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Eddie Muller reports in Back Alley Noir forum -

The Glass Key and The Blue Dahlia will probably be out before the end of 2012, produced by Universal, packaged and distributed by Turner Classic Movies.

Just checked to see that the last two discs were in fact the films they should be (they are). The only thing I can find is some incomplete descriptions of some extras on one flap of the digipack, the worst of which leaves off Ron Howard's name on one of the Yen extras and Jeanine Basinger's last name on Forbidden. Credit where credit's due and all that.

TCM Vault goes blu with a release of Blu-ray/DVD Combo of the new restoration of The Iron Petticoat on November 19:

"The Turner Classic Movies Vault Collection presents THE IRON PETTICOAT in a Two-Disc BluRay/DVD Combo Edition.

Bob Hope and Katharine Hepburn - two of Hollywood’s biggest stars – appear together for the first and only time in one of the most unlikely pairings in the history of movies. A charming Cold War romance and political satire in the tradition of Ninotchka, this comic battle of the sexes pits a defecting Soviet jet pilot (Hepburn) against a U.S. army captain (Hope) who is charged with turning a diehard communist into a patriotic capitalist.

The Iron Petticoat (1956), has not been seen since 1966 and has been completely restored and remastered for this Blu-ray/DVD release.

Regarding The Iron Petticoat, do we know if this release will used pressed media, recordable media, or any combination of the two?

The Blu-ray will most definitely be pressed. BD-Rs are far too problematic compatibility-wise to use for a retail release.

Two new TCM Vault pre-orders: Universal "Dark Crimes" (Noir) & a Carole Lombard set.

Looks like Dark Crimes contains The Glass Key, Phantom Lady, and The Blue Dahlia, while the Lombard set has No More Orchids, Brief Moment, and Lady by Choice.

That image isn't loading properly (at least on my computer). Did you mean to link to this?

That is indeed what he linked to. It should be worth it for the curious just for the Sturges film.

knives wrote:That is indeed what he linked to. It should be worth it for the curious just for the Sturges film.

Agreed. Backlash is underrated and full of nicely staged set pieces. Sturges really could direct the heck out of widescreen. What about the Boetticher? Is it in the same league as the Ranown films? Is it better than Westbound?

TCM is now listing a "Glenn Ford - Undercover Crimes" set for March.

warren oates wrote:

knives wrote:That is indeed what he linked to. It should be worth it for the curious just for the Sturges film.

Agreed. Backlash is underrated and full of nicely staged set pieces. Sturges really could direct the heck out of widescreen. What about the Boetticher? Is it in the same league as the Ranown films? Is it better than Westbound?

Boetticher's Horizons West is an interesting picture. Technically speaking, it's kind of creaky (in the same league as Seminole) -- but it's a fun little picture, and Robert Ryan gives a hell of a good performance. I'm looking forward to owning a copy, but it certainly won't get played as often as his Ranown films.

Max von Mayerling wrote:TCM is now listing a "Glenn Ford - Undercover Crimes" set for March.

Does anyone recommend any of these films? Link here.

It's basically yet another Noir set, and godblessit

Joseph H. Lewis directed The Undercover Man, though I haven't seen it.

[b][/b]The Glenn Ford set looks good but I'd really love to see them tackle the last remaining Burt Lancaster noirs from Paramount and Universal: DESERT FURY, I WALK ALONE and KISS THE BLOOD OFF MY HANDS.

I've seen Undercover Man. Ford is good playing a nice descent federal agent in it, there's some nice crowded-streets chasing in some scenes, and it was basically a pleasant, if 100% predictable thriller, with Ford playing a sort of Eliot Ness figure. The suspense is all rather displaced, though, from Ford and his agents onto the neighborhood hoods Ford is trying to get to testify against Capone. One funny element is that--probably for legal reasons--they refrain from calling Capone by name throughout the film. So the villain is always referred to with very awkward delivery as "The Big Man." I wouldn't go out of my way to buy that movie unless I were a Ford or Lewis completist, though. It's a far cry from My Name is Julia Ross, Gun Crazy, Jubal or The Big Heat.

Dirk wrote:

Max von Mayerling wrote:TCM is now listing a "Glenn Ford - Undercover Crimes" set for March.

Does anyone recommend any of these films? Link here.

I've seen Framed, Convicted and The Undercover Man. None of them are great, all three are very very routine, but they're all at least okay. Undercover Man is probably the best of them.

Karloff: Criminal Kind is the next set in the TCM Vault line; the set - which includes The Criminal Code (1931), The Guilty Generation (1931), and Behind the Mask (1932) is listed for release on April 16th. Here's the link.

Also, previous TCM Vault titles Sierra (Audie Murphy) and The Virginian (Joel McCrea) will released along with previous Universal Vault titles Comanche Territory, Tomahawk, and The Texas Rangers Ride Again as part of a 10 film Classic Westerns Collection from Universal on March 12th; the other five titles in the collection - Albuquerque, When the Daltons Rode, The Spoilers, Kansas Raiders, and Whispering Smith - were previously released on DVD. If you missed out on Sierra, The Virginian, Comanche Territory, Tomahawk, or The Texas Rangers Ride Again, I would suggest picking up the collection.

I've been taking a break but I felt a moral imperative to check in to give everyone a warning: I pre-ordered the Horizons Westerns set months ago and it only just came out two days ago. My copy arrived today and two of the five discs were fucking DVD-Rs. Is nothing sacred anymore?

Domino, can you say which films are DVD-Rs? Hope it's not Backlash or Horizons West.

Saskatchewan and Pillars of the Sky were the DVD-Rs in my copy, but YMMV. TCM wouldn't let me get a refund, but they are sending me out another copy of the set gratis. I will report back if the same discs are DVD-Rs in the second set, which should either be double-confirmation or cast further doubt on the safety of pre-ordering these sets to avoid this very scenario

Thanks for the heads up Domino. I'd completely forgotten about this set (can't have too many Widmark westerns!) but don't like the idea of "mixed media" in the initial run of these TCM sets. But I believe this has happened before. * * * * * Yes, just checked and Perkizitore posted last August that his Sony Noir III had JULIA ROSS as a DVD-R. No one else seemed to have a problem regarding this particular new twist (my set was all pressed) but there was apprehension that this could happen again. And now it has. Please keep us posted.

I don't understand this partially DVD-R nonsense. Since this is a box-set, you'd think they would press the same number of discs for each title - why the need for DVD-R's for a few of them? I mean, it's not like these titles are offered separately (at least not yet). It's baffling.

I should get my copy in today, so I'll report back if there are any problems.

What makes this particularly frustrating is the chance you already take with the transfer quality of these Universal sets. It looks like they could, at the very least, offer us pressed copies of the twenty-year old video dubs they so frequently pawn off on us as adequate mastering. At least with the Sony sets, you can be somewhat confident in the a/v quality.