Abbott & Costello Vol. 3, Halloween, Marx Brothers and W.C. Fields Titles COMING (2 Viewers)

[Lyle H.]

DOUBLE INDEMNITY, the long awaited DVD (which was OOP and hard to find for years) is finally being re-issued by Universal. Also, they have announced Tobe Hooper's THE FUNHOUSE, THE BEST OF BUD ABBOTT AND LOU COSTELLO VOL. 3, FILM NOIR TITLES, HALLOWEEN TITLES, and much more.

Goto Universal's home video page for more info...

Highlights:

April 27th - The Universal Monster Legacy Collection(s) - Frankenstein, Wolfman, and The Mummy
May 4th - The Best of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Vol. 2
May 4th - On the Road with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby
July 6th - The Big Clock
July 6th - The Black Angel
July 6th - Criss Cross
July 6th - Double Indemnity
August 3rd - The Best of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Vol. 3 (Mexican Hayride, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Abbott and Costello Meet The Killer, Abbott and Costello in The Foregin Legion, Abbott and Costello meet The Invisible Man, Comin' Round the Mountain, Lost in Alaska, Go to Mars)
September 7th - Cryptkeepers Deadly Duo (Bordello of Blood, Demon Knight)
September 7th - The Funhouse
September 7th - Sssssss

 

[John Hodson]

More noir! Double Indemnity and This Gun for Hire

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So many films, so little time...

 

[Eric Peterson]

Now, let's hope that they give "Double Indemnity" it's proper respect. I can already sense a barebones treatment and little or no picture improvement.

I hate to be negative, but Universal has really given no reason to feel otherwise.

Please, please give this title some appropriate extras. This is one of my Top 5 all-time favorites.

 

[Chris Cheese]

Well, the MSRP of those noirs is $15 and Universal's site has them up for preorder for $10 so I'm not holding out a lot of hope. The site also doesn't list any extra features except for a trailer on Double Indemnity and says they're all in snapper cases (that can't be right, can it?). Regardless though, I will be perfectly happy if the audio and video is good. For a low price, that's all I require, and it'll just be nice to own Double Indemnity and Criss Cross on DVD (and I'll probably blind-buy a couple of the others, too). July is shaping up to be a great month for noir fans. Hopefully Universal won't let us down here.

 

[Derek_McL]

At last Double Indemnity but still no Fields though !

 

[Roger Rollins]

I don't hold out much hope for the first-class presentation DOUBLE INDEMNITY deserves. Let's just be glad they're not jamming all 5 of these films on one DVD-18, which seems to be part of their "fire sale" mentality lately.

 

[TonyD]

my mind reading skills must be going downhill.

i just saw the BBB thread about columbia and couldnt figure that one out either.


what is fields?

 

[Eric Peterson]

W.C. Fields

 

[Matt Gordon]

I'm looking forward to "The Big Clock!"

I'll get "Double Indemnity" as well.

 

[george kaplan]

Could someone post a link. I can't seem to get to whatever page has this information. Thanks.

 

[Jay E]

Here George

http://homevideo.universalstudios.co...wseReleaseDate

Just click through, there are a few pages.

Some great title there, especially the Noirs. Happy to see The Celebration & High Art coming.

 

[Chuck L]

I hope soon that they will visit the Pyscho series and finally do them (all four) in proper versions on DVD. Meaning, extra's...finally 2 and 3 in widescreen..commentary...

Nice to see 'Double' coming though as well as a few other titles that I have missed out on.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Here are the film noir titles coming out from Universal on July 6th.

• Black Angel
• Criss Cross
• Double Indemnity
• The Big Clock
• This Gun for Hire

Crawdaddy

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

Woo hoo! Film Noir reigns supreme on DVD in July! All 5 Noir titles will be mine! Thanks much for the news & the link!

An excellent selection to start off with. Hopefully these will sell well enough that further batches of Universal-controlled Noir will make it to DVD in the not-too-distant future. If so, I hope the next films in line will be:

THE GLASS KEY (maybe pair the 1942 & 1935 versions, as Universal has done with IMITATION OF LIFE?)
THE PHANTOM LADY (1944)
MINISTRY OF FEAR (1944)
RIDE THE PINK HORSE (1947)
NAKED ALIBI (1954)

What a great year for catalog titles on DVD this is, and there's still more than half a year to go!

 

[Walter Kittel]

Very happy to see Universal releasing some noir titles this year. I am curious about the quality of their pending release of Double Indemnity. I have the old Image release, so unless there is some improvement I'll stick with that copy. The others I either have on VHS ( easy replacement ) or LD ( maybe a replacement. )

Looking through the pending titles I see a few more pre-orders. Nice to see Universal finally mining their deep catalog.

- Walter.

 

[george kaplan]

Thanks for the link.

I'll definitely be getting This Gun For Hire and will gladly double-dip on Double Indemnity if there's any improvement over my current dvd (which seems unlikely :frowning. I would have sworn I'd seen Criss Cross, but the more I think about it, I think I was thinking of Crossfire. Fortunately, Criss Cross will be playing on TCM on April 30th, so I'll get a chance to check it out.

 

[Jeff_HR]

The same here! :frowning:

 

[Jay E]

There is no way that this new edition of Double Indemnity will look as bad as the Image release. That suffered from a poor conversion to DVD. I have the laser of this film put out by Universal and the difference in quality between it & the DVD is night & day, almost solely due to problems with the conversion, not in the print.

Universal re-releases of Image DVDs have almost always been better. Remember, those Image releases were during the early days of DVD.

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

They have to do *something* with "Double Indemnity," whch has the worst PQ of any title I've ever owned.

Excited to hear about "Ssssssss..."!

 

[Walter Kittel]

Sounds good to me Jay. ( I never owned the LD and couldn't make the comparison; but I agree that LD transfers ported to DVD generally look worse than their LD versions. )

- Walter.