The Extras
The Extras
Warner Archive September Announcement: Four New Films, Classic Hanna-Barbera, & Three New Film Collections
George Feltenstein joins host Tim Millard to announce the September Blu-ray releases from Warner Archive. The lineup includes five films from various eras, all receiving meticulous 4K restorations that dramatically improve their visual and audio quality.
• Beast of the City (1932): Jean Harlow's breakout film as a leading lady, an MGM attempt at Warner-style gangster pictures, with a new master from 4K scans of preservation elements
• The Beggar's Opera (1953): Technicolor British film starring Laurence Olivier in a singing role, based on a 1728 operetta that later inspired Brecht's "Threepenny Opera"
• Black Samson (1974): Fan-favorite blaxploitation film with a musical score by Alan Toussaint, scanned from original camera negative
• I Died a Thousand Times (1955): CinemaScope remake of "High Sierra" starring Jack Palance and Shelley Winters
• Touché Turtle and Dum-Dum: Complete series of 52 Hanna-Barbera cartoons, never before released in its entirety
Also announced are three multi-film Blu-ray collections coming September 2nd: a six-film Errol Flynn collection, a four-film Greta Garbo collection, and a four-film 1950s sci-fi collection, all offering excellent value at approximately $10 per film.
PURCHASE LINKS:
Touche Turtle and Dum Dum: The Complete Series Blu-ray
THE BEAST OF THE CITY (1932) Blu-ray
I Died A Thousand Times Blu-ray
Greta Garbo - 4 Film Collection
50's SCI-FI - 4 Film Collection
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Hello and welcome to the Extras. I'm Tim Millard, your host, and joining me is George Feltenstein to announce the September Blu-ray releases from the Warner Archive. Hi, George.
George Feltenstein:Hello, Tim. As always, it's wonderful to be with you.
Tim Millard:Yeah, it's always fun to do these announcement podcasts, and September is looking like another great month from the Warner Archive. So let's dive right in, because this is always exciting for the fans to hear what you have coming on Blu-ray. And we'll go alphabetical, so that means the first one we have up is the Beast of the City from 1932. What can you tell us about this film?
George Feltenstein:Well, this really was the first film that Jean Harlow was recognized as a leading lady and you know she catapulted to greater fame after this film. She had been in other films before of significance, even at MGM, like the Secret six. Uh, she had a small part in that, but she's the leading lady in this and I call this movie, uh, mgm trying to be like warner brothers because it is after the success of public enemy and little caesar and the gangster films and the gangster genre in general. Mgm kind of took off their gloves to make this film and it deals with Walter Houston as the star dealing with crime and corruption and Jean Harlow plays the leading lady, daisy, who wants to achieve greater adoration and fame. And it all goes downhill, not in a very pretty way. This is a kind of gritty movie that goes against the MGM house style. But the source material came from WR Burnett, who had written Little Caesar and later wrote High Sierra and even contributed to another film we're going to talk about later in this podcast. So it was interesting that Thalberg at MGM took this particular piece of material and made a very uncharacteristic MGM film and made a very uncharacteristic MGM film.
George Feltenstein:What's really great about this new Blu-ray is that the master we've been distributing both on DVD and television is over three decades old and looks wretched. This film desperately needed a makeover. Now, a lot of people would say, but there are more important gene harlem movies that have yet to make it to blu-ray and they have said that, and my answer to that is we're working on them, but this was ready now. Uh, people have to understand that. Uh, we can't predict if something's going to take three months or six months, nine months, a year, two years.
George Feltenstein:Every film is different and we've been working on this a long time. But there are some more famous Gene Harlow movies we're working on right now. That will be coming soon. We're trying to push all the buttons and get all the levers, but there's certainly nothing negative to say about this film. It's very entertaining and it really was a linchpin in her screen career, brief though it was due to her untimely death at age 26. But this is the beginning of her MGM stardom and it really holds up well, just like the Warner gangster films hold up so well.
Tim Millard:And you have a few extras on here as well.
George Feltenstein:Yeah, we have two Warner Brothers cartoons and the reason why we don't have MGM cartoons is that MGM didn't make cartoons at this time. They were distributing cartoons made by other people. So we have no ownership, but it gives us an opportunity to create that Night at the Movies atmosphere. We also don't have a trailer on this film, which is not unusual. We really don't start seeing the trailers kick in on the MGM side until a little bit later, 32, and then 1933, it sort of comes together and they were very good about saving trailers thereafter. But no trailer, but two cartoons and a really terrific film that deserves to be better known.
