The Extras
The Extras
Warner Archive August/Early Sept Blu-ray Reviews PLUS Is This The End of Looney Tunes Releases?
George Feltenstein joins the podcast to review the August and early September Blu-ray releases from the Warner Archive. Plus, George answers if you should be worried about future Looney Tunes Blu-rays from the Warner Archive!
Have you ever wondered what makes Scooby-Doo's adventures so timeless? We promise you'll uncover the secrets behind the spooky success of "Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost" and "Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders." Plus, we'll take a detour to the frosty terrains of "The Alaskans," where Roger Moore's stellar performance is matched only by the show's stunning production quality.
You'll also embark on a musical journey through the golden era of MGM with two fabulous Technicolor classics, "Word and Music" and "Three Little Words." Then, fasten your seatbelts as we cruise through the 1970s, celebrating the gritty impact of films like "Black Belt Jones" and "Boulevard Nights." Don't miss this eclectic mix of nostalgia, cinematic history, and lively discussion that promises to entertain and enlighten.
Purchase links:
THE ALASKANS
WORDS AND MUSIC
THREE LITTLE WORDS
SCOOBY-DOO AND THE WITCH’S GHOST/SCOOBY-DOO AND THE ALIEN INVADERS
BLACK BELT JONES
BOULEVARD NIGHTS
Looney Tunes Collectors Choice: V4 (BD)
Looney Tunes Collectors Choice Coll: V1-4 BD
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Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog Group
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Tim Larger, host of the Extras, is joining me as George Felmstein to review some August and September TV and film releases from the Warner Archive. Hi, George.
Speaker 2:Hello, tim, wonderful to be with you today.
Speaker 1:Well, there has just been so much going on over the last two, three months and it feels like it's going to continue, you know, obviously through the end of the year. Just so many releases, so many terrific titles in animation and TV and film, and we're going to kind of touch on all of those categories. So there's going to be a little something for everybody, I think, in today's review podcast. But I thought we'd go back. I didn't have a chance to review the animated double feature that was released late July, early August, of the Scooby-Doo films, so I wanted to talk about those first, and I think it's actually kind of perfect timing, since it's October.
Speaker 2:Oh, exactly because these are a little bit on the spooky side.
Speaker 1:That's right, scooby-doo, after all. So it's actually, I think, a little bit better to talk about them now, and especially this first one, scooby-doo and the Witch's Ghost. I thought this is a terrific Halloween movie. I mean the whole plot. It's set in a New England town with the horror writer, ben Ravencroft. There's a Halloween festival, and then you get this added bonus of a fun musical element with these hex girls.
Speaker 2:So that's a lot of fun. Yeah, I thought it was charming, frankly, and I'm delighted we were able to bring it to Blu-ray. That's the important part.
Speaker 1:Yeah, these are not that old. I guess they came out in 99 for that film and 2000 for the second one. But they have a terrific feel to them. They are paced very well, they're very entertaining and I just thought this one was a lot of fun. Velma kind of has a crush on this horror writer, since she, of course, is the literary one of the group, and it just was a lot of fun and I really, really enjoyed it and I think people will want to pick this up for the holiday season if they haven't yet.
Speaker 2:Well, this was one of four feature animation pieces, with Scooby, that Hanna-Barbera and Warner Brothers Animation at that point, because they were pretty much entwined by that time. We're doing work with a Japanese animation studio that did a lot of the animation, called Mook Animation. So it's the four Mook films Now. One of the Mook films had been on Blu-ray years ago. It's Scooby-Doo and the Cyberchase, scooby-doo on Zombie Island, which we put out a little while ago, and then the double feature you're talking about now, which is Ghost and Alien Invaders. Those were all part of the four MOOC animation films that were done at that period and really hold up so very well today.
Speaker 1:They really do.
Speaker 2:It's like a quadrilogy for the Scooby fans.
