Warner Archive Announcements Thread (13 Viewers)

[Ejanss]

Would love to see a good transfer of Life with Father. I've suffered through mediocre transfers on disc and on TCM for years and never has it looked very good. The film's excellence in design, performance, music, and pace has kept me interested in revisiting it all these decades.

Life With Father is a notorious longtime lifer of the Public-Domain rogues-gallery, so I wouldn't put much stock alone in the fact that it showed up on a streaming service.
If Warner Archive HAS done work on it for a disk release, its official restoration is long overdue, and it'll be nice to see another lost soul reclaimed, but that's If.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Life With Father is a notorious longtime lifer of the Public-Domain rogues-gallery, so I wouldn't put much stock alone in the fact that it showed up on a streaming service.
If Warner Archive HAS done work on it for a disk release, its official restoration is long overdue, and it'll be nice to see another lost soul reclaimed, but that's If.

Warner Archive has done work on it as the HBO Max stream looks pristine. I suspect it will be released on BD.

 

[TravisR]

The Plot Against America was great TV. Even if it's only on DVD.

 

[Thomas T]

I suspect it will be released on BD.

That bodes well for other public domain titles under Warners control like Royal Wedding and Till The Clouds Roll By.

 

[Astairefan]

That bodes well for other public domain titles under Warners control like Royal Wedding and Till The Clouds Roll By.

Well, we'll see. After all, we're still waiting for Life With Father to be announced, with both that and Tennessee Johnson as the first two titles with new masters on HBO to not have a Blu-ray announced with the next batch of announcements. That, and they were asked on the last podcast (I think?) about PD titles, with them saying that they are tricky to do anything with. They said it's possible that some might see a WAC BD release, but obviously, it's not a guarantee (mind you, I haven't listened to the podcast itself, I'm just getting this secondhand from the other forum). Still, whatever the case may be, if Life With Father gets released (and I would be surprised if it doesn't), then we have to make sure it sells, both right away and at full price to encourage them to try more. Otherwise, we won't get any. Personally, I would be surprised if those two musicals you mentioned were to come, if only because it seems like musicals aren't the biggest sellers (as I have mentioned, their peak number of new-to-blu musicals was back in 2016, and they have released fewer every year until this year, where it seems like they are answering the complaints of the genre's fans like myself by saying "You want more? Well, we'll give you some, but you need to put up or shut up" (or something to that effect). Throw in the fact that, until last year, they also held back on releasing any pre-1954 MGM musicals, and it just seems like those two are a long shot at best (unless Criterion licenses them, since they have been known to do some PD stuff).

 

[RICK BOND]

Where is Tex Avery Vol.2 ??

 

[Ejanss]

That bodes well for other public domain titles under Warners control like Royal Wedding and Till The Clouds Roll By.

Usually Criterion--being a third-party studio that has to take what it can get--has done the best "lost-soul" salvage restorations of the Public-Domain classics, like Charade, Carnival of Souls and Night of the Living Dead.

It would be nice if WA reclaimed a few of their own, but as long as customers make it clear that we'd LIKE to see some of the PD titles now in an officially authorized "one true" version, the way Paramount/Republic did with It's a Wonderful Life.

Personally, I would be surprised if those two musicals you mentioned were to come, if only because it seems like musicals aren't the biggest sellers (as I have mentioned, their peak number of new-to-blu musicals was back in 2016, and they have released fewer every year until this year, where it seems like they are answering the complaints of the genre's fans like myself by saying "You want more? Well, we'll give you some, but you need to put up or shut up" (or something to that effect).

Royal Wedding would have an inside track, for other Astaire Fans who don't remember any other scene from the movie besides dancing on the ceiling, and have its reserved Classic Iconography spot on the Archive just on that basis.
Clouds would be a tougher sell, even on its stunt-cameo cast list, and, yes, further down the agenda.

 

[TheSteig]

Dawnofthediscs is reporting that The Bermuda Depths is coming from WAC !

