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It's not as well-known as They Live By Night, but definitely better-known than The Breaking Point!

The Set-Up is of course best known for its real time gimmick. It feels more like a future Archives Blu release to me, but I said the same about Asphalt Jungle so what do I know

Is Freaks still a WB property? Seems like we've been waiting on that one for a while, perhaps a restoration is imminent? The dvd is OOP.

If Criterion isn't releasing a Val Lewton box, then I guess a Busby Berkeley box is out of the question too, though maybe we can still hope for a smaller Gold Diggers box.

The Controversial Classics box is also OOP, & from that A Face In The Crowd & I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang are likely candidates.

And since Joan has already entered the collection, can Bette be too far behind? I'd love to see sets of their older titles, but if it's going to be single releases, one can only speculate which of Bette's would come first. All 3 boxes are OOP, but individual titles seem to be readily available & the most likely candidate to match Mildred Pierce (All About Eve) has already been upgraded by WB.

All About Eve is a Fox title.

Put this in the "take it for what it's worth" category. When I went to see Mildred Pierce screened with many of the Criterion folks on hand, Lee Kline said during the introduction that he's a bigger fan of Bette Davis than Joan Crawford.

captveg wrote:All About Eve is a Fox title.

Forgot that...& The Little Foxes is MGM, so what would qualify as her biggest critical success during her Warner's studio days? or perhaps they'd just go with another Michael Curtiz, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex.

...and speaking of Curtiz, I almost forgot to mention one from the top of my WB list, Young Man with a Horn is also OOP.

Lowry_Sam wrote:so what would qualify as her biggest critical success during her Warner's studio days? or perhaps they'd just go with another Michael Curtiz, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex.

It's not a distinguished work for Davis, Curtiz, Flynn, de Havilland, or maybe even for anyone else except Nanette Fabray. I'm a Davis fan and even I wouldn't buy a Criterion Blu-ray of that film.

Better Warner possibilities might be Jezebel or The Letter, which are both William Wyler films. Neither his best work, though, nor Davis'. Now, Voyager would be nice, but Irving Rapper doesn't really fit Criterion's auteur profile. The Little Foxes, also Wyler, is a possibility if the Samuel Goldwyn library, which Warner Bros. currently distributes, is in play. I seriously doubt any of these are likely, though.

Young Man With a Horn is currently available on Kirk Douglas's TCM set, released by Warner. Still, that doesn't mean that it's off limits, seeing as Mildred Pierce, The Cat People, and Woman of the Year were all released in TCM sets, too.

Which is why I lament that Criterion doesn't consider boxed sets, not necessarily replicating the Warner's sets, but sets from a certain period, from a specific director, or on certain theme. I think no individual Warner title from Bette would have as big of a draw as Mildred Pierce, but a box would definitely be greater than the sum of its parts in Bette's case (and perhaps for most of Joan's other Warner titles too). I think a Wyler title might be the most likely, though The Little Foxes dvd is still in print (and also not originally Warner's).

Werewolf by Night wrote:Now, Voyager would be nice, but Irving Rapper doesn't really fit Criterion's auteur profile.

FWIW, Irving Rapper has a Phantom Page.

DeprongMori wrote:

Werewolf by Night wrote:Now, Voyager would be nice, but Irving Rapper doesn't really fit Criterion's auteur profile.

FWIW, Irving Rapper has a Phantom Page.

With 3 Davis titles to his credit (Now, Voyager, The Corn Is Green, & Deception) a director-themed box would be nice, as I don't see the other 2 getting individual blu-rays (from Criterion or WB).

I could see Now, Voyager getting released. But if this is not the Davis film, I could see Criterion getting All About Eve from Fox. Especially if there is a 4k restoration coming. As for Rapper, I could see Rhapsody in Blue. Criterion could do so much with a Gershwin themed release.

Someone at the Blu-ray.com forum posted a list of WB titles, some already licensed to Criterion, that were recently listed on WB's press site as being OOP. These could be headed to Warner Archive, but, if I'm not mistaken, some have been rumored Criterion titles:

Round Midnight
The Roaring Twenties
The Philadelphia Story
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
O Lucky Man
Lone Star
Hedwig & The Angry Inch
Captain Blood
Bringing Up Baby
Arsenic and Old Lace
Mean Streets
Barry Lyndon

Sure, some of those could be coming, but WB is letting nearly all of their DVDs of studio-era fare fall out of print to reappear in the Archives, so that means nothing

True about WB doing that, but, to the best of my knowledge, they have never replaced a WB Blu-ray with an Archive Blu-ray and I have a hard time seeing them do that with Mean Streets and Barry Lyndon

I thought the current Warner Bros. Blu of Mean Streets looks great. Is this a way to finally add the Scorsese short films they promised over fifteen years ago?

dwk wrote:True about WB doing that, but, to the best of my knowledge, they have never replaced a WB Blu-ray with an Archive Blu-ray

What they have done is let a Blu-ray go OOP and then announce a virtually identical Blu-ray to replace it (Rio Bravo, for example) or some kind of dumb 45th Anniversary edition (which is what it'll be next year for Mean Streets). Not that I'm making any predictions one way or the other.

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote:I thought the current Warner Bros. Blu of Mean Streets looks great. Is this a way to finally add the Scorsese short films they promised over fifteen years ago?

Perhaps, and if they can retain the original Saul Bass WB logo that was plastered with the new WB logo on the Blu-Ray, it will be even better.

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote:I thought the current Warner Bros. Blu of Mean Streets looks great. Is this a way to finally add the Scorsese short films they promised over fifteen years ago?

It is a good looking Blu but nothing that can't be improved by a 4k scan. Compared to the transfers of Taxi Driver or King of Comedy it is kind of pedestrian.

Lone Star would be glorious as well...!

On a related note, are the Warner Archive discs safe enough to purchase, as they are BR's?

Emilio wrote:On a related note, are the Warner Archive discs safe enough to purchase, as they are BR's?

Yes, all of the WAC Blu-rays are pressed discs.

Can we expect Criterion to be releasing Un Homme et Une Femme from Claude Lelouch at some point?

It's one of the first titles I pictured them pursuing, but that's more speculation than evidence that it's forthcoming. Still, seems like a good bet

Noiradelic wrote:

Emilio wrote:On a related note, are the Warner Archive discs safe enough to purchase, as they are BR's?

Yes, all of the WAC Blu-rays are pressed discs.

Great, thanks!

Was wondering what was left from the initial group of WB oop titles that were speculated to be heading to Criterion. Ian's post was from November of 2014 (page 15)

ianungstad wrote:About a week ago Warner Brothers discontinued a number of Archive releases that generated some speculation that they may have been licensed to Criterion including:

Dreams (Akira Kurosawa)
Blow Up (Michelangelo Antonioni)
The Breaking Point (Michael Curtiz)
Barcelona (Whit Stillman)

The OOP list this week has a few more Warner titles that seem like they may go to Criterion:

Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)
The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston)
A Face in the Crowd (Elia Kazan)
Klute (Alan Pakula)
Day for Night (Francois Truffaut)
Before Sunset (Richard Linklater)
Cat People (Jacques Tourneur) Both the individual Cat People and the Val Lewton box are officially discontinued this week.
Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater)

The only titles left from this list. Ambersons, Klute and A Face in the Crowd.