Fox Classic titles in June (1 Viewer)

[docdoowop]

 

[CineKarine]

Let's make this June and beyond:

From the MoviesUnlimited update:

Question: I am also wondering if you have heard anything about Fox musicals Margie (1946), With A Song In My Heart (1952) and The Best Things In Life Are Free (1956).
-- (via email)

Fox “is considering” the three musicals you referenced, but the rights clearances may be the hold up.


Question: Please can you tell me if The Private War Of Major Benson, starring Charlton Heston, is coming on DVD.
-- (via email)

Answer: We have not received any recent info about this Charlton Heston fave coming to DVD. Sorry.


Question: Hi, Irv. Do you know if Fox has stopped their film noir titles on DVD? Will we ever see Boomerang, the 1947 title with Dana Andrews? -- (via email)

Answer: Thanks for writing. Yes, Fox is committed to more film noirs in the future—the collections reportedly do very well for the studio. And Boomerang, which had been previously announced and withdrawn, would likely be part of an upcoming set. Elia Kazan’s smashing 1947 suspenser about a state’s attorney (Andrews) trying to defend a drifter in a murder case in Connecticut, is based on a real incident that occurred in the 1920s.

 

[Corey]

According to FOX Home Entertainment musicals don't do as well financially as other kinds of films. However, they are planning to finally release "With A Song in My Heart" this year in honor of Jane Froman's Centennial which will be celebrated in Columbia, MO in November.

 

[CineKarine]

Corey - this is THE DVD news of the year as far as I am concerned!

Sorry to hear their musicals are not doing that great. I don't get it. I hope the Faye & Grable vol. 2 are still in the works and much more! Maybe Can Can, Pigskin Parade and On the Riviera will turn things around in May? Keeping my high hopes every step of the way!

 

[Rod J]

Maybe if they'd look beyond Betty Grable and perpetual Rogers & Hammerstein repackaging.... A Pat Boone box (Mardi Gras, Bernardine, April Love) would definitely outsell Betty Grable. Back in my wayward video store youth, April Love was one of the most requested unavailable titles). Or, Home in Indiana/April Love).

And where's John Ford's Tobacco Road?

 

[serenapowell]

I'm also sad to hear that about musicals not selling :frowning: (I wonder if the other studios feel the same way?) Didn't musicals sell well on VHS, and don't all the people who bought musicals on VHS want to upgrade? Not to mention those who weren't around or aware during the VHS days...

Anyway, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Alice Faye vol. 2 ... and others! Never saw "With A Song In My Heart", but I'm always willing to blind-buy musicals! (The only genre I feel that way about, so there! Well, I do blind-buy other things if I like the stars or whatever, but I'll buy any classic musical.)

 

[Greg_M]

Certain musicals from FOX sell VERY well (The Sound of Music/Oklahoma/The King and I - R&H are big sellers) others do pretty good (Rocky Horror Picture Show, Hello Dolly, All That Jazz) It's the stuff from the 30's and 40's that don't sell very well - but that's true of many films from those years that aren't considered classics (And with the exception of a few FOX films like "The Gangs All Here" many of them are not) FOX pretty much stopped making musicals after "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" in the mid 70's.

 

[Corey]

Fox also does a horrible job at promoting these musical sets. You would think that they would use FMC to their advantage and advertise as well as show the films in the set all over the channel. Not the case. I am glad that they lowered the price for the Faye set, because I'm sure the $60 SRP helped the Grable set flop. People always seem to know about the Warner sets, no matter what the genre of film may be. Regardless of the Grable set tanking, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they continue to release her films. The last I heard was that The Shocking Miss Pilgrim was in production.

 

[Matt Hough]

I'm still amazed that MOTHER WORE TIGHTS wasn't one of the Grable films chosen for the first box. It was one of her most popular pictures and contains something other than the usual wartime story with a swing band as the main draw. I would rather have had it than MOON OVER MIAMI or the separately released PIN-UP GIRL (which I think is one of her weakest pictures, even if it was what she was best known for during WW II).

 

[Greg_M]

I love musical films, but I have to admit I have never seen a Betty Grable picture, I don't know why - AMC/TMC would run other FOX titles like "The Gang's All Here" and "Star!" but I must have missed the BG films - unless they weren't screened or highly promoted. MGM of course had the "That's Entertainment" films to promote their catalog and Warner Bros does a great job with their titles, but I would have a difficult time naming more than a dozen musical films from 1930 - 1949 era.

 

[CineKarine]

DVD art and specs for Pigskin Parade here:
http://www.thejudyroom.com/news.html