George Feltenstein:And when you take a film like this and you watch it and it is a pretty deplorable-looking copy, Master it doesn't draw you into the film the way that you could be drawn into the film.
George Feltenstein:Now the new Master comes from a 4K scan of our best preservation safety elements original negative, long, long destroyed, as I sound like a broken record talking about the terrible fate of MGM nitrate, but what we have is a result of preservation that took place in the 1960s and thankfully that brings us 60 plus years later the ability to make that available in a pristine new master. That looks and, as important, sounds, really good, because we need to have a clean track and to make sure that it has the wide frequency response and doesn't sound like people are under a pillow. So we're very careful about making sure that the tracks have their vibrancy on the high end while taking away clicks and pops and noises that don't belong there. So really, really terrific film. We're excited to be releasing it and I think people are really going to enjoy it and noises that don't belong there. So really, really terrific film. We're excited to be releasing it and I think people are really going to enjoy it, especially since it isn't as well known as some of Harlow's other films.
Tim Millard:I. You know we're talking 93 years old and that's a pretty old film, but I've been amazed at what you've been able to do with the films that you've been releasing that are over 90 years old, so I'm looking forward to this one as well.
George Feltenstein:The credit there goes to Warner Brothers Motion Picture Imaging. Of course, it's those talented people that do this amazing work, and it's basically done by hand Humans. Yes, we applaud work done by human beings.
Tim Millard:Well, next we have a Technicolor film the Beggar's Opera from 1953. What can you tell us about this film?
George Feltenstein:This is a very unique film and first let me say that it is yet another restoration from the Technicolor negatives, so they've been recombined and using our proprietary technology to do so, it looks remarkable and this is a British film shot by a wonderful cinematographer, guy Green cinematographer Guy Green and it's beautiful to look at and it was a very experimental film, I would have to say. In a sense it's based on, I would say, an operetta, if you will, that was written in 1728 by John Gay, the beggars opera, and what it deals with basically, not unlike beast of the city, it's about a criminal named Mac Keith and who is a rogue with the ladies and responsible for murders and all sorts of terrible things. And there are also other characters whose names may be familiar, like Polly Peachum and Jenny Diver. And what is this resonate with me? I'm a huge fanatic for the Bertolt Brecht, kurt Weill works of the late twenties and early thirties, and the three penny opera is something I've been obsessed with since I was in college. So I had not seen this earlier version on which Brecht and Weil had adapted this piece, I guess 200 years later East, I guess 200 years later.
George Feltenstein:So Olivier teamed up with a producer, herbert Wilcox, who was pretty famous for making films with his wife, jessie Matthews. She was a British musical star and Wilcox and Olivier collaborated together to produce this film. But the film was directed by Peter Brook, who didn't make too many films Lord of the Flies is probably his most famous film but he was primarily known as a British stage director and a very young break-all-the-rules kind of director. So you have an enormous amount of talent telling this story that is now almost 300 years old. The basic source material, I mean we're three years away from 2028. So historically it's of importance. And Laurence Olivier sings and he actually has a pleasant voice, the only other person I know of in the film that also does his own vocals.
George Feltenstein:Most of the people, or many of the actors, were dubbed, but Stanley Holloway, who would later become well-known to American audiences as Alfred Doolittle in the film and stage versions of my Fair Lady. But Stanley Holloway is in this film. And you have the beggar at the beginning of the film played by Hugh Griffith, who would later become known internationally for his performance in Ben-Hur. So it's a great cast and it's just a really unique film. It's certainly not for everybody. It has a cult following, but yet again what we had been distributing. If you look at our current dvd, we didn't have the ability to take advantage of the process to deal with technicolor properly, and now we do so.
George Feltenstein:This is a wonderful opportunity to see and hear this film with far greater quality. And Olivier he certainly wasn't Frank Sinatra but he had a pleasant voice and he's much more charismatic in this film than he is in some of his later films where he's supposed to be charismatic and it doesn't really come off. I think he's very likable as basically a crook and murderer. So I think people who share my interest in three penny opera and don't know about the original source material, the beggars opera, will find this as interesting as I did when I first saw it. It was one of those titles, not unlike the Beast of the City. That was an early Warner Archive Shelfmaster DVD-R and now we have a beautiful Blu-ray that's been. A 4K scan from Technicolor negatives Makes quite a difference, right, and we did put some Warner Brothers cartoons on here, so that adds to the fun.
