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I'd like to add my appreciation for the lists and all the contributors to such and I would like to table a title for consideration if I could, please.

Fritz Lang's While The City Sleeps [1956] an over-looked Noir and his penultimate Hollywood movie. According to IMDB it's distributor is RKO so would this fall under WB territory/ownership ? It's being touted on DVDBeaver.com as an SBA title as well.

RKO is distributed by Warner, but not sure if this title is still under their control. There are several Fritz Lang noir that hasn't seen the light of day when it comes to R1 DVD, and I hope they get attention soon. I think Warner controls a few of the titles below, so I'm hopeful if they turn around to release another noir set, we could see more Lang.

Ministry of Fear
Human Desire
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
While the City Sleeps
Secret Beyond the Door

Thank you Cine. I noted that WTCS was issued on a LD by Image and I would prefer it if someone gave it a decent treatment along with the others that you mentioned especially Beyond A Reasonable Doubt . It's looking increasingly unlikely for 2008. Hopefully 2009.

Secret Beyond the Door is Lionsgate, so maybe we'll see it within a year.

Human Desire was confirmed by Sony as one of their many noir titles seeing DVD next year.

justeleblanc wrote:Secret Beyond the Door is Lionsgate, so maybe we'll see it within a year.

Human Desire was confirmed by Sony as one of their many noir titles seeing DVD next year.

And Ministry of Fear is held by Universal. But Warner may indeed control the other two.

Si Parallel Universe wrote:Thank you Cine. I noted that WTCS was issued on a LD by Image and I would prefer it if someone gave it a decent treatment ...

Surprised that Image or Kino never put it out, since they released some of the Langian lesser-knowns like House By The River, The Blue Gardenia, Hangmen Also.. etc.

Too bad too since an excellent print exists-- I have a broadcast tape of it given to me by a friend, probably from TCM, and the print is quite good. The alternative is-- unbelievably!-- this, a vhs tape from "Odyssey Classics" priced at $54.75 on Amazon.

It's not a great film by any means-- but Lang rarely made a film not worth seeing multiple times and this one is no exception... after the first slightly disappointed viewing the shape of the film plants itself in your mind whereby the themes and performances (and how they are elucidated thru Langs deceptively decadent & suggestive mise en scene) show their robustness thru subsequent visits. The cast & performances are superb. This is the film that convinced me of the depth of the bond between Ida Lupino and Sally Forrest. First she introduced her with the wonderful Not Wanted (Lupino's first directorial effort, stepping in after Elmer Clifton suffered a massive heart attack during early production, since the production was the first effort of her new collaborative production company "The Filmmakers"), then used her again (paired with Keefe Brasselle as in NW) in Never Fear, then Hard Fast & Beautiful... then wound up co-starring with Ida under Lang's direction in WTCS.

I agree with you. I did write an email to Kino to see if they had any plans to release it but never got a reply, maybe I was writing to the wrong address or it just plain got overlooked.

I found the pace of it upon seeing it a bit muddling actually. It showed on the BBC last year but they said they had no plans to re-show it [it was part of an unofficial Noir season] and I was bummed out because I was out that day and saw it at a friends else I would have Tivo-ed it. I don't think I could justify spending $55 [plus international shipping] on a VHS copy and just hope that someone , somewhere puts it out on a decent DVD.

It was only the second time I'd seen Vincent Price in a "straight" role [the other being Laura] as well. I think that and the location shots were what helped it along. I would like to see it again and this time I think I would appreciate it even more. Ida Lupino seems to be in vogue at the moment so maybe that could be a factor in it being released sooner rather than later.

Yes it can definitely be a bit off-putting at first glance. I recall the first go round, I shut it off. Couple months later I got thru it... but its reputation was only slightly rehabilitated. Something pulled me back to it again and I thoroughly enjoyed it the second full go round.

It's faults flip and become strengths. At first you're wondering "murder mystery?" "Indictment of the media/sensationalism?" "Lashing of corporate greed/backbiting?" "Love story?" "Psychoanalytic breakdown of the mind of a warped killer a la M?" "Decadent steamy boardroom/office farce?" "Noir procedural?"

When first watching it, you dont know how to watch it. You dont know how to "latch". You dont know which of the above it is..

When you've got it under your belt, you realize its all of the above, and more. And it pays off in spades. But you need to get it all out of the way with at least one go-round so youre not stuck wtf'ing.

