The African Queen

[kschell]

A question for all of you knowledgeable folks... Why isn't a great great film like "The African Queen" available in Region 1?

Is there a rights issue?

[FilmFanSea]

A question for all of you knowledgeable folks... Why isn't a great great film like "The African Queen" available in Region 1?

Is there a rights issue?

Paramount, which owns the Region 1 rights, said in April 2003 that the film elements would need extensive restoration before it could be released on DVD.

Curiously, the 2001 R2 PAL release in the UK by Carlton received decent reviews (here, here, and here). Captures can be seen at DVD Beaver. The Jack Cardiff commentary track is unlikely to be present on an eventual R1 release.

Beyond that, I don't think Paramount has subsequently hinted at a potential release date. The film is undoubtedly their most-requested catalog title, so they must be aware of the demand.

[Theodore R. Stockton]

Are you sure Paramount owns the rights?
It's VHS release is by FOX.

[FilmFanSea]

Are you sure Paramount owns the rights?
It's VHS release is by FOX.

Yes, I'm sure. There was a huge online debate about who owned the US rights to this film, but Martin Blythe confirmed that Paramount is the legal rights-holder.

There is independent confirmation here, in a December 2003 article about Greg Olson, the film curator at the Seattle Art Museum:

Digging up "The African Queen" presented a worse problem: It appeared that no print was available... Olson's story, too, has a happy ending: It turned out that Paramount was indeed at work restoring "The African Queen." The restored print is scheduled to be at SAM to conclude the Hepburn series.

[FilmFanSea]

does anyone here have any idea how they managed to lose it and/or how Paramount ended up with it?

A poster at HTF speculated the following explanation:

Another one of those multiple rights headaches...

THE AFRICAN QUEEN was fully financed by Horizon Pictures, who mostly did co-productions with major studios, just not this time. UA only released it in theatres, and those rights lapsed years ago.

Fox initially got video rights to the movie during the Magnetic Video days. This either was a direct deal with the holding company controlling Horizon's assets, or a deal with Viacom, who held TV rights for years and initially released many films thru the Fox label, including the early Paramount Elvis musicals and Jerry Lewis' VISIT TO A FAR-OUT PLANET. Naturally, if the latter is true, then Paramount would now own video rights to the title.

However, the other wrinkle is that in the UK, the Rank Organisation released the film, and their assets are now part of Carlton Communications. Carlton made a 99-year deal with the former Samuel Goldwyn company for video, and MGM inherited that deal, so it is possible that when Peter Staddon speculated that MGM owned the title, that it would be from this Carlton license.

[THX1378]

Was just watching the film on TCM. You can tell that this film is really in need of restoration. Funny thing is this:
Go check IMDB, which is known to be wrong many times, but check under company credits where you find under distributors:
Warner Home Video (2008) (USA) (DVD)
I could only dream that this is true and that Warner has the DVD rights to the film in the US.

[Gordon]

He's right.

I wonder who submitted that info? Hopefully, it was someone from Warner and not some jackass and that we see a SE next year. However, I would have thought that Warner would have mentioned this acquisition at the HTF chat.

[dx23]

I would have thought that Warner would have mentioned this acquisition at the HTF chat.

Probably they didn't mention it since no one ask because nobody knew. I always thought Paramount held the rights to the films and that the available material was in such bad shape that they were searching for better film elements around the world.

If Warner does indeed gets the rights to the film in 2008, then a nice 4 disc edition would most likely be in their plans.

[Antoine Doinel]

If Warner does indeed gets the rights to the film in 2008, then a nice 4 disc edition would most likely be in their plans.

4 DISCS!? Surely, you jest.

[Jeff]

The Variety article that had the scoop on Criterion's Ace in the Hole release addressed this title as well. Paramount still has the rights (no, I can't imagine them licensing it to Criterion). According to the article:

Fox had the rights to "The African Queen," but they lapsed, so now Paramount has control of the 1951 John Huston pic. According to Par, it's awaiting restoration and has no set release date.

Mark Edward Heuck clarified the rights situation in a conversation with Gordon at HTF over a year ago.

[Gordon]

Yes, I remember Mark Edward Heuck shedding light on the situation, but when someone goes to the trouble of submitting distributor info to the IMDb, it does make me wonder what's going on. Thier distributor info is one of the things they usually get right 99% of the time.

[Jeff]

Yes, I remember Mark Edward Heuck shedding light on the situation, but when someone goes to the trouble of submitting distributor info to the IMDb, it does make me wonder what's going on. Thier distributor info is one of the things they usually get right 99% of the time.

