Corman Films (1 Viewer)

[Jeffrey Nelson]

Last time I checked, THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS was still made in 1960.

 

[Damin J Toell]

Again, Little Shop as part of Corman's resume, not a part of the deal.

It's simple, really. Disney is getting Corman's Concorde-New Horizons library. As far as older films go, this only includes New World Pictures productions up to 1982/3, when Corman sold the company. It also includes Corman's modern productions under the Concorde-New Horizons (or Concorde Pictures, etc., as the case may be) banner, but no one is really disputing which of those productions are part of this deal.

Little Shop of Horrors was not produced or owned by Concorde-New Horizons, so there's no reason that it would be included in this deal. Further, it's in the public domain, anyway. It cannot be a part of any distribution deal (well, it can, I guess, just as the Brooklyn Bridge can be part of a distribution deal, too). I think people just spotted the words of the title as being present in the Video Business article (or the press release, or the similar article in sister publication Variety from the same author as the VB article) and confused it as being part of the deal in question. Well, at least IMDb probably did this, and people repeat it.

If someone can find me an actual, official press release to the contrary, I'd love to see it. I'd then call up Disney to tell them to get at least 1/400th of their money back.

At best, Corman may be giving access to the elements from his films that have into the public domain as part of his library (if he even actually has them). Concorde-New Horizons surely seems to imply (without ever actually naming any titles) that they have some of Corman's pre-New World Pictures productions in their library. That said, none of those have surfaced yet, which surely seems an odd choice if they're really part of the deal. Unless and until any do, I think the safest bet is to take the press release at its word: Disney is licensing Concorde-New Horizons titles, and that would only include pre-1983 New World titles as far as older titles go, and Concorde/New Horizons titles from 1983 forward.

DJ

 

[PaulaJ]

I'm still wondering what the proper OAR is for Big Bad Mama and Death Race 2000. The IMDB is no help, it just says 35mm for the two.

 

[Jeffrey Nelson]

Gotcha, Damin. Oh well, I still find it funny that the Corman Early Films collection doesn't contain any of his early films...

I wonder who might have original elements on A BUCKET OF BLOOD, THE UNDEAD, and THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS? In the '80s, Vestron Video released an excellent VHS of LITTLE SHOP, mastered from a mint-looking 35mm print with incredible detail, complete with the opening Filmgroup logo. I wonder where they got that, and what happened to it?

 

[Damin J Toell]

For the first two, Sony/MGM likely has them, via Orion via AIP. MGM released a DVD of Bucket of Blood that, as far as I'm aware, is acclaimed for its image quality, and thus probably comes from AIP's elements. MGM has released other similarly high-quality Corman AIP titles. As for Little Shop, I'm not sure who owned the film for its original distribution. Filmgroup produced it, but I believe they were also the producer named on other Corman films released by AIP. If AIP has it, then Sony/MGM hopefully has it now.

If the film remained in the ownership of Filmgroup, then I'm not sure who either owns the Filmgroup library, if they have any copyrights remaining now, anyway, or who has any of their elements. Corman may well even have elements for the Filmgroup titles, but, to my knowledge, Concorde-New Horizons hasn't explicitly publicly disclosed that or even released those titles on DVD in the past.

DJ

 

[JerryKILL]

So the review of Big Bad Mama at dvddrive-in.com says...

"Buena Vista Home Entertainment has re-released BIG BAD MAMA on DVD as a special edition, using the same full frame transfer from the previous New Concorde disc. The transfer is passable, with decent colors and fleshtones, with some debris and grain present. The open matte is very awkward, and the film would look even more polished if presented in its proper 1.85:1 framing, albeit with anamorphic enhancement."

Just for the heck of it I looked up the specs for the new Jackson County Jail DVD...full-screen. Do I see a pattern developing? I know there is some debate on just exactly what the OAR is on these, but with the widescreen presentations on the recent rereleases of Rock N Roll High School and Death Race 2000, the commentary from Corman on how "good" the widescreen framing looked, and the comments by the dvddrive-in reviewer, it seems 1.85:1 would be OAR. I'm extremely disappointed that Disney seems to be abandoning the widescreen presentations so early in the rerelease cycle of the New Concorde library it just acquired. However, I'm not especially surprised given how Disney releases its very own classic live action library in fullscreen/non remastered versions. I will be avoiding most, if not all, of these cheap Corman releases from Disney, and hope sometime down the line they will get a proper release (HD format?).

 

[Bradley-E]

I am hoping that PIRANAH will have a Anamorphic transfer but from the sound of things, Di$ney does not seem to be striking new transfers for threse films.

 

[Mark Edward Heuck]

In regards to LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, I suspect what is happening is that MGM has the proper chain of title on this PD item, as they have for BUCKET OF BLOOD, but Roger has his own elements and as such is trying to sell the title on his own so that he can get all the money instead of sharing with MGM. It's one of the only situations I can think of where someone directly involved from a PD title is actually profiting from that status. He provided a colorized version of the movie (which he did copyright) to the former Vestron back when they were releasing his movies on VHS.
So it's very possible that Disney will release a LITTLE SHOP disc, even though MGM would have better elements.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I see "Loose Screws" is out, is "Screwballs" (its predecessor) coming too? Screwballs was probably shot widescreen, as the action going on during the end credits looks squeezed on the old Warner VHS tape.

 

[Jeffrey Nelson]

Retromedia has released a set of three actual early Corman films, from the Filmgroup banner, but alas, no Little Shop, the one I really, REALLY want in good quality on DVD.

 

[John Kilduff]

I purchased "Rock 'N' Roll High School" (Funny movie, good extras, but a letterbox release unfortunately). Anyway, they had a Corman promo reel preceding the movie and one of the movies in the "Early Films" collection will be the original "Little Shop Of Horrors", so we can all look forward to that.

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

"Rock 'N' Roll High School" kicks ass!