The titles are now available for sale on the Legend site, but with shipping and taxes they are about $23.00 each. I may hold off until they are sold by Amazon, DVD Pacific etc. I'm curious if anyone has ordered any titles yet and recieved notification they are shipping.
The tape cover had no picture sleeve, no synopsis, it was just a slide from the side case, in silver, where the center was cut so you can see the label on middle of the tape to see the title. It almost looked like a home video tape! (and the transfer looked dupey, like it was second generation)
I'm assuming that there are a few fans of some of these films who will pay the premium to get them a bit earlier than the rest of us. If they don't already have the infrastructure in place to handle direct sales, then both the pricing as well as the 'offer' itself make sense. They may not want or be able to deal with many retail orders right away. I'm hoping all these will be offered at Deep Discount. If I could snag them for around $8-$9 each, there'd be about 7-8 titles there I would like to get. If $15 is the best I can do, I'd pick up 4 and Netflix the rest. There are quite a few titles in that list i'm unfamiliar with, but which sound very intriguing. The One And Only is a movie I have very fond memories of. Haven't seen it in 30 years, but I found myself thinking about it a couple months back wondering who had the rights to it. I didn't bother investigating it because it didn't seem like it would matter. There wasn't any way in hell something that ...gentle...and esoteric would make it's way out. I'm again very delighted to be wrong. Does anyone know if they will be hewing to a regular monthly schedule with the Paramount material...or is it going to be one or two batches ever quarter or six months? Very curious to see what else they've got plans for.
Wow....I think I may be buying virtually ALL of these titles. Legend really scored a coup in the licensing and it's great to hear they've done a good job on them.
I was very pleasantly surprised at this 'legend'ary arragement that paramount has set up. It truly is a barometer that the studios-even one as seemingly beligerent in releasing catalog titles as Paramount-do listen to their fans "of a certain age"(most of us fit into that category) and are trying to satiate our wants. I commend them for doing so and I think the $15 pricetag for seeing most of these obscure titles (THE OPTIMISTS? THE BUSY BODY? WON TON TON...!!!!!?) that I never thought would see the light of day beyond the terrible bootlegs (the new flickers) and foreign out of print videos they were on in a previous lifeform, is very reasonable. I have ordered all of these with the exception of BLUE CITY-a truly awful 80s brartpack noir. Judging fro their eclectic titles-I soon envision other Paramount titles heretofore unreleased in any video format finally seeing the light of day after trial runs on cable (TCMs recent showing of SKIDOO) and on Amazons Unbox (my guilty pleasure SHEILA LEVINE IS DEAD AND LIVING IN NEW YORK as well as TR BASKIN , INNOCENT BYSTANDERS and MAN ON A STRING all are available there as well as MANDINGO ). these titles seem a cinch soon. It seems as if Paramount will soon become the premiere releasing unit for the mostly forgotten 60s and 70s era films. I can see them leasing their prestige pix to Criterion (ala THE NAKED PREY and the never released on video ACE IN THE HOLE) such as the terrific 1980 thriller THE OUTSIDER, WHITE DOG , LADIES AND GENTLEMAN THE FABULOUS STAINS, BREAKING GLASS, Ingmar Bergmans seemingly lost FACE TO FACE,LEADBELLY , AMERICAN HOT WAX the beguilingly mia CITIZENS BAND from Jonathan Demme and LOOKING FOR MR GOODBAR among others and more popular movies such as ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH, ASH WEDNESDAY, A SEPERATE PEACE, FIRST LOVE, ROUGH CUT ,PLAYERS, BLOODLINE going via Legend. With the never released WON TON TON and THE PIED PIPER (as well as the surprising release last year of O WHAT A LOVELY WAR!) I would like to see them also release FRATERNITY ROW, THE LAWYER, THE PENTHOUSE , WUSA and LITTLE FAUSS AND BIG HALSY and others. Very exciting! The only question remaing: What is left for Paramount proper to release? Now if Universal/Legend would make a similar licensing agreement we may finally get THE GREEK TYCOON, MOMENT BY MOMENT and NUNZIO.....
I ordered The Skull, The Possession of Joel Delaney, and Student Bodies on April 1. I'll probably order The Man Who Could Cheat Death, The Deadly Bees, and The Sender when they become available in May. Any other titles I'll order at the retail level. I think the $14.95 SRP is very reasonable for these. MGM/Fox are releasing a slew of War and Western films in May with the same SRP, while Universal is asking $19.98 for The Man of a Thousand Faces. Shipping charges seem to be the deal-breaker here for some. Luckily within a few months that won't be a factor.
I soooo hope Legend and Paramount are satisfied with how this turns out. Getting anamorphic R1 releases of Dr. Terror's House of Horrors and Blood & Roses actually seems possible now.
As if Gehenna isn't getting frosty enough with all of this news, TCM is disinterring Paramount's Walk Like a Dragon for a 1:30 a.m. ET showing on June 18.
The STUDENT BODIES disc includes the trailer. It's a lousy trailer, but it's cool to have.
MANDINGO is the uncut 127 minute R-rated version.
BABY IT'S YOU appears to be the same music-modified version that was on VHS (it includes the Springsteen songs).
POSSESSION OF JOEL DELANEY - the controversial full-frontal of the young boy is matted out on this widescreen version (the VHS was open-matte and showed below the waist).
Thanks for the update, Jeff. Never thought we'd see Mandingo, let alone uncut.
As for Baby It's You, a Legend Films exec was nice enough to let me know that it and French Postcards are the same re-scored versions that have been previously available. All the same, I will have a hard time not purchasing them because they are OAR and two of my most-wanted DVDs. Sadly, this would seem to confirm that we will never see these two films in their original theatrical versions on home video.
Then again, if sales of BABY, IT'S YOU are respectable enough, I could very easily see Criterion do a reissue with the original music restored. Universal put out two different DVDs of DAZED AND CONFUSED before Criterion did theirs. FRENCH POSTCARDS is probably a dead issue though, sadly.
Ordered Tuesday night, received the package Friday afternoon. Great service. I'll be taking a quick peek at The Pied Piper, ZPG and Money From Home tonight.
Yeah bonus material is always nice to have (though I find some of their commentaries/material dry, overly academic and lifeless) and I'm sure Criterion would pretty up the artwork. Is it worth an extra $25 added to the price for having it released by [cue heavenly choir] Criterion [/heavenly choir]? Not for me.
It's funny how Criterion still gets a free pass for charging a standard $40 MSRP in this day and age, the standard excuse always being being those dreaded "licensing fees" yet Legend's $15 MSRP for these licensed titles is a little rich?
Does anyone pay MSRP? (Apart from Legend customers obviously). Not to go too far off topic, you're looking at a few cents shy of $20 to get these shipped to you (I'm not sure if they're shipping these internationally), the last Criterion disc I bought, shipped to the UK, cost me a few cents shy of $27, and the extras, the presentation as a whole, was well worth it. At least to me.
Hey, if Legend had included an Amicus documentary, a feature on Peter Cushing, and a decent commentary on The Skull, I'd be looking to plunk my $20 down right now...but I think I'll wait until June.