Cool, thanks for the report. Now, nobody else sign up till my month is over, 'kay?

I just want them to get The Mask of Dimitrios out. It's Warner that owns that film, isn't it?

10 Warner Archive DVDs for $99.95 (out of 150 selected titles only, ends 7/19/09 11:59 PDT)

Yes, it's a Warner title and I'd also love to have it available, but please God let it not be a Warner Archive release.

Well maybe it could be part of a Lorre Boxset...

Really all they need to do is get someone in telecine to tick the "deinterlace" box in the transfer suite. I think the Archives is now the only way we'll see this stuff, with maybe downloads taking over in a couple of years. THey can see the writing on the wall.

Meanwhile I keep getting this stuff, despite the shortcomings - how else wll you ever see Westbound or Wichita or Tarzan and the She-Devil? BTW Movies Unlimited ships these internationally now and are a damned sight quicker and cheaper than amazon.

David, I've only ordered six titles so far, so I wanted to ask what your favorites are (film + transfer). I'm totally unfamiliar with a certain portion of what they've "released" here. Being without access to TCM for several years now is probably the major reason why.

Wichita and Bhowani Junction are both clean anamorphic transfers, the latter a big improvement in clarity from the LD. The Borzage titles I have are overly brightness boosted I think - Mannequin, Three Comrades and Flirtation Walk. Otherwise the Lex Barker Tarzans look good, unlike the earlier RKO material which looks like the elements are rough and dupey. Some earlier things are, as you would expect a little hazy - Beast of the City etc.

They are just a notch up from TCM digital broadcast and dont have the watermark. But beware faults in the pressings - This Woman is Dangerous locks up with pixellation while Joan's in the phone booth at approx 1 hour 20. I had to re rip it and push it manually on the backup which sort of worked. Sort of.

Still stuck with two impressions - these are too expensive, even at the 18 or so thru moviesunlimited, and I simply dont know why they aren't deinterlacing these (excluding the silents perhaps..)

Greg what are yours? There seems to be an awful lot coming...


Greg add to these Cukor's The Actress - the movie is an unrecognized joy, and transfer is clean as a whistle.

I've only watched three so far, and all were acceptable. The Big House had the odd blacked-out area that I noted earlier in the thread, which looked digital to me, but it wouldn't make any sense that they'd add this now. Christopher Strong looked fine, though a bit soft. The Mad Miss Manton looked perfectly fine, although I was not quite sober at the time. No combing was evident in any of these.

Thanks for the comments on yours. I hope to order again at some point if the site will ever let me log in or create a new account.

I do agree that these are too expensive, and the pricing is possibly short-sighted. The number of discs they would sell for $10 each might be vastly more than the number they're selling at $20.

An odd grab bag of new pre-orders:

All the Marbles
Boulevard Nights
Carny
Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark [their first made-for-TV release]
Mike's Murder
The Terminal Man
Urgh! A Music War

I still can't make up my mind if I'm more pro or con on the WB Archive. I guess if it has to be this way, I'm glad they're cranking out some newer films, since they'll have new transfers (and fix the aspect ratio of the VHS release, if any). Unless of course WB renegs on that promise too, like they lied about continuing to release actual catalog DVDs.

It will be great to have Urgh! available, but I can't imagine that it wouldn't have sold adequately as a "real" DVD release, and it's just begging for a nice special edition (with the full rumored six hours' worth of performances).

Mike's Murder is excellent news - one of the best and most unusual thrillers of the decade.

I have a wholly undefendable soft spot for All The Marbles.

More new titles (sigh):

Bordertown
20,000 Years in Sing-Sing (Curtiz)
From Hell it Came
Across to Singapore
the Boob (Wellman)
Desert Nights
the First Texan
King of the Wild Stallions
A Majority of One (LeRoy)
Mary, Mary (LeRoy)
Never Too Late
the Viking
West Point

Yeah, Bordertown was a pretty stunning announcement. If Warner Bros. thinks they can't sell a Bette Davis / Paul Muni sizzler like this as a proper DVD, they really have given up. I imagine this means no more installments in the Bette Davis Collection series (April 2008 was the last).


I just realized yesterday that this was the lady wrestlers movie I watched on Showtime about 50 times in my childhood. I may have to pick this up, along with a bag of Munchos and some Kool-Aid.

..and 20,000 Yrs In Sing Sing is a pretty badass Spence Tracy/Bette Davis vehicle, w Curtiz cracking the whip. Wholly enjoyable and hardboiled, this could have easily been a cherce Dvd release for their Gangsters line. Or their precode line.

These choices for their dumping ground are getting a little weird, though it's good to see them come out, it does make one feel like they're giving up on DVD's.

And consider they're releasing the Blu North by Northwest first up in Europe (but of course region free like all Warner Blus.)

Even stranger - if it's true - is the release schedule for Universal in the UK for October/November which includes virtually all of Uni's Hitchcocks in BluRay!! Add to this the Granada/ITV British titles in Blu and you have a remarkably new and frankly unbelievable shift in marketing strategies between the US and the same two labels in Europe and the UK.

Hadn't seen this before! If true I'm sure these will crop up here in R1 too. Good news.

Dent I posted a link (which Ive since lost) to a Blu-Ray.com thread on the Beaver listserv last month.

I am frankly in some state of disbelief simply becuase I would not have thought all the elements for these were in any way near ready for even 2k transfer. Robert Harris, for instance has commented over the years about the parlous state of the 56 Man Who Knew too Much and how badly it needs restoration work.

We shall wait and see. If you can find that link it includes some Paramount titles as well including To Catch a Thief, and Funny face!! I needed smelling salts after reading it first time.

The Boob is likely the worst silent film I've ever seen. I'm all for any and all William Wellman pictures being released, but gosh what a piece of shit that one is.

I'm at a loss for why they couldn't just package all these early Joan Crawford films in a boxset, kind of like the Universal sets that came out a few years ago. Hell, why couldn't they do a Marion Davies or William Haines set like that? Keep the costs low by putting a couple films on a disc, and keep the retail price low so people will be willing to buy the sets, even if they don't know much about the star or the films.

Also if they are going to start releasing a bunch of Michael Curtiz films, does this mean Under A Texas Moon will finally see the light of day? Myrna in 1930 technicolor...yum.

And if you live overseas there is no chance of buying the Archive Collection from Warner. I could easily spend some cash-say, $100.00 during one of these sales. The only alternative is Amazon, at $30.00 a pop! A lot of Noir I would love to see-Phantom Lady(that's Universal), The Window(RKO-does Warner have these?), The Prowler(1951-United Artists, Warner?). No Turner Classic Movies here, either.

Seven more, some Amazon-exclusives no more:

Colorado Territory
Crime School
Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet
The Male Animal
The Strawberry Blonde
The Unsuspected
The Verdict

The Unsuspected is a very good noirish film-- albeit with a somewhat confusing plot-- with a nice turn by Claude Rains (but when is he not good?)

Beautifully photog'd too. The elements are in fabbo shape, too.

I'll definitely be grabbing 'Colorado Territory'; possibly also 'The Strawberry Blonde' and 'The Unsuspected'.
I've never actually seen 'Magic Bullet', although I've heard tell its one of the great bio-pics

Movies Unlimited ships internationally, and they seem to carry most of the titles.

Yeah, but their shipping charges are just as inane was Warner's. For Canada, it's $6.50 per order, plus an additional $2 per title. No thanks.