The Silver Screen Oasis

Aaaaaarrrrrghhhhh

Frigga-raggin'-fracka- ~%#*@><@*#~ cross-country tourists!

Heavy sags the head that wears the circlet of the Medieval Highland Lord Protector of the 14th State . . for duty shackles my restless Alban ankles nigh to these lonely, cable-access crags o' wind-sheared granite.

I think he means he can't go, because he has to work....I think....

Nah...that's just the sound he makes when he stubs his toes from a-drinkin' the Bushmills.

Klonnie, I'll do my best to score an autograph, but I can't make promises. It might have to be
scribbled on a cocktail napkin. Patrick arrived a couple of hours ago and Mrs. D and I will be
scooping him up at his hotel in a few hours and taking him out to dinner. Our conversations
on the phone tell me that he's a big-hearted, groovy guy and we're thrilled to have him here.
In the meantime, here's a great piece that appeared in this morning's SF CHRONICLE:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 1HMIN7.DTL

Three big silents this week in Warner Archive's new releases:

Don Juan (1926) will include the opening night Vitaphone shorts program
Noah's Ark (1929)
The Merry Widow (1925)

http://www.wbshop.com/New-Releases/ARCH ... rchivehome

Kevin,

Arguably, these are 3 of the biggest Silents Warner has released to date. All caught me completely by surprise. I wasn't expecting any of them at this time. There is no indication that DON JUAN will be anything different than the old MGM laser-disc. Not remastered as we were told was being done a couple years ago. There are just not a whole lot of of titles left with recorded scores to release before they get to the Kevin Brownlow-David Gill ones. These are the only other titles that I can think of off hand. THE CONQUERING POWER, THE RAGMAN (1925), THE BLACKBIRD (1926), MARE NOSTRUM (1926), THE SCARLET LETTER (1926), TELL IT TO THE MARINES, THE SHOW (1927), WEST OF ZANZIBAR, THE VIKING (1928), and THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (1929).

After these 10 films. All that is left are the Thames/Photoplay Biggies. THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE, GREED, THE BIG PARADE, OLD HEIDELBERG, THE WIND, A WOMAN OF AFFAIRS THE CROWD, and SHOW PEOPLE. To be honest, I could care less about GREED. I never liked the movie all that much to start with. But THE BIG PARADE is the most important in my opinion. Of course neither GREED or SHOW PEOPLE is as tied to Photoplay as the others are. The same might be said for A WOMAN OF AFFAIRS, since a version with a Movie-tone track exists. GREED has the 4 hour reconstruction with the Robert Israel score. Not tied at all to the earlier Thames version. SHOW PEOPLE always airs on TCM with the Vintage Axt-Mendoza track. Never with the Carl Davis score.

There are also the few Silents that were pulled from release due to processing and encoding errors. I think they were PRISONER OF ZENDA (1922), BEAU BRUMMEL, THE MAGICIAN (1926). Also possibly THE WHITE SISTER (1923) which a friend of mine said that he could not find on the Website at all, even though it was just released a few months ago. Are these titles back on Sale again? I haven't checked. I hate trying to navigate their web-pages.

If after all these years we do not get the new restoration of THE BIG PARADE that we have been waiting on, I will feel extremely betrayed. Because why was the new restoration done if it was never going to be released on DVD-Blu-ray, nor shown on TCM eventually? 7 years is eventually. They could have released the old Thames Silents version from the early 80's, which TCM still runs, 10 years ago. At least it would have been out there. If they release it now, which allot of people seem to feel could very well happen, than the new print remastered from the original camera negative in 2004 will never be seen. Sync it up with the Carl Davis score, or the Axt-Mendoza one or both, and get it out there. Time is running out for this to happen. If they are waiting for economic recovery, than it will never happen. To much corporate Greed, and political incompetence all over the globe, not just in America. When Oil Barons are talking $7.00 a gallon Gasoline by Summer. than that pretty much says it all.

