criterionforum.org

And the Cyclops and Queen of Outer Space...

There's no monthly guessing thread for this label, and there shouldn't be, but the next slate will be:

Trog
Hot to Trot
On Deadly Ground
Disorderlies

You forgot the much desired Blu-ray upgrades of Tea and Sympathy and the Long, Long Trailer

You forgot Gymkata.

domino harvey wrote: Tue Aug 21, 2018 10:53 pm You forgot the much desired Blu-ray upgrades of Tea and Sympathy and the Long, Long Trailer

Surely the tagline to sell the latter is “Everything Right is Wrong...Again!”

I regret to inform you I also had that song stuck in my head the moment I wrote that. It is probably the only good thing to come from that movie existing

Papillon is getting the Meet Me In St Louis treatment of appearing without the digibook packaging in the Archives

I'd buy Tea and Sympathy in a heartbeat...

I thought Criterion might pick up Tea and Sympathy.

Even though it's far from one of Minnelli's best films, there's potential for some interesting supplementary materials about the film—from play adaptation to all the events involving MGM, the Catholic Legion of Decency, and the MPAA, through to Minnelli eventually proclaiming in the late '70s that he'd made "the first homosexual picture."
I hope Criterion goes for at least one Minnelli but can't imagine it'd be this one.

You couldn't be more right, Gregory. "Tea and Sympathy" has a fascinating production history. While Criterion is sublime in every other way, it is unfortunate that Vincente Minnelli isn't represented at all in their catalog. Musicals in general seem to have been almost completely overlooked.

Tea and Sympathy is extraordinary. In addition to being a gorgeous CinemaScope '50s melodrama (and sporting a great Deborah Kerr performance) it's such a compelling film about queer shame and self-loathing. The wish-fulfillment fantasy of being able to "grow out" of homosexuality and suddenly wake up straight is both repugnant and, on some level, familiar to every LGBTQ person.

This joke may have backfired but there is no way I'd consider this anything but one of Minnelli's worst films

domino harvey wrote: Thu Aug 23, 2018 10:47 pm This joke may have backfired but there is no way I'd consider this anything but one of Minnelli's worst films

Most likely no one knew you were trying to make a joke, as Tea and Sympathy is a seminal work in any History of Queer/LGBTs in Film class & hence actually is a much desired upgrade title. (I believe it gets name-dropped more than any other film in Vito Russo's The Celluloid Closet) It's the only film I know of from that era that tackles the issue of masculinity & bullying head on (more popular films like Rebel Without A Cause & The Wild One are much more evasive about the issue & only do so from the vantage point of the cool masculine teen, not from the vantage point of the teen who eschews the gender norms like in Tea & Sympathy). It is a stage to screen adaption, but is not as stagey as others (like Hitchcock's Rope). Everyone I've watched it with ends up liking it quite a bit, so your opinion about it being one of his worst is not very widely shared.

Just thought I’d add a couple of short sentences about my experience regarding the perception of Tea and Sympathy to back up Lowrys argument here.

Like Lowry states it has an integral part in queer film history that is undeniable. All though I would argue it also has quite a few faults, pretty much all my cineaste friends who are gay and 50+ regard this as an immensely important film. It seems to me that it’s one of those touch stone films for that generation in a way that say My Own Private Idaho was to me and Maurice was for gays a couple of years older.

When I read domino’s joke, I did get he was kidding, but I also absolutely disagreed with his opinion. It’s nice to se others on this forum stepping up to talk on the films behalf.

(Just imagine how much hotter MAURICE could have been if they'd changed out James Wilby for James Spader.)

Just saw Stage Door on TCM. It looked very, very good. It has clearly been scanned and cleaned up. It will be interesting to see if WAC puts this out but their released 1930s films are few and far between. This could actually come from Criterion. This seems like a classic film that would be in their wheel-house. *Just noticed that WAC did release it on DVD.* Hopefully a bluray will come at some point.

FrauBlucher wrote: Wed Sep 12, 2018 9:40 pm Just saw Stage Door on TCM. It looked very, very good. It has clearly been scanned and cleaned up. It will be interesting to see if WAC puts this out but their released 1930s films are few and far between. This could actually come from Criterion. This seems like a classic film that would be in their wheel house.

They don't put it in a wheelhouse; they put it on disc and in your Blu-ray player.

Brewster McCloud is coming out in October.

The Narrator Returns wrote: Tue Sep 18, 2018 6:39 pm Brewster McCloud is coming out in October.

Excellent. Of course it's just after I gave in and bought the DVD, but no matter. Now if we could just get California Split then everything Altman did from '69 to '77 would be out on Blu-ray.

Dracula AD 1972 also coming in October...

The forum awards thread inspired me to look up the WB archives releases this year and I saw seven brides for seven brothers got released.

I was curious if it was an updated transfer so I looked up the WB archives podcast for this release.

Yup the scope transfer is all new, described by WBA as their biggest reconstruction project the archives has ever undertaken.

The separation masters were no good, and the original negative was irreparably damaged by the UK 70mm blowups done in the 60s or 70s.

But recently they discovered in the vaults a lightly used first generation interpositive that was the best condition element they had ever found for the film and it became the source for the master for the new Blu-ray.

Other problems they ran into were that it was an Ansco Color film (derived from Agfa) and so had a tendency to go green, and of course that first generation scope lenses tended to be soft (nothing you can do about that).

Satanic Rites of Dracula also coming in October

Satanic Rites of Dracula is beyond awful, though interestingly WB has never released that one on DVD (it instead has languished in PD hell, where it belongs). I wonder why they're still sitting on Horror of Dracula and Curse of Frankenstein. Both have been released on Blu-ray in the UK, though the former had controversial color timing (albeit restored long-lost footage) while the latter had a lackluster picture.

Cabaret is getting the Meet Me in St. Louis treatment on November 13, with standard Blu-ray case and original poster art.