Warner made a big fuss in february about 85 years, well, next year will mark MGM's 85th birthday. Maybe a reason why Jean Harlow set has been pushed back 2 years?
Warner have said that Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable vol.2, Lana Turner, Raintree County, Quo Vadis, Andy Hardy movies will come. but sense this is the year of Warner movies they might focus more on MGM next year. Let's hope
No better time to hand these over to the film dept. and have them clean up the T&J 'toons with new PROGRESSIVE transfers (sans-DVNR) and without edits the first time around and offer 'em up complete and chronologically.
Let's get those Happy Harmonies, Captain and the Kids, and Barney Bear films on DVD too... and a very long-overdue and much demanded Tex Avery Collection (uncut and complete, with all the previously released Droopy cartoons incl the extra Michael Lah 'scope shorts as bonus)!!!
I would love to see that on DVD. I have heard nothing but great things about that documentary. I have dying to see it and I can't find it anywhere to rent or anything!
I frankly couldn't see an MGM anniversary next year without the Harlow, Tracy, more silents, Turner, Gable vol-2 & Garbo vol-2 sets - the first three being long overdue imho. IF WHV does indeed celebrate MGM next year, this probably makes it unlikely that'll we'll see the key MGM catalog titles in 2008, so that's kind of a bummer.
Perhaps, with "Gigi" and "An American In Paris" coming on Blu-ray (towards the end of 2008)...it would be wonderful to see any and all WB/MGM/RKO (etc.) in that format (perhaps as part of MGM's anniversary?). The better the greats can be seen and heard...I'm all for it!
Warner owns the complete pre 1986 MGM library with the exception of some UA films such as the Bond films and the Pink Panther films which were not sold to Ted Turner.
When Warner bought Turner Broadcasting they also re-acquired most if not all of their own library from pre-1948 that they had sold off. Warner also owns the majority of the RKO library, the Hanna Barbara library, Most of Lorimar's television and film holdings, Most of the pre-1991 Morgan Creek Productions library, The 1978-1981 Orion Pictures library, Castle Rock Entertainment films made after Turner acquired Castle Rock, and the 1933-1957 Popeye theatrical animated shorts produced by Paramount.
Warner has by far the largest film library of any Hollywood studio.
All the UA properties were retained by MGM not just "some" such as the Bond and Pink Panther titles.
Raging Bull, Paths of Glory, The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven, The Leone/Eastwood Dollars trilogy, The Big Country, Red River, Rocky, Carrie, Invasion of the Body Snatchers '78, Manchurian Candidate, etc, etc, etc. are just a few examples of UA titles presently controlled by MGM.
I'm not aware of any UA properties that Warner acquired.
At this point (mid April) with announcements having been made for releases through the June/July timeframe it would appear that unless releases are going to be backloaded this year (quite possible) that some of these releases have been pushed back into future years. I suppose the next Noir volume (still hasn't been announced) could include some of these RKO/Monogram titles but that would still be a far cry from "dozens and dozens" to be released in 2008.
Can't really complain though as my pocketbook appreciates this breather.
You maybe right. I was under the impression that Warner owned some of the old UA catalog, but that may only be the titles that Warner released through a deal with Castle Hill Productions.
Considering that UA owned very few of the films that they released, because of the nature of the way that UA was run, the UA library is actually not very large. Most of their films were actually owned by the producers of those films. IE The Broccoli family owns the Bond films, and the Mirisch Corporation owned the Pink Panther movies. MGM/Sony bought all but one of the Panther films when Mirisch went under, but only has a distribution deal for the Bond films.
Robert Taylor!!!!!!! I looked at his filmography and there is many goodies
The Gorgeous Hussy (1936) Personal Property (1937) Waterloo Bridge (1940) Escape (1940) When Ladies Meet (1941) Johnny Eager (1942) Her Cardboard Lover (1942)
"Considering that UA owned very few of the films that they released, because of the nature of the way that UA was run, the UA library is actually not very large. Most of their films were actually owned by the producers of those films. IE The Broccoli family owns the Bond films, and the Mirisch Corporation owned the Pink Panther movies. MGM/Sony bought all but one of the Panther films when Mirisch went under, but only has a distribution deal for the Bond films".
This is not quite right, UA does own a lot of the movies it made (distributed), mostly from the early 1950's on (although they do own some earlier films). They own various rights to about 1000 films (not including tv series). United Artists always owned an interest in the Pink Panther movies and they have joint ownership of the James Bond films with the Broccoli family. United Artists also has theatrical rights to the sole Pink Panther film that it does not have video rights too.You are right as initially it was set-up a a distribution company. The reason why the film library is not in optimum shape has to do with the company not having a permanent studio facility in which to store films like the other major studios had, so there are film elements all over the world. Also although Sony is an investor they really are not too involved with the day to day operations and they are not the sole owner of the company, it is a group of companies that own the company (Sony really has a minor share).