August 16, 2023 • 26 mins
George Feltenstein announces the Warner Archive's upcoming September Blu-ray releases.
Links to pre-orders of these titles will be added when available.
The BEST place to buy all of your Warner Archive and Boutique DVDs and Blu-rays
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
The Extras Facebook page
The Extras Twitter
Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog Group
As an Amazon Affiliate, The Extras may receive a commission for purchases through our purchase links. There is no additional cost to you, and every little bit helps us in the production of the podcast. Thanks in advance.
Otaku Media produces podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connect creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals. tim@theextras.tv
Mark as Played
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 is George Feldenstein
to announce the SeptemberBlu-ray releases from the Warner
Archive.
Hi, george.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hi, tim, great to be with you and thank you for the
opportunity to allow me to speakto the folks.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, I think there's always a lot of excitement to
hear what's coming out in thenext month, and September is
right along those lines.
We're a little bit later thanmaybe the previous month, so I
know the excitement has beenbuilding, so let's dive right in
.
How do you want to tackle these?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Well, I think the best way to do this, since it's
such a diverse anddifferentiated slate, is to
start alphabetically.
So the first film I want totalk about is Julian Schnabel's
Amazing Film from the Year 2000,before Night Falls.
This is a very moving andimportant film.
(01:07):
It was released by the FineLine Features Division of New
Line 23 years ago and I thinkit's kind of been somewhat
overlooked and forgotten, andthat's part of our mission here.
So this is a beautiful newpresentation and the linchpin of
(01:27):
this whole film is the amazingperformance by Javier Bardem and
his portrayal of Ronaldo Arenas.
I hope I pronounced thatcorrectly.
He was the Cuban poet whosememoirs and life story inspired
this movie and a lot of peoplethought Mr Bardem should have
(01:49):
earned the best actor Oscar forhis performance and I'm hoping
he gets it for anotherperformance because he's a
remarkable actor.
It's a unique modern film.
I know it's 23 years old but Ithink of it as modern, given
that some of our releases goback to the 1920s.
So everything is in perspective.
(02:10):
But also in this film is JohnnyDepp, and this was kind of
representative of the fact thatJohnny Depp was making these big
budget pictures.
I think they had alreadystarted doing Pirates movies by
this time.
But he also was wanting tocontribute to more artistic
films and this was definitely anart film is an art film and
(02:34):
this is a new 4K scan off thecamera negative.
It's a beautiful presentationand we've been able to carry
over all of the legacy specialfeatures that were on the
original DVD release from NewLine Home Entertainment.
Not an easy task to find all ofthose pieces, given that New
(02:55):
Line merged into our systemabout 15 years ago, so it made
it not easy, but we were able tofind everything eventually and
hence this release.
So I think a lot of peopledon't know this movie and if you
don't, you're in for anarresting performance and a
(03:16):
really impressive piece offilmmaking.
So I heartily recommend thefilm.
I think people need to learnabout it, learn more about it,
and since we're goingalphabetically, we're also
staying in the somewhat morerecent mode.
This movie is only 26 years oldand I laugh about that because
(03:37):
we were getting a lot ofcommentary from people saying
that we weren't releasing enoughmovies past 1960.
And we always are trying tomake a balance and this month we
have three films from theclassic era and three films that
(03:57):
I consider modern classic era,which means like post 1990.
So the next film is from 1997,a mere 26 years old, and this is
a film we've gotten an enormousamount of requests for.
It's a film that was long inproduction.
It is was intended to be anhomage to the MGM musical when
(04:21):
it was in production and it's ananimated musical comedy and
they actually hired Gene Kellyto be a consultant to the
animated choreography and thefilm was called Cats Don't Dance
.
It was the one and onlyproduction of Turner feature
animation which was to be a partof Turner broadcasting.
(04:46):
As they entered into filmproduction of all sorts by
buying New Line Cinema, bybuying Castle Rock Entertainment
, and by the time this film wasfinished and ready for release,
turner Broadcasting had beenpurchased by Time Warner and
this fell under the Warner Brosumbrella to release.
(05:07):
But while its theatricalperformance wasn't what people
had hoped, it did develop areally rapidly large and
enthusiastic following on homevideo and, of course, on
television.
So we've had a lot of peoplesend notes and make posts in
(05:29):
various forums and on ourFacebook page about.
You know they wanted Cats Don'tDance, especially last month
when we announced the release ofGay Parade.
It was like you have anotheranimated musical with Cats.
What's happening with CatsDon't Dance?
And finally we have thisbeautiful new master.
It sounds great, it looks greatand it is filled with songs,
(05:52):
original songs written by RandyNewman.
The female vocals are suppliedby the late, wonderful Natalie
Cole.
Scott Bacula and Jasmine Guyprovide the voices for the main
characters.
