Blondie: The Popular, But Still Unreleased 1938-1950 Columbia Comedy Feature Series! (2 Viewers)

[clanoftheduck]

Loved this series as a kid growing up in the 80's early 90's watching it Sunday mornings on local TV.


I recently was given the 10 disc set as a gift and ever since have been looking around to find more info on the rest. My search led me here... a lot of good info guys.. Thanks!


I wanted to add to the conversation with some more questions about other sources. First I'm sure everyone here has seen the two collections available that are of the entire 28 film series .. I've included a picture of the two covers in my first attached photo.


I discovered both originally on eBay but later found the collection on the left listed at Amazon. Neither one has any real info on it as far as distribution I haven't seen the collection on the right anywhere other than eBay and the details were very sparse. The collection on the left actually had several reviews on Amazon tho most agreed the collection was pretty rough.. saying that the previous collection of 10 movies was far better. Not just in video quality but also that there is a latency issue causing playback to be very erratic and bothersome.


To me these both seem like knockoffs. Made by some independent seller that has no connection to any of the distributors and falsely believes them public domain and free to sell. Does any one here have either set and if so any opinions?


The other source I've found and am curious about also is found on Amazon. These are a series of streaming downloads as well as DVD-R's of at least 4 of the early Blondie movies.


My second photo is the generic image Amazon uses for all of the downloads and DVD-R's from this distributor .. the only difference being that the title is changed based on the films title but the image of Dagwood and Blondie and the rest of the text stays the same.


Here is a link to the DVD of the original Blondie film from them BLONDIE DVD


And here is one to the streaming download version of BLONDIE TAKES A VACATION


The picture shows the distributor as "Starry Night Video" but the actual Amazon listings don't have much detail beyond that with the exception of the statement that the product is produced on DVD-R by demand .... that they use for releases from WB and FOX archive collections as well as TCM's Vault collections.


This is interesting to me because Amazon usually polices copyrighted work pretty efficintly. So for this company to not only have DVD-R's allowed for sale as an actual Amazon affiliated item (They let you ship the DVDs for free with both prime and the $35.00 usual option) But to also be allowed on their streaming service makes them seem more legitimate.


You can see where people have gotten both discs and downloads and reviewed them but no real details on things like film quality or whether they have the original intros and outros included and all of that cool stuff I'd love to see.


Anyone here have more info on these .. or Starry Night Video in general? I tried googling "Starry Night Video" but literally every hit I got was a link to youtube videos where someone either recorded the painting by that name or posted Don McLean's song "Vincent" which of course contains that line about the famous artist's painting of it.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Aren't the Blondie films, or at leastmost of them, public domain titles? I though they were.

Hi Richard!


Please kindly see post #43.


CHEERS!


Tony

 

[Brian Kidd]

Anyone here have more info on these .. or Starry Night Video in general?

I don't have any specific information about Starry Night or these releases, however I know that when you see something listed as a DVD-R and sold by Amazon, that means that Amazon is actually producing the discs. They have their own MOD location that burns the discs, prints out the labels, etc. I know that one of them is outside of Lexington, KY but I'm not sure if there are any other locations. When I worked for Amazon, a co-worker of mine went down there to tour the fulfillment center and this was part of that complex. I seriously doubt that Amazon would be creating these discs themselves if they weren't reasonably certain that they were legit releases. Now, if you order a DVD of something rare that is sold and shipped by a seller and not offered for sale by Amazon, your mileage may vary. Even in those cases, if you get something that you feel is a bootleg, there's a process in place to make sure that the issue gets resolved and you aren't stuck with a shoddy product. It can take a few weeks, but you won't get screwed. When in doubt, call Amazon. When I worked for them we took a lot of pride in the fact that we could go out of our way to make sure a customer was taken care of.

 

[ahollis]

I don't have any specific information about Starry Night or these releases, however I know that when you see something listed as a DVD-R and sold by Amazon, that means that Amazon is actually producing the discs. They have their own MOD location that burns the discs, prints out the labels, etc. I know that one of them is outside of Lexington, KY but I'm not sure if there are any other locations. When I worked for Amazon, a co-worker of mine went down there to tour the fulfillment center and this was part of that complex. I seriously doubt that Amazon would be creating these discs themselves if they weren't reasonably certain that they were legit releases. Now, if you order a DVD of something rare that is sold and shipped by a seller and not offered for sale by Amazon, your mileage may vary. Even in those cases, if you get something that you feel is a bootleg, there's a process in place to make sure that the issue gets resolved and you aren't stuck with a shoddy product. It can take a few weeks, but you won't get screwed. When in doubt, call Amazon. When I worked for them we took a lot of pride in the fact that we could go out of our way to make sure a customer was taken care of.

