Warner Brothers Archive Collection (DVDs only)

[Gregory]

Not to mention the 1950s. They said The Big Sky would be released early this year. I hope nothing went wrong with their plans to restore it to the full 140 min. length. It would be nice to get some Sam Fuller, Run of the Arrow or Verboten!, from the same decade as well.

[domino harvey]

Verbotten! is already an Archive release, though its widescreen presentation is questionable-- go with the beaut French DVD.

[Gregory]

Thanks, very helpful. I sometimes find it hard to keep up with everything coming out in the Archive (and now similar burn-on-demand lines) let alone the quality of alternatives in other regions, so I started this thread. Anyone who knows how some of these things compare, please add to the list I started.

[Frankinho007]

New titles tomorrow:

The Last Dinosaur (1977)
The Squeeze (1977)
The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer (1970)
Used People (1992)
Some Mother's Son (1996)

TV/Animation

Valley of the Dinosaurs (1974)

[domino harvey]

Another 5 for $50 sale now thru the 28th-- stock up!

[Max von Mayerling]

Given this sale, would some of you be so kind as to revisit your thoughts on the cream of the Warner Archive crop? I already have:

He Who gets Slapped
The Patsy
The Unholy Three (1925)
The Merry Widow
Susan Slept Here
Fog Over Frisco

[joshua]

I think the two Anthony Mann films, The Tall Target and Devil's Doorway, are a must. I also enjoyed Berlin Express, Hard Fast and Beautiful and The Hard Way. Some feel that Berlin Express' heavy handedness kills it, but if you can overlook that aspect then you'll probably enjoy the many moments in the film that showcase Tourneur's masterful eye for expressive visuals. Hard, Fast and Beautiful and The Hard Way are both about Svengali-like mothers on a tear. If you have a taste for "stage mother" melodrama, then you might want to give them a look-see.

[knives]

The Merry Widow and Saint Joan are pretty essential too.

[Murdoch]

Don't get Berlin Express, there's a cheapo R2 out.

[What A Disgrace]

The Strawberry Blonde and Wichita are among my favorite movies, period.

[domino harvey]

Tomorrow is Another Day and the two Premingers

[Titus]

The Merry Widow and Saint Joan are pretty essential too.

The Merry Widow doesn't seem to be part of the sale. It wasn't being discounted for me, anyway.

By the way, for anyone who hasn't checked the Bonafide Bargains thread, you can get an extra $20 off a $100 order with the code "SAVINGS."

[Murdoch]

Of course Merry Widow isn't discounted since it's the only title I really want.

How's The Woman in Red?

[matrixschmatrix]

It looks like if you buy more than five movies, they stay marked at $10 each, even if you don't hit $100

[Props55]

OK, what gives this time? Every time I try to order from WB Archive there's some kind of hangup. This time the titles I've chosen remain full price even after I reach the final checkout screen. I believe in past sales the full price remains until this last screen then defaults to the discount. No mention is made of any code on the homepage or the e-mail they sent me nor is there mention of any restrictions on any titles. I'm not gonna pull the trigger on full and then backtrack to get the discount. Any ideas?

[souvenir]

OK, what gives this time? Every time I try to order from WB Archive there's some kind of hangup. This time the titles I've chosen remain full price even after I reach the final checkout screen. I believe in past sales the full price remains until this last screen then defaults to the discount. No mention is made of any code on the homepage or the e-mail they sent me nor is there mention of any restrictions on any titles. I'm not gonna pull the trigger on full and then backtrack to get the discount. Any ideas?

Not all titles are eligible, specifically the newest additions. Maybe you have a non-qualifying item?

