The Extras
The Extras
The Stars Shine In Our July Warner Archive Blu-ray Reviews
The Stars Shine in our review of six new Blu-rays from the Warner Archive. To begin, George Feltenstein takes us through the intricate process of restoring the 1940 Technicolor epic "Northwest Passage," starring Spencer Tracy, discussing the hurdles of working with nitrate negatives and the impressive results. This cinema classic from King Vidor brims with adventure and beautiful landscapes that look better than ever.
Our reviews continue as we spotlight Clark Gable and Norma Shearer's unforgettable performances in the 1939 MGM classic "Idiot's Delight." George explains director Clarence Brown's anti-war messaging and details the inclusion of both the international and American endings to the film.
Next, we review the 1965 musical "Harum Scarum" starring Elvis in a comedy set in the deserts of Arabia. Gorgeous sets filled with beautiful women plus Elvis' trademark rock'n'roll songs make this a pop hit for Elvis fans.
Finally, we shine a light on three forgotten gems that deserve a second look. We start with the 1995 period drama "The Stars Fell on Henrietta" starring Robert Duvall in an unforgettable performance and supporting actors Aidan Quinn, Frances Fisher, and Brian Dennehy. Next, we highlight Sissy Spacek's powerful role in the 1985 film "Marie, A True Story." Directed Roger Donaldson, this film has a terrific script and a wonderful supporting cast that includes Jeff Daniels, Morgan Freeman, and Fred Thompson. And finally, there is the heartwarming 1994 Irish film "War of the Buttons," a gem of a family film that deserves a wider audience.
Tune in for an episode brimming with film reviews, restoration insights, and a profound appreciation for cinematic history! As always, we provide a full review of each film, a detailed explanation of the HD restoration, and background on all of the included extras.
NORTHWEST PASSAGE (1940)
IDIOT’S DELIGHT (1939)
HARUM SCARUM (1965)
MARIE: A TRUE STORY (1985)
THE STARS FELL ON HENRIETTA (1995)
WAR OF THE BUTTONS (1994)
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Hello and welcome to the Extras. I'm Tim Millard, your host, and joining me today is George Feldstein of the Warner Archive, to review six July-August film releases from the Warner Archive.
Speaker 2:Hi George, hey Tim, once again, it is always a pleasure to be with you and to talk about what we've got coming out, and we've got a lot to talk about today, so I've been looking forward to this, as I always do.
Speaker 1:And I'll just say a quick word to everybody out there listening. I have been on vacation a lot this summer. We haven't had as many podcasts rolling out, but I've always made it a priority, George, when you and I get together to talk about the Warner Archive releases and it was great fun to go through these what I'm going to call July releases. That got pushed into August, and I think that kind of leads right into a question I had for you, which is Top Cat, the complete series. Is that still going to be coming out in August or is that moving?
Speaker 2:We've already made a change on our Facebook page and I think it's been pretty much communicated out to everyone that that's a September 17th street date.
Speaker 2:The delay is part of what has delayed other titles this year, in that there is not enough replication in North America right now, with only one company doing all the work for everybody, and we're not the only company that has had to shift release dates. We're not the only company that has had to shift release dates, but we also don't want to rush any processes beforehand. So everything seems to be aligned that hopefully we'll get the train back on the track. We're doing our best, but I'd rather wait a couple more weeks and make sure that the release is to our quality standards and there aren't going to be any issues that would cause a defective release, so forth and so on. Right, so, uh, in the case of top cat is just replication, space and time, and it's going to be a great release and people will be really happy when they see it. Well, we'll have a lot to talk about when we talk about Top Cap, but let's talk about these.
