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Crawdaddy's "Random Thoughts" about Home Video, Film & TV (3 Viewers)

cda1143

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Happy TCM is showing The Man Who Came to Dinner and the recently released documentary Max Steiner: Maestro of Music.
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.

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…
 

Robert Crawford

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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.

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…
In another thread, Ron Epstein stated that he conversed with George Feltenstein about "The Man Who Came to Dinner". Though, the HBO Max digital looks nice, it hasn't been prepared for any type of Blu-ray release because it's not up to their standards. More work is needed, but with no timetable to do so.
 

cda1143

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In another thread, Ron Epstein stated that he conversed with George Feltenstein about "The Man Who Came to Dinner". Though, the HBO Max digital looks nice, it hasn't been prepared for any type of Blu-ray release because it's not up to their standards. More work is needed, but with no timetable to do so.
Thanks Robert. I agree that the new "Man" isn't up to WA Blu-ray standards, but it's far better than the OOP DVD. The same is true for those unnamed films. As these have all been up on HBO max for years, there are obviously no imminent WA Blu's.

These are important films, long unavailable except in OOP poor DVD versions. I wish they would release them on Apple. There are plenty of WA Blu titles, the lesser versions of which are available on iTunes. I'm always more than happy to buy the WA discs when they exist, but if Warner is content to sell lesser transfers on iTunes for titles that are on WA Blu, I'm not sure why they won't release these films at all.

And regarding "Midnight", I remember that HBO max transfer being truly excellent, and that was in projection. Not Jekyll and Hyde jaw dropping, but I'd have been delighted to buy that one.
 

Robert Crawford

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This weekend's "Noir Alley" movie is "Decoy" (1946). This is a weird movie! I thought I remember Eddie showing this movie beforehand, but I was mistaken. My last viewing of this movie was back in March, 2018 on DVD. I wonder if my DVD will still play, since it's part of the "Film Noir Classic Collection Vol. 4" DVD set that has been problematic for some people due to some discs not being playable any longer. I'll try my DVD later today.


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Updated TCM's Noir Alley 2022/2023 Schedule:

04-02-22: Pitfall
04-09-22: Bob le flambeur
04-16-22: Night and the City
04-23-22: The Window
04-30-22: Johnny Angel
05-07-22: No Man of Her Own
05-14-22: The Killer is Loose
05-21-22: My Name is Julia Ross
05-28-22: Bad Day at Black Rock
06-04-22: Out of the Past
06-11-22: The Guilty
06-18-22: House of Strangers Thieves' Highway
06-25-22: Down Three Dark Streets
07-02-22: The Strange One
07-09-22: Hide Tide
07-16-22: Scarlet Street
07-23-22: 5 Against the House
07-30-22: Raw Deal
09-03-22: Hit and Run
09-10-22: Obsession
09-17-22: The Naked Street
09-24-22: I Love Trouble
10-01-22: The Red House
10-08-22: The Phenix City Story
10-15-22: The Argyle Secrets
10-22-22: Cage of Evil
10-29-22: El Vampiro Negro
11-05-22: City of Fear

11-12-22: Tension
11-19-22: The Unfaithful
11-26-22: Death of a Cyclist

12-03-22: Decoy
12-10-22: Walk Softly, Stranger
12-17-22: Mr. Soft Touch
01-07-23: Don't Bother to Knock
01-14-23: Thunder Road
01-21-23: The Two Mrs. Carrolls
01-28-23: Highway 301
02-04-23: Hangover Square
02-11-23: Kiss the Blood Off My Hands
02-18-23: Lightning Strikes Twice
02-25-23: Hunt the Man Down
 

Robert Crawford

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lark144

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I've never seen Decoy either, but I definitely will tomorrow.
It's a wild movie. Don't miss it. After hearing about it for years, I finally saw it on DVD in the WB Film Noir collection #4, but as Robert notes above, mine doesn't load up anymore. Those two in one DVD discs are tricky. Over time, often one gets stuck, and in my case, it's Decoy.
 

Robert Crawford

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I've never seen Decoy either, but I definitely will tomorrow.
I've seen Decoy twice before today, first time was in 2007, when the DVD was released, and again in 2018. Anyhow, this movie wasn't widely seen by many people until a print was discovered about 20-21 years ago. Today, I watched it two more times with my second viewing today was with the audio commentary with Glenn Erickson and the original story writer of Decoy, Stanley Rubin. There is a scene in this movie that reminded me of a Bugs Bunny cartoon with Daffy Duck. I wonder if anybody else will pick up on that.:)

I'm really looking forward to Eddie's comments about this movie. I'm sure he'll talk about Jean Gillie, the lead actress. As well as Ned Young, who wrote Decoy's screenplay. Stanley Rubin, who wrote the original story for Decoy, will also be discussed because Eddie knew him and actually did an audio commentary with him for Macao.
 

