Meet John Doe (1941) coming to 4K UHD/Blu-ray from ClassicFlix! (1 Viewer)

[ClassicFlix]

David, you guys are doing great work at ClassicFlix. Just a peripheral question: have you any regrets about abandoning the precursor to this company, called NicheFlix? I belonged to that for many years and was able to preview scores of fine (and not so fine) Region B films on a rental basis, a la Netflix. Were you not breaking even, or had you ClassicFlix in mind all along? The limited number of all-region DVD/Blu-ray players in use in the U.S. must have been a factor, I assume. But I have ever since regretted that Nicheflix had to die. In any case, I wish you guys at your current company all the best!

Thanks for the kind words.

If you are referring to our DVD/BD by mail rental site, it started out as "ClassicFlix.com" (we also sold retail of all other classic film labels). When we started our label in 2016/17, we "gated" the site and changed the name to ClassicFlixUnderground.com so as not to confuse our rental business with the label. We didn't take any new customers at that point, but still served existing customers for 3 years until 12/31/2020.

Regrets? Yes, we wish we didn't have to close the DVD/BD rental by mail site and we still have the discs (over 10,000), many of which are likely OOP by now. The main issue was that the site was close to 10 years old when we gated it and the programming was very old. Not only was making the slightest change to the site very costly, but security was a concern and we knew it was either shut down or rebuild the site from scratch.

Since there just wasn't enough money in the business to rebuild from scratch we shut it down. I've entertained the idea of re-starting it again, but if we did it would be via a crowdfund campaign and it would need to raise a minimum $100K which I just don't think we'd be able to do.

- David
ClassicFlix Founder, Producer

 

[ClassicFlix]

have then announced "OUR TOWN" yet?

An announcement is coming this week...

- David
ClassicFlix Founder, Producer

 

[Robert Harris]

An announcement is coming this week...

- David
ClassicFlix Founder, Producer

David,

What are the source elements on these two titles?

 

[Baenwort]

Are subtitles expensive to put on a disc?

If you want to find out how hard join the SubtitleEdit community on github and help us create subtitles so that all members of our movie community can enjoy every film.

I take about twice as long as the run time to create a subtitle when I start from an AI created base file made using WhisperAI and then have to fix up sync and words it doesn't understand (like in universe place names and character names). Someone else then watches it at least once to check my mistakes. So figure at least 3-4 times the run time in staff hours after the second correction pass. This meets community standards but a production house might make more passes.

Oddly older films are easier as their dialog tends to be cleaner than releases from the last 20 years.

I don't know how much it costs to contract a company to do it but I know that its got to be at least a grand due to mark up.

 

[scarecroe]

Is this still targeting a Fall 2023 release?

 

[Robert Crawford]

Is this still targeting a Fall 2023 release?

I seriously doubt it because it’s November 13th and some other titles like Our Town have already been delayed to later dates.

 

[ClassicFlix]

Thanks for asking. We're shooting for March/April for DOE.

- David
ClassicFlix Founder, Producer

 

[Daniel Melius]

It looks like the source material for the 4k scan/ restoration is coming from the library of congress print. Below is the info on the history of the condition of the the film:

"In 1945 Capra and Riskin sold all rights in Meet John Doe to Sherman S. Krellberg's Goodwill Pictures, a New York distributor. While in Goodwill's possession, the original camera negative deteriorated due to poor storage and was eventually destroyed. Copyright in the film was not renewed and it fell into the public domain in 1969.[11]

The Library of Congress created a fresh preservation negative in the 1970s by combining Goodwill's surviving 35mm prints with the Warner Bros. studio print.[11]

Poor quality copies of Meet John Doe have proliferated on home video for years, sourced from inferior quality prints, while the restored LoC print remains in storage. In 2001 Ken Barnes' Laureate Presentations undertook a digital restoration of the best available European print.[11] This was released on DVD by Sanctuary in the UK and by VCI in the US.[12] To date these are the best quality commercially available releases."

 

[Robert Harris]

It looks like the source material for the 4k scan/ restoration is coming from the library of congress print. Below is the info on the history of the condition of the the film:

"In 1945 Capra and Riskin sold all rights in Meet John Doe to Sherman S. Krellberg's Goodwill Pictures, a New York distributor. While in Goodwill's possession, the original camera negative deteriorated due to poor storage and was eventually destroyed. Copyright in the film was not renewed and it fell into the public domain in 1969.[11]

The Library of Congress created a fresh preservation negative in the 1970s by combining Goodwill's surviving 35mm prints with the Warner Bros. studio print.[11]

Poor quality copies of Meet John Doe have proliferated on home video for years, sourced from inferior quality prints, while the restored LoC print remains in storage. In 2001 Ken Barnes' Laureate Presentations undertook a digital restoration of the best available European print.[11] This was released on DVD by Sanctuary in the UK and by VCI in the US.[12] To date these are the best quality commercially available releases."

I believe the OCN is at UCLA.

