Warner Archive Press Release: The Opposite Sex (1956) (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[lark144]

I suppose with her it just Depends ...

...on how close one is to her fists?

If Helen of Troy possessed a face that launched a thousand ships, June Allyson had fists that launched multiple memoirs.

 

[Alan Tully]

No, this "Bad Education" is a 2019 movie that HBO acquired starring Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney based on an actual criminal case in which some public school officials embezzled millions of dollars.

Oh right, a Warner release, but not I'd think an Archive release.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Oh right, a Warner release, but not I'd think an Archive release.

Yet, it’s already listed on Amazon as a WA release on September 8th.

 

[Dick]

Many will disagree, but I am finding this a remarkably disappointing year for WAC so far.

 

[Robin9]

Many will disagree, but I am finding this a remarkably disappointing year for WAC so far.

You're right: many will disagree and I'm one of them.

 

[Andrew Budgell]

You're right: many will disagree and I'm one of them.

Agreed. WAC's 2020 and 2019 output have been the strongest for me since 2016. I've been grateful to cross a number of films off my wish list.

 

[cinemel1]

Indeed. But, it's not in this film.

The song Thanks A Lot but No Thanks is from It’s Always Fair Weather where Dolores Gray plays a TV star. The film was supposed to be sort of a follow up to On The Town with the sailors meeting years later. Unfortunately they couldn‘t get the same cast together and had to be satisfied with Kelly, Dan Dailey and Michael Kidd. Fair Weather was not too successful and came at a time when musicals were not such a popular genre. However, that aside, it is an entertaining film with lots of good numbers Including Gray’s.

 

[Alan Tully]

Many will disagree, but I am finding this a remarkably disappointing year for WAC so far.

Ha, well I agree, in fact I'd go further, the last few years have been disappointing (for me, anyway). I say that looking at all that they have & what they choose to release (it's like they're keeping the good stuff for best...like my parents with their posh dinner service set, we never ever used it!). Oh well, I'm buying the Wayne, I do love American fifties war movies, especially the ones set in the Pacific, & I have hopes for a favourite at the other end of the fifties, James Garner in, Up Periscope (1959).

Anyway, that's two titles revealed, by mistake it seems. There must be a couple more to be announced, tomorrow or Tuesday week?

 

[DeanHarris]

This one is worth watching just for the jaw-dropping banana number.

 

[RICK BOND]

Many will disagree, but I am finding this a remarkably disappointing year for WAC so far.

I Agree 100% ! All I got was Tex Avery Vol.1 this year. My next for sure purchase will be Tex Avery Vol.2 and The Flintstones Complete Series. So many famous popular Classics of the 1930's to 1950's that are Not getting released ! I would like to know WHY ?

 

[Astairefan]

I'm going to wade into this, and say that I do agree that WAC is having a good year (but can you blame me, when I'm particularly fond of musicals, and, as I have stated numerous times before, they have been releasing fewer and fewer musicals on blu, down to only two last year that were new-to-blu). I will admit, I'm not as thrilled with the announcement of The Opposite Sex. Don't get me wrong, I want it, and, in a previous year, I would be willing to grab it full price, day 1. But, with them promising more Judy Garland (possibly at least one more film this year), more Fred Astaire and some Eleanor Powell (whether they were referring to Broadway Melody Of 1940, which stars both of them, who know), all of which are MUCH higher on my list of wants, I have to wait for this one.
All that being said, I do think we should cut WAC some slack this year, as, like it or not, the pandemic has hurt what they can do. I mean, if I'm interpreting everything I'm hearing/reading correctly, they (or rather, Warner's MPI, the people who actually restore these films) SHUT DOWN when the pandemic hit in mid-March. Otherwise translated, they weren't handling film elements or anything of that sort, just releasing stuff that was far enough along in the pipeline that they could work on it from home (to be fair, I know nothing about film restoration, so I might full well be wrong about this). I assume they seem to have opened back up when the rest of the country tried to a month or so ago, but that still was nearly three months or so that they shut down. I mean, considering the time frame, I am NOT surprised we haven't seen Tex Avery Volume 2 yet, as they would have to have been far enough along to do it LESS THAN A MONTH after Volume 1 was released. That's a lot to ask, whether or not it was a popular release. And I figure that this is also why we have gotten slightly fewer releases over the last few months. And as far as the thirties films are concerned? Why don't you ask all the people who don't seem to get the fact that those movies are a bit more expensive to restore, and buy them on sale, (or worse, demand box sets that may never come)? Seriously, THAT is why we aren't getting as many. I mean, the way it seems, according to one poster on the other forum, NONE of the not-yet-released-on-blu films from the thirties being put on HBO Max have new transfers, so it doesn't look too good for getting many of the classics from that decade that we want (unless people get wise to themselves and start buying stuff from that decade at full price near release date in greater numbers).

