Anyone else want NATIONAL VELVET (1944) on Blu? (1 Viewer)

[AnthonyClarke]

What a great blu ray double National Velvet and Lassie Come Home would make!
Both movies need top Blu ray treatment.

 

[Andrew Budgell]

I asked about National Velvet on the Warner Archive Collection Facebook page and this was their response:


"Very costly restoration project required on this. It's being looked into, but we have no further information than this at the moment."


It's never good news hearing the words "very costly restoration" but hopefully due to the film's popularity (I was told year ago on a chat here at the HTF that it was a big seller for them at the time) we'll eventually see it released on Blu.

 

[Konstantinos]

can anyone explain to me please, why classic and famous films haven't been preserved well (i guess, and that's why their restoration is costly), and other lesser known or unknown films have been preserved excellently and we have Bluray releases of them even by small companies?

 

[Robin9]

can anyone explain to me please, why classic and famous films haven't been preserved well (i guess, and that's why their restoration is costly), and other lesser known or unknown films have been preserved excellently and we have Bluray releases of them even by small companies?

The elements of "classic and famous films" were worked to death while the elements of "lesser known or unknown films" were not heavily used.

 

[Rob W]

can anyone explain to me please, why classic and famous films haven't been preserved well (i guess, and that's why their restoration is costly), and other lesser known or unknown films have been preserved excellently and we have Bluray releases of them even by small companies?

Robert Harris once said that the more popular the film, the more wear and tear on the elements. Lesser and unknown films haven't had their negatives taken out of storage time after time for new prints or video transfers and are therefore likely to be less problematic when they do get used. That makes them easy to license out since major restoration work is more often not required.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

The more popular the film, the more important the need for proper restoration/preservation.

Yes, National Velvet earned the studio so much money that some of that profit should be ploughed back in to present it to new generations.

The same goes for Lassie Come Home and Captains Courageous....

 

[dana martin]

National Velvet

Lassie Come Home

Captains Courageous


would welcome all three if WA decided to do a blu!

 

[Andrew Budgell]

Well, fingers crossed National Velvet is released on Blu. I'm sure I sound like a broken record, but it's a shame that with the exception of Giant and Cleopatra, Elizabeth Taylor's most iconic roles still remain unreleased on the format in 2015. I thought for sure we'd have National Velvet, A Place in the Sun, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Suddenly, Last Summer and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by now. There are three new books to look forward to over the next year: 700 Nimes Road by photographer Catherine Opie (a tour of Elizabeth's home through the items she collected, Erotic Vagrancy by Roger Lewis (a dual biography of Taylor and Burton), and a book of photographs by her friend Firooz Zahedi. And there's a special TV Guide publication on newsstands now and a successful jewelry line on QVC bearing Taylor's name.

 

[Mike Frezon]

For me,


National Velvet

Lassie Come Home

The Secret Garden (1949)


I'd get 'em all.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

Yes, I'll add The Secret Garden to my list as well.

I have the Warner Archive DVD but it's not a brilliant transfer ... what a great little movie.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Yes, I'll add The Secret Garden to my list as well.

I have the Warner Archive DVD but it's not a brilliant transfer ... what a great little movie.

I finally got around to watching the WA DVD release of Secret Garden a few weeks ago. It could use some work...but an HD transfer would likely improve things quite a lot.