Warner Controversial Classics Collection May! (1 Viewer)

[Eric Peterson]

One word!! WOW!

 

[Ruz-El]

artwork looks classy! Can't wait!

 

[Doug Bull]

Am I right in suggesting that The Blackboard Jungle introduced both the word Rape and Rock and Roll to the screen for the very first time?

Who could forget those fabulous MGM openning titles featuring Rock around the Clock with Bill Haley and the Comets.
I still remember my parents being shocked when most of the teenagers at the local Cinema started clapping and dancing in the aisles.( If memory serves I think I just clapped in time with the music )

As somebody else has said, it is much cheaper to buy the complete set, as I'm sure that in the end most will be happy and quite pleased with them all.

I must say that although their Classic releases are a little sparse, the quality of Columbia DVDs have been mostly excellent, especially their old Technicolor ones.

Universal have released some really enjoyable, yet cheap box sets and the quality of these has also been mainly excellent.
I just wish that they would release more of their old Paramount catalogue such as Trail of the Lonesome Pine , Beau Geste, The Uninvited also Bing Crosby, Cary Grant, Alan Ladd, Betty Hutton, Martin and Lewis, William Holden, Paulette Goddard, Janette McDonald, Maurice Chevalier, Helen Kane, Gary Cooper, Clara Bow and others.

I don't think Fox have released anywhere near enough older titles.
Where are the Musicals and Westerns?
They have a great catalogue that has hardly been touched.
Regardless of what other have said, I think that they have released some very ordinary looking transfers.
While most of their remastered Cinemascope efforts have been excellent, some of their black and White releases have been most dissapointing, some of them look really ugly.

Warners at this time (with a lot of praise to George) is way out in front on both volume and quality.
They have certainly lifted their game from what it was a few years ago.

 

[Craig S]

Man, that's the truth. Up until about 2-3 years ago this place was filled with complaints about Warner sitting on their vast catalog.

Then the 2-disc SEs started appearing, and then the bargain classic box sets... They've definitely turned it around big time.

 

[Michael Elliott]

Joe, considering they are releasing 1-2 boxes a month, I really don't have any fear that we'll eventually get a MGM Classic Horrors or 50's Drive-In Horrors boxes.

I've never had a problem with Warner and I've always felt they were the #1 studio out there. Even though they weren't releasing their "big titles", hasn't the wait been worth it? With all the titles they are releasing I really don't see the need to worry about certain titles coming out. They've done good at mixing smaller stuff with the big guys and when the big guys are out then there will be more room for smaller films.

However, perhaps this was just a plan by Warner. Let the other studios release all their "A" titles and then Warner would come along and really release theirs. The other studios don't have too many "A" titles left yet Warner could release 2 boxes a month for the next two years and we'd still have a lot of great stuff to look forward to.

Best of all, we know Warner cares enough to give us great quality at a great price.

 

[Doug Bull]

Quote: "The other studios don't have too many "A" titles left...

Kidding of course, although I guess it all boils down to what constitutes an "A" title.

Universal has a virtual goldmine at their fingertips, not to mention Fox as well.
Columbia still has a lot of good stuff with only MGM-UA starting to get near the bottom of their resources.

 

[Michael Elliott]

Warner still has tons of "legendary" films, ala their Gangster Collection, Cagney, Tracy, Bogart, Brando, Newman and various other legends. Most of the other guys already have out their "big" titles. It could depend on what we consider "A" titles but I'm not sure if any of the other guys have a KING KONG still in their vaults.

 

[dave bula]

Thanks, Adam. I thought that might be the case once I saw that a couple of the films in my (Warner's) Film Noir Set had been made by RKO. However, I didn't mention it in my post here, because I had just recently listened to the commentary for Desk Set, in which Dina Merrill said that she and her husband now owned RKO. She also talked about some of the old Robert Mitchum titles that they had in their RKO library. So I wasn't sure if Warners acutally had control of the old RKO library, or if they had just made some kind of deal that would allow them to include those particular RKO films in the Film Noir box set.

 

[Derek Estes]

The artwork looks amazing! I'm thrilled at all of the releases Warners is releasing in the coming months!

To Dave,
Warners holds the rights to the RKO films, yet RKO seems to still hold the rights to the stories and/or scripts. A while ago I was looking at the present RKO site, and they are working on several remakes of classic RKO films. I don't totally understand it, but I'm sure someone here could explain it better.

 

[Roger Rollins]

Warner Bros. owns the entire RKO library in perpetuity, subject to certain films (GOLDWYN, DISNEY) that RKO only distributed for a fee, and also subject to Internatiomal rights that were sold off by RKO's former management to foreign entities. Eventually, all right revent to WB, as WB owns TUrner Entertainment, who purchased the availablie, remaining rights in the later RKO films from Gold Key.

The current company called RKO only owns the name and remake rights to some of the older films.

Bottom line....we have hundreds of great films to look forward to on DVD

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Well, DVD will be 8 years old next month! And since the talk is that things are getting ready to move to HD or Blu-Ray by year's end, maybe Warner will get all the Drive-In 50s type stuff out on DVD; after all, it wasn't until LD was on its last legs that they released lesser know horror titles like Boris Karloff's THE WALKING DEAD (1936) to Laserdisc ...

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

You know what would have been a great film to include in this collection: Caged (1950, John Cromwell)

Warner said it would be released in 2005 in last years Warner Chat here at HTF.

But as long as it does come out this year, I'll be satisfied.

 

[John Hodson]

Specs for the set have been posted at thedvdforums.com here.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Loved the specs, I see Glenn Ford's son is involved with the "Blackboard Jungle" commentary. I think Glenn Ford is going to be either 89 or 90 this year, so I'm not surprise he's not participating in the commentary. I like how Warner uses different film historians for their commentaries.






Crawdaddy

 

[Thomas T]

Was hoping that Anne Francis would be part of a commentary since two of her films (Blackboard Jungle, Bad Day At Black Rock) are part of the collection. I suppose it doesn't bode well for any contribution from her for the upcoming Forbidden Planet SE.

Does anyone know if Ms. Francis was approached and refused to contribute or was she simply not asked?

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

I'm excited about the set, but it sucks that Warner couldn't license the John Sturges commentary track from the Criterion BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK LD, which is one of the best I've ever heard.

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

I was helplessly hoping that the Sturges' Criterion LD commentary would be on Bad Day. It looks like I'll never hear it. Bad Day is one of my favourite American films of the Fifties.

I'm still stoked about this set and the specs are excellent. Great, great value, as ever from Warner.

 

[JimKr]

Was surprised to see this box set on the shelf at my local retailer today, several days before the street date. Looking forward to starting on it this evening.