It's beautifully designed, verywell written and it's very,
very enjoyable.
And then, to add to the fun, weput some show business themed
(06:16):
loony tunes on the disc and Ithink people are really, really
going to enjoy Cats Don't Dance.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
I did have one question about the restoration.
On this one, George.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Oh well, there was nothing to restore per se, but
what we did was a new 4K scanoff the camera negative, which
we always tried to do.
So it's a new, brand new mastermade especially for this.
The term restoration sometimesgets misused and I see people
(06:46):
referring to a new 2K master offand inter positive as a
restoration, and I have somefriends who do photochemical
restoration who really resentthat.
But the main point of it is wehave a standard of quality that
we adhere to very carefully andI think people are going to love
the way this looks.
(07:06):
It is probably looking betterthan it ever has, given the
tools that we now have.
So it's very, very exciting.
And then the next film, sincewe're going alphabetically.
We're staying in the seas, butwe're going back 64 years from
Cats Don't Dance.
(07:27):
This is Christopher Strong, thesecond RKO film to star
Catherine Hepburn.
She had made her emergence onscreen the year before with the
Bill of Divorcement, co-starringJohn Garfield.
This was her follow up film in1933, under the aegis of David O
(07:47):
Selznick, who was the head ofproduction at RKO at the time.
But what really makes itnotable is it was directed by
Dorothy Arsner.
Dorothy Arsner was the onlyvery active director making
films in Hollywood for the majorstudios who was female.
(08:10):
There were a lot of female filmdirectors in the early days of
silence and the role of women asfilm directors was diminished
as the industry grew and DorothyArsner was really the only
director I know that was doingfeature films for studios like
(08:31):
RKO and MGM and with ChristopherStrong you get outstanding
performance by Hepburn, someamazing costumes, beautiful art
direction and this is a 4K scanoff the original camera negative
.
It's been restored.
There's using the word.
This is a true restorationbecause we were coming from the
(08:54):
nitrate camera negative.
This is one of those RKO filmswhere the original negative
survived and the audio also wasrestored and the presentation is
quite impressive and the filmis really needing to be better
known, as is the story ofDorothy Arsner, and our partners
(09:16):
at Criterion put out anotherone of Dorothy Arsner's films in
the last couple of years DanceGirl Dance from 1940, which got
a lot of attention because of afemale director's perspective.
We also released one of herfilms on DVD that she made at
(09:36):
MGM a few years ago andhopefully there'll be Blu-rays
of that coming as we revisittitles.
We could only do on Blu-rayyears ago, but I think people
are really going to enjoy thisfilm.
We've also added some HD shortsone with the three Stooges
before they became the threeStooges when they were part of
(09:58):
the Bodville Act Ted Healy andhis Stooges and that's an HD
short which people will reallyenjoy.
What's interesting about it thereason we put it on here is
it's called Plain Nuts and theyactually used a musical number
from an earlier 1931 film calledFlying High, where there are
(10:20):
all the chorus girls, justiceairplanes basically.
So given that Catherine Hepburnplays in Aviatrix, in
Christopher Strong, we thoughtthat was a good tie-in.
We also have the last shortsubject that Fatty Arbuckle made
at Vitaphone, called Tomalio.
It was released right after hisuntimely death.
And then we have a buddycartoon from Warner Brothers,
(10:44):
also an HD, called Buddy's BeerGarden.
So it kind of rounds out thewhole package and I think this
is a film that is worthy ofrediscovery because a lot of
people don't know it.
Then again, since we're movingalphabetically, the next film
thrusts us back into the 1990sand falls right in the middle of
Cat's Don't Dance and BeforeNight Falls.
(11:07):
This is from 1998.
This is a Castle Rockproduction called Palmetto, and
it's from the brilliant director, volker Schlaundorf, who made
one of my favorite films of the80s for sure, the Tin Drum.
He's an incredible talent andthis is a neo-noir.
It is a film that a lot ofpeople really, really like and
(11:32):
we've had a lot of requests forit, so it seemed like a perfect
addition to the Warner Archivecollection, because we know our
fans love noir and this is avery modern take on it, and
Woody.
Harrelson, elizabeth Shoe, ginaGershwin, chloe Sebigne.
It's a great cast, the music iswonderful, it's beautifully
(11:53):
shot and I think people arereally, really going to enjoy
this film.
And then the next film thatwe're going to talk about takes
us back to the 1930s, and thisis a film that's famous more for
the circumstances under whichit was made and released than
for the content of the movie.
(12:15):
To some degree it's a charming,enjoyable, entertaining
romantic comedy co-starringClark Gable and Gene Harlow at
MGM, I believe, for the sixthpairing.
That's off the top of my head.