Speaker 1:Yeah, zombie Island was terrific. We talked about that earlier this year and now that you mentioned that the same studio did these, you can just feel the quality of these films and the second one that's a part of this double feature, the Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders also terrifically fun. I love the whole kind of the Roswell references and then you get the kind of bonus of Shaggy and Scooby-Doo having a crush in this one as well, which adds a fun element to the normal storylines.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean Scooby-Doo going to Roswell, New Mexico not unexpected maybe, I know this is a fan favorite, so putting the two together on the same desk was a great opportunity for us. And I wanted to just underscore, for those who are unsure, that these were both short enough that we could put them on a BD-50 without compromising the bit rate. So it's a very high bit rate. The quality is beautiful and we're really really very, very pleased with the response that we've received for this particular double feature. People are very, very happy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and there are some extras on there that you've carried over, so you get those. You don't always get that when you do these double features, but to have two films and the archival extras there really is a great value. You know, if you're a Scooby-Doo fan, you're going to want to pick this one up for sure.
Speaker 2:I would heartily concur with you, my friend.
Speaker 1:Well, that kind of wraps up the animation for our discussion today. But the other really fun area that I wanted to get into, it's been a bit of a moving target, this TV show, the Alaskans, because it was delayed. But this is a. I was so excited to finally get into this because what you did with Colt 45, I mean I'm just enjoying kind of these shows I'm not familiar with at all and it appears from what people are saying many others barely remember or don't remember these either. But it was really fun to dive into the Alaskans once I finally got it. That's starring Roger Moore, dorothy Provine and Jeff York and similar to the Cult 45, it looks amazing, sounds amazing and the episodes when you watch one or two or three, they're very entertaining.
Speaker 2:Well, they're very well produced and again, I've spoken about this before they had the resources of the whole motion picture studio, which was primarily engaged in creating programming for ABC. They used all the different departments within the studio, whether it be set, construction, costumes, makeup, whatever. These are really kind of like feature film black and white feature film quality, production values, good writing. Some of the scripts were actually recycled from other Western shows and then just put into the Alaska Yukon thematics, but the performances are great. Roger Moore is. This is really the first time he had a chance to be a focal point because prior to coming to Warner Brothers he had been under contract to MGM and had some very not particularly good for his career supporting roles. They weren't taking advantage of his wit and his joie de vivre. This series captures what made him become a star, first in the same television series and then thereafter, of course, when he took over as James Bond out there. That love Roger Moore, and having this series is a great thing because it only ran one season.
Speaker 2:It had a very limited life in syndication and even the evil pirates and evil bootleggers didn't have full seasons to commit uh copyright infringement. You know, our release finally makes all these things available. You couldn't even get them illegitimately, so now you can get them legitimately with great product. It's nine discs. A lot of work went into this, to say the least, because we were scanning the original negatives and finding the original sound pieces, and I'm really glad that we were able to leave in some of the commercials, which is a hell of a lot of fun and really gives you the full feel of what watching this program would have been like during the 1959, 1960 season.
Speaker 2:And I've gotten so many, you know, messages on our Facebook page or emails, whatever, from various different people just saying how much they were blown away by what unexpected fun this series was, because it's basically been unseen for 60 plus years. Yeah, been unseen for 60 plus years, yeah, so that's always part of, you know, our mission statement rare and hard to find and this certainly was rare and hard to find if even the thieves didn't have it, yeah, Well, the co-stars I thought were a lot of fun too.
Speaker 1:Dorothy Provine she sings in each each episode has a little number and she has a nice chemistry there with.
Speaker 2:Roger Moore in their you know, in their scenes.
Speaker 1:And then you have all these terrific array of guest stars and that you know. That's something that was a part of. You know the TV opportunities you get to bring in guest stars each week. But you got James Coburn, you've got Lee Van Cleef, you've got Alan Hale there's just a ton of big names of guest stars that are in these episodes, so it's fun to see them pop up as well.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and a lot of those people were unknown at the time. Right, you know they hadn't really become as famous as they would in years later, so that's particularly rewarding.
