filmlover

Thanks. As to Kino, there are some excellent prices in that deepdiscount.com sale. It looks like they will end it just before their regular June sale begins. I wonder which will price will be lower? By the way, I don't know if you saw it in the Upcoming Releases information, but Kino is going to start releasing on Blu-ray high def this fall.

More good news... In addition to the announcement that Criterion will be releasing on high-definition Blu-ray starting in October, as mentioned already in this thread, word has just come down that Kino International will also start releasing on Blu-ray this fall. I am looking forward to seeing their classics when they get around to them. Imagine "Metropolis" in high definition.

Also worth noting, deepdiscount.com has a 50% off Kino sale, good through May 30th. http://www.deepdiscount.com/DVD---Kino-Sale_stcVVcatId476514VVviewcat.htm Some great bargains in here, including their restored set on Battleship Potemkin for $14.98, the Kino Film Noir sets for $24.98, The Black Pirate $14.98, and the newly released Houdini - The Movie Star $19.98.

Okay, everybody, let's knock it off. Let's get back to announcing upcoming releases. Here's an announcement from Kino of two new releases available June 3rd in their Slapstick Symposium Part III: *Harry Langdon (THREE'S A CROWD and THE CHASER):* This DVD of THREE'S A CROWD and THE CHASER is authored from new HD masters derived from the 35mm negatives held by the Raymond Rohauer estate. Due to decomposition of the original film elements, portions of THE CHASER are mastered from a 16mm print. http://www.kino.com/video/item.php?film_id=918 *Mabel Normand (THE EXTRA GIRL and THE GUSHER):* The Extra Girl is a 68 min. film. This Kino DVD also includes the rare 1913 short THE GUSHER, mastered from an archival 35mm print with the original color tints. Set in the oil fields of California, it follows the efforts of a wily con artist to defraud a yokel (Ford Sterling) and his bride-to-be (Normand). http://www.kino.com/video/item.php?film_id=919 They are also offering The Stan Laurel Collection at a reduced price: The DVD contains 16 rare short films 1923-1925. Here is a list of the titles: http://www.kino.com/video/item.php?film_id=711

Here's a breakdown: August 1. Michael Caine 2. Charlie Chaplin 3. Gregory Peck 4. Marie Dressler 5. Claude Rains 6. Anne Bancroft 7. Greta Garbo 8. James Garner 9. Fred MacMurray 10. Doris Day 11. Richard Widmark 12. Kim Novak 13. Peter Lorre 14. Greer Garson 15. Rita Hayworth 16. Fred Astaire 17. Gene Kelly 18. Jack Palance 19. Barbara Stanwyck 20. Edward G. Robinson 21. Ava Gardner 22. Trevor Howard 23. Laurel and Hardy 24. Henry Fonda 25. Ingrid Bergman 26. Janet Leigh 27. Tony Curtis 28. Charlton Heston 29. Marlon Brando 30. Katherine Hepburn 31. Spencer Tracy

This is great!

Can?t recall, but dvdplanet.com may also do a sale in the same month. (Both are owned by the same company and both usually will have 20% off their already discounted prices.) Still, it is worth comparing back and forth with Amazon at the time to see which will work out better.

Anybody gearing up for the next deepdiscount.com sale in June? I?m holding off ordering these titles until then: Frank Sinatra - The Golden Years Collection Frank Sinatra ? The Golden Years Collection Popeye the Sailor vol. 2 Three Stooges vol. 2 The Carmen Miranda Collection The Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly Collection The Fall of the Roman Empire Limited Edition Mannix ? the First Season Burke?s Law: Season 1 Vol. 1 (Okay, what bright bigwig came up with splitting a season and making us pay twice?!!) The Fugitive Season 1 Vol. 2 The Fugitive Season 2 Vol. 1 The Sand Pebbles (Blu-Ray) The Longest Day (Blu-Ray) Patton (Blu-Ray) The last three will be based on the review of the picture quality.