I may have the number wrong,but they were teamed often, and
this was unfortunately theirlast teaming, because Ms Harlow
(12:39):
had your remit poisoning anddied of kidney failure right as
they were about to wrapproduction.
And I went through theproduction files on this film
and read about how they werethinking of refilming the film
with another actress.
And then it was decided theycould find a way to tell the
(13:02):
story.
They had most of Harlow's sceneshot and those that weren't
were used with a double from theback and someone doing vocal
dubbing that had a similar style, but that shouldn't overwhelm
the film itself, which is adelightful story set at the race
(13:22):
track.
Gable's great Harlow's terrific.
It is insane to think shepassed away at 26 years of age
and yet left such an impressivebody of work.
And for those who are lookingfor other Gable Harlow films
that haven't made it to Blu-ray,I can assure you they're on
(13:42):
their way.
We can't always know what'sgoing to be ready when, because
we have two or three dozen filmsat any given time in some state
of production, so when they'reready and we can release them,
they come out.
So if you see something comeout and you say, well, why
didn't this come before?
That, I know.
(14:03):
When I didn't work here and Iwas on the outside looking in, I
was confused Well, why wouldyou do this when you could do
that?
Well, this is a business.
This is how we run the business.
Certain things take two yearsor three years, certain things
take two months, and the result,either way, is a gorgeous
release.
So this looks terrific.
(14:27):
It's a 4K scan for our bestpreservation elements, and we
added a short subject on here,of course, as well as the
trailer.
The short subject is in highdefinition.
It's the very first in a seriesof shorts MGM made to promote
their upcoming releases and givea little background into how
(14:49):
film gets to be from celluloidto a finished motion picture and
it takes you very quicklythrough that process.
And then you see people on theMGM lot.
You see Jack Dawn, the makeupartist, who created all the
makeup for hundreds of MGM films, including, most notably, the
(15:12):
Wizard of Oz, gilbert Adrian,the costume designer.
You get to see all those peopleand people like Rosalyn Russell
walking in between MGMbuildings and, most importantly,
they tell you what the filmsare that are coming up and some
of them never got made and someof them got made with different
(15:33):
casts.
So it's really fascinating.
It's called the romance ofcelluloid and there was a whole
series of these, probably for atleast 10 years, maybe seven
years, I'm not quite sure whenthey kind of stopped doing them.
But we have made most of theseavailable before on DVDs in the
(15:57):
past and on some Blu-rayreleases.
But this one we couldn't findthe film elements and we finally
did because it was buried underanother title's inventory.
So it's an HD presentation ofthe short and I think people
will really like it for thebehind the scenes at MGM and how
(16:19):
movies get made perspective.
I also think Saratoga is notablein that you get to see the
wonderful Hattie McDaniel andClark Gable two years before
Gone with the Wind.
They have a very closefriendship in real life and you
can see the chemistry is veryvital there and she's delightful
(16:40):
in this film, as is LionelBarrymore and Frank Morgan and
Oona Merkel and Walter Pigeon.
It's an all star MGM cast and adelightful film.
And then the last film is oneof my personal favorites, but it
also comes from one of mypersonal favorite directors and
that's William Wellman.
(17:01):
This is Westwood the Women from1951.
And if ever there was a moviethat people needed to see from
the golden days of cinema thatreeks of the Importance of
female empowerment, it'sWestward the women.
Bill Wellman was the man tobring this story to the screen
(17:29):
and we have a behind-the-scenesfeaturette that was on our DVD
challenge of the wilderness.
That's on the disc.
We have the radio show, whichhas never been on a disc before,
from Lux Radio Theatre.
We have an amazing commentaryby the wonderful film historian
and author Scott Eiman.
Scott is a tremendous humanbeing as well as a brilliantly
(17:52):
talented author and Historian,and we were so fortunate to get
him to record a commentary forthis film, which was part of our
DVD release 12 years ago 11years ago but Westward the women
was one of our top is one ofour top 10 Best-selling DVD
titles.
It has been a massive sellerand it's driven me crazy that we
(18:15):
haven't been able to bring itto high definition.
And now we can.
It is a 4k scan From our bestpreservation elements.
It looks and sounds amazing.
We have two hd tomm and jerrycartoons, the trailer and hd.
It's a wonderful package for awonderful movie, and I should
(18:36):
just Not forget to note that theoriginal story Was written by
Frank Capra.
It's very odd that Frank Caprawould have his name appended to
a film as creating this story,and my understanding is I can't
say this as fact, but myunderstanding is that Frank
(18:56):
Capra originally Was attached todirect the film Wild bill ended
up being the one who did directit.
They were very good friends,capra and wellman, and
everything I've heard frompeople who were in the movie and
by looking at some of thebehind the scenes stills, you
(19:17):
can see that wellman was ano-nonsense guy.
