Bill Burns
Supporting Actor
- Joined
- May 13, 2003
- Messages
- 747
On the heels of Ron's recent Platinum Blonde (1931) announcement from Columbia, set for release November 4th, Image Entertainment's December update promises four more classic titles, three of them silents:
1. The Blot (1921; another of the promised Photoplays, this is from one of the silent era's many extraordinary women behind the camera, Lois Weber; Milestone)
2. La Terre (1921; still another of the promised Photoplays; Milestone)
3. Mad Love: The Films of Evgeni Bauer (Twilight of a Woman's Soul, After Death, and The Dying Swan); this title has been on the Milestone horizon for a while, and a firm release date in Region 1 is a joy to finally have in hand.
... and, in addition to these silents, for all you who are basking in the talents of song-and-dance Cagney with your sparkling new copies of Yankee Doodle Dandy ...
4. Something to Sing About (1937; James Cagney, William Frawley -- Fred Mertz to children of the 50's*
-- and Gene Lockhart)
The last title on that list is set for release on December 16th, 2003. The first three are due out on December 9th. For further descriptions and cover art (which can be had right now for the first three, but Something to Sing About's cover isn't yet up as of this writing), be sure to reference Link Removed. Their site is organized by Javascript codes, and I'm thus unable to link specific pages or updates thereon, but if you click on the "December" announcements to the upper left of their main page (linked above), you'll find the full list of December titles. All three of the silent titles appear on page 1 of this list, while Something to Sing About appears on Page 3.
With Milestone's edition of the Photoplay restoration It in November, I believe all of their previously announced Photoplay properties, save Nosferatu, will be out by the end of the year. My usual caveats about PAL-NTSC image blur apply (it is yet to be determined that all of these are new NTSC masters, but comments thusfar on The Chess Player and Phantom of the Opera -- the odd blur reported by others notwithstanding, as Dennis Doros of Milestone claims this is here due to tape-to-tape speed corrections, apparently an inferior method of achieving speed correction that results in blur not seen on properly speed corrected transfers; see some of the later posts in the Phantom thread for more -- seem to indicate that new NTSC masters were comissioned for these UK restorations; the two Photoplays I've seen on disc, MK2's Region 1 edition of The Gold Rush {1925, on disc two of that release} and Kino's The Iron Mask (1929), both blur and ghost in a way I'd assume is caused by PAL-NTSC conversion. Whatever the cause, it's an irksome problem to me. I hope and trust Milestone has, and will continue, to issue their Photoplay properties, and indeed all of their titles, from new NTSC-native masters, thus delivering us discs of the high standard these historical titles deserve, the same high standard set by Milestone in so many other releases).
For further info on the above films, after looking over Image Entertainment's press blurbs, the following IMDB links might prove of interest:
1. The Blot (1921)
2. La Terre (1921)
3. Mad Love: The Films of Evgeni Bauer (note that Milestone's edition spells his name Evgeni, not Yevgeni; those familiar with the alternate spellings of literary greats like Fyodor Dostoevsky may nod knowingly at this point):
-- Twilight of a Woman's Soul (1913)
-- After Death (1915)
-- The Dying Swan (1917)
4. Something to Sing About (1937)
I should note that I have yet to see any of these pictures, so my interest is strictly that of a fan of the era (and in some cases, the stars). But such a deluge of silents and early sound through November and December (don't forget about Image's Our Town in November, Columbia's You'll Never Get Rich in late October, and the above mentioned It and Platinum Blonde) makes for a fine farewell to 2003.
* In addition to the I Love Lucy episodes currently on disc, and the upcoming Something to Sing About, Frawley has a small but delightful role in the Bing Crosby feature Rhythm on the River (1940), a marvelous picture in a marvelous transfer (and paired with the only slightly less marvelous Rhythm on the Range {1936}) on DVD from Universal.
1. The Blot (1921; another of the promised Photoplays, this is from one of the silent era's many extraordinary women behind the camera, Lois Weber; Milestone)
2. La Terre (1921; still another of the promised Photoplays; Milestone)
3. Mad Love: The Films of Evgeni Bauer (Twilight of a Woman's Soul, After Death, and The Dying Swan); this title has been on the Milestone horizon for a while, and a firm release date in Region 1 is a joy to finally have in hand.
... and, in addition to these silents, for all you who are basking in the talents of song-and-dance Cagney with your sparkling new copies of Yankee Doodle Dandy ...
4. Something to Sing About (1937; James Cagney, William Frawley -- Fred Mertz to children of the 50's*
-- and Gene Lockhart)The last title on that list is set for release on December 16th, 2003. The first three are due out on December 9th. For further descriptions and cover art (which can be had right now for the first three, but Something to Sing About's cover isn't yet up as of this writing), be sure to reference Link Removed. Their site is organized by Javascript codes, and I'm thus unable to link specific pages or updates thereon, but if you click on the "December" announcements to the upper left of their main page (linked above), you'll find the full list of December titles. All three of the silent titles appear on page 1 of this list, while Something to Sing About appears on Page 3.
With Milestone's edition of the Photoplay restoration It in November, I believe all of their previously announced Photoplay properties, save Nosferatu, will be out by the end of the year.
My usual caveats about PAL-NTSC image blur apply (it is yet to be determined that all of these are new NTSC masters, but comments thusfar on The Chess Player and Phantom of the Opera -- the odd blur reported by others notwithstanding, as Dennis Doros of Milestone claims this is here due to tape-to-tape speed corrections, apparently an inferior method of achieving speed correction that results in blur not seen on properly speed corrected transfers; see some of the later posts in the Phantom thread for more -- seem to indicate that new NTSC masters were comissioned for these UK restorations; the two Photoplays I've seen on disc, MK2's Region 1 edition of The Gold Rush {1925, on disc two of that release} and Kino's The Iron Mask (1929), both blur and ghost in a way I'd assume is caused by PAL-NTSC conversion. Whatever the cause, it's an irksome problem to me. I hope and trust Milestone has, and will continue, to issue their Photoplay properties, and indeed all of their titles, from new NTSC-native masters, thus delivering us discs of the high standard these historical titles deserve, the same high standard set by Milestone in so many other releases).For further info on the above films, after looking over Image Entertainment's press blurbs, the following IMDB links might prove of interest:
1. The Blot (1921)
2. La Terre (1921)
3. Mad Love: The Films of Evgeni Bauer (note that Milestone's edition spells his name Evgeni, not Yevgeni; those familiar with the alternate spellings of literary greats like Fyodor Dostoevsky may nod knowingly at this point):
-- Twilight of a Woman's Soul (1913)
-- After Death (1915)
-- The Dying Swan (1917)
4. Something to Sing About (1937)
I should note that I have yet to see any of these pictures, so my interest is strictly that of a fan of the era (and in some cases, the stars). But such a deluge of silents and early sound through November and December (don't forget about Image's Our Town in November, Columbia's You'll Never Get Rich in late October, and the above mentioned It and Platinum Blonde) makes for a fine farewell to 2003.
* In addition to the I Love Lucy episodes currently on disc, and the upcoming Something to Sing About, Frawley has a small but delightful role in the Bing Crosby feature Rhythm on the River (1940), a marvelous picture in a marvelous transfer (and paired with the only slightly less marvelous Rhythm on the Range {1936}) on DVD from Universal.
