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Warner's Catalogue of Films not released on DVD in Region 1! (1 Viewer)

Robert Crawford

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As many of you know, Warner’s has the largest film library of any studio due to numerous reasons that I will explain later in this thread. Due to their vast catalogue of films and Warner’s recent lack of DVD releases involving them, I felt a thread documenting Warner's titles was needed to make the membership aware of all the great films, we as consumers are being denied of seeing on the best available video format. I’m sure Warner’s lack of catalogue DVD releases is tied to their belief that many of the titles won’t sell in significantly enough numbers in order for them to make a profit. Though that might be true for some of the titles, I believe that many titles would sell well enough to justify their DVD release. If Warner doesn’t forecast a profit for some of those titles then I would think they can license them out to other distributors, like they’ve done with other titles. Also, a film company with such a long and distinguished film history, Warner owes it to the industry, fans of their films, and themselves to release their classic films on the best home video format available to the general public. Now, before I get to the title listing, I think it’s time for a little film studio history lesson. :)
Warner’s was started by the Warner brothers in the 1920’s. In the beginning, the company had some sharp talent at the head of their film production. Men such as Darryl Zanuck, Hal Wallis and Jack Warner oversaw productions starring Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, and many others. Their forte was gangster films but soon Warner became known for producing some of the best adventure, melodrama, biographical, and mystery films on the movie screen. Like many of the studios, they ran into some financial trouble in the 1950’s, with the advent of television and the government forcing them to divest themselves of their theater chain. In the mid-fifties, Warner was forced to sell their pre-1950 film library which eventually became the property of United Artists. Later, I will tell you more of what happen to their library, but first its time to talk a little about MGM and RKO studios.
RKO Pictures was a small but important player in the beginning of the Golden Age of Film. The company was always in financial trouble but if you look at their film releases you would ask yourself why? Directors such as George Stevens, Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, Orson Welles and John Ford directed some of their best work for RKO. The studio’s films included horror films such as the original King Kong , elaborate musicals starring Astaire/Rogers, screwball comedies starring Grant and Hepburn, and some very good dramas such as a little film called Citizen Kane. Furthermore, the studio’s film releases in the film noir genre were probably the best ever produced by one studio. Over the years, the studio was sold several times and eventually the studio grounds which was next door to Paramount Studios was bought by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. During the 1980’s, the rights to many of their films was bought by Ted Turner but more on that later.
Now, it’s time for the story of the Dream Factory better known as MGM. The studio was managed by Louie B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg. Also, David O. Selznick got his start at MGM and worked there a couple of times before establishing his own company. By the way, at one time Selznick was married to Mayer’s daughter before marrying Jennifer Jones in the 1940’s. Anyhow, the studio was the largest and richest during the Golden Age of Film. Their productions had large film budgets which made their films look more elaborate and refined. The look of MGM’s films versus Warner’s was like comparing a Cadillac to a Chevrolet. MGM’s stars included Gable, Tracy, Garbo, Harlow, Crawford, Stewart, Robert Taylor, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, and countless others. But like the other studios in the 1950’s, they were also bitten by the antitrust bug and was forced by the government to divest their interest in the Loew’s theater chain. Further financial unrest was the norm for the studio over the next couple of decades. In the early 1980’s, they bought United Artists and became MGM/UA Entertainment. In the mid-80’s, Ted Turner bought MGM/UA, he then sold off their other interests and kept the hugh library of MGM films as well as the pre-1948 Warner and RKO films. The number of films involved was well over 3000 films, a very significant number which brings us to the 1990’s, when Turner Broadcasting Company was sold by Ted Turner to Time Warner. Also, during the past year or so, some film rights reverted back to MGM while others were exchanged and given to Warner. Confusing isn’t it?
wink.gif

