Warner Box Sets

[peerpee]

They've made Joan Crawford look like a microcephalic on the box set slipcase (with a bad haircut).

[Jeff]

Specs and covers for upcoming Joan Crawford and Bette Davis collections are now available.

[Eclisse]

This is just too colorful. I prefer the "Signature Collection" standard.

[rossbrew]

Amazon.ca just notified me that they were cancelling my pre-order for the Classic Comedies box- they said they were unable to obtain this particular stock. Any other fellow Canucks have this problem? Oh well, just have to order it from amazon.com I guess...

[Andre Jurieu]

Amazon.ca just notified me that they were cancelling my pre-order for the Classic Comedies box- they said they were unable to obtain this particular stock. Any other fellow Canucks have this problem? Oh well, just have to order it from amazon.com I guess...

I've been searching for this box-set at a few major Canadian retailers (Future Shop &/or Best Buy, A & B Sound, etc) and none of these retailers have the Classic Comedies box-set in the inventory lists on their computers. I have a bad feeling that means the box-set is unavailable in Canada. Of course, mbalson or ben probably have a better idea of this than I do.

[FilmFanSea]

There is speculation that a rights issue in Canada with To Be or Not to Be precludes that title or the box set being sold there:

DVD Talk Thread

[Andre Jurieu]

There is speculation that a rights issue in Canada with To Be or Not to Be precludes that title or the box set being sold there

Makes sense, considering To Be or Not To Be is the one title that is not being sold on its own at these same Canadian retailers.

[Ashirg]

Also, be warned that Canada doesn't have rights to Judy Garland documentary on Easter Parade disc, so Canadian releases of it omit this from the disc and from the boxset...

[Sai]

Also, be warned that Canada doesn't have rights to Judy Garland documentary on Easter Parade disc, so Canadian releases of it omit this from the disc and from the boxset...

How much does it add to the Judy Garland doc on the Meet Me in St. Louis disc? I'm not a huge Garland fan, but I won't say no to a good star-documentary. And it's 24 euro's for members at DVDSoon (Canadian retailer). Buy or let go?

[ben d banana]

There is speculation that a rights issue in Canada with To Be or Not to Be precludes that title or the box set being sold there

Well, I don't know. Thankfully I've switched my DVD buying almost exclusively over to a US one stop through work and as such have the Classic Comedies box and don't have to endure tacky dual language artwork.

[devlinnn]

I'm not a huge Garland fan, but I won't say no to a good star-documentary.

Yet to see it myself, by from all accounts it is close to 'definitive' and one of the best of its kind.

[filmfan]

I've had the opportunity to pick up the "East of Eden" and "Rebel Without A Cause" sets and the transfers are breathtaking !!!! You will NOT be disappointed !!!

[Lino]

So I was thinking about how Warner has announced a crapload of boxsets recently, and I began to think about exactly how much of a shift they are making towards collections over single releases. Last year they released the Martin Scorsese, Film Noir and Alfred Hitchcock Collections, which seemed to do very well.

So far, they've already announced 5+ sets through April (at least two a month), and the average effort included remastered transfers, featurettes, commentaries, Warner's A Night at the Movies feature and trailer for nearly $8 a disc when you order online. I've heard that they were planning Buzby Berkley and Sam Peckinpah boxsets, but what else? There must be at least a dozen more planned....

Just thought it would be interesting to quote this post from almost a year ago and if you notice, this could have been posted just this month as Warner's boxset trend hasn't lost gas! Much on the contrary.

[justeleblanc]

Warner owns the rights to Countdown, Brewster, and McCabe... and Jimmy Dean & Cold Day are "out there" and could be owned by Warner at this point. Would a full-out Altman box be worth expecting... replacing the snap case McCabe with a 2 disc edition?

Maybe the success of Fox's box set could influence Warner.

[Jeff]

Warner owns the rights to Countdown, Brewster, and McCabe... and Jimmy Dean & Cold Day are "out there" and could be owned by Warner at this point. Would a full-out Altman box be worth expecting... replacing the snap case McCabe with a 2 disc edition?

Paramount owns That Cold Day in the Park and Jimmy Dean. I can't see Warner scrounging together enough material to justify a two-disc set of McCabe, but I'd be happy if they found an excuse to reissue it in a keepcase. I doubt that Countdown is high on Warner's priority list, but perhaps they'll do it as a tie-in when Brewster gets released.

