Martin & Lewis: Where are their DVDs??? (1 Viewer)

Growing up, I've enjoyed watching movies that starred Abbott & Costello and Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis. I've recently bought 3 volumes of "The Best of Abbott & Costello" DVD which includes 8 movies per set. A 4th and final set will supposedly be released in early 2005. $20 per set is a steal and well worth it!

But where are the Martin & Lewis DVDs? Movies like "Artists & Models", "Pardners", "You're Never Too Young", "That's My Boy", etc... Are there any plans to release them? And if so, any idea when? I would love to see their films get released in the same manner as the "Best of Abbott & Costello" DVDs.



Oh, I know that a couple of Jerry Lewis movies were recently released on DVD. But those are his solo work--which I didn't really care for.

The fate of the Martin & Lewis DVDs has been discussed in one of the threads about the Lewis movies:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=213217

In short, the producer of the new Lewis DVDs, Chris Lewis, hopes to do a boxed set of all 16 Martin & Lewis movies next. The Martin & Lewis movie The Stooge was released along with the recent Lewis movies.

Great! Thanks for the response Randy.

One M&L film may have fallen into the public domain, "At War With The Army". I think I've seen it around.

I don't know where that one fell to, but I do have it. I wonder if that might be part of the reason the rest are taking so long to get released?

I can see them double-checking all of the rights for the rest and making sure they don't fall into PD too.

Glenn

The PD status of At War With the Army has nothing to do with the rest of the catalog coming out on DVD. That title went PD because the executive producer, who owned the rights, died, and no one realized he owned the rights until it was too late. This is addressed in the interview from the previously posted link.

I posted this information on another thread, but it's more relevant here.

Precious few extras are available for the Martin and Lewis films. Jerry didn't begin saving outtakes until 1958, and Paramount saved nothing.

Other than trailers, here's what survives:

MY FRIEND IRMA GOES WEST - newsreel footage of Jerry and the chimp, as well as the premiere in Las Vegas.

THE STOOGE - One minute promo with Dean, Jerry and Hal Wallis. This was filmed especially for the New Year's Eve premiere, and is very funny. Jerry comes out and welcomes the audience. He intros Dean, who intros Hal Wallis. They start saying how happy they were before they met him, but now they've been sued, need lawyers and proceed to push Wallis around. By the end of the clip, he just about falls on the floor as they all break up!

THE CADDY - color home movies on location. There's also the famous radio outtakes but, with the strong language, I doubt they would include them.

MONEY FROM HOME - 30 second promo film on the set with George Marshall for an appearance at the Fox Theater in Detroit.

LIVING IT UP - Newsreel footage of the premiere in Atlantic City with Janet Leigh. "Martin and Lewis Day."

THREE RING CIRCUS - color home movies on the set.

YOU'RE NEVER TOO YOUNG - deleted song "Relax-ay-voo." This exists in both a black and white Colgate Comedy Hour kinescope, and a color 16mm reduction print. This was in the initial first preview at Brown's Hotel, but was cut before general release. (It takes place in the opening barber shop sequence.) There is also newsreel footage of Jerry at Brown's Hotel for the premiere.

PARDNERS - color home movies on the set. ALso, newsreel footage of the premiere in Atlantic City.

There may be some additional newsreel footage in the Paramount News archive, but that's all that comes to mind.

Audio tracks survive on several deleted songs, including "The Hallelujah Train" from LIVING IT UP (a short piece of this cut sequence is at the start of the trailer); "The Test of Time" from PARDNERS; and "It's a Good Day" from THREE RING CIRCUS.

Here's an idea: if Paramount is planning the "ultimate" Martin and Lewis DVD box set, suggest they include a field-sequential version of MONEY FROM HOME in 3-D. I saw the last surviving Polaroid print last year at the big 3-D festival in Hollywood. In the original dual-strip process, the stereoscopic cinematography is fantastic! (This is not the inferior red/blue anaglyph system, but full-color perfect quality Polaroid 3-D.)

SCARED STIFF, THE CADDY and MONEY FROM HOME were originally released in 3-channel stereo sound: a left, center and right track which was on a full-coat 35mm magnetic film interlocked with the picture. They probably don't exist, but Paramount should be encouraged to look for them.

THREE RING CIRCUS, YOU'RE NEVER TOO YOUNG, ARTISTS AND MODELS and PARDNERS were originally released in 3 channel optical Perspecta stereo sound. However, I've heard these tracks and they are not very impressive. 95% of the signal is from the center, with very little use of the left/right channels.

However, if DVD purists want the original 1.85 recommended VistaVision aspect ratio, then the Perspecta sound should also be included. After all, that's how they were originally presented theatrically.

Finally, starting with LIVING IT UP, all the Martin and Lewis films were photographed for 1.85 theatrical exhibition.

I hope this information is helpful!

Bob