He was a tough guy, but he wasalso extraordinarily sensitive.
All of that comes through inthis movie and the actress,
denise Darcel, who mgm tried toturn into a Movie star.
She never quite achieved thatstardom.
She was a very major performerin battleground, which we put
(19:40):
out on blu-ray about five, sixyears ago, and she was most
recently seen in our release ofdangerous when wet with ester
williams and for nanda llamas.
Um, I had the pleasure ofmeeting her Many years ago.
She was active in the classicHollywood Community.
I think she attended early tcmfilm festivals.
(20:03):
She was a lovely lady and shereally holds her own against
Robert Taylor, who is one ofeverybody's favorite leading men
and thankfully he was veryprolific and we have a wonderful
cinematic legacy of his, evengiven that he his life was cut
short by lung cancer and it wasa horrible situation to lose him
(20:27):
relatively young.
But all of his films I findquite interesting and some of
them are downright brilliant.
This is one of them and I thinkpeople are really going to enjoy
this and all six of the movieswe have coming out september
26th and, most importantly,we're hard at work on the
(20:47):
october releases and thenovember releases and december
releases and there are going tobe some big surprises and people
who are complaining.
Where is such and such?
Because people love to complain.
That's what the internet wasbuilt, for I knew that when we
released these six films, peoplewho love the older classics
would complain about the newerones, just as in the past few
(21:10):
months, when we were focusing onmore vintage classics, people
were Complaining that we weren'treleasing anything after 1960
or 70.
And of course, all this was inthe works and I would just Shake
my head and say you know, wejust can't please everybody, and
that's a truth.
We're never going to be able tohave every release, make every
(21:32):
person happy, but we aim to makeour consumers happy and to do
right by the library and makethings available in the best
possible condition, and we'rehard at work on a bunch of
things that I think are going tomake people really happy.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Well, that does lead me to one question I did have
kind of along along the lines ofthat topic and I know that
recently, you know, you releasedthe current TV series, like you
know, ongoing ones like BigBang Theory and Blu-ray, or
Lucifer on Blu-ray and someothers.
But have you released newerfilms like this on Blu-ray that
have been as recent as the 90sand 2000s before?
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Actually we released more recent films than before
Night Falls.
We released a mighty wind onBlu-ray many years ago, several
years ago, something we alsoreleased that was just kind of
filling in a hole, that somehowit never got a Blu-ray release.
That was Starsky and Hutch andpeople were saying what?
(22:34):
But I have to clarify thatbasically the business has
changed, at least in the UnitedStates, where anything that was
a new to format Blu-ray releasenot a 4K, but a Blu-ray release
that had never been releasedbefore in the format.
I think the last time somethingdidn't go through us for
(22:58):
feature film was maybe 2016.
We are designated to release thenew to format library titles
that are remastered and offerthe best possible quality that
Blu-ray has to offer.
So I think that explains it.
We have tried to be as broad aspossible.
(23:23):
We are the Blu-ray catalog armof the company and have been for
many years now, at least in theUnited States and Canada.
So it is with great pleasurethat I'm delighted to spend this
time to talk with you, tim, andI'm looking forward to when we
(23:45):
do the real big show and you'vewatched all these discs and
you've seen them and we can havea straightforward conversation
about each one, and I will bevery anxious to hear what you
think of all these discs.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Well, I'm excited to see some of the newer ones and I
know that it's controversialfor some people who don't
appreciate as much of the newerstuff because I remember seeing
when night falls and I rememberseeing Palmeira in the theaters,
so I'm looking forward torewatching them again, seeing
them on Blu-ray, and then, ofcourse, all the classics from
the 30s and 40s and 50s as well.
(24:20):
So, as always, george, it's apleasure to have you come on and
I'm really glad we had you ontoday to explain a little bit
too about how you put togetherthe older and the newer and what
the thinking is behind that.
So I think that's important foreverybody to know.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Yeah, it is because we're a very small team trying
to do our best and we wantpeople to know that we hear what
people are saying and I feelreally good about where we're
going and I know there are goingto be some things that will
happily surprise a lot of peoplein the months to come, as well
as next year.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
I'm looking forward to it, along with everybody else
.
So thanks, george.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Thank you, tim, it's been great.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Well, thanks again to George Feldenstein for coming
on the podcast to go over theupcoming September releases from
the Warner Archive.
I will post more information onthese releases on our Facebook
page and in our Facebook groupcalled the Warner Archive and
the Warner Brothers CatalogGroup.
So look for all of those linksin the podcast show notes.
And just as a reminder, georgeand I will be reviewing the
(25:26):
August Blu-ray once they arereleased.
So look for that podcast comingsoon and we hope to have a
special guest joining us for areview of one of the August
titles.