Speaker 1:And I think the I keep kind of putting the cold 45 and this one together, both one years, but they both have that feel for that era of Warner Brothers television and the style of TV of that era and everything. And so I think if you've been enjoying Cult 45, you're going to enjoy the Alaskans, and vice versa. So it's a really fun one and highly recommended. Well, you have two terrific MGM musical biopics that we're going to talk about next. They were released in early September and, kind of like I just did with the TV shows, putting them together, these actually you put in the same month. I'm sure you did that on purpose, but these are both fantastic. Let's talk about Words and Music first, since it's the oldest. What a lineup and what a film. It's just really enjoyable and looks great.
Speaker 2:The most important thing is these films were all built around Technicolor production, design, our process of working with the Technicolor negatives. It's unparalleled in the quality of the color and the sharpness and the alignment. It's really quite remarkable. It makes the films seem like you've almost never seen them before. It's that big of a difference. It actually had not been my intention to release these two at the same time. I wanted them released at a different time to spread them out. But because we are constantly having to deal with things being shifted, moving out, there are certain things taking longer. I mean, we're going to be talking about three little words in a minute. Work on three little words began probably six to nine months earlier than work on words in music and we want to make sure we get the colors exactly correct. And for words in music, as well as three, three little words, we used archival dye transfer technicolor prints which don't fade and give us a pretty exact reference of what the color is supposed to be. And we're speaking specifically right now about words and Music.
Speaker 2:This was one of the many productions of Arthur Freed, who was the preeminent musical producer at MGM. There were three MGM producers who primarily did musicals. Arthur Freed was literally at the top and the other two were Joe Pasternak and Jack Cummings. But a free production always had that extra level of excellence. And this is an alleged biography of Richard Rodgers and Lawrence Hart and, as I've said before, the story of the real Rodgers and Hart and the story in this film are almost it's almost fictitious right, there are just a few little remnants of truth sprinkled across.
Speaker 2:but the main thing about this film are the musical numbers and the people performing in them. And you've got judy garland and mickey rooney performing together for the last time and for the first time in color, and you've Lena Horne and June Allison and Ann Southern and then, of course, an amazing Slaughter on 10th Avenue Ballet with Gene Kelly and Vera Ellen. These are spectacular numbers Sid Charisse and Dee Turnell performing On your Toes Sid Charisse and Dee Turnell performing On your Toes. It's so gorgeous to look at. Lena Horne is sizzling in two songs.
Speaker 2:And then there's also Perry Como, who really never made it in movies. He was much more comfortable in recordings and radio and television. But he has some big production numbers in this movie and there was a lot of music recorded for the film that never actually got filmed and we have a lot of those pre-recordings in the bonus section of the disc. And then we also have two outtakes the song Lover and how it was supposed to open up the film with Perry Como singing, and we have alternate takes from the shooting. That was really cool for people to see. They ended up using this song just orchestrally without Perry Como's vocal in the final film.
Speaker 2:And then there's another song, you're Nearer, which Perry Como's vocal in the final film. And then there's another song, you're Nearer which Perry Como sings in a scene, and that was cut out of the film as well. So you get to see visual outtakes with, of course there were audio, and then you get to hear I'd say at least eight or nine pre-recordings of songs that didn't make it into the film. We have a documentary about a little featurette that crew has created for the DVD about the film. That's quite honest in dealing with how kind of unrealistic the plot line is compared to the real life stories of Richard Rogers and Lawrence Hart and their partnership. Mickey Rooney does give a fine performance as Lawrence Hart, in my opinion.
Speaker 1:I wholeheartedly agree on that. Yeah, he's kind of the thread that keeps you know. Might not be that close to the truth, but it keeps the you know the story kind of going through while you see all these different musical numbers. He did a great job.
