Mark Harris at Slate has the word on the Warner Archive Collection. For only $19.95, Warner will burn a DVD just for you, from its “not released on DVD” list. You can see, among other things, Robert Altman’s crappiest film, Countdown (1968), which Mark describes as “a dull moon-landing thriller in which the sets look like they're made out of spray-painted Styrofoam and pressboard.” Also available, Spitfire (1932), featuring Katherine Hepburn cast seriously against type as a hillbilly (really). I’m not sure I’d want to pay $19.95 to hear Kate’s Bryn Mawr cornpone, but if you do, you can.
Afterwords
These films have not been restored for release, and at this point only 165 flicks are available, but Mark is seriously bullish, claiming that ultimately Warner will dump its entire collection of 5,600 not-on-DVD flicks into the mill. So if you’ve got a loose $112 grand on you, you could be sitting pretty.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Neurotics Rejoice!
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8 comments:
Where you been, Vanneman? Gary scooped you on this back in March.
It's great news, but few films offered are worth $20. I've been waiting for them to lower their freaking price per disc to $15 and offer package deals, this aint 2007... he sighed, knowingly.
Agreed, Erich. A lower price would be nice, although TCM's vault dvds are also 20 clams (but those are actual DVD releases with extras, etc, so they're a little more worth the cash).
But hey, Warners got "One Trick Pony," from when Paul Simon actually thought he could act (he and Garfunkel suffered together on that delusion)!
Erich, your point is worth repeating, and addressing. Rumor has it that Warner is hearing enough bitching - I mean polite querying - about the price point that they're considering lowering it to a more reasonable level, like $10 or $12. Despite the wretched economy, of course, we all want to endlessly indulge in impulse media buying (how better to forget the present nightmare than with I Was an American Spy and The Magic Voyage of Sinbad?), but we cannot be impulsive at $19.95 a pop. To paraphrase Pert Kelton in Bed of Roses, being told by warden Jane Darewell to control her "impulses" upon release from prison, "I tell ya, I ain't got an impulse left."
Oh Christ, it's Jane DARWELL, not Darewell. Sorry, Jane. Must be those Horatio damn Alger novels I've been reading. Darewell sounds like a Horatio Alger name, doesn't it? Dick Darewell. Dickensian too, perhaps, like the evil Mr. Steerforth.
A couple of other things people are complaining about re: the Warner Archive releases: (1) they're DVD-Rs ("not properly authored" say some); and (2) they can't be played on DVD recorders cuz Warner is afraid people will dupe and sell.
Also, a friend tells me he's seeing some of these releases (all of which are still available through Warner) on ebay at double and triple the $19.95 price tag. Apparently they're taking advantage of any fans or collectors who haven't (somehow) noticed what WB is doing. Shocking!
I already ordered and received Angel Baby and Minnelli's Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Didn't see anything in the new batch that interested me.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Yeah, I figured that BLAD must have run something, but my site search was cursory. I also figured that BLAD regulars wouldn't be as grateful as Mark Harris, who appears to be excited to learn that Clark Gable made a film before "Gone With The Wind."
I imagine cineastes could pester their libraries to buy copies, or they could set up a "nonprofit" and see if they could talk Warners into a fleet rate. Doesn't anyone want to see "Spitfire"?
I felt the two titles I ordered--Red Lily and Exit Smiling--were well worth 20 bucks. As silents from the twenties, they not only looked terrific, but they're fine movies, certainly better than many of the Collection's sound era offerings. The newest batch they've added contains no silents, however--Warners is probably getting cautious.
Harris is an ignoramus. I'm a contrarian re Altman. Countdown is one of his few decent films, despite the unconvincing moon effects.
However, the whole Warners archive thing is a marketing ploy to charge above market prices for bare bones DVDs. Most of the cost in manufacturing a DVD is incurred by the film to video transfer, not mass duplicating DVDs and snap cases.
Despite Harris's surprise to discover Countdown or McQueen's An Enemy of the People, these films aren't really obscure, and the marquee value of Altman or McQueen would certainly sell a modest run of conventionally packaged DVDs of their films.
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