March 11, 2025 • 25 mins
George Feltenstein joins the podcast to announce six April Blu-ray releases, PLUS he gives us a sneak peek about a potential May release. George includes background on each film or TV series, the new HD master, and more clarification on the extras that will be included. And he always drops some knowledge about what is being worked on for the future. There is no better way to learn about what is on the Warner Archive schedule than to hear directly from George.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
TIM MILLARD (00:07):
Hi, I'm Tim Millard, your host and joining
me today is George Feldsteinfrom the Warner Archive.
Hi, George.
George Feltenstein (00:13):
Hi, Tim, great to be with you, as always.
TIM MILLARD (00:16):
As always and this is our monthly announcement
podcast, which is one of thefavorites for everybody, because
everybody loves to hear whatthe new titles are that you've
been working on and are nowready to be released, because I
know you're working on so manyat any given time.
But before we get into theApril releases, I think there
(00:38):
was a little bit of a few titlesthat maybe moved that we should
talk about.
George Feltenstein (00:43):
Well, yeah, I wanted to clarify that the
street date of Just Friends ismoving to April 8th, and that's
rock solid.
We also just announced thestreet date for Cheyenne is
moving to April 22nd, and I wantto explain to everyone the
discs are done.
(01:03):
The reason why we have delayedthe release is the packaging we
intended to use is no longerbeing manufactured, and so it
was essential to me that, whenCheyenne came out as a complete
series on blu-ray, that thepackaging be sturdy and that
(01:26):
discs aren't stacked on top ofeach other and discs don't fall
out when you have so many discsin a set 30.
There are some packagingoptions out there that really do
a disservice to the consumerand the collector.
So we'll be packaging eachseason of Cheyenne in its own
Amore, or I really should say inits own Blu-ray Elite case, and
(01:50):
the seven seasons will beneatly packaged into a sleeve
box.
So you couldn't ask for moresecure packaging, and when
people make an investment inowning a series on Blu-ray, I
want them to have greatpackaging, because that's the
ethic of Warner Archive, and sothat's the reason for the delay.
(02:12):
I think it's worth it and Ihope people will really enjoy
the release.
I also wanted to mention acouple of other things.
There has been some internetrumor going around about our
release of the Four Horsemen ofthe Apocalypse being a cut
reissue version.
Absolutely not true.
(02:33):
I had this confirmed by thepeople that did the
photochemical restoration 30years ago, kevin Brownlow.
The film had been re-releasedin a shorter version after
Rudolph Valentino died and thatis not this version.
This is the full version thatopened in 1921.
(02:54):
So I just wanted to clarifythat.
I also wanted to mention andthis is kind of a preview
because it will be coming fromWarner Archive, probably in May
but one project I've beenworking on for a very long time
has been announced to be shownat the TCM Film Festival and
that is a new restoration and anew version, basically to the
(03:22):
public, of the film Rhapsody inBlue.
I had been working on thisproject for two years, three
years.
I had known that a longerversion of the film had been
shown to the soldiers overseasduring World War II and that the
film opened at 140 minutes inthe US in 1945.
(03:44):
And we found the footage thathad been cut out and we used the
original camera negative and anitrate fine grain to create
this new master, which I havethe honor to introduce at the
TCM Film Festival in April, andI'm very happy to say that, if
the scheduling all goes right,it will be a May Blu-ray from
(04:06):
the Warner Archive collectionand it will run 162 minutes,
because it's 152 minutes of filmand a 10 minute overture.
And I just wanted to leteverybody know how excited we
are that TCM has chosen toinclude the film in the festival
(04:27):
and people see about 13 minutesof footage that has never been
seen, unless you were fightingoverseas 85 years ago 80 years
ago, I should say and it's it'sa wonderful salute to the music
of George Gershwin and the audiosounds great, the picture looks
(04:47):
beautiful and it's going to bea beautiful Blu-ray.
But you'll get to see it at theTCM Festival if you're in town
in April, and I'll beintroducing it.
TIM MILLARD (04:57):
Looking forward to that, george, and that's great
news for the fans to hear fromyou directly, and it's a great
example as to why sometimes youhave to shuffle your release
dates because there are otherparts of the company that need
to fit things into theirschedule.