 

[Dick]

I actually not dissing WAC. My post merely said this was (for me) a disappointing year regarding their releases. One man's poison... And, yes, I get that the pandemic is almost certainly causing problems due to smaller staffs, fewer people able to work on restoring or remastering, getting them packed and replicated.

 

[Arthur Powell]

I'm glad to see WAC starting to focus more on pre-1950 academy ratio titles after several years of not doing much with them. That said, from my perspective, they're sort of doing the same thing that Twilight Time did - dancing around the catalog and somehow missing a lot of my top wants. For example, the June Allyson title I really want is Good News. In comparison, The Opposite Sex feels like a consolation prize. As consolation prizes go though, I can't really complain, and I do plan on pre-ordering it. So far this year, I've only picked up The Mystery of the Wax Museum, the House of Wax reissue, and the Tex Avery volume. Add The Opposite Sex and that makes four for me thus far.The other titles like the Mick 'n' Joots films, Million Dollar Mermaid, Pride and Prejudice, the Hepburn and Tracy films, etc. are nice and are sure to please a lot, but they're simply not top wants for me, and I can wait for sales for them. Perhaps what I'm trying to say is that I haven't had an exciting release like The Thin Man or The Sea Hawk for 2020 yet. Announce something like Captain Blood, Gentleman Jim, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Kings Row, Three Little Words, Seven Faces of Dr. Lao, The Strawberry Blonde, The Great Ziegfeld, The Shop Around the Corner, The Roaring Twenties, one of the Thin Man sequels, etc. and you'll get me excited. This is entirely my perspective, and I certainly don't intend for this to be a WAC bash fest.

To be fair, I think "disappointment" is too strong a word for me to use. Maybe underwhelmed, but I also readily see that WAC is trying to do a great job and doing a very good job of accomplishing that. They have to make their projects economically feasible, and sometimes the film elements aren't exactly cooperative. I'm expecting a slow-down given the shut-down, but nonetheless I'm looking forward to future announcements like Dr. X, The Harvey Girls, and In the Good Old Summertime.

 

[lionel59]

" Thanks A Lot ,But No Thanks"........is a great song sung by Dolores Gray

Yes. Sung in IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER. She sang wonderfully in KISMET too.
This remake is fun and way more entertaining than the ill-advised Meg Ryan remake, which was a "chick flick" in the worst sense of the term. I don't think adding males was a good idea, though we get an early screen appearance by Dick Shawn as a real bonus.
Interesting footnote, June Allyson, who sang on Broadway and usually did her own singing in movies, is dubbed by Jo Ann Greer in one of her songs in this semi-musical ('A Perfect Love'). Jo sang for Esther Williams in JUPITER'S DARLING (a guilty pleasure I'd love to have on blu ray) and for Rita Hayworth in PAL JOEY.
I wish Warners would consider releasing the Cinemascope remake of THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET with Jennifer Jones. No authorised home video release of this as yet as far as I know. Sidney Franklin considered it superior to his earlier version with Norma Shearer. Filmed in England with Freddie Young as the DP. John Gielgud gives a more layered performance than Charles Laughton as Mr Barrett and I believe it is the first time Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna were on screen together. An oddly ignored MGM catalogue title.

 

[battlebeast]

I suppose with her it just Depends ...

 

[Matt Hough]

Interesting footnote, June Allyson, who sang on Broadway and usually did her own singing in movies, is dubbed by Jo Ann Greer in one of her songs in this semi-musical ('A Perfect Love'). Jo sang for Esther Williams in JUPITER'S DARLING (a guilty pleasure I'd love to have on blu ray) and for Rita Hayworth in PAL JOEY.

While Jo Ann does an admirable job singing "A Perfect Love," it's very poorly placed in the movie as June herself has just finished singing (in flashback) "Young Man with a Horn" in her own voice, and then when the dubbed number happens so soon afterwards, it's jarring. Even someone who doesn't know much about movie ghosting could tell something was badly off.

 

[Thomas T]

I wish Warners would consider releasing the Cinemascope remake of THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET with Jennifer Jones. No authorised home video release of this as yet as far as I know. Sidney Franklin considered it superior to his earlier version with Norma Shearer.

I'd snap that up in a micro second but I can already hear the hissy fit thrown by the Norma Shearer fanboys about how inferior the remake is and how dare Warners not release their darling Norma's creaky ... er, "classic" version instead. Maybe Warners can tack on the 1934 version as a "bonus feature" to appease them.

 

[JPCinema]

Wrong film....oops

 

[JPCinema]

Indeed. But, it's not in this film.

My quarantined mistake.

 

[redhotandbluetechnicolor]

Even though I will admit the original is the superior of the two films, I am over the moon that this eye poppingly brilliant piece of 50’s camp is making it’s way to blu