MGM Midnite Movies "dead again" remark (1 Viewer)

Someone mentioned that the Midnite Movies series of DVDs is dead again. Is this true? If so, why?

Eric

I believe it's true, which really sucks!!! How can they neglect VAMPIRE CIRCUS, TWINS OF EVIL, HANDS OF THE RIPPER, QUATERMASS XPERIMENT, BURN WITCH BURN, QUEEN OF BLOOD, MASTER OF THE WORLD, BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW, THE CRIMSON CULT and so many others?

Let's write to MGM and complain!!!

On the bright side

Vampire Circus; Twins Of Evil, Hands Of The Ripper: All have anamorphic uncut DVDs in the UK

Quatermass Xperiment: UK DVD, now OOP sadly but other European releases. All are open matte on a film that appers to me to be widescreen. Even Sony/MGM/whoever's recent HD master is open matte

Burn Witch Burn: Anamorphic UK DVD under the title Night of the Eagle

Blood On Satan's Claw: UK DVD non-anamorphic, possibly NTSC-PAL. I haven't seen this to judge the quality

Crimson Cult: Two R2 DVD AFAIK. UK release is the original UK cut and anamorphic. German DVD reportedly restores the sexual scenes from the Euro cut, using the old US laserdisc as a source (I understand the laserdisc was rescored in the 80s)

Nothing for the other two titles, but many of those listed have good to OK DVDs out there.

And the reason the line is dead (for the moment hopefully) is that last years titles flopped. That said, I wonder if that was more due to a large glut of genre titles last fall, from both MM and other companies, that affected sales. I mean, if I had the finances, I'd have bought each title on the spot, but as it is, I eventually went for Yongary. Sigh...

Regardless, these titles have to be released Region 1 NTSC with the usual great MGM transfers.

Personally, I'd rather priority was given to titles that you can't get at all. I'd take Planet of Blood getting a MM release as a priority over the Hammers

MGM can be a tad spotty on the MMs. A few were open matte or non-anamorphic, Deranged and Vault of Horror used cut prints, and so on.

But then, of couse, so are many companies

VAULT OF HORROR was Fox. DERANGED was transfered from the original negative and represents the released AIP version: a 1990s version from Moore Video added extra gore that was on the cutting room floor.

When I read about the work gone into the QUATERMSS XPERIMENT transfer by MGM (for what reason it was done, who knows, as they still won't release the damn thing) I'll take that over any British release.

1) True. I suspect film elements of the R version may have gone if the negative or master was cut to make the PG print (the original US release was a longer R cut)

2) I never knew that about Deranged. Why was it cut in the first place?

3) The British Quatermass DVD looked pretty good. Perhaps it was the same BFI master MGM worked from

"3) The British Quatermass DVD looked pretty good. Perhaps it was the same BFI master MGM worked from"

Here is an article about MGM's extensive efforts in a Hi-def QUATERMASS transfer for a DVD which never seems to materialize:

Before Doctor Who, There Was Quatermass! - Film.com

Good article. Here's hoping we get to see the work!

I think the problem was that Fox released so many Midnite Movies at one time last year, that people simply couldn't afford to buy them all, and some got lost in the glut.

If they would only release 8 to 10 titles (4 or 5 DVDs) this year, I'm sure they would sell well, especially if they included some of the most wanted titles already mentioned.

It didn't help that they killed the line a couple years ago before MGM went up for sale, then a year later under Sony's control the released a few z-grade pirate films under the label , then it died again until last years batch under Fox which aside from Witchfinder General wasn't exactly the cream of the crop.

So with the infrequent releases and the dicey selection over the past few years I think a lot of MM buyers lost interest hence the poor sales.

I'll second the fact that Quatermass, Burn Witch Burn and the Hammer Horrors really need a R1 NTSC release.

Are you people speculating that last year's titles flopped, or has there been some sort of official confirmation of this?

Hell, I did my part and bought them all. Great batch!

It's interesting that Warner can sell classic titles but no one else can. It's a tribute to the incompetence and laziness that runs in the industry.

It was confirmed

The only one of last year's crop I bought was Witchfinder General, because that was the only one I had to have. If the line is flopping I'd say it's because they're not picking the right movies at the right times.

Perhaps if MGM would circulate these releases and not cut off distribution for half of the series titles making it impossible for DVD collectors to pick up in retail on top of the inconsistency of their output, they would have many more interested consumers...

"I'll second the fact that Quatermass, Burn Witch Burn and the Hammer Horrors really need a R1 NTSC release."

You got that right!

In the past the MGM Midnite Movies had a good distribution through the brick and mortar stores. Best Buy even had a special section dedicated to the series. Last year’s releases through Fox were not stocked at Best Buy or the other normal B&M outlets.

Could this be a reason they did not sell well? I purchase just about every DVD title now from internet sites, when it was just two years ago that I could find anything I wanted at Best Buy or other stores. You can find the third release of Footloose or Sixteen Candles but just try and find the Three Stooges Collection on the Fox and Warner film noirs. Their lack of interest in stocking older films is more than likely one of the reasons DVD overall sales are down.

To say that it is getting harder find catalog films in these stores would be an understatement and could be a separate venting thread altogether so I will shut up.

Studios and stores wouldn't keep making and stocking the never ending re-releases if they didn't sell and they would release and stock smaller older titles if they did sell. It sucks but there's a reason why smaller catalog stuff is tough to find in stores- most of them don't sell well enough to warrant taking the shelf space away from movies that are guaranteed to sell more copies.