George Feltenstein of the Warner Archive joins the podcast for a fun and informative review of five of the August Blu-ray releases. We review each film, provide background on the restoration and all of the extras on each release, and share our insights into why these films are worth adding to your Blu-ray collection.
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FATHER'S LITTLE DIVIDEND BLU-RAY
THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA BLU-RAY
LITTLE WOMEN BLU-RAY
SPINOUT BLU-RAY
WICHITA BLU-RAY
GAY PURR-EE BLU-RAY
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hello and welcome to the Extras, where we take you
behind the scenes of yourfavorite TV shows, movies and
animation and their release ondigital DVD, blu-ray and 4K or
your favorite streaming site.
I'm Tim Lard, your host, andjoining me today is George
Felton, steve Warner Brothers,to review five of the August
Blu-ray releases from the WarnerArchive.
Hi, george.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hey Tim, how are you?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Good, good.
Well, I've had a very fun, busyweekend watching these brand
new Blu-rays, and two thingscome to mind before we kind of
get into talk about each of them.
One is I love the variety.
I mean you've got from 1933 to1966, little women to Elvis
Presley, you know on theextremes.
And then the other thought wasthe restoration of all these is,
(00:52):
per usual, terrific.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I have to attribute all that greatness to our
talented colleagues at WarnerBrothers Motion Picture Imaging.
I sound like a broken recordpraising them, but obviously I'm
delighted with how they turnedout and we put a lot of work
into them and I was doing a lotof running back and forth
(01:15):
between my office and theirfacility and you know the train
keeps moving.
We're working on things thatwill be coming out later this
year and next year and it takes,I'd say, sometimes anywhere
from six to nine months for anon-problematic title, from
initial scanning to the diskbeing available to the consumer
(01:38):
on street day.
So these are things we've beenliving with a long time and to
see them completed and have theextras put on, and it's truly
something to be grateful for andsomething to be very proud of
and very grateful for theinestimable contribution of the
(01:58):
people at Warner Brothers MotionPicture Imaging Can't say
enough about them, so I've saidit on virtually every extras
podcast talking about releases.
I'll leave it at that and saythank you, mpi.
Well.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I think the reason why it's noteworthy is just
because I know you and WarnerBrothers emphasize the quality
and I know people often talkabout why can't we get more of
this, more of that faster?
You know so forth, and you'vemade it clear many times why.
And that is just because you'refocused on A-list quality from
(02:33):
Warner Brothers.
If it's coming from WarnerBrothers it has that stamp of
quality and people may have towait a little longer, but when
they buy it, when they get it,they're going to know it is the
best that's available as ofright now with the work that you
guys do.
But, like you said, we'vetalked about it many times, but
it still hits me especially.
(02:54):
I thought we'd start talkingwith the oldest one here,
especially when we look at thesemovies that are 90 years old,
like Little Women from 1933.
It's so impressive how it looks.
Now it's not perfect, but youhave this from what the best
preservation elements, and itjust looks so good.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
It's a little bit of a combination that the camera
negative has deteriorated incertain spots and preservation
elements were made before thedeterioration.
So you've got a combination ofa little nitrate, a little
safety preservation.
I think we work from threedifferent elements basically to
(03:35):
the picture.
And the DVD was the lasttransfer and that came out 22
years ago and that went througha very strange process and that
was a lot of work for the peoplethat worked on it.
I think what we've achievedhere is mightily impressive
because this is another movie,not as severe as like Broadway
(04:00):
melody or Simeron or even ourdancing daughters those always
looked dreadful.
This last DVD of Little Women22 years ago was a big
improvement from what I saw onTV as a little kid or what came
out on VHS.
But the leak from DVD to BluRay here is pretty astounding
(04:22):
and, like you said, for a90-year-old movie to look that
good and again sound that goodand have to the Arcado sound
department because they werepretty cracker jack very, very
pleased at the results of this.
And this is a film we've beenwanting to bring out for a long,
(04:43):
long time because it's soimportant in the canon of
Catherine Hepburn's career,george Cucor's career and really
in the history of RKO, becauseit was one of their earliest
true classic films.
And interestingly it was boughtfor remake by MGM who remade it
(05:04):
eventually in 1949, and I thinkit was actually sold by RKO to
David O Selznick, who sold it toMGM.
But the point is when MGMremade a movie they usually
buried the old version.
We talked about that with DrJekyll and Mr Hyde with
Frederick March In the case ofLittle Women.
(05:26):
They never buried the Hepburnoriginal.
It did go into TV syndicationand it was sold like a regular
MGM movie, except of course theycut off the RKO logo and put a
line in front of it.
We obviously don't do that andeven on the DVD it wasn't like
that.
So MGM never buried this film,it was always available, and
(05:50):
that also, I think, contributesa little bit to why we had so
much trouble working.
It's usually we don't have ablack and white original
negative and fortunately thisdidn't burn in the fire but it
succumbed to decomposition anddeterioration.
But preservation and buyinggrains were made early on and
(06:14):
also later on, which is a betterstock, and so by using these
different fine grains and thecamera negative where it was
available, we came up withalmost perfect image is what I
would say.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Right, and the music I noticed was by Max Steiner,
and this must have been when hewas at RKO before he came to
Warner Brothers, and it'sterrific in there as well.
To your point, the sound onthis comes across terrifically
as well.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
And Max Steiner.
Really I call him the father ofmovie music, modern movie music
, because it was at RKO that hereally developed music written
specifically for the film thatwould convey emotion.
I think it was Symphony of SixMillion in 1932.
That was like a breakthroughfilm for him.
(07:05):
Of course, 1933 he did KingKong and Little Women and his
talent just can't beoveremphasized enough.
And it was after a period oftime that he made the leap
across from Gower Street inHollywood to Burbank and Warner
Brothers was his home for, Ithink, probably 25 to 30 years.
(07:29):
But his work at RKO isexemplary and that's why we're
fortunate to have this.
We have some recording sessionmaterial as an extra scoring
stage, material that we puttogether as kind of a suite and
you get to hear the music as itwas recorded for the scoring of
(07:51):
the film in like classical suiteif you will.
And those recordings didsurvive a little bit.
That we have and we're sograteful to be able to share
that with the fans.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah, that was really fun to listen to and it's a
little bit different.
It felt like, you know, beingjust musical, though once around
I guess you do put those on.
But the other extra that that Idid want to mention, because it
leads right back to the filmand that's the trailer.
So I'm watching that trailerand it's just really promoting
this new young actress,catherine Hepburn.
(08:24):
It was like her fourth film,but she'd only really started in
her first film, like a yearbefore that, so she was really
on the scene strong, speaking ofstrong, you know she also has
Christopher Strong, which cameout in 1933, which is coming out
you're bringing out in anothera month or so.
But that trailer really pushesher as this new actress on the
(08:46):
scene and of course she'sterrific in this film.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
And we're very fortunate to have that trailer
because we generally don't havetrailers on RKO movies.
But when this film was sold thetrailer negative went with it
and because MGM preserved it, wehave trailer elements.
Usually on RKO we don't havetrailer element or what we have
(09:10):
is negligible or just horrible.
But I'd rather have somethinghorrible than nothing at all.
Right, in this case it's alittle weather beaten, but it's
wonderful to see how they soldher and how important she was.
She had only made her first filmthe year before, bill of
Divorcement with John Barrymore,and she made such an impression
(09:31):
she was literally an overnightsuperstar on film.
And a few years later her careerkind of went into a downward
trajectory because a lot of herfilms weren't making money and
so she went back to New York,did the Philadelphia story on
Broadway, bought the screenrights and then when MGM wanted
(09:53):
to make the movie, she said youhave to negotiate with me and I
need to be the star of the movieand I'm going to pick my
leading men.
But I'm getting ahead of thefact that I think little women
is one of her cornerstone motionpictures and it would be
unfortunate if I didn'tacknowledge the wonderful
(10:14):
performances by the other peoplein the film, whether it be
Spring Byington as Marmy or EdnaMay Oliver as Aunt March, and
then the other girls, jeanParker and Francis D
particularly I found quitemoving and it's just a terrific
(10:36):
film and it is very emblematicof what Q-Corps brought to his
films, and to have it in apresentation like this that
looks so good is what itdeserves.
