Captains Courageous, Cimarron, The Champ, Lust for Life, The Good Earth and others in January! (1 Viewer)

[John Hodson]

Thanks to jackal at www.thedvdforums.com for the tip. Coming January 31 from Warners, three spanking classics, detail courtesy of Link Removed, click for cover art :

The Champ
Special Features:
Crazy House [1930 MGM Short]
11/13/1939 Lux Radio Theater Broadcast
Theatrical Trailer

Captains Courageous
Special Features:
The Little Maestro [1937 MGM Short]
Little Buck Cheeser [1937 MGM Cartoon]
Leo Is on the Air Radio Promo
Theatrical Trailers

Cimarron
Special Features:
The Devil's Cabaret [1931 MGM Short]
Red Headed Baby [1931 WB Cartoon]

 

[Robert Crawford]

Well, two great films and one Best Picture winner that was dubious to say the least.





Crawdaddy

 

[Haggai]

I have heard that Cimarron is one of the lamer best picture winners. Do you think the Glenn Ford remake was better, Crawdaddy? I haven't seen either version, but the Ford one airs on TCM every now and then.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Both films have their moments, particularly the land rush scenes, but I'm not a fan of Richard Dix the lead actor of the first film while Glenn Ford is a personal favorite of mine.





Crawdaddy

 

[Richard M S]

Two Best Actor Winners and a Best Picture Oscar, I guess this is part of a promotion for the Oscars.

 

[Tino]

Yes! About time!

 

[FrankXS]

Over at digitalbits this afternoon not only are they announcing The Champ, Captains Courageous and Cimarron but a large list of January 31st Warner releases includes The Good Earth, Kitty Foyle, Johnny Belinda, Lust For Life and other titles. The title Love is listed. Could this be the Garbo movie ? With Ryan's Daughter coming at the beginning of February, Warner is keeping us busy.

 

[Bradley-E]

Warner is just awesome. Bring 'em on!

 

[John Hodson]

Frank, the title is Love, Ludlow, a 2005 release and not, alas, Love; that's one heck of a January slate even so isn't it?

 

[John Hodson]

Now we know it's seven (count 'em) Oscar garnered classics from Warners in January.

The full announcement from DVD Times:

Warner Home Video have announced the Region 1 DVD release of 7 Oscar Winning classics for 31st January 2006. Priced at $19.97 SRP each are...

Captains Courageous - From Rudyard Kipling's classic, Captains Courageous thrills with its seagoing action, grand scale and all-star cast. But what gives it full-masted magnificence is the chemistry between Freddie Bartholomew and Spencer Tracy, who won his first Best Actor Academy Award for his towering portrait of the father we all wish for: virile, patient, wise and protective.

Features include:
1.33:1 Full Frame
English and French Mono
English, French and Spanish subtitles
The Little Maestro [1937 MGM Short]
Little Buck Cheeser [1937 MGM Cartoon]
Leo Is on the Air Radio Promo
Theatrical Trailers

The Champ (1931) - Grab your dreams, come out of your corner and step out swinging. The double Oscar winner The Champ is ready to take on the world! With feet planted, chin tucked and its heart unashamedly on its sleeve, this original father-son tale (remade in 1979) remains one of the all-time great tearjerkers. In an Academy Award-winning Best Actor performance, burly Wallace Beery - he of the fog-cutter voice and gruff warmth - plays the washed-up prizefighter making a ring comeback to provide for his son. Nine-year-old Our Gang comedy star Jackie Cooper is Dink, as devoted a son as ever stood in any man's corner.

Features include:
1.33:1 Full Frame
English Mono
English, French and Spanish subtitles
Crazy House [1930 MGM Short]
11/13/1939 Lux Radio Theater Broadcast
Theatrical Trailer

Cimarron (1931) - Spaces were neither wide nor open in most early Sound Westerns. Not so in Cimarron. It starts with one of the most renowned giddy-ups in cinema history: a thundering recreation of the 1889 Oklahoma Land Rush. From there Cimarron, based on the bestselling epic by Giant and Show Boat novelist Edna Ferber, traces the generations-spanning saga of that land. There rugged Yancey Cravat (Richard Dix) and his resourceful pioneer wife Sabra (Irene Dunne) sink roots, persevere, give shape to their dreams. It's a saga of change, told with an authenticity that moviegoers who had lived through that era recognized - and told with a skill that earned it three Academy Awards including Best Picture!

Features include:
1.33:1 Full Frame
English Mono
English, French and Spanish subtitles
The Devil's Cabaret [1931 MGM Short]
Red Headed Baby [1931 WB Cartoon]

The Good Earth - First came marriage, an arranged union of peasant farmer Wang Lung (Paul Muni) and kitchen slave O-Lan (Luise Rainer). Then, through poverty and wealth, family and betrayal, war and pestilence, came love. From Pearl S. Buck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Good Earth combines Wang and O-Lan's story with a sweeping saga of China in upheaval. Muni and Rainer had both won 1936 Academy Awards, and Rainer repeated here with another Best Actress Oscar. The film also won for Best Cinematography - with camerawork most powerfully on display in the astonishing locust-plague sequence. Producer Irving Thalberg, known for combining literary prestige with commercial success, died during the production, and the film is dedicated to him.