Speaker 1:originally July 30th, now released on August 13th titles yes, and just one note we won't be talking about the Scooby Doo double feature. We'll push that off into one of our future episodes as well. So we're going to talk about six titles today, three that are classic, uh, older films, and then three more recent classics. I think it'd be kind of fun, we'll we'll kind of ping pong back and forth, so I'll throw at you, uh, which one we're going to talk about next. But, uh, right off the bat, I enjoyed all of them, but I I thought we'd start with the only Technicolor film that we're going to be talking about, because of how much work and how great these Technicolor restorations have been, and this one falls right into that, and that's the epic Northwest Passage starring Spencer Tracy. This is a rip, roaringroaring, fun adventure story and it's just beautifully shot on location and, as I mentioned, everything about it looks and sounds terrific.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm so proud of this and I'm so grateful that it came out as, dare I say, perfect as it did. But when we're working with the Technicolor nitrate feature, we're having to scan each of the three negatives really. You know the yellow, the cyan, the magenta, black and white negatives that when put together they create a recombine and we align to the pixel. And this is just a dramatic difference. That was not possible in the film lab of 1940 when the film came out, and I've talked about this before. But our scanning team, who are artisans of the highest order, what they're able to do with these films is jaw-dropping, the process of making sure that there isn't a speckle or anything wrong with the image, but we're making sure that it's gone through two or three passes of quality control. But when I first saw it I was like wow, and it would probably be good for me to explain a little bit about the history of these, specifically the MGM films. The MGM Technicolor films were transferred from nitrate stock to safety stock as part of MGM's nitrate to safety conversion program, which began in the mid-60s and continued for over 10 years. And as they would finish making that transition, they chipped the negatives off to storage at what was then called George Eastman House in Rochester and that's where the nitrate would be cared for, happily. You know we've talked before about the George Eastman House fire in the late 70s. Northwest Passage and many of the Technicolor films were spared the flames not all, and some films it was like one or two reels got burned, the rest didn't. All of Northwest Passage was complete and what MGM did in the 70s was they made color reversal internegatives and that was a kind of cheap film element that allowed you to copy the negative and make prints from that color reversal internegatives. So it basically made it a one-step process to making a release print. The color reversal internegatives were very unstable. They didn't look very good and it wasn't until the very late 80s that Turner Entertainment Company which was MGM Entertainment Company without the name MGM since the name had been sold out Under the ownership of Ted Turner. Turner Entertainment Company continued the MGM preservation process but went back and made new interpositives of all the Technicolor films because the color reversal internegatives were not good at all.
Speaker 2:So a lot of what people saw on laser discs in the 90s and some of our DVDs in the aughts and whatnot came from these interpositives Better than what had been before with the color reversal internegatives, than what had been before with the color reversal internegatives, but lacking, depending on what lab did them, and there were about four or five different laboratories that made these interpositives, and the interpositive on Northwest Passage came from one of the lesser qualified labs, shall we say, and I was not pleased with the muddy ready look of it. So every time I've seen this film until Our New Master, it's been kind of brown and rusty looking and not at all what King Vidor intended in creating a mostly outdoor technicolor historical spectacular in terms of history. So seeing this is the result of a lot of technological improvements in how we scan and recombine the 4K elements, and that scan becomes the 1080p HD master that creates our Blu-ray. So this was just a jaw-dropping example of all that work and the progress, as technology has progressed, of our ability to make these films look better than they did when they came out, which is sometimes it would seem like that's a kind of ridiculous statement, but in this case it's actually true, because those original prints were soft the nature of putting three layers together and the dyes that were embedded in what is called the dye transfer process. They had an inherent softness that helped to tone down the grain and we have found a perfect balance or we aim for a perfect balance, or we aim for a perfect balance where the film retains its grain structure but also retains or obtains, I should say, a sharpness that it never had before. So from a technological standpoint it's a winner.
Speaker 2:But the film itself is amazing because when you think those Technicolor cameras were so big and heavy and this was mostly filmed outdoors, and that's why I'm delighted that, as we did on the old DVD, we have included the featurette Northward Ho, which MGM made to show how hard it was to make this film. They didn't do those kinds of things very often in those days and thankfully in this case they documented how hard it was to just physically make this film. And then, of course, you have a superb screenplay and great performances from everyone, but most specifically Spencer Tracy, and I just think you know I happen to be very, very enamored of King Vidor's work. He's one of my favorite directors. To have this film look so good and really bring this into the 21st century in a major way, so that people will look at this movie and not say, oh, it's almost 85 years old, it doesn't look like it, right, so yeah, ho, that really does show you how big the cameras are and they're trying to place them on the mountainsides and the rivers and the lake, like.
Speaker 1:It gives you a great peek into that process. And this was a very expensive film. Very, yeah, so it was a very expensive film. It's shot on location in beautiful Idaho, as you mentioned, and the little featurette there shows it well and gives you that background to it. So I'm so glad you're able to include that. But as you watch it and you're thinking, you know, having watched the film, about just all the extras there, the camera setups and then the physical rigor of playing those parts and dragging those boats up the mountain. I'm not giving away anything plot-wise, but just some of the production that they had to go through. It's fascinating. The movie just pops with this new Technicolor restoration and it just makes it so enjoyable to watch. If you enjoy these adventure stories, these epic stories, this is right up there for an MGM from 1940, going back quite a ways, and it just looks it doesn't look like a 1940 film, put it that way.
