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Who else would like to see the Val Lewton Collection on DVD? (2 Viewers)

Duncan Reno

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With Halloween approaching and having just received The Classic Monster Collection. I went out to the garage and pulled out another similar themed collection of laserdiscs that I haven't watched in quite a while. The Val Lewton Collection is a must have. I hope we get to see these 9 movies on dvd sometime in the near future. I still don't know how they got hold of The Ghost Ship which made it's home video debut in this collection and AFAIK never turned up anywhere else.
 

Brian Lawrence

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This is one of my most wanted releases. I often think about just grabbing the LD set, but they are so damn expensive on eBay :frowning:
At least I was able to get my Val Lewton fix this year on Turner Classic Movies about a week ago when they aired 7 of the 9 Lewton horror films. Don't know why they didn't show the other 2. I still have the old Nostalgia Merchant VHS tape of The Bodysnatcher so I will get see that again this year.
I really wish that Warner would get off their duffs and start issuing their classics at a more brisk pace.
 

SteveGon

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I have to wonder if whoever owns the rights would go to the expense of restoring them? I'd buy 'em in a heartbeat if they did!
 

Brian Lawrence

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The prints they showed on TCM looked in pretty good shape to me. Don't see no reason for any major restoration work. If anything I fear that the current state of restoring and remastering films for dvd, would result in smearing out the detail with excessive DVNR so some boneheads who don't know any better will feel that they are getting improved transfers just because the film grain has been blurred out.
 

Larry Sutliff

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I would buy this in a heartbeat if released; I agree that the existing masters, though not perfect, are good enough and would be better than not having the films on DVD. Heck, some of the Universal Monster DVD's have rougher transfers than the Lewton Laserdiscs did.
 

Bill Huelbig

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I'd love to see the Val Lewton films on DVD. When I was 5 years old (in 1960), my favorite movie at the time was THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE. It would have been second-favorite if my parents had allowed me to go see PSYCHO!

--Bill
 

Peter Apruzzese

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I'll buy TWO of these boxes if they came out.

The RKO films are in poor shape, so it may be a while until DVDs are released with watchable quality.
Well, the negative that made the 35mm print I ran of The Body Snatcher two weeks ago was in *perfect* condition. In fact, it was probably the best black & white print I've ever seen of a vintage title, it looked like a nitrate film. The print was struck within the last 2 years, so they do have a usable negative for The Body Snatcher.
 

Dick

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Hey, Bill - bet you watched this over and over again on Million Dollar Movie (or it's weekday afternoon counterpart Movie of the Week) on WOR Channel 9, like I did, right? All nine of the Lewton "Horror" classics (although only two or three actually belong in that category, the others being "thrillers") were released in a 6-disc laser set. Decent (but not great) picture quality, and the films were split so that 1 1/2 movies were fit onto one disc. You could easily get all nine films (average length 75 minutes) on three DVD's. What a great box set. Robert Wise did a 40-minute non-screen-specific commentary for THE BODY SNATCHERS, which I'd hope would be retained.
 

Bill Huelbig

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Hey, Bill - bet you watched this over and over again on Million Dollar Movie (or it's weekday afternoon counterpart Movie of the Week) on WOR Channel 9, like I did, right?
That's right, Dick - the Million Dollar Movie was a great way to see movies you loved. They were shown 11 times in one week! Some of the other Channel 9 titles I got to know very well (dialogue and all) in those years, besides CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE: KING KONG, FORBIDDEN PLANET, and THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS. And it wasn't until years later that I learned the theme from Million Dollar Movie was really the theme from GONE WITH THE WIND.
I'm off now to search for a Million Dollar Movie website, if any. There's one out there paying tribute to another great place to see sci-fi and horror movies on local New York TV, Channel 7's The 4:30 Movie.
http://www.dvddrive-in.com/TV%20Guide/430movielogo.htm
--Bill
 

Robert Crawford

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Watching classic movies today is great due to TCM and FMC, but when I was growing up in NYC Metro Area in 60's/70's, it was great being a movie junkie due to WOR, WPIX, WCBS, and WABC. All of those stations had their individual movie programming packages like "The Million Dollar Movie, "The Late Show", "The Late, Late Show", "The 4:30 Movie", "Creature Feature" and others.

I wish a Val Lewton collection did come out because I would buy it in a heartbeat.




Crawdaddy
 

Anthony Thorne

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I'd love these. Some of them are short enough that you could fit two on a single DVD. Heck, a box set (of three or four discs) wouldn't be impossible to do? Who knows when we'll see them, but I'll definitely grab them all when they come out.
 

William DAnnucci

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I've owned (& loved & jealously protected) The Val Lewton Collection on laserdisc for years. That and my Star Wars Perfect Collection are two of the key reasons I keep my laser player around. But I certainly would upgrade to DVD if a proper Val Lewton box set were released, especially if it had informative commentarys and documentaries like the Universal Classic Monsters series (something that the Lewton films certainly deserve).
 

Jay E

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My Val Lewton laserdisc box set is one my most prized possesions, and the prints are in pretty good condition. I don't expect to see many of these films on DVD anytime soon.

P.S. And just because Warner has not released a title on DVD yet doesn't mean it's in "poor" condition (ie: The Thing From Another World)
 

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