hmm...well, it (Fog Over Frisco)'s the only one I haven't actually watched before, but I'm a HUGE William Dieterle fan + the French New Wave people always RAVED about it and I've been dreaming about seeing it since I was a kid...
Dan--we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one--I think Beyond the Forest is a fascinating movie (but then, I'm a big fan of King Vidor too)--while Corn is Green (while certainly deserving of a release) is way down on my list of Davis movies...
DVD collectors may want to hurry and buy up Vol 1 and Vol 2 for Bette Davis in the good old fashioned none space saving format box sets before they are re-released on April 1st. I say this even for those that may be thinking about holding off for the new artwork as Amazon has Vol 2 going for 39.99 in the old box set type that has 7 DVD's (4 single disc movies, 1 double disc movie and the Bette Davis Story DVD.
After April 1st, the new Vol 2 set packaging will run you 53.99 and only has listed 6 discs as they must have excluded the Bette Davis Story from their new box set for Vol 2.
YES! They have individual keep cases!!!!!!! NICE work! I love the cover art work! Can't wait to get this set now... Makes me wonder why they went cheap on the Crawford set? Doesn't make much sense. Oh well.. LOVE THIS SET already with the indiv. keep cases!
I am pleasantly surprised by the packaging decision on Bette V3 and Gangsters V3. I am assuming that the repackaged Bette V1 and V2 will be in keepcases as well. I don't know why they didn't give Joan V2 the same treatment.
re: "Joan maybe, but Kate has always been loved and adored by the general public"
I don't want to start a Bette vs. Joan vs. Kate argument here .... but!
Kate Hepburn was always more of a critics darling than a favorite of the general public. She didn't even make the box office top 10 until the mid 60s with films like Guess Who's Coming To Dinner and The Lion In Winter. During the 30s and 40s, it was Davis and Crawford who had them lined up at the box office. Hepburn was always too unconventional to appeal to the general public. It wasn't until the mid 60s when Hepburn's iconoclastic style seemed more in tune with newer generation that she became more appealing.
I loved all three actresses, but to be fair, Hepburn was considered box office poison and left Hollywood before returning to do "The Philadelphia Story" of which she owned the film rights. Her films did better afterwards especially the ones with Tracy, but she was never the box office draw that Bette Davis was in her career. Crawford box office appeal was up and down too.
However, what happened so many years ago has little to with today's consumers. It's a different audience now and even those that are still around when those actresses were in their last heydays in 1960s and 1970s, probably have slightly different film taste today. I know I do. It would be interesting to see the sales data on these boxsets. Without question, I think Warner considers Bette Davis the first lady of their catalog and they probably use TCM as a marketing tool to measure the market's temperature.
Agree with Thomas's and Crawdaddy's comments. On another board someone started a thread asking for names of classic stars that members DIDN'T like. A very large number listed Kate Hepburn and some went out of their way to really put her down. It did take me by surprise since she is one of my favorites. Then again, I don't really care for Crawford so we all have our likes and dislikes.
Both the Bette Davis V3 and Gangster V3 are in keepcases. From the advertising it seems the Gangster V1 and V2 were re-issued in keepcases with updated outer slipcovers. I suspect the same is true with Bette V1 and V2 as well.
I just got my BD Collection #3 today. Oddly it had two copies of "In This Our Life" instead of "Watch on the Rhine". I don't really mind since I DID NOT want "Watch on the Rhine". I wish the set had included "A Stolen Life" instead of "Watch on the Rhine".