Charles Ellis
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2002
- Messages
- 2,098
I'd like to talk about those films that have yet to appear on DVD (or any other form of home video) due to disputes regarding either the ownership of the particular title or the material it was based on (play/book/Broadway musical) A few come to mind:
Letty Lynton- this Joan Crawford film was the subject of an infamous civil suit in which MGM lost to the author of a play. It seems that MGM failed to get the rights to a hit Broadway play Dishonored Lady by Edward Sheldon, which in turn was based on the notorious Madeline Smith case of the 1800s. As a result, MGM decided to do its own version of the Smith case, but with modern-day charcters played by joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery and Nils Asther. The movie was a box-office bonanza, but Sheldon sued and won the right to have the film removed from circulation.
http://www.faculty.piercelaw.edu/red...heldon.mgm.htm
(This was a VERY bad time for MGM in the courts- at the same time they had to deal with a slander suit regarding Rasputin and the Empress, which led to the now familiar credit 'This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance between characters and actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental"- yeah, they lost that case, too!)
Then there's the time-travel fantasy Berkeley Square starring Leslie Howard as a 1930s man who winds up in the 1800s and falls in love (sound familiar, Christopher Reeve fans?), and its part-Techincolor (in the past sequences) remake I'll Never Forget You a.k.a. The House In The Square starring Tyrone Power. Both of these films are apparently caught in a rights dispute over the source material and are scarely seen today.
Also, the Samuel Goldywn version of Porgy and Bess is being held up by the estate of George Gershwin (supposedly they're not too thrilled with it), kinda like the situation with the Irving Berlin estate holding on to Annie Get Your Gun until a few years ago.
I've also heard that the Bette Davis trash classic Beyond The Forest may also be in a rights dispute, but I can't find anything to prove this.
I'm sure this is only the tip of the iceberg: there are probably a lot of films out there that haven't seen the light of day in years due to courtroom litigation (like a few Orson Welles films and of course Jerry Lewis' The Day The Clown Cried). Okay- the thread is now open!
Letty Lynton- this Joan Crawford film was the subject of an infamous civil suit in which MGM lost to the author of a play. It seems that MGM failed to get the rights to a hit Broadway play Dishonored Lady by Edward Sheldon, which in turn was based on the notorious Madeline Smith case of the 1800s. As a result, MGM decided to do its own version of the Smith case, but with modern-day charcters played by joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery and Nils Asther. The movie was a box-office bonanza, but Sheldon sued and won the right to have the film removed from circulation.
http://www.faculty.piercelaw.edu/red...heldon.mgm.htm
(This was a VERY bad time for MGM in the courts- at the same time they had to deal with a slander suit regarding Rasputin and the Empress, which led to the now familiar credit 'This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance between characters and actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental"- yeah, they lost that case, too!)
Then there's the time-travel fantasy Berkeley Square starring Leslie Howard as a 1930s man who winds up in the 1800s and falls in love (sound familiar, Christopher Reeve fans?), and its part-Techincolor (in the past sequences) remake I'll Never Forget You a.k.a. The House In The Square starring Tyrone Power. Both of these films are apparently caught in a rights dispute over the source material and are scarely seen today.
Also, the Samuel Goldywn version of Porgy and Bess is being held up by the estate of George Gershwin (supposedly they're not too thrilled with it), kinda like the situation with the Irving Berlin estate holding on to Annie Get Your Gun until a few years ago.
I've also heard that the Bette Davis trash classic Beyond The Forest may also be in a rights dispute, but I can't find anything to prove this.
I'm sure this is only the tip of the iceberg: there are probably a lot of films out there that haven't seen the light of day in years due to courtroom litigation (like a few Orson Welles films and of course Jerry Lewis' The Day The Clown Cried). Okay- the thread is now open!