I wish we could do this forevery film overnight,
immediately.
That's not realistic, but I'mhoping that someday we can do
(11:01):
more Catherine Hepburn films andI neglected to mention the
other sister, who is actuallythe second build, which is Joan
Bennett, and she's prettyterrific in this too.
They're all great and I'mdelighted that we're bringing
this classic to the people whowant it.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
One last thing on this one.
I was reading it Catherine wasvery proud of her performance in
this one as well.
Just in terms of later in life,I think if you're Catherine
Hepburn, she has quite a careerand this is one that you
definitely are probably going towant to own this Blu-ray
because of the restorationyou've done and just that it's a
cornerstone of her filmography.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
So completely agree, and I don't say this about most
films, but if you're building aclassic film library, this one
is an essential.
This is a very important filmon so many levels, and Catherine
Hepburn was very modest anddidn't really like to talk about
herself.
She was somewhat private andyet her seeing the praise of
(12:03):
this film and her lifelongfriendship with George Q Cork
and they worked together upthrough television movies and
when they were both in theirsenior citizen days it speaks so
highly to how it all began inthe early days of R Kale.
Their friendship and theirworkmanship is wonderful.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
If anybody's on the fence.
You've thrown so many extras inhere.
The two Mary Melodies arereally fun.
I really enjoyed those in thedough.
The short film with Jack Haleythat's quite hilarious, I
thought, and then you haveanother one with him, so it's
just a terrific package as well.
(12:44):
But I'm watching it and I justgot so nostalgic.
As I was watching it I couldn'thelp but think of just that
time, that era.
You know my mom watching theseold films with her.
It just really takes you backand I just thought this was a
real highlight release of thismonth, I think.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Well, I had hoped that we could bring more of that
experience of what it was liketo go to the movies 90 years ago
, and so we try to do thatwhenever we can and make sure
that we're putting content onthere that people will really,
really enjoy, and that is alwaysa great pleasure and a great
(13:21):
privilege.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Well, next up, another terrific film from the
30s, and that's the life ofEmile Zola, and this restoration
I also thought was verynoteworthy.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Well, this isn't one of those occasions where we had
the original camera negative toscan.
And I've seen comments wherepeople are thinking that the
original camera negatives to theWarner Brothers films are at
UCLA and that is wrong.
On the pre-49 Warner Librarythe original camera negatives
(13:55):
that are extant are on depositwith the Library of Congress and
we bring them there for that.
The original negatives toWarner Brothers post-50 movies
that were shot on nitrate, whichonly represents basically, I
think, two or three years' worthof films, those are at UCLA
because we don't keep anynitrate on the lot.
(14:15):
But we have to acknowledge thepartnership with the Library of
Congress and how they take careof everybody's films, but
especially ours.
And we moved in the cameranegative and did a 4K scan and
created this new master.
(14:37):
And this film is very importantto our studio because it was
the first Warner Brothersfeature to win the Outstanding
Motion Picture of the Year Award, aka Best Picture Oscar, for
the Life of BMilzola and theyear before Paul Muni had won
Best Actor for the story ofLouis Pasteur.
(14:57):
So this is one of his manyhistoric biographical motion
pictures.
But again, it's also importantbecause it gives an amazing
performance.
It's also important to note thatthis is representative of the
Warner Brothers using historicalevents to warn people about the
(15:20):
dangers of extremism andcensorship and false accusation.
And they did so by settinghistorical stories rather than
you know later on, starting withConfessions of a Nazi Spy.
They had the courage to statewhat was going on at the time.
(15:43):
But even the same year ofConfessions of a Nazi Spy, they
made Juarez with Paul Muni andBetty Davis in 1939, because
they used every they pulledevery lever they could to make
good, important, entertainingfilms.
But that also would shine alight on things that were of a
social nature and this wasincredibly well made and
(16:06):
prestigious and it was a hugehit at the box office and it's
certainly part of the WarnerBrothers follow-up fame.
And with the 4K skin off thecamera negative, obviously, it
looks magnificent and we're very, very proud of it.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
This had 10 Academy Award nominations, did it not?
And it won.
Of course you said best picturewon, best screenplay, best
supporting actor for thegentleman who played Captain
Dreyfus, joseph Schildkraut, andthat was a huge movie from that
year.
And yet Paul didn't win, whichI thought was maybe surprising.
(16:43):
But he's terrific.
I mean the fact that he goesfrom early days of Zola to the
very end.
I mean the range he shows in itis terrific.
Now the story I thought was funbecause it does show the early
stuff, but it takes you a longtime to get to the Dreyfus trial
and Suzanne comes in and theyshow all the different things
(17:05):
from his career.
But then when it comes to thetrial, I mean he's just a force.
It's just really terrific.
I thought it was really fun.
And once again here you gotmusic by Max Diner, you got
Halby Wallace as the producer,quite a crew of people from
Warner Brothers top A listbehind this one.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Oh, absolutely.
And Paul Muni losing the Oscar.
He lost the Oscar to anotherone of our films, one of the
films that we own, that wedidn't make but we made at MGM
Captain's courageous, spencerTracy.
I mean, like, how do you pickwho's the best?
Right, it's kind of like thoseOscar competitions that are so
(17:50):
close.
How do you choose, and you endup with one person winning but
you know the other person wasreally equally deserving and the
fact that he had won the yearbefore, I think, probably had
something to do with it.
But then again you have SpencerTracy winning for Captain's
courageous in 37 and winning forBoys Town in 1938.
(18:14):
So they were not necessarilyagainst successive Oscar winners
, but it was very rare.
And this is certainly awonderful film and we're very,
very proud of the release.
And I know the Warner Brothersput so much work into this film
that they always were very, veryproud of it and we're delighted
(18:36):
to release it.
You know this is something thatwas done as a needed element of
the 100th anniversary.
Right, we can have a WarnerBrothers film that won the Best
Picture Oscar, that wasn'tavailable and we're trying to
get all of our Oscar winners outthere.
I'm delighted that it isavailable.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Yeah, and we'll talk briefly here about the extras.
You've got a couple short filmson here.
You got the Lux TheaterBroadcast, you got the trailer.
I mean it's also really packedso that for the fans of this
film, for the fans of PaulMooney, you know, for that era,
this is a really great releasefor everybody to own.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Well, thank you, and I'm hoping we can do the same,
and more, for everything as wecontinue to struggle along.
It's all good.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah, it's a terrific film.
Like you said, so many peoplewant to own the most important
films of Warner Brothers andthey're looking for that this
year in the 100th, so it'sterrific that this comes out and
they can purchase it so well.
You just mentioned SpencerTracy, so I think next we might
as well jump right into thediscussion of Father's Little
Dividend from 1951.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Oh yes.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yeah, how about that for a transition?
That's perfect, but it's likethe opposite end of the spectrum
from the life of Emile Azola,in the sense that this is a
light comedy by one of yourfavorite directors.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yes, I always will call out my unending admiration
for Vincent Vannelli.
Some people think of this as atrifle because it was a sequel
and it was made very efficientlyand quickly after the first.
But aside from series films,which were even then a rarity,
(20:20):
sequels were not that commonplace at this time.
Not only that, but the factthat they made this as in a
picture at MGM, with the samedirector, same cast, for the
most part the same screenwriters, everybody got together and the
timing of it was just likeperfect, because it was made in
(20:46):
between.
It was shot in between, theyhad completed shooting most of
an American in Paris and, as Iunderstand it, if I have my
history correct, that Vannellimade Father's Little Divide and
why they were getting ready toshoot the ballet for an American
in Paris.
And this is a film that like, ifyou go back and read the
(21:09):
reviews in the major newspapersand the trade papers, everybody
said that it was as good as, ifnot better than, father the
Bride, which is a very headycompliment.