I ordered from several titles from oldies.com a few weeks back, had tried to get two copies of Pajama Party (because it is a valuable time) but got one, at least. Got **** with them because I ordered enough to get the free shipping, and had placed my order that way, but the order got charged for shipping, anyway. I called them and argued for about fifteen minutes, but got nowhere. (I have been disappointed with oldies.com the last two times now with their customer service. I placed one order about a month ago, cancelled it the next morning with a telephone operator, got a confirmation email, then two days later they still billed by credit card and sent out the order. One of the items was the Roxie Hart DVD and it came without any plastic wrapping.) I may order from them again but it would have to be something special.

lafitte said: "Well, at least nobody's mentioned M.S.'s name yet. The absolute worst, IMHO. So dull, so pedestrian. One of my favorite movies, Jezebel, is diminished (but thankfully not ruined) by it. The big scene on the dance floor and he composes this horrible waltz, it's totally at odds with the gravity of the occasion. The main theme to Wuthering Heights is trite. Maybe it's just me, but his music makes me groan." I don't think anybody could say Max Steiner's music was dull and pedestrian. This is the man whose output contains Gone with the Wind, King Kong, They Died With Their Boots On, Now Voyager, Casablanca, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and so many more. Also, saying his main theme to Wuthering Heights makes you groan shows that maybe you have your composers mixed up. The man who wrote the music to Wuthering Heights was Alfred Newman.

Most of the great ones have been put mentioned, but I'll put in my two cents: Jerry Goldsmith "The Wind and the Lion" John Williams "Star Wars" Alfred Newman "Captain from Castille" Erich Wolfgang Korngold "The Sea Hawk" Bernard Herrmann "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" Miklos Rozsa "The Thief of Bagdad" Alex North "A Streetcar Named Desire" (also a TV score I love "Rich Man Poor Man") George Duning "Picnic" Henry Mancini "Breakfast at Tiffany's" Aaron Copland pretty much anything

Celluloid, while my post had some of the features that will be on the HTWWW upcoming releases that were in your original post, there were additional details in mine from a release today that weren't there previously, such as more details about the Smilebox. There was no need for you to reprint your post, especially since it is on the same page a few posts down. All that does is bury the new details and people don't see them. So why repost your post? It would help if you deleted that more recent reprint post and leave the original one down the page. People come here regularly to look for new info. I saw that you did that with The Mummy, too, reprinting it only about two or three posts since you first did.

Two quick notes: Paramount finally announced their first slew of titles for Blu-ray today, and even though their are no classics in the list it is good to see them come over and hopefully we will start getting things like Breakfast at Tiffany's, Godfather, and more in high definition. The second piece of info is *MORE* release details for the How the West Was Won 2-DVD set and the 2-disc Blu-ray set. (Here is a link to details about that new documentary: http://www.cineramaadventure.com/synopsis.htm ) From digitalbits.com: ...we have additional word from Warner Home Video on their forthcoming How the West Was Won (due 8/26). There will be a 2-disc Special Edition DVD (SRP $20.97), that includes the film itself, audio commentary with film historians, the original The Making of How the West Was Won featurette, the new feature-length Cinerama Adventure documentary and the film's theatrical trailer. The 2-disc Ultimate Collector's Edition DVD (SRP ($59.92) is basically the Special Edition packed with a 20-page reproduction of the original press book, 10 photo cards, 10 art cards and an exclusive movie poster offer. Finally, the 2-disc Blu-ray edition (BD-50s - SRP $34.99) comes packed in a 32-page "digi-book" and includes all the same disc-based extras as the DVD editions. All versions feature the original 165-minute film, mastered from the original 3-strip Cinerama elements, presented in the original 2.89:1 aspect ratio with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. The Blu-ray Disc will also feature the original SmileBox version "which presents the image with a unique curvature that virtually recreates the true Cinerama? experience in a home theater." Here's more from the studio's press release: "M-G-M and Cinerama?, Inc. spared no expense to give this sprawling Western saga the huge vistas made possible with the original Cinerama? process. After its initial theatrical engagements in theaters equipped with three synchronized projectors for Cinerama? presentation, the film was subsequently presented on traditional theater screens with the three separate Cinerama? panels being optically joined to form a standard 35mm 2.35:1 widescreen image, leaving most subsequent viewers puzzled by the annoying ?join lines.? Following several years of careful development, the technicians at Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging perfected a technology that could finally eliminate the ?join lines,? and unify the images into a superb viewing experience that captures the essence of the production?s initial road show exhibitions, with an aspect ratio of 2.89:1." Here are pictures of the art:

