Page 3 of 4

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 2:52 am
by knives
Doesn't Warners own that (at least in the US)? There's your answer right there. I'm not a fan of the film, but if any silent deserves a Blu it's definitely high on that ladder.

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 6:26 am
by knives
tojoed wrote:North West Passage on DVD in the UK in June.
So did this come out well? It seems they're releasing Man Without a Star also and I'd like to get a reassurance that such beauty hasn't been pooed on.

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 6:54 am
by Revelator
The WB Archive has released Northwest Passage on DVD:
http://www.wbshop.com/Northwest-Passage ... html?cgid=

I've heard they don't ship overseas, which is bad news for our friends abroad, but surely there must be workarounds...

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 6:55 am
by knives
I'd rather go with a real DVD if possible, plus UK is usually cheaper.

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 7:00 am
by Revelator
Can't argue with the cost factor, but I own the WB Archive discs of The Citadel and H.M. Pulham, Esq., and in terms of quality they're real enough.

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 9:26 am
by Jonathan S
knives wrote:
tojoed wrote:North West Passage on DVD in the UK in June.
So did this come out well? It seems they're releasing Man Without a Star also and I'd like to get a reassurance that such beauty hasn't been pooed on.
If you look at the Amazon UK customer reviews you'll find plenty reasssurance that, being from Pegasus Entertainment, it's covered in horse-shit.

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 4:15 pm
by felipe
Kino will release Bird of Paradise on dvd and blu-ray.

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 8:00 pm
by goalieboy82
does anyone know if or when, The Big Parade, will be on dvd (the restored version). from what i been hearing, it should have been on dvd some time ago.

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 6:36 am
by JonasEB
You'll have to take it up with Warner. The Big Parade and other films remain in limbo - Warner doesn't appear to want to dump them in the archive but they're too chicken to release their missing silents themselves (and they're dead set against letting anyone else touch them.)

Frankly I think they'll just end up throwing them all in the archive, not even touching that restoration of The Big Parade.

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 3:08 pm
by felipe
Has Warner ever mentioned the possibility of releasing The crowd, Show people, The wind or Greed? Either on the Archive or as regular releases?

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 3:57 pm
by JPJ
felipe wrote:Has Warner ever mentioned the possibility of releasing The crowd, Show people, The wind or Greed? Either on the Archive or as regular releases?
I think all of these were mentioned as possible releases during one of those Warner chats back in 2004 or 05.As usual with Warners,they are probably still looking for better elements.

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 4:21 pm
by Roger Ryan
JPJ wrote:
felipe wrote:Has Warner ever mentioned the possibility of releasing The crowd, Show people, The wind or Greed? Either on the Archive or as regular releases?
I think all of these were mentioned as possible releases during one of those Warner chats back in 2004 or 05.As usual with Warners,they are probably still looking for better elements.
Well, GREED was issued through iTunes a couple of years ago.

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2012 7:50 pm
by knives
Does anyone know if An American Romance exists in its full cut anymore? I saw the two hour cut today and fell absolutely in love. It's interesting how he presents the American dream at the center in such a straightforward way yet tears it to ribbons in the peripheral.

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2012 8:30 pm
by Revelator
knives wrote:Does anyone know if An American Romance exists in its full cut anymore? I saw the two hour cut today and fell absolutely in love. It's interesting how he presents the American dream at the center in such a straightforward way yet tears it to ribbons in the peripheral.
I'm relatively sure the full version is lost, unless it's buried somewhere within the MGM vault. The studio's treatment of An American Romance so infuriated Vidor that he quit after two decades of working for the company. It's a tribute to the energy and power of the film that it still works. It was on TCM recently--I had left the TV on that channel, and my roommate, who knows very little about movies, found himself watching more and more of it, starting with the scene of Dangos working on his first car. He asked what the title was; when I told him he made a face, as if to say, "how corny." Over an hour later, as the fleet of planes filled the screen and the music swelled, my roommate said "I can see why they called it that" in a quietly impressed voice.

Incidentally, Show People is now available from the Warners Archive (http://www.wbshop.com/product/show+peop ... nd&from=fn).

Other Vidor films available from there include:
Wild Oranges
H.M. Pulham Esquire
La Boheme
Lightning Strikes Twice
The Patsy
The Citadel
Comrade X
Northwest Passage
An American Romance
Billy the Kid

I hope Scharphedin2 can update his original post with these additions.
Pulham is a film that isn't discussed nearly enough--it has a elegiac pull that transcends the plush MGM settings, while Billy is an example of another Vidor film that doesn't exist in its original form. It was filmed in widescreen, but that version is lost. What remains is an energetic early talkie with an unusual finish.