I know not everybody thinksthat way or feels that way, but
this film is beloved and it'sbeen circulating in despicably
(21:31):
ugly editions that are notauthorized, and this is going
back to the original negativeand creating a beautiful 4K scan
that can make a new blu-ray isan honor, and it's important
that we get as much ofVannelli's work available in the
proper format with the properquality as possible.
(21:53):
So we've got a lot of workahead of us because there are a
lot of needy cases in thelibrary still waiting that
attention.
But Father's Little Divide issurefire entertainment and we're
so proud to bring it to thefans.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yeah, I mean you got Vannelli behind this, you got
Spencer Tracy, then you've gotJoan Bennett, who we just talked
about in Little Women, almost20 years later now in her career
, playing Tracy's wife and thegrandma, and she's terrific in
this.
And then, of course, you've gotElizabeth Taylor, who is their
daughter Kay, about to have thebaby, and so it's a great cast.
(22:31):
I mean there's so many fans ofall of those actors and
directors that I think wouldenjoy this, and you know you
watch it and it just flies by.
It's just like fun.
And then, of course, you've gotthe Voice Over with Spencer
Tracy, which is really wellwritten.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Yeah, and that was a novelty back then, so that's why
it worked so well.
The style of the movie wasreally quite wonderful.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Yeah, the style really does feel like quite a
change from the 40s.
I mean this is 51 to a muchmore.
When I say modern, I meanmodern for the next step of the
50s and 60s style of filmmaking.
It just feels like a real stepforward to that 50s style.
And then you loaded it with acouple of Tom and Jerry cartoons
(23:14):
, a Pete Smith short film, thetrailer.
So it has a robust amount ofextras as well.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Well, it's like a night at the Lowe's Theater in
1951.
And that is our goal.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Right.
And those cartoons again, theyfit the same mood, or tone, I
should say, of this movie, ofbeing just like fun.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Well, a lot of these are making their HD disc debut.
They have not been on Blu-raybefore and the first way you can
get them is on this disc.
And that is the case for a lotof the cartoons that we're
adding, and we're adding them tocreate entertainment, and
people who buy the movie havethe benefit of having these
(23:53):
little extras, and that's alwaysnice, but right.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Well, next let's jump into a serious Western here,
wichita from 1955.
And when I say serious, I meanJoe McCrae.
He's like this big, imposingpresence playing white herb, and
this is the story of how hebecomes a lawman, really.
But before we get into thestory, I have to say that from
the very first shot, from thevery beginning, the restoration
(24:20):
of this technicolor film and thesynopsis scope is fantastic
From the get go.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Well, this was a very significant restoration effort
because it's a 1955 movie, whichmeans Eastwind color stock at
its worst and the originalnegative had very bad fade.
We use the original negativeand the yellow separation to
(24:48):
create a sharp, colorful image.
You know, I've looked at ourold DVD.
It doesn't look deplorable assome of our old DVDs do, but
this was to me revelatory when Isaw that they had recombined
the yellow separation with thecamera negative the color, the
(25:10):
sharpness, the clarity and thisis very early Cinemascope.
This is like two years into theuse of cinemascope.
And the other thing that's verynotable about this first and
foremost, joe McCrae, a tragicand tragically, in my opinion,
underrated and underappreciatedactor because even though he had
a career in films for 30s, the40s, the 50s, into the early 60s
(25:35):
, people don't know his workwell enough.
And he was wonderful.
He made a lot of westerns buthe also did like comedy and
drama and what I understand, hewas a great person.
Certainly I don't know anythingabout his personal life other
than I've heard that he was verywell respected in the
(25:56):
filmmaking community and if youlook at the great directors he
worked with, that speaks volumes.
And he plays Wyatt Earp in thisfilm and some people said that
he was a little too old to playWyatt Earp.
But I think you can suspend theage judgment for the
performance that he gives, whichis so taught and so tight, and
(26:21):
I think one of the reasons whyhe's so good in the film works
so well is the director, jacquesTernure, who is a personal
favorite of mine.
He's directed some of my mostfavorite films, including things
like Out of the Past.
He Was Great at Noir and then hemade social films like Stars in
(26:43):
my Crown, which I'm hoping wecan restore for Blu-ray someday.
But he also directed some ofthe best Valued movies like Cat
People and I Walked with aZombie.
So his versatility as adirector, his works are
incredibly important and I thinkyou know he went from making
(27:04):
future films to doing a lot oftelevision.
But during his lifetime I don'tthink people appreciated how
talented he was and that's whyhe's one of the auteurs that
certain people will buy anythingthat he directed.
And we did release one of thoseobscure films a couple years
ago Great Day in the Morningwith Virginia Mayo, as an archao
(27:26):
film made right after Wichita.
And the reason we put that filmout was it needed restoration
and, more importantly, it was aJacques Tourneur film and we
have our work cut out for uswith the other Jacques Tourneur
films that are not yet availableon Blu-ray.
So they're coming, folks, justgive us time.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
So when you say you have your work cut out, is it
just in terms of the restorationand everything?
Speaker 2 (27:53):
The amount of titles that need to be mastered and
restored, and there's one filmwhere the original negative is
missing, which is very, verystrange, but we've been looking
for it for probably over 20years.
Because we have secondaryelements, but we want to work
from the best if we can.
(28:14):
So we need to either confirmthat it's gone or that it is
someplace, and then we make adecision as to what we're going
to do from there.
That's the story on handful oftitles, but very important that
we know exactly where we standon everything so we can make the
best possible product for theconsumer.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Well, just going back a little bit to Joel McCrae, he
obviously is so associated withWesterns and in real life he
was a rancher.
He had a lot of property and hebought a lot of property out by
where I live here and you knowthe.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Western part of the valley.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Yeah, the Western part of the valley going towards
Thousand Oaks and up towardthat area of Ventura County, and
he basically bought a lot ofthat land for his ranch which
has now been turned into thecity there.
But just yesterday, just total,total trivia and side note but
I'm driving back from visitingsome friends over there and I
(29:11):
drive by street and what's thestreet name?
Mccrae Street, and I was likewait, that's no accident, that's
no accident at all.
Yeah, but he's so comfortable onthe scenes where he's riding
the horse and you know hestarted off as a stunt double,
so he very comfortable there andhe looks terrific when he's
doing all of those scenes.
(29:32):
But his presence, I thought,really carries the film.
Yeah, he might be a little bitolder, but just that presence
that he has on screen it makeshim the lawman.
Or as they say in the film,he's a lawman, he just doesn't
know it yet, basically, and hebrings that across, which I
think is terrific.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
And the other thing to note about this film is there
is a key player in why it's sogreat and why it holds up.
That is the producer, walterMirish, who started at Monogram
in I guess the late 40s andreally developed as a creative
(30:12):
guide and produced many films asthe company morphed into Allied
artists and he honed his craftat Allied.
That's why this is like an Apicture for them as opposed to a
B picture.
Cinemascope required thelicensing of the technology for
20-30 bucks and within aboutthree years he was part of the
(30:36):
Mirish Corporation who madeA-level features for United
Artists for Lease and the Oscarsstarted flowing with the
apartments in the heat of thenight and the films that didn't
win Oscars but that are sofamous, like the Magnificent
Seven and Some Like it Hot.
(30:57):
The Mirish pictures for yearswere regarded as such high-level
, a-plus entertainment andbasically between James Bond and
the Mirish is they kept UnitedArtists in business for many,
many years.
So Walter Mirish just passedaway.
He was over 100 years old.
(31:18):
He was very much a part of theAcademy, he was the president of
the Academy for a little whileand he was the producer of so
many great motion pictures WestSide Story, I could go on and on
, but he cut his teeth atMonogram and Allied and we have
the proof on celluloid of howwonderful he was as a producer
(31:40):
and between Walter Mirish,jacques Tuneur and Joel McCrae,
with a stellar supporting castincluding Paramiles and Lloyd
Bridges, which Todd as a Blu-rayexperience is top-flight might.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
I'm just going to add a couple more pieces of trivia.
One is that supposedly Joel metWhite Ur back in 1928, which is
true or not I don't know, butthat's kind of interesting if
that's true.