Features include:
1.33:1 Full Frame
English, French and Spanish subtitles
Hollywood Party [1937 MGM Short]
Supreme Court of Films Picks the Champions [Newsreel]
Theatrical Trailer

Johnny Belinda - Life is hard on MacDonald farm in stony, windswept Nova Scotia - and harder for young Belinda, a deaf mute whose affliction has been confused with mental deficiency. Then the town's new doctor takes an interest in helping her break out of her silent prison. Jane Wyman won the Best Actress Academy Award for her sensitive portrayal of Belinda, capturing the girl's affecting isolation, awakening desire to learn and ultimate triumph. Directed by Jean Negulesco and co-starring Lew Ayres, Charles Bickford and Agnes Moorehead (all four Oscar nominees for their fine work), Johnny Belinda (nominated for a total 11 Oscars including Best Picture) blends atmosphere, nuance and high drama into a heartbreaking classic.

Features include:
1.33:1 Full Frame
English and French Mono
English, French and Spanish subtitles
The Little Archer [1948 WB Short]
Theatrical Trailer

Kitty Foyle - Known for light comedies and her partnership with Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers stepped off the dance floor and into 1940's Oscar spotlight with her Best Actress turn as Kitty, an indomitable working-class girl who endures the rejection of Philadelphia society, makes her own way as a single woman and ultimately chooses between an unmarried arrangement with Main Line scion Wynnewood Strafford VI (Dennis Morgan) or marriage to a struggling physician (James Craig). Rogers' deserved Academy Award confirmed she was more than a dance star - a fact humorously underscored when she returned to the studio and was greeted by staffers and actors in top hats and tails. Jane Wyman won the Best Actress Academy Award for her sensitive portrayal of Belinda, capturing the girl's affecting isolation, awakening desire to learn and ultimate triumph. Directed by Jean Negulesco and co-starring Lew Ayres, Charles Bickford and Agnes Moorehead (all four Oscar nominees* for their fine work), Johnny Belinda (nominated for a total 11 Oscars including Best Picture) blends atmosphere, nuance and high drama into a heartbreaking classic.

Features include:
1.33:1 Full Frame
English Mono
English, French and Spanish subtitles
Kitty Foiled [1948 Tom and Jerry Short]
Bad Luck Blackie [1949 MGM Cartoon]
5/5/1941 Lux Radio Theater Broadcast
4/6/1946 Academy Award Theater Broadcast
Theatrical Trailer

Lust for Life - Vibrant orange sunflowers. Rippling yelow grain. Trees bursting with white bloom. "The pictures come to me as in a dream," Vincent Van Gogh said. A dream that too often turned to life-shattering nightmare. Winner of Golden Globe and New York Film Critics Best Actor Awards, Kirk Douglas gives a fierce portrayal as the artist torn between the joyous inspiration of his genius and the dark desperation of his tormented mind. The obsessed Van Gogh painted the way other men breathe, driving away family and friends, including artist Paul Gauguin (1956 Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winner Anthony Quinn). Directed by Vincente Minnelli and saturated with the hues of Van Gogh's sea, field and sky, Lust for Life captures the ecstasy of art. And the agony of one man's life.

Features include:
2.40:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
English, French and Spanish subtitles
Commentary by Dr. Drew Casper
Theatrical Trailer

See the artwork here

 

[RafaelPires]

Excellent news!!!!! I was very disapointed with WB, since the February slate was beggining to be announced and no other classic releases were announced for January, besides the black history ones.
But now, things had changed completely. What a selection! Captains Courageous, Kitty Foyle, Johnny Belinda...I'm gonna get them all.
I was wondering if they will also be available in a box set, or only will be sold separately.
Thanks again Warner!!

 

[PaulP]

Too bad there is seemingly no real extras for Cimmaron.

 

[PatrickDA]

I think Anthony Mann's 'Cimarron' from 1960 is vastly
superior to the original! I've watched it a dozen times on
TCM and Encore over the years. I know Mann was removed by
M-G-M at some point during the production, but you can still
see his stamp all over.

 

[Danny Burk]

I remember a comment by George Feltenstein on a previous chat with WHV: he said that THE CHAMP's original camera negative was recently rediscovered, and that PQ will be absolutely stunning. Glad to see that it's finally coming out!

Now, where is THE BIG PARADE from the also-rediscovered camera neg?

 

[Rodney]

PatrickDA:

Love the signature! Anthony Mann is one of my favorite directors. Your comment got me wondering; how many films have Anthony Mann been taken off of? I know of Spartacus and now Cimmaron. Are there more? And was he a difficult director to get along with, and that is why he was taken off the film?

Just wondering!

 

[Alan_H]

Holy crap... I'm in DVD heaven this week. First, Frisco Kid in early February, now Captain's Courageous in late January!

 

[Paul_Scott]

Johnny Belinda? wow, that's an unexpected and sweet little suprise.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Lust For Life has been recommended as superior to The Agony & The Ecstasy as an "artist's life" film. Maybe soon I'll be able to see both.

 

[Paul_Scott]

Lust is indeed an excellant film all around. very highly recommended.
that and Belinda are the two i will be picking up enthusiastically.

...and then soon after, the Frisco Kid (yay!)

 

[Patrick McCart]

I'll be getting The Champ, Lust for Life.... and Cimmaron.

The last is a mediocre film and I have no interest in owning it. The only reason I'll be buying it has to do with it having The Devil's Cabaret, which is one of the weirdest two-strip Technicolor MGM shorts. It even has Charles Middleton (Ming the Merciless in the original Flash Gordon serials) as Satan.