Sony's Missing Columbia Titles. (3 Viewers)

[JPCinema]

You Can’t Run Away From It.

A widescreen HD version is an extra in the Colombia Classics 4K Volume 3

 

[Sadsack]

Thanks for that.

I believe it's HD, but also seems like an amateur transfer (eg, opening credits float around slightly). I bought mine from Amazon.Fr, but you can find a cheap copy on ebay, etc. Says "Region B" but plays fine on my region one player.

 

[Sultanofcinema]

I thought for sure by this time we would see MacKenna's Gold. The rumor was almost three years ago now that it was being restored. It never materialized. I saw this initially theatrically and again on the Criterion Channel early last year and it had the Julie Newmar nudity (sitting on the rock and the swimming/water sequence in tact. Transfer was outstanding and I felt, well Criterion is going to release this late last year. Best of luck with The Victors. I don't know if the original material with Elke Sommer survived. Strangers When We Meet ( an excellent adult film like The Sandpiper!) and Lord Jim were favorite theatrical viewings and love them both.

 

[RolandL]

A few days ago I re-watched Lost Command, a film originally released by Columbia and subsequently released again on DVD. The film has not yet come out on Blu-ray disc.

Sony have for the most part been diligent in releasing their titles in high definition. They provided Twilight Time with many extremely high quality masters, some of which have been used again by others on both sides of The Atlantic. They also created superb masters of Rita Hayworth films and of numerous crime movies, including several little-known B features. In addition they have released on their own label films like Pendulum, The Ugly Duckling, The Heroes Of Telemark and Count Three and Pray.

Nevertheless there are some puzzling omissions, Lost Command being one of them. The Violent Men is a good Western with a strong story, a dazzling cast and beautiful cinematography but no Blu-ray disc. Does anyone know why not? ...

The Violent Men was on TCMHD 8/20 and looks better than the screen shots on dvdbeaver.

 

[Drew Salzan]

A widescreen HD version is an extra in the Colombia Classics 4K Volume 3

In stereo?

 

[JPCinema]

In stereo?

Dolby Digital 2.0. Great transfer in Cinemascope

 

[Crimlaw25]

The following need upgrades:

Carol Reed’s “The Key” and “Our Man in Havana.
Bryan Forbes’ “ King Rat” (George Segal) is a great
Richard Brooks’ “The Professionals” and “Dollars” ($)
Irwin Kirshner’s “Loving” (another great George Segal movie)
Nicholas and Alexandra

 

[PaulRossen]

The following need upgrades:

Carol Reed’s “The Key” and “Our Man in Havana.
Bryan Forbes’ “ King Rat” (George Segal) is a great
Richard Brooks’ “The Professionals” and “Dollars” ($)
Irwin Kirshner’s “Loving” (another great George Segal movie)
Nicholas and Alexandra

What’s wrong with The Professionals?

 

[OliverK]

The following need upgrades:

Carol Reed’s “The Key” and “Our Man in Havana.
Bryan Forbes’ “ King Rat” (George Segal) is a great
Richard Brooks’ “The Professionals” and “Dollars” ($)
Irwin Kirshner’s “Loving” (another great George Segal movie)
Nicholas and Alexandra

The Professionals and Nicholas and Alexandra both look pretty good compared to a bunch of other titles that look far worse, notably all of the remaining large format titles that Sony owns but also others that have been kind of slipped under the door in Europe like Heroes of Telemark and The Last Frontier.

 

[Douglas R]

There was a series of films made by Warwick Films in the UK during the 1950s and distributed by Columbia but the majority of them have been ignored over the years. Warwick Films was set up by Irving Allen and Albert R Broccoli and they made over twenty ambitious films aimed at the international market with major stars such as Alan Ladd, Victor Mature and Richard Widmark. They had substantial budgets; many were in CinemaScope and had more universal appeal in subject matter compared to the more parochial British fare from Rank and ABPC at the time. The full list of those distributed by Columbia is The Red Beret (1953), Hell Below Zero (1954), The Black Knight (1954), A Prize of Gold (1955), Cockleshell Heroes (1955), Safari (1956), Odongo (1956), Zarak (1956), The Gamma People (1956), Interpol (US title Pickup Alley) (1957), Fire Down Below (1957), How to Murder a Rich Uncle (1957), High Flight (1957), No Time to Die (US title Tank Force) (1958), The Man Inside (1958), Idol on Parade (1959), The Bandit of Zhobe (1959), Killers of Kilimanjaro (1959), Jazz Boat (1960), and In the Nick (1960)