Speaker 2:Well, in real life Lawrence Hart suffered from terrible alcoholism. That's not really dealt with in the film. He was gay, which wasn't dealt with in the film at all, and no film could even go near something like that in 1948. Right, and Richard Rogers' brother-in-law was actually engaged to be a consultant I think they even credited him but he was basically there to make sure that nothing untoward was in the screenplay that would be demeaning or problematic. And this was a huge, hugely expensive film. But that's the way Arthur Freed was. He wanted to create films that would just knock your socks off in terms of the talent. That would just knock your socks off in terms of the talent. No other studio had that kind of talent like MGM did when it came to musicals. If the plot is something people can muddle through in between numbers, it's worth it, because one number is better than the other and it's just so enjoyable. But what makes it enjoyable particularly is the technicolor and how great it looks on this new Blu-ray.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and to what you just said about all of these performances, and I mean so many stars in this one, and just thinking back to all of those performances, the Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland song she, of course, lights up the screen every time you see her. I mean you could just buy this film just for her. If you're a fan of Judy Garland, I'm sure many people will, but that's just one of. I mean, I'm a big Perry Cummel fan in terms of his music and that. The Lena Horne performances I mean she leaves it out there, I mean, as she always does, just puts it out there, and uh, they're so good. But then you, you also have the Gene Kelly, vera, ellen Slaughter on 10th Avenue. That that by itself unbelievably fantastic. And all of these put together, looking like this, sounding like this, all of these extras that you've put on here, it's just a terrific, terrific release and one you can watch over and, over and over again.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, Especially since it's really the structure of these films is really like a musical cavalcade.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:There's plot in between, just to take you through to the next number. But I think really the only big musical star that was at MGM at the time that isn't in this movie is Fred Astaire and Frank Sinatra. Frank Sinatra and Fred Astaire are the only two that I can think of who could have been in the film but weren't. But what Gene Kelly did with the Slaughter on 10th Avenue Ballet was just part of his evolution, coming into his own as a choreographer, and that would lead to his becoming a director. And there are some interesting camera angles in the way that number is shot which are completely antithetical to the MGM house style.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And I find that particularly fascinating. But if you think of the artistic contributions that people made to this film and what it leaves behind as a legacy as pretty much everybody associated with the film has passed away it stands as a vital memory of their exceptional talent and that goes for every member of the MGM orchestra, every person who is doing set design, costume design, hairstyle. I mean, it's a mega production and I do think the disc does great service to the work that went into the film and I hope people really enjoy it.
Speaker 1:Well, you just mentioned Fred Astaire not being in this film, but he is in the next one we're going to talk about. Absolutely. That's Three Little Words from 1950. In terms of a film and the storyline, I really enjoyed this one, probably a little bit more than the other and it's got a little bit more feel good maybe from the storyline, but it's a fantastic film. I just really, really, really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:Well, this too is a songwriter biography, song cavalcade. Except the songwriters here, burt Calmar and Harry Ruby were not of the renown of a Gershwin or a Porter or Rogers and Hart or Jerome Kern the kind of people that they were making films about. They were lesser known as a songwriting team but yet of course they wrote a lot of wonderful songs. And this was not an Arthur Freed production, this was a Jack Cummings production, and Jack Cummings was LB Mayer's nephew, and Jack Cummings is kind of the unsung hero of a lot of MGM musicals. To name just a few that he was responsible for producing Kiss Me Kate in 3D, no less, seven Brides for Seven Brothers, bathing Beauty and then years later, viva Las Vegas, which I think is the best Elvis movie that was made at MGM. Elements in the story more so here in that Fred Astaire's character, bert Kalmar. He was a dancer, he was a magician, he, you know, wasn't necessarily comfortable just being a song plugger, if you will. And the real Harry Ruby did have an obsession of baseball. So all those things are put into the scenario. But what's really nice is this is a film where Red Skelton's comic mugging is minimal and he's very touching in his performance. This is the film I appreciate him most in because I really like the way he works with the stare they're teaming. They got along very well on the production. The production cost half of what Words and Music cost. Production cost half of what words and music cost and it went on to be extremely profitable. Words and music cost, I think, over $3 million and did not earn a profit until it ended up getting sold to television. It was ultimately a profitable film, but not in its theatrical run. Three Little Words got great reviews, did great business. It was very profitable. And here again we mentioned her earlier.