As you can see, determination of which studio owns what film can be an annoyance. I can only imagined that Mayer, Thalberg, and Warner never thought that such confusion would exist as to the ownership of the great films they made during the Golden Age of Hollywood. To the best of my knowledge and my frustrated attempts to verify the film rights ownership, the following films are owned by Warner. Now, I will admit that some of them might be licensed to other distributors such as Anchor Bay or even owned by MGM but I’m confident that most of these films are the property of Warner. The listing of films is not meant to be inclusive in itself but it should allow you to see the vast number of films under the control of one studio. I don’t have a problem with Warner and I applaud them for their role in establishing the DVD format, however, as a very serious film buff, I’m imploring Warner’s to continue their support of the format by releasing these timeless classics to the best home video format known as DVD.
In closing, my listing includes only films not released on DVD in Region 1 for the United States and the listing doesn’t include titles that are either announced or seriously rumor to be coming out soon on DVD here in the States, films like Citizen Kane, Doctor Zhivago or Giant. Please, forgive me if I left off some titles but the listing is a work in progress and corrections will be made when necessary. By the way, Giant is already out on DVD in Canada and my question is why not in the States? I own the Canadian DVD and the video presentation of Giant is the best I’ve ever seen it.
Warner's Film Library
Humphrey Bogart:
The Petrified Forest, To Have and Have Not, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, High Sierra, Across the Pacific, Action in the North Atlantic, All Through the Night, Passage to Marseilles, Dark Passage, The Enforcer.
James Cagney:
Angels With Dirty Faces (Cagney & Bogey), Love Me or Leave Me, The Public Enemy, The Roaring Twenties (Cagney & Bogey), White Heat, Yankee Doodle Dandy, G-Men, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Cagney & Shakespeare :bg :), The Strawberry Blonde, Each Dawn I Die, The Fighting 69th, The Oklahoma Kid (Cagney & Bogey in a Western :bg :), City for Conquest, The Bride Came C.O.D. (Only film pairing of Cagney & B. Davis), Come Fill the Cup, A Lion in the Streets.
Gary Cooper:
Love in the Afternoon (Coop & Audrey Hepburn), Cloak and Dagger, Dallas, Task Force, Along Came Jones, The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, The Fountainhead (Mike Knapp's Favorite), Sergeant York, The Hanging Tree.
Bette Davis:
Dangerous, Satan Met a Lady (2nd Film Version of The Maltese Falcon), All This and Heaven Too, The Sisters, The Letter, Now Voyager, Of Human Bondage, Mr. Skeffington, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (Davis and Flynn), Watch on the Rhine.
Kirk Douglas:
The Bad and the Beautiful, The Big Sky, Along the Great Divide, Young Man With a Horn, The Glass Menagerie, Lust for Life, Two Weeks in Another Town (Douglas & E.G. Robinson)
Clint Eastwood:
Where Eagles Dare, Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact, Every Which Way But Loose, Firefox, City Heat, Tightrope, The Dead Pool, A Perfect World.
Errol Flynn:
The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood, The Charge of the Light Brigade, The Sea Hawk, The Dawn Patrol, Dodge City, Objective Burma, The Prince and the Pauper, They Died With Their Boots On, Virginia City (Bogey in another Western), Adventures of Don Juan, Gentleman Jim.
Clark Gable:
Manhatten Melodrama, Mutiny on the Bounty, San Francisco, China Seas, Command Decision, Honky Tonk, Mogambo, Red Dust, Test Pilot, Boom Town, The Hucksters, Strange Cargo, Too Hot to Handle.
Greta Garbo:
Camille, Grand Hotel, Ninotchka, Anna Christie, Anna Karenina, Two-Faced Woman.
John Garfield:
Pride of the Marines, The Sea Wolf (Robinson & Garfield), Between Two Worlds, The Fallen Sparrow, Humoresque, Nobody Lives Forever, Out of the Fog.
Cary Grant:
Bringing Up Baby, Gunga Din, Topper, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, Destination Tokyo (Grant & Garfield), Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, Mr. Lucky, My Favorite Wife, Night and Day, None But the Lonely Heart (Grant's Best Acting Job), In Name Only.
Jean Harlow:
Bombshell, Libeled Lady (Tracy, Harlow, Powell, & Loy), Reckless, Red-Headed Woman, The Girl From Missouri Riffraff, Saratoga, Wife vs. Secretary (Gable, Harlow, Loy, & Stewart).
Alfred Hitchcock:
Dial M for Murder, Suspicion, The Wrong Man, I Confess, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Stage Fright, Under Capricorn.
Burt Lancaster:
The Crimson Pirate, The Flame and the Arrow, His Majesty O’Keefe, Jim Thorpe-All American.
The Marx Brothers:
A Day at the Races, A Night at the Opera, At the Circus, Room Service, The Big Store, Go West.
