Warner Brothers Archive Collection (DVDs only)

[matrixschmatrix]

It seems to- I've got Rancho Notorious in my cart for <$10 shipped, which will get me to bother with the Archive for the first time.

[domino harvey]

Even Errol Flynn and Barbara Stanwyck can't catch a break, plus another Quine to tempt me

[Dylan]

Hotel finally emerges. Even though it's not supposed to be great, I'll watch anything with Catherine Spaak, the biggest teenage star of early sixties Italy. A real shame Hotel flopped, otherwise she would've had a career in America.

I'm still waiting for Last Summer.

[Jonathan S]

Warner apparently uses the same copywriter as StudioCanal - or neither of them knows how to spell "Joseph Cotten".

[Fred Holywell]

Finally, The Luise Rainer Collection 3 DVD Set. "The Big City", "The Toy Wife", and "The Emperor's Candlesticks" on DVD for the first time to celebrate the two-time Oscar winner's 100th birthday year! What a fantastic tribute!

My only suggestion: Couldn't WB have arranged for a few hundred copies to be autographed by the great star herself. If Angie Dickinson can do it... (Just kidding, of course... to know that Miss Rainer is still alive with us, at over 100 miraculous years, is reason enough to make this set extra special.)

This is welcome news for fans of a unique and complicated actress who was never really happy working in an industry where it seemed that profit was all. Luise's first Hollywood film, Escapade, brought her overnite stardom, but her disdain for doing publicity and refusal to shoot many of the scripts that came off the MGM assembly line got her labeled as difficult and ungrateful. Plus her outspoken left-wing political views created havoc with right-wing boss Louis B. Mayer.

Despite becoming the first back-to-back Academy Award winner (for The Great Ziegfeld and The Good Earth), after four years, Luise was out the door of MGM with only her two Oscars to cry on, though I doubt this strong lady did much of that. Her attitude was to look forward: return to the stage and later television, fight for the causes that were important to her, grow a family, and not look back too much at that short, whirlwind stay inside the gates of MGM.

[knives]

I realize no one else cares, but Swat Katz is getting released.

[domino harvey]

ANY five single-disc Warner Archive titles for $50 plus free shipping!

EDIT: Sweet, they stack, so you can get 15 for $150, etc. Time to raid the wishlist!

[souvenir]

ANY five single-disc Warner Archive titles for $50 plus free shipping!

EDIT: Sweet, they stack, so you can get 15 for $150, etc. Time to raid the wishlist!

What 25 titles did you order?

[domino harvey]

Susan Slept Here
the Unsuspected
Which Way to the Front?
Cracking Up
the Locket
Stranger on the Third Floor
Between Two Worlds
the Bribe
High Wall
Crack-Up
the Actress
Al Capone
Summer Holiday
Mission to Moscow
Lovely to Look At
the Devil's Doorway
the Tall Target
the Rain People
Two Sisters From Boston
Homecoming
Berlin Express
Johnny Eager
Slightly Dangerous
Flesh
Background to Danger

[matrixschmatrix]

Has anyone seen the Chuck Jones Phantom Tollbooth? It was a favorite book of mine as a kid, and "Chuck Jones' only feature" is a hell of a draw, but I haven't heard anything about it.

[knives]

With the caveat I haven't seen it since I was twelve, it's a pretty reasonable movie. It's not as good as the book, but it is more than entertaining enough and if you have little ones it's perfect semi-educational fun.

[Feego]

I haven't seen The Phantom Tollbooth since I was in elementary school, but it definitely interested me from a nostalgia point of view. My memories of it are fairly vague, and it's something I wish I could see before buying.

[beamish13]

"Phantom Tollbooth" is a debacle. Jones absolutely betrayed Jules Feiffer's wonderful, understated character designs, and while it ostensibly shares the same plot as the book, it lacks the intelligent playfulness of Norton Juster's writing. There's no real subtext to the film at all; it's such a threadbare and unimaginative interpretation that I wonder why Jones even made it.