So there's a little tease foryou to see if you can guess
which title that might be.
Whether you are a first-timelistener or a long-term fan of
the show, don't forget to followor subscribe at your favorite
podcast provider.
(25:47):
That way you won't miss any ofour upcoming podcasts.
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 is George Feldenstein
to announce the SeptemberBlu-ray releases from the Warner
Archive.
Hi, george.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hi, tim, great to be with you and thank you for the
opportunity to allow me to speakto the folks.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, I think there's always a lot of excitement to
hear what's coming out in thenext month, and September is
right along those lines.
We're a little bit later thanmaybe the previous month, so I
know the excitement has beenbuilding, so let's dive right in
.
How do you want to tackle these?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Well, I think the best way to do this, since it's
such a diverse anddifferentiated slate, is to
start alphabetically.
So the first film I want totalk about is Julian Schnabel's
Amazing Film from the Year 2000,before Night Falls.
This is a very moving andimportant film.
(01:07):
It was released by the FineLine Features Division of New
Line 23 years ago and I thinkit's kind of been somewhat
overlooked and forgotten, andthat's part of our mission here.
So this is a beautiful newpresentation and the linchpin of
(01:27):
this whole film is the amazingperformance by Javier Bardem and
his portrayal of Ronaldo Arenas.
I hope I pronounced thatcorrectly.
He was the Cuban poet whosememoirs and life story inspired
this movie and a lot of peoplethought Mr Bardem should have
(01:49):
earned the best actor Oscar forhis performance and I'm hoping
he gets it for anotherperformance because he's a
remarkable actor.
It's a unique modern film.
I know it's 23 years old but Ithink of it as modern, given
that some of our releases goback to the 1920s.
So everything is in perspective.
(02:10):
But also in this film is JohnnyDepp, and this was kind of
representative of the fact thatJohnny Depp was making these big
budget pictures.
I think they had alreadystarted doing Pirates movies by
this time.
But he also was wanting tocontribute to more artistic
films and this was definitely anart film is an art film and
(02:34):
this is a new 4K scan off thecamera negative.
It's a beautiful presentationand we've been able to carry
over all of the legacy specialfeatures that were on the
original DVD release from NewLine Home Entertainment.
Not an easy task to find all ofthose pieces, given that New
(02:55):
Line merged into our systemabout 15 years ago, so it made
it not easy, but we were able tofind everything eventually and
hence this release.
So I think a lot of peopledon't know this movie and if you
don't, you're in for anarresting performance and a
(03:16):
really impressive piece offilmmaking.
So I heartily recommend thefilm.
I think people need to learnabout it, learn more about it,
and since we're goingalphabetically, we're also
staying in the somewhat morerecent mode.
This movie is only 26 years oldand I laugh about that because
(03:37):
we were getting a lot ofcommentary from people saying
that we weren't releasing enoughmovies past 1960.
And we always are trying tomake a balance and this month we
have three films from theclassic era and three films that
(03:57):
I consider modern classic era,which means like post 1990.
So the next film is from 1997,a mere 26 years old, and this is
a film we've gotten an enormousamount of requests for.
It's a film that was long inproduction.
It is was intended to be anhomage to the MGM musical when
(04:21):
it was in production and it's ananimated musical comedy and
they actually hired Gene Kellyto be a consultant to the
animated choreography and thefilm was called Cats Don't Dance
.
It was the one and onlyproduction of Turner feature
animation which was to be a partof Turner broadcasting.
(04:46):
As they entered into filmproduction of all sorts by
buying New Line Cinema, bybuying Castle Rock Entertainment
, and by the time this film wasfinished and ready for release,
turner Broadcasting had beenpurchased by Time Warner and
this fell under the Warner Brosumbrella to release.
(05:07):
But while its theatricalperformance wasn't what people
had hoped, it did develop areally rapidly large and
enthusiastic following on homevideo and, of course, on
television.
So we've had a lot of peoplesend notes and make posts in
(05:29):
various forums and on ourFacebook page about.
You know they wanted Cats Don'tDance, especially last month
when we announced the release ofGay Parade.
It was like you have anotheranimated musical with Cats.
What's happening with CatsDon't Dance?
And finally we have thisbeautiful new master.
It sounds great, it looks greatand it is filled with songs,
(05:52):
original songs written by RandyNewman.
The female vocals are suppliedby the late, wonderful Natalie
Cole.
Scott Bacula and Jasmine Guyprovide the voices for the main
characters.
It's beautifully designed, verywell written and it's very,
very enjoyable.
And then, to add to the fun, weput some show business themed
(06:16):
loony tunes on the disc and Ithink people are really, really
going to enjoy Cats Don't Dance.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
I did have one question about the restoration.
