Twilight Time announces Blu-ray releases March-June 2013 (1 Viewer)

[lark144]

I can certainly recommend The Only Game in Town. Very underrated - although it's hard to underrate a film that most people haven't seen - but that doesn't stop the yokels on the imdb. It's from a lovely play by Frank D. Gilroy, and it's Elizabeth Taylor and Warren Beatty, both looking impossibly beautiful. And there's some gambling, which is always a plus.

I saw The Only Game In Town in New York City, where I think it only lasted for one week. As I recall, Andrew Sarris had positively reviewed the film in the Village Voice, (my memory is that the film was panned by all the other NY critics) but the only place the film was playing was at The Albermarle in Brooklyn, on Flatbush Avenue. I think I was the only person in the theatre. I believe the film wasn't advertised at all, but I could be mistaken about this, though I remember pouring through the back pages of Cue in order to find a place that was playing the film. And it was a very good film. It's more in the style of Mr. Stevens' earlier work, such as The More The Merrier. The film focuses on the subtle virtues of intimacy and performance, and of course, as Mr. Kimmel has pointed out, when you're dealing with Ms. Taylor and Mr. Beatty, not to mention the inimitable grace of Frank Gilroy's dialogue, how can you go wrong? The only problem I had with the film was that Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton had moved to France because of taxes, so she is always seen in close-up, never in the actual locations of Las Vegas which are intercut with shots of her obviously taken at a studio in Paris. But I imagine I will be buying this. In fact, I've been waiting impatiently for the film to be released on DVD for over a decade.

 

[Moe Dickstein]

TT only came about because of the spread of Warner's Disease, where the major studios becoming paranoid of releasing catalog vintage, because they didn't want to do the hard drudgery work of making niche sales try and recoup the mastering costs. But while Warner just packed them all off to Archive Siberia, Fox is recognizing that we have good small studios that can do the mastering but can't afford to sell them. TT seems better off as a restore-for-hire packaging company for Fox and Sony to handle the hard selling work, and not have to have such a high small-press price as the TT disks. Had Sony been tolerant enough to repackage TT's Mysterious Island or Bye Bye Birdie under a Sony label at more available Sony prices, I'd have bought them. Paramount would be wise to call up Olive Films and get in on the idea.

Nick can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that TT is only involved in the packaging, encoding and sales of the films. All restoration/mastering/element handling is done by Fox or Sony. TT can only release what they are given. That's why certain titles aren't releasable by TT, because as was said earlier in this thread, the elements weren't up to snuff for a blu release without work, which would be down to Fox or Sony to do.

 

[lark144]

Oh, and I saw the Film Foundation's restoration of Leave Her To Heaven at Film Forum in 2010, and it was pretty darn sublime. Believe it or not, this was the first time I had ever seen the film. I talked to my mother about it the next day, and she said Leave Her To Heaven was what her and my dad saw on their first date! Anyway, I bought the Fox DVD afterwards, and although it's decent, the colors just don't hold a candle to this restoration, which I hope will be what's on the Twilight Time Blu Ray. I also think this may be my favorite Alfred Newman score, which of course is an added incentive, as I assume it will be available on a isolated score track.

 

[JoHud]

Thanks for the input on The Only Game in Town. Sounds like it's worth taking a shot at buying.

 

[ahollis]

AT LONG LAST LOVE might be an outcome of the response to LOST HORIZON. Whatever, it will be welcomed as will THE SONG OF BERNADETTE, THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN and MAJOR DUNDEE. Long live Twilight. When I first started working in movie theaters as kid we played THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN for one week in the fall and it was a great little drama. It was sandwiched between one week runs of JOHN & MARY and THE BOYS IN THE BAND.

 

[Will Krupp]

Originally Posted by Ejanss
This is about the only time you'll ever hear anyone describe a release of At Long Last Love as "Good news".
(Tried to watch a half hour on Netflix, and it is the very definition of "Yes, it IS as bad as you've only heard.")

Awwwww...now see I've always found something really endearing about AT LONG LAST LOVE. Saw it many many times on TV as a kid (I think our local ABC affiliate must have owned a print because it showed up ALL THE TIME at really odd hours) and I just can't hate it (as bad as it may objectively be.)
I'll buy it in a heartbeat and I hope hope hope that the extras will include a scene (that must be from Bogdonavich's TV recut) deleted from the theatrical version but part of that version I saw as a kid. Eileen Brennan (I would pay to see her read the phone book because I know she could even make THAT seem hysterical) sings "It Ain't Etiquette" from "DuBarry" to Cybill Shepherd after they leave the racetrack. I was quite shocked seeing the movie many years later only to find that the song was missing (you can still see the cut where it belongs) and was, apparently, only added back in to early TV showings. I've never been able to find it anywhere since.
Very excited about this one and LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (Gene Tierney as cold as ice in those black sunglasses on the lake!)
Can't wait!

