Well, it looks like the previous info from Barrie Maxwell at thedigitalbits.com is correct. The first wave of Fox Studio Classic releases for 2005 will appear in February and will include Leave Her to Heaven (1945, with Cornel Wilde), A Letter to Three Wives (1949, with Jeanne Crain), and Return to Peyton Place (1961, with Jeff Chandler).
I would have thought that Leave Her to Heaven would have been in their new noir series, but no...
I see Pinky, Laura, The Great White Hope and What a Way to Go up for pre-order at various sites.
Does anyone know exactly what catalog titles Fox will be putting out on DVD in the first 3 months of 2005? A complete list would be much appreciated. Thanks.
Fox Home Entertainment have announced a change in the line-up for their first wave of film noir titles planned for 15th March 2005. The title everyone expected to headline the initial wave, Laura, will now do just that as it has replaced the previously announced House of Bamboo, a title we now expect to appear in a subsequent 'wave' later in the year.
Crawdaddy, in the end you are correct. Heck, I'd buy these with the "War Classics" banner across the top – what we call them, makes little difference.
What concerns me is the longevity of the line. As we know, Fox have - I don't want to say "written off" the FSC line, because really they haven't, but they've revamped it which means, at least to me, they have concerns as to how well it produced in the past. My concerns with their noir line are similar to those of the FSC line in that, perhaps it was their past choices as Studio Classics titles, not the actual line itself, which is wonderful.
The studio is deep with noir titles and not coming out of the box strongly with their two most sought after noir titles, was – well, a little baffling. They have at least corrected that my moving up Laura to be included among the first grouping and that’s great news.
My point being, similar to the FSC lineup, they still have many “A” titles sitting on the shelf after having released a number of titles that I don’t think were as sought after, and I do not want the noir line to fall into that same glitch – especially when they’ll be watching the sales figures of the first wave like hawks - which is why I think Leave Her To Heavenshould have been included as a noir title, not a FSC title.
"RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE", "LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN", and "LAURA" are both up for sale at AMAZON and DDD. I saw the cover of RTPP on DVD PRICE SEARCH.COM and it arrives 2-22, FINALLY-YIPPEEEEEEEEEE !!!!!!!
I just hoped they are moving Laura up for the right reasons. As mentioned, it was a bit baffling why this title was being held back (even until this point) so it does make you wonder.
We've added the artwork for Laura here, and artwork for both Panic in the Streets and Call Northside 777 here By the way, the Fox press site still has the House of Bamboo DVD down for release on the 15th March, so I'm not convinced its been delayed yet...
Very good to see Fox going the Warner route of adapting original poster art for their covers. I was buying anyway, but I'm looking forward to these even more now.
Thanks to Tom Woodward for the cover art. Kudos to Fox for moving in the right direction and using vintage art for their covers. This added bit of "curb appeal" will make these discs all the more attractive.
Kudos also to Fox for bumping "Laura" up in the schedule. It only makes sense given the higher familiarity of this title to the general consumer. Hopefully this is the beginning of a Warner-like committment by Fox to their classic films in 2005.
It would be great if, one year from now, we could bestow the title of "most improved studio" to Fox on a 2005 report card of best studios for classic DVDs.