A little more info on How the West Was Won from highdefdigest.com regarding the Blu-ray version: Exclusive to the Blu-ray edition will be a "SmileBox" version of the film. The first of its kind on a high-def release, "SmileBox" presents the image with a "unique curvature that virtually recreates the true Cinerama experience" in the home theater environment." So, the B-R version will have the regular theatrical version AND the "SmileBox".

This original version of Scarface, issued by Universal on DVD, still holds up today, and is shorter and better than the 1983 remake. It's a perfect look at the crime-ridden days of Chicago, with Paul Muni's Tony Camonte substituting for Al Capone. Much as I like Paul Muni, he is very hammy here, while George Raft comes off well playing it low-key and straight. However, the production by Howard Hughes crackles under the direction of Howard Hawks and screenplay by Chicago newspaperman, Ben Hecht. The film ran into censorship problems. Hughes had a softer alternate ending created, but Hughes ended up going back to the original cut, which has a more exciting climax, and one that highlights the incestuous love that Camonte has for his sister. The alternative ending is included on the DVD. On a video quality scale, I would rate this at the most as a 3.5 out of 5. It is one of those films that the print is grainy and shows some decomposing. Still it is a classic to pick up. Robert Osborne provides an introduction to the film.

Costco continues to deliver great prices on classic sets. While checking out the Universal twinpacks, I noticed they had the two Warner Bros. collections of _The Garbo Signature Collection_ and _The Alfred Hitchcock Signature Collection_ for *$44.99* each. Amazon charges $77.99 and $73.99, respectively, and they are $99.98 regular street price each, so that's a bargain on each one. I didn't see these at the Los Feliz store but they were in the Burbank Costco, but you have to look carefully because they are in a bottom row there behind a Bogart box set. They likely have them at other stores, too. Also, if you like classic TV series, they have The Addams Family - The Complete Series (all three seasons in one) for only $24.99. Amazon's price is $51.99 and the regular street price is $69.98.

Rosalind Russell is the Star of the Month, so that will be very enjoyable. I like the Big Band in the movies theme running throughout, looks like some interesting shorts there. And the Americana theme for July 4th is a pleaser: The Music Man, 1776, Yankee Doodle Dandy, and On the Town. I haven't seen The Count of Monte Cristo in a long time, so this will be fun. And a night of Hume Cronyn, great. Plus, a night of the 100th anniversary of the FBI, but, aww, no The FBI Story. A month I look forward to seeing.

Lynn, you are right. I missed listing them because they didn't have a mention this week in the Calendar guide I was looking at.

When I was a kid, I would watch tons of old films on TV, of course, but in my teen years I began going to revival houses (but these were mostly near universities). But today, a few decades after my teen years, I was looking at the Los Angeles Time Calendar section and noticed several classics being shown in theatres (thank goodness I live in Hollywood). Over the next several days, one can go locally here to see a John Wayne tribute series (in Newport Beach), catch "City Lights" and "Blackbeard, the Pirate" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, head over to the New Beverly Cinema in Hollywood to see "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" and "You Can't Take It With You," drop by the Aero Theater in Santa Monica for "Blonde Venus," drive to Old Town Music Hall in El Segundo to enjoy the 1936 version of "Rose Marie", or decide to tap your toes to "Annie Get Your Gun" at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, mix with the stars at the Academy of Motion pictures Arts & Sciences for a screening of "2001: A Space Odyssey." How about you? What do you have revival-wise where you are?

peterwarne, thanks for posting that. I see a couple I want and I will drop by Costco in the next day or so.

