Invisible Stripes - Bogart, Raft, and Holden! (1 Viewer)

[SteveGon]

Anyone catch Invisible Stripes on TCM yesterday morning? George Raft plays an ex-con trying to go straight, Humphrey Bogart is his still-crooked gangster friend, and a very young William Holden is the little brother who is tired of his working-class existence and is considering a life of crime. Before I go any further, I have to admit that I fell asleep halfway through this! :frowning: I'd just worked 12 hours and was REALLY tired. Still, from what I saw of it, Invisible Stripes was an enjoyable little film that I wish were out on home video. With a cast like that, you have to wonder why it isn't.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Steve,
Seen it several times and have it on tape. A good film with Bogart still playing supporting role as bad guy before his big break came in "High Sierra" a couple of years later. TCM is a film buff's dream channel.




Crawdaddy

 

[Greg_S_H]

With a cast like that, you have to wonder why it isn't.

Because it's controlled by Warner Brothers.
I tried to record Invisible Stripes back in '98 when it played on TCM, but something happened and it never recorded. Thus, I've yet to see it. Actually, it's one of the few Bogart films I haven't seen. Even as recently as '98, AMC was still a great channel, and--between AMC and TCM--I was watching a classic movie or two every night. My recorder never stopped running. In fact, I still have some tapes from those days I have yet to watch. *
But, back to Invisible Stripes. I'd buy it and any other Bogart movie Warners or any other studio decides to release. Bogart is a potential goldmine for WB, and they have but to open the floodgates.
* - One little footnote that probably isn't of general interest, but I just feel like speaking about it for a moment. It was much easier to keep up with the classic movie channels' schedules back then. There was a company (I forget the name) that kept local cable schedules on-line, and they had a fairly comprehensive e-mail alert system: you would just tell them what local cable system you were using, and provide the names of favorite actors, and they would send a daily e-mail with the schedule for every movie featuring said actor. TV Guide took over from this company, keeping the schedules but dropping the e-mail alerts. This, combined with the decline of AMC (and a few other factors), was a real blow to my classic movie watching habit, and I rarely watch any movies on TV any more. It's a real shame, because--in addition to movies featuring actors on my list--I would often discover little hidden gems I would normally not have watched. For some reason, I'm thinking of this silly little comedy starring Irene Dunne called It Grows on Trees. It was fun to watch, and it was fun to mention it to my mother and have her remember watching it as a girl. Anyway, I believe there are other companies offering this e-mail service, but I haven't investigated them yet. I'm afraid I would have a difficult time capturing the joy of discovery I had back in '98 in any case.

 

[SteveGon]

I'm still kicking myself for falling asleep!
Anyway, as I said, I'd love to see Invisible Stripes and those other Bogart films from the thirties on DVD. While Bogie has his fans, I know these wouldn't be big sellers, so perhaps Warner could cut costs by double-billing them as Universal did with their second wave of classic monster movies?

 

[Greg_S_H]

That sounds like a good idea to me. They sort of did that with The Big Sleep, as it has the release version and an alternate version (don't remember if they were separate or branched). A true double feature would be outstanding, and probably the only way to get "smaller" titles like The Big Shot and Roaring Twenties.
The thing about Warners: they may not release a lot of catalog titles (though, haven't we heard that is changing?), but they usually do them right. Key Largo, for instance, has an astounding transfer, and I love the way they now use the original poster art.
Anyway, I'm afraid I'm starting to hijack your thread, Steve. :frowning: If anyone saw Invisible Stripes this weekend or any other time, your thoughts, please.