The Extras
The Extras
Warner Archive March Blu-ray Reviews: Sadie McKee, Monogram Matinee V1, Hitman, Earth II, and Magilla Gorilla
Warner Archive's March Blu-ray releases span nine decades of entertainment history, from a 1934 Joan Crawford classic to 1970s action films and beloved Hanna-Barbera animation. Tim Millard and George Feltenstein discuss the restoration process and cultural significance of these diverse titles.
• Sadie McKee (1934) showcases Joan Crawford's evolution as an actress in a restored version that looks spectacular despite being over 90 years old
• Monogram Matinee Volume 1 features three entertaining B-movies from 1949 that have been virtually impossible to see for decades
• Earth 2 (1971) receives a gorgeous 4K scan that reveals additional footage from its limited international theatrical release
• Hitman (1972) stars Bernie Casey and a young Pamela Grier in an urban action film that captures the authentic look and feel of early 70s cinema
• The Magilla Gorilla Show required an "archaeological expedition" to reassemble complete episodes as they originally aired in 1964, including reinstating the famous theme song
Purchase links:
THE MAGILLA GORILLA SHOW: The Complete Animated Series (1964-66) Blu-ray
MONOGRAM MATINEE VOL. 1 (1949) Blu-ray
EARTH II (1971) Blu-ray
THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE (1921)-1993 PHOTOPLAY RESTORATION Blu-ray
REVIEW - THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES MOVIE with Tim Millard, host of The Extras Podcast.
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Hello and welcome to the Extras. I'm Tim Millard, your host, and joining me is George Feltenstein to review some of the March Blu-ray releases from the Warner Archive.
George Feltenstein:Hi George, Hi Tim, Great to be with you, as always.
Tim Millard:As always, and I love these review episodes. You know it's fun. We have the announcement episodes and of course that's fun. We have the announcement episodes and of course that's the surprise. Right, that's the reveal.
Tim Millard:And then the review episodes. It's fun to get back and talk with you about how my impressions were in seeing these restorations and, of course, the enjoyment of the film. So that's the fun part of kind of both of those the announcement and then the reviews. So looking forward to it. We've got, uh, two older films, two modern classics, and then we do have the tv series mcgilla gorilla, which we'll talk about, and that has quite a nice story about the restoration, everything. So, uh, looking forward to hearing your uh on that and telling us that story a little later on in the podcast.
George Feltenstein:It sounds great and I really do. I feel the same way as you. I'm always excited to hear what you think of what you've seen once the releases are ready and they're in your hands, and I'm always excited to hear your opinion. I think it makes these podcasts exciting because they're fresh conversations. It's not like we've talked about this stuff prior to recording.
Tim Millard:Yeah, exactly, Exactly. Well, I thought we'd start off with the oldest of the films today, and that's Sadie McKee from 1934. And I'm going to be a bit of a broken record, because every time we talk about these wonderful Joan Crawford films and this one is over 90 years old George. Yeah, 91 years old 91 years old and yet with the restoration work that you guys did, it looks fantastic and that just makes it so accessible for fans. Maybe you could tell us a little bit about that restoration.
George Feltenstein:Well, we were working from a second generation fine grain master positive that was made as part of MGM's preservation program in the 1960s, and the original negative, of course, is one of the many black and white MGM films that were lost in the fire. But these protection elements that were made before that yield us spectacular results, and I think Sadie McKee looks and sounds terrific.
Tim Millard:Yeah, and that's so important with the film that's over 90 years old that it looks this good, because that makes it so much more accessible to younger audiences who have never seen the film, and, of course, it's such a great thing for fans of the film. Well, let's talk a little bit about Joan and her performance. She, I guess, is this kind of a young woman who is her mom, is a cook for a kind of a wealthy family, I guess, out in the in this town, and she grows up with being friends with some of the wealthy children, but she has a first love and that doesn't really work out. So she moves to the city and then she eventually marries for money and I mean it's just rags to riches and it's fantastic. It's set, I guess, right in that post-depression era and it's really fun. It's a great showcase for her and just reminds me every time I see her of why she was such a compelling and important star of that era.
