Public Domain Titles/Quality on DVD (1 Viewer)

[Jay E]

Just watched the Alpha DVD of The Second Woman, a pretty good psychological suspense film from the 40's with Robert Young, and I must say that the quality was surprisingly good for a public domain title.
Three Came Home is another Alpha title I recently watched and the quality was also very good.

 

[Jo_C]

Another title should be mentioned, even though the holiday season is over...in around 1976, Rankin/Bass came out with their holiday special "Jack Frost". Although WB now owns all R/B material past 1974, I was surprised that now many different labels carry "Jack Frost" (Warner Home Video should by now have the official video rights). Front Row, LaserLight, and other "B" companies carried the "Jack Frost" DVD.

I think that leads me to believe that the holiday special is now in the public domain. If that's so, this could be the first known case of a Rankin/Bass special in the public domain.

Oh, and Barrie, I hope your article on public domain titles comes out soon!

 

[Andrew Budgell]

Is the 1951 version of "A Christmas Carol/Scrooge" a PD title?

Andy

 

[Doug Bull]

I vowed many years ago (after purchasing a few Public Domain shockers) never to buy any more PD Titles, but now a title that I would dearly love to have has just been released by a Company called Critic's Choice.

Does anybody know what their quality is like?

The Movie by the way is "New Faces" which was originally released by Fox in Cinemascope with 4 track Magnetic Sound.

 

[Kajs]

The "Road" movies that are in public domain (Road to Rio & Road to Bali) with Bob Hope & Bing Crosby look good on Brentwood. Not perfect, but I would expect the same quality from any big studio who didn't do a big cleanup of the print.

 

[Pete L]

You seemed pretty uncertain of the film's copyright status (as you said it's "apparently fair game" and pondered "if the title is not actually Public Domain"). I tried to clear the matter up for you: the film is not in the public domain. No apparentlys or ifs about it.

I was and still am uncertain as to its status. How are you so certain? I don't mean that in a challenging way--I honestly want to know: is there a list, a database of PD titles somewhere? If so, please point me to it. If not, how can one be sure whether this or any other title is PD? Are you an industry insider who just happens to know the status of this title?

 

[Jo_C]

Correction, Kurt.

The "Road" movies on Brentwood are still under copyright, by Columbia Pictures Television. Columbia and LBS (Lexington Broadcast Services) formed a joint venture, Colex, in the 1980s, and they acquired the post-48 "Road" movies from Bob Hope Enterprises, the previous owner. All the other Bob Hope movies on Brentwood are also owned by Columbia Pictures Television. However, the underlying rights are now owned by Pearson Television/Fremantle Media (successor-in-interest to LBS). Brentwood releases them on video under license from Pearson/Fremantle.

Of course, the transfers could be better. It's up to Fremantle, since they own the original film elements. However, recently the Hope videos were offered on QVC, and they showed clips from these films and the quality looks OK to me, certainly better than what I saw years ago on syndicated television (back in the days when all they could show was 16MM film chain prints).

Incidentally, the only "Road" movie not owned by Columbia/Fremantle is "Road To Hong Kong" (those rights are still held by United Artists)

 

[Damin J Toell]

I was and still am uncertain as to its status. How are you so certain? I don't mean that in a challenging way--I honestly want to know: is there a list, a database of PD titles somewhere? If so, please point me to it. If not, how can one be sure whether this or any other title is PD? Are you an industry insider who just happens to know the status of this title?

I know because I have spoken to a DVD producer at a popular genre label who attempted (unsucessfully) to acquire the rights to the film. In addition, it's simply common sense for those familiar with the law that the film is still under copyright. There is pretty much no reason that a 1978 EMI production would have fallen into the public domain in the US.

DJ

 

[Kajs]

The "Road" movies on Brentwood are still under copyright, by Columbia Pictures Television. Columbia and LBS (Lexington Broadcast Services) formed a joint venture, Colex, in the 1980s, and they acquired the post-48 "Road" movies from Bob Hope Enterprises, the previous owner.

Incidentally, the only "Road" movie not owned by Columbia/Fremantle is "Road To Hong Kong" (those rights are still held by United Artists)

Correction, to some of your corrections....If you search for "Road to Bali" at Amazon you will find 16 different versions. Rio does seem to just have the one Brentwood version, but I swear when I bought it there were more.

And actually Universal owns The Road to Morocco, Singapore, Utopia, and Zanzibar.

 

[Matt_H]

I've actually seen a version of night of the living dead with an image from Return of the living dead on the cover! The Horror(and Irony)!

 

[BryanV]

Here are my submissions:

My Favorite Brunette (Bob Hope and Dorthy Lamour) - Madacy Entertainment.

*** - The sound distorts easily the print is fairly clean compared to other PD releases and the jitters are not too bad.

The Made Me A Criminal (John Garfield and Leo Gorcey) - Front Row (advertises "digitally remastered superior pictrue and sound quality" on back of box LOL)

*** - No mosaics but very pixalated in some scenes sound is good and does not distort much.

Santa And The Three Bears - Laser Light

* - Bad mosaics and muffled soundtrack appears out of frame at times. I was really surprised at Laser Light for this one. This cartoon is a special childhood memory for many and you would think they would spend a little more time on it. It may be that they used the lowest bit rate possible in order to burn them faster?

