HIT THE DECK & THE WIND AND THE LION blu-ray from Warner Archive! (1 Viewer)

[ahollis]

I highly doubt Warner Archive has High Society at their disposal. It's likely still with the Warner Home Video catalog group.

Agree and I would add SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, BRIGADOON, and THE BAND WAGON to that list that WAC does not have.

 

[Alan Tully]

If they are listening they need to use their Ultra Resolution Technicolor process on Scaramouche and get that disc out there.

+1

Mind you, the Warner DVD does look damn good.

 

[classicmovieguy]

I watched the older DVD of "Hit the Deck" again last night, this time upscaled, and it looked pretty decent. The Blu-ray, I'm sure, will be very enjoyable.

 

[Towergrove]

If George Feltenstein had his way, every Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli film would have been on BluRay long ago. Remember his days at MGM/UA Home Video in the laserdisc era? Unfortunately, the market is different today and the bar is set so high now when it comes to quality.

How is the market different today vs the laserdisc era? Bluray is much more widely available today vs. The heyday of LD? Why are catalogues of Garlands not out today when they seem to rerelease the dvds in sets all the time.

 

[Brandon Conway]

A/V standards and costs are far, far higher. That's probably reason #1

 

[lukejosephchung]

How is the market different today vs the laserdisc era? Bluray is much more widely available today vs. The heyday of LD? Why are catalogues of Garlands not out today when they seem to rerelease the dvds in sets all the time.

It's skewed demographically towards new releases and the under-40 consumer...there was more room in the '80s and '90's for the serious hardcore catalog title collector, which is why we saw more of them during that time and the first 5-6 years of DVD...

 

[Rob_Ray]

How is the market different today vs the laserdisc era? Bluray is much more widely available today vs. The heyday of LD? Why are catalogues of Garlands not out today when they seem to rerelease the dvds in sets all the time.

Back in the laserdisc era, studios released the best available transfer regardless of how good or bad it may have looked. Many titles had not been available on home video before and any release was a welcome one.

With BluRay, Warner's standards are incredibly high and rightly so. I'm sure SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, to name one title we've mentioned in this thread, requires an enormous amount of work to prepare for BluRay. It's never looked as good as it should because the original elements were used to make more prints when it proved to be such an unexpected hit.

Unlike with laserdisc and DVD, you can't just dust off the best source in the vault to satisfy consumer demand. Well, maybe you could, but the studios aren't going to do that when the titles are already available on DVD. The people that care about quality would howl, and those that don't care about quality are watching their DVD copy.

 

[bruceames]

Warner's standards may be high, but for whom, the enthusiast or the average consumer? Has anybody noticed that their older catalog on Blu-ray appears to be suspiciously devoid of grain? How much more fine detail would we be seeing if it were left intact?

 

[FoxyMulder]

Warner's standards may be high, but for whom, the enthusiast or the average consumer? Has anybody noticed that their older catalog on Blu-ray appears to be suspiciously devoid of grain? How much more fine detail would we be seeing if it were left intact?

They had, maybe still have on occasion, an obsession with lower bitrates, and film grain and low bitrates can be problematic, some of their older catalog titles are very good, i'm thinking Poltergeist or King Kong as two examples with film grain.

 

[davidHartzog]

Good to see The Wind and the Lion coming in BD.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Warner also happened to jump on the Blu-ray catalog train earlier than the other studios in 2006-2009, and now a lot of people find those releases lacking when compared to 2013-2014 catalog releases. Puts Warner in a bind - people wanted those releases ASAP, but five years later they're underwhelmed.

 

[Keith Cobby]

One of Vincente Minnelli's films, which looks great on DVD, and I would very much like on blu-ray is Designing Woman.

 

[Eastmancolor]

What's next? ATHENA??

I'm always glad to have another MGM musical released on Blu, but I have to side with the others here who think it's an odd choice. In my opinion, this is one of the MGM musicals you put out on disc after you get the better, more sought after titles into the marketplace. Other better CinemaScope musicals that come to mind are IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER, SILK STOCKINGS, LES GIRLS and SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS to name a few. I don't think it's a bad picture by any means, there's just nothing all that remarkable about it. It's like everyone in it and behind the scenes were on auto pilot. Other than for one of Ann Miller's numbers, the film has no energy and is stage bound.

