A Few Words About A few words about... Warner Brothers Pictures Gangsters Collection (1 Viewer)

[Jeffrey Nelson]

What was cut from PUBLIC ENEMY? Is the print that I taped from TCM a couple years ago missing footage then?

 

[Jay Pennington]

A blind buy for me!

 

[Randi]

I've seen several of the movies in this set and they are fabulous!! I have this set pre-ordered and am counting the days until I get my copy.

Miss Randi

 

[Ruz-El]

I've seen 4 of the 6. Little Ceaser and Public Enemy are absolute no brainers to me, so this set completly sold itself to me. Public Enemy still resonates as a great gangster film, hasn't lost any of it's power!

Warner keeps getting my money, and I can't be happier! Most of these box sets work out to the price of 2 or 3 of the movies on their own, so you really can't go wrong buying these. Warners allways seems to deliver the goods!

 

[Brandon Conway]

Thanks Mr. Harris, you made my day!

 

[rich_d]

I was going to wait and see ... not any more. Plus with Amazon's STL (unfortunately biting the dust) it worked out to slightly over seven bucks per film.

 

[Bob McLaughlin]

There's also a review in Entertainment Weekly about this set. I will be buying this one as fast as I can!

 

[Tim_P_76]

This is probably the biggest blind buy I'll ever do! I had it preordered from Amazon which has a great price. Great packaging and 'Night at the movies' extras, it is a steal!

 

[JackKay]

Target has it posted for $48.24 on their web site, don't know if the same price will be in the B&M.

jack

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I have stated this many times before....

One of my biggest regrets of my younger years
was not growing up watching classic film.

I pretty much hated B&W movies because they
basically looked worn and tired. Back then, TV
was a pretty bad medium to watch these scratchy
prints on.

Of course, with the advent of DVD and the clean-up
the studios have done to these films, everything old
looks new again and I have basically been catching
up on a truckload worth of B&W classics over the past
few years -- and I love all of them!

Anyhow, getting back to my childhood....

Out of all the classic film I didn't watch, the
very few I did were these gangster films being released
in another week.

I am familiar with all of them. In fact, I have
been with all of you since 1997 when we were screaming
for White Heat and Public Enemy (my two
personal favorites of this set). You can imagine how
long all of us have waited for the release of these
films to DVD.

Anyone that wants to test the waters on some really
great classic gangster fare should go no further than
this box set. What lies within represents the very
core of what is considered "classic."

I am so happy to hear that Warner has put so much
effort into these films. Of course, when it comes
to classic film on DVD, I never expected anything
substandard from that studio.

 

[Simon Howson]

The release by Warner of this collection illustrates further how redundant it is for me to buy Region 4 discs here in Australia.

I pre-ordered it from DVDSoon for CAD$53.98, however I did so during their 25% of Christmas sale. Making the price CAD$40.48, which includes postage to Australia. At the time that converted to about AUD$45, or about AUD$7.50 per film. I suspect this set, or at least some of the individual films, will get released in Australia. Probably this time next year ;-)

The only thing better is that I noticed last Friday it went into 'packaging' so with a bit of luck it will arrive at my home on Friday.

 

[Robert Harris]

I'll make a short annotation to Ron's comments regarding seeing these (and other films for the first time on television).

It was the rule, and not the exception that the classic films of the '30s, '40s and early '50s were bicycled around the county, from local station to local station in 16mm prints.

Initially these prints were pristine, but as they were run via film chains, either they were cued for commercials or were intercut with the commercials as 16mm prints. Fades and dissolves were removed to bring down the running time, to fit into a 90 minute or 2 hour time slot, inclusive of commercials, breaks and other IDs.

And then edited on top of that if too long.

When a station was done with the print, the pieces were put back together again, at least in most cases, and usually in the correct order - - but not always...

And off the print went to the next station, where new cue marks were cut into the print, dissolves removed again, etc.

By the third or fourth station, there were always bits and pieces that had "gone missing." In many cases it was no longer necessary to make the cuts, as the print had been delivered in a shortened "pre-edited" condition.

And this was the way that most people grew to know these great films -- shorn of their transitions, of anything that might offend any viewer, and usually pre-cut to fit the needed time slot.

Imagine Citizen Kane in a 90 minute slot... that's a 79 minute version of Kane.

And one comment for Kain_C...

One of the pleasures in life, for anyone who appreciates the cinema, is seeing these films for the first time. Some, like large format films should only be viewed on a huge screen, and its best to wait until the chance arrives. Others will have to suffice on a good size monitor, but that initial viewing only occurs once. DVD releases like these help to make it something special.

RAH

 

[Brent Avery]

I managed to find a set on Saturday and so far have watched Public Enemy, White Heat, and The Petrified Forest. I will be the first to admit that in the past films of this type and from the 30's and 40's in general seemed too "old" and never held much interest. I now find myself enjoying them to a degree that seemed impossible to imagine within even the last year. Thanks in large part to Warners and their various boxsets I have come to appreciate that these films are indeed treasures. The three titles I have viewed are all quite good in terms of video quality with White Heat being quite the standout so far. It may help that it was the most recent movie of the six selected for this boxset ( 1949 ) but I found myself utterly amazed at the detail and sharpness on this transfer - beautiful blacks and contrast making seem like it was filmed alot less than 56 years ago. For those waiting for their boxset you will be more than satisfied - each has a Warners Night At The Movies hosted by Leonard Maltin and "Making Of" Featurette and Historian Commentary. It was also nice to have "Homeless Hare" on White Heat. There is a cartoon included on each disc. Quite the bargain and I really cannot see anyone not opting for the boxset if you are even considering just one of the titles!

 

[Ronald Epstein]

It really is a thrill reading this thread.

It shouldn't be too much of a surprise that
it took the studios years to even approach
putting classic film on DVD. Most felt they
would never sell.

What a difference a few years makes.

Thanks to the efforts of studios like Warner
and Fox (who are putting the most amount of
restoration time in their product) an entirely
new generation of viewers are being turned
on to some of the greatest films ever made.

Let's hope the next Hi-Def format will support
the release of these classics early on.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

I am very eager to purchase this set. I've only seen THE ROARING TWENTIES and ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES myself, so the rest will be first-timers and I'm really excited about it!

I just hope my Best Buy will not sell out early in the morning; I won't be able to get to the store until after work, around 4:30 PM!

 

[MorganP]

I want to thank HTF for drawing my attention to this release. These six films are basically all the gangster films I've ever wanted to see but never have. Now they've been immortalized for DVD and I can't wait. Picking them up ASAP. Between this and the Errol Flynn box set, HTF has given me very good news in the past couple of days.

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

This set is a Classic Film fans' dream come true. We have waited a fair few years to see these films on DVD, but it looks as though it was worth it.

 

[Rosscoe M]

Howdy Brent...I also live in Vancouver- i'm betting you picked it up at CNL...that's a great place for dvds...see ya!

 

[Jay Pennington]

Hmm, if they found those elements (which is wonderful to hear), I wonder if they've also uncovered original Vitaphone discs. I understand the audio quality of "talkie" discs is superior to the optical tracks of the day (especially once de-ticked/hissed).

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Tomorrow's the day, guys -- I haven't been this excited for a dvd release in months!!!

I cannot wait to hold the box in my hands! I spent 15 minutes at a local retailers tonight where I picked up The Big Clock, pressuring the store clerks to sell it to me a day early, hah. I told them it would officially be Tuesday in 6 hours but they wouldn't give in!

I'm so amped!