Tim Millard:Yeah, and I have to say I'm interested to hear Olivier singing on this one. Obviously his acting, we all know his prowess there, but that does add a twist. That'll be kind of fun. Well, next, George, we jump a few decades to the 70s for another urban action film, and that is Black Samson from 1974. What can you tell us about this film?
George Feltenstein:Well, this is definitely a fan favorite amongst the community of people who love grindhouse films and specifically those that would fall under the blaxploitation genre. Warner Brothers made several of these. This is from 1974. It is everything you'd want out of a good blaxploitation movie. The photography is really terrific, the performances are great. It moves at a very quick pace.
George Feltenstein:It has a musical score that was written by Alan Toussaint, who was a very famous New Orleans-based R&B musician and I don't think a lot of people know he was involved with this movie. He was primarily not related to film, but they got him to do the score for this movie and it's your typical crime film where the hood is being invaded by bad people and Black Samson is there to go get them. And, uh, this was one of those films, because we've talked about this before. There was a four pack that I was asked to put together for walmart, like, uh, several years ago that included Three, the Hard Way and this film and two others, and it was this huge seller. And everybody was asking me, like, why are these films so popular? And I had to explain to them that there's a massive audience that loved these movies when they came out and now you've got several generations later. It's a 51 year old movie. Discovering them, if they haven't already discovered them.
George Feltenstein:And here again we've scanned the original camera negative at 4k. We have a beautiful blu-ray that has. I've never seen this film look so good. I've seen it have a magenta cast, just not representative of what things could and should look like. I would venture to say this looks better than it did the day it opened. I didn't see it then, obviously, but I was thrilled at how really terrific it looked For a very modestly budget film. This was not meant to be an A picture. This was the equivalent of a B picture in the 70s, but we treat every film with the same kind of reverence. This comes with its original trailer. We didn't have any archival you know, behind-the-scenes featurette made for syndication or anything that would be relevant. But the film stands on its own and we have released several of these films in the genre over the last year and a half and they've sold very well and been very well received, and so we're glad to add this to the Warner Archive collection.
Tim Millard:Yeah, more than several. I think. This is the fifth one that we've talked about over the last couple of years, and this one has been requested highly, so there's a lot of people I know looking forward to this one, so that's terrific. Well, next we have a noir. I Died a Thousand Times from 1955. What can you tell us about this film, george? What?
George Feltenstein:can you tell us about this film, george Well, this is the second remake of the classic that put Bogart on the map as a leading man star, high Sierra. This is a remake of High Sierra. It's not taking the story of High Sierra and changing the names and the locale. That was done. I'm trying to figure out five, six years earlier, with Colorado Territory, which came out in 1948, which was a remake of High Sierra, turned into a Western Right. This is not.
George Feltenstein:This is really a remake of High Sierra, adding color, adding cinemascope, adding stereophonic sound and really as a vehicle for a relatively young jack palance. I don't ever know how to pronounce his name is palance or palance? I, I don't know. Yeah, um, but the proper pronunciation is I know who jack is and I like his work in many, many films and you know know, doing the push up at the Oscars when I was a kid. That was fun too. But he's terrific in the movie. No, he's not Humphrey Bogart, but he is his own man and he holds his own and Shelley Winters is his love interest plot to show the human side of Mad Dog Earl, where there's this ill young girl who he cares deeply about and wants to help her. So you see that this criminal on the run has a heart, and that is the thing that also makes you want to care about the characters. You know.
George Feltenstein:Anytime you remake a movie, usually the remake is never held in high esteem as the original, and that's completely understandable in this case. But as its own film, it's very entertaining and I did read somewhere someone referred to it in a review. I did read somewhere someone referred to it in a review as very specific to the mid-1950s and making a gangster picture in the 1950s and taking advantage. There's a lot of location photography and it's very entertaining. And it's very entertaining and it looks and sounds magnificent because yet once again we've scanned the camera negative at 4K. Our new master looks fantastic, it sounds great. I mean, having the stereophonic score is really wonderful and it's very, very entertaining. And so, if you don't compare it to the original, this is a case where the original is an unmitigated classic. This is an important film in its own right and should be appreciated for what it is. Now we're making it available the way it should be seen and heard.
