WB Archive Collection: Discs On Demand!

[Ben]

Broadway Melody for sure, and probably Du Barry, and maybe Helen, being there Wise fan that I am. None are day-onners, though, and can wait for sales.

[Randall]

The last time I day one'd for a WA title, it was for Brothers Grimm. Otherwise, it's always sales.

[EricJ]

I remember watching Broadway Melody out of curiosity and Oscar completism, and...yes, the rumors are true: Yowza, it's bad.
Early talkie musicals were actually sinking at the box office before Busby Berkeley, since the staging was usually to put the camera smack in the middle of the audience to take in the entire stage, and leave it there, as a chorus line of none-too-coordinated showgirls went through their steps to a Freed & Brown number.

It's worth a bit of curiosity to see where the "original" Singin' in the Rain songs came from (can anyone watch a "Wedding of the Painted Doll" number with a straight face after Lockwood & Lamont? ), but the melodramatic subplot has one of my favorite bits of bad dialogue in movies:
After the heroine discovers the man she spurned was right in warning her after all, "Oh, Eddie, you're not 'yellow'...You're WHITE!"

Now, Eleanor Powell's tap numbers in "Broadway Melody of 1936", OTOH...

[Ben]

Yeah, I had a tape of it for the Singin' connections, natch. It’s a creaky, dated filum, but still an important one exactly for noting that moribund aspect of the musical before 42nd Street (which, coinkidinkelly, we just re-ran a couple of weeks ago) came along and changed everything.

[Daniel]

New podcast that discusses Hey There, it's Yogi Bear. Talks a little on the reinstatement of the logo.

[Daniel]

August titles:

Father's Little Dividend: (1951)
New 1080p HD master from 4K scan of Original Camera Negative
Run Time: 82 Minutes
Subtitles: English SDH
Audio Specs: DTS HD-MA 2.0 Mono
Aspect Ratio: 16x9 1.37:1 with side mattes
Product Color: B&W
Disc Configuration-BD50
Special Features:
Tom & Jerry Cartoons JUST DUCKY (HD) and JERRY AND THE GOLDFISH (HD); Original Theatrical Trailer
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Bennett

The Life Of Emile Zola: (1937)
New 1080p HD master from 4K scan of Original Nitrate Camera negative.
Run Time: 116 Minutes
Subtitles: ENGLISH SDH
Audio Specs: DTS HD-MA 2.0 Mono
Aspect Ratio 16x9 1.37:1 with side mattes
Product color: B&W
DIsc Configuration-BD 50
Special Features: 5/8/39 LUX RADIO THEATER BROADCAST with PAUL MUNI, WB Shorts ALIBI MARK (HD) and MAL HALLETT AND HIS ORCHESTRA (HD), Original Theatrical Trailer;
Cast: Paul Muni, Gale Sodergaard, Joseph Schildkraut

Little Women: (1933)
New 1080p HD master from 4K scan of best nitrate preservation elements.
Run Time: 116 Minutes
Subtitles: ENGLISH SDH
Audio Specs: DTS HD-MA 2.0 Mono
Aspect Ratio 16x9 1.37:1 with side mattes
Product color: B&W
DIsc Configuration-BD 50
Special Features: Classic WB Shorts: Jack Haley in "SALT WATER DAFFY" (HD) and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle in "IN THE DOUGH"(HD), Classic WB cartoons "I LIKE MOUNTAIN MUSIC" (HD) and "THE ORGAN GRINDER" (HD); SCORING STAGE SUITE OF RECORDINGS (Audio only), Original Theatrical Trailer
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Paul Lukas, Frances Dee

Spinout: (1966)
New 1080p HD Master from 4K Scan of the Original Camera Negative.
Run Time: 90 Minutes
Subtitles: ENGLISH SDH
Audio Specs: DTS HD-MA 2.0 Mono
Aspect Ratio 16x9 2.35:1 Letterbox
Product color: Color
DIsc Configuration-BD 50
Special Features: TOM & JERRY CARTOONS-CATTY-CORNERED (HD) and FILET MEOW (HD); Original Theatrical Trailer
Cast: Elvis Presley, Shelley Fabares, Deborah Walley, Diane McBain

Wichita: (1955)
New 1080p HD master from 4K scan of Original Camera Negative.
Run Time: 81 Minutes
Subtitles: ENGLISH SDH
Audio Specs: DTS HD-MA 2.0 Mono
Aspect Ratio 16x9 2.55:1 Letterbox
Product color: Color
DIsc Configuration-BD 50
Special Features: Classic Tex Avery cartoons: DEPUTY DROOPY (HD) and THE FIRST BAD MAN (HD)
Cast: Joel McCrea, Vera Miles, Lloyd Bridges, Wallace Ford, Edgar Buchanan