On this one, George.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Oh well, there was nothing to restore per se, but
what we did was a new 4K scanoff the camera negative, which
we always tried to do.
So it's a new, brand new mastermade especially for this.
The term restoration sometimesgets misused and I see people
(06:46):
referring to a new 2K master offand inter positive as a
restoration, and I have somefriends who do photochemical
restoration who really resentthat.
But the main point of it is wehave a standard of quality that
we adhere to very carefully andI think people are going to love
the way this looks.
(07:06):
It is probably looking betterthan it ever has, given the
tools that we now have.
So it's very, very exciting.
And then the next film, sincewe're going alphabetically.
We're staying in the seas, butwe're going back 64 years from
Cats Don't Dance.
(07:27):
This is Christopher Strong, thesecond RKO film to star
Catherine Hepburn.
She had made her emergence onscreen the year before with the
Bill of Divorcement, co-starringJohn Garfield.
This was her follow up film in1933, under the aegis of David O
(07:47):
Selznick, who was the head ofproduction at RKO at the time.
But what really makes itnotable is it was directed by
Dorothy Arsner.
Dorothy Arsner was the onlyvery active director making
films in Hollywood for the majorstudios who was female.
(08:10):
There were a lot of female filmdirectors in the early days of
silence and the role of women asfilm directors was diminished
as the industry grew and DorothyArsner was really the only
director I know that was doingfeature films for studios like
(08:31):
RKO and MGM and with ChristopherStrong you get outstanding
performance by Hepburn, someamazing costumes, beautiful art
direction and this is a 4K scanoff the original camera negative
.
It's been restored.
There's using the word.
This is a true restorationbecause we were coming from the
(08:54):
nitrate camera negative.
This is one of those RKO filmswhere the original negative
survived and the audio also wasrestored and the presentation is
quite impressive and the filmis really needing to be better
known, as is the story ofDorothy Arsner, and our partners
(09:16):
at Criterion put out anotherone of Dorothy Arsner's films in
the last couple of years DanceGirl Dance from 1940, which got
a lot of attention because of afemale director's perspective.
We also released one of herfilms on DVD that she made at
(09:36):
MGM a few years ago andhopefully there'll be Blu-rays
of that coming as we revisittitles.
We could only do on Blu-rayyears ago, but I think people
are really going to enjoy thisfilm.
We've also added some HD shortsone with the three Stooges
before they became the threeStooges when they were part of
(09:58):
the Bodville Act Ted Healy andhis Stooges and that's an HD
short which people will reallyenjoy.
What's interesting about it thereason we put it on here is
it's called Plain Nuts and theyactually used a musical number
from an earlier 1931 film calledFlying High, where there are
(10:20):
all the chorus girls, justiceairplanes basically.
So given that Catherine Hepburnplays in Aviatrix, in
Christopher Strong, we thoughtthat was a good tie-in.
We also have the last shortsubject that Fatty Arbuckle made
at Vitaphone, called Tomalio.
It was released right after hisuntimely death.
And then we have a buddycartoon from Warner Brothers,
(10:44):
also an HD, called Buddy's BeerGarden.
So it kind of rounds out thewhole package and I think this
is a film that is worthy ofrediscovery because a lot of
people don't know it.
Then again, since we're movingalphabetically, the next film
thrusts us back into the 1990sand falls right in the middle of
Cat's Don't Dance and BeforeNight Falls.
(11:07):
This is from 1998.
This is a Castle Rockproduction called Palmetto, and
it's from the brilliant director, volker Schlaundorf, who made
one of my favorite films of the80s for sure, the Tin Drum.
He's an incredible talent andthis is a neo-noir.
It is a film that a lot ofpeople really, really like and
(11:32):
we've had a lot of requests forit, so it seemed like a perfect
addition to the Warner Archivecollection, because we know our
fans love noir and this is avery modern take on it, and
Woody.
Harrelson, elizabeth Shoe, ginaGershwin, chloe Sebigne.
It's a great cast, the music iswonderful, it's beautifully
(11:53):
shot and I think people arereally, really going to enjoy
this film.
And then the next film thatwe're going to talk about takes
us back to the 1930s, and thisis a film that's famous more for
the circumstances under whichit was made and released than
for the content of the movie.
(12:15):
To some degree it's a charming,enjoyable, entertaining
romantic comedy co-starringClark Gable and Gene Harlow at
MGM, I believe, for the sixthpairing.
That's off the top of my head.
I may have the number wrong,but they were teamed often, and
this was unfortunately theirlast teaming, because Ms Harlow
(12:39):
had your remit poisoning anddied of kidney failure right as
they were about to wrapproduction.
And I went through theproduction files on this film
and read about how they werethinking of refilming the film
with another actress.
And then it was decided theycould find a way to tell the
(13:02):
story.
