Gangsters Collections

[Jeff]

From OnVideo.org:

Warner Bros. Pictures Tough Guys Collection All new to DVD, six-disc set with "Bullets or Ballots," "Each Dawn I Die," "'G' Men," "San Quentin," "A Slight Case of Murder" and "City for Conquest." All six titles have been fully restored and digitally remastered with special features including historian commentaries and new making-of featurettes. Each disc also contains an exclusive "Warner Night at the Movies" segment that recreates moviegoer attractions such as newsreels, comedy shorts, cartoons and trailers from the years each film was released. The collection will be available for $67.92; each title is also available separately for $19.97. (Warner).

* Bullets or Ballots (1936) Edward G. Robinson, Joan Blondell, Barton MacLane, Humphrey Bogart. Extras: New featurette "Gangsters: The Immigrant's Hero," commentary by Dana Polan, "How I Play Golf by Bobby Jones No. 10: Trouble Shots," "Breakdowns of 1936": studio blooper reel, audio-only bonus: 4/16/1939 Lux Radio Theater broadcast with Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart, "Warner Night at the Movies" 1936 short subjects gallery: vintage newsreel, vintage short "George Hall and His Orchestra," classic cartoon" I'm a Big Shot Now," trailer "The Charge of the Light Brigade."

* Each Dawn I Die (1939) James Cagney, George Raft, Jane Bryan, George Bancroft, Max 'Slapsie Maxie' Rosenbloom. Extras: New featurette "Stool Pigeons and Pine Overcoats: The Language of Gangster Films," commentary by film historian Haden Guest, "Breakdowns of 1939": studio blooper reel, bonus cartoon "Each Dawn I Crow," 3/22/43 Lux Radio Theater broadcast, trailer, "Warner Night at the Movies" 1939 short subjects gallery: documentary short "A Day at Santa Anita," classic cartoon "Detouring America," trailer "Wings of the Navy."

* 'G' Men (1935) James Cagney, Margaret Lindsay, Ann Dvorak, Robert Armstrong, Barton MacLane, Lloyd Nolan. Extras: New featurette "Morality and the Code: A How-to Manual for Hollywood," commentary by Richard Jewell, "How I Play Golf by Bobby Jones No. 11: Practice Shots," "Things You Never See on the Screen: Breakdowns of 1935" studio blooper reel, trailer, "Warner Night at the Movies" 1935 short subjects gallery: comedy short "The Old Grey Mayor" starring Bob Hope, classic cartoon "Buddy the Gee Man," trailer "Devil Dogs of the Air."

* San Quentin (1937) Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, Barton MacLane .Extras: New featurette "Welcome to the Big House," commentary by Patricia King Hanson, "Breakdowns of 1937" studio blooper reel, trailer, "Warner Night at the Movies" 1937 short subjects gallery: vintage newsreel, "Broadway Brevity" short "The Man Without a Country," classic cartoon "Porky's Double Trouble," "Kid Galahad" trailer.

* A Slight Case of Murder (1937) Edward G. Robinson. Jane Bryan, Allen Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly. Extras: New featurette "Prohibition Opens the Floodgates," trailer, "Warner Night at the Movies" 1938 short subjects gallery: vintage newsreel, drama short "Declaration of Independence," classic cartoon "The Night Watchman," "The Dawn Patrol" trailer.

* City for Conquest(1940) Dir.: Anatole Litvak; James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Frank Craven, Donald Crisp, Frank McHugh, Arthur Kennedy, George Tobias, Jerome Cowan, Elia Kazan, Anthony Quinn, Lee Patrick. Extras: New featurette "Molls and Dolls: The Women of Gangster Films," "Breakdowns of 1940" studio blooper reel, audio-only bonus: 2/9/1942 Lux Radio Theater broadcast, commentary by Richard Schickel, trailer, "Warner Night at the Movies" 1940 short subjects gallery: vintage newsreel, short "Service With the Colors," classic cartoon "Stage Fright," trailer "The Fighting 69th."

Due: 7/18/06

[skuhn8]

Awesome. I'm a big fan of "Warner Night at the Movies" packages. Pretty fun stuff. Hey and of the five commentaries provided only one is by Schickel, so that should be 4 worthwhile commentaries. Excellent set!

[HerrSchreck]

They totally blew a perfect opportunity to release the elusive BIG HOUSE w Chester Morris from 1930.

[skuhn8]

They totally blew a perfect opportunity to release the elusive BIG HOUSE w Chester Morris from 1930.

Perhaps Warner feared that a "Tough Guy" film scripted by a woman would dilute the package's monicker?--not serious, btw. But that would've been slick addition.

[alandau]

Underwhelmed by this collection. All the films are quite mediocre.

I am waiting for the pre-code collection to reinvogerate my interest, and more importantly, tough dames. They are much more interesting than tough guys.

The only thing that pleases me with this announcement are the Flynn trailers - COTLBrigade and Dawn Patrol. Errol Flynn boxset 2 obviously on it's way.

[Schkura]

Errol Flynn boxset 2 obviously on it's way.

Now there was a tough guy.

[Antoine Doinel]

I wish they would put all the Bogart/Cagney/Robinson gangster flicks in separate boxes for each actor. But yeah, a pre-code box set would be incredible.

