Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

[Jack Phillips]

Uh . . . isn't the big news here Before Night Falls?

[Finch]

Westward the Women is my pick as well.

[Maltic]

Westward the Women is probably the best film Frank Capra has a credit on. Christopher Strong will probably go down nicely with as Merrily We Go To Hell.

One of the great non-Ford Ford westerns

[hearthesilence]

Uh . . . isn't the big news here Before Night Falls?

I'm probably going to skip this batch of titles, but if I did buy any, it would be Before Night Falls.

[captveg]

Westward the Women seems like a must pick up, but the rest of this batch feels like titles I never see anyone request.

I've definitely seen requests from animation fans for Cats Don't Dance, but yeah.

[FrauBlucher]

Is that what they largely go by, requests? Because I can’t believe Stage Door would get very little requests, unless I’m out of touch with what people want

[domino harvey]

I am convinced 75% of their releases are completely random, with the other 25 percent being the result of someone who knows something, anything about their catalog

[Finch]

The two Lewtons, Stage Door, Air Force and Gentleman Jim are my biggest wants.

[domino harvey]

To be fair, they released two of my biggest wants in the same month, Caged and Angel Face, so they get a walk for the next couple months

[What A Disgrace]

I'm hoping for Stars In My Crown, Intruders in the Dust, and The Lusty Men, myself.

[FrauBlucher]

I'm not panning their releases. Overall they've done a good job. But there are still some high end releases from the 30s and 40s that haven't been released and I would bet a Crispy Creme that they are widely requested. Domino is probably right on his assessment. I'll add to it by saying I'm sure many of the releases are favorites of the Archive folks first and foremost

[Finch]

I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang is another one that I hope WAC will tackle in 2024 if it's not on their Oct/Nov/Dec slate.

[Matt]

I would think that Criterion would release I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang given its importance as a “social problem” film and as a career-making Paul Muni film, both aspects that would benefit from scholarly or historical contextualization. Not saying it’s likely, but it would be a good choice for them (if they chose to make an effort with it).

I couldn’t remember what Cats Can’t Dance was (outside of being a huge commercial flop), so I looked it up and discovered that it was the first non-Disney film to win the Best Animated Feature Annie award, and it’s still held in high regard by animators. Also, Gene Kelly advised on the choreography and Randy Newman composed songs, so it probably has a few selling points and some avid fans.

[Michael Kerpan]

Looking at clips on YouTube, Cats Can't Dance looks like it could be pretty entertaining.

[Finch]

George said in the podcast that Palmetto was among the most requested titles and Westward the Women was one of Warner's top ten best selling DVD-R's. Some surprises teased for the rest of the year and 2024.

[What A Disgrace]

Westward the Women was also one of the few WAC DVDs that they bothered to record a commentary for.

[knives]

I like Cats Don’t Dance a lot. It’s not a great movie, but it’s good fun and fans of ‘30s and ‘40s cinema will probably enjoy themselves with it.

[Gregory]

It's says something that Cat's Don't Dance was originally released after Warner had begun to release DVDs but they didn't get around to releasing it on that format until seven years later. Warner Bros. really never supported the film—a result of the timing of Turner Broadcasting having been swallowed up by Time Warner during the film's postproduction.
To pad out its old-timey 75 min. runtime, they released it theatrically with a new Foghorn Leghorn short, Pullet Suprise (not to be confused with the Pulitzer Prize, Wikipedia notes helpfully). WB didn't bother to include it when they released Cat's Don't Dance on DVD, so I assume they haven't done so now either.

Christopher Strong is definitely not one of my favorites among Hepburn's 1930s run (the source material is the problem), and it was a role that was quickly overshadowed by her Jo March. Makes sense that WAC released Little Women ahead of this. I wonder if the they decided to release a Dorothy Arzner-directed film after they noticed Criterion doing so 2–3 years ago.

[felipe]

Westward the Women seems like a must pick up, but the rest of this batch feels like titles I never see anyone request.

I've definitely seen requests from animation fans for Cats Don't Dance, but yeah.

I had never heard about this film so I saw the announcement and was like "who even wants this?" But the comments section on blu-ray.com is mostly people celebrating Cats Don't Dance is finally coming to blu-ray, so what do I know...

[domino harvey]

That actually tells you exactly how worthless it must be

[What A Disgrace]

I've heard of Cats Don't Dance for years, but I don't remember the context for hearing about it.

[beamish14]

I like Cats Don’t Dance a lot. It’s not a great movie, but it’s good fun and fans of ‘30s and ‘40s cinema will probably enjoy themselves with it.

Same here. It’s tremendously fun and energetic. Certainly leagues better than WB’s other big animated feature from the time, Quest for Camelot. It’s definitely developed a sizable cult following

[beamish14]

It's says something that Cat's Don't Dance was originally released after Warner had begun to release DVDs but they didn't get around to releasing it on that format until seven years later. Warner Bros. really never supported the film—a result of the timing of Turner Broadcasting having been swallowed up by Time Warner during the film's postproduction.
To pad out its old-timey 75 min. runtime, they released it theatrically with a new Foghorn Leghorn short, Pullet Suprise (not to be confused with the Pulitzer Prize, Wikipedia notes helpfully). WB didn't bother to include it when they released Cat's Don't Dance on DVD, so I assume they haven't done so now either.

It always annoys me when studios cut off the shorts that they originally released features with. No release of The Land Before Time has included the shortened cut of Brad Bird’s “Family Dog” episode from Amazing Stories, and Kindergarten Cop was paired with the Ren and Stimpy pilot “Big House Blues”

[FrauBlucher]

Another film that I'm surprised hasn't been brought to bluray by the Archive is Ball of Fire. A Hawks screwball comedy with Stanwyck, Cooper and terrific supporting cast.

[FlickeringWindow]

Another film that I'm surprised hasn't been brought to bluray by the Archive is Ball of Fire. A Hawks screwball comedy with Stanwyck, Cooper and terrific supporting cast.

Warner only distributes the Samuel Goldwyn films. That's why The Film Foundation worked on Dodsworth and The Best Years of Our Lives. I did see that they list Ball of Fire and Stella Dallas as collaborations on their site, so maybe they're coming. A comment by Robert Harris on HTF pointed to the Technicolor features needing some serious preservation and restoration work.