George Feltenstein (05:12):
Exactly, and we were working on this and I
spoke to my dear friend of 25years, charlie Tabish, who is
the genius of programming at TCM, and I called him.
I said, charlie, we've got thisgreat Rhapsody in Blue.
We finally found this footageand he was all over it, and so
(05:34):
I'm really looking forward toseeing the audience react to it
and people can look forward tothe beautiful Blu-ray hopefully
end of May release.
TIM MILLARD (05:45):
So that was a nice preview.
Let's get around now to theApril release.
Absolutely, and we'll start.
We'll go alphabetical thismonth, so we'll start with a
movie from 1988, actually, andthat is Clean and Sober.
What can you tell us about thatrelease?
George Feltenstein (06:03):
This was a really important film when it
came out and I think its messagestill rings true today.
It deals with the horrors ofchemical substance addiction.
In this case, michael Keatonplays a cocaine addict and it's
all about addiction and recoveryand, most importantly, it was
(06:25):
the first time the public got tosee Michael Keaton in a serious
role and of course, he's sincewon a Best Actor Oscar.
In recent years he's given somany amazing performances,
(06:48):
performances, even the film hedid after this, the 1989 Batman.
That was not a comedicperformance, that was a
remarkable performance.
But this film was directed byGlenn Gordon-Keran, who is the
creator of Moonlighting, andit's got a wonderful supporting
cast Kathy Baker, morgan Freemanparticularly and it just rings
true.
It very much feels like thelate 80s with the hairstyles and
(07:10):
various other things, but themessage is timeless or addiction
.
The way that people can findrecovery is really captured with
true honesty here.
These are the kind of moviesthat don't get made anymore, at
(07:33):
least for the big screen.
This has been requested forBlu-ray for I would say probably
since the format began, andfinally it's now here and we're
delighted about it.
TIM MILLARD (07:48):
Well, Michael Keaton has had a real resurgence
.
He's such a fine actor and it'sgreat to see all the success
he's had, and it's great thatthis is finally coming out on
Blu-ray.
Next we'll step in the WaybackMachine for a little bit, to
1953, and that's the film Lily.
What can you tell us about this?
George Feltenstein (08:06):
film was nominated for six Academy Awards
.
It was awarded one Oscar forbest scoring.
People call it a musical.
It's really a film with music,but this is a charming,
wonderful story.
(08:27):
Leslie Cameron is wonderful init.
She plays a 16-year-old orphangirl who befriends a group of
people running a carnival.
It's a love story.
It's beautifully directed withamazing technicolor photography
(08:48):
and of course people know whatwe do with technicolor around
here and of course people knowwhat we do with Technicolor
around here.
And the DVD that Warner Archivereleased of this about 13 years
ago was from an interpositive.
It had dirt, it was.
The colors were not right.
It was the best we could affordat the time.
(09:08):
Thankfully, this has gotten a4K scan and a recombination of
the Technicolor negatives.
This film was not expected to bea box office success.
Producer Arthur Freed, who hadmade America to Paris with
Leslie Caron, which is the filmshe was discovered for, said why
(09:28):
are you doing a silly film likethis?
And MGM opened it in a verysmall theater in New York, not
expecting much out of it, and itabsolutely got rave reviews and
I believe it ran at a theaterin New York for a year.
It was re-released in themid-60s and the same thing
(09:53):
happened all over again.
It was hugely financiallysuccessful, but it is charming,
it is moving.
Mel Farrar is particularlyterrific in the movie.
He plays a puppeteer who'sdisabled and falls in love with
Lily.
Disabled and falls in love withLily, but he can only speak to
(10:13):
her through his puppets and thesong Hi Lily, hi Lo, became very
popular.
But it's a charming, sweet,beautiful film, very unique, and
(10:36):
that's why it got six Oscarnominations.
I'm just thrilled we're finallyable to do it justice, because
it was a knife in my heart thatthe best we could do was that
DVD years ago.
But thankfully our business isthriving and growing and we can
re-approach these films.
Just like you know, we didRhapsody in Blue years ago and
now we're able to do it andrestore unseen footage.
So it's very exciting.
But lily is so charming andthere's some very uh, fun little
(11:01):
1953 cartoons on there and Ithink people are really going to
enjoy it well, next we havefrom 1950, the film Side Street.