 

[ScottHM]

It looks like the source material for the 4k scan/ restoration is coming from the library of congress print.

If the OCN does indeed exist then this doesn't seem like good news.
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[Robert Harris]

If the OCN does indeed exist then this doesn't seem like good news.
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Could be fine. The OCN may not be accessible.

 

[PMF]

Meet John Doe finally comes back to life AND on 4K/UHD.

Another coup for ClassicFlix.

No reviews required, no matter how the source materials turn out. I have faith in ClassicFlix doing their utmost with what they are given; so give me a pre-order icon and I’ll be lending my support.

 

[Darby67]

Thanks for asking. We're shooting for March/April for DOE.

- David
ClassicFlix Founder, Producer

David:

Just curious if ClassicFlix is also releasing Meet John Doe on DVD.

 

[Daniel Melius]

This conversation got very confusing now after I posted what wikkiedia had on the print. They say the ocn no longer exists and robert says it does. I dont think wikkiedia is always the most reliabe source of information. Classicflix has not stated anything on what they used to do the 4k scan.

I know from over the last 30 years i have always read that the library of congress restoration was the best there was on meet john doe and it wasnt available to the public. From what i have seen from the youtube video it now looks like it is going to be available. Its more than likely about a thousand times better than the european print and a million times better than all those pubic domain dvd releases. Maybe classicflix can provide us with what source they used to do the 4k scan.

 

[ScottHM]

The recording I made in 2019 from TCM looks head and shoulders better than other version I've seen, and if it's from the LoC print then I expect this new Blu-ray to look very good, but I can't help wishing it might be based on the OCN, if it exists.
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[Into The Archives]

I believe the OCN is at UCLA.

They do. 14 reels of the nitrate OCN and 12 reels of the nitrate OSTN (missing reels 8 and 13)

https://search.library.ucla.edu/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma99824743506533&context=L&vid=01UCS_LAL:UCLA&lang=en&search_scope=ArticlesBooksMore&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Articles_books_more_slot&query=any,contains,meet%20John%20doe,AND&mode=advanced&offset=0

 

[Robert Harris]

They do. 14 reels of the nitrate OCN and 12 reels of the nitrate OSTN (missing reels 8 and 13)

https://search.library.ucla.edu/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma99824743506533&context=L&vid=01UCS_LAL:UCLA&lang=en&search_scope=ArticlesBooksMore&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Articles_books_more_slot&query=any,contains,meet%20John%20doe,AND&mode=advanced&offset=0

Thank you for that, Jayson!

Part of the Packard Collection. Mr. P. has done more funding film preservation and protecting elements than any other individual.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Those are the 35mm nitrate elements that I found abandoned in New Jersey nitrate vaults circa 1990. Glad they went to a good home.

 

[Baenwort]

Those are the 35mm nitrate elements that I found abandoned in New Jersey nitrate vaults circa 1990. Glad they went to a good home.

That's a story I'd like to read more of, is it posted anywhere?

 

[Robert Harris]

That's a story I'd like to read more of, is it posted anywhere?

I always find it interesting how film elements move, once the owners have forgotten about them, entities go out of business, or labs close.

A couple that I can discuss come to mind.

Whilst perusing the outside vaults at Todd-AO c. 1989, I came upon an empty can with a Very interesting label. The film element showed up a year or so later as a major discovery. This was the same visit that turned up the alternate original version of Blade Runner in 70mm.

Another was in Paramount’s vaults in 1994, searching for rotting Hitchcock music mags, and a single can of stereo material amongst a sea of monaural. The Storm Cloud Cantata.

Empty.

In some situations, the moving of elements is perfectly proper. Aeons ago, I received a call from a lab that had closed down, telling me that they were junking everything still in the vaults, which needed to be emptied as they gave up their space. This after all customers (of record) had been notified.

Visiting, I found mostly commercials, corporate films, instructional, and a few features with pix and trk negs. We took about half a dozen. Left a list of what we’d removed, and set about trying to find the owners. A few days later, a call came in from a panicked rep, looking for a feature neg they were initially told had been junked, but then someone found our list.

Did we have it?

Yup.

Can they send a messenger?

Yup.

And we were thanked for saving their film.

What’s interesting is that at the same time that we received the call, we were researching Punch Productions - the owner.

Among the items that came from a building apparently about to be destroyed were the trims from Mad World. Were the people that took that unwanted footage doing something untoward by taking it? Possibly. But had they not. Same with Mad World mags that were being junked.

There are hundreds of stories here, ranging from legit offers to take what you want to downright theft.

One of the most important was the removal of literally tons of material from the Todd vaults when they shut down, inclusive of picture material and tons of mags.

The elements were carried out by a crew of film-lovers who donated their time and labor.

Two heroes of the move - Kerry Sue Underwood of Underground Storage, whose team went on to identify every can, created a spread sheet and worked to find owners, and Grover Crisp of Columbia, who somehow provided the trucks necessary to move all the unwanted material filled with treasures.