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2012 8:34 pm
by knives
Didn't know that about Billy the Kid. That's rather exciting. It seems that Alpha (probably meaning unwatchable I'll admit) has released Love Never Dies which to my knowledge makes it the oldest of his films available on disc.

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 2:57 am
by domino harvey

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 3:08 am
by swo17
Great film, and should really benefit from the upgrade. I wonder if any of those "other films of the Great Depression" that were on the Image DVD will make it over.

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 4:49 pm
by bottled spider
Speaking of The Big Parade, this article by Tag Gallagher might be of interest: http://sensesofcinema.com/2007/feature- ... rew-wyeth/

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 10:23 pm
by TIVOLI
Does anyone know what happened with the blu-ray release of Our Daily Bread? The $40 list price makes Twilight Time sound like a discounter, so I was hoping to find some reviews before taking the plunge. When I checked Amazon on April 15th, the release date, it was shown to be "temporarily out of stock". Now, it is listed as "unavailable".

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 10:23 am
by badmoon36
Finally a DVD & Blu release date of October 1 for The Big Parade from Warner Home Video (not Warner Archive). Hopefully The Crowd won't be far behind.

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2013 12:40 pm
by rockysds

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 9:05 pm
by Revelator
Good news--Not So Dumb (1930) will be released on DVD through the Warner Archive: http://www.wbshop.com/product/code/1000597297.do?
From what I understand, it's the least of the Vidor-Davies films, but any Vidor is good Vidor.

This leaves 16 Vidor films unavailable on DVD:

The Other Half (1919)
The Family Honor (1920)
The Jack-Knife Man (1920)
The Sky Pilot (1921)
Conquering the Woman (1922)
Peg o' My Heart (1922)
Three Wise Fools (1923)
Happiness (1924)
Wine of Youth (1924)
His Hour (1924)
Proud Flesh (1925)
The Crowd (1928)
Cynara (1932)
The Stranger's Return (1933)
So Red the Rose (1935)
Beyond the Forest (1949)

As you can see, most are from his early silent period, with only four sound titles. Of the latter, Beyond the Forest is both a camp classic and a black-edged portrait of small town America, Cynara is an underrated romance about class and privilege, and The Stranger's Return is a hidden gem about adulterous feelings on the farm. It was a flop, along with several other films in rural settings, which prompted Variety's immortal headline "STICKS NIX HICK PIX."

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 10:38 pm
by Gregory
Revelator wrote:Good news--Not So Dumb (1930) will be released on DVD through the Warner Archive: http://www.wbshop.com/product/code/1000597297.do?
From what I understand, it's the least of the Vidor-Davies films, but any Vidor is good Vidor.

This leaves 16 Vidor films unavailable on DVD:

The Other Half (1919)
The Family Honor (1920)
The Jack-Knife Man (1920)
The Sky Pilot (1921)
Conquering the Woman (1922)
Peg o' My Heart (1922)
Three Wise Fools (1923)
Happiness (1924)
Wine of Youth (1924)
His Hour (1924)
Proud Flesh (1925)
The Crowd (1928)
Cynara (1932)
The Stranger's Return (1933)
So Red the Rose (1935)
Beyond the Forest (1949)

As you can see, most are from his early silent period, with only four sound titles. Of the latter, Beyond the Forest is both a camp classic and a black-edged portrait of small town America, Cynara is an underrated romance about class and privilege, and The Stranger's Return is a hidden gem about adulterous feelings on the farm. It was a flop, along with several other films in rural settings, which prompted Variety's immortal headline "STICKS NIX HICK PIX."
Beyond the Forest came out a couple of years ago (as La Garce) on a fine DVD in "La Collection TCM," a series mainly comprising titles that have come out via Warner Archive in the US, with the notable exception of Beyond the Forest, so maybe that one will finally come out from WAC one of these days, or not.
I'd recommend Beyond... as a worthwhile import either way, not just for admirers of King Vidor but also anyone looking for a great example of the familiar 1940s vamp placed in a rural rather than an urban setting.

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 10:45 pm
by domino harvey
It is remarkable that the film with the second-most famous Bette Davis line ever never managed to find its way into any of those Warner Davis boxes. Maybe they were saving it for the never-materialized fourth volume

Re: King Vidor

Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 10:52 pm
by swo17
domino harvey wrote:the film with the second-most famous Bette Davis line ever
Is that the film that originated
Spoiler
Joe Eszterhas comes again