The only ones released on Blu-ray (unless I've missed any) are Cockleshell Heroes (Eureka) and Pickup Alley (Arrow). However, there are HD versions of The Black Knight and Zarak available to buy or rent on Amazon Prime which look very good so there’s no reason why Sony couldn’t make those available on disc. Several other titles had DVD releases many years ago but most have had no home video release whatsoever. Apart from Cockleshell Heroes I didn’t see any of them on first theatrical release and few of them ever appear on British TV. It would be good to have many of these films on BD especially those set in Africa such as Safari (Victor Mature), Odongo (Rhonda Fleming) and Killers of Kilimanjaro (Robert Taylor), the noir A Prize of Arms (Richard Widmark) directed by Mark Robson, Fire Down Below (Robert Mitchum, Lack Lemmon, Rita Heyworth), the whaling film Hell Below Zero (Richard Widmark) and others.

 

[RMajidi]

There was a series of films made by Warwick Films in the UK during the 1950s and distributed by Columbia but the majority of them have been ignored over the years. Warwick Films was set up by Irving Allen and Albert R Broccoli and they made over twenty ambitious films aimed at the international market with major stars such as Alan Ladd, Victor Mature and Richard Widmark. They had substantial budgets; many were in CinemaScope and had more universal appeal in subject matter compared to the more parochial British fare from Rank and ABPC at the time. The full list of those distributed by Columbia is The Red Beret (1953), Hell Below Zero (1954), The Black Knight (1954), A Prize of Gold (1955), Cockleshell Heroes (1955), Safari (1956), Odongo (1956), Zarak (1956), The Gamma People (1956), Interpol (US title Pickup Alley) (1957), Fire Down Below (1957), How to Murder a Rich Uncle (1957), High Flight (1957), No Time to Die (US title Tank Force) (1958), The Man Inside (1958), Idol on Parade (1959), The Bandit of Zhobe (1959), Killers of Kilimanjaro (1959), Jazz Boat (1960), and In the Nick (1960)

The only ones released on Blu-ray (unless I've missed any) are Cockleshell Heroes (Eureka) and Pickup Alley (Arrow). However, there are HD versions of The Black Knight and Zarak available to buy or rent on Amazon Prime which look very good so there’s no reason why Sony couldn’t make those available on disc. Several other titles had DVD releases many years ago but most have had no home video release whatsoever. Apart from Cockleshell Heroes I didn’t see any of them on first theatrical release and few of them ever appear on British TV. It would be good to have many of these films on BD especially those set in Africa such as Safari (Victor Mature), Odongo (Rhonda Fleming) and Killers of Kilimanjaro (Robert Taylor), the noir A Prize of Arms (Richard Widmark) directed by Mark Robson, Fire Down Below (Robert Mitchum, Lack Lemmon, Rita Heyworth), the whaling film Hell Below Zero (Richard Widmark) and others.

A very nice-looking Zarak was released as part of Imprint’s Tales of Adventure Collection 1 earlier this year.

Fire Down Below is available as a single BD from Umbrella, and as part of the Mill Creek Rita Hayworth Ultimate Collection. Both releases include the same respectable transfer.

 

[LeoA]

I wish we'd get The Talk of the Town and The More the Merrier.

I've been very happy with the representation of Jean Arthur on Blu-Ray, but these two are huge gaps.

 

[Douglas R]

A very nice-looking Zarak was released as part of Imprint’s Tales of Adventure Collection 1 earlier this year.

View attachment 197495

Fire Down Below is available as a single BD from Umbrella, and as part of the Mill Creek Rita Hayworth Ultimate Collection. Both releases include the same respectable transfer.


View attachment 197496



View attachment 197494

Right. Thanks for pointing out those.

 

[Bartman]

I've purchased several Sony UK Blu-rays (Starman, On The Waterfront, Taxi Driver etc) because they cost much less than US counterparts & get good reviews. Has anyone else done the same & can recommend titles?

