Warner Brothers Archive Collection (DVDs only)

[jsteffe]

I'm waiting for someone to report in from the hospital, typing with their pinky toe that they've been brain damaged by watching Golden Dawn, probably the most disastrous musical ever made (and certainly among the--if not the--most racist). Watching the ensemble chorus chiming in behind the female lead singing My B'wana is one of the most brain-frying experiences you'll have watching cinema. Pushes the outer frontiers of bad film and Bad Taste into abstraction. The writers obliviously putting together this film is kind of like the cinematic equivalent of walking into a small child's incredibly tragic funeral service tap dancing and farting while juggling rubber tits and goosing all the ladies & tossing gags around.

It's way out there, all right. And it's based on an operetta by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II, incredibly enough! It's nice to see that they've released it, but I'm a little sad because this new Warner Archive list means we'll never see a "Dawn of Sound" box set to match the wonderful laserdisc series that George Feltenstein produced.

[HerrSchreck]

An appreciation:

Warner Brothers' miracle musical of 1930 -- the miracle being that it didn't kill off Hollywood musicals for good.
Here's Richard Barrios on GOLDEN DAWN in his seminal book, "A Song in the Dark -- The Birth of the Musical Film":

Words can be such paltry objects -- too much so, certainly, to convey the bejeweled horror that is GOLDEN DAWN... If it were one whit less ludicrous, it would be one of the most offensively racist films ever made; as it is, completely bereft of taste, finesse, aesthetic faculty, or simple good sense, it's an unparalleled exercise in unconscious humor. This is the mad inverse of THE GREAT GABBO coin, distending an operetta's traditional boundaries to embrace unsifted and unsuitable content. In Technicolor, the blatant unreality was accentuated; the surviving black and white copies heighten the insane collision of stagy decorum and racially inflammatory melodrama. There simply has never been anything like it. Warners' cast for GOLDEN DAWN was as bizarre an assemblage as any in history. Poor Vivienne Segal, forced to wear a blonde wig, skimpy sarong, and leopard skin while trilling a gay waltz called "My Bwana"; Walter Woolf (King), trying to be stalwart as the British officer-hero; Alice Gentle as Dawn's vindictive mother Mooda; Lupino Lane and Dick Henderson, ace British comics endeavoring to be jolly; Helen Kanesque soubrette Marion Byron;

...and above all Noah Beery... as Shep Keyes, the self-crowned tyrant who terrorizes the Africans, antagonizes the British, and pants for Dawn. Wearing badly applied dark makeup, sporting a Kingfish-like accent, stomping about and cracking his whip as he growls the sadomasochistic "Whip Song" -- he is utterly spectacular in a way as to make orthodox notions of bad acting, even in operetta, wilt in comparison.

Supposedly this thing came out in either total Technicolor (2 strip of course, being 1930), or Technicolor in sections. The otherworldliness factor must have been ratcheted a few extra points. I don't know what WB is releasing, as I have an old TV rip of it (though in good enough shape).

Some racially inflammatory blackface, with a fascist salute thrown in for good cheer:

[kawest]

Another recommendation for the delirious delight that is Golden Dawn.

The stage show was actually quite the hit and the score isn't half bad if you can get past the insipid absurdity undergirding the whole thing. One song, "A Tiger," was added to the film version; it's like an attempt to out-crazy "Let's Be Common" from The Love Parade.

[HarryLong]

Oh, if only Jack Warner's private stash had included the Technicolor print of GOLDEN DAWN as well ...

[Matt]

Supposedly this thing came out in either total Technicolor (2 strip of course, being 1930), or Technicolor in sections.

It was definitely in full, 2-color Technicolor. During the brief period that Warner Bros. was using 2-color Technicolor film, though, it was common to shoot films with a Technicolor camera next to a b&w camera. The Technicolor versions are now very rare, but for some films both versions survive. Doctor X is a notable example. Used to be all you would see on TV was the b&w version, but since the color version was unearthed and restored, that's the one you see now.

[HarryLong]

And it would be nice if TCM would show the b&w DR. X as it is really an alternate version, not just a monochrome reduction or shot simultaneously with a "besides" camera...

[Matt]

Yes, I had forgotten that there are some significant differences between the two versions. I knew as I was typing the post above that I was forgetting something, and I had even written a paper in grad school on Doctor X, noting the differences. Of course, that was 10+ years ago, and my memory has only gotten worse since then. I managed to tape the b&w version off TCM when they still showed it.

[HarryLong]

I managed to tape the b&w version off TCM when they still showed it.

My copy was on ... Beta. (snif)

[HypnoHelioStaticStasis]

Three more added:

Dondi
Hard, Fast and Beautiful (Worth a look, IMO. Ida Lupino directs)
Journey for Margaret

[zedz]

Hard, Fast and Beautiful (Worth a look, IMO. Ida Lupino directs)

Ida stiffed again. Somebody give the poor woman an Eclipse set before it's too late.

[agnamaracs]

I'd really like to see a collection of Ripley's Believe It or Not Vitaphone shorts.

[domino harvey]

Dear Warner Archives,

Thanks to your stupid fucking extra-thick DVD-R label, I Love Melvin is now stuck in my MacBook. I like the movie and all, but this is less than convenient. In closing, you got me. Good one. Now, tell me more about how this Burn-On-Demand system of yours is just as good as regular discs.

Yours,
DH

Christ, none of the tricks I've found online work for getting this stupid thing out. That 10 for $99.95 special isn't much of a deal when you have to figure in a trip to the Mac store for repairs. Thanks again Warners for capping off a perfect year by ruining my laptop!

[nsps]

They don't print direct-to-disc? Seriously? WTF?