And then Vera Miles she livedin Wichita for a time and
graduated from high school thereand she was a Miss Kansas in
1948.
So there's a few small littlekind of interesting little links
(32:18):
back to this film.
But she really, I thought,brought a fun.
You know the love interest tothe character and you know she's
beautiful and they.
That kind of builds slowly intothe storyline and of course it
ends up becoming very importantby the end.
But it's a terrific supportingcast.
I have to say I just wish itwas longer, I wanted it more.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
I felt the same way yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
I was so enjoying it and I was like, oh, now we're
starting to get into the lovestory, and so there was both the
balance of the, of the, himbecoming the Laman, him
enforcing it, you know, and Ijust it's a shorter film and so
I just wish it had been a littlebit longer, but that's just
because I was enjoying myself somuch.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
So I'm glad you did.
I'm really delighted.
And there are more Joe McCrae,westerns and nonwesterns that we
want to tackle as well.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Yeah, I have to bring up the extra George, because I
was laughing out loud.
I mean, not every cartoon do Ilaugh out loud, sometimes I'm
just smiling, but this deputydroopy was just downright funny.
And then the tech savory thefirst Batman with dinosaur Dan.
That's kind of brilliant, Ithought.
(33:34):
I thought those were reallyworth mentioning.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Well, what I try to do is put cartoons that are not
otherwise available, that havesome kind of thematic or yearly
relevance to the motion picture.
In this case these cartoonshave been available on prior
Blu-ray tech savory collectionsbut they fit with Chita really
(33:58):
well.
They're not exactly from thesame year but I thought
thematically it made for abetter show.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
And people will notice that there isn't a
trailer.
We didn't have a trailer to puton here.
I'm sure there are probably 30collectors out there that have
trailers of this movie, but wedon't.
And that's pretty typical ofAllied artists and monogram,
kind of like RKO.
The trailers are rare and hardto find, so let's talk about the
(34:27):
next film.
Yeah, jumping to 1966.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
I mean, this is a total different kind of film for
this month and it's so much funSpin out with Elvis Presley.
I mean this one, you watch it,you pop it, you pop in the
Blu-ray and the colors just likeliterally pop off the screen.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
I was so shocked how great this looked.
And when you go back to theoriginal negative and this is a
period of time where theoriginal piece of color negative
was made on good stock thatisn't subject to fate and we had
a 4K scan of the cameranegative and the colors pop off
(35:07):
the screen at you the costumedesign is deliberately created
to create the most colorful filmand having Elvis be a race car
driver and all around good guy.
I think what's interestingabout this film is he doesn't
break down the fourth wall buthe doesn't take anything too
seriously.
(35:28):
You can tell he's having a goodtime and, most importantly, he
gets to sing a lot, a lot.
The plot is fairly lightweight.
The supporting ladies that arein the movie are all quite
wonderful.
You have Debra Walle and DianeMcBain.
(35:50):
And this was directed by byNorman Taurav, who directed
Broadway melody of 1940 and hadbeen at MGM for years, and it
was produced by Joe Pasternak,who produced a lot of great
musicals at MGM in the 40s aswell as comedies, and as
(36:11):
musicals faded out he startedshifting to dramas and comedies
and rare musical efforts.
But one of those several ofthose actually were Elvis films
and Elvis was working primarilyat MGM in Paramount around this
time, and his fans really wanteverything he ever did, so we've
(36:36):
got our work cut out for us.
There needs to be more Elvisfrom our library on Blu-ray and
we're working on it.
We may have some more toannounce in the coming years,
but in the meantime, spin out, Ithink, is just a confection and
a delight and fun, and we alsodid put some cartoons on there
too.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Right, you have the two Tom and Jerry cartoons and
you've got the trailer and thoseare a lot of fun.
But to go back to the dancingand the songs and the costume
design and the art design, Ithought it was terrific because
it so captures that time, it socaptures that era, 1966, middle
of the 60s.
I mean, they're grooving,they're dancing, the dance moves
, they take plenty of time toenjoy that because of while he's
(37:19):
singing, to really highlightall the people dancing, whether
it be by the pool or inside oneof the places where he's
performing or wherever, and thatbrings, I think, a lot of fun
to watching it because it justtransports you right to that.
That art direction justtransports you right there.
The hair, everything and ofcourse, his songs from that era,
(37:42):
that style of Elvis from thattime.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
The songs are really good.
And when I was mentioning theLeading Ladies before, I was
specifically going to reservecommentary to call out the
appearance of Elvis' LeadingLady in this film that we had
worked with the year before onGirl Happy was Shelly Faberay,
(38:07):
who had established herself asthe older daughter on the
Donorito on television for manyyears and she left the series
toward the end of its run to beon the big screen and I think
Spin Out was probably her fourthmovie.
But she had a contract with MGMfor a brief period of time and
(38:32):
after she did Girl Happy withElvis she did Hold On with
Hermann Sermitz and then she wasin Spin Out and then MGM Late
lent her out for the UA FilmClambake with Elvis and her film
career was somewhat limited butshe is, I think, one of the
(38:53):
more well-known and well-likedElvis Leading Ladies because she
did three pictures with them,which is unusual.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
And for people who have seen her in some of her
more recent TV shows.
She was also in the TV showCoach in the 1990s and I
remember her being very good inthat as well.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
She's terrific and I believe I'm not certain about
this, but I believe she's beenone of the Elvis Leading Ladies
who has participated in eventsat Graceland.
I think she's very supportiveof talking about her
collaborations with Elvis, so Ireally think this is a lot of
(39:34):
fun, and the Elvis fans havealready proven that they've
wanted this film because thepre-orders were very, very
empowering for the guys.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
Well, it's a terrific lineup of these five films.
Now some people listening mightsay isn't there six films this
month?
And we will be talking aboutthe six film.
Gaye, parie and George and Iare working on it.
We hope to have some specialguests join us for that one.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Yep, that is really a highlight of the month and we
thought it would be nice to givethis film a special podcast,
because it's a very different,special film that I think in
this new Blu-ray that we haveavailable, people will see it as
they've never seen it beforecertainly as I've never seen it
(40:22):
before and it looks amazing andwe'll have some experts to talk
about various aspects of thefilm on that next podcast.
So that'll be terrific.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
And it is, of course, available and the podcast will
come a little later.
There are a terrific amount ofextras that are included in that
release.
So if you purchase it beforeyou listen to the podcast, I
think you're really going toenjoy it.
But listen to the podcast,you're going to get some real
insight that I think you'llreally enjoy.
So that'll be coming up in thenear future.
So well, thanks, george, forcoming on the podcast.
(40:53):
As always, it's fun to gothrough these with you and share
just some of my insights intoboth the restoration and the
films themselves and to just letfans know that all the things
you promised in those announcedpodcasts where you talk about
the restoration and what thesefilms are that I can validate.
I've seen them and these areterrific and it's so much fun to
(41:14):
go over them with you and toshare with fans.
Hey, if you're a fan of theseactors, if you're a fan of these
films, this is what you'regoing to get in this Blu-ray
package from the Warner Archive.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Absolutely.
And, as we say it again andagain, it is always an honor and
a pleasure and a privilege tobe with you and to be able to
get the word out to our loyalconsumers a little bit more
minutiae than we're able tocommunicate otherwise, about
what makes these films and thesereleases special.
And, most importantly, thankyou to the consumers that
(41:49):
support our efforts, becausewithout you we wouldn't be here,
and we're very grateful foryour continued support and
patronage.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
For those of you interested in ordering the films
we discussed today, there arelinks in the podcast show notes
and on our website atwwwthexpresstv, so be sure and
check those out.
If you're on social media, besure and follow the show to stay
up to date on our upcomingguests and to be a part of our
community.
And, as we mentioned earlier,that will also let you know when
(42:24):
we are going to be releasingthe special episode on Gay Paris
and you're invited to join ourFacebook group for fans of
Warner Archive films, called theWarner Archive and Warner
Brothers Cadillac Group.
So look for that link on theFacebook page or in the podcast
show notes as well.