Paul Newman:
The Silver Chalice (Film Debut), The Drowning Pool, Harper, The Left-Handed Gun, The Mackintosh Man, The Rack , Somebody Up Their Likes Me, The Young Philadelphians.
Edward G. Robinson:
Little Caesar, A Slight Case of Murder, Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet, Larceny Inc., Brother Orchid (Robinson & Bogey), Bullets or Ballots (Same), Kid Galahad (Same), The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (Same), The Last Gangster (Robinson & Stewart), Smart Money (Only pairing of Robinson & Cagney).
Frank Sinatra:
Some Came Running, Never So Few, None But the Brave, Ocean’s Eleven (Rat Pack), 4 for Texas (Deano & Frankie), Robin and the Seven Hoods (Rat Pack), High Society.
James Stewart:
It’s a Wonderful World, The Naked Spur, No Time for Comedy, The Shop Around the Corner, The Spirit of St. Louis.
Spencer Tracy:
Bad Day at Black Rock, Boys Town, Captains Courageous, Fury, Northwest Passage, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Father of the Bride, A Guy Named Joe, State of the Union, Without Love, Tortilla Flat (Tracy & Garfield).
John Wayne:
Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Back to Bataan, The High and the Mighty, Hondo, Operation Pacific, Tall in the Saddle, Three Godfathers, Flying Leathernecks, Island in the Sky, The Wings of Eagles, The Train Robbers, Chisum, Cahill-United States Marshal, Reunion in France (Wayne & Joan Crawford), Trouble Along the Way.
Action:
Captain Horatio Hornblower, King Solomon’s Mines, Moby Dick, Desperate Journey, Quo Vadis, Tarzan, the Ape Man, Tarzan and his Mate, Tarzan Escapes, Beau Brummel, Ivanhoe, Scarmouche, Trader Horn, The Lost Patrol, Sinbad the Sailor, High Road To China, Clash of the Titans.
Comedy:
The Accidental Tourist, No Time for Sergeants, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, George Washington Slept Here, Going in Style, The Great Race, The Incredible Mr. Limpet, The In-laws, The Teahouse of the August Moon, Uptown Saturday Night, The Cameraman, O Lucky Man.
Crime:
I’m a Fugitve from a Chain Gang, The Thin Man films, The Big House, Invisible Stripes (George Raft, Bogey, and W. Holden), They Won’t Believe Me, Straight Time, Klute, Superfly, Prince of the City, Once Upon a Time in America.
Drama:
The Human Comedy, The Last Time I saw Paris, The Learning Tree, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Blackboard Jungle, The Candidate, The Cincinatti Kid, Dinner at Eight, East of Eden, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Mrs. Miniver, The Women, The Yearling, Greed, The Informer, Little Women (1933 & 1949 versions), The Magnificent Ambersons, Mildred Pierce, Executive Suite, Raintree County, Spencer’s Mountain, A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, Waterloo Bridge, Random Harvest, Sayonara, A Summer Place, Three Comrades, Sunrise at Campobello, Witness for the Prosecution, Day for Night.
Film Noir:
The Asphalt Jungle, Crossfire, The Mask of Dimitrios, Murder My Sweet, Out of the Past, The Set-Up, Born to Kill, Journey into Fear, Lady in the Lake, On Dangerous Ground, The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946 version), The Racket, Stranger on the Third Floor, They Live By Night, Side Street, The Window, A Woman in the Window.
Horror:
Cat People (1942 version), King Kong (1933 version), Son of Kong, Them, The Thing From Another Planet, The Beast With Five Fingers, The Body Snatcher, The Devil Doll, Doctor X, The Canterville Ghost (1944 version), Freaks, House of Wax, I Walked with a Zombie, Mark of the Vampire, Mighty Joe Young (1949 version), The Mystery of the Wax Museum, The Walking Dead, Wolfen, The Mummy (1959) and other Hammer films.
Musical:
Damn Yankees, Meet Me in St. Louis, Swing Time, Top Hat, The Gay Divorcee, The Great Ziegfeld, The Jazz Singer, Kiss Me Kate, In the Good Old Summertime, The Harvey Girls, Finian’s Rainbow, Calamity Jane, Cabin in the Sky, Rhapsody in Blue, Shall We Dance, Silk Stockings, Hollywood Canteen, Gold Diggers of 1933.
Suspense:
The Bad Seed, Berlin Express, Confessions of a Nazi Spy, Flamingo Road, Keeper of the Flame, The Seventh Cross, Wait Until Dark, Gaslight, Intruder in the Dust, Johnny Angel, Mad Love, Night Must Fall, The Tall Target, Time after Time.
War:
Air Force, Battleground, God is my Co-Pilot, Go For Broke, Merrill’s Marauders, PT109, The Red Badge of Courage, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.
Western:
Cimarron, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Annie Oakley, The Badlanders, Blood on the Moon, The Law and Jake Wade, Pursued, Rachel and the Stranger, The Charge at Feather River, Rancho Notorious, There Was a Crooked Man, Fire Creek (Stewart and Fonda), Wagonmaster, Sergeant Rutledge, Westward the Women, Wyatt Earp.
Robert Crawford
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William Miller

