1942The Man Who Came to Dinner
1942Larceny, Inc.
1942Random Harvest
1948Johnny Belinda
1950Caged
1951Tomorrow Is Another Day
1955East of Eden
1957A Face in the Crowd
1958No Time for Sergeants
1960The Sundowners
1986The Name of the Rose
1996Hamlet

The 1997 documentary, The Race to Save 100 Years, has also not been released on DVD and would make an excellent 'Special Feature' in a 2-Disc SE release of Gold Diggers of Broadway. *HINT,HINT*

 

[oscar_merkx]

Hi Nils

That would be great if these titles get released at some point in the next two years

 

[Roger Rollins]

Most of the titles listed above would make excellent DVD releases and will likely arrive from WB in the next few years. Others (such as NAVY BLUES) are minor trifles that never even appeared on VHS. I wouldn't hold my breath for them on DVD.

As to 2-Disc Special Editions (that IS what this thread is about), many of these titles wouldn't have enough supplementary material or warrant the creation of new, costly material to justify a 2nd disc. That's what makes most of WB's 2 disc releases so worthy. They justify the additional cost and content with excellence.

The 1997 documentary, The Race to Save 100 Years, has also not been released on DVD and would make an excellent 'Special Feature' in a 2-Disc SE release of Gold Diggers of Broadway. *HINT,HINT*

Releasing a 2 Disc SE of GOLD DIGGERS OF BROADWAY would be hard for WB to take a "hint, hint" about. The film doesn't exist in its entirety. Only 2 short sections have surfaced after years of archival exploration. One of those sections appeared on THE DAWN OF SOUND laserdisc. The other is a more recent discovery, per the Vitaphone project's newsletter.

 

[GlennH]

Cover art for MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I don't know if anyone else considers this one worthy of inclusion, but Claude Lelouch's brilliant 1995 adaptation of "Les Miserables", featuring a truly wonderful performance by Jean-Paul Belmondo, has not even been released on DVD AT ALL, much less a deluxe special edition, which I believe this film genuinely deserves. I still have my cherished laserdisc, and won't give it up until I can get me grubby mitts on a DVD copy of this marvel of French cinema.

Oh most certainly yes! I've been scratching my head (for five years!) wondering why this amazing flick hasn't been released yet.

Space Jam was a horrible movie -- the new Looney Tunes flim was supposedly not that bad.

 

[Kenshiro]

Network has already been mentioned here, which badly needs a 2-disc re-release.

Another Sidney Lumet classic Dog Day Afternoon would benefit too.

BTW, any other Scoresese films slated for upgrades besides Goodfellas? Mean Streets hopefully?

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

OK, the WISH LIST was getting a tad unwieldy so I have not only separated it into four parts:

Never Released on DVD
Released on DVD
Recent Films
Possible Box Sets

, but I have also separated the list of previously released DVDs into those that are Bare-Bones and/or below average quality transfers vs Feature-Rich and/or high quality transfers.

 

[oscar_merkx]

great job Nils

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

I added 'A Room with a View' to the upcoming releases list:

 

[ChrisRose]

I'd love to see a 2-Disc Special Edition of Seven Brides For Seven Brothers ...I think it's one of the best musicals. Also, Top Hat, which I know has already been added to the Wish List in this thread...but I wanted to vote for it anyway.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

I'm going to be adding links to the reviews of the DVDs in this series, but I can't seem to find HTF reviews of the following titles:

Citizen Kane
Doctor Zhivago
Unforgiven
The Cardinal
Right Stuff
Once Upon a Time in America
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
A Christmas Story

I tried using the HTF search engine but it didn't even find reviews that I knew existed of some of the other titles in this series.

If there are reviews on HTF of any of the titles listed above please post the links here - thanks!

 

[Mark Anthony]

I'd love to see:

Errol Flynn's Dodge City & Don Juan, in glorious Technicolor!
Bullitt with a better transfer and 5.1 sound
All The WB Peckinpah Catalogue
All The WB Tim Burton Catalogue as 2 Disc-er's
LA Confidential 2 disc-er
A 65mm film restoration of Ben Hur, with a new correct ratio DVD made from those elements
A new SE of The Maltese Falcon with an improved, cleaner, transfer
Battle of the Bulge from 65mm
Dirty Dozen with a much improved transfer
& finally the current edition of Woodstock looks and sounds poor when compared to the Criterion version of Monterey Pop which was shot and recorded 3 years earlier...This could be improved big time!

 

[RafaelPires]

I agree with most of the classic titles already mentioned , but I'd like to add:
-Red Dust,
-Dinner at Eight,
-Manhattan Melodrama,
-Chained,
-Queen Christina,
-Naughty Marietta,
-Anna Karenina,
-Forsaking All Others,
-Rose Marie,
-San Francisco,
-Camille,
-China Seas,
-Born to Dance,
-Maytime,
-Test Pilot,
-Mannequin,
-The Shining Hour,
-Three Comrades,
-Rosalie,
-
-Saratoga,
-

 

[RafaelPires]

and:
-Vivacious Lady,
-The Shopworn Angel,
-Love on the Run,
-The Gorgeous Hussy,
-Wife versus Secretary,
-Babes in Arms,
-Ninotchka,
-Bachelor Mother,
-Kitty Foyle,
-Strike Up the Band,
-Pride and Prejudice,
-Babes on Broadway,
-Waterloo Bridge,
-Honky Tonk,
-Johnny Eager,
-It's a Date (1940),
-Boom Town,
-Blossons in the Dust,
-The Mortal Storm,
-A Woman's Face,
-Keeper of the Flame,
-Tortilla Flat,
-Girls Crazy,
-The Human Comedy,
-The Picture of Dorian Gray,
-Two Girls and a Sailor,
-Adventure,
-Without Love,
-Humoresque,
-Ziegfeld Folies,
-Possessed (1947)
-Easter Parade,
-A Date with Judy,
-The Hucksters,
-Cass Timberlane,
-The Three Musketeers,
-The Barkleys of Broadway,
-Two weeks with Love,
-Th Band Wagon,
And those are just to name a few...

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

All the WB Tim Burton Catalogue

If you don't count the two Batman films (as they are likely to be released as part of a Batman SE Box Set), the only other Burton films that I am aware of that Warner has the rights to would be: 'Pee-wee's Big Adventure', 'Beetlejuice', and 'Mars Attacks!'. Are there any others that you were thinking of?

Of course by X-Mas of '05 we will likely see a 2-Disc SE DVD of Burton's upcoming remake of 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory'.