[Props55]

Some are recent announcements (YOLANDA AND THE THIEF, EYE OF THE DEVIL) and some are several months in release (THE COBWEB) and previously discounted. I scanned several pages and probably ten dozen titles and none were specifically discounted by 50% (I'm addressing single feature titles regularly $19.95 not TV series, boxed sets or other) in the general listings. The home page header featured the poster art boxes and new (YOLANDA again) and older titles and all had the regular full price listed below. If the offer is restricted to specific titles then the "click here for featured specials" is well hidden. Also, very odd, as I rescrolled back up a page of titles, prices that were listed as full minutes before were suddenly discounted by a couple of buck ($17.95) but were back at full when I referred to them again less than five minutes later! Similar weirdness occured the previous two times I ordered on a "5 for $50" offer (the most I will pay for these titles) and I'm beginning to believe that the site was designed by the same guys that "improved" Deep Discount last year!

[domino harvey]

Click the banner, then select to arrange by date of release. That will tell you how far back you can go, but even without doing that I can tell you that there's no way Yolanda and the Thief is eligible

[Props55]

Thanks Domino! I'd tried clicking the highlighted "5 for $50" in the left margin but I just got the same screen with the same array of titles (starting with your fave STARS IN MY CROWN) with the same $19.95 price and the header "1-16 of 766 titles" as if everything you see is part of the deal. Yeah I figured YOLANDA, INVITATION TO THE DANCE and EYE OF THE DEVIL probably would not be eligible but certainly THE COBWEB and RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE should be. They gave me half off TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN in January because my last 5 for $50 order was late (so they said!) yet the Minnellis are still full price on the final checkout screen. I'm guessing they'll default to the discount when I replace the other three with eligible titles. Then it's back to an endless loop of entering a new card # and reentering the same billing and shipping address. The fun never ends at Warner Archive!

[domino harvey]

Once you have five eligible titles (and the Minnellis do appear to be eligible), there should be a fixed price in red in your cart-- at least there is for me (though I have way too many more than five titles in my cart, to my shame)

EDIT: I see your problem. Do this instead: Click on any movie you're interested in. If it was released on or before 2/22/2011, you're eligible. More recent than that, you're not.

[Props55]

Yeah, I think that's the easiest way. Just search each title and add. Again, thanks!

[Jonathan S]

Interview with George Feltenstein mainly about Warner Archive
Including:

Consumer acceptance of classics on Blu-ray is painfully limited. That breaks my heart. We've put out a lot of great titles that have not performed particularly well.

There are right issues on "The Crimson Pirate,'' but there are 200 other out-of-print titles we will now be able to bring back with the same features as the original retail releases

(So, as I always feared, it seems that titles are far more likely to move from retail pressed releases to MOD than vice-versa.)
He also confirms The Magnificent Ambersons will not be licensed to Criterion.

Incidentally, several WA customers on different forums - notably HTF - are posting that some of their Archive discs that played fine when they first got them now freeze. Warner seem to have relented on their 30 days only replacement policy, however, and will now exchange defective ones at a later date - though I don't know if that applies to people who don't (or can't) buy directly from Warner.

[souvenir]

I don't like the sound of this:

We've already remastered a handful of our original releases [from two years ago]. We will make special arrangements for consumers who supported us to obtain the remastered versions at a very minimal price in about a month. There are 8 or 10 of them coming.

I wonder what he considers "a very minimal price"

[Roger Ryan]

I'm not sure what to think about Warners suggesting that Popeye cartoons could be released on Blu-ray while Stroheim gets the DVD-R treatment #-o

[Max von Mayerling]

I hate it too, but we apparently live in a world where Jabberjaw and such are the hot properties at the Archive. (And I'm not shocked to hear that this is true.) I'm sure that the sales of a von Stroheim blu would be, from WB's perspective, dismal. I'm sure that their data tells them Popeye can move units. (And with that I raise my glass to the genius of E.C. Segar.)

The other thing is that I'm thinking these guys have done a pretty clever job in somehow managing to convince me that paying $10 for these bare bones DVD-Rs is a good deal when I can currently get the Bill Douglas Trilogy on blu from BFI (through Amazon.UK) for the same amount ... and I can routinely get fully-loaded blus from Criterion for $20. If Criterion can make a living at this (a fact that sometimes amazes me - I sometimes imagine they have an endowment or something like that), WB's margins on these Archive titles must be quite healthy. I mean, I paid almost the same for the Merry Widow DVD-R as I did for Criterion's blu of Senso.