A Few Words About A few words about...™ Mr. Deeds Goes to Town -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[battlebeast]

I promise to never refer to Canada as "America's hat" again...

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B01JJ...SXZQL&ref=plSrch#immersive-view_1475942068724

Because we aren't.

 

[battlebeast]

My copy from Barnes & Noble finally arrived today. These digibooks for Sony's Capra pictures are really something special. I wish Sony had the rights to It's a Wonderful Life.

Isn't Wonderful Life Public domain?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Isn't Wonderful Life Public domain?

It's complicated. The copyright on the film itself lapsed in 1974, but the copyright on the original story "The Greatest Gift" and the copyright on the original score have not lapsed. Republic Pictures (now owned by Paramount) controls the rights to the film as a derivative work of "The Greatest Gift".

 

[Nick*Z]

I wish they had the rights to Meet John Doe, a Warner Bros. movie in PD that looks utterly atrocious on DVD. Funny, the Frank Capra bio included with this disc has snippets from Meet John Doe that look immaculate. I wonder what print they're using to achieve such quality. Anyway, Meet John Doe is a sadly underrated Capra movie. In a perfect world we should have had it restored by now - also, the other great, rarely mentioned Capra classic - State of the Union, with Spence and Kate Hepburn and Angela Lansbury as a superbly wicked newspaper politico.

By the way, anyone looking for a Blu-ray copy of Capra's Lost Horizon need look no further than the newly released Viavision/Madman Entertainment disc coming out of Australia. Besides being 'region free' it is also the newly restored 4K edition that was shown in L.A. several years ago, looking gorgeous and with 1 additional minute of 'lost' footage restored. Image stability on the old 16mm stock has been greatly enhanced and the image, overall, looks superior to anything you've seen in the past. Great stuff. I had hoped this one would have made it state's side via Criterion or Sony proper by now - but no. While Viavision's packaging isn't up to Sony's digibook standards, the quality of this transfer, culled from their archives, most certainly is!

 

[Rodney]

Speaking of Meet John Doe, I would love for a Capra/Stanwyck Blu-ray box set:

• Ladies of Leisure
• The Miracle Woman
• Forbidden
• The Bitter Tea of General Yen
• Meet John Doe

 

[battlebeast]

I thought someone recently (as in the last couple of years) did a restoration on Meet John Doe?

 

[Cranston37+]

Target is doing 15% off everything through Monday, putting Mr. Deeds at $11.55 before tax with free shipping...

http://www.target.com/p/mr-deeds-goe...-/-/A-51788463

 

[Gary16]

I wish they had the rights to Meet John Doe, a Warner Bros. movie in PD that looks utterly atrocious on DVD. Funny, the Frank Capra bio included with this disc has snippets from Meet John Doe that look immaculate. I wonder what print they're using to achieve such quality. Anyway, Meet John Doe is a sadly underrated Capra movie. In a perfect world we should have had it restored by now - also, the other great, rarely mentioned Capra classic - State of the Union, with Spence and Kate Hepburn and Angela Lansbury as a superbly wicked newspaper politico.

By the way, anyone looking for a Blu-ray copy of Capra's Lost Horizon need look no further than the newly released Viavision/Madman Entertainment disc coming out of Australia. Besides being 'region free' it is also the newly restored 4K edition that was shown in L.A. several years ago, looking gorgeous and with 1 additional minute of 'lost' footage restored. Image stability on the old 16mm stock has been greatly enhanced and the image, overall, looks superior to anything you've seen in the past. Great stuff. I had hoped this one would have made it state's side via Criterion or Sony proper by now - but no. While Viavision's packaging isn't up to Sony's digibook standards, the quality of this transfer, culled from their archives, most certainly is!

The print of "Meet John Doe" airing right now on TCM looks really good to me. Sharp. Good gray scale. Not a restoration but obviously transferred from original elements.

 

[GlennF]

Yes, I agree with Gary above. What TCM shows in HD looks very good. Someone has put some money into it.

 

[Nick*Z]

Perhaps Warner could slap out a Blu-ray via the archive. Great film!

 

[Robert Harris]

Perhaps Warner could slap out a Blu-ray via the archive. Great film!

Warner does not own John Doe.

 

[Nick*Z]

Albeit, at this point, who does?

 

[Garysb]

Albeit, at this point, who does?

Per Wikipedia :
In 1945 Capra and Robert Riskin sold all rights in Meet John Doe to Sherman S. Krellberg's Goodwill Pictures, a New York distributor. While in Goodwill’s possession the original camera negative deteriorated due to poor storage and was eventually destroyed. Copyright in the film was not renewed and it fell into the public domain in 1969.
The Library of Congress created a fresh preservation negative in the 1970s by combining Goodwill’s surviving 35mmm prints with the Warner Bros. studio print.
Poor quality copies of Meet John Doe have proliferated on home video for years, sourced from inferior quality prints, while the restored LoC print remains in storage. In 2001 Ken Barnes' Laureate Presentations undertook a digital restoration of the best available European print. This was released on DVD by Sanctuary in the UK and by VCI in the US.[12] To date these are the best quality commercially available releases.

I can't confirm that any of this is accurate .

 

[Garysb]

The print of "Meet John Doe" airing right now on TCM looks really good to me. Sharp. Good gray scale. Not a restoration but obviously transferred from original elements.

I just watched the film on TCM having DVR'd it. I was surprised that the print apparently came from Sony as it ended with the Sony Pictures Television logo.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I'm sorry I missed it, do you happen to know if TCM will be reairing it?

 

[David Weicker]

I'm sorry I missed it, do you happen to know if TCM will be reairing it?

According to a chart on the TCM FB page, Meet John Doe will be re shown
On the 24th 8am ET
On the 26th 3:30am ET

 

[Dick]

So, we can get this beautiful presentation in a great, sturdy digibook with 30 glossy pages of photos and text for under $15.00. Incredible. I have to assume Sony can somehow turn a profit with this if they sell enough copies (I assume the same of Universal's IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE release at a similar price point). What I am holding in my hands with MR. DEEDS is a product that looks and feels as though it should cost twice as much or more. Beautifully done! I hope for decent sales of it that encourages more major studios to stay in the catalog game at least a little before turning their films over to "boutique" labels. That can be good, too, if a bit more expensive for consumers.

 

[bugsy-pal]

Per Wikipedia :
In 1945 Capra and Robert Riskin sold all rights in Meet John Doe to Sherman S. Krellberg's Goodwill Pictures, a New York distributor. While in Goodwill’s possession the original camera negative deteriorated due to poor storage and was eventually destroyed. Copyright in the film was not renewed and it fell into the public domain in 1969.
The Library of Congress created a fresh preservation negative in the 1970s by combining Goodwill’s surviving 35mmm prints with the Warner Bros. studio print.
Poor quality copies of Meet John Doe have proliferated on home video for years, sourced from inferior quality prints, while the restored LoC print remains in storage. In 2001 Ken Barnes' Laureate Presentations undertook a digital restoration of the best available European print. This was released on DVD by Sanctuary in the UK and by VCI in the US.[12] To date these are the best quality commercially available releases.

I can't confirm that any of this is accurate .

Fascinating... so who could get their hands on the LoC print to produce a good bluray? Any takers?