TIM MILLARD (11:14):
What can you?
George Feltenstein (11:15):
tell us about this film.
Well, this is another filmdirected by Anthony Mann, and
you know that I happen to thinkvery highly of Anthony Mann as a
director big time.
But what I love about this filmparticularly is there's an
unbuilt character and that's NewYork City.
This film was shot on locationin New York.
(11:35):
The location photography isamazing.
It has such a great pacing.
It is a seminal film noir.
And Farley Granger and KathyO'Donnell they had previously
co-starred together and theywere re-teamed for this film and
it's just a nonstop thriller.
(11:57):
And the New York locations havenever looked so good thanks to
our beautiful new 4K scan offthe preservation negatives.
This is another MGM black andwhite film where the negative
burned in the fire, so a secondgeneration fine grain had to be
our source.
But it looks and soundswonderful and we have a
(12:20):
commentary that was recorded bythe late Richard Schickel.
We have a very, very short butvery nice featurette that's
called when Temptation Lurks.
That takes you in thebackground of how this film was
made.
And then we have a Crime DoesNot Pay short and some great
(12:42):
cartoons.
It's a great disc and peopleare going to be really blown
away, not only by the filmmaking, by the quality of the disc
itself.
TIM MILLARD (12:52):
I'm really looking forward to that.
You know how I love all theNoir releases and all the
Anthony Mendes that you've beenpulling from the vaults and
releasing on Blu-ray.
Well, next we have a Westernfrom 1952, Springfield Rifle.
What can you tell us about thisone, George?
George Feltenstein (13:10):
Well, this is Gary Cooper really at the
zenith of his stardom.
But you kind of have to saythat Gary Cooper was a superstar
for almost 30 years.
So you know, anytime he made afilm it was usually very well
(13:31):
received and successful.
This is a really terrificWestern and it's directed by
Andre de Toth, of House of Waxfame, and he's a union officer
during the Civil War who goesundercover and it's got a real
kind of espionage sensibility toit.
(13:53):
But it's beautifully composedand shot and it was shot in
Warner color, which was not agreat color process, so we went
back to the camera negative, aswell as the separations, in
order to rebuild the color inthe film.
So this film has not lookedvery good in prior iterations
(14:17):
and now it looks terrific andit's got a great cast.
Phyllis Thaxter is his leadinglady, david Bryan's in the movie
, lon Chaney Jr's in the movie.
It's a lot of fun.
And it comes with two greatWarner Brothers cartoons and a
Joe McDoug short in the trailer.
So I'm sure people will behappy with Springfield Rifle.
(14:39):
It's been a bestseller on DVDfor years, so now we've upgraded
into high definition at last.
TIM MILLARD (14:46):
Yeah, I mean Gary Cooper.
Yeah, what can you say?
Dooper, dooper, you want to ownit.
Well, you've been doing a lotof, you know, modern classics
from the 70s recently and manyof them have been kind of the
urban action films.
And you have another one thismonth from 1974, three the Hard
Way.
What can you tell us about thisone?
George Feltenstein (15:08):
that this has three of the biggest urban
action stars.
Some people refer to thesefilms as blaxploitation films
because that was the varietyspeak of the era, but these are
(15:28):
films that really had a lot offun and action and are such a
snapshot of the 70s.
And here you've got Jim Brownand Fred Williamson and Jim
Kelly in a movie and they'rebasically out to get a gang of
(15:49):
white supremacists who want tocome up with a formula that will
annihilate the black race,formula that will annihilate the
black race.
And I know it sounds like aludicrous idea and a horrible
thing to even think about, butthat's what the movie is about.
And these three people JimBrown, fred Williamson and Jim
(16:12):
Kelly they're the superheroeswho go after this white
supremacist gang of evils andaim to be triumphant.
The most exciting thing aboutthis release is not only is it a
fan favorite, but it's alsobeen distributed for the last 20
years minus about seven toeight minutes, about seven to
(16:42):
eight minutes and it was one ofour former colleagues here at
the studio that brought this tomy attention that what we had
been distributing on DVD was 89minutes and the film was
supposed to be 96 minutes andchange.
So we went to great lengths tofind the missing footage and
have restored the film to itsoriginal theatrical length.
It has good music by theImpressions and it's just.
(17:04):
It's a lot of fun.