 

[richardburton84]

On the latest podcast, someone asked about a long list of titles potentially being released on Blu-ray which I have included below:

Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
Scaramouche (1952)
The Great Ziegfeld
National Velvet
The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
Romeo and Juliet (1936)
San Francisco (1936)
The Merry Widow (1934)
High Society
Camille
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
When Ladies Meet
The Good Earth
Anna Karenina
Executive Suite
Show Boat (1951)
I love Melvin
Words and Music
The Harvey Girls
For Me and my Gal
Humoresque
All this, and Heaven Too
A Womans Face
King's Row
Rosalie
Bathing Beauty
Easy to Love
Babes in Arms
Babes on Broadway
Meet John Doe
Wife vs. Secretary
Rich and Famous
That's Dancing

In response, George Feltenstein said that a lot of them would be profitable and plausible for Blu-ray and that six of them (some o them Technicolor films) were even now in the works. We already know that they’re working on The Harvey Girls so that leaves four or five films not known yet (the list also included Reversal of Fortune, which I omitted for obvious reasons). Of this list, I’m personally hoping for The Prisoner of Zenda, though I have a feeling it might need a lot of work since it isn’t natively Warner or MGM and the transfer playing on TCM is in rough shape.

 

[Andrew Budgell]

Keeping my fingers crossed that National Velvet is one of the Technicolor films in the above list that they're working on!

 

[DVBRD]

I listened to the podcast and GF also talked about how some of the films on that list are PD (I think "Till the Clouds Roll By" was on that list, too) and that WB is reluctant to restore them for BD (presumably because they're worried that the copies will be ripped onto the Internet and there's nothing the studio can do about it). "Meet John Doe" is PD but I don't think WB owns the original negatives (it was financed independently by Frank Capra himself).

 

[Alan Tully]

Nice list Richard, Scaramouche is always on my wants lists. I checked out my (French) DVD the other day, & it looks terrific, it could almost be a Blu-ray. I've said it before, the problem Warner have is that they're sitting on so many great films, a mountain of them.

 

[ScottHM]

"Meet John Doe" is PD but I don't think WB owns the original negatives (it was financed independently by Frank Capra himself).

I think this may already be restored, as my TCM recording looks way better than my DVD.

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[[email protected]]

I'm also hoping they finish the rest of the theatrical Popeye cartoons.

 

[PODER]

I got all excited when I saw today's eMail about a Warner Archive 40% Off Fall Sale.
Turned out to be mugs, figurines, clothing and such. I do hope this brings them a
lot of cash, but nothing for me. My wallet heaved a giant sigh of relief.

 

[mBen989]

The first lesson about P.D. titles is just because something is in the public domain doesn't mean it actually is.

 

[richardburton84]

In terms of potential future Archive releases, the following titles will be added to HBO Max next month:

Bombshell (1933)
The Informer (1935)
Libeled Lady (1936)
Ball Of Fire (1941)
Mister Roberts (1955)
The Curse Of Frankenstein (1957)
Clean And Sober (1988)

Source:https://decider.com/2020/09/24/new-on-hbo-october-2020/

As far as which of these will be remastered and which will not remains to be seen (and after last month, there’s no telling if all the remastered titles will even be released through the Archive in November), though I think there’s a strong chance that one or both of the Harlow films listed above will be remastered since George Feltenstein has mentioned in a recent podcast that they’re working on some Harlow films.

 

[Matt Hough]

It's exciting to see Libeled Lady in that group. The DVD is in very disturbing shape, so ANY improvements to it would be welcome.

 

[Rob_Ray]

In addition to LIBELED LADY, I'm excited about BOMBSHELL.

 

[RafaelPires]

In terms of potential future Archive releases, the following titles will be added to HBO Max next month:

Bombshell (1933)
The Informer (1935)
Libeled Lady (1936)
Ball Of Fire (1941)
Mister Roberts (1955)
The Curse Of Frankenstein (1957)
Clean And Sober (1988)

Source:https://decider.com/2020/09/24/new-on-hbo-october-2020/

As far as which of these will be remastered and which will not remains to be seen (and after last month, there’s no telling if all the remastered titles will even be released through the Archive in November), though I think there’s a strong chance that one or both of the Harlow films listed above will be remastered since George Feltenstein has mentioned in a recent podcast that they’re working on some Harlow films.

There are also Ball of Fire (1941) and The Wings of Eagle (1957).

Regarding the two rematered titles (Life with Father and Tennessee Johnson) that were not announced for a BD release next month, I am still hopeful they will be released in November.