Yes, Winchell did the narration for "The Untouchables."

*14 years!!! Congrats to all who make TCM the greatest movie channel of them all.*

Paul Frees' narration for "The St. Valentine's Day Massacre." And that reminds me of TV shows from Quinn Martin, like "The Fugitive," with narration by William Conrad.

Robert Mitchum's in Farewell, My Lovely. His narration revealed the tiredness of Marlowe. And, while not a narration but more of a Greek chorus, I liked Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye in Cat Ballou.

Classic Musicals from the Dream Factory Vol. 3 I've just finished watching this 9-movie set and I must say it is an excellent set to own. Hit the Deck - Tony Martin, Vic Damone, Russ Tamblyn woo Ann Miller, Jane Powell, and Debbie Reynolds. Fun film, color, widescreen. Contains "Hallelujah" as a rousing finale. Deep in My Heart - Biopic with Jose Ferrer as composer Sigmund Romberg. An enjoyable film, if overlong (132 min.), with guest performers Gene Kelly, Jane Powell, Cyd Charisse, Tony Martin, and others doing numbers in "Broadway shows." Look for an uncredited young Russ Tamblyn and Susan Luckey (later as the mayor's daughter in "The Music Man"). Esther Williams can be seen briefly in an outtake in the Special Features section (and predominantly on the Special Features menu). Kismet - I was very pleased to see this feature included as its score has always been one of my favorites. Howard Keel and Jane Powell star. Nancy Goes to Rio - _While all the film prints are terrific in this set, Nancy Goes to Rio is astonishing in its clarity and color. I will even go so far as to say it is one the most flawless prints I have ever seen of a classic film, looking like it was shot today._ Jane Powell is lovely, but Ann Sothern is GORGEOUS in full color! Two Weeks With Love - A good little musical, best remembered for the song "Aba-daba Honeymoon," sung by Debbie Reynolds and Carleton Carpenter. Broadway Melody of 1936 - Eleanor Powell (in fine dancing form) and Robert Taylor star. Actually, Jack Benny is top-billed as a Broadway reporter, but this isn't the eccentric Jack Benny character that would still come in a few years that we grew to love. His is a dour, one-note performance. Buddy Ebsen is also there, high stepping with his sister, Vilma. Broadway Melody of 1938 - I enjoyed this BM more than the first because of the presence of Judy Garland (doing her "You Made Me Love You" to pictures of Clark Gable) and Sophie Tucker. Oh, and Eleanor Powell and Robert Taylor are the stars (LOL, almost forgot about them), with a return of Buddy Ebsen. Born to Dance - Eleanor Powell and James Stewart (who, well, "sings") in this story of a Broadway hopeful and the sailor who loves her. Good fun. Lady Be Good - Though Eleanor Powell gets top billing here, hers is truly a supporting character in this story of two songwriters, played wonderfully by Robert Young and Ann Sothern. Has early appearances of Red Skelton and Virginia O'Brien, but neither is as good as they would be in later films. As stated, all films have excellent prints. Each disc comes with extras, and is the MGM equivalent of the Warner Bros.' Night at the Movies (of course, it helps that that WB put out this set). Among extras are shorts, cartoons (several by Tex Avery), deleted or alternate audio outtakes, radio shows, and a Reel Memories/Private Screenings interview with Jane Powell and Robert Osborne (looking very young). My only complaint, and it is very tiny, is that the shorts and trailers that are in widescreen are not enhanced for widescreen TVs. The films are and it seems odd they didn't just do those, too. Anyway, this is definitely a set to get.