Fox: Call Her Savage and any other Bows you have (1 Viewer)

[Paul_Scott]

i keep hearing that Call Her Savage, one of the few sound movies Clara Bow made, keeps showing up on Fox movie channel.
unfortunately i don't have it yet (looks like i just missed it again last week).
this is GREAT, proto-typically racy, pre-code nonsense and i, and a legion of other Bow fanatics, would love to see it get a dvd release.

we realize the print is not in the best of shape, and i'm not asking for any kind of full scale restoration, just a release with the best elements you have.
Clara Bow is woefully underrepresented on this medium, and any titles you could release would be welcome.(how bout doing one better and making it a box set with Hoopla and Wild Party)

 

[nikkif99uk]

Has Call Her Savage been released yet on DVD or is there any plans for one?

 

[Coopsgirl_31]

Clara Bow is bar none my favorite actress and a fascinating person. She truly had (and still has) screen magic. She appeals to both men and women (a rare quality indeed) and is absolutely a joy to watch. I have copies of all the bootleg versions of her films in circulation; most are very poor yet I still watch them over and over because they are so much fun. The Milestone version of It, her biggest film, is gorgeous and I would be the first person in line to buy a commercial release of any of her films. The line behind would be pretty long too as she still has quite a big fan base.

 

[Martin Welch]

Fox seems to have pretty much turned its back on catalog titles on DVD, except for a few titles that were already in production like Lang's MANHUNT. Doesn't look good.

 

[ColbyCo82]

Fox only owns her last two films, Call Her Savage (1932) and Hoopla (1933). Universal owns the rest of her talkies because they own the Paramount library of the late 20s and early 30s. The Wild Party (1929), her first talkie, has been show on TCM at least once, but it is owned by Universal. Universal could make a great Bow set, but I think the only way we will see them is if they are included in future Pre-Code Hollywood sets.

 

[Jeffrey Nelson]

I would think a Clara Bow talkie set would sell...wouldn't it? Doesn't she still have a fairly recognizable name to the classic film buffs who buy these sets? Thoughts, anyone?

Of course, the silents are what the Bow fans really want; I've got the following on legit DVD:

"IT" (Milestone/Image)
PARISIAN LOVE/DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS (Kino)
THE PLASTIC AGE (Image)
KID BOOTS (Original Cast/EddieCantor.com)

I've had to resort to shadowy sources for WINGS, DANGEROUS CURVES, TRUE TO THE NAVY, and NO LIMIT, but I'd upgrade in a heartbeat if Paramount and Universal released them. I haven't seen CALL HER SAVAGE and HOOPLA, but would love to, and I'm absolutely dying to see KICK IN, which receives an absolutely glowing review here:

http://www.clarabow.net/articles/jef...mitkickin.html

Who owns the rest of the surviving unreleased silents? Paramount, I'm presuming? And have any been released legit that I've missed? My girlfriend and I both love her to bits, and I'd pony up serious $$ for Bow silent and sound box sets! And that goes for Miss Colleen Moore as well!

 

[jdee28]

I love Clara Bow too. It's sad that she was never given a script that did justice to her talent, especially in the talkie era. Not many Hollywood actresses were though.

Her two Fox films were probably her "best" talkies, but that's not saying much, since the bar wasn't set very high for her talking pictures. Doubtful that Fox will ever release them, especially now since them seem to be out of the classic films on DVD business. "Call Her Savage" has aired on their Fox Movie Channel, but I've never seen "Hoopla" on there. "Hoopla" I was able to see a few years ago thanks to a screening at Film Forum in NY. They showed a few of her films there, including "Kick In" and "No Limit." All her films suffer from a weak script, but Bow's great in whatever she's given!

 

[Coopsgirl_31]

Early in Clara’s career (once she had left New York for Hollywood) she was loaned out quite a bit and made two silents for Fox: The Best Bad Man and The Ancient Mariner both released in 1925 and both presumed lost. She also made a handful for WB and MGM while the others are either for her home studio (Paramount) or other smaller companies. Around ’26 however when her popularity really began to soar, she made films exclusively for Paramount until they cancelled her contract and she made her last two films then at Fox.

So it’s possible that Fox has four of her films but like other posters have said, it’s doubtful we’ll see them get proper releases. I’m keeping my fingers and toes crossed that Paramount and Universal will follow WB’s lead with the Archive project as they have the bulk of Clara’s films as well as practically all my other favorite stars.

 

[Jeffrey Nelson]

But Clara was one of the biggest stars in film history...surely her legacy deserves better than barebones DVD-R?

It's an absolute tragedy, the state that her films are in. :-(

 

[Danny Burk]

It certainly is - her best films overall are the Paramount silents, and most are gone. EVERY ONE of her 1928 silents is lost...all thanks to Paramount's neglect. IMO, her three best films are MANTRAP, HULA, and IT, but that's from the small number that survive...who knows how the others may have compared?