 

[Bradley-E]

The only Public Domain title I own is SIN OF HARROLD DIDDLEBOCK. It is Alpha and just passable tranfer wise.

 

[Doug Bull]

WARNING!! WARNING!!

Do not touch Critics Choice versions of "New Faces" or "This is the Army" as both are abysmal and totally unwatchable.

How could any company have the gall to put out and actually charge people for these abominations.

Sound is barely just acceptable on This is the Army, but the image is extremely soft, colorless and looks as if it was shot at night, in a closed room with the lights out.

New Faces sounds as if it was recorded directly from a worn out Drive in Theatre Speaker, resulting in the worst sound I have ever heard. All Treble with no bass whatsoever.

The image, while letterboxed, is almost void of color, although skin tones including Eartha Kitts', come up a lovely shade of yellow ( every few seconds).

Not only is the picture terribly soft with almost no detail, but everything has a double line around it.

Martin Blythe of Paramount told this Forum some time back that "One Eyed Jacks" would never be released by them, because of the Public Domain copies that already flood the market.

An earlier posting by Derek hinted that the region 2 version of "Till the Clouds Roll By" might have been shortened.

This may not be the case, as Region 2 discs are Pal and because of Pal speed-up, their running times are always somewhat shorter.

I have noticed several bargain bin, cheap label versions of "To Kill a Mocking Bird" around the major DVD stores here in Australia.

Does anybody know if these all region discs are legal and is Mocking Bird now in Public Domain?

I'm a glutten for punishment,because after vowing over and over again, never ever to buy any more Public Domain titles I have just ordered 2 discs from Alpha. ( I have my fingers crossed that their new version of "This is the Army" is at least watchable)

I guess I'll soon find out.

 

[Mark Edward Heuck]

And here it is 2005...

Fremantle has made no improvement on their Bob Hope masters, and it is doubtful Brentwood would contribute for a remastering anyway...

Paramount still has not released ONE-EYED JACKS...

StudioCanal has not made a U.S. deal for a CONVOY DVD...

and more cheap DVDs with terrible packaging and horrible transfers flood the marketplace and the consumer is none the wiser.

Pfui!

 

[Bradley-E]

I bought the Buster Keaton title COLLEGE at the 99cent store. When I put it on to see how it looked it was the KINO transfer, which is a higher quality. It is not the greatest but for 99cents it is a steal.

 

[Bradley-E]

Paramount is rumored to be releasing THE STRANGE LOVES OF MARTHA IVERS even though it is Public Domain. Maybe ONE-EYED JACKS will find its way via Paramount too in that case.

 

[Jeff Adkins]

More about It's A Wonderful Life

In 1994, in a landmark court case, Republic finally laid claim to the film (with their ownership of the chief film elements behind them), thus the film's copyright was reactivated. Today, only Republic has available video versions of the movie digitally remastered, and this is also why you don't see the movie on TV as much anymore (NBC currently holds the television rights under a deal with Republic).

There's even more to that story. Ted Turner's lawyers were convinced that the whole "soundtrack" argument would not hold up in court. Turner's legal team were prepared to go to court to argue that the film is indeed public domain. As a compromise, Republic made Turner Television "a sweetheart deal" in exchange for no litigation. It appears that "sweetheart deal" may have expired since I don't recall it airing on TNT or TBS in the last few years. I looked for the interview with the guy from Republic where he told this story but can't seem to find it using a search engine.
In reference to Mclintock, I remember speaking to someone from the Wayne Estate many years ago inquiring as to why it wasn't be released on laserdisc. His response was that basically, anyone could copy the superb quality of the laserdisc and sell it and nothing could be done about it legally. Thus, McLintock was never released on laserdisc.

 

[Mark B]

I picked up a copy of Keaton's COLLEGE in the grocery store for 88 cents. It's released by VINA DISTRIBUTOR and is a direct steal of the Kino disc, even retaining the Kino logo. Once in a while you find a winner....

 

[Patrick McCart]

Just a quick heads up... Roger Corman's 1963 The Terror is airing on Turner Classic Movies at 3:00 AM (tonight - early morning). It seems to be an excellent quality master, as the clips on their website show it's 1.85:1 and very colorful.

 

[PODER]

I think it might be time to revisit this particular forum, since there are still a number of important films that seem to be lost in Public Domain Hell. The first ones that come to mind are: THE FRONT PAGE (1931) OF HUMAN BONDAGE (1934) OLYMPIAD LIFE WITH FATHER TWO WOMEN My questions: 1) Can anyone recommend a decent DVD version of any of the above? 2) What other films belong on this list? 3) Does anyone know of plans to rescue any of the above? Thanks in advance for any comments, additions or other contributions.