best preserved early films by studio?

[Bogie]

I don't know where to put this so if it belongs in the film preservation forum I apologize. Anyways, i've seen early talkies by RKO, WB, Columbia, and some other studios and one thing I notice is that for the most part those films are pretty well preserved and look and sound a lot better then early Fox films.

Is Fox the worst when it comes to preserving their early sound films? Which studio is generally the best when it comes to preserving their early stuff. (I think it's WB from what i've seen)

Well I hope that you guys can illuminate me when you see this.

[Lzcutter]

Bogie,

I agree with you that WBrothers is the best. They control the entire WBros library as well as the RKO and pre-1986 MGM library.

Sony only recently (and thanks to one of their preservationists for his persistence) came to understand the value of the Columbia Library that they own. Sony also owns the post-1986 MGM film library.

Fox has just put out the mammoth Ford at Fox box set that includes some of Ford's silents and early talkies. They could certainly do more with their early talkies but part of the problem there is that they suffered a devastating vault fire in 1935 that destroyed many of the negatives and fine grain prints of many, many silents and early talkies.

Paramount remains clueless about what to do with their silent library. Their early talkies are owned by NBC-Universal. The geniuses there seem to be more interested in offering box sets of their old television shows than either their early talkies or Paramount's early talkies.