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DVD Review HTF REVIEW: Warner Brothers Gangster Collection (VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). (1 Viewer)

SteveGon

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I order most of my DVDs online, but occasionally I like to drive up to BB just to browse around. Plus I had Tuesday off and wanted to kick back and enjoy some of these gangster flicks, hence the purchase. As for other B & Ms, there aren't any around here any closer than the BB I went to.

Back to your regularly scheduled thread...
 

Ken_McAlinden

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I have one significant criticism of this set. It has confirmed my suspicion that George Feltenstein has been reading my diary, and that is an unacceptable invasion of my privacy. :laugh:

Regards,
 

Armin Jager

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While I agree that Curtiz is an excellent director who can give his films a very fluid and distinctive style, I found AwdF is a quite ordinary and preachy melodrama. There's the good priest who redeems the souls of Cagney and the kids. There's Cagney who naturally has a heart of gold, too, in case you didn't get that there's Bogart who is REALLY bad. There are the Dead End Kids which make me cringe every time they apprear on the screen and the whole story of them has such a pedagogic impetus it's absolutely painful. Finally there's Ann Sheridan, but unfortunately not enough of her ;).
It's a pretty average Curtiz who depends on good scripts anyway. WB should release DAUGHTERS COURAGEOUS which is his best 30's film.
 

DeeF

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Armin,

I don't necessarily disagree with your view about Angels with Dirty Faces; it is a melodrama, but one that made the most of its restrictions. I don't find it preachy at all -- in fact, quite the opposite. It seems to have a certain ambiguousness to its presentation of virtue. Cagney may be the killer with the heart-of-gold, but he's presented as an uncompromising killer, nonetheless. And the final scene where O'Brian spells it out for the teenagers, even he seems torn -- that Cagney turned out bad simply because he couldn't run as fast.

Anyway, the most amazing thing about the movie, for me, was its cinematic quality -- top drawer. I just finished watching Dead End for the first time (on cable), directed by another top director, William Wyler, and its script was a first-rate polemic direct from Broadway.

But Angels is better than Dead End (as a movie). It's more taut, more economical, and more exciting, and ultimately, more truthful.
 

Robert Crawford

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If we're going to discuss any of these films in detail, please, start another thread in Movies to do so because that's were in-depth film discussion should take place. Thank you.





Crawdaddy
 

MarcoBiscotti

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Hey guys, I have a question about this set...


I just finnished watching "Angels With Dirty Faces" this morning, and it is one of the many fantastic films in this collection I'd never had the oppurtunity to see before, but for some reason, I was under the impression that this was the film that plays during the "Home Alone" sequence when Mccauly Culkin orders a pizza. Apparently it isn't, unless I dozed off at some point which I'm sure I didn't...

Anyways, after having seen "Angels With Dirty Faces", I'm now obsessed with finding out what film is played during that sequence in "Home Alone".. I'm not sure why I associated these two films, I might have read something along these lines posted on the HTF boards at one point?

Can anyone please tell me the name of the film that I am referring to -- it's the one with the famous quotable...


"I'm gonna give you to the count of ten, to get your yella, stinkin, no-good keister off my property before I pump ya full o' lead...

one... two... ten...

brakabrakabraka!!! ahahahaha!!! brakabraka!!!

and keep the change ya filthy animal!!"




It's been driving me crazy all morning, Google keeps turning out "Home Alone" links.

tanks a lot ya mugs!
 

rich_d

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I took a look at White Heat last night. My takeaway was that Herb over-hyped the image quality on his write-up. Yes, black, greyscale and whites are quite pleasing. And some images are flat out terrific. Contrast and other elements of the video presentation are fine. However, many scenes show significant damage. All in all, to compare White Heat's transfer to to a film like Now, Voyager is quite a streeeeetch.

Point being that if you buy White Heat expecting the transfers to be Casablanca-like you will likely be quite disappointed. If you accept that - given the film elements available - this film transfer is well presented, you probably will be a happy camper.
 

Ken_McAlinden

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The most shocking glitch in "White Heat" image quality occurs early in film when, during the train heist, Cody's henchman lets his name slip out before being told to shut up. The source for the short shot of Ford Rainey (as the henchman) speaking looks something like 8 generations down from the surrounding shots (you may think I am exaggerating if you haven't actually seen it). Does anyone know what happened there and with other instances where poor dupe inserts apparently had to be used?

Regards,
 

LorenzoL

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I couldn't wait until the weekend to go through the set so I watched "The Petrified Forest" last night. First time watching it and I loved it.
Excellent job by WB in the presentation and extras of the DVD. I loved the performances by Leslie Howard, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. Hopefully the trailers of the other gangster movies presented on the set will be part of future box sets. I will go through the other ones on the weekend.

Could somebody help me out and give me a brief summary of all of the celebrities being made fun of in the Merrie Melodies cartoon "Coo-Coonut Grove". I recognize some of the celebrities like Clark Gable, Laurel and Hardy, Groucho Marx and one of his brother (I think is Harpo but I'm not 100% sure) and Johnny Weismmuller (sp) as Tarzan but the rest I have no idea. Thanks in advance.
 

Ken_McAlinden

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That's probably it, although I think the close-up is actually of character actor Ford Rainey. That would certainly explain why it looks like a 16mm dupe.

Regards,
 

Herb Kane

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Hey Rich,

Sorry the White Heat transfer failed to impress you on the same level as many of the other B&W transfers. There’s no denying that Casablanca is in a league of its own – literally all by itself – no exceptions. But to say that the comparison to Now, Voyager is a stretch, I disagree.

We can sit down any day of the week and find flaws and imperfections with 60 year old films using screen captures – no challenge there. In fact, I’m sure we’d find a few on the Casablanca SE if we looked frame by frame. It’s the fluidity of the film as a whole that must be considered over a two hour period that counts.

I suspect that if your feelings of WH are that it is only “well presented”, then there are very few B&W films that leave you in awe. To say the film is only “well presented” is really selling the efforts short, in my opinion.
 

Patrick McCart

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Well, why should a little bit of damage make it "over-hyped"?

I always thought White Heat looked good in past transfers (the old one TCM would show looked surprisingly clean and clear). So, whatever elements are used for the film have been kept in good condition.

To be honest, I don't think one speck was left in Casablanca's SE. However, that's what you get when LDI does a full-scale pass on a film.
 

Ken_McAlinden

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I'm pretty much with Patrick in that White Heat has traditionally looked pretty good (e.g. the transfer that runs on TCM from time to time), which, from that perspective makes it less of a revelation than, say, "Little Caesar", but doesn't make it "bad" or even "average" by any reasonable standards.

Regards,
 

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