Harry Palmer films on DVD availability (1 Viewer)

[JoshuaB.]

I'm a fan of the three 60s Harry Palmer movies (I despise the 90s movies), but how come The Ipcress File and Funeral in Berlin are OOP? Did the rights change to some other film company? IF was released by AB in 1999 and Paramount released Funeral in Berlin in 2001. The Billion Dollar Brain is being released in Europe by MGM, so I'm wondering if MGM now owns the rights to the three films. Does anybody have an answer?

 

[AnitaPeterson]

I actually enjoyed the 1995 films "Bullet to Beijing" and "Midnight in St.Petersburg", featuring Sir Michael Caine as an older and embittered Harry Palmer, trying to establish a business in Russia, of all places... While not stellar, they're still good movies, if you like the character (and the first film, at least, has some really good moments)

 

[oscar_merkx]

Interesting to learn that Michael Caine actually played two more HP movies, I was not aware of that

 

[Mark Edward Heuck]

AFAIK, all the original Harry Palmer movies are still owned by their respective studios (IPCRESS - Universal, BERLIN - Paramount, BRAIN - MGM/UA). IPCRESS I think went OOP because Anchor Bay's license with Universal expired, while BERLIN probably just used up its print run and Paramount has yet to press the disc again.

As for BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN, I can only suspect that music clearance is easier in the UK than the US. I would like to hope that MGM will clear the Beatles tunes for this region, but I can't say I hold too much hope.

 

[John Hodson]

You should be aware that Len Deighton had nothing to do with them oscar; with the deepest respect to those that did like them, I thought they were awful.

 

[oscar_merkx]

Hi John

Yes I thought that there were only three books he had written about HP

 

[John Hodson]

I'm no expert having only read the first four - but according to one website Palmer & co. are mentioned in this lot by Deighton (though the name 'Harry Palmer' is never mentioned by Deighton of course):

The Ipcress File (1962)
Horse Under Water (1963)
Funeral in Berlin (1964)
The Billion Dollar Brain (1966)
An Expensive Place to Die (1967)
Spy Story (1974)
Yesterday's Spy (1975)
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Spy (1976) (also published as Catch a Falling Spy)

 

[RichardCrowther]

And you'd be right not to sadly, Mark, since the section in question was merely chopped out of the R2 DVD release, losing about 30 seconds worth of footage in the process.

:frowning:


For those of you with multi-region capability, as has been stated above, all three original movies are currently available over in the UK (and, one presumes, the rest of Europe), with Ipcress coming from Carlton, Funeral from Paramount and Billion from MGM. None of them are particularly feature-heavy (Billion is completely barebones, in fact and the other two only have a trailer each to entice you) but they'll do until something better comes along.

Hope this helps.

 

[Jim_K]

I love the first two HP films so I'm glad I picked them up before going oop. Though this sucks for anyone who wants the films now.

I've never seen Billion Dollar Brain but I desperately want to.

 

[David_Blackwell]

I also want to see the Billion Dollar Brain and hopes it gets release to DVD in the USA soon. Too bad the first two movies are OOP on DVD.