Speaker 2:No, not at all. And especially MGM was very tentative about Technicolor. Really, before this you can count on one hand the three-color process, technicolor features, some of which weren't even all Technicolor. You had the Wizard of Oz, which was basically Technicolor with the beginning and end in sepia tone, and you had Sweethearts with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, which was the first MGM feature with Technicolor. And there was a finale for Ice Follies of 1939 with Joan Crawford. You know that finale sequence is in Technicolor but the rest of the movie was black and white. So 1940 was MGM opening the door a little bit.
Speaker 2:Northwest Passage was the big outdoor epic and then there were other films to follow but they didn't really embrace Technicolor with a vengeance until after World War II. 20th Century Fox, I think, was far more aggressive in that period of the early 40s of using Technicolor. I have heard that LB Mayer didn't particularly like color initially, regardless of the process, but he changed his mind Really. I think one of the key films that helped change his mind was Meet Me in St Louis, because the technicolor films really started to flow after that. So this is really a remarkable film from a technological standpoint as well as a storytelling standpoint. The acting. The performance is everything, and I didn't put anything else on this disc. I didn't put any cartoons on this disc.
Speaker 2:I wanted that featurette to speak for the making of the film and stay true to just Northwest Passage and stay true to just Northwest Passage, and it was based on a best-selling book. That was actually. It had another part to it and I think the studio intended to make the second part, but the costs and the coming of the war put that on hold and it's really a shame, because many people have spoken to me about this film and they've said, oh, I wish they had made the second part. The first part was so good, but it stands on its own and, of course, most people don't even know that it was part of like a two part story, right? So, um, very proud and very glad that you enjoyed it. I can tell that you really are enthusiastic about it and that's incredibly rewarding.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. I just think every time these Technicolor films come out, they're just so worthy of the spotlight because of all the work. And then you know, kind of, as you just went through, the fact, that this is a 1940, you know, going way back, and it looks like. It looks like something much more recent, that's for sure. So this is a. This is a home run from this month. I thought that we would start off talking about Now the next one. We're going to jump ahead. This is from 1985.
Speaker 1:But I was very impressed with this film the acting, the cast, everything. And this is Marie, A True Story, directed by Roger Donaldson. I thought this was a very good film. Sissy Spacek is terrific and there's just a strong supporting cast with Jeff Daniels, Morgan Freeman and Fred Thompson. It's a story about corruption in the Tennessee state government, but it's also a really strong feminist story about this character that Sissy Spacek portrays of Marie and all that she had to overcome. It's inspiring and it's a bit of a drama and thriller at the same time. So I really enjoyed this film a lot.
Speaker 2:It is a terrific film and it's somewhat forgotten. It was a modest success when it came out. This was part of a group of films that were being produced by Dino De Laurentiis and MGM had acquired domestic distribution in perpetuity, which meant that when we purchased Turner which had purchased the MGM library up through April 1986, this became part of the Warner library in the United States and Canada. So I thought it would be very, very, very important to get this film out there, because it has a very important message. It is now oh God help us, it's almost 40 years old. I can't believe that. But you know, it's incredibly timely because it's about someone taking a risk and advocating corruption. And Lord knows we still need people to do that today, because I unfortunately think the world is a lot more corrupt now than it was even then. But you think of movies that came later, like Erin Brockovich. This is really a precursor to that, yes. Movies that came later, like Aaron Brockovich this is really a precursor to that, yes. And at the same time, sissy Spacek was already an Oscar winner, having won Best Actress for Coal Miner's Daughter in 1981 for the 1980 film. It's just terrific. And Jeff Daniels and Morgan Freeman are just superb. I don't think they're ever not Right.
Speaker 2:And this was Fred Thompson's first movie. He did a lot of film work and then became part of Congress and then went back to film work and I understand he's since passed away, but he's portraying himself. He's since passed away, but he's portraying himself. He really was that character in the true life story of Marie Right. I think it also is lovely to see it on Blu-ray because it is a widescreen film and it just it looks terrific. The Blu-ray is very, very impressive and this is a story that needs to be told. It's very impressive and this is a story that needs to be told. It's very inspirational.