The plot is a little bitridiculous, thankfully, but the
charisma of those three guystogether in one movie was
irresistible and it did verywell at the box office because
of that.
TIM MILLARD (17:18):
Yeah, I mean you got a lot of testosterone there
Absolutely those three.
You got a lot of actionpotential.
And then you've got this andit's directed by Gordon Parks Jr
.
So what a team up of directorand cast.
George Feltenstein (17:30):
After Superfly.
This was a follow-up and it'sjust a.
It's a very, it's very much thedefinition of a fan favorite.
TIM MILLARD (17:41):
Yeah, yeah, I mean those, those who like to collect
these genres from the 70s aregoing to really enjoy having
this one.
George Feltenstein (17:48):
It's great grindhouse.
TIM MILLARD (17:50):
Yes, exactly.
Well, I think that leaves uswith only one more to talk about
.
That leaves us with only onemore to talk about and, last but
not least, it is aHanna-Barbera Complete series
from 1968 called Wacky Races.
What can you tell us about thisrelease?
George Feltenstein (18:13):
Well, this was such a successful series
that it actually led to spinoffseries, because this is where we
first met Penelope Pitstop.
This is where we first metDastardly and Muttley.
Many people thought this waslike a take on the Great Race
and other films like it, but itwas very much the mixture of a
new concept and Hanna-Barbera'stalent for always coming up with
(18:34):
a different kind of show forSaturday morning cartoons.
These are 17 half hours.
There's two segments in eachhalf hour and they are presented
with the two segments, and alot of the television broadcasts
in recent years have just beenthe segments and not that half
(18:57):
hour shows.
When I say half hour, thatmeant they were in a half hour
time slot.
TIM MILLARD (19:01):
Right.
George Feltenstein (19:01):
But these are 4K scans off the camera
negatives.
They're going to look a lotbetter than the old tapes that
we were distributing on DVD.
So this is a big, a big deal,and there are going to be a
bunch of special features on thedisc, but we haven't finalized
them yet, so we listed them asto be announced.
TIM MILLARD (19:23):
Right, well, and this just continues, your
animation releases, which havejust been coming, one after the
other after the other.
And you promised people, andhere they are.
George Feltenstein (19:49):
And there are a lot more on the back
burner right now and here theyare requested on Blu-ray very
heavily whenever people areasking for Hanna-Barbera and our
next animation releases, Ithink are going to make a lot of
people happy.
So we're trying to pleaseeveryone and of course we're
(20:10):
always disappointing someone,but for every one person we're
disappointing, there's 100people that are happy.
TIM MILLARD (20:17):
Oh, of course.
George Feltenstein (20:18):
If you're disappointed out there, have
patience, we're going to get toyou with your favorites.
TIM MILLARD (20:25):
Which you already told us about coming in May.
George Feltenstein (20:28):
for some who , Well, I don't usually leak
things, but I wanted to letpeople know about Rhapsody in
Blue in case they were going tobe at the TCM Festival.
It's already been announced forthe festival.
Otherwise I wouldn't try to getin the way of TCM's promotion
(20:50):
for the festival.
But I did want to provide thelittle bit of extra background,
because we'll probably be ableto do a whole podcast just on
all the work that went intofinding the missing footage and
restoring it.
So it's basically a worldpremiere, unless you were in the
armed services 80 years ago,right, well, this podcast today,
(21:12):
george a wealth of informationat the beginning.
TIM MILLARD (21:14):
Well, this podcast today, George.
A wealth of information At thebeginning, some updates and then
the announcements and a sneakpeek as well toward May.
So always great to have you on.
And, as I always tell people,listen to the podcast, Hear
directly from George.
He's going to tell you what youneed to know.
Don't listen to rumors on theInternet.
Hear from George directly andyou tell it the way it is for
(21:40):
people so that they can get theright information from the
Warner Archive.
So thanks again, George.
George Feltenstein (21:43):
Always a pleasure, tim, thank you.
TIM MILLARD (21:51):
For those who would like more information about the
films announced today, be sureand check out our Facebook page
and our Warner Archive Facebookgroup.
You can find the links to thoseand all of our social media
sites in the podcast show notes.
Facebook is also the best placeto get the pre-order links for
these titles when they becomeavailable.