[domino harvey]

Ten more and I'm out:
the Man With a Cloak
Pay or Die
the Woman on Pier 13
The Swan (was so tempted to get Green Fire too, since it'd complete my Grace Kelly viewing, but it just looks awful)
Brewster McCloud
Lady Without Passport
Split Second
Suspense
Tomorrow is Another Day
Hard, Fast and Beautiful

Gonna be one big noir-o-rama marathon when these and the other set gets in

[Napier]

Gonna be one big noir-o-rama marathon

At least I'm not the only one who binge noir's

[Murdoch]

Anyone willing to give the Locket a recommendation? I'm interested in seeing it but not enough to buy it.

[Napier]

Buy now! At the very least rent it. You won't be disappointed.

[Professor Wagstaff]

Thanks for the heads up, Domino. This was my first time actually ordering through Warner Archives which is great as I've been anxious to pick up a few of these titles for a while so I could finally check them out.

Brewster McCloud
Fog Over Frisco
He Who Gets Slapped
Saint Joan
Scaramouche

[Murdoch]

Alright, bought it along with Susan Slept Here, He Who Gets Slapped, The Tall Target and Stranger on 3rd Floor.

[domino harvey]

Good news! Even in the Archives, Warners is remastering their Techinicolor films to give them that drab Pirate color scheme! I remember watching Plymouth Adventure on VHS and the only thing of note was how garish the costuming colors were. No more, now they're all chill earth tones, bro

[Fred Holywell]

Warners is remastering their Techinicolor films to give them that drab Pirate color scheme!

Yes, if the Beaver's caps are any indication of the color quality of "Plymouth Adventure"... what a disappointment. Completely lifeless.

Saw this on network TV (CBS, probably) in the early 1980s and I recall the image having real vibrancy, which this disc seems to sorely lack. I'm surprised Gary points out "the distinctive Technicolor appearance" when, to my eye, it looks more like bad Eastmancolor.

Have the elements degraded so much in 30 years? I suppose they well could have. Or are the folks at Warners going after a less color saturated, more 'realistic' look? I suppose there are many viewers who hate the 'phoniness' of the old Technicolor look, but for some of us it's one of the things we love best about classic films.

[Jonathan S]

Maybe the Warner technical staff are descendants of the Puritan emigrants...

[movielocke]

Good news! Even in the Archives, Warners is remastering their Techinicolor films to give them that drab Pirate color scheme! I remember watching Plymouth Adventure on VHS and the only thing of note was how garish the costuming colors were. No more, now they're all chill earth tones, bro

looks like a one-light low contrast telecine was made and no work timing the telecine was done.

Also VHS pushed reds, just due to the color response of the tape stock and tended towards oversaturation as well. It's possible that this is how it is supposed to look.

But I'm leaning towards the scenario that WB decided not to make a CTM of their new telecine and just dumped the uncorrected tape straight to encode.

[domino harvey]

Susan Slept Here
the Unsuspected
Which Way to the Front?
Cracking Up
the Locket
Stranger on the Third Floor
Between Two Worlds
the Bribe
High Wall
Crack-Up
the Actress
Al Capone
Summer Holiday
Mission to Moscow
Lovely to Look At
the Devil's Doorway
the Tall Target
the Rain People
Two Sisters From Boston
Homecoming
Berlin Express
Johnny Eager
Slightly Dangerous
Flesh
Background to Danger

Warners is redoing their covers on most of their back catalog, so if you're curious, despite what the website shows, every title above has new, full cover artwork except the Actress, Mission to Moscow, and the Rain People. The new Tall Target cover is particularly cool. Also, every DVD is shrinkwrapped, which I don't remember being the case before

[fdm]

My last "big" order this past March, all were shrinkwrapped. The very same order where a good number of them wouldn't play without issues on one of my players. Previous, non-shrinkwrapped orders, just about zero issues on that same player (one of the discs was scratched up, one or two wouldn't play on any of my machines (so really were defective)). Coincidence? Let's just say Brewster McCloud has been my only purchase since, and I don't anticipate very many more in the future.