Speaker 2:Roger Donaldson is a really fine director. A lot of people may not know his name, but they know certain films that he directed, like no Way Out with Kevin Costner or the remake of the Getaway with Alec Baldwin. He had a lot of really good hit films. He got awareness in the United States when there was suddenly a focus on Australian cinema and a film called Smash Palace in 1981. That was a big hit on the art circuit and that's what led him to come to Hollywood. He even got to direct Tom Cruise in Cocktail. That was probably his biggest box office hit.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:In any event, I hope people will pick this film up and enjoy it. It's really a terrific, terrific film.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was looking up Donaldson and some of his filmography and you just went through it but I was like, oh wow, I know so many of these films but I had forgotten a little bit about him specifically and it was good to be reminded of the quality of work that he's done. What can you say? Going back to the film, what can you say about Sissy Spacek? I mean, she just say about sissy's basic. I mean she just brings a uh, such a humanity to this character and quite the arc.
Speaker 1:She starts off as this abused wife has three kids and has has to start this journey of uh, of leaving this man and then going back to school and then going through all of this, needing to stand up to these very powerful politicians and a corrupt system, and she is so inspiring. Obviously, the story is knowing that these same types of corruptions are going on all the time and people need to do what she did in terms of standing up against the government, the institution, whatever it might be, that is corrupt in this case. So I just wanted to talk about a little bit earlier. I know a lot of times we talk about some of the newer films a little later in our review, but I just wanted to bring it to people's attention early because it's such a fine film.
Speaker 2:I think that's, you know, what gets the most attention in what we do are, you know, the classics, and the really big classics, like a Northwest Passage. But we try to cover all bases and having films from the 80s and 90s and 70s, 60s, you know, whatever decade, things need to get a new light upon them. And this film is basically 40 years old and it was not like an Oscar-winning blockbuster. It was a modest success and well-received and not unlike other films of its era, like Silkwood, which I believe came two years earlier. You know, this was a period in the 80s we had a lot of films this is before comic book blockbuster movies, you know, ruled the box office, so people were making films that had a statement, and the statement here is still quite prescient and, uh, I really hope people will enjoy this. And uh, again to your point, sissy spacek despite having won an oscar, I still think she's underrated for being the exceptional actress that she is. She's given so many phenomenal performances and I'm very, very grateful we were able to bring this out.
Speaker 1:Well, because of what you just said, because of the kind of the older films and then the newer films that are blended, this month we're going to ping pong back to one of the older classics now and go all the way back to 1939. And this is Idiot's Delight, starring Clark Gable and Norma Shearer I guess the word is right in the title. This is a pretty delightful film, very entertaining, and the performances by both Gable and Shearer are top notch, I thought.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this was clearly a class A MGM production from start to finish and it was based on a play that won the Pulitzer Prize from Robert Sherwood, who was, I would say, one of, if not the most prestigious playwright of that era, and it had a definite anti-war, pacifist tone to it and because of that a lot of people thought the play would be unfilmable. Because of pressure from certain foreign countries that were already dictatorships, like Italy and Germany and you know, I know at least one studio turned it down. Mgm paid a great deal of money for the rights to film it and had Sherwood write the screenplay. So this was one of the most prestigious releases they were working on at the time and it kicked off the year 1939, which was not only an amazing year for MGM but I consider the greatest year in Hollywood history, at least the golden age of Hollywood. We've talked about this many times, We've made a documentary about it here. It's incomparable what every studio was able to do that year. It was the apex of the studio system before the war and everything else basically changed the business. So the pacifist tone of the movie led to MGM kind of attempting to make a harder hitting film, and when they previewed it.
Speaker 2:The audiences really hated the end of the movie, so they reshot the end of the movie and there basically are two endings. And that's why we have two endings on the disc, because what you're watching when you see the movie is the international version, which is far more somber than the ending they had for US audiences, which was a little more frivolous and happy-go-lucky, whereas you know they're singing Abide With Me and Bombs Are Going Off in the background in the European version. So one of the concerns when we announced this was oh, why aren't they having both versions? Because our DVD only had one ending. The DVD release was one of the famous 150 DVDs that started the Warner Archive 15 years ago, and when you're putting 150 films out at once and doing it in an untested way, because we didn't know the business was going to be the success that it was, we weren't able to dedicate the attention. It was basically the disc. You put it in, it plays and eventually it's now well-known to our loyal consumers.
