Preston Sturges on Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[EddieLarkin]

Preston Sturges and his films seem to garner little discussion here but I can't imagine why. Surely there are plenty of fans on HTF?

I wanted to bring to your attention a couple of things. Next month marks the release of the very first Blu-ray of a Preston Sturges directorial effort, Sullivan's Travels, in a typically fantastic sounding edition from Arrow in the UK:

Spoiler

Release Date: 26 May 2014
Format: Blu-ray
Starring: Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Robert Warwick
Directed by: Preston Sturges

Synopsis: VERONICA LAKE’S ON THE TAKE

Director John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea) is one of Hollywood’s hottest talents, with an uncanny gift for getting audiences rolling in the aisles. But he’s dissatisfied: he wants to abandon comedy for Serious Statements, and buys the rights to celebrated social-realist novel ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’

To make his masterpiece as realistic as possible, Sullivan naturally has to understand how the book’s downtrodden characters must have felt, so he takes to the road as a hobo, is taken under the wing of a failed actress (Veronica Lake), and learns several valuable home truths about the importance of not patronising his audience.

Writer-director Preston Sturges had an inspired run in the 1940s, turning out some of the funniest American comedies ever made (The Lady Eve, The Palm Beach Story, The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek). Sullivan’s Travels is one of his best: not just hilarious but also truly wise.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

[*]New high definition digital transfer of the film by Universal Pictures
[*]Uncompressed Mono 2.0 PCM Audio
[*]Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
[*]Audio commentary by filmmaker and Python Terry Jones
[*]Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer – Kenneth Bowser’s acclaimed feature-length documentary portrait from the American Masters series
[*]Kevin Jackson on Sullivan’s Travels: an appreciation by the writer and broadcaster
[*]The Preston Sturges Stock Company: a celebration of Sturges’ regular character actors and bit-part players
[*]Safeguarding Military Information: a Sturges-scripted propaganda short released in the same month as Sullivan’s Travels
[*]Theatrical Trailer
[*]Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jay Shaw
[*]Booklet featuring new writing on the film by screwball comedy expert Peter Swaab, plus archive pieces by Geoff Brown and Preston Sturges, illustrated with original stills and poster designs
[/list]

RRP: £24.99 £15.99
Region: B
Cat No: FCD898
Duration: 90 mins
Language: English
Subtitles: English SDH
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Audio: 2.0 mono
Colour: B&W

In addition to this, Arrow have revealed plans to release the other 6 films by Preston Sturges available from Universal in a box set. These would be The Great McGinty, Christmas in July, The Lady Eve, The Palm Beach Story, Hail the Conquering Hero and The Great Moment.

They have stated though that the release of such a set would depend primarily on how well Sullivan's Travels sells. So, if you had your eye on Sullivan's Travels it would be wise to pick it up sooner rather than later, and if you didn't, please seriously consider a purchase! With Criterion likely set to release The Sin of Harold Diddlebock and/or Mad Wednesday in the near future, the release of an Arrow box set as well would see us with the majority of Preston Sturges' films on Blu-ray!

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Shit, I'm a Preston Sturges superfan but need a Region-free or A release. It's inconceivable these films aren't considered absolute classics in the U.S. and prime for BD. Easily as good or better than anything Billy Wilder did (but then where is all his stuff on BD? - Thank you recently for Double Indemnity and Stalag 17, though)

 

[Dave B Ferris]

Same here, big fan.If anybody were to confirm that this release plays on Region A players**, despite the info in the specs and/or on the back cover, I'd buy this in a heartbeat.** According to posts on this forum, it is not uncommon (or at least not rare) for these releases to play on Region A players. One recent example: the "Man Without a Star" BR released in Germany.

 

[EddieLarkin]

Unfortunately, they will definitely be Region B (though they may work on some Panasonic and Samsung players using a well known trick).

Whilst upgrades of Sullivan's Travels and The Lady Eve will likely come from Criterion one day (though I've not heard anything about them coming anytime soon; hopefully Unfaithfully Yours will get an upgrade from them first), I think Region A seeing Blu-rays of the other 5 titles mentioned here is pretty unlikely. They never went to Criterion and I'd be shocked if Universal wants to bother with them. Of course, Criterion might pick them up but it'd be wishful thinking.

Personally, I believe if the Blu-ray format is going to be supported fully (and I believe it is imperative that it is), everyone needs to ditch this region locking nonsense the studios enforce on us and get some bloomin' region free players!

 

[Miguel M Santos]

French distributor Wild Side has announced plans for a release with five of his films (although no specifics on which ones).

Source here (in French)

 

[classicmovieguy]

I'd love "Lady Eve" and "Palm Beach Story" on Blu.

 

[Ed Lachmann]

Forget about America. The only hope for classic film BD buyers rests with the UK, Germany, France, Japan and a few others who offer some surprising releases. Let's just PRAY that WB licenses at least part of its gigantic classic library to overseas vendors.

 

[JoHud]

It is quite surprising we haven't got any Preston Sturges. Then again we've got not W.C. Fields either. Criterion is pretty much the only hope for a small handful of each as I really don't see Universal releasing boxed sets for either0. The DVDs will be the best we'll get for a while.

Let's just PRAY that WB licenses at least part of its gigantic classic library to overseas vendors.

Don't hold your breath. Except for weird exceptions like The Devils which they never intended to release stateside in the first place. But don't expect that to happen except once in a blue moon.

 

[EddieLarkin]

Zavvi have Sullivan's Travels for £13 at the moment (ignore the incorrect release date they are quoting). Quite a bit cheaper than Arrow's own store (£16) and Amazon (£18!)

Then again we've got not W.C. Fields either.

A couple of his short films will be included in Flicker Alley's Mack Sennett Blu-ray Collection

 

[JoHud]

A couple of his short films will be included in Flicker Alley's Mack Sennett Blu-ray Collection

That just made my day!

 

[Garysb]

The Lady Eve from Criterion in July. Finally.

 

[Robert Crawford]

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary from 2001 featuring film professor Marian Keane
• Introduction from 2001 by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich
• Interview from 2020 with writer-director Preston Sturges’s biographer and son Tom Sturges and friends
• New video essay by film critic David Cairns
• Costume designs by Edith Head
• Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film from 1942 featuring Barbara Stanwyck and Ray Milland
• Audio recording of “Up the Amazon,” a song from an unproduced stage musical based on the film
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien and a 1946 profile of Preston Sturges from LIFE magazine

 

[Angelo Colombus]

I was watching last night my copy of the TCM broadcast of "The Sin of Harold Diddlebock" (later retitled "Mad Wednesday") and it was a bad print they used with a ton of film damage and wondering if there is a new release out there? It's not the best from either Sturges or Lloyd but i did have a good time watching it.