Warner to let AOL users determine '04 classic releases??!! (1 Viewer)

[Jon Robertson]

I'd like to think this is a direct result of me having posted a letter to Warner Home Video earlier this evening suggesting just such an idea. However, given that it takes several days for an airmail letter to reach California, it seems unlikely.

Still, outstanding news!

 

[Paul_Scott]

i was always under the assumption the '32 version was the one being discussed, and figured, given the inclusion of Mystery of The Wax Museum on the upcming House of Wax disc, that Warner might do the same with the Tracy version (which i doubt would be as much of a draw by itself).
in anycase, i hope the '32 version is headed for disc.

And i am ecstatic that i can look forward to Postman on my shelf in Jan.
it was one of three titles i was holding onto on LD, even though i never pull the player out anymore, just because i never want to feel without a quality copy of it.
(the other two being Libled Lady and A Letter To Three Wives.
LL, according to the chat should be out in '04 also, so maybe i can finally let go of that as well- now Fox just has do me a favor and get that Mankiewicz classic in production and i'll be all set).

very suprised to see Asphalt Jungle not in the list.
i would have figured something like Bad Day At Black Rock a little too obtuse for the average AOL'er , but i thought for sure the pulpy nature of AJ would have made it a shoo-in.

oh well...
6 months till Postman, and Dr Jeckyl
and maybe 18 months at most for TAJ.

thankfully i'll have Robin Hood and some other beauties to bide my time with.

thanks Warner!

 

[Kajs]

Crap, I wanted to see After the Thin Man, Another Thin Man, and Bad Day at Black Rock. But didn't they say that the remaining titles would be released later in the year?

 

[Derek_McL]

Yes the two versions on the same disc is a good idea (the March version isn't really that much better than the Tracy which I think is underrated) and it would be easy to compare them.

I'm frankly very disappointed with the choices
of AOL members only Jekyll and Hyde and The Postman Always Rings Twice interest me in the slightest. How can anyone rank these films above Bad Day at Black Rock and The Asphalt Jungle while MGM musicals also look like they're getting neglected yet again ?

In theory it sounds great that all these titles will come to DVD eventually but Warner seem to be already releasing a whole host of classics in 2004 : silents (?), Marx Brothers, Hitchcocks, Meet Me In St.Louis, That's Entertainment !, more Cagney, Bogart and Flynn.

Where is there going to be space in the schedule for the films that garnered few votes in this survey ? And what about all the films not even mentioned here : the Fred and Ginger musicals, Judy Garland musicals (I know there were two there but what about the many others) , MGM films of the 30s with Gable,Garbo,Tracy and Harlow ? Why weren't any of these included in this survey ?

 

[oscar_merkx]

great to see both versions of Jekyll to appear on 2 discs and looks like 2004 will the Warner dvd year by the look of things to me

 

[Patrick McCart]

ALL of the titles in the survey will be released in 2004. The top 5 just will be the first of the group.

 

[Bill Burns]

None of my titles made it. :frowning: Ha -- oh well. I have eclectic tastes anyway, but I was trying, with my vote, to up the numbers for films I felt many might not have seen (big titles like Postman seemed like shoe-ins, so I didn't choose that, even though I love it). I'm thrilled, however, to learn the 1931 version of Jekyll may be included on the DVD release, and I'd have voted for the title if I'd known this. I've seen both versions, and while Spencer Tracy and Lana Turner do fine work, Fredric March is one of the great screen actors of all time, and his performance in the '31 film is absolutely mesmerizing -- I continue to count his dual work as Jekyll and Hyde as one of the five or ten best screen performances in the history of cinema. To my critical sensibility, his work remains superior to the versions turned in by everyone before and since, from John Barrymore to John Malkovich (I'll be seeing The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen tomorrow, which I understand has yet another depiction of the character, but somehow I expect March will remain at the top of my list).

I agree with Derek, however, about studio commitment to classics: I cherish the major Hollywood musicals (both pre and during the widescreen revolution), and, in general, major studio films of any kind from the 20's and 30's. March, Cagney, Harlow, Loy, Russell, Garfield, Gable, and hundreds of other names, from stars to bit players, are among my favorite performers. I'm a little (not terribly) miffed that any studio should automatically consider a 40's or 50's picture their "primary" property, and an earlier 30's incarnation of that picture a "bonus." For my money, it's the other way around. It doesn't much matter so long as both pictures are treated with equal care and transfered with precision, but if the lion's share of care must go to one or the other, I'd strongly urge it be placed, as a general rule, with the 30's production. There's a magic to late silent and early sound pictures that makes them indescribably entertaining and beautiful, an ornate antique with all the luster and appeal of something brand new. Any studio that commits itself to both the preservation/restoration (foremost) and presentation on home video of late silent/early sound productions will find in me a very receptive, and indeed loyal, customer.

That said, Warner Bros. has been doing a bang-up job with classic titles on the format of late, and I very much look forward to what's in store in 2004.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

If you like March and Tracy so much, don't miss seeing them both on the DVD of Inherit the Wind. I'll let you decide who's Jekyll and who's Hyde.... :b

 

[Deepak Shenoy]

I am a little bummed to see that Asphalt Jungle did not make it in the first batch, but oh well ... it will hopefully be released later in 2004.

-D

 

[Jim Peavy]

Holy smokes! Too cool, if true.

 

[Jon Robertson]

I have a fabulous story I was told about Spencer Tracy's version of Jekyll and Hyde. He refused any make-up for the film, insisting on doing it all through acting, because J.B. Priestley greatly upset him by loudly asking on the set, "Which one is he now?"

 

[Jim Peavy]

I've heard it as Somerset Maugham, but yeah, it's kinda' funny. Bet it upset the (notoriously insecure) Tracy on the set.

The book, Hollywood Cauldron by Gregory Mank (from McFarland pub.) has a great chapter on the 3 versions of J & H: these 2, plus the Barrymore silent version. Excellent reading if anyone's interested. Mank relates the Somerset Maugham quip in the book.

 

[Jon Hertzberg]

In more good news, according to turnerclassicmovies.com the upcoming Postman Always Rings Twice DVD will contain TCM's acclaimed documentary "The John Garfield Story."

Very good news, indeed!

Jon

 

[oscar_merkx]

here are some of the covers for January 2004

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=5770

 

[Thomas T]

Thanks for the link, Oscar. I want all of them, can't wait. Glad to see Paula Prentiss and Connie Francis will be contributing to Where The Boys Are. Hopefully, George Hamilton, Yvette Mimieux and Frank Gorshin will, too. I suppose it's too much to hope that Dolores Hart will venture out of her convent to make a contribution.

 

[LarryDavenport]

Not one single title I wanted. No After the Thin Man or Night of the Iguana!

 

[John KB]

I thought Days of Wine and Roses was to be released on January 6th 2004?

Does anyone know when it is going to be released?

 

[John Hodson]

As Jim points out, not only was it Maugham (alledgedly - these stories do get better with the telling don't they?), but it's obvious that while Tracy eschews monster make-up, he obviously is made-up. I loved the film as a kid; scared the hell out of me. It will be interesting to see it again.

---
So many films, so little time...

 

[Robert Crawford]

It's still up for release on 1/6/04.

Days of Wine and Roses

 

[SvenS]

Just great! Let people who have to have their hand held to get around the internet (AOL users) decide what DVD's get released! Most AOL users probably have little idea of what DVD is or they will insist on a FS version only of whatever wins!

Another case of the marketing losers of corporations screwing up the industry!