How about a "Clark Gable Signature Collection"? (1 Viewer)

[Charles Ellis]

With all the star-related box sets Warners has been putting out, I'm shocked that they have yet to handle the biggest male star of the Golden Age: the King himself, Clark Gable!

This was a man who was the top male star at the box office during the 30s and 40s, and had his pick of leading ladies on and off-screen as well. Sure, there were other leading men at MGM during those years like Spencer Tracy and Robert Taylor, but they seemed to pale in comparison to Gable's sheer onscreen power. After all, when David O. Selznick bought the screen rights to Gone With the Wind, there was one unanimous choice in the hearts of the readers of the book and movie fans for the role of Rhett Butler- Clark Gable.

There are many films ranging over 20 years to choose from, but these are ones I think should be in the collection:

San Francisco
Boom Town
The Hucksters
Possessed
Red Dust and Mogambo in a 2-disc set
Honky Tonk
Susan Lenox- her fall and rise

and Warners may want to add the previously released Mutiny On The Bounty.

I realize that I may be jumping the gun a bit (such a collection may already be in the works), but i thought it's a subject that needs to be discussed.

 

[John Hodson]

From this year's Chat:

[RobertCrawford] Welcome and I want to congratulate Warner for doing an excellent job with their dvd releases. I know that Humoresque is coming out in June, are there any other John Garfield films in the pipeline for release and are Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable boxsets coming out this year?

[WarnerHomeVideo] Thank you for the kind words. There will be more Garfield in the future but not this year. Gable and Tracy are on tap for 2006.

...and I will right up front of the queue when they announce it.

 

[Charles Ellis]

So I did jump the gun. Oh, well....

BTW, I wonder if they'll release Key To The City- that's a 1950 comedy with Loretta Young, and there's quite a history behind that screen pairing!

 

[RafaelPires]

I would add to the Box set Test Pilot, Idiot's Delight, Manhattan Melodrama, China Seas and anything he did with Joan Crawford.
But of course, since we're speaking of Gable, there are tons of other filmes that need to be released (at least 3 boxes).

 

[oscar_merkx]

Count me in

 

[Frank M]

Robert Harris mentioned in one of his columns at The Digital Bits that restoration work is being done on Dancing Lady for probable inclusion in a Gable box set

 

[ReggieW]

Red Dust and China Seas will likely appear in the Harlow boxset coming next year. I doubt that Mogambo will be packaged with Red Dust, but you never know. I think Warner may decide that the inferior (imho) John Ford remake deserves its own release (Perhaps they'll include this in the Gable boxset). There was footage of Harlow nude taken in the Rain Barrel bathing scene in Red Dust according to her biographer David Stenn, but it was said that Victor Fleming destroyed the footage to prevent it from leaking out. Who knows...maybe some of it will turn up. An interesting film with an interesting history.

-Reg

 

[Miguel M Santos]

MOGAMBO is already available in R2 as a separate release, so I'd say it's likely that it will be given a separate R1 release as well.

 

[Garysb]

Perhaps Warner could release Gable by the decade sets.
One each for the 30's,40's, and 50's. Though I think his best films are all pre World War II.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

Okay, here's my proposal for contents of a Gable and a Tracy Box Set. I assumed 5 titles with one "dark horse" candidate. I'd buy either of these in a second. Then again, I'd snap up the specu-ware list from Charles' initial post, too.

Gable:

Red Dust
San Francisco
Boom Town
Command Decision
Test Pilot

Dark Horse: Mogambo


Tracy:

Captains Courageous
Boys Town
Northwest Passage
A Guy Named Joe
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

Dark Horse: State of the Union

Regards,

 

[Thomas T]

Mr. McAlinden,

It's unlikely State Of The Union would be included in a Warners Tracy box set as the rights are held by Universal.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

Oops! My mistake. In that case, I'll re-categorize it as "pitch black horse".

Regards,