DVD Review HTF REVIEW: The Classic Comedies Collection (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). (1 Viewer)

[Roger Rollins]

I think it's very likely that we will see the Loy documentary pop up in the THIN MAN boxed set that has been indicated will be released later this year.

 

[Adam_S]

I've opened a new columbia house account with LMT today to get Vertigo, Rear Window, Citizen Kane, Singin in the Rain, Meet me in St. Louis, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves and Whale rider for $12 something, then I'll buy this set for fifty something, use the webdvd promo to take five dollars off for a first time web order and satisfy both my commitments because the set is worth two. Altogether I get 13 dvds for around 65$

Thinking of doing the same thing for the Gangsters, Hitchcock or Scorsese set, though the Hitchcock set would be 16 DVDs for about 90$ so not as good a deal per title.

 

[Paul_Scott]

Adam, i just opened one myself with the LMT code a couple days ago- i used tv sets before to count towards multiple fulfillments, but for some reason i hadn't thought of doing it with movie box sets.
i'm going to have to skate on over there now and see what kind of deal i can swing.

i also thought the webdvd discount was gone.
that helps quite a bit too.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

Thanks.
Been looking forward to TPS & BUB. Never caught LL. Looks like the entire set is well worth the box set price.

 

[Sergio A]

I just noticed that there's a little bit missing in one scene of Bringing Up Baby, where Hepburn poses as the gangster's moll. In my VHS tape, she says "Where my man goes, I go, and if I don't he knocks my block off." On the DVD, that line is cut off after "Where my man goes, I go."

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Thanks for letting us know about this - what a shame that no one picked this up before the disc went to press - Warners have an excellent record with their classic titles releases, which makes this almost doubly disappointing - not exactly in the same league as the TOM AND JERRY fiasco, but still something of a shame since I can't see anyone doing a recall - I'll just have to hang to my doubtlessly otherwise inferior VHS

 

[Conrad_SSS]

Picked this up last night, and I'm just knocked out by the great transfers, and wonderful extras on these releases.

BRINGING UP BABY was worth the wait. It looks gorgeous, and the Cary Grant documentary is truly a masterful film in its own right.

THE PHILADELPHIA STORY is vastly improved, and still one of the greatest films of all time.

Now I get ready to start TO BE OR NOT TO BE from start to finish (I took brief looks at every disc before starting the viewing marathon).

This is another Warner winner! They just keep topping themselves. Superb.

 

[Eric Peterson]

I don't remember if I've seen the uncut line or not. Does anyone know if the uncut version appeared on previous home video incarnations? If not, I could see how it would be very easy for WB to overlook. I'm a huge opponent to censorship, but I think this is probably more a case of ignorance and lack of quality materials. Nonetheless, I won't let that minor revision stop me from buying this title.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

Jaime mentioned above that the line appeared on his VHS copy. I have one of the more recent VHS issues (with the TCM logo on it), and I will check that out when I get a chance.

Regards,

 

[Eric Peterson]

Doesn't anybody know approximately where the line occurs? I have a copy that I taped off of TCM a few years back, and will check for it on there if anyone has an approximate time stamp.

 

[Robert Harris]

For the record, Libeled lady is as good as one might hope for without asking the studio to invest six figures in digital clean-up.

Like Dinner at Eight, Libeled Lady has no surviving original negative. The probems that appear are built into the surviving element.

RAH

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

The missing line in Bringing Up Baby occurs (or would have occurred) at about 1:31:39, when Katharine Hepburn is on the windowsill talking to Walter Catlett. And it was definitely present in the commercial VHS version, because I've got that and the line is there.

 

[Conrad_SSS]

Given the history of what happened to many of MGM's B&W original negatives, we are lucky that both films look as good as they now do. I'm very impressed.

