Obscure/Rare film you’d like that will never see the light of day? (1 Viewer)

[Thomas T]

Since people are bringing up TV movies, there's only one I'd love to get my hands on. Smash Up On Interstate 5 (1976). Terrific cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Vera Miles, Robert Conrad, Sue Lyon, Terry Moore, Buddy Ebsen, Harriet Nelson, Donna Mills. The film begins with a horrific 39 car crash on an interstate highway then the film goes into flashback mode so we see the events leading up to the crash with the backstories of its characters 24 hours before the crash.

 

[Charles Ellis]

It has to do mostly with the source material for the film (a novel or play) and who owns the right to it. Sometimes a film company will have a limited period of access to that source material before the rights (including remake rights) revert to the owners of the original material. That's why Night Flight wasn't shown for decades- the estate of author Antoine de Saint-Exupery held the rights under an agreement with MGM. The film was made in 1933, but all rights were to expire within a decade. Likewise, CBS owned My Fair Lady (it was an investor in the original show!), and Warner Bros. won the film rights with the proviso that ownership of the film would revert to CBS after a decade. So that's why despite being a Warner film, it's on Paramount DVD/Blu-ray as CBS is part of the Paramount/CBS/Viacom group. Letty Lynton was the subject of a notorious plagiarism suit from the writers of a play called "Dishonored Lady". Both the play and the MGM film were loosely based on the legendary Madeleine Smith case of the 1850s (a woman went on trial for killing her lover by arsenic in Scotland and THAT case was filmed by David Lean as Madeleine). The playwrights felt that Letty Lynton stole a bit from their play, and they won despite MGM using all their powerful attorneys. The film has not been publicly been shown since, though Dishonored Lady was filmed by United Artists in 1947 starring Hedy Lamarr. Beyond the Forest used to be shown regularly on TV and even came out on VHS, but again, there's a dispute regarding the owner(s) of the original novel by Stuart Engstrand that has so far prevented its coming out on DVD/Blu-ray or being on TCM! Another longshot is the 1959 Porgy and Bess: it's well known that Ira Gershwin hated that film version and today the elements for restoration are in vaults, but it's a bone of contention between the Samuel Goldwyn company and the estates of librettist DuBose Heyward and the Gershwin brothers (after George died, Ira maintained his brother's estate).

 

[MatthewA]

I don't believe the 1977 TV movie, "Raid on Entebbe" has ever seen a home video release. That's one I love to see be released

My Hebrew school teacher recommended that to me when I was about 11 or 12, and IIRC it was on video from Thorn-EMI/HBO in the 1980s. Luckily, I had an independently owned video store with a copy (Blockbuster was the court of last resort).

 

[Vic Pardo]

Perhaps more suitable for this topic, how about the Maureen O'Hara tv movie version of Mrs. Miniver? That's one kinescope I'd buy a HD transfer of, if it's ever uncovered.

I'm sure it wouldn't match or surpass the wartime movie, since I fell in love with it first and we're of course talking about a television movie. But it's easy to see Maureen O'Hara being perfect for the role as Mrs. Miniver.

Why would you want a high-def transfer of a Kinescope? It's a video copy of something filmed in 16mm off a TV monitor. High-def would only amplify the flaws of the low-resolution source. There's virtually no way of improving the resolution of a kinescope, is there? If I'm wrong, someone please educate me. Thanks.

 

[Worth]

I don't believe the 1977 TV movie, "Raid on Entebbe" has ever seen a home video release. That's one I love to see be released

There's a DVD of it, but it looks like it was taken from an EP VHS tape.

 

[Thomas T]

Why would you want a high-def transfer of a Kinescope? It's a video copy of something filmed in 16mm off a TV monitor. High-def would only amplify the flaws of the low-resolution source. There's virtually no way of improving the resolution of a kinescope, is there? If I'm wrong, someone please educate me. Thanks.

Yep! I have the blu ray of the 1957 Annie Get Your Gun with Mary Martin done for TV and it's a kinescope. There's no improvement over the DVD and it looks terrible. I mean I'm still happy to have it for archival reasons and having Martin's performance but I could just as well gotten the DVD with the same results.

 

[battlebeast]

I don't know if they're particularly rare or obscure, but three films I'd love to see on Blu-Ray that I doubt will be happening are One Way Passage (1932), The Smiling Ghost (1941), and One Foot in Heaven (1941).

Perhaps more suitable for this topic, how about the Maureen O'Hara tv movie version of Mrs. Miniver? That's one kinescope I'd buy a HD transfer of, if it's ever uncovered.

I'm sure it wouldn't match or surpass the wartime movie, since I fell in love with it first and we're of course talking about a television movie. But it's easy to see Maureen O'Hara being perfect for the role as Mrs. Miniver.

