"High And The Mighty", "Island In The Sky", Hondo & McLintock on DVD (1 Viewer)

[John Hodson]

A minor item; in the UK Paramount is reissuing all it's John Wayne titles with artwork that matches the new R1 releases (even though the new releases have yet to be announced over here). I assume they will update the artwork on all their R1 titles similarly.

 

[oscar_merkx]

I have seen that as well John

 

[John Hodson]

The Bits says that both Hondo and Mclintock! are coming from Paramount in October; crammed with lovely Batjac sourced extras I hope!

 

[Robert Crawford]

John,
That's excellent news and finally we should have a good presentation of both films on dvd.






Crawdaddy

 

[RolandL]

It would be really nice to have a 3-D field sequential version of Hondo included but, I know that will never happen.

 

[MattMC]

All the John Wayne Batjac's???
MUST BUY THEM ALL!!!!!!!
I'll watch as my money goes flying out the window.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Over the weekend, I took the opportunity to Tivo record "The High and the Mighty" and "Island in the Sky" on AMC to get an idea on how they would look on dvd. They both looked excellent with "The High and the Mighty" in widescreen. I think people are going to please with Paramount's effort in these two dvds.






Crawdaddy

 

[MarkMAD]

It blew me away that AMC broadcast a movie in the letterbox format. I kept waiting for the screen to fill after the opening credits!
The movies were edited, but it does give us an idea of how nice the forthcoming DVDs will be.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Last week, Paramount hosted an event for these dvd releases with the Gretchen Wayne and an executive from AMC, so I assumed then that "The High and the Mighty" would be shown in widescreen this month from newly restored transfers from Paramount.

Also, I don't think either movie was edited in which parts of the movie was taken out.






Crawdaddy

 

[MarkMAD]

If they weren't edited, maybe they were time compressed(?)

I recorded them with the TIVO and then dumped them to a DVD Recorder and edited the commercials out to check their lengths.

I have old tapes of both movies and "Mighty" was about 5 minutes shorter than what I have and "Island" was 4 minutes short of my old archives.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Neither film was ever released on a prior video format so how did you time and edit out the commercials from those tapes and the showings from this weekend to make such a comparison? Seems like a lot of work for nothing.

Edited: I see that you edited your post, but I withdraw my question because it's not really important anyway for those of us that are buying the dvds.

 

[MarkMAD]

I will clear it up a little more.
I will buy the DVDs, but am currently unemployed and it may take a while.

It will be very nice indeed to replace those 20 year old blurry, washed out tapes (yes, they still play) with the newly restored digital versions.
I've been waiting since the birth of home video for these to be released.

Video editing is a hobby and is not really a waste of time for me! (A lot of free time on my hands also :frowning

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

The High and the Mighty and Island in the Sky are both based on novels by Ernest K. Gann, who also wrote Fate Is the Hunter, which was filmed in 1964, directed by Ralph Nelson and starring Glenn Ford as a man investigating a mysterious airplane crash. It isn't true to the book, though, but it is a superb film in its own right. Like The High and the Mighty and Island in the Sky, it has never had an official, legitimate home video release and wasn't shown on TV in a long, long time, until May 2004 when Fox Movies broadcast it in widescreen (black and white Panavision). Fox produced it, but there are rights issues, it seems. Fox really ought to release a DVD.

Gann's, Gentlemen of Adventure is an amazing novel. It has yet to reach the screen, though.

 

[Scott Kimball]

I got a chance to screen The High and the Mighty this weekend. I don't think it will disappoint. Nice transfer. Haven't viewed the extras, yet. Review coming later this week. Island in the Sky review coming sometime next week, most likely.

-Scott

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Maybe I missed this item, but I'm curious: why did the Wayne estate keep these movies under wraps for so long? It's bizarre that they've not been on any form of home video or even on TV in 25 years!

 

[Robert Crawford]

Michael Wayne, Duke's oldest son was in charge of the Wayne estate and he was known as being a tough negotiator and I'm being kind with that assessment. Anyway, he passed away about a year or so ago and his widow Gretchen took over the estate and after negotiations with both Warner and Paramount came to an agreement with Paramount over the Wayne films controlled by Batjac which was Duke's production company.






Crawdaddy

 

[MarkMAD]

Yes, from what I've read and heard, you are being very kind with your assessment!
It comes down to the fact that he wanted more than any studio could ever recoup with a release.

Yes, there was a lot of water damage to the prints, but many offers were made to restore the films. The restoration was not the reason these films have not seen the light of day until now.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Thanks for the info about Michael Wayne. Why does this issue remind me of the "Saturday Night Live" where William Shatner tries to scalp Super Bowl tickets for a million dollars? He turns down offers of hundreds of thousands of dollars to hold out for his goal and gets nothing. Maybe they based the character on Michael Wayne!

I gotta say I'm floored at all the interest in these movies. I'd never heard of them until I saw them on Amazon's top sellers list. They're now 1&2 with two weeks before release! That's amazing. I'm not a Duke fan but had to give them a spin because of all the interest. (Liked Island a lot, loathed Mighty, BTW...)

 

[John Hodson]

I must say, that brought a smile to my face. That's excellent news

 

[William Miller]

Hondo will not be the 3-D version.

McLintock! will finally be in widescreen.