 

[PeterMano]

Anybody in Canada have any luck finding this box set. I checked five different B&Ms and no luck. Future Shop, Best Buy Canada, HMV, A&B Sound, C&L inernet club, nothing. And amazon.ca which was my safety net, now lists the box set as shipping in 3 to 5 weeks. What gives? I had no problem locating the gangsters collection, but this is another story. I saw the titles available individually, except for To Be Or Not To Be, which I didn't see anywhere. What a drag, money to spend, no one to give it to.

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

It turns out that To Be Or Not to Be wasn't released in Canada because of some kind of rights problem. I saw the box at one store in Toronto but at a ridiculously inflated price, so I ordered it from amazon.com .

 

[PeterMano]

That bites about To be or not to be. I'm wondering if we'll see this box set in Canada in wide release as a result. Amazon.ca has a three to five week shipping date on the set and its listed as an import. They also raised their price.

Well, at least, I got Bambi okay.

 

[Roger Rollins]

Warner Bros. doesn't own TO BE OR NOT TO BE. They have it under license from CASTLE HILL PRODUCTIONS. Perhaps CASTLE HILL has another Canadian licensee?

 

[Rob_Ray]

I checked my laserdisc last night and the line is there. However, there's a bad splice right after she delivers the line where some frames are dropped. This shot must be problematic in the source elements and, in doing a digital cleanup, the bad splice was eliminated and, inadvertantly, also gone was the last part of Hepburn's line.

 

[Eric Peterson]

That sounds more like I was thinking (i.e. a technical problem). It's a shame that they didn't do something to maintain the line of dialogue though. Personally, I'd rather have a frame hop, or some glitchy picture for the few seconds if needed in order to get all of the dialogue. Of course, if WB released it like that, somebody would've screamed about that too. I'll have to watch that segment on my VHS tape for the full effect, and hopefully the line will be restored on an eventual HD transfer. It would be worthy for someone to mention this during the WB chat in a few weeks.

 

[Agee Bassett]

Call me paranoid, but I actually suspect political-correctness once again run amuck as the more likely culprit here (as it was with the Tom & Jerry cartoons). I've seen various incarnations of this film, and all of them prior to the mid-'90s contained the line. I have heard the line in question criticized in some quarters as making light of domestic violence. Possibly the Turner company, which has held the US television broadcasting rights for the Warner library for years, began truncating the line because it received complaints about it; or because of the fear of receiving them. Notice in the truncated version, the splice conveniently occurs at precisely the moment where it can appear as though Hepburn has finished completing her sentence. If politically-motivated censorship is indeed the culprit here, no matter that Bringing Up Baby is one of my all-time favorite movies, I will not be buying this new release; and I would hope that other enthusiasts of this movie show the sufficient outrage to do the same.

However, if I find that I'm talking out of my ass, and I hope I am, let me tender my apologies to Warner and the Turner company in advance. At worst, it may be that the producers of the DVD were simply unaware of the complete version of the film, as the truncated version has been in such wide circulation for the past 10+ years. I intend to bring this up at the Warner chat, if I can. (Or, if someone can set me straight now, before my speculation perchance becomes widely accepted as fact, even better.) I'm crossing my fingers that I'm proved wrong. It would be nice if Warner offered to reinstate the line in a future printing; possible bad splice or no. I personally prefer a complete film over one that was unnecessarily compromised because of worries about a single awkward splice.

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

To be fair, there is a little bit of the line remaining before she gets cut off: she says "And if I don't, he..." and then gets cut off. It's very awkward, more so than if they'd left in the bad splice. I think there's another abrupt cut a few seconds later when Walter Catlett says "you only got as far as the Cleghorn jewels" -- he completes the line, but just barely.

All in all I'd normally just say it was a technical glitch, but because the line that's missing is an "objectionable" one, I can't help but be suspicious. And one way or another it's a bad cut.

On a related topic, when I first saw The Philadelphia Story, the station cut the scene where Cary Grant pushes Katharine Hepburn down. They ended the scene with Hepburn breaking his golf club. It was years before I realized there was more to the scene than that. (Don't worry, it's all there on the DVD.)