They had most of Harlow's sceneshot and those that weren't
were used with a double from theback and someone doing vocal
dubbing that had a similar style, but that shouldn't overwhelm
the film itself, which is adelightful story set at the race
(13:22):
track.
Gable's great Harlow's terrific.
It is insane to think shepassed away at 26 years of age
and yet left such an impressivebody of work.
And for those who are lookingfor other Gable Harlow films
that haven't made it to Blu-ray,I can assure you they're on
(13:42):
their way.
We can't always know what'sgoing to be ready when, because
we have two or three dozen filmsat any given time in some state
of production, so when they'reready and we can release them,
they come out.
So if you see something comeout and you say, well, why
didn't this come before?
That, I know.
(14:03):
When I didn't work here and Iwas on the outside looking in, I
was confused Well, why wouldyou do this when you could do
that?
Well, this is a business.
This is how we run the business.
Certain things take two yearsor three years, certain things
take two months, and the result,either way, is a gorgeous
release.
So this looks terrific.
(14:27):
It's a 4K scan for our bestpreservation elements, and we
added a short subject on here,of course, as well as the
trailer.
The short subject is in highdefinition.
It's the very first in a seriesof shorts MGM made to promote
their upcoming releases and givea little background into how
(14:49):
film gets to be from celluloidto a finished motion picture and
it takes you very quicklythrough that process.
And then you see people on theMGM lot.
You see Jack Dawn, the makeupartist, who created all the
makeup for hundreds of MGM films, including, most notably, the
(15:12):
Wizard of Oz, gilbert Adrian,the costume designer.
You get to see all those peopleand people like Rosalyn Russell
walking in between MGMbuildings and, most importantly,
they tell you what the filmsare that are coming up and some
of them never got made and someof them got made with different
(15:33):
casts.
So it's really fascinating.
It's called the romance ofcelluloid and there was a whole
series of these, probably for atleast 10 years, maybe seven
years, I'm not quite sure whenthey kind of stopped doing them.
But we have made most of theseavailable before on DVDs in the
(15:57):
past and on some Blu-rayreleases.
But this one we couldn't findthe film elements and we finally
did because it was buried underanother title's inventory.
So it's an HD presentation ofthe short and I think people
will really like it for thebehind the scenes at MGM and how
(16:19):
movies get made perspective.
I also think Saratoga is notablein that you get to see the
wonderful Hattie McDaniel andClark Gable two years before
Gone with the Wind.
They have a very closefriendship in real life and you
can see the chemistry is veryvital there and she's delightful
(16:40):
in this film, as is LionelBarrymore and Frank Morgan and
Oona Merkel and Walter Pigeon.
It's an all star MGM cast and adelightful film.
And then the last film is oneof my personal favorites, but it
also comes from one of mypersonal favorite directors and
that's William Wellman.
(17:01):
This is Westwood the Women from1951.
And if ever there was a moviethat people needed to see from
the golden days of cinema thatreeks of the Importance of
female empowerment, it'sWestward the women.
Bill Wellman was the man tobring this story to the screen
(17:29):
and we have a behind-the-scenesfeaturette that was on our DVD
challenge of the wilderness.
That's on the disc.
We have the radio show, whichhas never been on a disc before,
from Lux Radio Theatre.
We have an amazing commentaryby the wonderful film historian
and author Scott Eiman.
Scott is a tremendous humanbeing as well as a brilliantly
(17:52):
talented author and Historian,and we were so fortunate to get
him to record a commentary forthis film, which was part of our
DVD release 12 years ago 11years ago but Westward the women
was one of our top is one ofour top 10 Best-selling DVD
titles.
It has been a massive sellerand it's driven me crazy that we
(18:15):
haven't been able to bring itto high definition.
And now we can.
It is a 4k scan From our bestpreservation elements.
It looks and sounds amazing.
We have two hd tomm and jerrycartoons, the trailer and hd.
It's a wonderful package for awonderful movie, and I should
(18:36):
just Not forget to note that theoriginal story Was written by
Frank Capra.
It's very odd that Frank Caprawould have his name appended to
a film as creating this story,and my understanding is I can't
say this as fact, but myunderstanding is that Frank
(18:56):
Capra originally Was attached todirect the film Wild bill ended
up being the one who did directit.
They were very good friends,capra and wellman, and
everything I've heard frompeople who were in the movie and
by looking at some of thebehind the scenes stills, you
(19:17):
can see that wellman was ano-nonsense guy.
He was a tough guy, but he wasalso extraordinarily sensitive.
All of that comes through inthis movie and the actress,
denise Darcel, who mgm tried toturn into a Movie star.
She never quite achieved thatstardom.
She was a very major performerin battleground, which we put
(19:40):
out on blu-ray about five, sixyears ago, and she was most
recently seen in our release ofdangerous when wet with ester
williams and for nanda llamas.