 

[RBailey]

There was a series of films made by Warwick Films in the UK during the 1950s and distributed by Columbia but the majority of them have been ignored over the years. Warwick Films was set up by Irving Allen and Albert R Broccoli and they made over twenty ambitious films aimed at the international market with major stars such as Alan Ladd, Victor Mature and Richard Widmark. They had substantial budgets; many were in CinemaScope and had more universal appeal in subject matter compared to the more parochial British fare from Rank and ABPC at the time. The full list of those distributed by Columbia is The Red Beret (1953), Hell Below Zero (1954), The Black Knight (1954), A Prize of Gold (1955), Cockleshell Heroes (1955), Safari (1956), Odongo (1956), Zarak (1956), The Gamma People (1956), Interpol (US title Pickup Alley) (1957), Fire Down Below (1957), How to Murder a Rich Uncle (1957), High Flight (1957), No Time to Die (US title Tank Force) (1958), The Man Inside (1958), Idol on Parade (1959), The Bandit of Zhobe (1959), Killers of Kilimanjaro (1959), Jazz Boat (1960), and In the Nick (1960)

The only ones released on Blu-ray (unless I've missed any) are Cockleshell Heroes (Eureka) and Pickup Alley (Arrow). However, there are HD versions of The Black Knight and Zarak available to buy or rent on Amazon Prime which look very good so there’s no reason why Sony couldn’t make those available on disc. Several other titles had DVD releases many years ago but most have had no home video release whatsoever. Apart from Cockleshell Heroes I didn’t see any of them on first theatrical release and few of them ever appear on British TV. It would be good to have many of these films on BD especially those set in Africa such as Safari (Victor Mature), Odongo (Rhonda Fleming) and Killers of Kilimanjaro (Robert Taylor), the noir A Prize of Arms (Richard Widmark) directed by Mark Robson, Fire Down Below (Robert Mitchum, Lack Lemmon, Rita Heyworth), the whaling film Hell Below Zero (Richard Widmark) and others.

SAFARI is scheduled for release in November on Imprint's latest Tales of Adventure Collection 2 Blu-ray set.

Tales of Adventure: Collection 2 – Imprint Collection #266 – #269 | Via Vision Entertainment

Five worldwide Blu-ray debuts!

viavision.com.au

 

[Dan McW]

I thought for sure by this time we would see MacKenna's Gold. The rumor was almost three years ago now that it was being restored. It never materialized. I saw this initially theatrically and again on the Criterion Channel early last year and it had the Julie Newmar nudity (sitting on the rock and the swimming/water sequence in tact. Transfer was outstanding and I felt, well Criterion is going to release this late last year. Best of luck with The Victors. I don't know if the original material with Elke Sommer survived. Strangers When We Meet ( an excellent adult film like The Sandpiper!) and Lord Jim were favorite theatrical viewings and love them both.

There's a Region 2 DVD of The Victors (which I don't have) that has I think the longest-available cut of the film. Might be the same version that AMC once ran. It lists Leo Genn first in the cast on the front cover, but I don't think he was in it. Anyone else notice this?

 

[Simon Lewis]

Fire Down Below was on the Mill Creek Rita Hayworth set. PQ very good.

 

[Robin9]

I've just realised that Beyond Mombasa was a Columbia release. I'd certainly like this on Blu-ray. It was photographed by Freddie Young.

 

[Capt D McMars]

I thought for sure by this time we would see MacKenna's Gold. The rumor was almost three years ago now that it was being restored. It never materialized. I saw this initially theatrically and again on the Criterion Channel early last year and it had the Julie Newmar nudity (sitting on the rock and the swimming/water sequence in tact. Transfer was outstanding and I felt, well Criterion is going to release this late last year. Best of luck with The Victors. I don't know if the original material with Elke Sommer survived. Strangers When We Meet ( an excellent adult film like The Sandpiper!) and Lord Jim were favorite theatrical viewings and love them both.

You're not alone, I have been waiting for MacKenna's Gold and Lord Jim to be given a decent restoration and BD release for over a decade. I know that now that things are stabalising a bit and the studios are back once again working on thier catalogs, it just takes time. Here's to patience and hope...

 

[Dick]

I have the region-free blu from French company Metropolitan, which goes by the translated title "Aux postes de combat."
See on Amazon

David, how is the PQ of this release, and has it any extras?