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Hollywood Q & ALetters. We get letters. And we’d like to answer them here, each time we update this column. So email us here at movieirv@moviesunlimited.com and we’ll print the letters in this column. Here are a couple of our recent queries:
Question: I was curious why there seems to be a big gap in the available films starring Tony Curtis on DVD? I think people would love to collect such films as Mister Cory, The Black Shield Of Falworth and The Outsider on DVD. Also curiously absent is Captain Newman, M.D. with Gregory Peck and Tony Curtis. Answer: Most of Mr. Curtis’s films were issued for a time on VHS by Universal, including the ones you mention. A Tony Curtis DVD box set is long overdue, and we hope to see one by early next year. Sources at the company say they are “considering” a Curtis collection in the future. For the record, Mister Cory (1957), directed by Blake Edwards, stars Curtis as a busboy who becomes a hotshot gambler, and Martha Hyer and Kathryn Grant (soon to be Mrs. Bing Crosby) are the women in his life; The Black Shield Of Falworth (1954) is a topnotch swashbuckler co-starring the then-Mrs. Curtis, Janet Leigh; and The Outsider (1961) offers Curtis as Ira Hayes, the Native American who was one of the soldiers photographed planting the U.S. flag at Iwo Jima during WWII. As for Captain Newman, M.D., this is another Universal effort we’ve gotten several requests for, but no word from the studio on its release. In this 1963 drama, Peck played a military psychiatrist, Curtis his orderly and Oscar-nominated Bobby Darin one of Peck’s patients, while Angie Dickinson, Robert Duvall and Larry Storch also star.
Question: I have been looking for Jimmy Stewart as Carbine Williams on DVD, preferably, or VHS. Any idea why this movie has not been released and if it will be coming? Answer: Well, nothing’s being issued on VHS these days. Although it was released by MGM in theaters, Warner controls the rights to this biography of David Marshall Williams, the former bootlegger and bitter prison inmate who helped invent the M-1 carbine rifle. The company is certainly aware there is a great deal of interest in this title, but they have made no overtures to put it out on DVD. So, unfortunately, we can’t even estimate a possible release date of this fine 1952 movie which also stars Wendell Corey and Jean Hagen.
Question: I am wondering if you have heard any buzz about the release of Treasure Island starring Charlton Heston. I own a copy on VHS but would really love to see it on DVD. This was released by Turner Home Entertainment in 1990. Answer: Sorry, but Warner has no immediate plans to put out the 1990 version of the classic Robert Louis Stevenson pirate saga. It would make sense to get it out on DVD, since there’s been renewed interest in Mr. Heston’s body of work since his passing. Also, a young Christian Bale plays the part of Jim Hawkins. Unfortunately, it’s not high on Warner’s list.
Question: Do you know anything about the wonderful A Woman's Vengeance with Charles Boyer, Jessica Tandy, Ann Blyth, and Rachel Kempson? Also the 1950 No Man Of Her Own with Barbara Stanwyck and Lyle Bettger. I understand Ms. Stanwyck counted it among her favorites of her own work. My copied-from-TV VHS tapes of these are wearing out. Thanks for the excellent Q&A column. Answer: The 1948 film of A Woman’s Vengeance, adapted by Aldous Huxley from his own story, is owned by Universal, and, sadly, is not a big priority for DVD release on their part. The story about a wealthy man who poisons his invalid wife and takes up with another woman before being tried for murder was directed by Zoltan Korda, the Hungarian helmer of The Four Feathers and Jungle Book. As for No Man Of Her Own, we’d guess that Paramount, the studio that produced it, still controls the rights. This top-notch noir features Ms. Stanwyck as a pregnant woman who takes on the identity of a young woman killed in a train crash with her husband. Women’s helmer Mitchell Leisen directed from a story by Cornell Woolrich (Rear Window). The bad news is that Paramout rarely puts out old catalog titles; the good news is that Criterion may have licensed this from the studio. However, we don’t know of its intended arrival date. By the way, Ms. Stanwyck also made another top-notch noir that same year called The File On Thelma Jordon. And, for the record, No Man Of Her Own served as the basis of 1996’s Mrs. Winterbourne with Ricki Lake, Shirley MacLaine and Brendan Fraser.
Question: Hi, I was wondering if you knew of any possible DVD sets from Ginger Rogers, Doris Day, or Esther Williams to be released anytime soon? Thanks. Answer: Since the impressive five-disc TCM Spotlight: Esther Williams, Vol. 1 received such a splashy response, we’ll likely see another Williams winner in the future, but we’re just not sure when. The remaining unavailable Doris Day films (The Ballad Of Josie, Midnight Lace, Where Were You When The Lights Went Out? to name a few) are controlled by different studios, so individual releases are far more likely. We’ve heard nothing about more Ginger Rogers titles on the way. There’s plenty that the majors could bring us: Warner controls such RKO films as Tender Comrade (with Robert Ryan) and Once Upon A Honeymoon (with Cary Grant), as well as MGM’s Weekend At The Waldorf. Universal’s got The Groom Wore Spurs (with Jack Carson) and Magnificent Doll, in which she played Dolly Madison to David Niven’s Aaron Burr and Burgess Meredith’s James Madison. Fox has Dreamboat (with Clifton Webb), while Columbia’s library boasts It Had To Be You, co-starring Cornel Wilde.