Um, I had the pleasure ofmeeting her Many years ago.
She was active in the classicHollywood Community.
I think she attended early tcmfilm festivals.
(20:03):
She was a lovely lady and shereally holds her own against
Robert Taylor, who is one ofeverybody's favorite leading men
and thankfully he was veryprolific and we have a wonderful
cinematic legacy of his, evengiven that he his life was cut
short by lung cancer and it wasa horrible situation to lose him
(20:27):
relatively young.
But all of his films I findquite interesting and some of
them are downright brilliant.
This is one of them and I thinkpeople are really going to enjoy
this and all six of the movieswe have coming out september
26th and, most importantly,we're hard at work on the
(20:47):
october releases and thenovember releases and december
releases and there are going tobe some big surprises and people
who are complaining.
Where is such and such?
Because people love to complain.
That's what the internet wasbuilt, for I knew that when we
released these six films, peoplewho love the older classics
would complain about the newerones, just as in the past few
(21:10):
months, when we were focusing onmore vintage classics, people
were Complaining that we weren'treleasing anything after 1960
or 70.
And of course, all this was inthe works and I would just Shake
my head and say you know, wejust can't please everybody, and
that's a truth.
We're never going to be able tohave every release, make every
(21:32):
person happy, but we aim to makeour consumers happy and to do
right by the library and makethings available in the best
possible condition, and we'rehard at work on a bunch of
things that I think are going tomake people really happy.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Well, that does lead me to one question I did have
kind of along along the lines ofthat topic and I know that
recently, you know, you releasedthe current TV series, like you
know, ongoing ones like BigBang Theory and Blu-ray, or
Lucifer on Blu-ray and someothers.
But have you released newerfilms like this on Blu-ray that
have been as recent as the 90sand 2000s before?
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Actually we released more recent films than before
Night Falls.
We released a mighty wind onBlu-ray many years ago, several
years ago, something we alsoreleased that was just kind of
filling in a hole, that somehowit never got a Blu-ray release.
That was Starsky and Hutch andpeople were saying what?
(22:34):
But I have to clarify thatbasically the business has
changed, at least in the UnitedStates, where anything that was
a new to format Blu-ray releasenot a 4K, but a Blu-ray release
that had never been releasedbefore in the format.
I think the last time somethingdidn't go through us for
(22:58):
feature film was maybe 2016.
We are designated to release thenew to format library titles
that are remastered and offerthe best possible quality that
Blu-ray has to offer.
So I think that explains it.
We have tried to be as broad aspossible.
(23:23):
We are the Blu-ray catalog armof the company and have been for
many years now, at least in theUnited States and Canada.
So it is with great pleasurethat I'm delighted to spend this
time to talk with you, tim, andI'm looking forward to when we
(23:45):
do the real big show and you'vewatched all these discs and
you've seen them and we can havea straightforward conversation
about each one, and I will bevery anxious to hear what you
think of all these discs.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Well, I'm excited to see some of the newer ones and I
know that it's controversialfor some people who don't
appreciate as much of the newerstuff because I remember seeing
when night falls and I rememberseeing Palmeira in the theaters,
so I'm looking forward torewatching them again, seeing
them on Blu-ray, and then, ofcourse, all the classics from
the 30s and 40s and 50s as well.
(24:20):
So, as always, george, it's apleasure to have you come on and
I'm really glad we had you ontoday to explain a little bit
too about how you put togetherthe older and the newer and what
the thinking is behind that.
So I think that's important foreverybody to know.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Yeah, it is because we're a very small team trying
to do our best and we wantpeople to know that we hear what
people are saying and I feelreally good about where we're
going and I know there are goingto be some things that will
happily surprise a lot of peoplein the months to come, as well
as next year.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
I'm looking forward to it, along with everybody else
.
So thanks, george.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Thank you, tim, it's been great.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Well, thanks again to George Feldenstein for coming
on the podcast to go over theupcoming September releases from
the Warner Archive.
I will post more information onthese releases on our Facebook
page and in our Facebook groupcalled the Warner Archive and
the Warner Brothers CatalogGroup.
So look for all of those linksin the podcast show notes.
And just as a reminder, georgeand I will be reviewing the
(25:26):
August Blu-ray once they arereleased.
So look for that podcast comingsoon and we hope to have a
special guest joining us for areview of one of the August
titles.
So there's a little tease foryou to see if you can guess
which title that might be.
Whether you are a first-timelistener or a long-term fan of
the show, don't forget to followor subscribe at your favorite
podcast provider.
(25:47):
That way you won't miss any ofour upcoming podcasts.
Until next time you've beenlistening to Tim Mellard Stay
slightly obsessed.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!