WB announces new Bogart Collection (1 Viewer)

[Larry Sutliff]

They Drive By Night?

Wow! I didn't see that one coming!

Me neither! Haven't seen that film since the old days of fuzzy UHF broadcasts. Can't wait to see it again!

 

[Joe Caps]

Lets say it again - WE NEED BETTE DAVIS. She made so many great films for warners - its embarrasing.
Needed - A stolen Life
All This and Heaven Too
Private Lives of elizabeth and essex
In This Our Life
The Old Maid
and about twenty more titles

 

[Cees Alons]

Personally, I don't find it appropriate to start ...ahem... nagging here, about any other film I want from their almost infinite catalogue.

I'm extremely glad with this announcement. Hope they will make it a box set (just ordered the Warner Legends Collection, discussed in another thread already).

THANKS, Warner!

Cees

 

[Herb Kane]

And to think I was excited about the Treasures, Robin Hood and Yankee Doodle announcement... This news has made my week!!

 

[Robert Crawford]

Good point! Warner should be applauded for speeding up their output of catelogue titles and in time such stars as Spencer Tracy, James Cagney, Myrna Loy and Bette Davis will be well represented with dvd releases.




Crawdaddy

 

[Rob Ray]

She may not warrant a specific collection of her own, but I'd personally love to see Myrna Loy better represented on disc, as well,

The way the format has taken off now, it's just a matter of time before we see the Sig Rumann Collection! Seriously, Myrna Loy had a very nice laserdisc box set devoted to her, so there's no reason to think a DVD box won't eventually turn up.

Which reminds me -- TCM did a documentary on her several years ago and called it "Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To." I remember it later showing up on a list of upcoming video releases as simply "Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come..."

 

[oscar_merkx]

fantastic news indeed and it is becoming better all the time with all of these releases coming out from the WB lot, that it is very hard to keep up with all of these announcements

 

[Roderick Gauci]

This is great news, so long as the supplements are complementary (as indeed they seem to be) and not just redundant fluff. The four films are good Bogarts, particularly TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1944); actually, I’d have preferred it if these titles were to be released as a set.

I have recently watched THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT (1940) for the second time: entertaining, fast-paced, hard-boiled dialogue, a reliable cast – all in all the typical Warner Bros. film of the early 40s. Bogart has a meaty enough role though his character is subsidiary to that of George Raft who’s not all that interesting, unfortunately; it’s enough to say that the two leading ladies – Ida Lupino and Ann Sheridan – act circles around him!

HIGH SIERRA (1941) is the Bogart film that propelled him to stardom which, like THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT, was helmed by Raoul Walsh and co-starred Ida Lupino. The film hasn’t aged very well – the ‘criminal-with-a-heart-of-gold’ plot has turned into cliché – but once again the Warner stock company of actors and crew keep it moving along and, really, it shouldn’t prove disappointing to anyone who’ll be approaching it for the first time. Walsh himself later remade it in Western garb as COLORADO TERRITORY (1949) with Joel McCrea replacing Bogart; a more routine version in color followed, retitled I DIED A THOUSAND TIMES (1955) and starring Jack Palance.

I think I have said it often enough but I consider Howard Hawks to be the greatest American film-maker ever. So, naturally, I’ll be all over TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT come November: notable for being the screen’s first pairing of Bogart and Bacall, the film also draws interesting parallels with CASABLANCA (1942) – which Hawks seems not to have liked very much (as was the case with HIGH NOON [1952], which he restyled into his own RIO BRAVO [1959]); in fact, though the film was based on a novel by Ernest Hemingway, Hawks brought in his favorite writers Jules Furthman and William Faulkner to rework the plot. The film was subsequently remade twice by Warners - as Michael Curtiz’s THE BREAKING POINT (1950), starring John Garfield, and Don Siegel’s THE GUN RUNNERS (1958), starring Audie Murphy!

DARK PASSAGE (1947) is the most underrated Bogart/Bacall effort, a competent noir-ish revenge tale most notable for its use of the subjective camera during the earlier stages of the film. Nothing new here for Bogart to do, but nonetheless a fine thriller that also features Agnes Moorehead in a typically high-strung, villainous role.

Still, I think that at this point in time we need to see a lot more of Cagney, Robinson and Flynn on DVD. Bogart is very well represented on disc – by number if not by the stellar quality of the presentation – and, really, all of Hollywood’s Golden Era is sadly lacking still and I wish that more of these classic films are forthcoming in the near future. Now that Warners has set the standards, let’s hope other studios follow suit!

 

[Deepak Shenoy]

I don't want to be obvious but SURELY a full-on MALTESE FALCON can't be far off ?

Maltese Falcon digitally restored by Lowry Digital Images would make a great DVD (and it is my favorite Bogart movie too). But I don't expect Warner to re-release it anytime soon.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

The way the format has taken off now, it's just a matter of time before we see the Sig Rumann Collection!

And I would be the first in line to buy it. A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, A DAY AT THE RACES, NINOTCHKA, HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN-did Sig ever make a bad film?

 

[george kaplan]

To Have & Have Not is certainly not a lesser Bogart title. Along with Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, The Big Sleep, Key Largo, the African Queen and a couple of others, it's top tier Bogie.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Also, "High Sierra" isn't a lesser title either and if this breakout film for him and John Huston was never made, we probably would never have heard of Bogart being a film icon nor how good of a director Huston became.

Furthermore, "Dark Passage" is one of my favorite Bogart films with its unique camera work.





Crawdaddy

 

[Rodney]

They Drive By Night on DVD! Fantastic!
and To Have and Have Not as well? I think this year has been a great year for DVD lovers of old movies. Thanks studios, for opening up the vaults.

Have you ever been stung by a dead bee?

 

[Jeff_HR]

At the rate that WB is releasing classics, it won't take a very long time until their titles are half of my library.

 

[Cees Alons]

True. Although, well, some of the other studios are very busy too filling my cabinets.

Cees

 

[Eric Peterson]

Another item to add to my shopping list as I will pick this up without hesitation.

I hope that they add a fair number of extras to "To Have and Have Not". This is one of the all-time Bogie classics and probably my personal favorite, as well as it being the movie where his relationship with Bacall flourished. Their scenes together are absolutely amazing.

 

[TimJS]

DVD Times provides the following run-down of the disc specs:



Tim

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

Now the question for me is, do I buy Dark Passage, a film I'm not that wild about, to get "Slick Hare," one of the funniest Bugs Bunny cartoons ever? ("Why did you hit me in the face with a coconut custard pie with whipped cream?") Decisions, decisions...

 

[Seymour Uranowitz]

Now the question for me is, do I buy Dark Passage, a film I'm not that wild about, to get "Slick Hare," one of the funniest Bugs Bunny cartoons ever?

Dark Passage gets better with multiple viewings. The camera work, San Francisco locations, the chemistry between the leads, Houseley Stevenson as the creepy plastic surgeon...it's all good.

And Slick Hare as a bonus makes it a no-brainer...whether you're a fan of Bogart, Bacall, noir, or Bugs Bunny.

 

[Eric Peterson]

Those look like pretty decent extras. I was hoping for a commentary track on "To Have and Have Not", but I'm not complaining. I will definitely pick up all four.

Does anybody know if these are being released in a boxset or only seperately?