George Feltenstein:Oh, absolutely, and this is as she's shifting from the flapper. As she's shifting from the flapper, you know, in the late 20s, like our dancing daughters, and we even saw it in Dance Fool's Dance, which you and I talked about, from 1931. This is as she's starting to mature a little bit and I think she also improved as an actress, and this is post Grand Hotel. So Grand Hotel really was a benchmark for her career in the studio, looking to provide her with, you know, class A vehicles that would show off her talent. And this is directed by Clarence Brown, who is one of the great MGM directors.
George Feltenstein:It's solid entertainment, it's well-written and it also shows off the MGM house style in terms of the way it's photographed, the sets, the costumes. It's everything that helped depression audiences escape the realities and horror of the depression and into this dream world that MGM was able to create really as no other studio could at that time. And it's a time capsule for so many reasons. And you also have Joan co-starring with her soon-to-be second husband, franchotone. Gene Raymond is also a love interest and introduces the song All I Do Is Dream of you, which most people who are listening to this podcast would probably remember more from Singing in the Rain, and you've got Edward Arnold as the wealthy benefactor whose money is very, very attractive to Sadie McKee. But will she find true love? That's the answer the film provides.
Tim Millard:Right, right, and it's based off of. Was it based off of a play or a book?
George Feltenstein:uh, I believe it was a story by vina del mar, who is a popular writer of the year. I think she's in the trailer. Uh, I'm certain of it. Yeah, they show vina del mar at the typewriter.
Tim Millard:You know that's right, that's right, right, yeah, I, yeah, I mean it's, it's, it's highly entertaining it's. You know it's got that, uh, that wish fulfillment for folks like you say who were, uh, you know, maybe young women working so hard as maids or or in in, uh, those types of jobs, uh, to to meet somebody wealthy and and to be swept off. You know it's got all of that built in. But you know, the nice thing about it is that she, she, well, we won't give it away, but she has three different loves and each one kind of represents a different part of her life and her story and her arc and really is is a lot of fun. So, and then you have some nice extras on here. You've got 1934 cartoons all in HD. Pop goes your heart shake, your powder puff and why do I dream those dreams and the trailer. So a really great package with this release.
George Feltenstein:And of course I am very enamored of the artwork we put on the cover. That's one of the original campaigns and it's kind of unique in its design. It's a little different and it just makes a nice package to have on your shelf.
Tim Millard:Right, and I forgot to mention the director, clarence Brown.
George Feltenstein:Clarence Brown, of course.
Tim Millard:Yep, yep, so terrific fun, and you've been telling classic film fans that there would be some good stuff coming, and so this is, I think, probably right in the wheelhouse. It should make a lot of them very happy to have gotten this.
George Feltenstein:Well, and I think this is probably a good time to mention this Davis versus Crawford thing, you know continues to be a thing, for lack of a better word and people have been saying Betty Davis is so underrepresented. So we'll get the word out there that we actually have four different Betty Davis movies in different forms of production right now, so people can look forward to more Betty, as well as a bit more of Joan too. There's a lot of good stuff in the works right now.
Tim Millard:Well, our next release is really three films, george, from 1949 that are part of what you called Monogram Matinee, volume 1. And all three are totally enjoyable. I enjoyed all of them, but due to the length of about an hour they really do have that matinee feel, or almost like TV episodes in some ways. Almost Really easy to watch, fast paced, because they have the pace of a feature versus a TV series, but they have the, the uh, the only runtime you know, more like TV, but really fun, and I I think that, uh, my vote is a big thumbs up that you continue to do these. I hope that the fans will support it. But that very first film, mississippi Rhythm, I mean I thought of the three that definitely is the jewel and worth getting this alone just for that one. That's my opinion, though I enjoyed all three.