[Gregory]

It might be difficult to find existing features pertaining to McCabe & Mrs. Miller, but it definitely deserves a special edition. I would be happy if they just got a bunch of good film critics together for some kind of panel discussion of it, or they could go the traditional route with separate interviews. I'm afraid a lot of people who watch the film don't really appreciate how rich it is. There is so much to be explored. I don't think Warner is very good at using the best scholars and critics out there when putting together their special editions, but this would be a great place to start (as would a reissue of Rio Bravo).
Barring that, it would be nice to have a reissue of McCabe just for the sake of a new transfer.

[gubbelsj]

Gregory, I couldn't agree more. The current edition has a functional commentary track with Altman and producer David Foster kind of sleepwalking through memories of the shoot - it's all interesting, but not very gripping (Altman's never been at his best during commentaries). A panel would be wonderful, if only to guide viewers through the amazing cinematography, too often derided as being washed-out or dark. Nashville and Short Cuts seduced me years ago with their sweep and broad humor, but this is the film I've now come to treasure above all his others. Even though I own the WB dvd edition, I've only viewed it twice - my dream-like impressions and memories, as gauzy as the film itself, are so wonderful I feel that becoming too familiar with the picture might damage the overall effect. Didn't Pauline Kael describe McCabe as a pipe dream of a movie?

[justeleblanc]

A thought would be WB could dig up some footage of Altman's TV work with his Westerns shows.

And is Prarie Home Warner?

[Lino]

And is Prarie Home Warner?

It doesn't seem so.

Is my memory playing tricks on me but wasn't Warner kind of disappointed with the overall sales of McCabe? Mind that I would love to see a Warner Altman set but possibilites seem kind of scarce, don't they?

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Picturehouse is a joint venture between HBO and New Line, so they're still a Time-Warner company. Their video releases are handled by either New Line Home Video or HBO Video, depending on the title. You'd think WHV would exploit their Altman catalog in the name of corporate synergy, but I guess they can't be bothered.

[justeleblanc]

Picturehouse is a joint venture between HBO and New Line, so they're still a Time-Warner company. Their video releases are handled by either New Line Home Video or HBO Video, depending on the title. You'd think WHV would exploit their Altman catalog in the name of corporate synergy, but I guess they can't be bothered.

We'll see about an Altman box. Paramount could do the same, with a 2-disc restored version of Nashville, and maybe Altman would suddenly become a money maker.

As for the Warner though, is it possible that some other studio, maybe Warner, bought the rights to HealtH, which is why Fox didn't bother releasing it?

[Ashirg]

Paramount doesn't do boxes. They box up already released DVDs and re-release titles with new artwork...

[rollotomassi]

How about a triple boxset of Cukor's David Copperfield, Conway's A Tale of Two Cities (with perhaps the 1917 silent on there, too) and the 1938 A Christmas Carol (not very good, but the only other one we could use).

Also, a Shakespeare set with the 1935 A Midsummer Night's Dream (preferably the near 2¼ hour version, if it isn't lost), the 1953 Julius Caesar and the 1936 Romeo and Juliet (again, not very good, but the only other one available).

One might add another literary classics set with the 1940 Pride and Prejudice, the 1935 Les Misérables (RKO, I'm sure Warners could get the rights), also perhaps reinclude their 1933 Little Women (previously released as a stand alone) and perhaps the 1948 The Three Musketeers with Gene Kelly, the 1949 Madame Bovary, the 1934 The Count of Monte Cristo (if they have the rights to it) and various others come to mind.

[shearerchic]

WB said they're releasing David Copperfield & A Tale of Two Cities together, but no date has been announced. A Christmas Carol was released in 2005 part of the WB Holiday Collection. Julius Caesar is coming out this year and is part of the Marlon Brando Collection and WB said they just found the original camera negative for Romeo & Juliet, so it is in the works. Hope this helped you out.

[Alexander]

Having read the various announcements by Warners, I can't help but think they're missing something by not doing a Robert Taylor box. I mean, just think:

A Yank at Oxford (Conway, 1938)

Waterloo Bridge (LeRoy, 1940)

Undercurrent (Minnelli, 1946)

Party Girl (Ray, 1958)

The Law and Jake Wade (Sturges, 1958)

maybe even Quo Vadis (LeRoy, 1951)

I can see that they might be saving Undercurrent for their next noir box (or a Minnelli set, he said, hopefully), and maybe Waterloo Bridge as a bonus to the original on their pre-code set (a la the silent Camille on the Garbo box), but this set would make me very happy.