Speaker 2:We started to be able to add trailers and eventually remaster things and so forth and so on, but Idiot's Delight was just the movie only and only one ending. This gives you the US ending as a special feature, so use at all, was far more incendiary to the audiences and the studio was very frightened that they had a bomb on their hands with two of their biggest stars. Fortunately, it turned out not to be that. A lot of people really loved the film and it is considered. You know, when you have William Daniels as the cinematographer, clarence Brown directing great cast, it's a great entertainment and it's provocative and very thoughtful. Of course it's most famous for Clark Gable's musical number Putting on the Ritz. That was excerpted and that's entertainment.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:But the film is so much more substantial than that and it had been a big hit on the Broadway stage with Alfred Lunt and Lin Fontaine, who really were Broadway superstars, only made one movie, but they made it for MGM. And no, we haven't put it out yet, but we will. It was on VHS. We've got to do something with it, yeah. So who knows what the future is for the Guardsmen?
Speaker 2:That was the name of the film, but it's often been said that norma shearer was trying to emulate the stage performance of lynn fontaine. I can't vouch for that because I wasn't around then, but uh, I think she's terrific in it. Gable is particularly good and this is what he did right before they started Gone with the Wind. So it's an honor to be able to bring these films out. And again, this film hadn't been touched in terms of remastering in 30 years, so we were able to scan a preservation element at 4K. The original negative did burn in the fire. The preservation element was a second generation fine grain gave us a beautiful picture. The sound has been restored. It's a great presentation and I'm just delighted.
Speaker 1:I'm not an idiot, I don't think, but I'm delighted by this movie yeah, you, you just mentioned clark gable, who is uh so charming in this film. But she just that whole Russian countess element you know where she's? They're up in the mountains there. That whole sequence she just I don't know. I thought she just steals the show. She's just so good. I don't know. She's so good, and obviously she's so good in many things. But I just love that and it's so great now that you're able to put both endings on. There are a couple other extras. You put some classic cartoons on.
Speaker 2:Indeed, there are.
Speaker 1:So you have what? The good egg, and it's an ill win, both in HD and then the theatrical trailer.
Speaker 2:So this is a great, great disc for the fans. Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it as much as I did. I'm very, very happy that it's in people's hands and it has a message that is, unfortunately, quite timely, yeah, so I hope that it will keep people thinking and support good versus evil.
Speaker 1:Well, now to continue our theme here we're going to bounce back to 1995 and a gem of a film, especially because of the star, and it's loaded, actually, with great actors from the 80s and 90s, and that's the film the Stars Fell on Henrietta, released in 1995. And one of my all-time favorite actors plays the lead in this, and that's Robert Duvall. And then supporting him is Aidan Quinn, Brian Dennehy and the lovely Frances Fisher. This is a. I really enjoyed this film. It's told in a classic way about these down-and-out characters and it has that feel-good quality to it that never gets old. But it's really Duvall's performance that drives this film.
Speaker 2:That was exactly what I was just about to say. This is a showcase for Robert Duvall. He is this film. This is a Malpaso production. Mr eastwood and his production company produced this movie and, uh, the studio's attitude at the time and I don't really think it's changed. You know, whatever mr eastwood wants to do, we're behind it. What he did was he put his A-team on this movie and they really created a work that transcends. It, helps you basically time travel back into the 1930s with, I think, impressive accuracy. It really conveys the period. The costuming, the cinematography directed by James Keech, is beautifully done.
Speaker 2:I just thought this film really needs reappraisal because it kind of got overlooked when it was released. It kind of got overlooked when it was released. We created a new master for this and anytime we work on a Malpaso production it has to get the seal of approval from Joel Cox, who is Clint's editor, his Oscar-winning editor, and really is the unofficial motor behind what keeps Malpaso going. So he sat with the colorist John Yarbrough as they created the new master that is used for this Blu-ray. They made it look so gorgeous and it's so compelling.
Speaker 2:All the acting is sensational. It really speaks for itself. But it is not a film that a lot of people have heard about. That's part of what we try to do is remind people of certain movies that were released in the past, and I don't mean, you know, the old Hollywood era classics, but more recent films, this being only 30 years old, so you know, it's really a gem of a picture, and I am a fan of Mr Duvall, as you are, and this is really the kind of showcase for his inestimable talents, the way Tender Mercies was a decade earlier and that earned him an Academy Award. He really he was one of the great actors of our time, without question, and he makes this film into something really special.
