Warner Archive Announcements Thread (10 Viewers)

[Garysb]

For whatever it's worth Wikipedia mentions that "Life With Father" went into public domain in 1975 when United Artists, then the owner of the pre 1950 Warner Bros. library failed to renew the copyright of the film due to a clerical error. Copyright law at that time stated that a copyright had to be renewed after 28 years for an addition 28 years protection or the work would go into the public domain.

 

[Andrew Budgell]

Wouldn't "Life With Father" be released closer to Father's Day? That is in June. Seems more like a late May release . Wasn't "Life With Father" in public domain in VHS days? Was it somehow rescued like "Its A Wonderful Life" or is Warner Bros taking a chance restoring a public domain title that anyone can then copy and release.

The Warner Archive Podcast answered a question last month about public domain titles. They said it's tricky to invest in remastering and releasing them when they can't protect them from the situation you describe. But if the new master of Life With Father gets a Blu-ray release, it seems that they're willing to test the waters. Unfortunately, a copyright doesn't stop bootleg releases of Warner Archive releases anyway... this week I saw a bootleg of Beau Brummell being sold on one the European Amazon sites.

 

[battlebeast]

Mr. Roberts, The Informer and Libeled Lady are the titles I’m interested in.

 

[LouA]

I ‘d like to see some of the Elvis Presley films WBA controls released on Blu-Ray. This Is Elvis and It Happened At The World’s Fair would be a good place to start!

 

[richardburton84]

Since Battlebeast mentioned it, has Mister Roberts been added to HBOMax yet, for those that have the service and has it been remastered? If not, I’m really starting to think its mention in that Deadline article was a mistake.

 

[Astairefan]

Since Battlebeast mentioned it, has Mister Roberts been added to HBOMax yet, for those that have the service and has it been remastered? If not, I’m really starting to think its mention in that Deadline article was a mistake.

Don't be too quick to assume that it was a mistake. After all, we've seen instances of WAC announcing movies intended to be released the next month, only for them to be delayed a month (or longer). It may well be that they were planning for this to be a new master, but something delayed it. At least, that's my theory. We'll see soon enough.

 

[PMF]

Mr. Roberts, The Informer and Libeled Lady are the titles I’m interested in.

Since Battlebeast mentioned it, has Mister Roberts been added to HBOMax yet, for those that have the service and has it been remastered? If not, I’m really starting to think its mention in that Deadline article was a mistake.

Mister Roberts restored and on BD would be fantastic.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Since Battlebeast mentioned it, has Mister Roberts been added to HBOMax yet, for those that have the service and has it been remastered? If not, I’m really starting to think its mention in that Deadline article was a mistake.

As of one minute ago, Mister Roberts has not been added to HBO Max.

 

[Robert Harris]

For whatever it's worth Wikipedia mentions that "Life With Father" went into public domain in 1975 when United Artists, then the owner of the pre 1950 Warner Bros. library failed to renew the copyright of the film due to a clerical error. Copyright law at that time stated that a copyright had to be renewed after 28 years for an addition 28 years protection or the work would go into the public domain.

The film may have fallen into the PD. Was the underlying lit not renewed?

 

[Garysb]

The film may have fallen into the PD. Was the underlying lit not renewed?

I suppose it depends on who owns the rights to the play and were those rights renewed. Did Warner Bros. obtain ownership of the play when they obtained the rights to film it? If Warner Bros. did own the play, what happened when the pre 1950 Warner Bros. films were sold? Did the rights to the play go with the movie or did Warner Bros retain the rights to the play. The play premiered in 1939. Its copyright renewal would have been around 1967. Was the copyright of the play renewed? There is at least one internet public domain movie website which currently shows "Life With Father". Its up to the copyright holder to defend its copyright if someone uses a work without permission or compensation. If the owner doesn't object, or choses not to spend the money necessary to defend the copyright, nothing happens. If the movie is in public domain, the musical score by Max Steiner used in the movie may still be protected. Again its up to the rights holder to defend their rights.

