Happy TCM is showing The Man Who Came to Dinner and the recently released documentary Max Steiner: Maestro of Music.
Since launch a couple of years ago, HBO max has been streaming a very nice new transfer of Man Who Came to Dinner - a big improvement over the DVD, which had been, until max, the only home video version available.Happy TCM is showing The Man Who Came to Dinner and the recently released documentary Max Steiner: Maestro of Music.
I wish they would release this much improved version, either on disc, or at least let iTunes sell it. The film has never been available on iTunes in any form.
Similar situation for 1939’s Midnight, another wonderful classic, only available on out of print DVD. That very nice new transfer was up on HBO max for a brief period of time about a year ago. The title just went up on the Criterion channel yesterday.
Someone has gone to the trouble of creating new transfers for these excellent films. I really don’t understand keeping them from the public. It’s not as if HBO max is selling subscriptions based upon its classic film library. They abandoned that library after a few months. I only maintain my subscription for the handful of remaining films, which I suspect they have simply forgotten to pull.
There are other similar films, which I hesitate to even name for fear that HBO max will pull them: important classic films, long out of print on DVD, never available on iTunes, with quite decent transfers up on HBO max, but perhaps I have already said too much…