If you aren't yet subscribed orfollowing the show at your
(22:13):
favorite podcast provider, youmay want to do that so that you
don't miss anything that'scoming up Until next time.
You've been listening to TimMillard Stay slightly obsessed.
Hi, I'm Tim Millard, your host and joining
me today is George Feldsteinfrom the Warner Archive.
Hi, George.
George Feltenstein (00:13):
Hi, Tim, great to be with you, as always.
TIM MILLARD (00:16):
As always and this is our monthly announcement
podcast, which is one of thefavorites for everybody, because
everybody loves to hear whatthe new titles are that you've
been working on and are nowready to be released, because I
know you're working on so manyat any given time.
But before we get into theApril releases, I think there
(00:38):
was a little bit of a few titlesthat maybe moved that we should
talk about.
George Feltenstein (00:43):
Well, yeah, I wanted to clarify that the
street date of Just Friends ismoving to April 8th, and that's
rock solid.
We also just announced thestreet date for Cheyenne is
moving to April 22nd, and I wantto explain to everyone the
discs are done.
(01:03):
The reason why we have delayedthe release is the packaging we
intended to use is no longerbeing manufactured, and so it
was essential to me that, whenCheyenne came out as a complete
series on blu-ray, that thepackaging be sturdy and that
(01:26):
discs aren't stacked on top ofeach other and discs don't fall
out when you have so many discsin a set 30.
There are some packagingoptions out there that really do
a disservice to the consumerand the collector.
So we'll be packaging eachseason of Cheyenne in its own
Amore, or I really should say inits own Blu-ray Elite case, and
(01:50):
the seven seasons will beneatly packaged into a sleeve
box.
So you couldn't ask for moresecure packaging, and when
people make an investment inowning a series on Blu-ray, I
want them to have greatpackaging, because that's the
ethic of Warner Archive, and sothat's the reason for the delay.
(02:12):
I think it's worth it and Ihope people will really enjoy
the release.
I also wanted to mention acouple of other things.
There has been some internetrumor going around about our
release of the Four Horsemen ofthe Apocalypse being a cut
reissue version.
Absolutely not true.
(02:33):
I had this confirmed by thepeople that did the
photochemical restoration 30years ago, kevin Brownlow.
The film had been re-releasedin a shorter version after
Rudolph Valentino died and thatis not this version.
This is the full version thatopened in 1921.
(02:54):
So I just wanted to clarifythat.
I also wanted to mention andthis is kind of a preview
because it will be coming fromWarner Archive, probably in May
but one project I've beenworking on for a very long time
has been announced to be shownat the TCM Film Festival and
that is a new restoration and anew version, basically to the
(03:22):
public, of the film Rhapsody inBlue.
I had been working on thisproject for two years, three
years.
I had known that a longerversion of the film had been
shown to the soldiers overseasduring World War II and that the
film opened at 140 minutes inthe US in 1945.
(03:44):
And we found the footage thathad been cut out and we used the
original camera negative and anitrate fine grain to create
this new master, which I havethe honor to introduce at the
TCM Film Festival in April, andI'm very happy to say that, if
the scheduling all goes right,it will be a May Blu-ray from
(04:06):
the Warner Archive collectionand it will run 162 minutes,
because it's 152 minutes of filmand a 10 minute overture.
And I just wanted to leteverybody know how excited we
are that TCM has chosen toinclude the film in the festival
(04:27):
and people see about 13 minutesof footage that has never been
seen, unless you were fightingoverseas 85 years ago 80 years
ago, I should say and it's it'sa wonderful salute to the music
of George Gershwin and the audiosounds great, the picture looks
(04:47):
beautiful and it's going to bea beautiful Blu-ray.
But you'll get to see it at theTCM Festival if you're in town
in April, and I'll beintroducing it.
TIM MILLARD (04:57):
Looking forward to that, george, and that's great
news for the fans to hear fromyou directly, and it's a great
example as to why sometimes youhave to shuffle your release
dates because there are otherparts of the company that need
to fit things into theirschedule.
George Feltenstein (05:12):
Exactly, and we were working on this and I
spoke to my dear friend of 25years, charlie Tabish, who is
the genius of programming at TCM, and I called him.
I said, charlie, we've got thisgreat Rhapsody in Blue.