George Feltenstein:It's interesting you say that because that film is actually what Monogram the B studio. They referred to it as an A-level picture for them. Yes, and country singer Jimmy Davis, who was the. He was a two-time governor of Louisiana and before this I think we talked about this when we announced it, but he had been in a film for Monogram that was kind of autobiographical, called Louisiana. Then he made Mississippi Rhythm and he's very well regarded in country music circles, movie star maybe, kinda.
George Feltenstein:But the whole thing of these monogram films is they're so unpretentious and they're so charming, they're so entertaining and they've basically been impossible to see unless we have released them. We did a lot of DVDs of monogram cowboy collections. We did 10 of those. So this is the first Blu-ray attempt to work with monogram productions and I find this library endlessly fascinating. And the second and third features feature two of their big cowboy stars Johnny Mac Brown, who had been with Monogram for many years by this point, and Whip Wilson, who was relatively new to Monogram at this point. Wick wolson films are about 52, 53 minutes a piece, which makes them pretty much just like a 1950s hour-long tv program would have been right, not counting the commercials. So they're incredibly efficient in their storytelling, they're entertaining, they're fun and you haven't been able to see these films really until now Western Renegades, which is the Johnny Mac Brown movie, we had included in one of our monogram cowboy DVD collections, but the other two probably haven't been viewable by anyone unless they had a 16 millimeter print in their collection, probably for 40 years or even more.
George Feltenstein:Because Monogram was not a major studio. They started to try to be a major studio by creating an A-level subsidiary, allied Artists, and Allied Artists would make two or three A-level movies per year and it eventually became the in the best interest of the company that the company would be called Allied Artists and they phased Monogram out. But they still mostly made B pictures. But because they weren't one of the big majors, they sold their films to television when all the big studios were afraid to do so because they didn't want to alienate the theater owners. So in the late 1940s, early 1950s you would see a lot of British movies on television.
George Feltenstein:You would see some independently produced movies on television, but Monogram was all over the channels. But Monogram was all over the channels and by the late 60s, early 70s they were basically gone, with the exception of some of the series films that they did, like the Bowery Boys, which obviously were very popular in syndication for decades thereafter. But these Westerns were basically overlooked, I would say humbly, until we started the Monogram Cowboy Collection. There was just no mainstream effort to focus on these films, and they play an important part of moviedom. It wasn't, all you know, big budget motion pictures coming from the big studios, and so it's a nice change of pace, and the fact that we can get three features remastered on one disc provides great value as well.
Tim Millard:Yeah, yeah, and the Western Renegades. It really is a great showcase for Johnny Mac and his skills riding horses and his horse is beautiful, and then it puts him in that very historic light. I loved it. I thought it was fantastic crashing through. I thought that one had a pretty decent, really compelling storyline, with the gold shipments on the stagecoach being robbed and everything was very compelling. So I think these are definitely worth putting out and I think physical media is a great place to put them. You know what I mean. I think when you get them restored in HD so that they look good and they sound good, you can really enjoy it. And I think it's the collector who's going to want to get these Exactly and love them. You know, because these are not going to be the kinds of films that are going to get put on a streaming service, because they barely put any older films on to begin with, and so for the Warner Archive to put these out for collectors to have them on physical media, I think is fantastic.
George Feltenstein:That's part of our mission statement. Rare and hard to find is what we started out saying, and we're continuing to try and serve that need as well as others.
Tim Millard:Yeah, and I think this really does that and hits it out of the park. So I hope that people support these. I really really enjoyed it. Well, we'll jump a few decades from 49 to the 70s, george, because we have two films that you released in March and the first one we'll talk about is from 1971. And that's the sci-fi film Earth 2. And I didn't know what to expect with this film other than what you said in the announcement podcast. But this is a really well done, serious film and you can really feel the earnestness of the filmmakers to make this very accurate for its era and the effects and everything. And the idea of the space station that's orbiting Earth is Earth 2. I mean, considering that we have a space station that does that on a smaller scale. Of course, it's not a full, you know, place where people are living per se, but I thought it was really compelling and really interesting to watch. It's of its era, but it's really well done, this film.
