Pre-Code Hollywood Coll. from Universal (April 09) (1 Viewer)

[Simon Howson]

Yes they have, they did it for the VHS releases of Hitchcock films, and for the original release of The Man Who Knew too Much on DVD, however they corrected this for the Masterpiece Collection (the maroon box). Licensing has nothing do do with it, they do it because they want to pretend that they made the film.

 

[Charles Ellis]

That doesn't make sense, as everyone knows that those "lost Hitchcocks" were done at other studios (Paramount/Warner Bros.).

 

[CineKarine]

Artwork is here for the new Cleopatra DVD

 

[Simon Howson]

I'm not saying it makes sense, but that's what Universal did. They chopped off the Paramount logo, but kept the VistaVision sound theme. Go rent the original Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) DVD if you don't believe me.

 

[Jefty]

looks pretty good--and there's definitely enough on there to convince me that I ought to "double-dip" for this one (I originally bought the entire DeMille set just for the Stanwyck Union Pacific--but I wound up liking all of the Colbert vehicles quite a lot--despite the insane and problematic politics of just about everything DeMille ever did...)

 

[Rob_Ray]

Those edits were made for the circa 1984 theatrical re-releases of the five withheld Hitchcock titles. It was a major event and the powers that were made sure Universal's name was all over it. Whenever they took the trouble to restore or remaster the titles in later years (Vertigo, Rear Window, Psycho), the logos were restored.

It's a different era now and a different regime. Nowadays, Universal shows the utmost respect for their Paramount titles whenever they take the trouble to unearth them and offer them on home video. I'm not worried about the Paramount logo. I just want them to keep them coming! I'd like to see everything from "Follow Thru" to "Make Way for Tomorrow."

 

[Garysb]

As has been said you are talking about two different items when you mention the Hitchcock films and Paramount pre 48 films controlled by Universal. The pre 1948 films were sold by Paramount to MCA to lease to TV stations in the 1950's.
When MCA took control of Universal Pictures in the early 60's the films became part of Universal's film library. The Hitchcock films are owned by the Hitchcock estate . The estate made a deal with Universal to release the films. It could be that the Hitchcock estate did not want the original film logos when the Hitchcock films were released to theaters prior to their VHS release.
MCA/Universal always included the Paramount logo when the pre 48 films were shown on TV. They had a MCA TV logo first but then the Paramount logo was shown. I believe the Marx Bros film "Animal Crackers" included the Paramount logo when released by Universal in theaters after the rights problems were resolved that kept the film from being shown until the 1970's.

The Paramount logo was removed at Paramount's request from all their cartoons which were sold to various companies. That is why until recently you never saw the logo on Popeye or Betty Boop cartoons.

 

[ColbyCo82]

Thanks Gary...I couldnt remember the whole story but I knew the Hitchcock films changed hands several times which would account for the credits problems.

 

[ColbyCo82]

I really hope this means Universal will release a Pre-Code Horror/Thriller collection sometime in the future. If they included Island of Lost Souls, that would be a huge selling point. I was trying to make a list of films they could include:

1. Murder By the Clock (1931) - Paramount
2. Murders in the Zoo (1933) - Paramount
3. Island of Lost Souls (1933) - Paramount
4. Murder Aboard (1933) - Paramount
5. Supernatural (1933) - Paramount
6. Secret of the Blue Room (1933) - Universal


If they wanted a few more Universal films...they still have unreleased silents like Paul Leni's The Last Warning with Laura LaPlante and The Last Performance with Conrad Veit and Mary Philbin.

 

[Charles Ellis]

I've always loved the DeMille Cleopatra: half as long as the 1963 version, and twice as better- and I'm a big Elizabeth Taylor fan!

 

[Michael Elliott]

I'm hoping we'll see SECRET OF THE BLUE ROOM released with its two remakes. THE LAST WARNING is the one that needs to be released the most. I keep hoping they hand the film over to Kino so that it can be done right.

 

[WadeM]

Looking forward to this one!

 

[DanMel]

This is great news on this Universial set. I will get to see two early Cary Grant films that I had no hope of ever seeing and this set will also find a nice place beside the 3 vol WB forbidden Hollywood pre-code movies. I'm with Coopgirl in hopes that some more Gary Cooper early Paramount films get released this year. I recently picked up Desire and Souls at Sea in region 2 along with getting the Cary Grant 21 dvd R2 set on sale just to get 6 movies I didn't have like the Last Outpost and The Toast of New York.

 

[Marc^H]

OK I lived to see an African-American president AND a Pre-Code set from Universal...and in the same year!

Guess I know what I'm doing with that Amazon gift card I got for Xmas.

 

[Jack Theakston]

How about reserving complaints about logos being cut until AFTER the set comes out, hmmm?

 

[jdee28]

It's nice to see at least these releases coming out. I won't hold my breath though for seconds. Universal is the king of abandoned series, from their Cinema Classics Series, their Legacy Collections, their Westerns, their Film Noir series, their Glamour series, etc. Give credit to Universal for giving some attempt at trying to find a formula for getting some classics released over the years. It would be nice though if they continued to carry through with some of them every once and awhile.

 

[CineKarine]

The specifics for the 75th Anniversary edition of Cleopatra:

Featuring a digitally remastered picture and all-new bonus features, full specs follow:
Full Frame
English and Spanish DD2.0 Mono
English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles
Claudette Colbert: Queen of the Silver Screen
Cecil B. DeMille: Hollywood's Epic Director
Forbidden Film: The Production Code Era
Feature Commentary with Filmmaker F.X. Feeney
Theatrical Trailer

 

[Mike*HTF]

Thanks CineKarine for this

A nice upgrade. I'll definitely pick this up.

 

[ColbyCo82]

Universal's pre-code set seems to be selling as good as, and on some sites better, than Warner's Forbidden Hollywood Volume 3.

 

[Douglas R]

It's a pity MGM doesn't have the same respect for their UA titles and restore the original UA logo which has been removed from the beginning and end of practically every UA film.