Crawdaddy's "Random Thoughts" about Home Video, Film & TV (4 Viewers)

[Robin9]

I assume you mean "To this day, I regret NOT thanking my parents . . ."

 

[Robert Crawford]

I assume you mean "To this day, I regret NOT thanking my parents . . ."

Yes, that's what I meant now I'm going to bed after being up most of the night.

 

[Matt Hough]

I'm looking forward to getting A Raisin in the Sun during the next B&N sale next month.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I watched some early Anthony Mann "Railroaded" (1947) starring John Ireland and Ward Cleaver, I mean Hugh Beaumont. More comments about this film after I wake up this afternoon. My copy of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" arrives in the mail today so that will be my afternoon viewing with perhaps one of the audio commentaries.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I watched some early Anthony Mann "Railroaded" (1947) starring John Ireland and Ward Cleaver, I mean Hugh Beaumont. More comments about this film after I wake up this afternoon. My copy of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" arrives in the mail today so that will be my afternoon viewing with perhaps one of the audio commentaries.

I always liked "Railroaded" because as a kid I thought a gunman using perfume on his bullets was kind of amusing. Anyhow, John Ireland stars as the baddie with Hugh Beaumont as the cop looking for a cop killer after a holdup goes wrong. The film also stars the lovely Sheila Ryan, who in real life married Mr. Haney from Green Acres. The other sexy actress in the film was Jane Randolph from Cat People films and Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein. Charles D. Brown plays another cop role. It seems like this guy played nothing, but cops. This film doesn't have John Alton as cinematographer which shows in the film. Yet, it's an entertaining 72 minute film noir that has never received a decent DVD release. I viewed it from a DVD-R that I recorded on TCM with Robert Osborne, years ago.

Next up is "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956)

 

[Matt Hough]

I watched the Warner Archive release of "Two Weeks in Another Town" on Blu-ray. I always thought this film was rather strange with unlikable characters. With that said, it does have some attractive actresses in it. My favorite being Daliah Lavi. Anyhow, most of the women and men for that matter aren't good people except for Lavi's character. Kirk Douglas was one tortured soul in this film. A good looking Blu-ray.

View attachment 47250

I searched for a dedicated thread for this movie, but the search engine didn't cough one up for me.

Anyway, I watched it today, and I agree that the disc looks splendid. I hadn't seen the movie in a few years, and I had forgotten how rotten most of the people are in the movie, very dislikable and almost impossible (other than Douglas) to root for. The women come off especially nastily.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I watched "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" today, but didn't listen to any of the audio commentaries nor any Bonus Material. I'm going to try to do so tomorrow. IMO, I thought this latest BD release looked slightly better than the prior Olive release. Not much better, but slightly probably due to better encoding.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I watched "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" today, but didn't listen to any of the audio commentaries nor any Bonus Material. I'm going to try to do so tomorrow. IMO, I thought this latest BD release looked slightly better than the prior Olive release. Not much better, but slightly probably due to better encoding.

Thanks, Robert. I think I'll pass on the new version, as I don't really want to spend money just for a slight upgrade.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Thanks, Robert. I think I'll pass on the new version, as I don't really want to spend money just for a slight upgrade.

I actually spent my monies for the Bonus Material as I'm a very big fan of this film.

 

[Robert Crawford]

One of those audio commentaries by Richard Harland Smith was very informative on "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". I'll try to check out some more of the Bonus Material this weekend, but will save the second audio commentary whenever I decide to watch this film again.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Last night, I watched a Warner Archive double feature. First up was "The Canterville Ghost" (1944) starring Charles Laughton, Robert Young, Margarat O'Brien, William Gargan, "Rags" Ragland and a bunch of character actors including the great Una O'Connor. The film is about a coward in the 1600's condemned to earth by his father's curse for eternity until a Kinsman/relative does a brave deed to release him from his earthly prison. Over 300 years passes as he haunts the Canterville castle due to generations of cowards in his family bloodline. The story picks back up to 1943, when a platoon of American Rangers are stationed at the castle where they encounter the ghost plus the youngest Canterville, six year old O'Brien. This film has been a favorite of mine since I saw it on the Million Dollar Movie or some other local NYC channel when I wasn't much older than O'Brien's age in the film. A ghost story combined with comedy and WWII battle sequences. How do you beat that combination. The soldiers first encounter with the ghost/Laughton always cracked me up when I was a kid. By the way this film was directed by Jules Dassin after the original director Norman Z. McLeod was fired mid-production.

My second WA viewing of the night was "The Woman in White" (1948) starring Alexis Smith, Eleanor Parker in dual role, Gig Young, Sydney Greenstreet, Agnes Moorehead and John Emery. A sort of a gothic tale taking place in England around 1858. It's kind of prodding, but Eleanor Parker is a personal favorite of mine so her playing dual roles always intrigued me about this film along with its excellent cast. This movie has always been kind of slow to me, but Parker, Greenstreet and Moorehead are excellent in it.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Man, I'm pissed about this development. Just when I was very positive about streaming and availability of classic films for us film buffs.

https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/filmstruck-shutdown-warnermedia-turner-1202998364/

https://gizmodo.com/at-t-is-killing-one-of-the-internets-last-good-things-1830024166

 

[Robert Crawford]

Today in the mail I received my German imports of "Unconquered" and "The World in his Arms". Both Blu-rays play on Region "A" players as I tested both discs. I'll watch "The World in his Arms" tomorrow morning. I might not get to "Unconquered" until early next week as I'm expecting "2001: A Space Odyssey" on 4K/UHD in tomorrow's mail.

 

[benbess]

I'm sad about the death of Filmstruck too....

 

[Dick]

Last night, I watched a Warner Archive double feature. First up was "The Canterville Ghost" (1944)

How is the quality of the image for this? The prints I have seen on t.v. have always been very soft.

 

[Dick]

Man, I'm pissed about this development. Just when I was very positive about streaming and availability of classic films for us film buffs.

https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/filmstruck-shutdown-warnermedia-turner-1202998364/

https://gizmodo.com/at-t-is-killing-one-of-the-internets-last-good-things-1830024166

What will this mean for the WB Archives?

 

[Mark-P]

What will this mean for the WB Archives?

Warner had moved away from the subscription service when they stopped promoting their own archive streaming service (I'm not even sure if that's even still going) but in the last two podcasts they have promised that 100 new Warner Archive titles would be making their debut on iTunes shortly. So I think it's safe to say the Archive is going to concentrate efforts toward digital sales through iTunes rather than through subscription services such as Filmstruck.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Warner had moved away from the subscription service when they stopped promoting their own archive streaming service (I'm not even sure if that's even still going) but in the last two podcasts they have promised that 100 new Warner Archive titles would be making their debut on iTunes shortly. So I think it's safe to say the Archive is going to concentrate efforts toward digital sales through iTunes rather than through subscription services such as Filmstruck.

Warner shut down their archive streaming service after Filmstruck started two years ago.

 

[Robert Crawford]

What will this mean for the WB Archives?

Who knows, but I think nothing is safe if profit margins aren't considered large enough to remain viable for their business model.

 

[Robert Crawford]

How is the quality of the image for this? The prints I have seen on t.v. have always been very soft.

It's not pristine, but it's good enough for me considering it came out in the first couple of years of Warner Archive.