George Feltenstein:Well, and I think that when you watch it, you know I have had a theory that this didn't go to series because of the cost of the special effects. Right, because everything else was there in terms of the character development. There was a great sense of intelligence to this. Right, and you know, casting Gary Lockwood in the lead three years after 2001,. The Space Odyssey, all the elements were there for something that could be very successful and it never went beyond this two-hour TV slot telefilm. But we've found that there was even more footage in the camera negative. There was even more footage in the camera negative which we attribute to a very limited international theatrical release and the trailer on the disc is from that international marketing initiative.
George Feltenstein:So you know, some people were saying, well, I don't think this ever got an international release. Well, it did, but it just wasn't very significant. Right, but many studios, including MGM, most notably, I think, universal. Universal used to frequently put telefilms out in the theatrical market overseas, in the theatrical market overseas, and MGM did it a lot during the 1960s, especially the man From UNCLE double episodes became big movies all around. Nonetheless, this is. I think it looks gorgeous. That was the thing I was the most excited about because we had released this on DVD I'm going to say either in 2009 or 2010,. And it looked old, you know. Now, with a 4K scan off the camera, negative, it really hits the sweet spot, especially for sci-fi fans.
Tim Millard:Right, and of course, so much good sci-fi you know, later in that decade. So much good sci-fi of course comes from the 70s and it felt like in watching, like the sets in this, george and the effects that it did a really good job of creating, probably in some ways almost establishing a look that was used by probably other TV shows later in that decade. So it was very interesting to see the production value and the production design in this for a 1971 telefilm. So that was a lot of fun to watch. Well, george, we have one more 70s film from 1972, and that's Hitman.
Tim Millard:And this is another urban action film, similar to the other films you've recently released Black Eye and Black Belt Jones and just like those films, it brings the goods. If you're a fan of these edgy urban stories, you're going to enjoy that look of the 70s, that film grain, the music it just takes you back to that era. You've got the action and Bernie Casey is really good in this role of Tyrone, a man who's looking into the death of his brother, and the action is it just keeps his story really, really moving.
George Feltenstein:I mean you can tell that he had star quality and that's why he became such a popular leading man in the 70s in these films and, as we've discussed, when we announced this, this was actually a remake of Get Carter, which had only come out the year before the film with Michael Caine, which was a big hit, and MGM was having serious financial troubles in 1972. And it was very inexpensive to take that script and basically tailor it for someone like Bernie Casey to lead an action packed, you know, tightly made, well constructed action film. And it really does take you back because it's certainly a product of its time and, yes, there is a lot of film grain visible, because that's what the film stocks were like at that time.
Tim Millard:And we're not, you know erasing that.
George Feltenstein:This was a 4K scan off the camera negative and we retained the grain so that people see the film as it was meant to be seen.
Tim Millard:It's as simple as that, yeah, and we can't, you know, not talk about this. The appearance of Pam Greer in here as well, and she's very compelling in this film. She's, she looks very young she was very young.
George Feltenstein:Yeah, this was one of her earliest films and she's I believe she's billed as Pamela. You know she didn't become Pam yet, but she just skyrocketed to superstardom and her popularity continues. I think this is no big secret. But when she did Jackie Brown for Quentin Tarantino, which was 28 years ago, dear God, you know, that reestablished her cinematic legacy because she worked so often, she was in high demand and she had star quality. That's why, when you put Bernie Casey and Pam Grier in a film, you've got dynamic duo, star quality. It's absolutely true.
Tim Millard:Yeah, it's. I mean, hopefully people have been collecting these that you've been putting out so that they can build their collection at home, because these are really a lot of fun and I love the fact that now they look, you know, with the restoration and being in HD and everything, they look really good and I love the grain. I just immediately, when I see these films, the look takes me to that era immediately. That, along with the music, of course, is so key to these.
