Wings (1927 Paramount)? (1 Viewer)

Re: Wings (1927)

Has anyone heard any more about this 1927 academy award winner being released by Paramount. Seemed to remember some talk a while back about it and know its on VHS.

Eric

I swear I had seen this on DVD but amazon says it has not been released yet but it has a sign up for an e-mail once the title is announced. This does not mean that it will be coming out on DVD, just that there has been a great deal of searching for it on their site or something. Go ahead and sign up for the e-mail, a few things that pop up at amazon like this have been released on DVD so maybe they send it to the company that would make it. DVDSpot seems to list one from a bo-ying region 0, must be an import or something.

I don't see how Paramount could not bring this out, as it will soon be the only Oscar-winner not yet available on DVD.

Well...

Sunrise's mail-in/boxset-only disc is OOP (Best Artistic Production of 1927-1928) - Fox
Cimarron isn't out yet (it's actually not that bad) - Warner
Cavalcade isn't out yet - Fox

So, there's 4 left. In comparison, almost all AFI 100's are out (we're just waiting for The Jazz Singer and King Kong, both in the works).

Paramount could make a killing if they put out a series called "Paramount Silents". All could feature the existing Gaylord Carter stereo scores, commentaries, and other features.

Just look at how notable their silents are...

Wings - First BP winner, Gary Cooper, Clara Bow
Running Wild - W.C. Fields
Docks of New York - Josef von Sternberg
The Last Command - von Sternberg and Emil Jannings
The Wedding March - Erich von Stroheim and Fay Wray (!)
The Covered Wagon - James Cruze
Underworld - von Sternberg, gangster film

Paramount really ought to do something, considering that Warner Bros. will have almost a dozen silents on DVD by next year (The Unknown, The Ace of Hearts, Laugh Clown Laugh, The Cameraman, Spite Marraige, Ben-Hur, The Temptress, The Flesh and the Devil, The Mysterious Lady, Camille, and The Big Parade).

Actually, Sunrise isn't out of print anymore.

Also waiting for The African Queen (at least in R1), and both Wuthering Heights & Double Indemnity are long OOP (I think a re-release is rumored for the latter).

Cimarron will be out in February 2006 according to George Feltenstein (sp?) in an article that ran in USA Today. It will be part of next year's Oscar promotion package. Calvalcade is supposedly going to be a Fox Studio Classics release at some point.

I agree with Patrick Paramount have some great silents in their library. Why don't they release them on DVD ? Obviously because they believe they won't sell, a release of Wings was in the balance and that is an Oscar winner which doesn'tbode well for the others. Paramount are running out of big classic titles after Morgan's Creek, African Queen and Ace in the Hole see the light of day, apart from those I'm not sure what the studio can offer classic film fans if it doesn't delve into its silents apart from reissues.

I thought I remembered hearing something about Paramount doing an 80th anniversary release in 2007. But that could just be my imagination.

Let me put it to you this way-- a MAJOR contract player at Paramount (who has lately made headlines in tabloids for his weird behavior) tried to persuade them to release some of their silent caché-- to no avail.

I'm afraid, unless some of the employment in the HV department at Paramount changes, we will not be seeing any silents on DVD soon, Academy Award winners or not. They are the ONLY company that has refused to put out their AA winners on video, although the Academy is currently facing trouble with collecting Academy Award winning shorts from a company that owns almost 90% of them.

Here is a list of all of the Paramount/Famous Players Lasky titles they own that still exits:

Abie's Irish Rose * * * 28 * * *PAR
Adam's Rib * * *23 * * *FPL
Are Parents People? * * 25 * * *FPL
Barbed Wire * * 27 * * *PAR
Beau Geste * * *26 * * *FPL
Bedroom Window, The * * 24 * * *FPL
Beggars of Life 28 * * *PAR
Behind the Front * * * *26 * * *FPL
Bella Donna * * 23 * * *FPL
Big Killing, The * * * *28 * * *PAR
Blonde or Brunette * * *27 * * *FPL
Bluff * 24 * * *FPL
Breaking Point, The * * 24 * * *FPL
Call of the Canyon, The 23 * * *FPL
Canadian, The * 26 * * *FPL
Casey at the Bat * * * *27 * * *FPL
Chang * 27 * * *PAR
Changing Husbands * * * 24 * * *FPL
Children of Divorce * * 27 * * *FPL
Chinatown Nights * * * *29 * * *PAR
Code of the Sea, The * *24 * * *FPL
Covered Wagon, The * * *23 * * *FPL
Dancing Mothers 26 * * *FPL
Diplomacy * * * 26 * * *FPL
Docks of New York, The *28 * * *PAR
Doomsday * * * *28 * * *FPL
Eagle of the Sea, The * 26 * * *FPL
Enemy Sex, The *24 * * *FPL
Eve's Secret * *25 * * *FPL
Fair Week * * * 24 * * *FPL
Feel My Pulse * 28 * * *PAR
Fighting Coward, The * *24 * * *FPL
Fine Manners * *26 * * *FPL
Forbidden Paradise * * *24 * * *FPL
Forgotten Faces 28 * * *PAR
Four Feathers, The * * *29 * * *PAR
Gentleman of Paris, A * 27 * * *PAR
Golden Bed, The 25 * * *FPL
Grand Duchess and the Waiter, The * * * 26 * * *FPL
Grumpy *23 * * *FPL
Hands Up! * * * 26 * * *FPL
Heart Raider, The * * * 23 * * *FPL
Heritage of the Desert, The * * 24 * * *FPL
Hotel Imperial *27 * * *FPL
Hula * *27 * * *PAR
Humming Bird, The * * * 23 * * *FPL
Irish Luck * * *25 * * *FPL
It * * *27 * * *FPL
It's the Old Army Game *26 * * *FPL
Kick In 23 * * *FPL
Kid Boots * * * 26 * * *FPL
King on Main Street, The * * * *25 * * *FPL
Kiss For Cinderella, A *26 * * *FPL
Last Command, The * * * 28 * * *PAR
Last Outlaw, The * * * *27 * * *PAR
Legong *35 * * *PAR
Let's Get Married * * * 26 * * *FPL
Lord Jim * * * *25 * * *FPL
Love 'Em and Leave 'Em *26 * * *FPL
Lovers in Quarantine * *25 * * *FPL
Lucky Devil * * 25 * * *FPL
Lucky Lady, The 26 * * *FPL
Manhandled * * *24 * * *FPL
Mannequin * * * 26 * * *FPL
Mantrap 26 * * *FPL
Marquis Preferred * * * 29 * * *PAR
Miss Bluebeard *25 * * *FPL
Monsieur Beaucaire * * *24 * * *FPL
Nevada *27 * * *PAR
New Klondike, The * * * 26 * * *FPL
Night Club, The 25 * * *FPL
Night of Mystery, A * * 28 * * *PAR
North of '36 * *24 * * *FPL
Old Ironsides * 26 * * *PAR
Open All Night *24 * * *FPL
Padlocked * * * 26 * * *FPL
Partners in Crime * * * 28 * * *PAR
Peter Pan * * * 25 * * *FPL
Pied Piper Malone * * * 24 * * *FPL
Pony Express, The * * * 25 * * *FPL
Quarterback, The * * * *26 * * *FPL
Rango * 31 * * *PAR
Redskin 28 * * *PAR
Return of Dr. Fu Manchu, The * *30 * * *PAR
Running Wild * *27 * * *PAR
Senorita * * * *27 * * *PAR
Shock Punch, The * * * *25 * * *FPL
Show-Off, The * 26 * * *FPL
Showdown, The * 28 * * *PAR
Side Show of Life, The *24 * * *FPL
So's Your Old Man * * * 26 * * *FPL
Son of His Father, A * *25 * * *FPL
Sorrows of Satan, The * 27 * * *FPL
Spanish Dancer, The * * 23 * * *FPL
Special Delivery * * * *27 * * *FPL
Stage Struck * *25 * * *FPL
Stairs of Sand *29 * * *PAR
Stark Love * * *27 * * *PAR
Swan, The * * * 25 * * *FPL
Tabu * *31 * * *PAR
Tell It to Sweeney * * *27 * * *PAR
Ten Commandments, The * 23 * * *FPL
That's My Baby *26 * * *FPL
To the Last Man 23 * * *FPL
Too Many Kisses 25 * * *FPL
Triumph 24 * * *FPL
Under the Tonto Rim * * 28 * * *PAR
Underworld * * *27 * * *PAR
Vanishing American, The 26 * * *FPL
Volcano 26 * * *FPL
Wanderer, The * 26 * * *FPL
We're in the Navy Now * 26 * * *FPL
Wedding March, The * * *28 * * *PAR
Welcome Home * *25 * * *FPL
Wild Bill Hickok * * * *23 * * *FPL
Wild Horse Mesa 25 * * *FPL
Wings * 28 * * *PAR
Wolf Song * * * 29 * * *PAR
Woman of the World, A * 25 * * *PAR
Woman on Trial, The * * 27 * * *PAR
Womanhandled * *25 * * *FPL
You Never Know Women * *26 * * *FPL
You'd Be Surprised * * *26 * * *FPL
Zaza * *23 * * *FPL

Which company were CHANG and TABU licensed to for the old VHS releases?

I don't know the legalities behind these two titles, but I'd assume that since they've been distributed under other labels besides Paramount that they are now in Public Domain.

The list I posted is merely extant Paramount films after 1922.

I'm not sure about Chang, but I think Tabu was an independent production that was just distributed by Paramount, so they may not have had ownership of it.

Always liked FEEL MY PULSE - 1928, and hoped some of those other Bebe Daniels comedies survived (like WHAT A NIGHT, and SWIM,GIRL,SWIM, etc.), but that Paramount list looks grim from that perspective. Not much Esther Ralston on that list, either. But, I'm glad to see THE BIG KILLING there. I have a fondness for hillbilly comedies, and for some odd reason, that's an item I would have assumed 'lost.' But, good grief, if WINGS is a tough sale, I might as well give up all hope of ever viewing such long-forgotten oddities. Indeed, I already have.

Could you possibly have made it more obvious who you mean?

Yes, but you never know whose lawyer might be reading this

In speaking to someone in the know, Paramount has apparently done a restoration of WINGS on a digital scale (that of METROPOLIS, if not better). In that case, it is only a matter of time before it will be on DVD.

Perhaps this is an end of an era and the start of a new one!