 

[Robin9]

The Warner Archive Podcast answered a question last month about public domain titles. They said it's tricky to invest in remastering and releasing them when they can't protect them from the situation you describe. But if the new master of Life With Father gets a Blu-ray release, it seems that they're willing to test the waters. Unfortunately, a copyright doesn't stop bootleg releases of Warner Archive releases anyway... this week I saw a bootleg of Beau Brummell being sold on one the European Amazon sites.

Spain is churning out bootleg copies of several Warner Archive Blu-ray discs. Disgracefully, Amazon, to its eternal discredit, is touting these on various sites.

 

[B-ROLL]

I suppose it depends on who owns the rights to the play and were those rights renewed. Did Warner Bros. obtain ownership of the play when they obtained the rights to film it? If Warner Bros. did own the play, what happened when the pre 1950 Warner Bros. films were sold? Did the rights to the play go with the movie or did Warner Bros retain the rights to the play. The play premiered in 1939. Its copyright renewal would have been around 1967. Was the copyright of the play renewed? There is at least one internet public domain movie website which currently shows "Life With Father". Its up to the copyright holder to defend its copyright if someone uses a work without permission or compensation. If the owner doesn't object, or choses not to spend the money necessary to defend the copyright, nothing happens. If the movie is in public domain, the musical score by Max Steiner used in the movie may still be protected. Again its up to the rights holder to defend their rights.

The play was based on a book first published in 1935

 

[DVBRD]

Now that MGM and WB have signed a distribution pact, I wonder if we'll see more MGM-owned titles thrown into the mix?

 

[Robert Crawford]

As of one minute ago, Mister Roberts has not been added to HBO Max.

This morning “Mister Roberts” has finally been added to HBO Max.

 

[Garysb]

In the case of "It's A Wonderful Life", the source material. a short story, "The Best Gift" was is still protected by copyright. The last part of the movie, a man about to commit suicide gets to see what life would be like if he were not born, was the short story. The first 3/4 of the movie were created for the movie.

 

[RafaelPires]

Good news! Mister Roberts just landed on HBO Max and it has a restored transfer. Beautiful!
Now I am hoping for a triple Wlilliam Powell Bluray release from WAC: Libeled Lady, Life with Father and Mister Roberts!

 

[Robert Crawford]

Good news! Mister Roberts just landed on HBO Max and it has a restored transfer. Beautiful!
Now I am hoping for a triple Wlilliam Powell Bluray release from WAC: Libeled Lady, Life with Father and Mister Roberts!

It looks okay, but I wouldn't call it beautiful as I'm not sure it's a restored transfer as I've seen too many blurry facial images on it.

 

[RafaelPires]

It looks okay, but I wouldn't call it beautiful as I'm not sure it's a restored transfer as I've seen too many blurry facial images on it.

It’s under the remastered banner on HBO Max, as has only been the titles latter released on Bluray. And I thought the image beautiful and totally cleaned up. No dirty spots or scratches in this one.

 

[Robin9]

For whatever it's worth Wikipedia mentions that "Life With Father" went into public domain in 1975 when United Artists, then the owner of the pre 1950 Warner Bros. library failed to renew the copyright of the film due to a clerical error. Copyright law at that time stated that a copyright had to be renewed after 28 years for an addition 28 years protection or the work would go into the public domain.

Wikipedia may be wrong! Can you believe that?

In his essay on William Powell in his book The Great Movie Stars, published in 1970, David Shipman writes: Because of the tangled rights situation (no-one, according to Variety, knows who owns them) the film cannot be revived;

 

[Tino]

It’s under the remastered banner on HBO Max, as has only been the titles latter released on Bluray. And I thought the image beautiful and totally cleaned up. No dirty spots or scratches in this one.

Regarding Mr Roberts on HBO Max It’s definitely not restored (in my opinion) I just compared it to the iTunes stream and it’s the same SD transfer. The SD DVD actually looks the best upconverted on my lg Oled. So disappointed.