HerrSchreck wrote:Yes it can definitely be a bit off-putting at first glance. I recall the first go round, I shut it off. Couple months later I got thru it... but its reputation was only slightly rehabilitated. Something pulled me back to it again and I thoroughly enjoyed it the second full go round.

It's faults flip and become strengths. At first you're wondering "murder mystery?" "Indictment of the media/sensationalism?" "Lashing of corporate greed/backbiting?" "Love story?" "Psychoanalytic breakdown of the mind of a warped killer a la M?" "Decadent steamy boardroom/office farce?" "Noir procedural?"

When first watching it, you dont know how to watch it. You dont know how to "latch". You dont know which of the above it is..

When you've got it under your belt, you realize its all of the above, and more. And it pays off in spades. But you need to get it all out of the way with at least one go-round so youre not stuck wtf'ing.

Indeed , if you see it on TCM or fox classics yr side of the pond [minus adverts] I'd willingly pay for a DVD-R of it just to be able to do that until it gets an official release.

I know this sounds cynical as we are talking about Lang here but this was IIRC Lang's penultimate Hollywood movie and just maybe the studio meddled in the making of it to a degree which is why it appears to be so inconsistent in its presentation.

Is there any chance the WB will finally unearth Bill Gunn's infamous 1970 feature "Stop"? It screened for the public just once-at the Whitney in 1990 (!) for a retrospective of Gunn's oeuvre.

How about a box set with unreleased Sidney Lumet films (e.g. "Last of the Mobile Hot Shots" and "The Group")?

Better yet, anybody on this earth ever get wind of any REAL plans to release the silents (e.g., Greed) they said would be released LAST year for criminy out loud?

beamish13 wrote:Is there any chance the WB will finally unearth Bill Gunn's infamous 1970 feature "Stop"? It screened for the public just once-at the Whitney in 1990 (!) for a retrospective of Gunn's oeuvre.

I would kill to see that. I've always been curious about Last of the Mobile Hotshots/Blood Kin too, although at least there are bootlegs out there (I think), but that's not the case with the Gunn film.

These stills may be from "Stop". It looks VERY intriguing. It's amazing how gusty WB was in the early seventies, when stuff like this and Mike Nichols' planned adaptation of Terry Southern's "Blue Movie" (which was going to have hardcore sex scenes) were being conceived.

Am I just a bit slow on the uptake, or is The Mask of Dimitrios extremely hard to get hold of on DVD? If so, why? And if not, why isn't Amazon brimming over with offers when I search for it?

As per the list in the first post, it's not on DVD. It was just on TCM a couple of weeks ago, though, so if it's not coming in the next noir box from Warner, it's probably a good candidate for the Warner Archive Collection.

Thank you. Quite a few pages to scroll through here.

THE IRON MISTRESS (1952) - still the best film I've seen about Jim Bowie. It stars Alan Ladd as Bowie and it covers his New Orleans years, including the creation of the famed Bowie Knife. Based on a novel by Paul I. Wellman.

Anybody willing to help update the unreleased Warner Brothers titles list? I would personally be interested (when I have time) to go through sixties and seventies WB titles to see what remains unreleased.

I think this thread should be longer than the Warner Archives one

It is understandable if a studio decides not to release certain titles it has ownership of. It is also understandable if a studio decides to not let any other organization, such as Criterion, release its material. But the combination of these two positions is a sign indifference to consumer - a corporate hubris if you will.
What we have with Warner is that they own a number of very important titles (Magnificent Ambersons and Greed, to name just two), that they will neither release nor sub-contract. Instead they have chosen to focus their attention on the "archive" series. It pains me to see that this thread has reached a dead-end, while there are postings every day on the archives thread.
Do we think anything will be gained by bombarding them with some e-mails?

kekid, I understand your frustration but Warner will release Ambersons and Greed. The process of restoring them and providing us with proper DVDs takes a lot of time and money, so we just have to be patient. Would you rather they throw unrestored versions out to their Archive?

The ones I'm waiting for:

Bachelor Mother
The Big Parade
The Crowd
Greed
The Magnificent Ambersons

What ever happened to a release of The Magnificent Ambersons and Journey Into Fear that Warner said years ago to see the light of day?

I know Magnificent Ambersons has seen constant delays because of film element issues. At least that's what they say in the chats every 18 months.

They are still looking for Orson's cut of the film in the archives of South America....