WHV Announcement: Warner Bros. celebrates 90th Anniversary with "Best of Warner Bros." Collections ( (1 Viewer)

[rsmithjr]

As others have noted about the MGM and RKO productions mysteriously brought to us by Jack Warner, how in the hell do they intend to explain the presence of those films in any written or visual historical context??? Talk about historical revisionism.

There is no mystery about this, it is all well documented.
There have been numerous examples of this, particularly for the pre-1948 movies. At one time, Warners had sold their pre-1948 films. They got them back. Paramount sold its pre-1948 library to Universal, which still owns most of it. MGM bought United Artists after the Heaven's Gate disaster. And so on, tons of interesting examples.
Historically, people have always underestimated the value and importance of their collections. Many film companies are neglecting them today.
Warners has done a really fine job with these collections. I doubt that the current MGM company could have done as well.
It is no surprise that other groups are now leasing their titles to Warners for release. I rejoice in this.
BTW: Jack Warner was long gone from the company when these things happened, so he is not personally responsible for the RKO or MGM acquisitions.

 

[Garysb]

There is no mystery about this, it is all well documented.
There have been numerous examples of this, particularly for the pre-1948 movies. Paramount sold its pre-1948 library to Universal, which still owns most of it. .

Again Universal did not buy anything. Universal was bought by MCA which had previously bought the old Paramount library to lease to TV. When Universal was purchased, MCA added the Paramount films it already owned to Universal films it purchased. That is why Universal now has the rights to the Paramount films.

 

[rsmithjr]

Again Universal did not buy anything. Universal was bought by MCA which had previously bought the old Paramount library to lease to TV. When Universal was purchased, MCA added the Paramount films it already owned to Universal films it purchased. That is why Universal now has the rights to the Paramount films.

I simplified the story a bit, these things are always very complex. Anyway, Paramount sold them and Universal has them now.
The story about Warners getting the MGM titles is just as complicated. Turner bought them, then Warners bought Turner.

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by rsmithjr /t/324196/whv-announcement-warner-bros-celebrates-90th-anniversary-with-best-of-warner-bros-collections-and-more-in-2013/120#post_3989626
I simplified the story a bit, these things are always very complex. Anyway, Paramount sold them and Universal has them now.
The story about Warners getting the MGM titles is just as complicated. Turner bought them, then Warners bought Turner.

Complex?

Try figuring out which films are part of the pre-49 deal, or whatever...

RAH

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I saw an ad for this on the rental Blu-Ray for Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of The Great Gatsby and was appalled by the picture quality of many of the clips. Cropped, windowboxed, severe pixelation; some of the clips looked like a digital capture of old VHS tapes. Presumably the versions of the films in the actual set don't look this awful, which begs the question: why try selling the public on this set with such careless and lazy presentation?

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

Just wish WB could release Who's Afraid or Virginia Woolf?, KLUTE, some Katherine Hepburn, Bette Davis and many more noirs. Maybe in 2014

 

[David Weicker]

Well, we are halfway through October, and it seems the yearlong celebration is already over.The last two major titles (that were part of the original announcements) I'm aware of were the James Dean box and The Big Parade.Is ANYTHING planned for the end of the year?

 

[TravisR]

Is ANYTHING planned for the end of the year?

Probably not. The last quarter is packed with the summer movies so the studios don't release a lot of catalog titles against those.

 

[Andrew Budgell]

Just wish WB could release Who's Afraid or Virginia Woolf?, KLUTE, some Katherine Hepburn, Bette Davis and many more noirs. Maybe in 2014

I really thought we would have seen Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? this year. It was such a groundbreaking film for WB.

 

[lukejosephchung]

Well, we are halfway through October, and it seems the yearlong celebration is already over.The last two major titles (that were part of the original announcements) I'm aware of were the James Dean box and The Big Parade.Is ANYTHING planned for the end of the year?

There's the 30th Anniversary release of "The Right Stuff"...