Not legitimate. Unless king world oks it. And with their history I doubt it.

 

[JoHud]

Yeeah, I'm pretty sure it's a bootleg that gets by because of a combination of the obscurity of the series and the laxity of the copyright holders.


A lot of those floating around on Amazon.

 

[JoeDoakes]

There are bootlegs floating around Amazon, but they usually don't have the "manufactured on demand" tag even if they are DVD-Rs. It also looks like Amazon is offering some of the Blondie films for streaming or download, so it may be that Amazon either licensed these or the ones offered are pd. Amazon is the definition of a deep pocket and I don't believe that they would be manufacturing these themselves if they weren't somewhat legitimate (if that is what they are doing). I do know that I have seen a number of CD-R albums on Amazon and recently I saw that they had started to offer some DVD-R cartoons (that would be Q-Bert Season 1). Someone call Amazon to make sure

 

[Tony Bensley]

There are bootlegs floating around Amazon, but they usually don't have the "manufactured on demand" tag even if they are DVD-Rs. It also looks like Amazon is offering some of the Blondie films for streaming or download, so it may be that Amazon either licensed these or the ones offered are pd. Amazon is the definition of a deep pocket and I don't believe that they would be manufacturing these themselves if they weren't somewhat legitimate (if that is what they are doing). I do know that I have seen a number of CD-R albums on Amazon and recently I saw that they had started to offer some DVD-R cartoons (that would be Q-Bert Season 1). Someone call Amazon to make sure

Hi Ray!


While I haven't checked this myself, I suspect the Blondie Films that Amazon is offering for streaming/download are among the 10 that were included in the Lunchbox set that was first offered about 10 years ago.


CHEERS!


Tony

 

[Brian Kidd]

I no longer work for Amazon and am not speaking as a representative of the company. (Covering my butt.) Amazon itself doesn't deal in bootlegs. That would be horrible for business. The same can't be said of some of the sellers on Amazon. Most of them are great and honest but there are always a few shady ones. The same can be said for humanity in general. You can call Amazon Customer Service and ask whether a particular item is legitimate, but I can tell you with 100% certainty that you'll be speaking with someone who won't have any information whatsoever about individual products except for what is on the website and is available to customers. The best advice I can give is, should you feel like you received a bootleg from a seller and you want some resolution, call Amazon. There is a process to handle those issues and the Customer Service folks will be able to help you with that. There is also a process for reporting sellers for breaking the rules. There are things that I didn't like about working for Amazon, but there was never a time when I felt like the Customer Service folks (at least the ones with whom I worked) weren't willing and eager to do whatever they could to solve a problem for a customer.

 

[Bob Gu]

For anyone interested: The OTA Fox Movies! station has been showing the BLONDIE movies at 1PM eastern on Saturdays. The broadcasts just reached the 18 that have not been released on DVD. The eleventh movie "Blondie's Blessed Event" was on 12/9, and , I believe the rest will follow. I missed last Saturday's broadcast, I assume these are with the old syndicated openings, but maybe not.

 

[Mark Y]

This set:

http://www.amazon.com/Blondie-Vols-...F8&qid=1416859886&sr=8-1&keywords=blondie+dvd

View attachment 15134

is the one I have and they're very very watchable. They are the TV prints we grew up with (with the new credits and the extra footage in the beginning to pad them to 75 minutes) but they are in great shape from what I remember and, if memory serves, the picture quality was more than adequate for bargain DVD's.

I have this set. They are as described, the TV versions.

Decent transfers, but one really annoying thing is, for all of the films included, at least on my copy, once it gets to the end of the movie, not only is there no end title at all (original, reissue or otherwise) but when the last scene in the movie starts to fade out, it just freezes and that's it, music cuts abruptly, everything comes to a screeching halt as if someone taped these off the TV at home and went "that's it, I don't care about the credits..." Video freezes for a second or two and then Platinum's logo comes on.

I remember these being on AMC years ago but unfortunately I only taped a couple of them. I noticed most somehow had original Columbia titles, but I did see one or two King Features versions.