I'd say all three are rare!

 

[MatthewA]

Why would you want a high-def transfer of a Kinescope? It's a video copy of something filmed in 16mm off a TV monitor. High-def would only amplify the flaws of the low-resolution source. There's virtually no way of improving the resolution of a kinescope, is there? If I'm wrong, someone please educate me. Thanks.

There was a process called LiveFeed that removed kinescope effects to make it look like videotape again. There's also a separate process that was used to convert Fraggle Rock from standard-definition videotape to HD. If only someone would combine the two, that could give some old shows a new lease on life. They'll never look like I Love Lucy, but they have the potential to look better than they do.

 

[LeoA]

Why would you want a high-def transfer of a Kinescope? It's a video copy of something filmed in 16mm off a TV monitor. High-def would only amplify the flaws of the low-resolution source. There's virtually no way of improving the resolution of a kinescope, is there? If I'm wrong, someone please educate me. Thanks.

Of course, you're entirely correct. But it's the rarest film I'd happily buy on home video in any form. So rare in fact that it seems as if no copy is extant.

Wanting it on Blu-Ray was just because I want it on home video and we're in the Blu-Ray sub-forum, not because I think the format would do more justice to it than regular DVD. My fault for not making that clear instead of looking naive with a post that gives the impression I think Blu-Ray would provide a significant boost to a Kinescope release.

In fact I'm sure it would be a slight waste of resources to release it on Blu-Ray instead of DVD if this ever surfaces and is made available, Negligible benefits for something that at best is going to have lackluster picture/audio quality, Blu-Ray media is slightly more expensive to produce than DVD, and there are still some classic movie fans and classic tv fans in 2018 with home video collections that haven't made the leap to Blu-Ray yet.

 

[Dave Lawrence]

Though I've only seen the trailer, I really need for someone to finally release on disc this wonderful late-70s oddity from the creators of the TV series Flipper - Mr. No Legs, with Richard Jaeckel, John Agar and Luke Halpin. Twilight Time and Criterion should be fighting over this. They wouldn't, but they should. But Kino would be perfectly acceptable, too. Maybe Code Red.

 

[Worth]

Though I've only seen the trailer, I really need for someone to finally release on disc this wonderful late-70s oddity from the creators of the TV series Flipper - Mr. No Legs, with Richard Jaeckel, John Agar and Luke Halpin. Twilight Time and Criterion should be fighting over this. They wouldn't, but they should. But Kino would be perfectly acceptable, too. Maybe Code Red.

Apparently, that one's in the works from Massacre Video.

 

[usrunnr]

"Hallelujah, The Hills" by Adolfas Mekas

This film is now available from Kino-Lorber!!!!!

 

[Dave Lawrence]

Apparently, that one's in the works from Massacre Video.

Thanks, Nick. I wasn't familiar with Massacre Video, but in searching them, I saw an image of their intended slipcover for this release. So I'll keep an eye out for it.

 

[Tony Bensley]

FERRY CROSS THE MERSEY (1965) - starring Merseyside group Gerry and the Pacemakers. As far as I'm aware, this film has only ever had what appears to me a low grade grey area DVD release in the '00s, and then in 1.33:1 aspect ratio. I'd love to see this at least released in it's original aspect ratio (I'm assuming 1.75:1?), preferably on Blu-ray, although a high quality anamorphic DVD would suffice.

CHEERS!

 

[usrunnr]

"Hallelujah, the Hills" is not available in any format that i know of. Nor has it ever been.

Hallelujah the Hills is now available from Kino/Lorber.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

 

[laser]

Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the directors cut, its anniversary is next year, its never been released, i am hopeful. IT DOESN'T SOUND PROMISING. PARAMOUNT AGAIN, AND THE EFFECTS THAT WERE CREATED FOR THE DVD DIRECTOR'S CUT ARE APPARENTLY NOT UP TO BLU-RAY SNUFF. WILL THEY INVEST IN UPGRADING? ().

They sure went the extra mile putting Star Trek: The Next Generation on Blu-ray, scanning the original negatives for the entire series and redoing all the SD effects in HD.

Thank you, but the only way to watch YouTube here is on a computer or phone. I’d like to get the big screen experience with a disc.

For those Canucks who have access to it, the 4k Bell Fibe package includes You Tube in the channel listings.

Video game consoles are great for YouTube on your TV. They have other apps/streaming services too, such as Microsoft Movies & TV on Xbox, and double as Blu-ray players. (PlayStation 4 only does regular Blu-ray, but newer Xbox One models do UHD!)

 

[Robin9]

One film that has gone missing in recent years is Black Tuesday with Edward G. Robinson and Peter Graves. It was originally released by United Artists so presumably MGM now owns it. Black Tuesday is not well known and so qualifies as obscure. I'd love to see this film again.