Seen The 1959 Hercule's Threads - But does anyone really know who has the US rights to the film? (1 Viewer)

[RobertMG]

So, that being assumed, the problem that still remains is, still a matter of accessing the best film and audio elements to remaster both Hercules and HUC. Go to Film Socities and Film Archives to do deep dives. Mant times you see coordination between the searchers and film archives to be able to put enough quality elements together for a descent edition. Let the Treasure hunt begin!!

Yes! Maybe we should ask Mr. Scorsese to help he is one of film's biggest cheerleaders!

 

[skylark68]

I jump on all these peplum releases on bluray, but Hercules Region A would be a golden crown jewel.

My second favorite would be Lion of Thebes.

 

[Capt D McMars]

Yes! Maybe we should ask Mr. Scorsese to help he is one of film's biggest cheerleaders!

good idea, but that's like saying contact Paul McCartney, he might be able to help, LOL!! People like them have so many walls around them that it's virtually impossible to access them directly...not totaly impossible but darn close...but being the forever optomist, you never know?

 

[Capt D McMars]

Yes! Maybe we should ask Mr. Scorsese to help he is one of film's biggest cheerleaders!

Maybe through his manager?

Martin Scorsese's Manager​

Rick Yorn
The Firm
9465 Wilshire Boulevard
6th Floor
Beverly Hills, CA 90212-2605
Phone: 310-860-8000

 

[Capt D McMars]

Maybe through his manager?

Martin Scorsese's Manager​

Rick Yorn
The Firm
9465 Wilshire Boulevard
6th Floor
Beverly Hills, CA 90212-2605
Phone: 310-860-8000

direct from his own FB page...

 

[RobertMG]

direct from his own FB page...

Merry Christmas Mr. S and team! Been searching the world over to see who owns USA rights to 1958/59 Steve Reeves Hercules the film started the Peplum craze, the film was a huge success and sadly the film has not been restored and preserved - we need a voice like Mr Scorsese to help on this classic film! To preserve it and present it for future generations! Merry Christmas to all! Best and warmest regards to all! Robert M. Grippo

 

[Artanis]

You know...there's a dude over at Film Chest Media Group I was emailing back and forth in 2013, or thereabouts. Jeff Murphy. I initially contacted him to compliment Film Chest on the outstanding job they did remastering Martin & Lewis: At War With the Army. Over the course of our communication, I asked him this very question regarding Hercules we're all talking about. I suggested they consider remastering Hercules because it was at a time when 2 new versions of Hercules were going to hit the theaters: The Legend of Hercules w/ Kellan Lutz, and Hercules w/ Dwayne Johnson. I thought it would be great for them to ride the promotion of these other two releases and remaster and re-release the original. He did find it an interesting idea. Film Chest is known for remastering public domain features and doing a fine job, considering budgets and logistics. If anybody has the pulse of public domain movies and copyrights, certainly Film Chest is an excellent source. I'll send Jeff an email after Christmas and see if I can reboot the conversation, maybe pick his brain a little bit. I'll ask him if he might take a moment and come over here and chime-in and share some insight. He's a smart dude, and the team over there does some impressive work.

 

[Capt D McMars]

You know...there's a dude over at Film Chest Media Group I was emailing back and forth in 2013, or thereabouts. Jeff Murphy. I initially contacted him to compliment Film Chest on the outstanding job they did remastering Martin & Lewis: At War With the Army. Over the course of our communication, I asked him this very question regarding Hercules we're all talking about. I suggested they consider remastering Hercules because it was at a time when 2 new versions of Hercules were going to hit the theaters: The Legend of Hercules w/ Kellan Lutz, and Hercules w/ Dwayne Johnson. I thought it would be great for them to ride the promotion of these other two releases and remaster and re-release the original. He did find it an interesting idea. Film Chest is known for remastering public domain features and doing a fine job, considering budgets and logistics. If anybody has the pulse of public domain movies and copyrights, certainly Film Chest is an excellent source. I'll send Jeff an email after Christmas and see if I can reboot the conversation, maybe pick his brain a little bit. I'll ask him if he might take a moment and come over here and chime-in and share some insight. He's a smart dude, and the team over there does some impressive work.

Go for it, and keep us in the loop. You never know, good on ya Curt!!

 

[Ed Lachmann]

Artus messaged me - the reason they canceled their release was bad film elements

Still, that gorgeous fairly recent standard DVD from German Intergroove of Hercules Unchained looks like it came from a really great print with vivid colors and sharp widescreen visuals. Where did that transfer come from I wonder.

 

[Capt D McMars]

Still, that gorgeous fairly recent standard DVD from German Intergroove of Hercules Unchained looks like it came from a really great print with vivid colors and sharp widescreen visuals. Where did that transfer come from I wonder.

just found this on them -

Intergroove Media GmbH​

Profile:
Former German distribution company based in Offenbach; founded in 1995, liquidated in 2014.

 

[RobertMG]

just found this on them -

Intergroove Media GmbH​

Profile:
Former German distribution company based in Offenbach; founded in 1995, liquidated in 2014.

The mystery deepens

 

[Cineman]

I don't know if this info is of any value to this topic other than to mention a way to watch both Hercules (1958, widescreen, stated at 1h 37m) and Hercules Unchained (1959, widescreen, stated at 1h 27m, but actually runs 1h 29m because it includes the pre opening-credits prologue sequence). Maybe there is a lead here to who owns the rights and so on. I really don't know.

While neither is DVD nor certainly Blu-ray level picture and sound quality, I suppose they are better than nothing. Generally muddy picture and out-of-sync sound issues abound.

