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Warner Feb. Releases including My Fair Lady, Mutiny on the Bounty, Mrs. Miniver & more (1 Viewer)

oscar_merkx

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wow another great releases from WB. They are my favorite studio at the moment for the simple reason for catalog releases.

Count me in for Gaslight and Grand Hotel

:emoji_thumbsup:
 

Jim_K

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There's some excellent titles in that list.

Warner really has turned it around from about 2-3 years ago. :emoji_thumbsup:

Keeping my fingers crossed for a King Kong 2 disc SE next year. Not to mention a boatload of other titles. :D
 

Robert Crawford

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Also, Robert Harris might be able to shed some definitive light about the transfer since he is participating in some of the dvd extras when it comes to the restoration process.





Crawdaddy
 

Paul_Scott

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just passing this along-
another site is reporting that
Freaks
a double bill of Village of the Damned and its sequel
and a 2 disc set of Forbidden Planet
are on tap for Aug.
 

Bill Burns

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Rarely does a studio leave me speechless. After the October-November WB line-up and news of their upcoming January AOL poll winners (including a restored edition of Mamoulian's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), this February news leaves me just that. All of these releases on the 3rd would be strong purchases, but I'm going to have to bide my buying dollar, given Fox and Universal product in the same time frame. We'll see how it works out, but Mutiny is a priority buy. And I trust the new My Fair Lady has been mastered from large format (if it has, that will be a fine repurchase -- I hope some definite word on the source elements used for this new transfer is forthcoming; if not, the AR should give us a "fair" clue ... man, I need to work on these plays on words ...). :emoji_thumbsup:

Now, if we could get Universal off their ass, I'd be a happy man.
They have at least nine vintage classics due out the following week, Eric. Just how far off their ass need they rise? :D February 10th sees the release of eight Abbott and Costello films in the Best of Abbott and Costello: Volume 1 collection (reportedly for an astonishing $24.95 MSRP) and the 1934 Imitation of Life in the Imitation of Life: Two Movie Collection. That's ten if you count the included, already-available remake in the latter of those two releases. While not of the era we typically call "classic," they also have the Airport Terminal Pack due the same day, with the four Airport films included, and the (arguably, but I haven't seen them and so cannot say) classic The Adventures of Ma and Pa Kettle: Volume 1 collection, which is set to offer four films.

That's a heck of a lot of product for a single week. Consider these WB announcements for the week before, the likely (I don't know if it's been confirmed yet or not) Image release of The Dick Van Dyke Show Season Three on the 10th as well, Planet of the Apes: 35th Anniversary Edition on the 3rd ... 2004, and particularly January/February, is looking spectacular so far. This is just the first six weeks of the year! If a release pace even approaching what's been announced for this period can be maintained between WB, Fox, and Universal throughout the year, I don't think I'd have the heart to complain about much of anything until 2005. :D Anything I might want that isn't offered I'd be unable to afford, what with all of this stellar product swamping the market.

But back on topic -- many thanks for this outstanding Warner news, Herb. Classic line-ups don't come much better! Wow. Have I mentioned that WB is my favorite studio for DVD classic support? Yes? Ah, well, it bears repeating. :emoji_thumbsup:
 

Greg_M

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Robert Harris,

I have a very good and very clean recording of Audrey Hepburn singing "I Could Have Danced All Night" and she's prety good. Is there a way of putting the vocal back with the actual film for the DVD?

Greg
 

Joe Caps

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My Fair Lady - the problem with the restorations is the sound - I thknk it is poor compared with the original.
The original six track master seems to be lost. It was last sent to HBO for a transfer in 1985 and no one know where it is.
The Fair Lady restorations uses a print master that is lacking high end. That would be bad enough but our restorationists added a lot of reverb to every musical number so it all sounds like a bad old record album. the ironix thing is that the orignal pressing of the Fair Lady is one of the few albums of that erea that did NOT add reverb!!
Dear Mr. Harris - for the new DVD can we have Fair Lady with the six channel print master WITHOUT the reverb!
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!!!!
Help us Obi Wan - you are our last hope. Is the fair Lady documentary on the new DVD the same one that was on the Laserdisc box Set?
 

Carlo_M

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Awesome news - about all five but My Fair Lady in particular.

The original suffered from DVD-rot, my copy chokes up at the layer break on 3 different DVD players and a DVD-ROM. One player will slog through it with heavy pixelation, one just stops playing and freezes, one skips forward a bunch of chapters (and yes, when I first bought the disc it played all the way through...many years ago this was).

I have fired off snail mail to WB and they have summarily ignored it. I was about to give up and just repurchase it when I ran across this post.

Oh please let it be a new transfer! I've been itching to see this film, and although the next couple of months are packed, what with the Lord of the Rings extended cut and theatrical run of ROTK, as well as work-related crap, February is just about the time my schedule will be clearing up and MFL would be a great way to kick back and take it easy. :)
 

Bill Burns

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If the new transfer has been taken from restored large format, rather than reduction (as was the last), then it will earn my purchasing dollar in spades -- everything else is frosting on the cake for me. HiDef downconversions are absolutely the way to go, but from LF for LF films. :emoji_thumbsup: I trust WB will similarly do right by Kenneth Branagh's 70mm masterpiece, Hamlet, which is reportedly due sometime in 2004 as well. Anything less than LF-sourced and my dollar usually goes elsewhere.

Such is my personal litmus test for purchasing/repurchasing a LF title (I've bought reduction in the past, sometimes knowingly, sometimes in ignorance, and have always come away disappointed, while carefully prepped LF-sourced masters absolutely delight in their fidelity to what I've seen of LF in theatres), but I of course appreciate and fully support audio mix concerns, Joe. I trust great care has been taken with the best available materials. This gem of a picture deserves nothing less, and with WB's outstanding dedication to QC and cost-to-value, I anticipate great things. Here's hoping. :emoji_thumbsup:
 

StevenFC

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Warner is starting to kick some major DVD butt! And they still have many more due out later in the year from all accounts. I hope this leads to a battle between the studios to get their catalog titles out to compete with each other for our DVD dollars.
 

Brian Kidd

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I caught GOODBYE MR. CHIPS on TCM a couple of months ago. Wow! What a great film. I rarely enjoy sentimental films, but this one had such great acting and storytelling that I was totally swept up in it. It's a wonderful film for anyone who appreciates teachers.
 

DaViD Boulet

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I cannot wait to rebuy My Fair Lady.

The current DVD is nice...but it looks distincly "digital" on a large display (not sure if it's DNR noise, compression or what). A new HD downconversion with state-of-the-art compression gear should look stunning.

Also would love a proper sound mix. PLEASE, whoever out there is in charge of this...give us the *real* original multichannel mix with minimal processing!!

-dave :)
 

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