[domino harvey]

Seems like a moot point now, but here's the only one of my DVD-Rs I was able to grab caps from. Will never be letting another of these things near my computer drive, so it will also be the last caps from an Archive title from me:

Give a Girl a Break Soft image on a weak print, same used for the VHS. Some reels look better than others. VHS-level audio, but fairly clean

[HypnoHelioStaticStasis]

Domino,

I have yet to actually buy one of these things (I'm waiting for the prices to dip a little and for me to have a concurrent amount of cash), but your statement makes me a little nervous. I've got a new Macbook pro, and I wondered if these things even worked on it. The LABELS are thicker than normal dvds? I've played dvd-rs in my drive before with no problem. Is it possible the drive just happened to crap out?

Good luck with your computer in any case. Going to the mac store is never fun...

[Jonathan S]

Sorry to hear of this problem. Could it be connected with this (from the Warner Archive FAQs)?

Q: My DVD won’t play on my computer.
A: As noted on the DVD case wrap, DVDs encrypted with CSS may not play on all computers or DVD player/recorders. This is normal. To address this, we recommend viewing the DVD on a DVD player that does not have recording capability.

I haven't seen a Warner Archive disc (and probably never will!) but if they are using stuck-on labels of any thickness it may be due to the disc going out-of-kilter, often caused by moisture acculumating under areas of the label. This has already happened to me with several DVD-Rs and CD-Rs purchased from small companies who used paper labels, though I've never yet had one jammed.

[HypnoHelioStaticStasis]

Some more additions:

The Deadly Tower (sounds like a wonderful holiday treat...)
The Show of Shows (WB musical revue, not the show)
So Long, Letty
The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (A Michael Curtiz pre-coder which sounds amazing... can anyone vouch for it?)
They Learned About Women

[HerrSchreck]

Give a Girl a Break Soft image on a weak print, same used for the VHS. Some reels look better than others. VHS-level audio, but fairly clean

Good god that looks like shit.

[nsps]

It certainly does.

Any luck getting it out, Domino? I know that you're supposed to be able to hold the spring mechanism down with a thin knife or screwdriver or something, but it sounds like you tried that. So are the labels on the discs actually stickers, or are the print-on discs just thicker than they should be?

[What A Disgrace]

The Deadly Tower

Someone just said "Deadly Tower". That means I get to go play my favorite awful Nintendo game.

[domino harvey]

It certainly does.

Any luck getting it out, Domino? I know that you're supposed to be able to hold the spring mechanism down with a thin knife or screwdriver or something, but it sounds like you tried that. So are the labels on the discs actually stickers, or are the print-on discs just thicker than they should be?

I tried a lot of tricks Google suggested, including tipping my laptop upside down, restarting it, and inserting a business card. It was certainly a circus. Restarting it was the worst, because it wouldn't boot up until the drive gave up trying to read the disc. Totally terrifying fifteen minutes of my life. But then last night it just randomly decided to spit out the disc. After hours of effort, it just came out without me doing anything at all. Good thing the slot wasn't blocked at the time!

I no longer know if the thick label was the issue, as there was a circular scratch in the disc, forming a large circle on the disc image. I'm thinking now that maybe the drive was stuck in a loop thanks to that, not the label? Sending it back to Warner's for a replacement either way.

[HerrSchreck]

Hah-- at the bottom of the page the bots threw a banner ad for a disc mfg co:

"Oasis: The Trusted Name In CD Manufacturing"

The hills have eyes.. er, or something like that.

[Jeff]

Today is the last day of a 5 for $55 promotion with free two-day air shipping. You can also use the coupon code CABINWB to get an additional $5 off.

[Frankinho007]

New as of today:

Angel Dusted (1981)
Bad Seed, The (1985)
Beauty and the Boss (1932)
Captain Salvation (1927)
Deadly Tower, The (1975)
Desperate Lives (1982)
Divorce Wars: A Love Story (1982)
Flying Fleet, The (1929)
Hostage Flight (1985)
Killer in the Family, A (1983)
La boheme (1926)
Operation Heartbeat (aka U.M.C) (1969)
Split Second (1953)
Sunny (1930)
They Met in Bombay (1941)
Tide of Empire (1929)
Under Eighteen (1931)
White Shadows in the South Seas (1928)
Wild Oranges (1924)

[George Kaplan]

New as of today:
...
La boheme (1926)
...
Wild Oranges (1924)

Considered along with the previous offenses of THE PATSY, THE CITADEL, COMRADE X, H.M. PULHAM, ESQ. and LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE it must now be considered official:
WB Home Video Says FUCK YOU To King Vidor & His Legacy

Not that anyone would confuse Warner Home Video with a company that gives a damn, or is capable of the imagination and integrity required for the task, but there goes any hope of a comprehensive Vidor set. Clearly the only thing keeping WB from lifting their corporate legs and pissing all over NORTHWEST PASSAGE and BEYOND THE FOREST is that those titles are part of packages (Tracy and Davis, respectively) too long in the pipeline to pull the plug on without loss of invested revenue.

Whadda ya wanna bet THE BIG PARADE, THE CROWD and SHOW PEOPLE arrive grouped with THE WIND, and BEN HUR (1925) & FLESH AND THE DEVIL (count on at least one double dip being forced upon consumers) as "Silent Classics," still musty with the grab-bag logic and the best marketing brio that the sales staff of 1992 was able to muster!

King Vidor is not only one the key figures of American cinema, but one of only three MGM "house" directors (along with Cukor and Minnelli, neither of whose careers span silent to sound cinema as Vidor's does) clearly deserving of an auteurist treatment by their home video publishers.

So right back at you WB US, "FUCK YOU TOO."