It's been so slow with classic movie news!! (1 Viewer)

Especially with Fox. I haven't heard them announce any classics coming to dvd since the Joan Collins collection. Ditto for Universal and Paramount only announced a SE of Funny Face.

I'm suspecting we'll hear something from Warners tomorrow since it's been about 3 weeks since Judy & Mickey was announced. We should already be getting release dates for sets and films for October.

I know just what you mean, it has been very slow lately, so we will appreciate the news even more when they do come!

I'm especially anxious to find out what are the next Fox musicals, Universal Cinema classics, Shirley Temple flicks and of course, ALL the upcoming Warner sets!!!

Not being a horror film buff, the Halloween releases are of no interest to me, except the mystery titles part of the bunch (Blueprint for Murder for instance).

Can't wait for Universal's next line of Cinema Classics and Fox's Marquee Musicals.

Oh yes, the news has been slow, since the fall is when I would expect more than a few major release. And Corey we have similar taste, I was getting ready to post the same wish list.

Yeah, that would be my guess too. The summer is slow for DVD releases in general.

Apparently from Fox's website foxclassics.com the following movies are coming soon on dvd:

Marquee Musicals

With a Song in My Heart (1952)
Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952)
The Girl Next Door (1953)

Cinema Classics

The Day the Earth Stood Still Special Edition (1951)
An Affair to Remember 50th Anniversary Edition (1957)
The Robe Special Edition (1952)
The Lodger (1944)
The Undying Monster (1942)
Hangover Square (1945)

Film Noir

Daisy Kenyon (1947)
Dangerous Crossing (1953)
Black Widow (1954)
Boomerang! (1947)

Studio Classics

Charlie Chan Vol 4
(starring Sidney Toler)

Ford at Fox

Well this week was a pretty good effort by Warner, announcing Stanwyck, Lancaster, Kubrick and Blade Runner sets.

The Tuesday after Labor Day used to be the Biggest DVD Release Day of the year--particularly for classics. This year: Zilch.

They are releaseing everything in October, November and December so that holiday shoppers have something new & exciting on the sheves to buy. Opening weekend for movies, Oscar films in theaters December & January for Academy voters, and classic dvds in December for holiday shoppers. Its all about marketing to someone.

I'm sure this is a debatable opinion, but I have felt a dropoff in classic releases from all studios except Warner...I'm not sure why this is, but the excuse we always here is that there is no money to be made in them. Who knows? Sure makes me sad to think that might be true.

Haven't most of the true classic films been released on DVD by now? What's left - mostly sub classics that many people have never heard of or seen. True there are some hold outs like "The African Queen" but they are held up for a reason which has nothing to do with sales (prints, elements, rights etc) so most studios don't have that many popular classics to market, now it becomes what will sell enough to invest the time and money to produce on DVD. Most of what I've been waiting for has rights issues, the others I guess won't sell.

Of course what is a "true classic" is rather debatable and subjective, but I do think quite a few true classics with no right issues have yet to be released in R1.

The Billy Wilder films of the early 40s, certainly THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR (42) is a well-known classic, ditto FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO (43), etc.

Very popular films like TAMMY AND THE BACHELOR (57), WATERLOO BRIDGE (40), RED DUST (32), THE OLD MAID (39), JOHNNY GUITAR (54), SEPTEMBER AFFAIR (50), SOME CAME RUNNING (58), the Goldwyn Danny Kaye films etc. MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (both versions), etc., etc. I could go on and on.

Award-winning titles like I'LL CRY TOMORROW (55), TO EACH HIS OWN (46), etc.

Some of the great comedies of the 30s like EASY LIVING (37) or BACHELOR MOTHER (39).

Early Capra like THE MIRACLE WOMAN (31)

Perennial Christmas favorites like REMEMBER THE NIGHT (40) or HOLIDAY AFFAIR (49)

All of these (and dozens more) are major and/or popular titles that fans of all ages are waiting for and have no right issues or any other problems as far as anyone knows. (And DVD releases have been rumored for some of them ).

Hi ya

has there been more news on the Ford Boxset from Fox ?

It has been confirmed as Coming Soon on the Fox Classics website. But no further details on content. See here:

http://www.foxclassics.com/comingsoon.php

Thanks

Just thought I would mention this as it is quite astonishing;

A 19-disc Deanna Durbin boxset is being released in Australia in November. Retails around $A239.95. I almost lost my cup of tea on my keyboard in amazement.

Just a bit of a rant to get off my chest; I am running through the list of up and coming classic s, and I am absolutely sick of seeing re-releases of Audrey Hepburn films. OK, so I am not a fan of hers, but the number of her box sets re-released here in Oz over the last few months is a complete joke. I think she has had four boxsets dedicated to her with the same bloody films in each one!!! I am sure if Paramount looked hard enough, they could scrounge up something different :rolleyes

WOW! I wish we get this soon in R1 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There was some talk of a Dorian Gray release this year, but so far- nothing.

Here are some pictures of the John Huston's African Queen. The DVD region 2 was released in France a few years ago (2002) including two DVD's, the second DVD includes two documentaries about Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart.

English version (with optional french subtitles) and French version are included in this set.

http://users.skynet.be/bk313828/AFRICAN.JPG

Each time I walk into Best Buy or Circuit City, I notice that for every person who even looks in the direction of a classic B&W DVD (and I mean movies like Casablanca and Streetcar Named Desire - not something totally obscure) there are a hundred people walking out with a copy of Ghost Rider or whatever the latest special effects laden blockbuster is (not that there is anything wrong with that). It is quite amazing that studios even bother putting out classic movies on DVD but thankfully they do (it could be that the people who appreciate classic movies are also savvy enough to do all their DVD buying online).

I think the advent of HD may have something to do with the slow-down of SD classic releases. I remember my preorder list being pretty packed in previous years especially as we got closer to the end of the year but not this year. While Criterion and Warner (and maybe Fox to some extent) seem to be the only companies carrying the torch when it comes to classic releases other studios like Columbia and Universal seem to be content leaving their vast catalogs of classic titles unreleased on DVD (I can't even remember the last title released by either of these studios that I bought). And I don't see any older B&W movies coming out on an HD format either (except a few really popular titles). At least a majority of the titles I consider to be the truly essential ones are already out on DVD and so it is only the more obscure (but very interesting nonetheless) titles that sadly may never see the light of day either on DVD or HD.

-D