And for our long-term listeners, don't forget to follow and
leave us a review at iTunes,spotify or your favorite podcast
(42:46):
provider.
Until next time you've beenlistening to Tim Mellard, stay
slightly obsessed.
Hello and welcome to the Extras, where we take you
behind the scenes of yourfavorite TV shows, movies and
animation and their release ondigital DVD, blu-ray and 4K or
your favorite streaming site.
I'm Tim Lard, your host, andjoining me today is George
Felton, steve Warner Brothers,to review five of the August
Blu-ray releases from the WarnerArchive.
Hi, george.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hey Tim, how are you?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Good, good.
Well, I've had a very fun, busyweekend watching these brand
new Blu-rays, and two thingscome to mind before we kind of
get into talk about each of them.
One is I love the variety.
I mean you've got from 1933 to1966, little women to Elvis
Presley, you know on theextremes.
And then the other thought wasthe restoration of all these is,
(00:52):
per usual, terrific.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I have to attribute all that greatness to our
talented colleagues at WarnerBrothers Motion Picture Imaging.
I sound like a broken recordpraising them, but obviously I'm
delighted with how they turnedout and we put a lot of work
into them and I was doing a lotof running back and forth
(01:15):
between my office and theirfacility and you know the train
keeps moving.
We're working on things thatwill be coming out later this
year and next year and it takes,I'd say, sometimes anywhere
from six to nine months for anon-problematic title, from
initial scanning to the diskbeing available to the consumer
(01:38):
on street day.
So these are things we've beenliving with a long time and to
see them completed and have theextras put on, and it's truly
something to be grateful for andsomething to be very proud of
and very grateful for theinestimable contribution of the
(01:58):
people at Warner Brothers MotionPicture Imaging Can't say
enough about them, so I've saidit on virtually every extras
podcast talking about releases.
I'll leave it at that and saythank you, mpi.
Well.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I think the reason why it's noteworthy is just
because I know you and WarnerBrothers emphasize the quality
and I know people often talkabout why can't we get more of
this, more of that faster?
You know so forth, and you'vemade it clear many times why.
And that is just because you'refocused on A-list quality from
(02:33):
Warner Brothers.
If it's coming from WarnerBrothers it has that stamp of
quality and people may have towait a little longer, but when
they buy it, when they get it,they're going to know it is the
best that's available as ofright now with the work that you
guys do.
But, like you said, we'vetalked about it many times, but
it still hits me especially.
(02:54):
I thought we'd start talkingwith the oldest one here,
especially when we look at thesemovies that are 90 years old,
like Little Women from 1933.
It's so impressive how it looks.
Now it's not perfect, but youhave this from what the best
preservation elements, and itjust looks so good.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
It's a little bit of a combination that the camera
negative has deteriorated incertain spots and preservation
elements were made before thedeterioration.
So you've got a combination ofa little nitrate, a little
safety preservation.
I think we work from threedifferent elements basically to
(03:35):
the picture.
And the DVD was the lasttransfer and that came out 22
years ago and that went througha very strange process and that
was a lot of work for the peoplethat worked on it.
I think what we've achievedhere is mightily impressive
because this is another movie,not as severe as like Broadway
(04:00):
melody or Simeron or even ourdancing daughters those always
looked dreadful.
This last DVD of Little Women22 years ago was a big
improvement from what I saw onTV as a little kid or what came
out on VHS.
But the leak from DVD to BluRay here is pretty astounding
(04:22):
and, like you said, for a90-year-old movie to look that
good and again sound that goodand have to the Arcado sound
department because they werepretty cracker jack very, very
pleased at the results of this.
And this is a film we've beenwanting to bring out for a long,
(04:43):
long time because it's soimportant in the canon of
Catherine Hepburn's career,george Cucor's career and really
in the history of RKO, becauseit was one of their earliest
true classic films.
And interestingly it was boughtfor remake by MGM who remade it
(05:04):
eventually in 1949, and I thinkit was actually sold by RKO to
David O Selznick, who sold it toMGM.
But the point is when MGMremade a movie they usually
buried the old version.
We talked about that with DrJekyll and Mr Hyde with
Frederick March In the case ofLittle Women.
(05:26):
They never buried the Hepburnoriginal.
It did go into TV syndicationand it was sold like a regular
MGM movie, except of course theycut off the RKO logo and put a
line in front of it.
We obviously don't do that andeven on the DVD it wasn't like
that.
So MGM never buried this film,it was always available, and
(05:50):
that also, I think, contributesa little bit to why we had so
much trouble working.
It's usually we don't have ablack and white original
negative and fortunately thisdidn't burn in the fire but it
succumbed to decomposition anddeterioration.
But preservation and buyinggrains were made early on and
(06:14):
also later on, which is a betterstock, and so by using these
different fine grains and thecamera negative where it was
available, we came up withalmost perfect image is what I
would say.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Right, and the music I noticed was by Max Steiner,
and this must have been when hewas at RKO before he came to
Warner Brothers, and it'sterrific in there as well.
To your point, the sound onthis comes across terrifically
as well.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
And Max Steiner.
Really I call him the father ofmovie music, modern movie music
, because it was at RKO that hereally developed music written
specifically for the film thatwould convey emotion.
I think it was Symphony of SixMillion in 1932.
That was like a breakthroughfilm for him.
(07:05):
Of course, 1933 he did KingKong and Little Women and his
talent just can't beoveremphasized enough.
And it was after a period oftime that he made the leap
across from Gower Street inHollywood to Burbank and Warner
Brothers was his home for, Ithink, probably 25 to 30 years.
(07:29):
But his work at RKO isexemplary and that's why we're
fortunate to have this.
We have some recording sessionmaterial as an extra scoring
stage, material that we puttogether as kind of a suite and
you get to hear the music as itwas recorded for the scoring of
(07:51):
the film in like classical suiteif you will.
And those recordings didsurvive a little bit.
That we have and we're sograteful to be able to share
that with the fans.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah, that was really fun to listen to and it's a
little bit different.
It felt like, you know, beingjust musical, though once around
I guess you do put those on.
But the other extra that that Idid want to mention, because it
leads right back to the filmand that's the trailer.
So I'm watching that trailerand it's just really promoting
this new young actress,catherine Hepburn.
(08:24):
It was like her fourth film,but she'd only really started in
her first film, like a yearbefore that, so she was really
on the scene strong, speaking ofstrong, you know she also has
Christopher Strong, which cameout in 1933, which is coming out
you're bringing out in anothera month or so.
But that trailer really pushesher as this new actress on the
(08:46):
scene and of course she'sterrific in this film.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
And we're very fortunate to have that trailer
because we generally don't havetrailers on RKO movies.
But when this film was sold thetrailer negative went with it
and because MGM preserved it, wehave trailer elements.
Usually on RKO we don't havetrailer element or what we have
(09:10):
is negligible or just horrible.
But I'd rather have somethinghorrible than nothing at all.
Right, in this case it's alittle weather beaten, but it's
wonderful to see how they soldher and how important she was.
She had only made her first filmthe year before, bill of
Divorcement with John Barrymore,and she made such an impression
(09:31):
she was literally an overnightsuperstar on film.
And a few years later her careerkind of went into a downward
trajectory because a lot of herfilms weren't making money and
so she went back to New York,did the Philadelphia story on
Broadway, bought the screenrights and then when MGM wanted
(09:53):
to make the movie, she said youhave to negotiate with me and I
need to be the star of the movieand I'm going to pick my
leading men.
But I'm getting ahead of thefact that I think little women
is one of her cornerstone motionpictures and it would be
unfortunate if I didn'tacknowledge the wonderful
(10:14):
performances by the other peoplein the film, whether it be
Spring Byington as Marmy or EdnaMay Oliver as Aunt March, and
then the other girls, jeanParker and Francis D
particularly I found quitemoving and it's just a terrific
(10:36):
film and it is very emblematicof what Q-Corps brought to his
films, and to have it in apresentation like this that
looks so good is what itdeserves.