 

[Moe Dickstein]

I would imagine that ALLL would be the version that is on Netflix...

 

[Brad Vautrinot]

I've accessed the Screen Archives/Twilight Time site and cannot find any announcements or listings for the above mentioned BD's. Am I missing something? Brad

 

[Matt Hough]

I've already written extensively about my various experiences with At Long Last Love, and I hope to get to review it to put those thoughts in an "official" capacity.
All I hope is that the film is framed correctly and not in Academy ratio which is the way it always seems to play on TV.

 

[Bob Cashill]

TT seems to have announced this schedule on Facebook prior to any official announcement.

 

[Will Krupp]

Originally Posted by Moe Dickstein
I would imagine that ALLL would be the version that is on Netflix...

I'm hoping that the musical sequence I was referring to will be included as a special feature. I think the only version that's circulated for years now is the original theatrical version.

 

[Ejanss]

Awwwww...now see I've always found something really endearing about AT LONG LAST LOVE.  Saw it many many times on TV as a kid (I think our local ABC affiliate must have owned a print because it showed up ALL THE TIME at really odd hours) and I just can't hate it (as bad as it may objectively be.)

Of all the critic quotes that showed up in the Golden Turkeys, my favorite is still John Simon from Esquire, who wrote at the time it was "Like sitting in a fancy Parisian restaurant next to a tourist who neither speaks nor reads French, reading the menu out loud in his best Arkansas accent, occasionally interrupting himself to chortle over his own cleverness." (And yeah, complaints about Burt Reynolds aside, "Struck with its own cuteness" was pretty much the phrase that sprang to my mind, too.) But then, you have to put it as a product of its time: After "That's Entertainment" in 1974, and the 70's "neo-Depression" trend after the success of The Sting, Bonnie & Clyde and Bogdanovich's Paper Moon, audiences were rediscovering "Old movies on late-nite TV", around the same time as studios were mourning their 30's pasts and the "Death of Hollywood", which created a mania for Old-Hollywood Homages between '74-'76. Which usually ended up homaging either an imagined idea of Old RKO Musicals, or an imagined idea of Old Detective Thrillers (The Late Show, Chinatown, Altman's "Long Goodbye"), without ever really having seen them that closely. Billy Wilder, who did know Old 40's Films and was still working in '74-'76, was once quoted as saying, "Hollywood's not a town divided by greed or ego. All it takes to bring this town together again is a flop by Peter Bogdanovich".

 

[Moe Dickstein]

I've already written extensively about my various experiences with At Long Last Love, and I hope to get to review it to put those thoughts in an "official" capacity. All I hope is that the film is framed correctly and not in Academy ratio which is the way it always seems to play on TV.

Link?

 

[ahollis]

D

I would imagine that ALLL would be the version that is on Netflix...

Does that one include the cut song? It's going to be fun to see what they come up with for the release.

 

[Moe Dickstein]

D Does that one include the cut song? It's going to be fun to see what they come up with for the release.

No idea, I haven't made it very far into the film when I tried lol

 

[haineshisway]

Link?

There's no link. At Long Last Love was shown everywhere in 1.85 as it was filmed.

 

[Doug Bull]

Finally and AT LONG LAST - Thank you TT. Surely one of the most unappreciated and misunderstood films of all time. The film was clearly made in fun and that's how it should be viewed. Forget the story, forget any serious acting, forget the bad singing by some and just lighten up and join in the merriment, the great screen personalities and the wonderful Cole Porter melodies and have a good time. It's clear that all those involved in the production had a fun(hic%#) time, so should you. If you ignore the critics and don't take it seriously then "At Long Last Love" is a real hoot from start to finish. The big question is, which cut will we get? I've seen at least 3 various versions and all of them were very different. Finally it's time to retire my worn out 2x disc soundtrack LP and to add another exclusive and fabulous TT release to my collection.

 

[PODER]

AT LONG LAST! I saw ALLL at Radio City when it was first released. There may have been more than a dozen of us in the whole fershluggerin place, but not many. Talk about a Guilty Pleasure! Now if someone would only release THE SONG OF NORWAY, starring The International Singing Sensation Toralv Maurstad, and featuring some of Hollywood's best voices, including Robert Morley, Oskar Homolko and Edward G. "The Singing Fool" Robinson. All I remember about that one is the crazed villagers who were leaping about in the background in pretty much every single scene.

 

[Persianimmortal]

The LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN transfer is from 2010, and generated with assistance from Martin Scorsese's Foundation. Needless to say, it is stunning.

Absolutely fantastic news. I've been waiting for Leave Her To Heaven on blu for some time, great to see TT come through with the goods.

 

[Moe Dickstein]

There's no link. At Long Last Love was shown everywhere in 1.85 as it was filmed.

I was referring to Matt's writings, I'd be interested to read them if he would link to where he wrote them...