Any info on Fox's "What a Way to Go" or "The Great White Hope"? (1 Viewer)

[Jay E]

These 2 DVDs were released this week by Fox although quite a few of the major e-tailers aren't carrying them.

Does anybody have any info on these DVDs? I'd like to know if they are at least OAR. Thanks.

 

[DeeF]

I bought What A Way To Go this morning, for $6.99 at Tower Records (in NYC).

It's an amazing DVD, 2.35:1 anamorphic (it's Cinemascope) and choice of stereo or mono. There are few extras, but the movie itself is sensational, and I recommend it strongly.

One extra is very fun, a marketing film showing Shirley, Paul Newman, Daryl Zanuck! and others, in full costume and makeup, riding ON THE SUBWAY out to the film's premiere at the 1964 New York Worlds Fair in Queens, making the most out of the phrase, WHAT A WAY TO GO!

 

[Jay E]

Thanks DeeF, I have to go & buy What a Way to Go right away.

By the way, which Tower store in NY was it?

 

[ChrisPearson]

Thanks for the info, Dee. I caught half of WAWTG on TV years ago, read a bit about it and have been wanting to see it properly ever since. It's very cheap at DVDPacific btw.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I have "The Great White Hope" dvd, but haven't watched it yet, however, according to the packaging it's anamorphic widescreen.




Crawdaddy

 

[Jay E]

Thanks Robert!

Looks like some of the websites are starting to catch up as DVDPLANET, DEEPDISCOUNT & DIGITAL EYES all have The Great White Hope up on their websites. However What a Way to Go is still a no-show and Pinky looks like it's not coming out.

 

[ChrisPearson]

FWIW Jay, I ordered my WAWTG from DVDPacific on Monday and they shipped it yesterday. It cost me just under $6 plus shipping.

 

[Jay E]

Many thanks Chris!

I never heard of DVDPACIFIC, but I just checked them out & they have great prices and DVDs that I can't find elsewhere. You just made my wallet a lot thinner

 

[TonyDale]

I picked up WAWTG at Barnes and Noble last night for $9.98! I've always had a soft spot for this movie since seeing it at a young age, with my parents at a drive-in where my mum sat and counted every outfit that Shirley MacLaine wore.
The Comden & Green script is one of their better efforts, too, if no match for the work they did at MGM or on the New York stage.

 

[Bradley-E]

I found WHAT A WAY TO GO last night for $7.49. It has nice supplements. Fox knows how to handle their catalogue titles. Hello Universal and Sony!!! Great job! I cannot wait to watch it this weekend.

 

[ArthurMy]

An amazing DVD? Why? Just because, like every other Fox title of the last several years, it's in its proper ratio and anamorphic? Certainly can't be the actual transfer, which is soft beyond belief - verging on being slightly out-of-focus for its entirety, which is not the way the film looked on its release. Even though I disliked the film originally, I went out today and sought it out based on the "amazing DVD" comment, which I presumed had to do with the transfer. It looks out of registration and the colors don't pop at all as they should. Just compare it to Desk Set, a film made seven or eight years earlier, which is eye-popping and sharp as a tack. As to the stereo track, not much stereo there, really.

And the film is as horrid as I remember, one mis-fired gag after another starting with the opening. J. Lee Thompson - not who I'd think for a Comden and Green comedy. The actors are all fine, though, and it's worth the eight bucks for Margaret Dumont, who is wonderful. It's on to the trade-in pile.

 

[ArthurMy]

Just a brief amendment to the above post: I'd watched up until Robert Mitchum when I made the post - starting with that sequence and going through to the end the transfer gets noticably sharper as do the colors.

 

[Joe Caps]

Arthur, your comment about the sound confirms what I suspected - its another of those fox silly fake stereo things thats not even a decent mono spread. the film was mono in theaters. The film itself is pretty bad.

 

[ArthurMy]

Yes, I remember it being in mono, so why the need to have a stereo track that's not very stereo is a mystery to me. We agree totally about the film itself. Often, reading posts here, I wonder if I'm watching the same film.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Others probably wonder the same thing about some of your posts. Film appreciation is such a subjective endeavor it's difficult to fully understand why people like or dislike any film.







Crawdaddy

 

[ArthurMy]

Oh, okay.

 

[JPCinema]

I ust find WAWTG a very fun guilty pleasure from the 60's. It not trying to be art. It 's campy fun and I am entertained by the parodies of the films within the film.