Universal Catalog Titles on Blu

[FrauBlucher]

Coming to blu-ray in September:

The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)

Guess people who thought that was last month's CC Newsletter clue were wrong, but get a consolation prize.

I wouldn't say absolutely not. Criterion has piggybacked Universal titles before.

[EddieLarkin]

Restoration and mastering work confirmed on the following titles:

4K Restoration:

One Eyed Jacks
Animal Crackers
Cocoanuts
Duck Soup
Horse Feathers
Monkey Business
My Man Godfrey
Shanghai Express
Son of Frankenstein
Ghost of Frankenstein
Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman
House of Dracula
House of Frankenstein
King of Jazz
Last Warning (1929)
Oh Doctor (1925)
Outside the Law (1920)

Standard remaster:

Phantom Lady
Winchester ‘73
Something for a Lonely Man
Desperado Outlaw Wars
Desperado Badlands Justice

[domino harvey]

Phantom Lady is an unexpected title for Universal to remaster, but most welcome. Presumably they'll farm it out to Criterion or another licensor since they dumped it in the TCM Vault the first time (same for Shanghai Express, hopefully). Thrilled to hear One Eyed Jacks is finally going to have a decent home video release for the first time ever. Hilarious to see Winchester 73 still being promised-- it's got to have been at least five or six years since that was first announced for Blu-ray

[hearthesilence]

Whoah, Paramount Marx Brothers? I heard there weren't any great sources for those, but the transfers for the DVD's haven't been given a whole lot of praise either. Would love to see an improvement.

[captveg]

Having seen the amazing work done on Dracula (especially with the audio), they may be able to do some remarkable things for those Marx Bros films.

[Drucker]

Whoah, Paramount Marx Brothers? I heard there weren't any great sources for those, but the transfers for the DVDs haven't been given a whole lot of praise either. Would love to see an improvement.

Agreed, especially with the audio more than anything else, which is borderline inaudible on the earlier two films in the Silver Screen box.

[Jeff]

How in the world did Universal end up restoring One-Eyed Jacks, a 1961 Paramount release that's now in the public domain? I'm just thrilled to hear it might get a watchable release (a theatrical tour would be swell). Glad to hear that The Film Foundation is involved as well.

[DeprongMori]

Also pleasantly shocked by the news of 4K restorations for these Marx Brothers titles. As far I know a lot of the footage of Horsefeathers from the scene in the College Widow's parlor is still lost, right? I'll do a happy dance if that footage has finally been found.

[Minkin]

Score! Universal is finally moving along to the other classic horror titles.

Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman is probably my favorite of the classic horror cycle. That said, I do wish they would've skipped the two garbage "house of" sequels and instead do Dracula's Daughter or Black Cat / Raven. Oh well, any work on the classics (along with Marx brothers) is great news. Now to hope that some of these follow the Universal/Criterion trend as well.

[FrauBlucher]

Holy shat, this is great news.! Just peed myself. The early Marx Bros on blu. I can't wait to see Mrs. Teasdale's fat arse in 4k. YES!

[domino harvey]

I hope the Marx Brothers Blu-rays come inside the same giant cardboard brick as the DVDs, otherwise what will I kill rats with??

[FrauBlucher]

I'm actually surprised that Universal has beaten WB to release the Marx Bros on blu ray. But the choices WB makes for blu ray title releases, I guess I shouldn't be.

[mfunk9786]

I hope the Marx Brothers Blu-rays come inside the same giant cardboard brick as the DVDs, otherwise what will I kill rats with??

Count me out of your next house party

[domino harvey]

*mouse party

[J M Powell]

The biggest surprise must surely be the silent films. For a major studio to fund 4k restorations of three less-than-famous silent features in 2015 is basically an act of charity. Universal just made my day.

[captveg]

How in the world did Universal end up restoring One-Eyed Jacks, a 1961 Paramount release that's now in the public domain?

Per Mark Edward Heuck at HTF:

"To partially answer the "Why is Universal working on ONE-EYED JACKS" question...

The wall that has been hit multiple times on the lack of activity on the movie has been Paramount's curious insistence that they do not own it, despite having put it out on videocassette and laserdisc (the nicely letterboxed LD being the source for almost all subsequent PD DVD bootlegs that have followed). When pressed, they would claim that Universal owns it, but in turn when approached to book the film or for other confirmations, Universal often denied having it either.

