Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

[fdm]

Today I wrote in The Sheltering Sky...
Yesterday it was Greed and The Crowd.

[Drucker]

Ambersons yesterday, wrote in The Wind today. Really want to see She Wore a Yellow Ribbon with a proper, 4k technicolor restoration.

[beamish13]

Requested LOCAL HERO and the director's cut of MIKE'S MURDER (if they can piss away $150 million on Joe Wright's PAN, they can drop $1 million to restore this film)

[beamish13]

Today I wrote in The Sheltering Sky...
Yesterday it was Greed and The Crowd.

WB owns Sheltering Sky and Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man. Wonder what the holdup is with both

[FrauBlucher]

Passage to Marseille coming soon to blu!

[chatterjees]

It's not a top tier Bogart for me, but I am glad they are releasing one of his films on blu-ray after so long time. I will definitely buy it.

[Werewolf by Night]

They're including Jammin' the Blues, but frustratingly not upgrading it to HD.

[rockysds]

If you voted for The Ice Pirates in the poll, then good news.

[John Doe]

Guests' A Mighty Wind is also coming. Release date - TBA

[John Doe]

Also forthcoming: Hitchcock's The Wrong Man - 1/26

[domino harvey]

It would be nice if they'd include both ARs, but I wouldn't hold my breath

[eerik]

The Wrong Man is also scheduled to be released in France and Japan early 2016, along with I Confess and Suspicion. Bit strange that it is under the "archive collection" label in the US.

Amazon pre-orders:
The Wrong Man - Japan, France
I Confess - Japan, France
Suspicion - Japan, France

[Noiradelic]

Bit strange that it is under the "archive collection" label in the US.

I believe "lame" is the word you're looking for.

[captveg]

Why does it matter? Does anyone not buy these catalog titles online? I'll just order it from amazon, like I've done for every Warner regular release and Archive Blu-ray for the last decade.

[Noiradelic]

Doesn't matter as far as the individual titles themselves (except maybe they cost a little more), but it just further demonstrates Warner's flagrant disregard for upgrading their pre-1960 catalog to BD. If major titles like The Wrong Man and Out of the Past are being relegated to WB's niche line with its slow release schedule and comparable titles aren't being released concurrently on the main line, that means far less upgrades overall. Right now, Warner is the single biggest obstacle to film buffs worldwide getting the older movies they want on BD.

[Gregory]

Excactly.
One reason it matters is that Warner catalog Blu-rays usually cost me somewhere between $7 and $12, while Warner Archive Blu-rays cost $13–18, which is a difference that's often a deciding factor if I'm on the fence about blind-buying a title or upgrading a DVD.
But the biggest reason it matters is that at the rate they trickle things out, it's clear that their Blu-ray selection of pre-1960s films will likely never match the breadth that they reached with DVD a decade ago, no matter how many years go by. They should have been spending all these years since Blu-ray came to prominence getting HD masters ready and preparing a box set of their Hitchcock titles, with individual releases as well, like they did on DVD. It's Alfred Hitchcock, FFS.
In 2014, Robert Harris wrote,

I have been reading seemingly constant complaints on line regarding Warner Bros. and presumed non-activity or lack of interest in bringing important catalog titles to the home video market.

Wrong.

And he went on to predict that 2015 would be the year that Warner finally blew everyone away by demonstrating their great interest in releasing pre-1960s films on Blu-ray:
I guess I'd gotten my hopes up just a little based on...

A quick overview.

Three-strip Technicolor. Minnelli. Bogart. Flynn. Davis. Astaire. Garbo. Sinatra.

"Bogart." meaning Passage to Marseille in the Archive Collection, oh and Thank Your Lucky Stars! to boot. For a large studio with such immense holdings, the output remains disappointing. The earlier part of 2015 was more impressive and now the schedule seems to have ebbed back to the usual trickle of often odd choices.

[felipe]

Maybe some of the titles that were scheduled for 2015 got delayed for some reason?

How does their 2015 pre-1960s output compare to that of previous years?

[FrauBlucher]

Gregory, I was thinking about Harris' grandiose WB prediction the other day, and how off he was. Once again the WB blu Ray output was middling with choices that were far from scintillating. They still leave many, many films from the golden age collecting dust and cobwebs. The 39 set was nice and they deserve credit for that. But not exactly the parade of titles Mr Harris spoke of.

Speaking of Mr Harris, I always take things his says with a grain of salt, including his reviews, if that's what you want to call them. (Btw... He hardly ever reviews Criterion titles. I wonder if there is a backstory to that). I find him to be very subjective when it comes to the boutiques and the studios. If he has a relationship with the studio or boutique he gives their output high marks no matter what. The kino silents are a perfect example.

The best thing WB has done over the last several years has been to sign a licensing agreement with Criterion.

[captveg]

Gregory, I was thinking about Harris' grandiose WB prediction the other day, and how off he was.

A lot of these are coming Jan-Feb 2016. They got pushed a couple months because of the changeover in asset prep that occurred in the Summer. The Wrong Man is the first of these, and if you look at international listings one can see several others.

[captveg]

Some street dates:

The Ice Pirates - 1/19/16
The Wrong Man - 1/26/16
A Mighty Wind - 2/9/16

[John Doe]

I Confess also in the pipeline

[domino harvey]

Jesus, it's about time Warners got around to putting these out on Blu. Bring on the rest of that Signature Collection (and why hasn't Fox bothered with the Paradine Case and the rest of their effed up box?)

[captveg]

Jesus, it's about time Warners got around to putting these out on Blu. Bring on the rest of that Signature Collection (and why hasn't Fox bothered with the Paradine Case and the rest of their effed up box?)

The Paradine Case is one of the ABC Pictures titles (like Rebecca, Spellbound and Notorious) and is owned by Disney. Considering that the MGM Blu-ray of Rebecca just went OOP, I suspect that ABC Pictures-MGM deal has finally ended. It will be interesting to see who gets that library next.

As for the WB owned Hitchcock titles - I have no interest personally in Suspicion, Stage Fright or Mr. and Mrs. Smith, so even if those come later I Confess was the last one I was waiting for.

[dustybooks]

It would be interesting if we saw Criterion jump at issuing Paradine since they seem to have passed on it back in the early 2000s. I don't know that its reputation has grown at all but it certainly seems like anything of Hitchcock's is a welcome addition. It's really a pity that all of the cut footage seems to be gone forever.

[domino harvey]

Interesting. Are any other tiles from that MGM/Fox box ABC?