While it's good to see these titles finally available, it is somewhat disappointing that THE MERRY WIDOW presumably won't be released with the superior Orchestral score that I mentioned here recently, or the brand new Maud Nelissen score. As this film is well over 2 hours long, I hope it's burned to dual-layer media.

The four hour reconstruction of Greed is available as a download from iTunes and The White Sister double feature is still available at Warner Archives:
http://www.wbshop.com/WAC-Double-Featur ... html?cgid=

I am curious how W.A. will be releasing Don Juan and Merry Widow, because their running times are longer than 2 hours. While I have a lot of their DVDs, none of them are longer than 2-hours and the media used is not dual-layer. There is no info on their site that I can find.

Not quite sure I follow how oil prices may effect the release of The Big Parade, but the Volt will be available soon and until then, maybe we should organize a letter-writing campaign to OPEC.

Musicals in the March 15th new releases:

Yolanda and the Thief (1945)
Invitation to the Dance (1956)
Little Nellie Kelly (1940)
Thoroughbreds Don't Cry (1937)

http://www.wbshop.com/New-Releases/ARCH ... 1WACNRcEml

The Warner Archive is having an anniversary sale offering 5 DVDs for $50 with free ground shipping from 3/24 through 3/28. They are also knocking off $5 on their multi-disc sets. You can see more info about this sale here:

http://www.wbshop.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-WB-Site/default/Search-Show?cgid=WASINGLE&adid=0311WACAnnivEml

moirafinnie wrote:The Warner Archive is having an anniversary sale offering 5 DVDs for $50 with free ground shipping from 3/24 through 3/28. They are also knocking off $5 on their multi-disc sets. You can see more info about this sale here:

http://www.wbshop.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-WB-Site/default/Search-Show?cgid=WASINGLE&adid=0311WACAnnivEml

You can also use the coupon code SAVINGS for $20 off of a $100 order.

Hi!
I'm writing to report that the Remastered DVD-R of Home Before Dark (1958) is a beautiful anamorphic widescreen transfer at the size of 6,80 GB.

Jean Simmons is terrific in her role. It's, surely, one of her best.
Simmons was one of the greatest actresses to step in front of a movie camera anyways.

On the disc:

It jumped a few seconds two or three times during the movie when watching it using my Denon DVD-2800 player.
But, I ripped the disc to an external harddrive. When watching the ripped movie on my PC, there were no problems at the moments which were problematic on the DVD player.

I'm glad to finally having a beautiful version of the film in my collection.
It's a long movie, at 2 hours and 16 minutes, but a great one.

Sincerely,

Mr. Even B.

Welcome back Even.

Thanks movieman ehh... Chris!

I'm glad to bring good news to classic movie lovers like us.

On another note:
I'm planning on getting the spanish DVD release of The Pleasure Seekers (1964) featuring the lovely Ann-Margret + Pamela Tiffin and Carol Lynley.

And:

Stay away from the spanish release of Stagecoach (1966).
I've read reports on the net which says it's a quite hazy non anamorphic transfer.

By the way...

I've read on the internet that the latest releases from the Archive are burnt to dual layer discs. This means that the file size is bigger and the picture quality is heightened.

My post on Home Before Dark may indicate that.

Here are the sizes of the Archive releases I've ripped to the harddrive:

Home Before Dark 6,80 GB (recent Remastered release)
She's Back on Broadway 3,98 GB
The Plunderers 3,92 GB
Tribute to a Badman 4,20 GB
Colorado Territory 3,96 GB
Wichita 3,12 GB

It certainly looks like the size of the movies are bigger now than before.
I don't know if this applies to the remastered titles exclusively.

Anyway, I'm glad the quality gets better.

The Sony Pictures' Screen Classic on demand DVDs are now available from Warner Archive:
http://www.wbshop.com/on/demandware.sto ... rc=EWACSNY