Speaker 2:And there's even a little part in this movie played by Billy Bob Thornton.
Speaker 1:Yes, I thought I recognized him. You know it's fun and the same was true of Marie to see these just such fine actors in the lead roles, but then these fantastic supporting cast as well of also extremely fine actors that they loaded these films with, and it's great to see them in their different roles. So, yeah, a real gem. So glad you're bringing it out for all of the Duvall fans and and fans of these little classics that maybe kind of get forgotten and shouldn't be forgotten at all.
Speaker 2:I quite agree.
Speaker 1:Well, we'll. We'll go a little lighter with the last two films here that we're going to talk about, and we'll start with the 1965 Elvis film Harem, scare-em. And, like the other Elvis films you've released recently, these are just, they're just fun. They're like popcorn, right, they're light, they have some action, some espionage, some beautiful girls, and then elvis sings and fantastic music. I think in this one he might even be doing a little kung fu yeah, there's karate, because he actually was in real life.
Speaker 2:He was doing karate and that was kind of like the karate period, yes and uh. So they they weaved that into this Overseas. The film was called Harem Holiday. There's, of course, a song in the movie, Harem Holiday. I think they were originally going to release it here as well under that title. Why they changed it to Harem Skirm, I have no idea.
Speaker 2:One of the things about Elvis's filmography is it's no secret that very few of his films took advantage of giving him the kind of roles that showed that he was quite more substantial as an actor than the screenplays he was often given. There are exceptions to that that underscore his ability as an actor, but these films are very heavily laden with music and it's really an opportunity to hear Elvis sing and the color is gorgeous. This is another case where we went back to the negative, scanned it in 4K, created a new master and it's just a lot of light fun, and all the Elvis fans keep asking for more Elvis films and we shall deliver among all the other diversity that we're trying to bring from this library that covers more than 100 years of movies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think it's great that you're getting these out on Blu-ray, because you just mentioned the color, the sets, the costumes. They always do a terrific job on these Elvis films. I guess they're filmed in Metro color and so they're just eye candy as you're watching. There's a lot of eye candy in there. You're going to have a good time. If you enjoy Elvis and his music mixed in there, it's going to be a good time. And then you have a couple of cartoons that you put on here and the original theatrical trailer as well.
Speaker 2:Some of the Chuck Jones, Tom and Jerry cartoons that were made in the era. This gives people a chance to see them in HD. And again, it's the concept of if you went to see this movie in 1965 in a theater, what would you have seen along with the movie. And there you go. So it's just a lot of fun and the fans have been very, very supportive of the Elvis releases, so we hope there will be more in the future.
Speaker 1:Well, the last film we're going to review, I'm going to say it's really a gem of a film, one that I was not familiar with. Maybe part of it is kind of like a midwinter's the film that we talked about a few months ago, kind of like that. That's maybe been forgotten or for whatever reason, in the States here, not as well known because it's set in Ireland, but that's the War of the Buttons from 1994. It's charming, it's funny, it's just all around a terrific film, and when I went into watching this I did not expect to enjoy it so much.
Speaker 2:Well, it has no famous names attached to it. It is truly a forgotten film and it was a remake of a French film based on a French novel. The production company, I believe. If I'm correct, I think David Putnam was involved in the production of this movie. He was the producer and he had had great success just a few years earlier with films like Chariots of Fire and so forth, so he had the ability to get films made that wouldn't otherwise be made. This was a small indie production.
Speaker 2:I think we're very fortunate to have it in the library. I thought it deserved to be released and that people would discover it and find it very lighthearted, very enjoyable. It's rated PG. This is a family movie. It just has a great deal of potential, great deal of potential.
Speaker 2:These are the kinds of films we want people to discover and part of the Warner Archives mission has always been rare and hard to find and we had put this on DVD, but now it's in Blu-ray with a beautiful new HD master. We're very proud of the release and I hope that people will enjoy. It got a lot of very positive response when we announced this, which made me quite, quite happy because I knew there was probably a little fan base for it, but uh, it was a lot larger than I thought it would be. This did not have a very broad theatrical release. It's not the kind of thing that you're going to see popping up in streaming. The way to watch it is by buying the disc from the Warner Archive collection, so I don't think anybody who buys it will regret it.
