WARNER ARCHIVE – MORE QUALITY RELEASES PLEASE (1 Viewer)

[davidmatychuk]

I took a look at LOCAL HERO on Filmstruck last night. It is in SD and has the same PQ as the DVD. :-(

Come on, Criterion. Bill Forsyth Blu-Ray box set: "Gregory's Girl", "Local Hero", "Comfort And Joy", and "Housekeeping". You may add "That Sinking Feeling" at your discretion. Nothing to it! You may use my idea for free.

 

[PMF]

For all the titles not released I find that there are plenty of available others still to catch up on.
Of course those captures come from Twilight Time, Criterion and Kino Lorber.
WAC will distribute - like all others - what they will; and, likewise, I will pick and choose from my own interests, as well.
Good luck to both sides, I say;
but in the end, my library of BD's consists in larger parts of titles that stem from thier aforementioned competitors. Is that deliberate? Not at all. I've got no ax to grind with WAC. We love their work, we love their prices. But the waiting part is where they lose their points. The question here for WAC is not when do they plan to release our many coveted titles but, rather, will they ever?

 

[trajan007]

Warner owns 7 out of 12 films I want to own on bluray, so alot of hope rides on Warner.

 

[Worth]

I took a look at LOCAL HERO on Filmstruck last night. It is in SD and has the same PQ as the DVD. :-(

There is a decent looking HD transfer of Local Hero out there somewhere, but I can't remember where I saw it.

 

[PMF]

There is a decent looking HD transfer of Local Hero out there somewhere, but I can't remember where I saw it.

Somewhere Local, I presume.

 

[Ed Lachmann]

Well, obviously somebody at Universal cares enough to lease out a bevy of Ernst Lubisch titles to Elephant Films in France. Coming soon are Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, If I Had a Million, One Hour With You and Design For Living (already a BD from Criterion). This follows their fine group of HD Doug Sirk and Powell-Pressburger titles. I would suppose that WB has to upgrade most titles it wants to make available for streaming to 4K in order to make use of the new standard in HDTVs. Perhaps, if we're lucky, they might make some masters available to foreign sources since a market for our classics seems to still exist in places like France and Germany, especially for director-centric collectors. For myself, if Helen of Troy made it into a Robert Wise group, Land of the Pharaohs made it into a Howard Hawks group or Julius Caesar made it into a Joseph L. Mankiewicz group I'd be ecstatic. Just maybe our classics can be enjoyed from afar by those able or intelligent enough to appreciate them. Just wish Elephant Films would consider Mitch Leisen or C.B. DeMille, although the latter's Cleopatra blu-ray will be released by Universal USA next week.

 

[RICK BOND]

Helen of Troy, I wish !! .....Ivanhoe, and Knights of the Round Table. I would be Ecstatic. ...BUT WHEN ??? : (

 

[Sadsack]

Is there an interactive Warner Archive blog anywhere else besides Facebook? Like the KINO LORBER INSIDER thread here on hometheater? I'm not joining FB just to ask a question.

 

[[email protected]]

Well, obviously somebody at Universal cares enough to lease out a bevy of Ernst Lubisch titles to Elephant Films in France. Coming soon are Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, If I Had a Million, One Hour With You and Design For Living (already a BD from Criterion). This follows their fine group of HD Doug Sirk and Powell-Pressburger titles. I would suppose that WB has to upgrade most titles it wants to make available for streaming to 4K in order to make use of the new standard in HDTVs. Perhaps, if we're lucky, they might make some masters available to foreign sources since a market for our classics seems to still exist in places like France and Germany, especially for director-centric collectors. For myself, if Helen of Troy made it into a Robert Wise group, Land of the Pharaohs made it into a Howard Hawks group or Julius Caesar made it into a Joseph L. Mankiewicz group I'd be ecstatic. Just maybe our classics can be enjoyed from afar by those able or intelligent enough to appreciate them. Just wish Elephant Films would consider Mitch Leisen or C.B. DeMille, although the latter's Cleopatra blu-ray will be released by Universal USA next week.

Wow! If I Had A Million. Finally, W.C. Fields on Blu-ray!