We finally found this footageand he was all over it, and so
(05:34):
I'm really looking forward toseeing the audience react to it
and people can look forward tothe beautiful Blu-ray hopefully
end of May release.
TIM MILLARD (05:45):
So that was a nice preview.
Let's get around now to theApril release.
Absolutely, and we'll start.
We'll go alphabetical thismonth, so we'll start with a
movie from 1988, actually, andthat is Clean and Sober.
What can you tell us about thatrelease?
George Feltenstein (06:03):
This was a really important film when it
came out and I think its messagestill rings true today.
It deals with the horrors ofchemical substance addiction.
In this case, michael Keatonplays a cocaine addict and it's
all about addiction and recoveryand, most importantly, it was
(06:25):
the first time the public got tosee Michael Keaton in a serious
role and of course, he's sincewon a Best Actor Oscar.
In recent years he's given somany amazing performances,
(06:48):
performances, even the film hedid after this, the 1989 Batman.
That was not a comedicperformance, that was a
remarkable performance.
But this film was directed byGlenn Gordon-Keran, who is the
creator of Moonlighting, andit's got a wonderful supporting
cast Kathy Baker, morgan Freemanparticularly and it just rings
true.
It very much feels like thelate 80s with the hairstyles and
(07:10):
various other things, but themessage is timeless or addiction
.
The way that people can findrecovery is really captured with
true honesty here.
These are the kind of moviesthat don't get made anymore, at
(07:33):
least for the big screen.
This has been requested forBlu-ray for I would say probably
since the format began, andfinally it's now here and we're
delighted about it.
TIM MILLARD (07:48):
Well, Michael Keaton has had a real resurgence
.
He's such a fine actor and it'sgreat to see all the success
he's had, and it's great thatthis is finally coming out on
Blu-ray.
Next we'll step in the WaybackMachine for a little bit, to
1953, and that's the film Lily.
What can you tell us about this?
George Feltenstein (08:06):
film was nominated for six Academy Awards
.
It was awarded one Oscar forbest scoring.
People call it a musical.
It's really a film with music,but this is a charming,
wonderful story.
(08:27):
Leslie Cameron is wonderful init.
She plays a 16-year-old orphangirl who befriends a group of
people running a carnival.
It's a love story.
It's beautifully directed withamazing technicolor photography
(08:48):
and of course people know whatwe do with technicolor around
here and of course people knowwhat we do with Technicolor
around here.
And the DVD that Warner Archivereleased of this about 13 years
ago was from an interpositive.
It had dirt, it was.
The colors were not right.
It was the best we could affordat the time.
(09:08):
Thankfully, this has gotten a4K scan and a recombination of
the Technicolor negatives.
This film was not expected to bea box office success.
Producer Arthur Freed, who hadmade America to Paris with
Leslie Caron, which is the filmshe was discovered for, said why
(09:28):
are you doing a silly film likethis?
And MGM opened it in a verysmall theater in New York, not
expecting much out of it, and itabsolutely got rave reviews and
I believe it ran at a theaterin New York for a year.
It was re-released in themid-60s and the same thing
(09:53):
happened all over again.
It was hugely financiallysuccessful, but it is charming,
it is moving.
Mel Farrar is particularlyterrific in the movie.
He plays a puppeteer who'sdisabled and falls in love with
Lily.
Disabled and falls in love withLily, but he can only speak to
(10:13):
her through his puppets and thesong Hi Lily, hi Lo, became very
popular.
But it's a charming, sweet,beautiful film, very unique, and
(10:36):
that's why it got six Oscarnominations.
I'm just thrilled we're finallyable to do it justice, because
it was a knife in my heart thatthe best we could do was that
DVD years ago.
But thankfully our business isthriving and growing and we can
re-approach these films.
Just like you know, we didRhapsody in Blue years ago and
now we're able to do it andrestore unseen footage.
So it's very exciting.
But lily is so charming andthere's some very uh, fun little
(11:01):
1953 cartoons on there and Ithink people are really going to
enjoy it well, next we havefrom 1950, the film Side Street.
TIM MILLARD (11:14):
What can you?
George Feltenstein (11:15):
tell us about this film.
Well, this is another filmdirected by Anthony Mann, and
you know that I happen to thinkvery highly of Anthony Mann as a
director big time.