Speaker 1:I totally agree with what you just said about that, david Putnam.
Speaker 1:I mean he has a long up in the US, not understanding Ireland and some of the the culture there. I was just drawn in because it's it takes you back to your own childhood and just the natural, these rivalries that can happen, and it's a fantastically wonderful tale as you go along. I just enjoyed it and I am so glad that you're putting out these films because the 90s were a great era for independent filmmaking and now we're not in that era and we haven't been for a while. We're not in that era and we haven't been for a while.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and we usually find films like this in the New Line part of our library because New Line was dedicating their self-funded productions to like sequels to Nightmare on Elm Street or a john waters movie or whatever, um, and they made really terrific movies. But they, through their fine line films division, would acquire films of this nature right, and we've been putting some of those out. But this was, um, basically british bound production adapted from a French work, so it was kind of like an English-French co-production, but very much funded by the studio. The studio wasn't just an acquisition. There was real hope that this could turn into something very special.
Speaker 2:I think it was overshadowed by the glut of so many films being released into the theaters, because not only were the major studios putting out robust release schedules but you had all these little independent distribution companies putting out both domestic and international movies into the Indian art circuit, and the 90s was really the growth period for that kind of film. So it was rare for our studio at that time to take the smaller films like that. It wasn't always successful in theatrical distribution to do that and that was the beauty of the day when you could go to your Blockbuster and rent a VHS tape and it started with that and then going on to cable. Now you get to buy it on a Blu-ray with the most phenomenal quality. It's a brand new master. I also like the fact that it's an hour and a half long. It starts its storytelling right away and it's just so tight and so well constructed and so well written. It's really a pleasure and I think people who pick this up will be really happy to give it discovery.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was trying to. As you were talking, I was trying to think where else are you going to find a film like this? As you were talking, I was trying to think where else are you going to find a film like this? There's no mail DVD service, there's no blockbuster stores. There's no odds of this going on a streaming.
Speaker 2:Not going to happen? I'm not sure.
Speaker 1:I don't even know. I don't think this would be on TCM. It doesn't feel like it would. It's not going to be on max. It's like you're not going to be able to get this film, except for from the Warner archive, I think, and you're going to be very happy to have this on your shelf because it's a delightful film. So so glad you guys are putting it out. It's got a you know just a real strong pedigree of people who are behind it. You know just a real strong pedigree of people who are behind it. So so highly recommended.
Speaker 2:And it deserves a rewatch every once in a while if you want to feel good. Yes, it's a feel good movie, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it when you say, okay, it's a film with a lot of child actors, they're all dealt with and the characters are developed very well, very thoughtfully, and the performances are very well done. So just a delight. Well, george, six movies, three more recent in the last well, let's say within the last 40 years, and the others in the last 80, 90 years. But just a great month and a lot of fun to watch. And just so. It's so easy when you have movies of this quality to be able to recommend them to people because of how great they look on Blu-ray.
Speaker 2:Well, we, we try to please various different components of our consumer base, various different components of our consumer base. The mission statement is to get as much as we can out of the vault and onto people's shelves at home with the best possible quality, and I hope we're achieving that.
Speaker 1:For sure you are. For sure you are so well as always. George, thanks for coming on. It's always a pleasure to go over these movies with you. Thanks, tim.
Speaker 2:It's great to be here. Go over these movies with you. Thanks, tim, it's great to be here. I look forward to our next talk. We're going to have a lot of fun stuff to talk about soon.
Speaker 1:Lots of fun stuff and, as we mentioned at the beginning of the podcast Top Cat, the complete series is moving out to September. So that's being moved out a couple of weeks and we will have pre-order links for that release when it is made available. And there's a lot of exciting things coming up. Some of you may remember that George announced the Alaskans and that series has been delayed. It is now scheduled for the end of August. So I'm looking forward to reviewing that and speaking to George about it. So you can look forward to that, and we should be getting more information soon about the Looney Tunes Collector's Choice Volume 4 and the individual titles that are going to be on that. So we hope to have George and Jerry on for that discussion in the near future. If you haven't yet subscribed or you're not following the show, you may want to do that at your favorite podcast provider so that you don't miss anything that is coming down the line. Until next time you've been listening to Tim Millard. Stay slightly obsessed.