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It's great to know that there are still some people who respect and want to watch older fims. I am also waiting for Warner's to unleash these great titles in their vast library. They are moving way too slow.
In the meantime, their sister company, Turner Classic Movies, shows most of these titles on a regular basis. Brand name blank VHS tapes now sell for $1.00 each and I have taped a lot of these off the DirecTV signal and the quality is pretty good and I would rather watch a VHS than not watch it at all. But I would still buy the DVD version when they come out.
When affordable, recordable DVD machines are available, I will record them again on blank DVD's as the next step towards the "real thing".
 

Randy_M

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No Time for Sergeants, YEAH! I figure the ones on the AFI 100 will eventually come out (Bringing up Baby, Sierra Madre, etc), but I would like to see some of the other titles...If Warner's doesn't want to put them out, why don't they license them to Image, or Anchor Bay, or whoever?
 

JungWoo

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Crawford,
I could guess from beginning that you would have special grudge against Warner as I do. Any lover of American classics would.
But Warner also owns a lot of foreign movies, and I wish to add the following to our cause:
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams, Blow Up, Day for Night, Death in Venice, A Man and a Woman, The Nasty Girl, Once Were Warriors, Performance, They Died with Their Boots On, and so on.
And you should add 'To Be or Not To Be' to comedy.
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http://www.geocities.com/ilian73/index.html My Life to Live
"Cinema is truth 24 frames per second." - Godard
My DVD Collection
Cinema: seventh art
S&S 100 Films Forum Challenge
 

Mark Cappelletty

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I'd like some of the titles Image released in 97-98 on LD that went OOP very quickly, like "O Lucky Man!" I got "Mishima" when it came out and never saw it again. Surprised (pleasantly) that "Seven Days in May" came out last year.
 

Jarod M

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You guys are fast! I was just going to mention Day for Night and O Lucky Man! Ok, what about The Cameraman starring Buster Keaton? Or does MGM still control that one?
 

Roger Mathus

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Robert, what a super post. There are many titles there that I would sure like to add to my DVD library. I am also very impressed at your knowledge movie history.
There is one company in Japan that specializes in classic American cinema. They now have a fairly large catalog. I saw She Wore A Yellow Ribbon at a store and plan to buy copy this weekend to check quality.
Thank you for this great post that serves as a reminder of many films I saw in the 1950s.
 

Alex Yang

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Hi,
Small contribution here, er, slight update... Secret life of Walter Mitty is already out. HBO released it last year, I have it, and Hans Christian Anderson and the Court Jester...
Just a quick FYI...
-Alex
 

Brian Lawrence

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All they have to do is release ACCIDENTAL TOURIST to make me happier than a pig in shit. Back when Altered States was first released on dvd I got excited thinking that because they listed Accidental Tourist in the recommendations section, that it must be shortly on it's way, that was over 2 years ago
frown.gif

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>>BUGG
 

Malcolm_Brass

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I got to see YANKEE DOODLE DANDY in a nice theater a couple of years ago and couldn't wait for it to come out on DVD. I'm still waiting.
 