 

[RBailey]

There are 12 of the Blondie films currently available for Amazon Prime customers. It looks as if all of the films from 1938 through the early '40s are there except for "Blondie's Blessed Event" and "Blondie for Victory". They are the King Features versions with around 3 minutes of scenes before the re-done opening credits.

 

[borisfw]

Didn't know Amazon rans these.

 

[Sa5150]

Which has better PQ Amazon prime streams or the dvd vol 1&2 set from Platinum/echo bridge ?

 

[Lecagr]

Back in 1999, a company named Bridgestone Multimedia released all 28 of the Blondie movies on 28 VHS cassettes, I have the complete collection of these. Bridgestone did a nice job with these videocassettes, they are in the SP mode and the video quality is quite good. The movies are complete/uncut and they are the King Features versions with the King Features openings. The tapes are not copy guarded so I transferred the movies on to DVD-R's, and now have the collection in both formats, VHS and DVD. When I made the DVD's, I started the movies with the opening titles and left off those "teaser" scenes because it's not really necessary to have those on there.

One thing I learned over the years about VCR's is that the four head machines are the best ones, they produce a better picture quality compared to the basic two head VCR.

 

[Sa5150]

There is a new Australian 2 dvd set , Looks like the old one . Anyone have this ?

Blondie: 2-Disc Collection (10 Features) [Import] Australia - Import, NTSC Region 0 on DeepDiscount

Blondie: 2-Disc Collection (10 Features) [Import], DVD, Australia - Import, NTSC Region 0, Comedy Video, Family, 9317486004578

www.deepdiscount.com

 

[Tony Bensley]

There is a new Australian 2 dvd set , Looks like the old one . Anyone have this ?

Blondie: 2-Disc Collection (10 Features) [Import] Australia - Import, NTSC Region 0 on DeepDiscount

Blondie: 2-Disc Collection (10 Features) [Import], DVD, Australia - Import, NTSC Region 0, Comedy Video, Family, 9317486004578

www.deepdiscount.com

6 hours for 10 features sounds heavily edited, if accurate!

CHEERS!

 

[Sa5150]

6 hours for 10 features sounds heavily edited, if accurate!

CHEERS!

The platinum and Echo bridge were compressed as well.

What I'm most wandering is if the echo bridge dvd's removed the logo/bug that popped up on the platinum discs .

I would think this Australian disc would not have that on it ? But I have never heard of LA Entertainment , They seem pretty big in Aussie .

 

[Tony Bensley]

There is a new Australian 2 dvd set , Looks like the old one . Anyone have this ?

Blondie: 2-Disc Collection (10 Features) [Import] Australia - Import, NTSC Region 0 on DeepDiscount

Blondie: 2-Disc Collection (10 Features) [Import], DVD, Australia - Import, NTSC Region 0, Comedy Video, Family, 9317486004578

www.deepdiscount.com

The platinum and Echo bridge were compressed as well.

What I'm most wandering is if the echo bridge dvd's removed the logo/bug that popped up on the platinum discs .

I would think this Australian disc would not have that on it ? But I have never heard of LA Entertainment , They seem pretty big in Aussie .

6 hours on 2 DVDs is fine, at least if they're dual or double layer.

What I'm thinking is 6 hours divided by 10 features comes to 36 minutes per feature! Something is definitely WAY OFF!! Even 1 hour edits x 10 features would come to 10 hours total running time, which then of course is a compression issue!

CHEERS!

 

[Sa5150]

6 hours on 2 DVDs is fine, at least if they're dual or double layer.

What I'm thinking is 6 hours divided by 10 features comes to 36 minutes per feature! Something is definitely WAY OFF!! Even 1 hour edits x 10 features would come to 10 hours total running time, which then of course is a compression issue!

CHEERS!

I think that is just a misprint , Doesn't anyone have the echo bridge dvds ? There 10 episodes and list the correct runtime 726 minutes , The Platinum discs (that may be clones) were wrong as well listing only 144 minuets for the 10 movies .

The aussie label is a pirate label so I won't be buying that one . Sorry to post it . Not sure how to delete postings here .

 

[RBailey]

Beware of anything LA Entertainment issues! I purchased their edition of Universal's I'D RATHER BE RICH with Sandra Dee, Robert Goulet and Andy Williams.
It was a VHS copy from a TV airing in Australia complete with a logo bug throughout the entire film. Commercial spots were edited out and the film was full screen as well.
Awful!