Burt Lancaster: The Signature Collection

[shearerchic]

According to DVD Savant:

Warners just announced a promising-sounding Burt Lancaster The Signature Collection boxed set for October 23: The Flame and the Arrow, His Majesty O'Keefe, Jim Thorpe - All American, South Sea Woman and the JFK conspiracy film Executive Action.

More specs soon.

[ranaing83]

When are we finally going to see Twilights Last Gleaming (preferably in both the theatrical and director's cuts)?

[tryavna]

As I recall, The Flame and the Arrow is a very entertaining swashbuckler, with a particularly neat climactic duel in the dark. It was also the last A-budget Hollywood picture Jacques Tourneur got to work on.

I don't think I've seen the other films. How have they held up?

[Jeff]

art

[domino harvey]

Time to kick yourself for not picking this up: The set is OOP and going for $80+ now. Warners, what exactly are you guys doing over there?

[Props55]

My God! With each passing day it seems Warner is shuttin' down the store! Just this weekend picked up the Mitchum Signature box for $25 and change. Maybe I need to grab any and all boxsets I have even the most marginal interest in before the house lights go down for good!

[Frankinho007]

Time to kick yourself for not picking this up: The set is OOP and going for $80+ now. Warners, what exactly are you guys doing over there?

All titles are available individually. The set went OOP because "The Flame and the Arrow" is OOP, too. Probably some rights issues or other stuff.

[Jonathan S]

Warner's The Crimson Pirate DVD (not part of the set) is also OOP, so it seems they lost the rights to those two Lancaster films.

[Matt]

I understand DVDs of films they licensed going OOP (Stagecoach, The Long Voyage Home, etc.), but how do they "lose the rights" to something they produced and have always owned? My guess (and we're all just guessing here) is that they ran out of stock on these particular titles and have no interest in pressing a new batch. They'll just move them over to the on-demand Warner Archive.

[domino harvey]

Give me a little while and I'm sure I can find a way to blame Beatrice Welles

[Jonathan S]

According to one of my film guides, the two Lancaster swashbucklers above were produced for Warner by Norma Productions (Lancaster's company, presumably named after his wife at the time). Warner's Crimson Pirate DVD case gives the 1952 copyright to Warner Bros. but the 1980 renewal to "Norlan Productions Inc." (renamed incarnation of Norma?) Then, oddly, there is a separate copyright notice for "Photography" for 1952 and 1980, both credited to Warner Bros. So it seems there is some doubt about Warner's complete ownership of this film. (In the UK it has been released in a poor quality PD edition!) I don't have the DVD of The Flame and the Arrow but maybe there is a similar copyright notice on that?

[Matt]

Thanks! Your detective work is much appreciated. IMDb lists "Norma-F.R. Productions" as a production company on The Flame and the Arrow. So I imagine Warner really might have lost the rights to distribute these titles just like everything else they're letting lapse. Concerning the separate copyright notices, I bet Lancaster's estate controls the intellectual property, while Warner Bros. controls the negative.

Norlan Productions is apparently NORma and Burt LANcaster.

[HarryLong]

IMDb lists "Norma-F.R. Productions" as a production company on The Flame and the Arrow.

Norma was indeed Lancaster's production company (& named for his wife). Most (if not all) Norma productions were co-productions where each partner put up about 50% of production money. I had forgotten that Norma paired with any company other than UA.

I see Amazon lists two all-region imports of CRIMSON PIRATE. Anyone know anything about them? I'd like to replace the copy I gave away as a Christmas present a couple years ago (I regret that...).

[domino harvey]

While it's still out of print at e-retailers, it's suddenly going for around twenty dollars from several sellers on Amazon Marketplace. Good time to jump on it before they run out of their stock

[ezmbmh]

Thanks, Domino. Jumped right on this.

[George Kaplan]

Does anyone know anything about the Korean pressings of THE CRIMSON PIRATE?
I understand that the UK-based Orbit Media pressing is inferior but have been unable to find any feedback on the latest release which is available all over the place for a reasonable price.

(Apologies to thread purists as it is THE FLAME AND THE ARROW, not THE CRIMSON PIRATE, that is in the BL Signature Collection.)

[Finch]

Can somebody comment on the other films in the set? I'm mainly interested in the Tourneur and would ideally prefer to track this down on its own but if at least two other titles in the set are worthwhile (Beaver spoke highly of Jim Thorpe and His Majesty.. sounds fun) I might as well buy that (might be the only way of getting The Flame and The Arrow anyway).

[domino harvey]

I haven't gotten very far in the set yet but Executive Action is a key conspiracy film of the 70s and should be an instant +1 for consideration

[ZizouJuve]

Executive Action was key viewing in Jonestown during the meltdown of Jim Jones.

I thought all of the films in the box were good. Favorite was Flame and The Arrow and least favorite was Jim Thorpe. One of the better signature collection boxes. A lot of them have filler but this one has quality movies.

[Finch]

Appreciate the feedback folks. Have ordered the set (and am hoping that Supermart USA don't label the package as a DVD, lest I get stung by customs again).

[Jonathan S]

Have ordered the set (and am hoping that Supermart USA don't label the package as a DVD, lest I get stung by customs again).

If it's Supermart on Amazon Marketplace, I think you should be okay as I just got a US disc from them with only a UK return address on it. There's no customs declaration, description or value indicated, so presumably they re-ship from within the UK. The same was true of another recent package from "allyourmusic" on Amazon UK.

I'd be grateful if you - and anyone else - can confirm this is still true for £18+ orders as I've been looking for a Marketplace company that re-ship from within the UK ever since the disappearance of caiman last year.

[Peacock]

Jonathan, I buy most of my Region 1 dvds using Supermart or All your music and have never once had a problem with customs over £18 (obviously I cannot guarantee anything! But it's never happened yet to me)

[Jonathan S]

Many thanks, Peacock - your over £18 packages from them were all re-shipped within the UK without declared values? (What I'm getting at is it wasn't just luck!?) Their prices do generally seem more competitive than Axel or Movietyme, though they vary almost every day (as caiman's did), the exchange rate obviously being a major factor

[TMDaines]

Moviemars reship within the UK.

[Finch]

Jon, I'll let you know when I get the Lewton and Lancaster sets (ordered both from Supermart at Marketplace) though this will take at least another week or so but Peacock gives me hope. Agree that their prices are generally more competitive than AxlMusic but I preordered Make Way For Tomorrow from Scandinavia a month ago and am holding my copy in my hands as we speak, so I'm going to preorder Days of Heaven and Sanjuro from them too. I don't think anyway that there is an etailer that ships especially new Crit Blus for significantly less than £18-20 though if you know one, please share!