But what I love about this filmparticularly is there's an
unbuilt character and that's NewYork City.
This film was shot on locationin New York.
(11:35):
The location photography isamazing.
It has such a great pacing.
It is a seminal film noir.
And Farley Granger and KathyO'Donnell they had previously
co-starred together and theywere re-teamed for this film and
it's just a nonstop thriller.
(11:57):
And the New York locations havenever looked so good thanks to
our beautiful new 4K scan offthe preservation negatives.
This is another MGM black andwhite film where the negative
burned in the fire, so a secondgeneration fine grain had to be
our source.
But it looks and soundswonderful and we have a
(12:20):
commentary that was recorded bythe late Richard Schickel.
We have a very, very short butvery nice featurette that's
called when Temptation Lurks.
That takes you in thebackground of how this film was
made.
And then we have a Crime DoesNot Pay short and some great
(12:42):
cartoons.
It's a great disc and peopleare going to be really blown
away, not only by the filmmaking, by the quality of the disc
itself.
TIM MILLARD (12:52):
I'm really looking forward to that.
You know how I love all theNoir releases and all the
Anthony Mendes that you've beenpulling from the vaults and
releasing on Blu-ray.
Well, next we have a Westernfrom 1952, Springfield Rifle.
What can you tell us about thisone, George?
George Feltenstein (13:10):
Well, this is Gary Cooper really at the
zenith of his stardom.
But you kind of have to saythat Gary Cooper was a superstar
for almost 30 years.
So you know, anytime he made afilm it was usually very well
(13:31):
received and successful.
This is a really terrificWestern and it's directed by
Andre de Toth, of House of Waxfame, and he's a union officer
during the Civil War who goesundercover and it's got a real
kind of espionage sensibility toit.
(13:53):
But it's beautifully composedand shot and it was shot in
Warner color, which was not agreat color process, so we went
back to the camera negative, aswell as the separations, in
order to rebuild the color inthe film.
So this film has not lookedvery good in prior iterations
(14:17):
and now it looks terrific andit's got a great cast.
Phyllis Thaxter is his leadinglady, david Bryan's in the movie
, lon Chaney Jr's in the movie.
It's a lot of fun.
And it comes with two greatWarner Brothers cartoons and a
Joe McDoug short in the trailer.
So I'm sure people will behappy with Springfield Rifle.
(14:39):
It's been a bestseller on DVDfor years, so now we've upgraded
into high definition at last.
TIM MILLARD (14:46):
Yeah, I mean Gary Cooper.
Yeah, what can you say?
Dooper, dooper, you want to ownit.
Well, you've been doing a lotof, you know, modern classics
from the 70s recently and manyof them have been kind of the
urban action films.
And you have another one thismonth from 1974, three the Hard
Way.
What can you tell us about thisone?
George Feltenstein (15:08):
that this has three of the biggest urban
action stars.
Some people refer to thesefilms as blaxploitation films
because that was the varietyspeak of the era, but these are
(15:28):
films that really had a lot offun and action and are such a
snapshot of the 70s.
And here you've got Jim Brownand Fred Williamson and Jim
Kelly in a movie and they'rebasically out to get a gang of
(15:49):
white supremacists who want tocome up with a formula that will
annihilate the black race,formula that will annihilate the
black race.
And I know it sounds like aludicrous idea and a horrible
thing to even think about, butthat's what the movie is about.
And these three people JimBrown, fred Williamson and Jim
(16:12):
Kelly they're the superheroeswho go after this white
supremacist gang of evils andaim to be triumphant.
The most exciting thing aboutthis release is not only is it a
fan favorite, but it's alsobeen distributed for the last 20
years minus about seven toeight minutes, about seven to
(16:42):
eight minutes and it was one ofour former colleagues here at
the studio that brought this tomy attention that what we had
been distributing on DVD was 89minutes and the film was
supposed to be 96 minutes andchange.
So we went to great lengths tofind the missing footage and
have restored the film to itsoriginal theatrical length.
It has good music by theImpressions and it's just.
(17:04):
It's a lot of fun.
The plot is a little bitridiculous, thankfully, but the
charisma of those three guystogether in one movie was
irresistible and it did verywell at the box office because
of that.
TIM MILLARD (17:18):
Yeah, I mean you got a lot of testosterone there
Absolutely those three.