 

[Coopsgirl_31]

Hula, Mantrap, and It are my faves too. I imagine Children of Divorce would be my very favorite if I’m ever able to see it. That is my holy grail of films and the Library of Congress has a restored version so keep your fingers crossed that it will come out of obscurity someday. It stars Clara, Esther Ralston (another actress I like very much who has sadly been forgotten like so many others) and my tip top fave Gary Cooper in one of his earliest leading roles. Gary and Clara were the hottest couple in town when they made this one and that was a part real relationship and part publicity stunt b/c both Clara and the studio thought he had something and by being linked with her it would help get his name out there. I’ve seen clips of this one in Kevin Brownlow’s Hollywood and seeing my two faves in a scene together gave me goosebumps!

Another sadly lost film that I bet was pretty good is Ladies of the Mob (1928) with Richard Arlen. According to David Stenn’s bio of her, Clara was head over heels thrilled to make this one b/c it was a serious drama and those are the kinds of films she wanted to make but after that one they pushed her right back into the same old formula pictures.

Her presence makes any picture worth watching but she could have done so much more if the studio would have allowed it. I think it amounted to her being too good for her own good. By that I mean Paramount saved their best stuff and best supporting actors and so on for the little known actors/actresses they were trying to build up and who needed the better films to get noticed. Since audiences would see Clara in anything they didn’t want to spend unneeded money to give her big films.

With Call Her Savage, she proved she had what it took to make it in the talkies and she could have kept working as she was still very much a star, but she had said years earlier that when she got married she would stop working so she could fully devote her time to her family which is what she did. I wish she had kept going though b/c I know she could have excelled especially in some typical precode dramas and I think she could have transitioned well into the production code era with straight dramas and even screwball comedies.

 

[ajabrams]

I wonder if FOX might consider a deluxe box (like the Ford and Murnau/Borzage sets) that features their early sound features -- the BOWS of course, and other stuff like "Sunny Side Up," "Just Imagine," etc. Just a thought...

 

[ColbyCo82]

Has anyone seenthe Bow talkie "Her Wedding Night" (1930)? I have heard its a bedroom farce that isnt very good, but Im dying to see it. It, along with Kick In, seem to be her rariest talkies (i.e. they never show up in bootleg form on eBay. )

 

[Coopsgirl_31]

Prints of all Clara’s talkies still exist but I’ve never seen any copies of Her Wedding Night or Kick In floating around either. I know there are a few of her silents as well that are still out there but not in bootleg or any other form including her first film Beyond the Rainbow and Empty Hearts. Stenn’s bio of her has a complete list of her films and their status at the back so that’s a good resource. Also I know the two strip Technicolor opening reel of Red Hair is still around as it was shown at a film festival within the past year or so.

I would love to get more from Fox including their early talkies and what would be fantastic would be a set including all the Janet Gaynor/Charles Farrell films. All the silents they did together are in the Murnau/Borzage set so they would just need to put the talkies out.

 

[Jeffrey Nelson]

Whoa whoa WHOA...a reel of RED HAIR still exists??? And it's the Technicolor reel, no less? That's news to me! Sounds like a prime extra for a Bow Box...man, I'd love to see that.

My current silent film Holy Grails are all the lost films of Clara Bow and Colleen Moore. I'd take RED HAIR or FLAMING YOUTH over LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT any day.

EDIT:I did some poking around after I read your post and found that the RED HAIR footage as well as 90 seconds of salvageable footage from THREE WEEKENDS was found in a cache of old nitrate in a cabin on what is now the Cuffe Ranch in Lone Pine, CA. It was placed there many decades ago by Clarence Badger himself, apparently. The fragments were shown by UCLA at their 2004 festival. 6 minutes worth footage altogether. A pity that's all that's left of those films, but at least it's something.

 

[John_S]

I would likewise buy any Clara Bow film(s) in a legitimate release!

 

[Jeffrey Nelson]

Chris Snowden posted at Nitrateville that he saw the recovered Bow footage at Cinecon in 2003, and the RED HAIR footage was only Technicolor test footage, not the actual opening reel. :-(. Oh well, more new Bow footage is always good, no matter what it is.

 

[ColbyCo82]

For some reason 1928 is a bad year for Paramount films. Besides Clara's films, they lost most of their Emil Jannings films (namely The Patriot), the two W.C. Fields releases, a Pola Negri film, and many others. Sad they didnt better protect their heritage.

 

[Coopsgirl_31]

Four of the seven silent films Gary Cooper made at Paramount in ’28 are also lost including The First Kiss, Legion of the Condemned (both costarring Fay Wray), Beau Sabreur (only the trailer survives), and Half a Bride. Lilac Time, Doomsday, and The Shopworn Angel survived as well as some others from ’27.

It’s more than a shame that so many films have been lost. What is so frustrating is the majority of silents that have survived are mostly available on bootlegs only that vary quite wildly in quality or are not available at all. I do understand though that it is a niche market and I’m glad for all the companies like Kino and other smaller outfits that try to put out the best quality dvds they can. I’ve got my fingers crossed that other studios will follow WB’s lead with the archive program b/c no matter what problems some people may have with it, that may be the only way we ever get to see a lot of the films we want.