Preston Sturges "The Palm Beach Story" - 2/1/05 & more (1 Viewer)

[Jay E]

Universal is releasing The Palm Beach Story on 2/1 for $12.98. This is great news and hopefully they'll be releasing Sturges other films soon too.

Universal is also releasing another great film New Jersey Drive on the same date too for $12.98.

Trippin' & Where the Buffalo Roam are the other 2/1 catalog releases

 

[DanaA]

Wow!!!

That's great news and a great price for something I really want.

I love Preston Sturgess and consider Sullivan's Travels one of the best romantic comedies ever made.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Ted Todorov]

This this mean that the "Paramount" Sturges films are actually with Universal, or is Palm Beach Story in a different category from Hail The Conquering Hero, The Great McGinty, Christmas in July & The Miracle of Morgan Creek?

Ted

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

Universal owns most of the pre-1948 Paramount films. I think Paramount may retain ownership of Miracle of Morgan's Creek for some reason, but the other Paramount Sturges films are owned by Universal (and Fox owns Unfaithfully Yours and The Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend).

While this will presumably be a bare-bones no-frills release like most of Universal's recent classics releases, I'm just so glad that The Palm Beach Story is finally coming. This could well be the funniest movie ever made. It's certainly one of the "oldies" that always seems to be a big hit with people who don't usually go in for old movies. Nobody watches this movie without coming away with a smile and talking about "The Weenie King" and "The Ale and Quail Club." Great stuff.

 

[Charles H]

THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK has been promised as a special edition dvd (listed on prestonsturges.com) for many, many years. Betty Hutton is the only survivor. It was remade as a Jerry Lewis (!!!) comedy called ROCK-A-BYE BABY (1958), which may be why Paramount retains the rights, and THE LADY EVE was remade as a musical called THE BIRDS AND THE BEES, but EVE is controlled by MCA and the remake is owned by Paramount.

Anyway, THE PALM BEACH STORY is simply wonderful. Mitchell Leisen's MIDNIGHT (1939) from a terrific Billy Wilder script has Claudette Colbert and Mary Astor in very similar roles and hopefully will be wending its way to dvd.

 

[george kaplan]

This is great news!

Where did you hear this? Is there a link somewhere with more info?

 

[Paul_Scott]

i'll look forward to getting TPBS, but the first thing i thought of when i saw this post was "hopefully this means more Colberts are on the way soon (especially So Proudly We Hail, Midnight, Cleopatra among others- which are high on my Most Wanted list)

 

[David Brashear]

Awesome, I was hoping the film would get the Criterion treatment like Sullivan's Travels and The Lady Eve, but I'm still happy to see it coming out on dvd. Like other posters have stated, it's a comedy classic.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Have you seen the new "Since You Went Away" dvd?

 

[Will Krupp]

SO happy to hear about PALM BEACH, a parody of romantic comedies that's so enjoyable it plays like a REAL romantic comedy!! So thrilled about this...!! I THOUGHT I had heard a rumor (around the release of SULLIVAN and EVE) that this WAS slated for a Criterion release but I guess not. Anyway, I'll just be happy to be able to retire another VHS.

 

[Paul_Scott]

oh yeah.
i was ready to pounce on that as soon as i heard it was coming.
a/v quality is ok, fine, watchable- but nothing great.
typical MGM.

Like the original Cleopatra i have the LD, but my ld player does not get any use anymore with my projector, so i'm looking forward to the day when i can replace all these titles.

 

[Jay E]

All 4 DVDs are up for pre-order at DVD Empire.

 

[FrankXS]

If you check DVDEmpire you will see the dvd The Palm Beach Party for February. It's also listed as being in color. I have large doubts this is the Sturges classic.
I see by Herb Kane's post to universal studios web sight that Palm Beach Story is listed. DVDEmpire needs to change the title.

 

[Herb Kane]

http://homevideo.universalstudios.co...p?titleId=1099

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Great news! I'm delighted!

"I'm the Wienie King! Invented the Texas Wienie! Lay off 'em, you'll live longer."

 

[Jim_K]

Great news! While I love all the Sturges films, Palm Beach Story ranks up there with Sullivan's Travels & The Lady Eve as my favorite Sturges.

I was also hoping for a Criterion but ass long as the transfer is decent I won't complain.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I just hope that people won't be disappointed if this dvd presentation doesn't look like Citizen Kane, but more like The Awful Truth.





Crawdaddy

 

[Garysb]

Great news about Palm Beach Story.

I believe the reason why Paramount still owns the rights to the Miracle of Morgan's Creek is because when the pre 48 Paramount films were sold to MCA for TV distribution in the 1950's, the plot of Miracle, which is about a girl who gets pregnant while drunk and doesn't know who the father is, was considered too adult for TV. Therefore MCA did not want it.
MCA purchased Universal in the 1960's and that is why Universal owns most of the pre 48 sound Paramount pictures.
Silent films such as Wings are still owned by Paramount. Again the reason was it was not thought there was any interest in showing silent films on TV .

 

[Brian PB]

With certain exceptions (Hitchcock, the classic monster films) Universal has demonstrated little effort with their classic back catalog. It makes me sad when they squander opportunities with such gems as The Palm Beach Story, Duck Soup, and It's a Gift, and instead put out barebones discs using unrestored elements which, in the end, offer only marginal improvements over VHS. At least the price is fair (unlike, say, Columbia TriStar)--which may encourage a few blind-buys.

I'm in the minority, but I would've preferred a more expensive, but better quality (and value-added) edition from the likes of Criterion for a film of this stature.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Have you seen Duck Soup or It'a a Gift dvds?