Josef von Sternberg's MOROCCO : where is the DVD? (1 Viewer)

[Mark-W]

Turner Classic Movies showed this film last night,
and it reminded me of how much I really want to own
this film on DVD, along with many of Sternberg and Dietrich's unreleased films.

Anyone has any hints as to the status of this coming to DVD?

 

[Jon Robertson]

Yeah, I want it too, but the whole situation seems to be kind of complex. Currently the only Dietrich/von Sternberg Paramount collaboration on DVD is The Scarlet Empress from Criterion, which they licensed from Universal. It's a very indifferent transfer of an extremely worn and grainy source element, and excessive grain absolutely obliterates the gorgeous textures of von Sternberg's visuals.

It's well known that UCLA holds outstanding nitrate preservation elements for all six Dietrich/von Sternberg Paramount productions - Morocco, Dishonored, Shanghai Express, Blonde Venus, The Scarlet Empress and The Devil is a Woman - which is part of the reason Criterion's own disc was so badly criticised (Universal simply handed them "the best print they had", apparently, which was nowhere near good enough).

Ideally, with Universal's cooperation, Criterion and UCLA could team up to produce a fully-restored lavish boxset of these six phenomenal films.