Look At All These Great 1950s/1960s Films That Are DVD-less! (1 Viewer)

[David Von Pein]

How about those 65 pre-ordered titles Robert?

I'd love to see them.

 

[Rain]

Certain DVD's, like Night of the Hunter, display the "modified to fit your screen" tag even though they were shot Academy ratio.

Don't get me started on that one.

The correct AR for The Night of the Hunter is as much a mystery as Anatomy of a Murder. It's another one I've never been able to come up with a definitive answer for.

To me, it looks like it was meant to be matted a little, like 1.66:1. Of course, that's just one guy's opinion.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Just look up the Warner, MGM, Universal, Paramount and Fox classic releases for April and May then you will have my preorder list. With a Criterion and Columbia release or two thrown in.

 

[AlanP]

Here is my list !!!!!!!!
"PEYTON PLACE"
"VALLEY OF THE DOLLS"
"CAT PEOPLE"-1942
"CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE"-1944
"THE SEVENTH VICTIM"
"WALK ON THE WILD SIDE"
"GHOST SHIP"-1946
"BRIDES OF DRACULA"
"RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE"
"CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF"
"PHANTOM OF THE OPERA"-1962
"EXPERIMENT IN TERROR"
"THE LEECH WOMAN"
"MAME"
"FLAMINGO ROAD"
"THE STAR"
"COUNTRY GIRL"
"MOGAMBO"
"THE SUN ALSO RISES"
"HELLO DOLLY"
"REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE"
"BECKET"
"DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES"-1962
"SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH"
"TEN NORTH FREDERICK"
"HUD"
"NEVER ON SUNDAY"
"THAT MAN FROM RIO"
"CHALK GARDEN"
"THE SUNDOWNERS"
"SUNRISE AT CAMPOBELLO"
"LONG DAYS JOURNEY INTO NIGHT"
"DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS"
"SUMMER PLACE"
"PARRISH"
"LA DOLCE VITA"
"MAHOGANY"
"LADY SINGS THE BLUES"
"TOUCH OF CLASS"
"MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION"
"PORTRAIT IN BLACK"
"MIDNIGHT LACE"
"MADAME X"-LANA TURNER
"MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS"
"TARNISHED ANGELS"
"DIAL M FOR MURDER"
"I CONFESS"
"STAGEFRIGHT"
"I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF"
"ALFIE"
"THE STRIPPER"
"A NEW KIND OF LOVE"
"PARIS BLUES"
"KISS ME STUPID"
TOO NAME A FEW.........................

 

[David Von Pein]

Just look up the Warner, MGM, Universal, Paramount and Fox classic releases for April and May then you will have my preorder list. With a Criterion and Columbia release or two thrown in.

But that entails a multiplicity of key-punching strokes!
Surely, you don't want me to have tired fingertips, do ya??!!

j/k, Craw-D.!

Thanks.

 

[David Von Pein]

"DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES"-1962

Nice full list, Alan.

"Days" is certainly one I should have mentioned initially in Post #1 as well.

 

[Paul_Scott]

AlanP
is Touch of Class the early 70's film?

if so, that is already out on a nice looking WB disc

Teenage Werewolf woold be a hoot. wonder why Columbia hasn't released that yet.

was watching Picnic last night and was thinking how great it would be to have some other over-heated melodrams like Peyton Place and Summer Place.
wasn't PP mentioned in one of the Fox chats in the last year or two?

 

[Joel Vardy]

Look At All These Great 1950s/1960s Films That Are DVD-less!

How about The African Queen (1951)

There is a separate thread on this title but it fits into the 50's/60's category...

Joel

 

[Robert Dunnill]

I, for one, would be very happy if MGM would release The Loved One (1965) to DVD. In fact, during one of the MGM/HTM chats a couple of years ago, I asked them if there were any plans to do so (there weren't).

RD

 

[AlanP]

"SOLOMON AND SHEBA"
"SAMSON AND DELILAH"
"NEVER SO FEW"
"MOVE OVER DARLING"
"LOVER COME BACK"
"MAJORITY OF ONE"
"FOUR HORSEMAN OF THE APOCALYPSE"-1961
"HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL"
"HELEN OF TROY"
"VIVA MARIA"
"THE VIPS"
"JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG"
"BACHELOR IN PARADISE"
"WHO'S GOT THE ACTION"
"ALL IN A NIGHTS WORK"
"LILI"
"RED BALLOON"
"TALL STORY"
"THE RITZ"
"DO NOT DISTURB"
"GLASS BOTTOM BOAT"
"WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT"
"CAPRICE"
"ISLAND IN THE SUN"
"GOODBYE AGAIN"
"PORGY AND BESS"
"

 

[AlanP]

"SOLOMON AND SHEBA"
"SAMSON AND DELILAH"
"NEVER SO FEW"
"MOVE OVER DARLING"
"LOVER COME BACK"
"MAJORITY OF ONE"
"FOUR HORSEMAN OF THE APOCALYPSE"-1961
"HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL"
"HELEN OF TROY"
"VIVA MARIA"
"THE VIPS"
"JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG"
"BACHELOR IN PARADISE"
"WHO'S GOT THE ACTION"
"ALL IN A NIGHTS WORK"
"LILI"
"RED BALLOON"
"TALL STORY"
"THE RITZ"
"DO NOT DISTURB"
"GLASS BOTTOM BOAT"
"WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT"
"CAPRICE"
"ISLAND IN THE SUN"
"GOODBYE AGAIN"
"PORGY AND BESS"
"

 

[Gabe D]

It was I who said in the other thread that he compared the Anatomy of a Murder DVD to the letterboxed version from Turner Classic Movies. The DVD does have slightly less picture on the sides, but it is really a very small difference. However, the opening titles are the dead giveaway. I don't see how there can be any question that the opening titles were created for a matted presentation.

