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So I discovered this little gem being released on the first of January

All I can say is... Go Warner/TCM!

The contents of this box include:
Double Harness by John Cromwell (an entertaining mixture of stuffy direction and barbed writing, well worth seeing for fans of William Powell)
Rafter Romance by William A. Seiter and starring Ginger Rogers
One Man's Journey by John S. Robertson and starring Lionel Barrymore and May Robson
Stingaree by William Wellman and starring Irene Dunne and Richard Dix (weird but lively)
Living on Love by Lew Landers and starring James Dunn
A Man to Remember by Garson Kanin (!)

These are all being sold separately as well, and I'm not sure its going to go beyond the TCM online store. Even though there are no extras to speak of, and its a bit pricey, this still bodes well for future unearthed vault gems! I for one am gonna show my support and snatch this sucker up.

Anything that gets overlooked films out of the vaults is a-ok to me. Despite how much is out there, it's amazing how many movies from the Classical Hollywood days are still unreleased

That's great! Now if only Warner could finally put out those silents they've been working to restore. Maybe '09 will be the year, but one never truly knows until it's time.

Finally! When these premiered on TCM they said the films would get a DVD release and I didn't record them ... and I had been starting to regret that decision.

A Man to Remember is the one where the only print found has Dutch subtitles, correct? I'm glad Warners isn't dropping it from the DVD for that reason.

Perkins Cobb wrote: A Man to Remember is the one where the only print found has Dutch subtitles, correct?

I think so, I've seen it in January of this year in a local theatre and as far as I can remember, the print looked good.

It's great Warner releases these little-known (well, at least to me) films and I for sure am going to pick this set up.

Available December 8th, exclusively on the TCM/Movies Unlimited site and for $64.99 plus shipping.

I'll wait. The last Warner exclusive that I know of (Merrill's Marauders, available only at DD at first) ended up becoming widely available.

Cover art and extras up at Classic Flix

Love the art work, and there's some decent extras. Not sure I'll grab it, but it'll probably be on my radar.

I've heard that TCM released these on DVD-R (!?)

Does anyone who has the set know if this is actually the case?

htdm wrote:I've heard that TCM released these on DVD-R (!?)

Does anyone who has the set know if this is actually the case?

Yes, all the discs in my set are DVD-R.

souvenir wrote:

htdm wrote:I've heard that TCM released these on DVD-R (!?)

Does anyone who has the set know if this is actually the case?

Yes, all the discs in my set are DVD-R.

The images I've seen online look like they don't have the Warner logo anywhere on them. Perhaps TCM produced these on their own, without help from their parent company?

I can't believe that in a world where PD producers can release real discs, TCM cannot. What a disappointment

Jeff wrote:

souvenir wrote:

htdm wrote:I've heard that TCM released these on DVD-R (!?)

Does anyone who has the set know if this is actually the case?

Yes, all the discs in my set are DVD-R.

The images I've seen online look like they don't have the Warner logo anywhere on them. Perhaps TCM produced these on their own, without help from their parent company?

This is true. Warner Bros. isn't involved. Though the films were all made for RKO, Merian C. Cooper took the rights himself years after leaving the studio as part of a legal settlement.

What I've seen of the set looks good, but it's disappointing they didn't use regular DVDs (especially since that fact wasn't/isn't mentioned in the product details).

Smithsonian Folkways music has all Folkways records available at all times, but most you have to special order from Smithsonian, and they burn you a CD, print out the liner notes, and send it to you. Only a small share are nice printed Cds available at regular retailers. I think it's a useful business model, even if I too would prefer proper CDs or DVDs.

So I think what we will see are rarities being made more and more on DVD-rs to order. Making proper DVDs on a cost efficient basis requires a minimum order of 1000 or 5000, and one never knows how many of these will actually sell. And then they will all just be downloadable.

If I wanted a DVD-R, I'd download the title and burn it myself. Part of what you get for buying a real DVD is, you know, a real DVD.

Adam wrote:So I think what we will see are rarities being made more and more on DVD-rs to order. Making proper DVDs on a cost efficient basis requires a minimum order of 1000 or 5000, and one never knows how many of these will actually sell. And then they will all just be downloadable.

That's all understandable, but why not just print a 1000 copies, slap a "Limited Edition" label on it and offer it only to the consumer who is obviously interested in this type of release? Selling an inferior product at a premium price is bad business on any level.

mike7162 wrote:

Adam wrote:So I think what we will see are rarities being made more and more on DVD-rs to order. Making proper DVDs on a cost efficient basis requires a minimum order of 1000 or 5000, and one never knows how many of these will actually sell. And then they will all just be downloadable.

That's all understandable, but why not just print a 1000 copies, slap a "Limited Edition" label on it and offer it only to the consumer who is obviously interested in this type of release? Selling an inferior product at a premium price is bad business on any level.

I don't disagree with either of you. i'm just making a real world prediction about what will happen for rarities that aren't getting a "boutique label" treatment. I think one result though, will be that each major studio could then make every film they own available for purchase, even if just by download or DVD-r.

domino harvey wrote:I can't believe that in a world where PD producers can release real discs, TCM cannot. What a disappointment

Reel Classic DVD - Grapevive Video

On the bright side, anybody want to trade copies of these for some Frederick Wisemans?

From DVDTalk:

"Sticking out like a sore thumb is the music heard under the main menu screens, arguably the most inapt ever. Although these films all date from the 1930s, the music frequently used is a kind of generic techno-pop, like some would-be musician at TCM slipped in their garage band's demo tape. For Kinjite - Forbidden Subjects maybe, but Double Harness? Uh-uh."

If they've decided to go all barebones and rinky-dink on this release, why not just have...I don't know...silent menus? Wouldn't that be cheaper? And infinitely preferable? Talk about inapt!

edit: Thanks for the correction, htdm. Of course it's a word---a perfectly suited one, at that.

I agree - why not use silent menus?

It also seems strange to me that while someone obviously spent some effort creating extras/artwork for the discs only to press them on DVD-R and then apparently give little thought for the menu music.

"inapt" is a word, btw...

Just watched A Man to Remember (thank you Classicflix). I can appreciate that all the closeups of letters and so forth (i.e. the film's framing device) are replaced with Dutch translations, but would it have been too much to translate those back into English? Those are important. Doesn't anyone at TCM speak Dutch?

On another note, for some reason, I was really stunned by the image quality. Can't explain it.