Of course, that's just my opinion, I know that there are others who love the film. I'm sure there are plenty of films I like that others don't.

But with the slow speed of new Blu releases, wouldn't it make more sense to put out "better" pictures first? After all, if HIT THE DECK lays an egg, will Warner want to put out many more of the MGM musicals?

Regarding quality, HIT THE DECK was one of the titles streaming in HD on Warner Archive's streaming site and it looked beautiful there. Miles ahead of previous releases. I'm sure the Blu-ray will look great too, as it should be sourced from a similar master.

 

[bruceames]

Warner also happened to jump on the Blu-ray catalog train earlier than the other studios in 2006-2009, and now a lot of people find those releases lacking when compared to 2013-2014 catalog releases. Puts Warner in a bind - people wanted those releases ASAP, but five years later they're underwhelmed.

Warner not only has their own WB films to draw from, but they also control large libraries from other studios as well. They're not hurting for stuff to put out just because they released it all early.

Fox only has their own library to worry about and yet they've put just as much pre-1970 catalog as Warner has, and more so if you extract the Paramount catalog from Warner's output (since they don't own it but only have them under license). And given the head start Warner got, it kinda puts their lack of (deep catalog) output lately into perspective.

 

[moviepas]

No one has mentioned the RKO 1930 version of Hit the Deck which I believe is "lost". Any footage of this one survive?

I have the LD of Hit the Deck as well as the DVD but I have ordered the Blu Ray.

It would be nice if they had a go at releasing the war years Technicolor films from MGM & WB on Blu Ray. Titles like Bathing Beauty, Till the Clouds Roll By, This is the Army, Night & Day, National Velvet and others.

 

[JoHud]

Wow, it looks like the WAC blu-ray program is finally starting to heat up. It seems like they have a new 2 films per month momentum going. Let's hope this is permanent.

Why are people surprised about movies like Hit the Deck being released on the Archive? The WAC is all about the more niche end of the library, titles they don't expect to sell in huge numbers. Also remember that the WAC only gets to release what WHV allows them to, regardless of whether or not WHV is actively planning a home video release or not. So if any department deserves complaints, its the WHV dept.

Personally, I am very grateful for the general WAC catalog. TONS of niche material is getting released through there and over the past couple years, nearly all of it newly remastered. They just delivered quite a few major ones this year along with very welcome rarities.

 

[classicmovieguy]

I pre-ordered "Hit the Deck" because I like it, and because I want the powers-that-be to know that I'll support these titles on Blu. I'm hoping some of the other, 'lesser-tier' musicals will be on the horizon. JoHud I totally agree - "Hit the Deck" would never be a possibility for a regular widespread release - indeed the DVD was only ever available as part of a larger musicals boxed set.

 

[JoHud]

A/V standards and costs are far, far higher. That's probably reason #1

Not only that, there are several classics that need very expensive restorations to properly present in HD and these restorations can take several years before mastering can take place. That's usually the hold up with much of the this and other studio back catalogs

 

[bruceames]

I pre-ordered "Hit the Deck" because I like it, and because I want the powers-that-be to know that I'll support these titles on Blu. I'm hoping some of the other, 'lesser-tier' musicals will be on the horizon. JoHud I totally agree - "Hit the Deck" would never be a possibility for a regular widespread release - indeed the DVD was only ever available as part of a larger musicals boxed set.

For my part, I'm hoping that some of the other, 'higher-tier' musicals will be on the horizon. Whether by WHV or by WAC, it's all the same to me. Makes no sense to get the lessor stuff before the good stuff.

I want to support Warner too, but Fox already has about 25 classic titles out there on my Want list and there's only so much support I can give and Fox has certainly "earned" it more than Warner lately.

 

[classicmovieguy]

I think we'll be seeing more of the bigger musicals on regular Warner Blu, and hopefully many more of the 'lesser-tier' in the Warner Archive... maybe even Blu releases of "Athena", "Rose-Marie" and "Jupiter's Darling".