After multiple conversations with a genial representative of the Brando estate, what I was able to piece together is that because of the debt incurred from self-financing the film through his Pennebaker Productions company, Brando effectively sold the company to Universal in exchange for a five picture contract in order to finish it. And Brando did make those five films (THE UGLY AMERICAN, BEDTIME STORY, THE APPALOOSA, A COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG, and THE NIGHT OF THE FOLLOWING DAY). As such, while I am not a lawyer or have had further contact with the estate, this would seem to be the logic: Paramount's distribution rights expired after so many years, and whereas it would have reverted to Brando himself, because of that bailout it went to Universal. At the time of our chat, though, he said Universal was still pleading ignorance, to which I suggested that they should follow the same path that William Friedkin did with SORCERER (which also involved a Paramount/Universal mutual denial): File a lawsuit against both studios, so that during the discovery process, they would be forced to dig for any and all paperwork to confirm ownership.

Now, I have no idea if that was done or not. But, the fact that this trustworthy source is saying that Universal is participating with Film Foundation on this project, again, reason suggests that the matter has been resolved."

[Jeff]

Per Mark Edward Heuck at HTF:
"To partially answer the "Why is Universal working on ONE-EYED JACKS" question..."

Interesting. Everyone's favorite ignorant old jerk, Jeffrey Wells, is a fan of the film and apparently spoke to powers that be at The Film Foundation this morning who confirmed the work and that it does belong to Universal:

[T]his morning Film Foundation managing director Jennifer Ahn confirmed that the One-Eyed Jacks project is a definite go.

Yes, Universal and not Paramount, the original distributor. I’ve assumed all along that Paramount had retained rights but apparently not. The rights issue turned out to be “much more complicated than it seems,” Ahn says, “but ultimately we figured out that they belonged to Universal.” The Q2 report divulged that Universal and the Film Foundation have “begun film element research and scan tests” with an assessment report to follow, and then it’ll be off to the races. If all goes well (and it should) the One-Eyed Jacks Bluray will probably be released sometime next year.

Ahn will work with Universal senior vp technical operations Michael Daruty.

I put quotes around “restoration” because I’m given to understand that the One-Eyed Jacks elements are probably in pretty good shape. Lang shot it on Eastmancolor 5250, which delivered an improvement over Eastmancolor 5248 because (a) it was “faster” and (b) didn’t fade as much. My understanding is that the original negative has been sitting in a professionally-maintained Paramount vault ever since, and so a “restoration” is probably not going to be necessary. The work will mainly involve fine-tuning — digital cleanup, a telecine transfer, stabilization, color correction, etc.

From there he goes on to pontificate about how he'd like for it to be released in his preferred "boxy" aspect ratio of 1.66, and who knows, he might accidentally be correct. Robert Harris seems to concur on HTF that it doesn't necessarily need a lot of work.

I'm sure after investing in the new transfer, Universal will want to release it themselves, but at least there is precedent for Criterion handling Universal films with prior PD releases (Charade and My Man Godfrey). A Criterion Blu-ray of One-Eyed Jacks would be a dream come true, and they could include the new feature-length doc, Listen to Me Marlon, and the Maysles' Meet Marlon Brando.

[captveg]

10/13/15

The Land Before Time (1988)

[CSM126]

10/13/15

The Land Before Time (1988)

A refreshing surprise after so many years of Uni treating this movie like shit (blatantly VHS-ripped DVD transfer).

[captveg]

Also coming 10/13/15:

Hard Target (1993)
Sudden Death (1995)

These were previously released last year in the Van Damme collection.

[FrauBlucher]

This from a post on Nitrateville. If you want to read more, and can possibly help, open link at bottom.

"Universal Studios Marx Brothers Blu-Ray Update!!! Help wanted!!!

[...]

I have had further dialog with the folks at Universal that are working on the restorations of the Paramount Marx films this morning and I can report the following:

1. YES, they are using the 35mm print of "Cocoanuts" that resides in the UCLA archives. So far, it is the best print known to exist. So expect a MUCH better quality Blu-Ray on that film.

2. They have located sound track elements for "Cocoanuts" that are BETTER than my original 16" soundtrack discs. So expect a much better SOUNDING Blu-Ray on that film as well as much better visuals.

3. I have given them the information that Joe Adamson supplied about the whereabouts of continuity scripts--what they do with that information is now up to them.

4. I asked about the missing sequences from "Duck Soup" with Zeppo dancing with Raquel Torres etc. They know NOTHING about this--but promised me that if I can find out who said this footage exists and they can speak to that person, they "would be forever in my debt" and really want to find it, and include it in the newly restored "Duck Soup", if it exists.

Contact info.

[captveg]

11/17/15

We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993)


Riding the coattails of Jurassic Park/World once again.

[Drucker]

Beaver on Spartacus remaster.

[jedgeco]

Beaver on Spartacus remaster.

Doesn't have the "waxy" look of the prior Blu, but a pretty substantially different color scheme than the Criterion DVD.

Shitty-looking Universal menu design, as always!

[John Doe]

Coming in March:

Along Came Polly
*Batteries Not Included
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
Howard the Duck
Xanadu