I have watched both recently on my Roku Box. As is the case with public domain or uncertain rights issue movies, they can be found on several Roku channels in either pan-and-scan/severely cropped or, much less often, widescreen format. I will just name 2-3 here. Hercules as described in my opening paragraph can be watched for free on their channel called "Brandon Theatres." Hercules Unchained as described in my opening paragraph can be watched for free on their channel called "Baby Boomer TV."

There is another Roku channel called "Blue Mermaid TV MOTUROAIS Corp" that shows them in widescreen as a Drive-In Theatre Blue Mermaid Double Feature, complete with the snack bar pitch, a trailer for Hercules, Samson and Ulysses (1964), a very limited-animation Hercules cartoon from the old tv show, a 10 minute intermission countdown between the features and a reminder at the end to replace your speaker on the stand and thanks for coming.

In that option, the running time for each appears to be the same as the stated times on the Roku channels I mentioned earlier. However, here Hercules Unchained is badly botched in that it does not include the pre opening-credits prologue sequence and, worse, the sound drops out completely in the last 2 minutes of the movie! Too bad. That would have been a fun way to watch those movies; just hit Play and let them run drive-in theatre style for the next 3h 24m. A better cartoon would have helped too. lol.

Anyway, just passing along that info and, who knows, maybe those channels' names and companies that own them will provide a lead to what folks are looking for here.

 

[RobertMG]

I don't know if this info is of any value to this topic other than to mention a way to watch both Hercules (1958, widescreen, stated at 1h 37m) and Hercules Unchained (1959, widescreen, stated at 1h 27m, but actually runs 1h 29m because it includes the pre opening-credits prologue sequence). Maybe there is a lead here to who owns the rights and so on. I really don't know.

While neither is DVD nor certainly Blu-ray level picture and sound quality, I suppose they are better than nothing. Generally muddy picture and out-of-sync sound issues abound.

I have watched both recently on my Roku Box. As is the case with public domain or uncertain rights issue movies, they can be found on several Roku channels in either pan-and-scan/severely cropped or, much less often, widescreen format. I will just name 2-3 here. Hercules as described in my opening paragraph can be watched for free on their channel called "Brandon Theatres." Hercules Unchained as described in my opening paragraph can be watched for free on their channel called "Baby Boomer TV."

There is another Roku channel called "Blue Mermaid TV MOTUROAIS Corp" that shows them in widescreen as a Drive-In Theatre Blue Mermaid Double Feature, complete with the snack bar pitch, a trailer for Hercules, Samson and Ulysses (1964), a very limited-animation Hercules cartoon from the old tv show, a 10 minute intermission countdown between the features and a reminder at the end to replace your speaker on the stand and thanks for coming.

In that option, the running time for each appears to be the same as the stated times on the Roku channels I mentioned earlier. However, here Hercules Unchained is badly botched in that it does not include the pre opening-credits prologue sequence and, worse, the sound drops out completely in the last 2 minutes of the movie! Too bad. That would have been a fun way to watch those movies; just hit Play and let them run drive-in theatre style for the next 3h 24m. A better cartoon would have helped too. lol.

Anyway, just passing along that info and, who knows, maybe those channels' names and companies that own them will provide a lead to what folks are looking for here.

Thank you, gotta check it out. This though is a head scratcher that no one knows the status of these film even firms that have released it do not know. I would love to know where the camera negs are.

 

[Ed Lachmann]

The mystery deepens

Indeed, the original "Hercules" had a rather nice widescreen French release a couple decades ago and the now defunct Intergroove (sad to hear, R.I.P.) had a high quality widescreen German release of "Hercules Unchained" several years ago. The French "Hercules" has the British dub (different higher voice for our hero) which is unlike the American dub, while the German "Unchained" has the American dub I remember well. Who has these elements now? I'd bet Artus would love to know, too.

 

[Joseph Goodman]

A few things are odd about that French release, which seems to be the basis of nearly every upload of the film on the 'net, and the old Retromedia DVD:

-The pitch of the audio is raised due to PAL speed-up. On top of that, it switches from the "export" dub (done in Rome, this is actually the original dub) to the US dub (performed at Titra Sound in NY) at around the scene where Jason kills the Godzilla-ventriloquist dragon (which is also affected by PAL speed-up).

-Not only is the running time shortened due to PAL speed-up, but there are further video frame-rate edits at certain fade-ins/outs (most notably at the end of the scene where Hercules meets Jason under the waterfall).

 

[Artanis]

I sent an email off to Jeff Murphy at FilmChest inviting him to join the thread. I can imagine he's a busy fellow. But I'm confident if he feels he can contribute, he will.

 

[Artanis]

I know the film still has legs (correction: quads). But, whoa! I was surprised to find an upload on YouTube with over 3,000,000 views. That's impressive.

 

[RobertMG]

I know the film still has legs (correction: quads). But, whoa! I was surprised to find an upload on YouTube with over 3,000,000 views. That's impressive.

3 Million views! I am surprised Criterion has never approached this film either - looking forward to Mr. Murphy weighing in! Sad that so many films are MIA -- (off topic the fun John Howard Bulldog Drummond films are in Criterions library and a few years ago I asked about them and they said eventually we could see a release --- still waiting).

 

[Capt D McMars]

I know the film still has legs (correction: quads). But, whoa! I was surprised to find an upload on YouTube with over 3,000,000 views. That's impressive.

definatly shows a viable market for these classics!!

 

[Artanis]

Just ran into some bad news in Blu-ray Forum:

HERCULES (1958) & HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959) from Artus Films - Blu-ray Forum

HERCULES (1958) & HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959) from Artus Films France

forum.blu-ray.com

Very interesting. Very cool packaging. Strangely, the link has been removed from the distributors web site. Not an English release. Brings us back to the GATT treaty. I can only go out on a limb here and think it was not copyright reclaimed because all the lousy dvd & blu-ray Hercules burns out there, even in retail locations. We're not talking underground bootlegs here.