Speaker 2:Vera Ellen is Fred Astaire's dance partner. It's absolutely sublime. The two of them together are just magnificent. Vera Ellen is not given enough credit. She had a very short film career. She struggled with anorexia and died relatively young and has never been appreciated in my eyes for the not only great dancer that she was. She was a remarkable dancer, but she also really was a fine actress. She could be funny. She could handle dramatic scenes. She was very beautiful. I just think it's terrific when somebody like Fred Astaire, who makes any partner look good or better, but she's so wonderful. The two of them dancing together have a wonderful elegance to it.
Speaker 2:There's a number in the film Thinking of you where they're basically dancing around the living room. That I think is amazing in its choreography, the camera work and the orchestration Just absolutely sensational. And the other thing that's notable for this film is we see a very young Debbie Reynolds she's barely 20 years old in this film playing Helen Kane, who introduced I Want to Be Loved by you. And Helen Kane was the original boop-boop-a-doop girl and that figures into the plot. And they brought in Helen Kane to record the vocal that Debbie Reynolds mouths to as she's paired with Carlton Carpenter for that number. It's highly entertaining.
Speaker 2:And then another MGM co-star who isn't talked about very much and deserves to be, is Gloria DeHaven. She has a brief appearance in this film singing the very famous song who's Sorry Now, and the irony of that was very intentional. That song was introduced on the stage by her mother, mrs Carter DeHaven. Her mother was on the set when she filmed the number. The film is filled with a lot of wonderful, wonderful songs.
Speaker 2:The film is filled with a lot of wonderful, wonderful songs, but the plot here is very strong in terms of tying it together and there are no massive you know, huge the great beauties of MGM and Technicolor. She does a song called I Love you so Much, with a bunch of guys on a staircase all in top hats. That's quite elegant and delightful and that's also supposed to be like the filming of a musical number. She plays Eileen Percy, who I believe would later go on to marry Harry Ruby in real life. So Ruby and Kalmar signed with MGM to have their life story made and before the production really got started, burt Kalmar passed away, so he never got to live to see this, whereas Harry Ruby was on the set advising them. It's just a very happy experience for everyone involved. And again, technicolor is just luscious. You want to eat it off the screen. It's so gorgeous. We're very proud of this as well.
Speaker 1:Well, george, to wrap up our discussion, we're jumping to the 1970s. You know so many people asked for more 70s films and you gave them to in August. There and they're. You know they fall into this modern genre, classics, and we'll start with Black Belt Jones from 1974, starring Jim Kelly. This is a highly entertaining film and I think it's a must-buy for any collector of these early martial arts films.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, for every genre there are films that have a place in that genre's history in terms of representing a particular event, and Black Belt Jones was a follow-up, if you will, to the enormous success of Andrew the Dragon.
Speaker 2:Jim Kelly, who stars in Black Belt Jones, had a supporting role in Andrew the Dragon, but his exceptional martial arts techniques were on full view in that film, were on full view in that film, and many of the same creative people involved with bringing Enter the Dragon to the screen went to Warner Brothers and said we want to build a film around Jim Kelly to solidify him as a box office draw, and they did that successfully with Black Belt Jones.
Speaker 2:You know, whenever people say, oh, you're not releasing anything that's not from the 30s or 40s, well, this film from the 70s happens to be now gulp, 50 years old. So I still refer to it as a modern classic because really the whole style of this isn't the old Hollywood style of filmmaking. This is representing when filmmaking was becoming less structured in the old Hollywood method and there was a lot more freedom in camera work and storytelling. There was no more censorship and there is a huge fan base not only for martial arts films but particularly for these films that also have urban action of the 70s as a backdrop for the scenario, as a backdrop for the scenario, and so we were very pleased to be able to bring this out and, yes, there will be more of the same coming in the future.
