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Warner releasing LITERARY CLASSICS COLLECTION on 03-06-07 (1 Viewer)

Corey

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Well we haven't got the full specs yet, so I'm holding my breath. I hope it's in slimline cases. They save so much space.
 

Corey

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Sorry to complain. but they can they please announce the 1st female set of the year???? I'm itchin to know if its Jean Harlow or Joan Crawford Vol. 2
 

Thomas T

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Since all these titles are scheduled to be available separately, it's unlikely they'll be in slimcases. In the Brando box set, they are all in slimcases except for Mutiny On The Bounty which is in an amray keepcase. MOTB is the only title available outside the box. I think they learned their lesson from the Lucy Desi titles sold separately from the box set in slim cases. They got lost amongst the grown up cases.

The similarly themed "Masterpieces" collection were in amray keepcases in the boxed set too.
 

Jim_K

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This being available separately is great news. Whichever one decides to go, (set vs. individual) having a choice is always a good thing.

I have taken a liking to slimcases though. I wish the studio's started this 8 years ago.
 

seanOhara

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AOL!

I'm surprised that they actually look nice on the shelf if you get two or three next to each other.
 

DeeF

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Mutiny on the Bounty is not the only one sold outside the Brando set. You can also get Julius Caesar, and I wouldn't be surprised about the others, too.

With the Brando set, and the Astaire/Rogers ultimate set, Warners seems to be setting a trend of the "thinpaks" for the sets, and regular amrays for the separates.

But if they continue to have sets with thinpaks, these are what I'll buy. The movies are cheaper this way, and don't use a lot more room.
 

Dick

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Billy Budd?

BILLY BUDD?

B-I-L-L-Y B-U-D-D!!!!!

Thank you, thank you, Warner Bros. I've been diligently campaigning for this title for years on HTF and TCM's request link, and I adamently encourage those who love great widescreen photography (2.35:1 black and white), incredibly performances (Robert Ryan's, especially), and a truly literary script (adapted from the Herman Melville novel) to pick this one up, or at least Netflix it. Wow, my day is made!
 

MichaelGH

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Billy Budd is probably the very top of my most wanted list currently and I'm glad to see Warners is going to give it to us. I first saw this film in my 11th grade american lit class and have been waiting so long for it I wondered if it was forgotten.

This set can't come fast enough for me!

Michael
 

Mario Gauci

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Browsing through a British film magazine yesterday, I happened upon an interview with Terence Stamp - in conjunction with the long-awaited DVD release of Richard Donner's re-cut of SUPERMAN II (1980) - in which it was mentioned that he had recorded (or was on the point of recording) an Audio Commentary with Steven Soderbergh for BILLY BUDD (1962)!!

My feelings about this essential Box Set couldn't be more enthusiastic: apart from BILLY BUDD itself (featuring one of Robert Ryan's most remarkable characterziations), we have two of Hollywood's finest swashbucklers - THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1937; whose TV recording ages ago I bungled and subsequently erased because of that!) and THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1948; a cherished childhood favorite of mine); I've only watched the unimpressive 1952 version of ZENDA once despite its constant TV screenings over the years but it's nice to have it for comparison's sake, even if the long-promised triptych - with Rex Ingram's Silent 1922 version - did not actually materialize!

I'm also pleased that I'll be able to replace my TV recording of Vincente Minnelli's MADAME BOVARY (1949) which, despite competitive film versions by such heavyweights as Jean Renoir and Claude Chabrol, is still probably the fiinest cinematic adaptation of Gustave Flaubert's controversial novel.

As for CAPTAIN HORATIO HORNBLOWER R.N. (1951), I've caught bits and pieces of it on Italian TV over the years so I'm glad I've been given the opportunity to watch in its entirety...meaning Raoul Walsh, Gregory Peck, Christopher Lee, Stanley Baker, pirates - and Virginia Mayo in Technicolor:)!!
 

John Hodson

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Full specs now up at DVD Times:

Warner Home Video have announced the Region 1 DVD release of the Literary Classics Collection for 6th March 2007. This five-disc collection features the DVD debuts of Billy Budd, Captain Horatio Hornblower, Madame Bovary, The Three Musketeers and The Prisoner of Zenda: Double Feature with both the 1937 and 1952 versions of the film included. Special features such as commentaries, shorts, vintage Oscar ® winning cartoons, classic Oscar-nominated shorts, radio show adaptations and more add to the entertainment on each disc. The five-disc gift set will sell for $59.92 SRP, with individual titles available for $19.97 SRP.

Billy Budd (1962)
Herman Melville’s classic adventure of the high seas makes its DVD debut in this collection. It’s 1797, and the English frigate Avenger sails wartime seas, ready to engage the French navy in combat. But there’s another type of warfare going on aboard the king’s ship. It’s the battle of good versus evil, the powerful theme of Billy Budd. Terence Stamp, in his film debut, plays the title role, scoring a nomination for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar as an archetype of goodness. Robert Ryan portrays the master-at-arms, efficient and cruel – especially so to young Billy. And director Peter Ustinov also stars as the captain caught between the inevitable clash of polar opposites.