 

[Randy Korstick]

Is there an interactive Warner Archive blog anywhere else besides Facebook? Like the KINO LORBER INSIDER thread here on hometheater? I'm not joining FB just to ask a question.

Nope but they also answer questions on Twitter.

 

[Sadsack]

Maybe some kind fellow can pass along an inquiry...? Wondering if there's any plans for a restored bluray of "Fallen Sparrow"(1943).

 

[skylark68]

Might not be the right place, but any word on when the release of Dark of the Sun and Colossus of Rhodes is getting released? I'm really excited about these...

 

[zoetmb]

If you think you have complaints now, then you should start being very afraid if AT&T gets hold of Warner because I can practically guarantee you that they'll be looking for expenses to cut to pay for the acquisition and please shareholders and I could well see Warner Archive and even non-commercial TCM disappearing. And if the merger doesn't go through, it's said that the studio will be sold anyway and if it's sold to a company who cares only about $$$ and not legacy, there could also be a problem as they shift to primarily market recent films that make the big $$$.

 

[Tony Bensley]

If you think you have complaints now, then you should start being very afraid if AT&T gets hold of Warner because I can practically guarantee you that they'll be looking for expenses to cut to pay for the acquisition and please shareholders and I could well see Warner Archive and even non-commercial TCM disappearing. And if the merger doesn't go through, it's said that the studio will be sold anyway and if it's sold to a company who cares only about $$$ and not legacy, there could also be a problem as they shift to primarily market recent films that make the big $$$.

Well, this is very disturbing!

Hopefully, things don't go as said!

CHEERS!

 

[M90GM]

Warner are releasing a strange mix of M-G-M titles to blu ray - musical classics like Seven brides for Seven brothers with Les Girls with Colossus of Rhodes? Never so Few? These were neither box office nor critical successes so I guess they believe there is a market out there waiting to discover these titles. Home from the Hill and Naked and the Dead are now in release but Night Moves....Hell on Frisco Bay ...on Blu Ray ...ahead of hundreds of bigger more popular critically acclaimed M-G-M titles that are begging for a blu ray upgrade lie idle in the Warner tank with second tier sellers continuing to release failed and B grad pics at a premium price. I will never understand how the market works, or, how the decision makers think....does anyone want Interrupted Melody, Student Prince, Green Fire, Mogambo, Rose Marie, Something of Value and older Waterloo Bridge, Gaslight, Maytime, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Blossoms in the Dust, Valley of Decision, Test Pilot, Boom Town .....and so on ...

But we get from the second tier companies Awful Dr Orloff, Canadian Pacific, Ambush at Cimarron Pass, Captain Fabian, Rapid Fire, April Love, Five Steps to Danger, Crime of Passion . . . .

 

[RICK BOND]

Four months left in 2018. The Hammer Films ? Gangster 30's & 40's ? MGM & WB 50's Adventure, Epics ??? : ( ?? No Errol Flynn again this year ??? : (

 

[Alan Tully]

Yes Warner, more quality releases...that I want! Please. I reckon that tomorrow could be an announcement day (even money).

 

[trajan007]

GOODBYE MR CHIPS---PENNIES FROM HEAVEN----THE BUTCHER BOY---LOCAL HERO----THE SHELTERING SKY----WHOS LIFE IS IT ANYWAY?---UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE---WRESTLING ERNEST HEMINGWAY.

 

[PMF]

GOODBYE MR CHIPS---PENNIES FROM HEAVEN----THE BUTCHER BOY---LOCAL HERO----THE SHELTERING SKY----WHOS LIFE IS IT ANYWAY?---UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE---WRESTLING ERNEST HEMINGWAY.

Ditto on "Goodbye Mr. Chips" (both versions).
Fine with the rest mentioned, but these two demand a BD release. A wealth of 1939 titles are now already available on BD, so why not this key titile that won Robert Donat the Oscar for Best Actor? The 1969 version also has many attributes, including this being one of the 8 Best Actor nominations for Peter O' Toole.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

I really wish WB would retire the decades-old, color manipulated standard def transfers from UCLA dupe elements; go back to the surviving 35mm nitrate originals and present MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM and DR. X in the original two-color (red/green) Technicolor.

The versions recently broadcast on TCM are outdated, primitive transfers. These classic films deserve better.