I wish we could do this forevery film overnight,
immediately.
That's not realistic, but I'mhoping that someday we can do
(11:01):
more Catherine Hepburn films andI neglected to mention the
other sister, who is actuallythe second build, which is Joan
Bennett, and she's prettyterrific in this too.
They're all great and I'mdelighted that we're bringing
this classic to the people whowant it.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
One last thing on this one.
I was reading it Catherine wasvery proud of her performance in
this one as well.
Just in terms of later in life,I think if you're Catherine
Hepburn, she has quite a careerand this is one that you
definitely are probably going towant to own this Blu-ray
because of the restorationyou've done and just that it's a
cornerstone of her filmography.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
So completely agree, and I don't say this about most
films, but if you're building aclassic film library, this one
is an essential.
This is a very important filmon so many levels, and Catherine
Hepburn was very modest anddidn't really like to talk about
herself.
She was somewhat private andyet her seeing the praise of
(12:03):
this film and her lifelongfriendship with George Q Cork
and they worked together upthrough television movies and
when they were both in theirsenior citizen days it speaks so
highly to how it all began inthe early days of R Kale.
Their friendship and theirworkmanship is wonderful.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
If anybody's on the fence.
You've thrown so many extras inhere.
The two Mary Melodies arereally fun.
I really enjoyed those in thedough.
The short film with Jack Haleythat's quite hilarious, I
thought, and then you haveanother one with him, so it's
just a terrific package as well.
(12:44):
But I'm watching it and I justgot so nostalgic.
As I was watching it I couldn'thelp but think of just that
time, that era.
You know my mom watching theseold films with her.
It just really takes you backand I just thought this was a
real highlight release of thismonth, I think.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Well, I had hoped that we could bring more of that
experience of what it was liketo go to the movies 90 years ago
, and so we try to do thatwhenever we can and make sure
that we're putting content onthere that people will really,
really enjoy, and that is alwaysa great pleasure and a great
(13:21):
privilege.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Well, next up, another terrific film from the
30s, and that's the life ofEmile Zola, and this restoration
I also thought was verynoteworthy.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Well, this isn't one of those occasions where we had
the original camera negative toscan.
And I've seen comments wherepeople are thinking that the
original camera negatives to theWarner Brothers films are at
UCLA and that is wrong.
On the pre-49 Warner Librarythe original camera negatives
(13:55):
that are extant are on depositwith the Library of Congress and
we bring them there for that.
The original negatives toWarner Brothers post-50 movies
that were shot on nitrate, whichonly represents basically, I
think, two or three years' worthof films, those are at UCLA
because we don't keep anynitrate on the lot.
(14:15):
But we have to acknowledge thepartnership with the Library of
Congress and how they take careof everybody's films, but
especially ours.
And we moved in the cameranegative and did a 4K scan and
created this new master.
(14:37):
And this film is very importantto our studio because it was
the first Warner Brothersfeature to win the Outstanding
Motion Picture of the Year Award, aka Best Picture Oscar, for
the Life of BMilzola and theyear before Paul Muni had won
Best Actor for the story ofLouis Pasteur.
(14:57):
So this is one of his manyhistoric biographical motion
pictures.
But again, it's also importantbecause it gives an amazing
performance.
It's also important to note thatthis is representative of the
Warner Brothers using historicalevents to warn people about the
(15:20):
dangers of extremism andcensorship and false accusation.
And they did so by settinghistorical stories rather than
you know later on, starting withConfessions of a Nazi Spy.
They had the courage to statewhat was going on at the time.
(15:43):
But even the same year ofConfessions of a Nazi Spy, they
made Juarez with Paul Muni andBetty Davis in 1939, because
they used every they pulledevery lever they could to make
good, important, entertainingfilms.
But that also would shine alight on things that were of a
social nature and this wasincredibly well made and
(16:06):
prestigious and it was a hugehit at the box office and it's
certainly part of the WarnerBrothers follow-up fame.
And with the 4K skin off thecamera negative, obviously, it
looks magnificent and we're very, very proud of it.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
This had 10 Academy Award nominations, did it not?
And it won.
Of course you said best picturewon, best screenplay, best
supporting actor for thegentleman who played Captain
Dreyfus, joseph Schildkraut, andthat was a huge movie from that
year.
And yet Paul didn't win, whichI thought was maybe surprising.
(16:43):
But he's terrific.
I mean the fact that he goesfrom early days of Zola to the
very end.
I mean the range he shows in itis terrific.
Now the story I thought was funbecause it does show the early
stuff, but it takes you a longtime to get to the Dreyfus trial
and Suzanne comes in and theyshow all the different things
(17:05):
from his career.
But then when it comes to thetrial, I mean he's just a force.
It's just really terrific.
I thought it was really fun.
And once again here you gotmusic by Max Diner, you got
Halby Wallace as the producer,quite a crew of people from
Warner Brothers top A listbehind this one.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Oh, absolutely.
And Paul Muni losing the Oscar.
He lost the Oscar to anotherone of our films, one of the
films that we own, that wedidn't make but we made at MGM
Captain's courageous, spencerTracy.
I mean, like, how do you pickwho's the best?
Right, it's kind of like thoseOscar competitions that are so
(17:50):
close.
How do you choose, and you endup with one person winning but
you know the other person wasreally equally deserving and the
fact that he had won the yearbefore, I think, probably had
something to do with it.
But then again you have SpencerTracy winning for Captain's
courageous in 37 and winning forBoys Town in 1938.
(18:14):
So they were not necessarilyagainst successive Oscar winners
, but it was very rare.
And this is certainly awonderful film and we're very,
very proud of the release.
And I know the Warner Brothersput so much work into this film
that they always were very, veryproud of it and we're delighted
(18:36):
to release it.
You know this is something thatwas done as a needed element of
the 100th anniversary.
Right, we can have a WarnerBrothers film that won the Best
Picture Oscar, that wasn'tavailable and we're trying to
get all of our Oscar winners outthere.
I'm delighted that it isavailable.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Yeah, and we'll talk briefly here about the extras.
You've got a couple short filmson here.
You got the Lux TheaterBroadcast, you got the trailer.
I mean it's also really packedso that for the fans of this
film, for the fans of PaulMooney, you know, for that era,
this is a really great releasefor everybody to own.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Well, thank you, and I'm hoping we can do the same,
and more, for everything as wecontinue to struggle along.
It's all good.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah, it's a terrific film.
Like you said, so many peoplewant to own the most important
films of Warner Brothers andthey're looking for that this
year in the 100th, so it'sterrific that this comes out and
they can purchase it so well.
You just mentioned SpencerTracy, so I think next we might
as well jump right into thediscussion of Father's Little
Dividend from 1951.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Oh yes.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yeah, how about that for a transition?
That's perfect, but it's likethe opposite end of the spectrum
from the life of Emile Azola,in the sense that this is a
light comedy by one of yourfavorite directors.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yes, I always will call out my unending admiration
for Vincent Vannelli.
Some people think of this as atrifle because it was a sequel
and it was made very efficientlyand quickly after the first.
But aside from series films,which were even then a rarity,
(20:20):
sequels were not that commonplace at this time.
Not only that, but the factthat they made this as in a
picture at MGM, with the samedirector, same cast, for the
most part the same screenwriters, everybody got together and the
timing of it was just likeperfect, because it was made in
(20:46):
between.
It was shot in between, theyhad completed shooting most of
an American in Paris and, as Iunderstand it, if I have my
history correct, that Vannellimade Father's Little Divide and
why they were getting ready toshoot the ballet for an American
in Paris.
And this is a film that like, ifyou go back and read the
(21:09):
reviews in the major newspapersand the trade papers, everybody
said that it was as good as, ifnot better than, father the
Bride, which is a very headycompliment.
I know not everybody thinksthat way or feels that way, but
this film is beloved and it'sbeen circulating in despicably
(21:31):
ugly editions that are notauthorized, and this is going
back to the original negativeand creating a beautiful 4K scan
that can make a new blu-ray isan honor, and it's important
that we get as much ofVannelli's work available in the
proper format with the properquality as possible.