George Feltenstein:I'm glad you enjoyed it. I really am. I was looking forward to what your thoughts were.
Tim Millard:And I hate to mention this, george, only because and maybe I'll have to cut this out of the podcast, but you know I love that era that led right into that blaxploitation. And then those early martial arts films, right, and I'm hoping that this is you know, that these can lead to more of that genre in the future from the world.
George Feltenstein:We have many more in the works. That's terrific.
Tim Millard:Well, I mentioned earlier that we would be talking about the gorilla in the room, mcgilligrilla, so I think we should do that now, since we've gone through all the others. But I know there's a really interesting story about what went into bringing this to the fans, and I did want to give you a chance to tell us about it, because when I watched the episodes having all of the music in there, having the ads, having the bridges, bumpers, all of these things really added to the enjoyment and the experience of watching these.
George Feltenstein:So the task here was to try to reassemble these shows as they were first seen, and I know I spoke a bit about this when we talked about the announcement. But this was a huge archaeological expedition. Huge archaeological expedition Because if you go to our inventory and you type in McGillicorilla Show, nothing will pop up. I think that may be different now, but we started working in earnest on many Hanna-Barbera projects as long as two years ago with the hopes of upgrading the quality of what we had. And, to be blunt, Hanna-Barbera shows with the exception of, let's say, the Flintstones or the Jetsons, these segmented shows that had multiple characters, were chopped up and the segments themselves were isolated. And that's how you saw them, let's say, on Cartoon Network, Boomerang or even the DVD that came out of the McGillicuddy Gorilla Show. It didn't have the theme song on there, one of the most famous TV theme songs.
George Feltenstein:Right didn't have the theme song on there one of the most famous tv theme songs, right, and I don't really know. I was here but my responsibilities were primarily, uh, built only around theatrical catalog. So, um, no one consulted me on what. The dvd when it came out and I got and I was like, where's the theme song? Why? I think they may have had some kind of a sample on there, if I recall, but these were not presented as the McGillic gorilla show, it was just segments and it was the same way on television.
George Feltenstein:So the task at hand for my colleagues in the preservation department and the mastering department and yours truly, our goal here was to present the McGillicuddy Gorilla Show as it originally first was seen in first run syndication the beginning of 1964, with all the references to Toys put back into the programs, and it was very, very exciting to make that happen. Making it happen was an enormous task because pretty much from the later part of the 1960s forward people were only concerned with the segments. So our inventory would just say Magilla Gorilla and have the names of the Magilla Gorilla cartoons, the segments, but not the half-hour shows, and we had to reconstruct them. We had to go through files that were over 60 years old, or almost 60 years old, to try to find the proper documentation because McGillig, gorilla and the Peter Potamus show were both produced simultaneously. Peter Potamus came on, I think, in September of 64. But Ideal Toys was involved in supporting both shows and they eventually moved out of first run syndication to the Saturday morning slot for McGill and Gorilla on ABC and Peter Potamus was on Sundays on ABC and then they went into syndication reruns after that. But what happened was McGill was a big, big hit and Peter Potamus didn't quite catch on with the audiences in the same way. So they took the Ricochet Rabbit segments, I should say, from the McGilligurrilla show and put them into Peter Potamus' show, and they took the Goofy Guards from Peter Potamus' show and put them in McGilligurrilla. So they were messing with it as early as the late 1960s and all references to Ideal Toys were never to be seen again.
