- Joined
- Feb 8, 1999
- Messages
- 18,396
- Real Name
- Robert Harris
With the release of their "The Cary Grant Box Set," Sony Home Video, which owns the Columbia library seems to finally be joining the rest of the major studios in the pricing of classics.
Since the advent of DVD technology, Sony has either totally misunderstood the home video marketplace, or even worse, has taken a "we don't care" attitude toward their potential customer base, and priced their offerings well outside the actual marketplace.
Now, almost a decade into the format, and with the next on the horizon, comes their first collection of films with the inimitable Mr. Grant.
A five disc set encompassing The Awful Truth (1937), Holiday (1938), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), His Girl Friday (1940) and The Talk of the Town (1942) offer some of the best of Mr. Grant's work. There are another five from this era yet to come from the studio.
Before we visit the quality of the films and extras, let's take a quick look at pricing and marketing.
Until now, and with software still available separately in stores, one would pay around $85 discounted for approximately $108 in retail "value" for four of the discs. Holiday makes its first appearance in this set.
The fact that Sony had priced these films, few of which look like anything special quality-wise between $25 and $30 might seem astonishing to the uninitiated, but somehow in their mind, and as the only studio using this pricing structure, they did just that.
Fortunately for the public, and assumedly for their own bottom line someone in Culver City must have visited one of the video stores on Pico or gone over to Virgin on Sunset and actually checked out what the other studios have been doing.
The product itself is much like the child of a marriage between WB and Universal, using the pricing strategy of both, the collection concept of Warner Home Video and the packaging of Universal.
And the DVD collection of this union finally has Sony's software properly priced and elegantly and professionally packaged at a street price of under $40 for five great classic films.
This is a major step for Sony, and hopefully will be the beginning of other like offerings to come.
On the problem side, we have the condition of the films themselves.
Not the transfers, but rather the condition of those surviving elements.
After decades of mishandling, vault tragedies, the films have finally been getting their due under the aegis of Columbia's Grover Crisp and company.
For many years, The Awful Truth had only been available in 16mm, and Holiday in less than beautiful prints, but armed with budgets, inventories and a bit of help from the UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Library of Congress, the films are now all in decently viewable condition.
The only surviving original negative may His Girl Friday. Only Angels Have Wings looks superb, so something in 35mm of quality has survived. Other titles are derived from dupes of varying generations as well as 35mm nitrate prints, but aside the few missing shots from The Awful Truth, every one of these five films looks far better in this set that they have in decades. Hopefully, The Awful Truth will be fixed and replaced.
I note the quality not to negatively review this set, which I am not doing, but rather to prepare the viewer for the reality of the situation, and to note that the studio has thus far, taken the films as far as can one can in terms of quality.
The bottom line is that this is nothing but great news.
Sony Home Video has joined the rest of the world in terms of pricing.
We have a great set of five Cary Grant films in the best possible quality.
To those who already own the four previously releases, and wish to now add Holiday, I'll also note that these are new transfers with a myriad of fixes, inclusive of the previously missing frames at the opening of His Girl Friday.
At this price, the message is to buy the new box set and give your old discs to friends. The upgrade is not only worthwhile, but the next incremental jump in quality from a potential high definition release will not be terribly beneficial to these films.
As far as being loaded with featurettes, this is more hyperbole than fact. The handful of featurettes are short (some topping out at three minutes) and of minimal import, aside from Mr. Stevens comments on Talk of the Town and Todd McCarthy's commentary on His Girl Friday, which is carried over from the original release.
Highly recommended.
RAH
Since the advent of DVD technology, Sony has either totally misunderstood the home video marketplace, or even worse, has taken a "we don't care" attitude toward their potential customer base, and priced their offerings well outside the actual marketplace.
Now, almost a decade into the format, and with the next on the horizon, comes their first collection of films with the inimitable Mr. Grant.
A five disc set encompassing The Awful Truth (1937), Holiday (1938), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), His Girl Friday (1940) and The Talk of the Town (1942) offer some of the best of Mr. Grant's work. There are another five from this era yet to come from the studio.
Before we visit the quality of the films and extras, let's take a quick look at pricing and marketing.
Until now, and with software still available separately in stores, one would pay around $85 discounted for approximately $108 in retail "value" for four of the discs. Holiday makes its first appearance in this set.
The fact that Sony had priced these films, few of which look like anything special quality-wise between $25 and $30 might seem astonishing to the uninitiated, but somehow in their mind, and as the only studio using this pricing structure, they did just that.
Fortunately for the public, and assumedly for their own bottom line someone in Culver City must have visited one of the video stores on Pico or gone over to Virgin on Sunset and actually checked out what the other studios have been doing.
The product itself is much like the child of a marriage between WB and Universal, using the pricing strategy of both, the collection concept of Warner Home Video and the packaging of Universal.
And the DVD collection of this union finally has Sony's software properly priced and elegantly and professionally packaged at a street price of under $40 for five great classic films.
This is a major step for Sony, and hopefully will be the beginning of other like offerings to come.
On the problem side, we have the condition of the films themselves.
Not the transfers, but rather the condition of those surviving elements.
After decades of mishandling, vault tragedies, the films have finally been getting their due under the aegis of Columbia's Grover Crisp and company.
For many years, The Awful Truth had only been available in 16mm, and Holiday in less than beautiful prints, but armed with budgets, inventories and a bit of help from the UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Library of Congress, the films are now all in decently viewable condition.
The only surviving original negative may His Girl Friday. Only Angels Have Wings looks superb, so something in 35mm of quality has survived. Other titles are derived from dupes of varying generations as well as 35mm nitrate prints, but aside the few missing shots from The Awful Truth, every one of these five films looks far better in this set that they have in decades. Hopefully, The Awful Truth will be fixed and replaced.
I note the quality not to negatively review this set, which I am not doing, but rather to prepare the viewer for the reality of the situation, and to note that the studio has thus far, taken the films as far as can one can in terms of quality.
The bottom line is that this is nothing but great news.
Sony Home Video has joined the rest of the world in terms of pricing.
We have a great set of five Cary Grant films in the best possible quality.
To those who already own the four previously releases, and wish to now add Holiday, I'll also note that these are new transfers with a myriad of fixes, inclusive of the previously missing frames at the opening of His Girl Friday.
At this price, the message is to buy the new box set and give your old discs to friends. The upgrade is not only worthwhile, but the next incremental jump in quality from a potential high definition release will not be terribly beneficial to these films.
As far as being loaded with featurettes, this is more hyperbole than fact. The handful of featurettes are short (some topping out at three minutes) and of minimal import, aside from Mr. Stevens comments on Talk of the Town and Todd McCarthy's commentary on His Girl Friday, which is carried over from the original release.
Highly recommended.
RAH