You got a lot of actionpotential.
And then you've got this andit's directed by Gordon Parks Jr
.
So what a team up of directorand cast.
George Feltenstein (17:30):
After Superfly.
This was a follow-up and it'sjust a.
It's a very, it's very much thedefinition of a fan favorite.
TIM MILLARD (17:41):
Yeah, yeah, I mean those, those who like to collect
these genres from the 70s aregoing to really enjoy having
this one.
George Feltenstein (17:48):
It's great grindhouse.
TIM MILLARD (17:50):
Yes, exactly.
Well, I think that leaves uswith only one more to talk about
.
That leaves us with only onemore to talk about and, last but
not least, it is aHanna-Barbera Complete series
from 1968 called Wacky Races.
What can you tell us about thisrelease?
George Feltenstein (18:13):
Well, this was such a successful series
that it actually led to spinoffseries, because this is where we
first met Penelope Pitstop.
This is where we first metDastardly and Muttley.
Many people thought this waslike a take on the Great Race
and other films like it, but itwas very much the mixture of a
new concept and Hanna-Barbera'stalent for always coming up with
(18:34):
a different kind of show forSaturday morning cartoons.
These are 17 half hours.
There's two segments in eachhalf hour and they are presented
with the two segments, and alot of the television broadcasts
in recent years have just beenthe segments and not that half
(18:57):
hour shows.
When I say half hour, thatmeant they were in a half hour
time slot.
TIM MILLARD (19:01):
Right.
George Feltenstein (19:01):
But these are 4K scans off the camera
negatives.
They're going to look a lotbetter than the old tapes that
we were distributing on DVD.
So this is a big, a big deal,and there are going to be a
bunch of special features on thedisc, but we haven't finalized
them yet, so we listed them asto be announced.
TIM MILLARD (19:23):
Right, well, and this just continues, your
animation releases, which havejust been coming, one after the
other after the other.
And you promised people, andhere they are.
George Feltenstein (19:49):
And there are a lot more on the back
burner right now and here theyare requested on Blu-ray very
heavily whenever people areasking for Hanna-Barbera and our
next animation releases, Ithink are going to make a lot of
people happy.
So we're trying to pleaseeveryone and of course we're
(20:10):
always disappointing someone,but for every one person we're
disappointing, there's 100people that are happy.
TIM MILLARD (20:17):
Oh, of course.
George Feltenstein (20:18):
If you're disappointed out there, have
patience, we're going to get toyou with your favorites.
TIM MILLARD (20:25):
Which you already told us about coming in May.
George Feltenstein (20:28):
for some who , Well, I don't usually leak
things, but I wanted to letpeople know about Rhapsody in
Blue in case they were going tobe at the TCM Festival.
It's already been announced forthe festival.
Otherwise I wouldn't try to getin the way of TCM's promotion
(20:50):
for the festival.
But I did want to provide thelittle bit of extra background,
because we'll probably be ableto do a whole podcast just on
all the work that went intofinding the missing footage and
restoring it.
So it's basically a worldpremiere, unless you were in the
armed services 80 years ago,right, well, this podcast today,
(21:12):
george a wealth of informationat the beginning.
TIM MILLARD (21:14):
Well, this podcast today, George.
A wealth of information At thebeginning, some updates and then
the announcements and a sneakpeek as well toward May.
So always great to have you on.
And, as I always tell people,listen to the podcast, Hear
directly from George.
He's going to tell you what youneed to know.
Don't listen to rumors on theInternet.
Hear from George directly andyou tell it the way it is for
(21:40):
people so that they can get theright information from the
Warner Archive.
So thanks again, George.
George Feltenstein (21:43):
Always a pleasure, tim, thank you.
TIM MILLARD (21:51):
For those who would like more information about the
films announced today, be sureand check out our Facebook page
and our Warner Archive Facebookgroup.
You can find the links to thoseand all of our social media
sites in the podcast show notes.
Facebook is also the best placeto get the pre-order links for
these titles when they becomeavailable.
If you aren't yet subscribed orfollowing the show at your
(22:13):
favorite podcast provider, youmay want to do that so that you
don't miss anything that'scoming up Until next time.
You've been listening to TimMillard Stay slightly obsessed.
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