 

[Danny_N]

at least for the Region 1 release...it says that the 1.33:1 ratio preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio.

The R2 of Anatomy Of A Murder also says that it has the original theatrical ratio:

"This widescreen version is presented in a letterbox widescreen format, preserving the 1:1.85 aspect ratio of its original theatrical exhibition. Enhanced for 16:9 widescreen TV's".

Columbia has done this with a few other titles (Delmer Daves' Cowboy springs to mind): release an open matte full frame disc in R1 and a matted widescreen disc in R2.

 

[Danny_N]

"ALFIE"

Alfie is available on a nice disc from Paramount.

 

[David Von Pein]

The R2 of Anatomy Of A Murder also says that it has the original theatrical ratio: ... "This widescreen version is presented in a letterbox widescreen format, preserving the 1:1.85 aspect ratio of its original theatrical exhibition. Enhanced for 16:9 widescreen TV's".

So which is it??

Do we just toss a coin??

 

[David Von Pein]

Any more to add (or subtract) to/from the list, all these months later?

(Sure would love Jimmy Stewart's No Highway In The Sky from 1951. )

 

[Derek_McL]

Interesting thread but while I agree there are some gaps in the 1950s DVD discography it is by far the best represented decade of the era of the big studios. The 1930s and particularly the early sound period are very poorly represented. Warners say they are going to boost the number of Cagney and Flynn discs available soon but no announcements yet and when are they going to delve into the MGM and RKO catalogs they now own ?

Apart from I believe Little Women and Citizen Kane no RKO releases ; no Fred and Ginger, silence about King Kong (at least in Region 1).

MGM : No Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow from the Thirties.

Warners : No apparent plans for more Busby Berkeley musicals,only The Jazz Singer among the early sound films in the works.

Paramount : very few films available from the 30s : A Farewell To Arms on various Public Domain labels, Trouble In Paradise and The Scarlet Empress (only Marlene Dietrich/Von Sternberg American prod. available) on Criterion : no Marx Brothers (Image DVDs OOP), W.C. Fields (his Paramounts), Mae West, Gary Cooper/ DeMille movies.

Fox does have some Shirley Temple, John Wayne in The Big Trail and the hard to get for Europeans Sunrise but nothing else from its pre-1940s output. Perhaps they have more of an excuse as 20th Century Fox wasn't formed till 1935 and much of the original Fox studio's output has been lost or fallen into the public domain. A Fool There Was starring Theda Bara the studio's first star is available and Will Rodgers' Judge Priest is out there somewhere too (in a Navarre triple feature disc I think).

Only Universal through its monster movie discs and Columbia through its Columbia Classics has made a significant contribution to covering the 30s on DVD.

I know the studios can only release so many films at a time
but I believe many of these films (probably because of their age) aren't getting the priority treatment they deserve. Perhaps they should farm some of them to Criterion who did produce excellent DVDs of Universal's My Man Godfrey and Paramount's Sullivan's Travels.

Recently Warners released a few swashbucklers from the 50s : The Crimson Pirate and Scaramouche. With all due respect to fans of these movies to me they don't hold a candle to Errol Flynn's Robin Hood, Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk yet these remain on the shelf awaiting release (in the next year ?). Where is the announcement for that double disc special edition of The Adventures of Robin Hood which was supposed to be coming in September ?

 

[Joe Caps]

I fond when transferring movies for Laserdisc that many studios assume that all 1950 films were presented matted at 1:85. Yet whenever we pulled prints, most studios were hard matting at 1.75 or 1.70. The studio print of seventh Voyage of sinbad was 1.75 as was Ten Commandments which included instructions from Demille to theater owners to project at 1.75.
Most of Warners late fifties films were projected at 1.75 but home video often does 1.85 or trnasfers too tight at 2.00. especially compare the AMC flat and widescreen broadcast of warners Parrish which is cutting off so many tops of heads on the widescreen version, its embarrasing.
They need to widescreen summer Place and Rome Adventure but at 1.75 NOT 1.85 or tighter.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

I've handled two different original-release 35mm IB Technicolor prints of The Ten Commandments and neither were matted - they even had the visible VistaVision framing marks on them. But, it plays best matted to approx 1.75-85.

Correction - they *were* matted to approx. 1.66 .

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Unles I missed it, you Doris Day fans missed 'It Happened to Jane'. Ok, it isn't in the same class as her rest, but it certainly is a great comedy, and the kids will love it too.

I'd also like to see the rest of the movies with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. The ones together, and a fww apart too. (I saw Jerry Lewis on TV not long ago, and he has some serious back problems now as a result of doing all of those stunts).

Glenn