Anthony Thorne

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I second the requests for O LUCKY MAN and PERFORMANCE (there is a Mark Kermode doco called DONALD CAMMELL-THE ULTIMATE PERFORMANCE, which would fit beautifully on a DVD) and would like to add one other Warner's title: Ken Russell's THE DEVILS. This is a landmark movies, filmed in 2.35, that has been plagued by censorship and controversy for years. It's too late now to get an Oliver Reed/Ken Russell commentary, but Russell is keen to do one and I would be happy to hear him talk solo. C'mon Warner's, restore it and release it.
Warner's should also do a Special Edition of John Boorman's DELIVERANCE, one of the key movies of the 70's that is really crying out for full commentary/doco Special Edition treatment. I love the Warner's S.E's of ENTER THE DRAGON and THE EXORCIST and am waiting for DELIVERANCE to be added to the list.
 

Robert Crawford

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The listing was not meant to list every title not released by Warner but instead was to educate the membership about the many classic films Warner owns the rights to and that we may never see on dvd. Therefore, I will continue to update the listing with suggestions that I have omitted but please don't be offended if your particular suggestion is not placed on the listing. Furthermore, please continue to post your suggestions because I know I missed alot of films that should be on the list. Also, titles such as "Where Eagles Dare" which I saw in a movie theater is not listed purposely because I'm having trouble confirming the licensing of it, while "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" was deleted from the list. I've added "Day for Night" (oops on my part for the lack of foreign titles), O Lucky Man, and The Cameraman. Other additions will follow as I continue to get suggestions. Thank you for all your support.
Robert Crawford
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Holden Pike

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And not to nitpick after you went through so much trouble, but for the Eastwood films, The Gauntlet has already been released R1 (and a good disc too). The rest of the Eastwood stuff they're still holding that you didn't list: Any Which Way You Can, Honkytonk Man, Heartbreak Ridge, The Rookie, and White Hunter, Black Heart. Bird is streeting at the end of this month. Plus Anthony is quite right that they now own the rights to Where Eagles Dare (when MGM sold their catalogue off).
A personal favorite in Warner's vault is Sydney Pollack's The Yakuza (1975) starring Robert Mitchum. Hard to classify, but you could stick it on your "suspense" list.
Anyway, an ambitious task.
icon14.gif
 

Martin Jeeves

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Robert,
Great job! Who owns the rights to:
CLASH OF THE TITANS (1981)
THE WANDERERS (1979)
SHOOT THE MOON (1982)
A LITTLE ROMANCE (1979)
PRINCE OF THE CITY (1980)
Aren't these all now under Warner?
Any info would be great. Warner if you're reading this, please release these and other catalogue product.
Thanks,
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M.J.
 

Kevin McCorry

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146
If we include all approximately 1,000 Looney Tunes
and Merrie Melodies, this increases the unreleased
Warner title list by leaps and bounds.
It occurs to me that a Heston 2-pack of Soylent
Green and The Omega Man would be a nice bit
of marketing. Also a Spencer Tracy pack including Dr.
Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Inherit the Wind, Judgement at Nuremberg, and The Old Man and the
Sea. Also, the three Oh, God! films would make a nice boxed set, combined perhaps with Going in Style.
A further Eastwood set could include Where Eagles Dare, Firefox, and others.
 

DaveCheung

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Here's a couple more foreign films to add to the list:
The Emigrants (1971) and
The New Land (1972)
Jan Troell's epic saga (with Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow) traces a peasant family's life from rural Sweden to Minnesota in the 19th century. Only The Emigrants is currently available on video in a English-dubbed and edited version (with 30+ minutes removed). I think both parts were released on laserdisc in their original language and length in 1997. BTW, Day for Night (still priced for rental at $59.99!) and A Man and a Woman has never been available on video in their original language...this is the right time to correct that.
 

Bill McA

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"Oh. I almost forgot....what about Nicolas Roegs 'DON'T LOOK NOW'?"
'Don't Look Now' is a Paramount film (but also eagerly awaited)
I would also LOVE to see the original uncut 111 minute version of 'The Devils' and other Ken Russell films which I think they own ('The Boyfriend', 'The Music Lovers', 'Savage Messiah', 'Lisztomania')
Also missing from Warner DVD are their Hammer Studios horror films, 'Dracula' (aka Horror of Dracula), 'The Curse of Frankenstein', 'The Mummy', 'Dracula Has Risen From the Grave', 'Taste the Blood of Dracula', 'Dracula A.D. 1972', 'When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth' and a few others.
Also missing are the few Ray Harryhausen titles that they own, 'Valley of Gwangi', 'Beast From the 20,000 Fathoms', and 'Clash of the Titans'.
 

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