Tim Millard:Yeah, and you have some classic cartoons on here hairbrush and Sahara hair, which I think is hilarious, and then the original theatrical trailer. So a nice package there. Well, we have one more title, george, and I think I've already seen just a lot, a lot of excitement about this one, because it is another Hanna-Barbera TV series. Tell us about what's coming in September from Hanna-Barbera TV series. Tell us about what's coming in September from Hanna-Barbera.
George Feltenstein:Well, touche Turtle and Dum-Dum were a series of 52 cartoons that were prepared for local syndication to television stations throughout the country and then eventually around the world. There were three different character cartoons developed for a syndication package Touche Turtle and Dum Dum, wally Gator and Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har. These were done on a very low budget. The original negatives were 16 millimeter, not 35 millimeter, so there is a definite drop inherent in quality when you're working from 16 millimeter versus 35 millimeter. Sure, we had released on DVD Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har and Wally Gator, each in their own DVD set. But we couldn't do a DVD set of Touche Turtle because the existing masters were deplorable and the film elements were a mess. And, as we've been doing with many, many different programs not just animation or television series, but everything that we do in trying to improve things original negatives were scanned at 4K and where we didn't have original negatives because some of them were lost, we had to work from some prints. But MPI's team really did their best work on this to make what was originally produced 63 years ago, if I'm doing the math right, making these look as good as they can and sound as good as they can and we will be releasing for those who ask. Yes, there will be a Wally Gator Blu-ray somewhere down the line. There will be a Lippy the Lion Blu-ray somewhere down the line.
George Feltenstein:But there's real confusion around these three cartoons because in some markets they were put together as a half-hour programming, whereas in other markets they were shown individually and used individually. So all 52 cartoons are on this two-disc set and we've also priced it the same as a one-disc release to make it more inherently a consumer value proposition. And we know that the Hanna-Barbera fans want everything. And because this one wasn't on DVD, that's why we chose to put this out first, because the audience has nothing else to watch unless they want to watch television, and that's a whole different thing. But this is the way you get to own it and keep it and look at it with the best possible quality.
Tim Millard:So, if I'm hearing you correctly, this has never been out on dvd. So, uh, and probably never on laser disc, right?
George Feltenstein:no, there was a vhs tape. Vhs came out with a couple of cartoons, but this was like first time the entire series has been out to be like early 90s, but it was far from the entire series.
George Feltenstein:The entire series is more than four hours in length. It's almost five hours of programming. The cartoons are each about five minutes with a few extra seconds. Right. There are 26 cartoons on disc one, 26 cartoons on disc two, which enables us to have a very high warner archive bit rate and have them look terrific to the degree that they can. We can't right make them look better than how hannah barbera finished them, unlike Huckleberry Hound, quick Draw McGraw and then Yogi Bear in the middle kind of with his own show. Those were all sponsored by Kellogg's. That gave Hanna-Barbera more of a budget to work with.
George Feltenstein:These went into syndication without a commercial sponsor. It was up to the local stations to take care of the ad time. So I think that's why they made the financial decision to shoot these on 16 millimeter. And basically, until we got into the world of home entertainment, home video and to some degree, cable television, suddenly the switch was from 16 millimeter to 35 millimeter. Thankfully, with the exception of a few stations in the United States, most local stations only ran 16 millimeter. Networks ran 35 millimeter.
George Feltenstein:Growing up in New York, we had one channel, wpixix channel 11 that did run 35 millimeter and it was so noticeable, but it was a rarity and of course they had no choice. Uh, I think wpix channel 11 had this package of cartoons and of course they had no choice but to run them in 16 millimeter because that's how they were made sure, but the majority of syndicated content throughout the 50s, 60s, 70s, it was all about 16 millimeter, even the most famous shows I Love Lucy, bewitched Gunsmoke, whatever. 16 millimeter Prince was what went to the stations for reruns. Fortunately, if things were made in 35 millimeter, we get to take advantage of that.
George Feltenstein:The very first Hanna-Barbera series which did go to network, uh, which was right before Huckleberry Hound was rough and ready, that too was made in 16 millimeter because Hanna-Barbero was barely formed when they made their first sale right. So, um, I don't think at the end of the day it takes away from the good writing. Uh, and there are special voice talents involved here, because touche turtle was voiced by a radio actor named Bill Thompson, who happened to also be the voice of MGM's Droopy, and you can hear the similarity. Of course Droopy had the Droopy qualities in his speaking, but it's Bill Thompson doing the voice of Touche, and then Alan Reid, the original voice of Fred Flintstone, does the voice of Dum-Dum his companion. So it's great Hanna-Barbera TV fun and it's a long time coming for the collectors and I hope people appreciate it.