I think that the Variety article, which is only a week old, seals the deal. I also can't imagine any scenario in which Warner could have ended up with the rights. I imagine that this is just a case of an overzealous IMDb contributor who has his facts mixed up.

[THX1378]

Anyone got an e-mail for Warner Home Video that we can send something and ask them if they have the rights? At least bring it to there attention that someone posted that they have the rights and it's coming to DVD from them.

[atcolomb]

I was at my library on Saturday and they had The African Queen on dvd!! I checked it out and did a comparison to the TCM broadcast that I recorded on my DVD recorder. The DVD has a brighter and a little more sharper picture and also the movie was speeded up compared to the TCM broadcast. The DVD was made in Hong Kong? by a company called Castaways Pictures and does have both English and i guess Chinese spelling on the back cover. For a non-studio release not bad and I did expect worse. But still I will wait for a restoration of the film when it happens.

[Lemmy Caution]

Yes, The African Queen is available on Dvd in China.
Looks like a new release.
I thought it was a Japanese edition, but will have to check.

[Mysterypez]

... know in the case of Pandora and the Flying Dutchman for instance (released through MGM originally) the current rights are held by Rohauer (enough said) and that DVd is an atrocious Eastman washout.

Are you referring to the Kino DVD?

The reason I ask is that the back cover of the Kino DVD clearly states this was mastered from a 35 mm Technicolor print. I have also been told that this is in fact the case.

Granted your original post goes back a year or two... so if this is a different DVD my apologizes…….

It might interest you... and others... to know that my archive is undertaking a large scale effort to restore Pandora and the Flying Dutchman.

Perhaps this is more for the In glorious Technicolor thread, but I can not tell how difficult it has been to bring the color tests we have done in line with the two 35 mm Tech IB prints that we have at our disposal for color matching purposes. Cajoling color emulsions to replicate a dye transfer print is very difficult and in fact obtaining a match that you could consider in the ball park seems impossible..... as least where Pandora and the Flying Dutchman is concerned.

Our initially concerns on the project were that the color would not ‘pop' the way the Tech IB did. Strangely it has been the other way around. We are finding that the Tech print is much more muted, golden, yellow, whereas the tests on modern stocks we are doing sees the color, especially the blue and skin tone highlights, really pop to problematic degree.

[knives]

Really interesting article on the death of VHS and the thousands of titles that were issued on that format but are not available on DVD (or Bluray).

That article made me kind of POed. I'm sure there is a market for The African Queen. After all didn't the one win something like half a dozen oscars. Even the stuff like Mizoguchi or Herzog have a reasonable sized cult. Just a healthy restoration would probably be enough for most at this time. Thank heavens for Criterion, Kino, et al.

[Matt]

That article made me kind of POed. I'm sure there is a market for The African Queen. After all didn't [it] win something like half a dozen Oscars?

I seem to be picking on you a lot lately, but could you please point out where in the article it states that The African Queen is not on DVD because there is no market?

[Cinetwist]

Wow. There's really no US dvd for The African Queen?! You guys need region free players, because we've got The Magnificent Ambersons too!

[knives]

That article made me kind of POed. I'm sure there is a market for The African Queen. After all didn't [it] win something like half a dozen Oscars?

I seem to be picking on you a lot lately, but could you please point out where in the article it states that The African Queen is not on DVD because there is no market?

Don't worry, I'm not feeling picked on, more acknowledged.
As far as the comment goes, it wasn't directed at the article, which I thought I was rather good, but more so at thin air/ Viacom because that's the only reason I can assume they haven't put it out in some form in R1.

[Antoine Doinel]

I think it's been pretty well established there is a huge market just waiting for an R1 release of The African Queen. This is a Casablanca sized release for Paramount, not some obscure noir they're sitting on. My guess is the rumored rights issues that are supposedly holding up a release are actually legit.

[knives]

What exactly are said rumors?

[Oggilby]

Paramount has R1 rights via CBS, but international and UK rights are owned by Carlton/Granada.

[dx23]

I've always read that the lack of R1 release was caused by the bad print Paramount owns. It has taken them a long time to restore.

[Matt]

I've always read that the lack of R1 release was caused by the bad print Paramount owns. It has taken them a long time to restore.

No film takes this long to restore. Paramount could have released whatever they had on hand ten years ago and promised a full restoration later (which we would still be waiting for). Even a barebones DVD with a ported laserdisc transfer would certainly have been better than nothing.