But of the movies here, I've only seen Bullets Or Ballots and it was just okay. I'm frankly shocked at the amount of extras it's getting....

[buskeat]

They totally blew a perfect opportunity to release the elusive BIG HOUSE w Chester Morris from 1930.

Big House was an MGM picture.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Warner owns the pre-1986 MGM library. It would be slightly incongruous to have "Warner Night at the Movies" alongside an MGM title, but I doubt most people would notice or care.

[buskeat]

Warner owns the pre-1986 MGM library. It would be slightly incongruous to have "Warner Night at the Movies" alongside an MGM title, but I doubt most people would notice or care.

Oh, I know Warner owns "Big House" now but the set is called "Warner Bros. Tough Guys" a la Robinson and Cagney and anal folks like me would notice and care. To me, it would be the same thing as including, say, Babes in Arms in the Busby Berkeley Collection. Yeah, he directed it but in no way does it belong in that box set.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

The solution to that would be to remove the phrase "Warner Bros." from the title.

[HerrSchreck]

Oh, I know Warner owns "Big House" now but the set is called "Warner Bros. Tough Guys" a la Robinson and Cagney and anal folks like me would notice and care. .

These whorish times of library sales and cross-rights ownership of titles presented on DVD must have you bouncing offa the walls. Seriously.

Does the Universal Franchise-Glamor-etc Collection (of many old Paramount features) also ratchet up your heartrate?

[Jeff]

art

[souvenir]

The covers for Each Dawn I Die and 'G' Men are gorgeous.

[Gigi M.]

Pre-order at Amazon.com

[HerrSchreck]

Fuckin righteous solid.

[filmfan]

Just got through viewing "City For Conquest" in the package....very well-crafted story and fine acting all around.

It was interesting to see Elian Kazan in an acting role...he was not that bad, actually.

[Lino]

Fresh from the Beaver:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReview ... ection.htm

[souvenir]

The featurettes on these are not film specific as with the Gangsters set. While I've never been too impressed with most of the Warner featurettes anyway, this makes them even more frivolous to me (although I suppose it would possibly prevent overlap with the commentaries). An example is with the featurette about prison movies on the "San Quentin" disc which barely mentions that film and instead focuses much more on "Each Dawn I Die" and, to a lesser extent, "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang" (incorrectly referred to by the USC/Warner Bros. Archives curator as "I Was a Fugitive from a Chain Gang").

It's a little bothersome to watch the movie and then not have the featurette tell barely anything about it. It's even worse to have the featurette talk about a movie in the set that you haven't watched yet.

[filmfan]

What I have seen so far the blooper reels are entertaining, especially of
"Petrified Forrest"...sure wish there was some deleted footage available.

Is there any circulating...."around" ?

[jorencain]

I'm in the middle watching "The Roaring Twenties" (which I'm loving, by the way), and I keep thinking about a scene at the beginning of the film. When one American soldier won't shoot at a German because "he looks like a 15 year old kid", Bogart looks through the window, shoots him, and says, "He won't be 16". If that wasn't cold enough, somebody runs on the screen 2 seconds later, screaming, "They just called a cease-fire. The war is over!" (or something like that). The music swells, and everyone starts cheering. Everybody's happy, and they cut to the next scene.

It struck me the exact same way the end of Altman's "A Wedding" does, when the family rejoices about the couple being alive, completely forgetting that there are 2 other dead people in that car.

It's little things like that, which can easily slip by and are almost hidden in the script, that really stick with me from the gangster and noir films of the time. Anyway, I can't wait to finish the movie.

[filmnoir1]

DVD Beaver has information up that is promising. He indicates that the second gangster box set will contain Mayor of Hell, Picture Snatcher, Smart Money, and Ladykiller. This is fantastic news because it shows that Warner continues to understand that there is a real desire for people to see and own the films from their classic catalogue.

[Cinephrenic]

Hmm... I'm skeptical on this. Not that DVD Beav is not correct, but they released Tough Guys set as a alternate to Gangsters vol.2. I don't know if any of those films are valuable enough to sell a second set.

Perhaps if they do release it, I hope City Streets and Racket Busters is included.

[tryavna]

I don't know if any of those films are valuable enough to sell a second set.

Mayor of Hell is certainly bizarre enough to be valuable. If you've never seen it, you must. It has a most unexpected conclusion that Warner Bros. never could have gotten away with a year later. (I think Mayor just barely beat the Code.) And the much weaker remakes (both with the Dead End Kids) bear this fact out. It's also got a wonderfully slimy performance by the wonderfully slimy Dudley Digges.

Never seen the other films named, though.

[jesus the mexican boi]

I don't know if any of those films are valuable enough to sell a second set.

Mayor of Hell is certainly bizarre enough to be valuable. If you've never seen it, you must. It has a most unexpected conclusion that Warner Bros. never could have gotten away with a year later. (I think Mayor just barely beat the Code.) And the much weaker remakes (both with the Dead End Kids) bear this fact out.

Is one of these remakes Crime School? I saw Mayor of Hell on TCM some time back and thought it was pretty damn tough. As you say, it snuck in right before the Code. I was interested in Crime School because of the Dead Enders and, iirc, Ronald Reagan in the brutal role, and because the original was so dark.