Question: Hello, Movie Irv. Would you have any info on Boomerang, or any other new Fox noir titles coming out? Also, how about The Blue Dahlia, The Glass Key, Phantom Lady and Ministry Of Fear. Universal put them out on VHS several years ago. Others I’m interested in include To Each His Own, Arabesque, Mirage, The Farmer’s Daughter and The List Of Adrian Messenger. Will we ever see these titles on DVD or will they be forever lost in limbo? Thanks very much for your wonderful column. Answer: We love all the movies you suggested (Stanley Donen’s Arabesque with Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren is a personal fave of ours!). While Universal (who also controls a significant chunk of the old Paramount library) has the rights to many of the titles you cited, they seem reluctant to take the cue from other studios and market a film noir collection or line. Nor have we heard anything on the much-requested The List Of Adrian Messenger, a tricky whodunit with all sorts of great cameos. A shame. On a positive note, Fox has, in fact, scheduled Elia Kazan’s 1947 crime classic Boomerang for a late September release date. The Dana Andrews-Jane Wyatt thriller has been announced and withdrawn several times before, so we hope this time the DVD date is the reel deal. It will be issued with two interesting titles with Ida Lupino: 1948’s Road House, with Richard Widmark and Cornel Wilde as bar owners battling for Ms. Lupino’s attention, and 1942’s obscure Moontide, a melodrama set on and around the docks of San Pablo, California, boasting Jean Gabin as a hard-drinking dockworker who befriends the emotionally distraught Lupino.
Question: Will Criterion ever reissue Hitchcock's Rebecca and Notorious? Also, what are the chances we would ever see the Lunt / Fontanne The Guardsman, which was once published on VHS.
You're the best. Answer: We have good news for you—in a way. The David O. Selznick-produced Hitchcocks, which include Rebecca, Notorious and Spellbound, are all being reissued in October, but they will be from MGM (through Fox), who now controls the Selznick studio library. The Criterion versions were only produced under a relatively short-term licensing agreement. In addition to being released separately, those three titles will also be packaged in an eight-disc set called Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection, which will also include Lifeboat, Sabotage, The Paradine Case, Young And Innocent and The Lodger. You can access them on our website right now. Unfortunately, we’ve heard nary a whisper about 1931’s The Guardsman, in which jealous actor Alfred Lunt impersonates wife Lynn Fontanne’s lover, whom he has imagined. Warner holds the rights to this MGM production, but the company has nothing to add to the discussion of a DVD release.
Question: Hello, Irv. Universal & MGM have announced a slew of Hitchcock titles slated for October ‘08. Is it possible that we'll get Blu-ray releases for these? I really hope that Universal doesn't expect us to triple/quadruple dip on Psycho, Vertigo and Rear Window when they can just make HD copies available. The same goes for the Hitchcocks in the forthcoming MGM collection. Also, has WHV cancelled/abandoned their Jean Harlow boxset? It's still hard to believe that with such an active fanbase, WHV continues to drag their feet on this. A Hell's Angels (1930) SE from Universal would be nice, but I know hell (no pun intended) would probably freeze over before this happens. There is just so much outtake, screen test and premiere footage out there on that film to continue lingering in a vault somewhere. Answer: We’re sorry to say that we have no news on Hitchcock on Blu-Ray. We thought for sure Hitch would get on Blu-Ray this time out, but we believe the studios are looking at a younger audience for the young format. We think this is a tremendous oversight and believe the classic films should be available in the best possible quality format. That said, we’re happy that Criterion is about to unleash some of their incredible library on Blu-Ray. As for Howard Hughes’ production of Hell’s Angels, we think a special edition is likely, and may make its way onto DVD the early part of next year, although we’ve heard nothing new on Harlow from Warner as of late.
Question: Was wondering about a DVD release of the 1947 film Repeat Performance. Any chance? Thanks. Answer: Wow! We’ve never received a request for this little-seen film! But we’re glad you asked about it. We’ve heard absolutely zilch about a DVD appearance of this British production, in which Joan Leslie plays an actress who murders philandering husband Louis Hayward on New Year’s Eve, then gets a chance to relive the past year and see all of the problems brought to surface. The film also stars Virginia Field, Richard Basehart (in his debut), and Tom Conway; Leslie had a cameo in its 1989 made-for-TV remake, Turn Back The Clock. Our research tells us the film’s rights are now controlled by Lionsgate, but sources at the company didn’t even know about it. A real pity, because this is an unusual mix of fantasy, soap opera and film noir that would probably win an audience if it was more widely seen.
Question: Any idea if a U.S. version of Toho Studio's Uchu Daisenso, a.k.a. Battle In Space, will be released ? Along with The Mysterians, this is one of my all-time favorite Japanese sci-fi movies. It's a silly movie but I love it. I can get a Japanese copy on DVD, but a Region 1 subtitled copy would be better. And have you heard any rumors about PT-109 finally being released on DVD?
Answer: We think that this Toho Studios release was partially backed by Columbia, so Sony still may maintain some control of the title along with The H-Man, another much-requested Japanese title from director Inoshiro Honda. We can tell you not to expect to see it soon. Too bad, because we do get lots of e-mail about this 1961 alien invasion classic that is a perfect double-bill with The Mysterians.
Question: Are there any James Stewart movies that are known to be lost forever (deteriorated over time or lost for some other reason?) Answer: We think all of James Stewart’s movies are saved somewhere, but there are major gaps in his filmography on DVD, and were even before, on VHS. As a for-instance, The Murder Man, a 1935 newspaper drama from Warner, has never been issued anywhere. You would hope that any movie with Spencer Tracy, Virginia Bruce, Lionel Atwill and a young Stewart would warrant a release, but no. It could be because a suitable print has never been found, but we’ll never know the reason for its absence. Other MIA Stewart titles include Speed, Seventh Heaven, The Last Gangster, and the aforementioned Carbine Williams.
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