(21:53):
So we've got a lot of workahead of us because there are a
lot of needy cases in thelibrary still waiting that
attention.
But Father's Little Divide issurefire entertainment and we're
so proud to bring it to thefans.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yeah, I mean you got Vannelli behind this, you got
Spencer Tracy, then you've gotJoan Bennett, who we just talked
about in Little Women, almost20 years later now in her career
, playing Tracy's wife and thegrandma, and she's terrific in
this.
And then, of course, you've gotElizabeth Taylor, who is their
daughter Kay, about to have thebaby, and so it's a great cast.
(22:31):
I mean there's so many fans ofall of those actors and
directors that I think wouldenjoy this, and you know you
watch it and it just flies by.
It's just like fun.
And then, of course, you've gotthe Voice Over with Spencer
Tracy, which is really wellwritten.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Yeah, and that was a novelty back then, so that's why
it worked so well.
The style of the movie wasreally quite wonderful.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Yeah, the style really does feel like quite a
change from the 40s.
I mean this is 51 to a muchmore.
When I say modern, I meanmodern for the next step of the
50s and 60s style of filmmaking.
It just feels like a real stepforward to that 50s style.
And then you loaded it with acouple of Tom and Jerry cartoons
(23:14):
, a Pete Smith short film, thetrailer.
So it has a robust amount ofextras as well.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Well, it's like a night at the Lowe's Theater in
1951.
And that is our goal.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Right.
And those cartoons again, theyfit the same mood, or tone, I
should say, of this movie, ofbeing just like fun.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Well, a lot of these are making their HD disc debut.
They have not been on Blu-raybefore and the first way you can
get them is on this disc.
And that is the case for a lotof the cartoons that we're
adding, and we're adding them tocreate entertainment, and
people who buy the movie havethe benefit of having these
(23:53):
little extras, and that's alwaysnice, but right.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Well, next let's jump into a serious Western here,
wichita from 1955.
And when I say serious, I meanJoe McCrae.
He's like this big, imposingpresence playing white herb, and
this is the story of how hebecomes a lawman, really.
But before we get into thestory, I have to say that from
the very first shot, from thevery beginning, the restoration
(24:20):
of this technicolor film and thesynopsis scope is fantastic
From the get go.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Well, this was a very significant restoration effort
because it's a 1955 movie, whichmeans Eastwind color stock at
its worst and the originalnegative had very bad fade.
We use the original negativeand the yellow separation to
(24:48):
create a sharp, colorful image.
You know, I've looked at ourold DVD.
It doesn't look deplorable assome of our old DVDs do, but
this was to me revelatory when Isaw that they had recombined
the yellow separation with thecamera negative the color, the
(25:10):
sharpness, the clarity and thisis very early Cinemascope.
This is like two years into theuse of cinemascope.
And the other thing that's verynotable about this first and
foremost, joe McCrae, a tragicand tragically, in my opinion,
underrated and underappreciatedactor because even though he had
a career in films for 30s, the40s, the 50s, into the early 60s
(25:35):
, people don't know his workwell enough.
And he was wonderful.
He made a lot of westerns buthe also did like comedy and
drama and what I understand, hewas a great person.
Certainly I don't know anythingabout his personal life other
than I've heard that he was verywell respected in the
(25:56):
filmmaking community and if youlook at the great directors he
worked with, that speaks volumes.
And he plays Wyatt Earp in thisfilm and some people said that
he was a little too old to playWyatt Earp.
But I think you can suspend theage judgment for the
performance that he gives, whichis so taught and so tight, and
(26:21):
I think one of the reasons whyhe's so good in the film works
so well is the director, jacquesTernure, who is a personal
favorite of mine.
He's directed some of my mostfavorite films, including things
like Out of the Past.
He Was Great at Noir and then hemade social films like Stars in
(26:43):
my Crown, which I'm hoping wecan restore for Blu-ray someday.
But he also directed some ofthe best Valued movies like Cat
People and I Walked with aZombie.
So his versatility as adirector, his works are
incredibly important and I thinkyou know he went from making
(27:04):
future films to doing a lot oftelevision.
But during his lifetime I don'tthink people appreciated how
talented he was and that's whyhe's one of the auteurs that
certain people will buy anythingthat he directed.
And we did release one of thoseobscure films a couple years
ago Great Day in the Morningwith Virginia Mayo, as an archao
(27:26):
film made right after Wichita.
And the reason we put that filmout was it needed restoration
and, more importantly, it was aJacques Tourneur film and we
have our work cut out for uswith the other Jacques Tourneur
films that are not yet availableon Blu-ray.
So they're coming, folks, justgive us time.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
So when you say you have your work cut out, is it
just in terms of the restorationand everything?
Speaker 2 (27:53):
The amount of titles that need to be mastered and
restored, and there's one filmwhere the original negative is
missing, which is very, verystrange, but we've been looking
for it for probably over 20years.
Because we have secondaryelements, but we want to work
from the best if we can.
(28:14):
So we need to either confirmthat it's gone or that it is
someplace, and then we make adecision as to what we're going
to do from there.
That's the story on handful oftitles, but very important that
we know exactly where we standon everything so we can make the
best possible product for theconsumer.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Well, just going back a little bit to Joel McCrae, he
obviously is so associated withWesterns and in real life he
was a rancher.
He had a lot of property and hebought a lot of property out by
where I live here and you knowthe.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Western part of the valley.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Yeah, the Western part of the valley going towards
Thousand Oaks and up towardthat area of Ventura County, and
he basically bought a lot ofthat land for his ranch which
has now been turned into thecity there.
But just yesterday, just total,total trivia and side note but
I'm driving back from visitingsome friends over there and I
(29:11):
drive by street and what's thestreet name?
Mccrae Street, and I was likewait, that's no accident, that's
no accident at all.
Yeah, but he's so comfortable onthe scenes where he's riding
the horse and you know hestarted off as a stunt double,
so he very comfortable there andhe looks terrific when he's
doing all of those scenes.
(29:32):
But his presence, I thought,really carries the film.
Yeah, he might be a little bitolder, but just that presence
that he has on screen it makeshim the lawman.
Or as they say in the film,he's a lawman, he just doesn't
know it yet, basically, and hebrings that across, which I
think is terrific.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
And the other thing to note about this film is there
is a key player in why it's sogreat and why it holds up.
That is the producer, walterMirish, who started at Monogram
in I guess the late 40s andreally developed as a creative
(30:12):
guide and produced many films asthe company morphed into Allied
artists and he honed his craftat Allied.
That's why this is like an Apicture for them as opposed to a
B picture.
Cinemascope required thelicensing of the technology for
20-30 bucks and within aboutthree years he was part of the
(30:36):
Mirish Corporation who madeA-level features for United
Artists for Lease and the Oscarsstarted flowing with the
apartments in the heat of thenight and the films that didn't
win Oscars but that are sofamous, like the Magnificent
Seven and Some Like it Hot.
(30:57):
The Mirish pictures for yearswere regarded as such high-level
, a-plus entertainment andbasically between James Bond and
the Mirish is they kept UnitedArtists in business for many,
many years.
So Walter Mirish just passedaway.
He was over 100 years old.
(31:18):
He was very much a part of theAcademy, he was the president of
the Academy for a little whileand he was the producer of so
many great motion pictures WestSide Story, I could go on and on
, but he cut his teeth atMonogram and Allied and we have
the proof on celluloid of howwonderful he was as a producer
(31:40):
and between Walter Mirish,jacques Tuneur and Joel McCrae,
with a stellar supporting castincluding Paramiles and Lloyd
Bridges, which Todd as a Blu-rayexperience is top-flight might.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
I'm just going to add a couple more pieces of trivia.
One is that supposedly Joel metWhite Ur back in 1928, which is
true or not I don't know, butthat's kind of interesting if
that's true.
And then Vera Miles she livedin Wichita for a time and
graduated from high school thereand she was a Miss Kansas in
1948.
So there's a few small littlekind of interesting little links
(32:18):
back to this film.