George Feltenstein:So our goal was to put all this back together and nothing was inventoried properly. And the fact that we found as much as we did in terms of the bridges and the bumpers was really kind of remarkable and I am just so grateful for that. And I think I did mention that we did reach out to a collector friend who had the curtain call. We did not have any film on the curtain call that comes right before the end credits on the McGilligrilla show, and a very wonderful person was kind enough to lend us his beat up 16 millimeter print which we were able to bring most of the color back to and clean it up. Bring most of the color back to and clean it up, and I'm delighted with the result and, even more, the response we've gotten on social media from consumers who've bought it. They're just flipping over the quality and that's what we're here to do. So very, very pleased that it turned out to be such a great release and there's more Hanna-Barbera to come. We're just getting started.
Tim Millard:Yeah, I mean that's a fascinating story to hear because of how it was cut up for syndication, the kind of the treasure hunt that you had to go through to find all of these little bits and pieces reassemble. To find all of these little bits and pieces reassemble. And that means that probably these haven't been seen like this, george, since the original run.
George Feltenstein:Exactly. I mean even because they kind of swapped segments as part of the original run. There were 23 half hours that had all three characters and then they mixed things up a little bit by rerunning certain segments, but they made an additional eight McGilligurla cartoons because there were only 23 half hours that were specifically carved out with the other characters Ricochet, rabbit and Droopalong and Mushmouse and Punkinpuss. So to have it all together the way it was originally seen is very important to people who love the Hanna-Barbera history and you know Hanna-Barbera lives within Warner Brothers and we want to shine a light on as much of the Hanna-Barbera output as we can, the Hanna-Barbera output as we can, and putting these things back together is a huge task and we had done this about, I'm going to say, seven, eight years ago for DVD. We did it with Peter Potamus and that was kind of a dry run for what was needed for McGilligrilla and I'm delighted with the way it's turned out and the response that it's gotten.
Tim Millard:And there will be more of this ilk coming soon. Well, that's great news for animation fans and a Barbera fans, and you have been presenting quite a few of these shows recently and, of course, we have another one coming here in April Wacky Races and you're saying there's going to be more beyond. So, wow, it's been a great time to be an animation fan and Hanna-Barbera fan, george.
George Feltenstein:And all the other fans who like very different things. We try to have a nice smorgasbord of choices so that we're hitting various different fan groups of different things. And you know there are people out there that groan that there isn't enough from the 30s or 40s. And then when we put things out for the 30s and 40s, people say, well, there's not enough in the 70s. And where are the cartoons? And we just in for our May releases, which we just talked about. There isn't an animation release in there and some people were thrilled about that and some people were upset about that. So we're trying to make everybody happy, which is impossible, but we're doing our best to get more of the library from our vault to people's home shelves.
Tim Millard:Yeah, there's another film, of course, that was released in March we're going to hold off talking about for a little bit later and that is Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. You throw that in there, george, and I think you covered quite a few decades in the month of March.
George Feltenstein:Absolutely. And that's going to be very fun to talk about. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on that.
Tim Millard:Yes. So while there might not be something in March for everybody, you sure covered a lot of territory and I think there's something in March for most people who are fans of the Warner Archive and fans of all the great work that you and the team there at Warner Brothers do. So well, this is a great month. Looking forward to another month here in April, as we get those a little bit later, but, george, it's always a lot of fun to go over these with you and I hope the fans will support the Warner Archive and all of these great releases that you're bringing to them.
George Feltenstein:I share your sentiments emphatically. Thanks, George. Thank you so much, Tim.
Tim Millard:I forgot to mention that Magilla Gorilla also has a nice amount of extras, and I watch all of them and those are on there and they look terrific. If you'd like more information about any of the films that we talked about today and Magilla Gorilla, be sure and check out our Facebook page and our Warner Archive Facebook group. We always have information there and people can talk about the films and the TV shows and what they love about them as well, and also post reviews and things of that nature, so check that out. You'll find links in the show notes here, as well as order links for each of the films. If you haven't yet subscribed, or if you're not following the show at your favorite podcast provider, I encourage you to do so. It helps the show and that way you'll get everything delivered to you, because we have a lot of exciting announcements and reviews coming in the future. Until next time, you've been listening to Tim Millard. Stay slightly obsessed.