Tim Millard:Yeah, yeah. I'm sure there's many people also wondering, george, since this was on 16 and you're able to bring this out from the original 16, other stories that were shot on 16, does this mean that they have a chance, maybe in the future as well, to come to Blu-ray?
George Feltenstein:Absolutely. I mean, we have found that we have on certain occasions, if that's all that exists. We did it with a feature film, originally for DVD. Safe in Hell, we thought all that existed was a 16 millimeter print, finding the 35 millimeter print, which was the only known element by 1956, when the Warner Library had been sold off for television. And then we got it back 40 years later. But, safe in hell, the only element that existed for the 1956 sale was a 35 millimeter nitrate print, but we didn't know about that until a few years ago.
George Feltenstein:So what we were distributing came from 16 millimeter. The blu-ray we put out in 2023 thankfully came out from 35 millimeter print and, uh, for a movie that is as old as it is, 1931, the results were very, very satisfying. Yeah, so we try not to let those kind of problems get in our way if something deserves to be seen. But you know, in the case of that film, we were on a search to see if there was something better, and there was If something was produced in 16 millimeter. There's only so much you can do.
Tim Millard:Right, right. Well, george, that's a great lineup for September. Before we go, though, I did want to also ask you, and mention, so that the listeners know, that you have three different Blu-ray film collections coming out in early September, september 2nd. You've released a few of these before, but I did want to mention that today so that fans know. You have the six-film Errol Flynn collection, you have a four-film Greta Garbo collection, and then you have a four-film 50s sci-fi collection, so was there anything you wanted to say about those before we go?
George Feltenstein:about those before we go. Well, if you're a loyal subscriber to the extras, the likelihood is you probably own these films already on Blu-ray. We wanted to create these multi-feature sets of previously released titles so that we could add a value proposition at a reasonable price. These are more intended for newbie collectors that haven't started their collection yet, because these are really all essential classics to add to one's library or for gift-giving. And we started this a couple of years ago with the Bogart Bacall Collection. And we started this a couple of years ago with the Bogart Bacall collection, with the Hitchcock collection, a film noir collection, a horror collection, and we're building upon that with these new releases. In this kind of set where you get these wonderful quality discs that we've been producing for the last few years, when you get these wonderful quality discs that we've been producing for the last few years, and we've also been able to include some non-Warner Archive releases that were classic films I was involved with before there was the Warner Archive collection Right were able to pay proper tribute to a particular talent like putting the adventures of Robin Hood in the Errol Flynn collection makes a great deal of sense.
George Feltenstein:It's a film he's most famous for. I can't think of anything he ever did that's more famous than Robin Hood. There's a great value. Six movies, $59.98 list price. People really like getting their movies for $10 a piece. We couldn't stay in business if we released them new at $10 a piece. I hope people understand that. But once we've recouped our expenses after a certain period of time, this now gives us the flexibility we're going to be releasing more and more of these, but we will only do so after a film has comfortably recouped the massive investment we make in our mastering.
Tim Millard:Well, september has a lot between those collections which come out early and then the five films that come out toward the end of the month. So thank you again, george, for coming on.
George Feltenstein:Hi, it's my pleasure, tim, as always, and I want to let people know that there were a couple of titles we had intended to be released in September, but in order to make our dates if they didn't hit the deadline, they got pushed into October.
Tim Millard:So October is going to be quite a substantial month, looking forward to it and I'll leave it at that, and just to provide a little further clarification on what's in the film collections. In the Greta Garbo collection there are four films Camille Queen, christina Ninuchka and Anna Christie. So you have those four films, all previously released on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive, now in a four-film collection, and again the price on these comes out to about $10 per Blu-ray. So it's a great value. And then for the 50s sci-fi collection there's Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, world Without End and them.
Tim Millard:And then the one that's really been exciting people is this Errol Flynn collection of six films and, as George mentioned, that includes the Adventures of Robin Hood, seahawk, santa Fe Trail, edge of Darkness, objective Burma and the Adventures of Don Juan Once again about $10 per film. So you're looking at close to $60 for that collection. All of the five films for September are available for pre-order as well as these three film collections. So look for those in the podcast show notes and you can get your orders in for those if you haven't yet already. Until next time you've been listening to Tim Millard, Stay slightly obsessed.