DVD Special Features:
Commentary by Terence Stamp and filmmaker Steven Soderbergh
16x9 anamorphic with 2.40 aspect ratio
Theatrical trailer
Subtitles: English (feature film only)

Captain Horatio Hornblower (1950)
In one of his favorite roles, Gregory Peck plays the valiant Napoleonic Era British naval hero in this swashbuckling saga adapted for the screen by Hornblower’s creator C.S. Forester. True to the famed source novels, Hornblower outthinks his rivals to outfight them. He’s unflinching under fire, modest in victory – and more than a little at sea romantically with Lady Barbara Wellesley (Virginia Mayo).

Director Raoul Walsh (White Heat, High Sierra) guides the broadside-for-broadside action with flourishes befitting sea warfare’s most exciting era. Two fully-rigged and three nearly complete ships – from a 38-gun frigate to a 100-gun command ship – are used in the film.

DVD Special Features:
Vintage Oscar-nominated short My Country ’Tis of Thee
Classic cartoon Captain Hareblower
Audio-only bonus: Lux Radio Theater adaptation with Gregory Peck and Virginia Mayo
Theatrical trailer
Subtitles: English (feature film only)

Madame Bovary (1949)
Jennifer Jones stars as the lovely Emma Bovary in this lush adaptation of the Gustave Flaubert novel that scandalized 19th-century France. As the wife of a country doctor, she longs for romance, glamour and possessions. But instead gets routine, motherhood and penny-pinching. So when she catches the eye of a handsome aristocrat, Emma risks all to reach for what she thinks will be happiness. The film’s highlight is the stunning ballroom scene, contrasting Emma’s social success with her husband’s failure, culminating in his drunken arrival on the dance floor. In the famed sequence, director Vincente Minnelli skillfully combines dissolves, cross-cuts, pans, long takes – a library of techniques – into a seamless triumph of head-spinning gaiety, heart-breaking despair and moviemaking artistry.

DVD Special Features:
Vintage Pete Smith specialty short Those Good Old Days
Classic cartoon Out-Foxed
Theatrical trailer
Subtitles: English (feature film only)

The Prisoner of Zenda –DOUBLE FEATURE- (1937/1952)
Adventure, pageantry and royal intrigue abound in the two finest screen versions of the beloved 1894 Anthony Hope novel filmed many times. Major Rudolph Rassendyll has the appearance and manner of King Rudolph, yet he’s really his look-alike cousin, and on his shoulders rests all hope of foiling a blackguard’s plot to usurp the throne. Ronald Colman (A Tale of Two Cities) plays the double role in the resilient 1937 David O. Selznick production, making palpable the heartbreak of the royal stand-in whose gallantry is tested by his love for the real king’s fiancée (Madeleine Carroll), with Douglas Fairbanks outstanding as the villain. Stewart Granger (Scaramouche) stars in the lavish 1952 color version, romancing Deborah Kerr and wielding his sword boldly in the film’s bravura climactic duel against the scoundrel Rupert (James Mason).

DVD Special Features:
Pete Smith specialty short Penny Wisdom
Cartoon The Wayward Pups
Audio-only bonus: Lux Radio Theater Adaptation with Ronald Colman
1937 Theatrical Trailer
Fitzpatrick Traveltalk short Land of the Taj Mahal
Oscar-winning cartoon Johann Mouse and 1952 theatrical trailer
Subtitles: English (feature films only)

The Three Musketeers (1948)
To the cry of “all for one and one for all” comes a version of the Alexandre Dumas classic that’s fun for all – a rousing, swashbuckling adaptation that was Gene Kelly’s favorite among his nonmusical movies. Kelly plays country lad D’Artagnan, who comes to Paris with heady ambition and duels his way into the ranks of King Louis XIII’s musketeers. He swashes-and-buckles with brio, bringing to action scenes the virile athleticism that set him apart as a dancer in movie musicals. A top cast – Vincent Price as unctuous Cardinal Richelieu, Lana Turner as villainous Lady de Winter, June Allyson as Constance, Van Heflin as Athos, Robert Coote as Aramis, Gig Young as Porthos and Frank Morgan and Angela Lansbury as King Louis and Queen Anne – joins Kelly in this exuberant tale, filmed in luscious Technicolor.

DVD Special Features:
Vintage Fitzpatrick Traveltalk short Looking at London
Classic MGM Tex Avery cartoon What Price Fleadom
Audio-only bonus: MGM Radio Promo with Dick Simmons interviewing Lana Turner
Theatrical trailer
Subtitles: English & Portuguêse (feature film only)
 

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