Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

[Red Screamer]

Bells Are Ringing is a decent film and a bad musical at once. None of the numbers dazzle, nor could they possibly be meant to, and the songs are just okay. The movie starts strong with an interesting premise and sprinkles in amusing details about the lengths Judy Holliday will go for her 'clients', before matters become more complicated with a few stray plot lines. There's some cute banter with Martin, but this is Holliday's show through and through, and she's up for the challenge. Unfortunately the material isn't, and Minnelli drags out the activity when it should be consolidated. I'd love to see a Tashlin version of this, especially given the comic promises at the start which feel right up his alley, but Susan Slept Here this is not

Yeah, I never understood — outside of Holliday — why Minnelli's fans seem to like Bells are Ringing so much. Minnelli is not putting his full energy into it. The best number is the lonely ballad when Martin gets off the train: he sings and shuffles slowly, nowhere to go, while the crowd rushes by around him. The way it's elegantly done in only a couple of shots makes me want to think it's an approach Minnelli picked up from his colleague at MGM, Charles Walters. Walters, after all, directed the two best numbers in Gigi, Minnelli's previous musical — tho that didn't stop Minnelli from naming his autobiography I Remember it Well...

[therewillbeblus]

Any indication of when the next set of announcements will drop?

[FrauBlucher]

It seems like they’ve been delayed. They moved a handful of their Sept releases to mid month because of production delays

[therewillbeblus]

Okay, I don't know anything about this podcast that apparently informs people about the announcement date, so wasn't sure if there was any info there. Thanks Frau!

[Peacock]

Just announced:

The Lost Patrol* (1934)
Skyscraper Souls (1932)
Dear Heart (1964)
Bundle of Joy (1956)

*A beautiful little Ford that I was hoping would get an an upgrade.

[FrauBlucher]

Just announced:

The Lost Patrol* (1934)
Skyscraper Souls (1932)
Dear Heart (1964)
Bundle of Joy (1956)

*A beautiful little Ford that I was hoping would get an an upgrade.

Come on THE INFORMER, let’s go! (unless CC has it)

[What A Disgrace]

Marked Woman (1937) as well

[FrauBlucher]

Also a 4K combo of RYAN’S DAUGHTER (1970)

[therewillbeblus]

This might be old news, but supposedly all their 4Ks will be FiM encodes

[FrauBlucher]

THE GREAT WALZ (1938) Duvivier
PLEASE DON’T EAT THE DAISIES (1960)

[therewillbeblus]

Please Don’t Eat the Daisies... where are the TV series?

[FrauBlucher]

Probably saving them for the last two announcements

[nicolas]

Ryan’s Daughter sounds like an absolute dream release. 8K scan from the negative, original 70mm audio in 5.0 and 2x BD-100 discs. Can’t wait to get this one.

[FrauBlucher]

BOY’S TOWN

[therewillbeblus]

Man, these really went downhill after The Lost Patrol, huh? Though supposedly Dear Heart is good

[Furstemberg]

No Marked Woman slander thank you

[therewillbeblus]

Um, Hanna Barbera's The Quick Draw McGraw Show is coming, but that's not a 'live action' TV series

Edit: But Maverick is

[FrauBlucher]

Here you go MAVERICK (The complete series)

[Altair]

Lots of highlights here - Ryan's Daughter should look astonishing and whatever virtues the film has, are entirely wrapped up with its photography. Skyscraper Souls is a fun screwball comedy too, which should have that creamy gleam of the '30s to it.

[FrauBlucher]

Here is the UHD art work. Pretty nice. There is a standalone bluray as well...

[hearthesilence]

Marked Woman (1937) as well

I was hoping they'd upgrade this, very happy to hear this. It's one of my very favorite Bette Davis films, maybe my favorite one she did with Warner Bros.

EDIT: Here's Jonathan Rosenbaum's capsule review from a few decades back:

Inspired by Thomas Dewey’s indictment of Lucky Luciano—at a trial where many prostitutes who suffered at the gangster’s hands testified against him—this gritty 1937 Warners crime movie is one of the least compromised melodramas of the period in expressing solidarity with women. Co-starring Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart, written by Robert Rossen and Abem Finkel, and directed by Lloyd Bacon, it’s one of the key films discussed in the 1995 video documentary Red Hollywood, and it packs a serious punch. With Jane Bryan, Eduardo Cianneli, and Isabel Jewell.

[domino harvey]

THE GREAT WALZ (1938) Duvivier
PLEASE DON’T EAT THE DAISIES (1960)

Please Don’t Eat the Daisies is execrable, no wonder it was turned into a sitcom it already was one

Can’t believe they’re releasing Great Waltz before the Good Earth, what are we doing here WA

Ryan’s Daughter was one of the last big WB deluxe DVD releases before their pivot to Blu-ray, I can’t believe it took so long.

Ryan's Daughter (David Lean 1970) By no charitable meaning could I be accused of being a Lean fan, but I still wasn't expecting this film to be actively awful. Three and a half hours of idiotic narrative that only exists to occasionally show off the Irish seaside. Poor Robert Mitchum is cuckold to Sarah Miles, as she cats around with a British soldier who for some reason is instantly irresistible to Miles despite the fact that he may or may not have been portrayed by one of those lifesize cardboard cutouts from Spencer's Gifts. Trevor Howard's in the mix as a hard-drinking Catholic priest and John Mills keeps alive the Oscars' streak of awarding statues to characters they feel sorry for with his grotesque town idiot. If there has ever been a worse performance that garnered an Oscar, I'd like to know it, because this is my area of expertise and I am coming up blank.

Boys Town Well, I liked this one more than the rest of you, apparently. Tracy, while not being Oscar-worthy, does respectable work here, and Taurog shows again as in Skippy a talent for directing young performers. The final election in the movie doesn't really make any narrative sense, but I suppose the audience is supposed to be too carried away with the emotions to notice. Whoops. As far as hagiographic Catholic paeans go, you could do a lot worse...

...and the proof is out there: I liked the film enough to check out the Taurog-directed sequel, Men of Boys Town, which was a mistake. Lee J Cobb shows up and is wasted, Tracy relegates himself to a supporting role, and Mickey Rooney is pushed to the center, meaning, unsurprisingly, the film takes a more comic tone than its predecessor. The hamminess of the first half makes the weird switch to "high (melo)drama" concerning reform school dangers in the film's latter half all the more jarring and unconvincing. Also, here is a movie that takes great pains to point out that systematic physical abuse of minors is unacceptable, then gives the audience a running gag about one young character who is so obnoxious that everyone he talks to has to literally stop themselves from assaulting him. Good lesson! Also the film hinges on an audience's ability to forget that the "sympathetic" cripple at the center of the action is actually a convicted murderer.

And no write up but put me with TWBB on Team Marked Woman’t