Gay Purr-ee: (1962)
New 1080p HD master from 4K scan of Original Camera Negative
Run Time: 85 Minutes
Subtitles: English SDH
Audio Specs: DTS HD-MA 2.0 Mono
Aspect Ratio: 16x9 1.85:1
Product Color: COLOR
Disc Configuration-BD50
Special Features:
CLASSIC WARNER BROS. CARTOONS: LOUVRE COME BACK TO ME (HD)
FRENCH RAREBIT (HD); FOR SCENT-IMENTAL REASONS (HD); Songwriter Demo Recordings (audio only); Original Theatrical Trailer
Voice Cast: Judy Garland, Robert Goulet, Red Buttons, Hermoine Gingold

Gay Purr-ee! Not purr-fect and a bit of a slog, but still a charming film.

[Ben]

Aw, was hoping George's mention of "more theatrical animation" was going to be Cats Don’t Dance…

I’ll nab Purr-ee eventually in a sale. Donut think I’ve seen it since I reviewed the DVD! Nice to see it retain the 1.85 ratio, and a new scan!

Spinout is a pretty bad routine Elvis flick (c'mon, give us Baz' director cut of his biopic!), but Little Women *might* tempt. Pretty up for Father Of The Bride Part II…

[EricJ]

I more remember Gay Purr-ee not just for losing Chuck Jones his Warner job, but for the time Judy Garland and Robert Goulet appeared on Jack Paar's 60s Tonight Show to promote the movie--

And Jack, that mischievous proto-Letterman funster, decided to play cue-card prompter and help Goulet:
https://youtu.be/L5vDFFiU_Os?t=2819

[gaastra]

Would love rock odyssey but with all the songs from beatles to wham can't see it getting a release.

[Randall]

Little Women isn't my type of flick normally, but it's a signigicant Hepburn role, and my wife will love it. Dividend is an easy choice to go with the FotB disc. I haven't bought Purr-ee since the laserdisc (which I still have), and while it is a slog, it's still unique enough that I'll love having it in HD.

No Elvis, western, or forgotten biopic for me. But I can see each of those having their fans. Another cool month for WA.

[Randall]

September titles!

Westward the Women - wagon train saga; not my thing
Saratoga - Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore, Walter Pidgeon; the cast sells it! Harlow's last film, with her dying of kidney disease at 26
Palmetto - 1998(!) Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Shue
Before night Falls (2000) - some folks will be happy to see more modern films coming out from WA; me, not so much, but good for them
Christopher Strong- Kathryn Hepburn melodrama; her first starring role

Oh, and some animated film called Cats Don't Dance



Looks like 3 for me!

[Dan]

Even Guillermo del Toro is excited!
https://twitter.com/RealGDT/status/1691 ... 11169?s=20

[Ben]

YES, VIRGINIA! THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS!

Now my next WA order is guaranteed to have no less than the three animated feature offerings from the line, with only Flintstone still to come. And then maybe, hopefully, some of the WB compilation movies? Yeah, I know we just got a holy grain, but it’s fun to speculate on the next one, eh?

I mean, just how long have we been waiting for this?? We had faith, and it has seen us through. It shows anything is possible! Bless George and the WA!

Yay!


Now…WHY are we not getting a 4K!!!?!?!??? *



* Just in case, this is a joke. It cracks me up whenever fanboys (and girls) get the fairly obscure title they’ve been waiting years for — and in what is guaranteed to be a class one presentation better than anything they’ve seen before — and the reaction is something like "no 4K, no sale", or "what about new extras". So, for fun, I’m being THAT guy!

[Randall]

And now the next Volume of Looney Tunes is announced! Still waiting on which shorts will be on there, but they'll number 25!

Also, I'm excited to see Browning's Devil Doll get announced for Blu-ray. What a wonderfully bizarre treasure! Nice to see the first Joan Crawford/Clark Gable pairing, too (Dance, Fools, Dance). Other than that, some more contemporary fare joins the lineup.

https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=33279

[Ben]

You know, a determining grammatical article can be all-important…!

I got all excited when you cited Devil Doll, but it’s THE Devil Doll coming from WB, not Devil Doll, which is still awaiting an HD release. (I know, you did say Browning, but I couldn’t remember who directed it and excitement got the better of me…)

Still, The Devil Doll sounds bonkers enough to pick up anyhoo, even if I wish it had been the mad ventriloquist movie. Tempted by Elvis, as apart from shrunken people movies I do have fun with double exposure pictures, though I know this to be yet another typical dud from The King.

Looney 2 is a dead-cert, though, natch!