Robert Crawford

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It's a wild movie. Don't miss it. After hearing about it for years, I finally saw it on DVD in the WB Film Noir collection #4, but as Robert notes above, mine doesn't load up anymore. Those two in one DVD discs are tricky. Over time, often one gets stuck, and in my case, it's Decoy.
Yes, a wild movie! So much fun and Gillie is great in this "B" film as one of the most vicious femme fatales.
 

Matt Hough

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It's a wild movie. Don't miss it. After hearing about it for years, I finally saw it on DVD in the WB Film Noir collection #4, but as Robert notes above, mine doesn't load up anymore. Those two in one DVD discs are tricky. Over time, often one gets stuck, and in my case, it's Decoy.
Yeah, each layer contains one film, and when one layer goes bad, you lose that film. It happened to me on the Pre-Code The Divorcee/A Free Soul DVD. I had to buy the second one from iTunes since I didn't want to run the risk of another disc going bad.
 

Robert Crawford

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Yeah, each layer contains one film, and when one layer goes bad, you lose that film. It happened to me on the Pre-Code The Divorcee/A Free Soul DVD. I had to buy the second one from iTunes since I didn't want to run the risk of another disc going bad.
I need to check that disc out to see if I have any issues with it.
 

Robert Crawford

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Yeah, each layer contains one film, and when one layer goes bad, you lose that film. It happened to me on the Pre-Code The Divorcee/A Free Soul DVD. I had to buy the second one from iTunes since I didn't want to run the risk of another disc going bad.
Yup, my DVD won't play A Free Soul. No problems with "The Divorcee" or any of the other two discs in the Forbidden Hollywood Collection Volume 2. Also, I bought the iTunes HD digital a couple of years ago.
 

Matt Hough

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Yup, my DVD won't play A Free Soul. No problems with "The Divorcee" or any of the other two discs in the Forbidden Hollywood Collection Volume 2. Also, I bought the iTunes HD digital a couple of years ago.
Sorry it happened, but it's clear that period of disc manufacturing deterioration is not just a myth but something that has happened to millions.
 

cda1143

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I’ve also had several discs from those Film Noir and Pre-code collections go bad. Over the years, I’ve discovered at least 20 discs which have gone bad; and if they’re out of print, I’m out of luck. I learned long ago that for any title I want to keep - rip it while you still can.
 

Matt Hough

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I enjoyed Decoy for all its bizarre turns and outrageousness. I would not put Jean Gillie's character, cold and awful as she was, in the same class of evil as, for example, Jane Greer in Out of the Past. Maybe it's because Greer was a much better actress and could make her femme fatale more caustically duplicitous. Herb Rudley certainly was a pitiable patsy.
 

Robert Crawford

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I enjoyed Decoy for all its bizarre turns and outrageousness. I would not put Jean Gillie's character, cold and awful as she was, in the same class of evil as, for example, Jane Greer in Out of the Past. Maybe it's because Greer was a much better actress and could make her femme fatale more caustically duplicitous. Herb Rudley certainly was a pitiable patsy.
I think Gillie was colder as she even laughed at Sheldon Leonard while dying.
 

lark144

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I think Gillie was colder as she even laughed at Sheldon Leonard while dying.
Love that scene. For me, it's the most memorable. Yes, Jane Greer's performance in Out of the Past is extraordinary, one of the greats even, but her artistry negates the power of it a little for me. It's almost conceptual, an icon, something Shakespearean, rather than someone made of flesh and blood, which is not in any way a criticism but rather a matter of degrees. Jean Gillie doesn't appear to be acting. She's of a piece with the impoversihed sets and low-fi lighting. There's no beauty, no aesthetic value in it, only contempt and hatred which seem to emenate from every pore, as well as her heart and soul, making it all the more shocking, as it's not something you expect, especially in 1946. Her character, and the film as a whole, seems to jump the rails, leacing a gaping wound in the viewer's consciousness.
 

Robert Crawford

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Love that scene. For me, it's the most memorable. Yes, Jane Greer's performance in Out of the Past is extraordinary, one of the greats even, but her artistry negates the power of it a little for me. It's almost conceptual, an icon, something Shakespearean, rather than someone made of flesh and blood, which is not in any way a criticism but rather a matter of degrees. Jean Gillie doesn't appear to be acting. She's of a piece with the impoversihed sets and low-fi lighting. There's no beauty, no aesthetic value in it, only contempt and hatred which seem to emenate from every pore, as well as her heart and soul, making it all the more shocking, as it's not something you expect, especially in 1946. Her character, and the film as a whole, seems to jump the rails, leacing a gaping wound in the viewer's consciousness.
Perhaps, but for me, the only thing Gillie's character cared about was money. She wasn't interested in sharing any of it for her fear of being in poverty again.

 

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