But she really, I thought,brought a fun.
You know the love interest tothe character and you know she's
beautiful and they.
That kind of builds slowly intothe storyline and of course it
ends up becoming very importantby the end.
But it's a terrific supportingcast.
I have to say I just wish itwas longer, I wanted it more.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
I felt the same way yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
I was so enjoying it and I was like, oh, now we're
starting to get into the lovestory, and so there was both the
balance of the, of the, himbecoming the Laman, him
enforcing it, you know, and Ijust it's a shorter film and so
I just wish it had been a littlebit longer, but that's just
because I was enjoying myself somuch.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
So I'm glad you did.
I'm really delighted.
And there are more Joe McCrae,westerns and nonwesterns that we
want to tackle as well.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Yeah, I have to bring up the extra George, because I
was laughing out loud.
I mean, not every cartoon do Ilaugh out loud, sometimes I'm
just smiling, but this deputydroopy was just downright funny.
And then the tech savory thefirst Batman with dinosaur Dan.
That's kind of brilliant, Ithought.
(33:34):
I thought those were reallyworth mentioning.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Well, what I try to do is put cartoons that are not
otherwise available, that havesome kind of thematic or yearly
relevance to the motion picture.
In this case these cartoonshave been available on prior
Blu-ray tech savory collectionsbut they fit with Chita really
(33:58):
well.
They're not exactly from thesame year but I thought
thematically it made for abetter show.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
And people will notice that there isn't a
trailer.
We didn't have a trailer to puton here.
I'm sure there are probably 30collectors out there that have
trailers of this movie, but wedon't.
And that's pretty typical ofAllied artists and monogram,
kind of like RKO.
The trailers are rare and hardto find, so let's talk about the
(34:27):
next film.
Yeah, jumping to 1966.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
I mean, this is a total different kind of film for
this month and it's so much funSpin out with Elvis Presley.
I mean this one, you watch it,you pop it, you pop in the
Blu-ray and the colors just likeliterally pop off the screen.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
I was so shocked how great this looked.
And when you go back to theoriginal negative and this is a
period of time where theoriginal piece of color negative
was made on good stock thatisn't subject to fate and we had
a 4K scan of the cameranegative and the colors pop off
(35:07):
the screen at you the costumedesign is deliberately created
to create the most colorful filmand having Elvis be a race car
driver and all around good guy.
I think what's interestingabout this film is he doesn't
break down the fourth wall buthe doesn't take anything too
seriously.
(35:28):
You can tell he's having a goodtime and, most importantly, he
gets to sing a lot, a lot.
The plot is fairly lightweight.
The supporting ladies that arein the movie are all quite
wonderful.
You have Debra Walle and DianeMcBain.
(35:50):
And this was directed by byNorman Taurav, who directed
Broadway melody of 1940 and hadbeen at MGM for years, and it
was produced by Joe Pasternak,who produced a lot of great
musicals at MGM in the 40s aswell as comedies, and as
(36:11):
musicals faded out he startedshifting to dramas and comedies
and rare musical efforts.
But one of those several ofthose actually were Elvis films
and Elvis was working primarilyat MGM in Paramount around this
time, and his fans really wanteverything he ever did, so we've
(36:36):
got our work cut out for us.
There needs to be more Elvisfrom our library on Blu-ray and
we're working on it.
We may have some more toannounce in the coming years,
but in the meantime, spin out, Ithink, is just a confection and
a delight and fun, and we alsodid put some cartoons on there
too.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Right, you have the two Tom and Jerry cartoons and
you've got the trailer and thoseare a lot of fun.
But to go back to the dancingand the songs and the costume
design and the art design, Ithought it was terrific because
it so captures that time, it socaptures that era, 1966, middle
of the 60s.
I mean, they're grooving,they're dancing, the dance moves
, they take plenty of time toenjoy that because of while he's
(37:19):
singing, to really highlightall the people dancing, whether
it be by the pool or inside oneof the places where he's
performing or wherever, and thatbrings, I think, a lot of fun
to watching it because it justtransports you right to that.
That art direction justtransports you right there.
The hair, everything and ofcourse, his songs from that era,
(37:42):
that style of Elvis from thattime.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
The songs are really good.
And when I was mentioning theLeading Ladies before, I was
specifically going to reservecommentary to call out the
appearance of Elvis' LeadingLady in this film that we had
worked with the year before onGirl Happy was Shelly Faberay,
(38:07):
who had established herself asthe older daughter on the
Donorito on television for manyyears and she left the series
toward the end of its run to beon the big screen and I think
Spin Out was probably her fourthmovie.
But she had a contract with MGMfor a brief period of time and
(38:32):
after she did Girl Happy withElvis she did Hold On with
Hermann Sermitz and then she wasin Spin Out and then MGM Late
lent her out for the UA FilmClambake with Elvis and her film
career was somewhat limited butshe is, I think, one of the
(38:53):
more well-known and well-likedElvis Leading Ladies because she
did three pictures with them,which is unusual.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
And for people who have seen her in some of her
more recent TV shows.
She was also in the TV showCoach in the 1990s and I
remember her being very good inthat as well.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
She's terrific and I believe I'm not certain about
this, but I believe she's beenone of the Elvis Leading Ladies
who has participated in eventsat Graceland.
I think she's very supportiveof talking about her
collaborations with Elvis, so Ireally think this is a lot of
(39:34):
fun, and the Elvis fans havealready proven that they've
wanted this film because thepre-orders were very, very
empowering for the guys.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
Well, it's a terrific lineup of these five films.
Now some people listening mightsay isn't there six films this
month?
And we will be talking aboutthe six film.
Gaye, parie and George and Iare working on it.
We hope to have some specialguests join us for that one.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Yep, that is really a highlight of the month and we
thought it would be nice to givethis film a special podcast,
because it's a very different,special film that I think in
this new Blu-ray that we haveavailable, people will see it as
they've never seen it beforecertainly as I've never seen it
(40:22):
before and it looks amazing andwe'll have some experts to talk
about various aspects of thefilm on that next podcast.
So that'll be terrific.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
And it is, of course, available and the podcast will
come a little later.
There are a terrific amount ofextras that are included in that
release.
So if you purchase it beforeyou listen to the podcast, I
think you're really going toenjoy it.
But listen to the podcast,you're going to get some real
insight that I think you'llreally enjoy.
So that'll be coming up in thenear future.
So well, thanks, george, forcoming on the podcast.
(40:53):
As always, it's fun to gothrough these with you and share
just some of my insights intoboth the restoration and the
films themselves and to just letfans know that all the things
you promised in those announcedpodcasts where you talk about
the restoration and what thesefilms are that I can validate.
I've seen them and these areterrific and it's so much fun to
(41:14):
go over them with you and toshare with fans.
Hey, if you're a fan of theseactors, if you're a fan of these
films, this is what you'regoing to get in this Blu-ray
package from the Warner Archive.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Absolutely.
And, as we say it again andagain, it is always an honor and
a pleasure and a privilege tobe with you and to be able to
get the word out to our loyalconsumers a little bit more
minutiae than we're able tocommunicate otherwise, about
what makes these films and thesereleases special.
And, most importantly, thankyou to the consumers that
(41:49):
support our efforts, becausewithout you we wouldn't be here,
and we're very grateful foryour continued support and
patronage.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
For those of you interested in ordering the films
we discussed today, there arelinks in the podcast show notes
and on our website atwwwthexpresstv, so be sure and
check those out.
If you're on social media, besure and follow the show to stay
up to date on our upcomingguests and to be a part of our
community.
And, as we mentioned earlier,that will also let you know when
(42:24):
we are going to be releasingthe special episode on Gay Paris
and you're invited to join ourFacebook group for fans of
Warner Archive films, called theWarner Archive and Warner
Brothers Cadillac Group.
So look for that link on theFacebook page or in the podcast
show notes as well.
And for our long-term listeners, don't forget to follow and
leave us a review at iTunes,spotify or your favorite podcast
(42:46):
provider.
Until next time you've beenlistening to Tim Mellard, stay
slightly obsessed.
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