criterionforum.org

Curtiz's The Undesirable @ DVDBeaver

I haven't seen any reviews yet but let me give a hearty warning against Olive's Blu-Ray of Christmas Eve, which is quite possibly the worst Blu-Ray I've ever seen from a non-PD outfit. Granted, there's never been a circulating copy of this that didn't look like a VHS rip of an 8mm print, but I am stunned Olive thought the poor, blown-out elements were good enough for a Blu-Ray release given we know they've turned down other films for poor elements. At the very least, those films must really be in bad shape if they're worse than this!

Dead Pigeon and The Sound of Fury are both exciting releases. The latter is a bleak and forceful noir that has major champions in critics like Rosenbaum but has, to my knowledge, never been available on disc until now. Any chance MoC tackle the FUller at some point?

Directors cut of Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street? I'm guessing this is the 102 minute version from the UCLA film archive, not the 128 minute version that is floating out there...

Between Sound of Fury, The Chase, Too Late for Tears, and Woman on the Run, we're getting spoiled this year with noir films that were previously unavailable in acceptable versions or at all. From my personal list of favorites, I think all I'm still waiting for are The Devil Thumbs a Ride, The Web, and T-Men/Raw Deal.

It's surprising The Sound of Fury took so long, as what appeared to be a restoration was shown on UK TV's Film 4 (and maybe US TCM?) several years ago. It was certainly much improved over previous BBC broadcasts.

I don't recall The Chase, Too Late for Tears or Woman on the Run ever being broadcast here. Until the proliferation of small channels, PD films were the least likely to be shown, as the BBC and main commercial channels cared too much about quality for films of that era and had long-running deals with the Hollywood studios. A rare exception was the BBC's version of Detour that bridged the gaps in the scrappy 35mm print (as released on DVD by Image) with 16mm footage.

Now of course channels like Movies4Men and sometimes even Film4 really don't care about quality, and will show unwatchably jerky and blurry transfers (worse than almost any VHS tape) of anything cheap they can lay their hands on...

Update: Remaining from the older Paramount/Republic deal(s) (5):

The Adalen Riots (1969)
Beware, My Lovely (1952)
The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams (1974)
Outrage (1950)
The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (1947)

DVD-only released, Blu-ray upgrade pending (6):

The Buccaneer (1938)
The Lawless (1950)
No Man of Her Own (1950)
Pony Express (1953)
Something to Live For (1952)
Tropic of Cancer (1970)

captveg wrote:Update: Remaining from the older Paramount/Republic deal(s) (5):
The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (1947)

This is the one I've really been waiting for, in case you wanted to know which one will be released dead last.

I've been waiting for Beware, My Lovely for years, let's see who "wins" that contest!

Still hoping for an upgrade of No Man of Her Own. A really great film!

domino harvey wrote:I've been waiting for Beware, My Lovely for years, let's see who "wins" that contest!

Robert Ryan comes for all of us eventually

With that still you've got us all wanting it. . .

. . . so it will never come out.

May titles:

MGM-licensed:

Agent Cody Banks (2003)
Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London (2004)
The Defiant Ones (1958)
Iphigenia (1977)
The King and Four Queens (1956)
Legend of the Lost (1957)
Rich Kids (1979)
The Sum of Us (1994)
Zapped! (1982)

Paramount (Republic):

The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (1947)

Paramount:

French Postcards (1979)
The Whoopee Boys (1986)

----

Update: Remaining from the older Paramount/Republic deal(s) (4):

The Adalen Riots (1969)
Beware, My Lovely (1952)
The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams (1974)
Outrage (1950)

DVD-only released, Blu-ray upgrade pending (6):

The Buccaneer (1938)
The Lawless (1950)
No Man of Her Own (1950)
Pony Express (1953)
Something to Live For (1952)
Tropic of Cancer (1970)

Wow, I am shocked that no other label already had the Defiant Ones

domino harvey wrote:Wow, I am shocked that no other label already had the Defiant Ones

It's worth noting that Twilight Time stated they passed on The Defiant Ones because of the condition of the master, so don't expect any miracles here.

captveg wrote:May titles:

MGM-licensed:
Rich Kids (1979)

Paramount:
French Postcards (1979)

I'm sure they will just put out the same "re-scored" version that appeared on DVD, but here's hoping that somehow my prediction is wrong and FRENCH POSTCARDS appears on Blu-ray with the original theatrical soundtrack intact.

Hopefully, RICH KIDS will be the longest version of the film. There are listings for both 101 minutes and 96 minutes.

Weirdly, Classic Flix say that Legend of the Lost will be a DVD only release...

Ashirg wrote:Weirdly, Classic Flix say that Legend of the Lost will be a DVD only release...

Weird. Maybe this will be a future Twilight Time Blu-ray? Kino also released a few DVD-only titles for the real reason.

Apparently, The Defiant Ones is NOT coming from Olive.

June titles-- all will have optional English subs (!)

domino harvey wrote:June titles

I'll take I'll Take Sweden -- Not a great film, but a favorite. This has a ridiculous number of Bob Hope one-liners, eternal dickhead Frankie Avalon, and Tuesday Weld (any day of the week!). Probably his last good film, and the one I revisit the most after a couple of the Road movies, and, um, The Ghost Breakers.

Seeing Appointment With Crime on the list, I guess that means Olive done another deal with Paramount before releasing all titles from the first deals.