Speaker 1:Well, that's terrific news. I know there are so many people who, like myself, enjoy films from every era, From the silent eras the ones that you've put out to the MGM musicals, to the noir, to the martial arts of the 70s and, of course, more recent as well. But it's great to see these with and this one, you did a 4K scan of the original camera negative, so it looks great, but it still has that look of that 70s know well, yeah, and then you put it in, and you know the era and I'm happy to say there is film grain there yes because there was film grain in the negative and we don't want to play with that.
Speaker 2:That's part of the organic nature of the film. It shouldn't look like a film that was made 30 years later. It should look as it did when it was projected on the screens in 1974. And we're very happy with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So that's a terrific, terrific release and let's see. And then the last film, also from the 70, seventies, 1979, is Boulevard Nights. Now I'm watching this and I felt kind of like like I did when I watched the recently released Stand and Deliver Just really good storytelling, and this one, of course, has this realism, this kind of like grittiness that I know it's known for, but it also has an emotional base of these two brothers, like it has that rooting the film as well. This is a terrific film, george.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely, and I'm proud to say that this film was inducted into the National Film Registry several years ago because of its importance in dealing with telling stories about the Latino community in Los Angeles. At that time there were many kind of gang-related films. There was the Warriors and the Wanderers that all came out around that same time. Boulevard Nights was not as successful at the box office, but to the Latino community this film is of enormous importance and I think I may have mentioned this when we talked about the announcements, but we had put this out as a Warner Archive DVD when we started the Warner Archive DVD program and I was urged by several colleagues from that community that you have to put out Boulevard Nights.
Speaker 2:You really need to give this film its due, because it hadn't been on DVD and the VHS was long gone. So we did and we got a great response to it. But now again, as with Black Belt Jones, as with Words and Music, as with everything, we went back to the original negative 4K scan, brand new master and the cinematographer, john Bailey. He had come to me a couple of years ago really wanting to see the film restored and he was the head of the Board of Governors at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and I really wanted to see this get done and very sadly, he passed away before the film was released. He knew we were scanning the negative.
Speaker 2:He knew we were working on it before he died, but I'm just really thrilled that we're able to bring this out.
Speaker 2:The executive producer was Tony Bill, who was a former actor who had had great success as a producer with films like the Sting. So he was able to come to Warner Brothers, where this is still the era of Ted Ashley and Frank Wells and John Calley, and they were making films that were on the cutting edge. They would also make, you know, delightful entertainments that had no social message, but they also were not afraid to take on stories that reflect the time. That's why this film got entered into the National Film Registry, because it's a very specific representation of a period of time and in the location of Los Angeles it has a very, very strong fan base and they're very happy with it. I've gotten a few emails from people saying how much they were grateful for its release and how much they were blown away by how great it looks release and how much they were blown away by how great it looks, and I hope John Bailey would feel the same, since you know it was his artistry as a cinematographer that contributed to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Well, it's so powerful in its storytelling because of that emotional core that it has, and that's what helps a film to endure. It can't just be about a group. It has to have something that can pull you in when you don't know anything about that group or that area or that city or that decade, and it does that. So if you've never seen it, if you don't know anything about it, you watch it. It's a story of two brothers and that is always powerful when done well and this looks terrific and it's a great addition to the Warner Archive collection. So, george, this conversation today, such a great representation of what you're doing there at the Warner Archive. You know, you've got classic TV, you've got Scooby-Doo animation, you've got two MGM musicals that are as good as any of these Technicolor musicals, and then we've got 1970s cult classics. So it's been a lot of fun talking to you about these films and I enjoyed all of them.
Speaker 2:Well, the pleasure is mine as well. It's always great to talk to you and share our thoughts with the people out there so they can learn more about these films and hopefully put them on their shelves, where no one can ever take them away from them. That's right. The importance of physical media. I'll stress it over and over again.
Speaker 1:As always, there are purchase links in the podcast show notes and on our website for those interested in purchasing the TV and film releases that we reviewed today. And if you are enjoying the podcast, please think about following the show or leaving us review. Wherever you listen to the extras Until next time you've been listening to Tim Millard Stay slightly obsessed.