The Extras
The Extras
Warner Archive October 14th Release Announcement: Curse of Frankenstein 4K PLUS 4 Classic Films and 4 Classic Film Collections
Warner Archive announces their packed October 14th Blu-ray release slate featuring meticulously restored classics and horror titles. George Feltenstein returns to share details about five key releases that showcase Warner's commitment to film preservation.
• Curse of Frankenstein arrives in both 4K and Blu-ray editions with unprecedented special features
• A Summer Place (1959) features restored color from the original camera negative, correcting yellow layer collapse issues
• Lovely to Look At (1952) presents Jerome Kern's music in a Technicolor MGM musical starring Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel
• Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins (1975) makes its home video debut, jumping from VHS straight to Blu-ray
• The Racket (1951) showcases Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan in a film noir with commentary by Eddie Muller
• Four new multi-film collections featuring Judy Garland, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and horror classics offer great value for collectors
Purchase links:
JOAN CRAWFORD 4-Film Collection (Blu-ray)
Bette Davis 4-Film Collection (Blu-ray)
Judy Garland 6-Film Collection (Blu-ray
Hollywood Legends Of Horror (Blu-ray) 6-Film Collection (Blu-ray)
Music by Max Steiner: The Epic Life of Hollywood's Most Influential Composer
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The Extras Twitter
Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog Group
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Otaku Media produces podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connect creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals. tim@theextras.tv
Hello and welcome to The Extras. I'm Tim Millard, your host, and joining me as always is George Feltenstein, who announced the October Blu-ray releases from the Warner Archive. Hi, George.
GeorgeFeltenstein:Hello, Tim. Great to be with you as always.
TimMillard:And these monthly announcements we talk about are always so much fun to go over to hear the new, in this instance, classic films that are coming from the Warner Archive. And you mentioned previously, we're going to have two different announcements for October. Today, we're going to talk about the four films coming out October 14th. And then we'll have another podcast for those coming out later in October. But before we dive into those, George, there's a another huge 4K release for October 14th. Why don't you remind us about that one?
GeorgeFeltenstein:Well, you took the words right out of my mouth because I was going to say, actually, there's five on the 14th. We actually have nine new releases for the month of October, which is a very strong month. I also think the titles are diverse and of great appeal to different groups. So that's exciting. But the big event for us Our Halloween event, if you will, is the 4K Deluxe Collector's Edition of The Curse of Frankenstein, which was a collaboration between Warner Brothers and Hammer in the UK. And it's been a wonderful collaboration, especially in light of the fact that the companies have had a relationship that goes back almost 70 years. We're very proud that this is coming out. I think the collectors are really going to love it because it's 4K, UHD, HDR, Dolby Vision, presenting three different aspect ratios, an enormous amount of extras, which is very important, and beautiful packaging. I think people are going to be very happy with it. We've talked about it already on the extras here. Putting a pin in The Curse of Frankenstein as the big monthly event, but we've got eight other films to talk about, four of which we'll do today for the October 14th Street Gate.
TimMillard:Yes, just a reminder, you can find our discussion for The Curse of Frankenstein, the 4K, at your favorite podcast provider and also on our YouTube channel. So it's been very popular. So check that out if you want to go deep dive into that release. Well, let's go alphabetical today, George, for these four classic films. And that would mean that first up, we have A Summer Place from 1959. What can you tell us about this film?
GeorgeFeltenstein:This was a huge... popular success in 1959. It's best known, really, for the love theme that Max Steiner wrote for the film. Not the main title theme, but the love theme, which became theme from A Summer Place and was a multi-million single. It won the Grammy for Record of the Year. It was recorded by Percy Faith. And Right. Right. There's conflict and adultery and teens in love and all those nasty, terrible things. Meanwhile, the production code was still highly being enforced. So the film would probably be rated PG today at the most. And if it had been rated by the MPAA in 68, they would have given it the G. So it basically is the story of two families. One family is Richard Egan and his, and his wife who don't particularly get along. And the other family is Dorothy McGuire and her husband who don't particularly get along. And each of them have a teenage offspring. And those offspring fall in love with, During this little vacation and Richard Egan and Dorothy McGuire had prior to their marriages been in love and never quite got together. And that's why they married other people. So their romance is rekindled amongst. the pain of their bitter marriages. And meanwhile, the two kids were played by Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee. They fall in love. And it's a beautifully shot movie, a lot of location photography. And it does have a sensibility that I think comes close to the kind of things that Douglas Sirk was doing at Universal in the 50s with these lush romantic dramas and the scandals that dare not speak their name and so forth and so on. So it's got a little bit of that quality. So if you like Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, Written on the Wind, this is similar to that. Delmer Daves was a longtime Warner Brothers writer and director, and he kind of moved from more action-related films to these romantic melodramas, and A Summer Place was such a hit that it led to others with similar co-stars. There was Parrish and Susan Slade and Rome Adventure. It was kind of a similar If you will, because the thematics work so well in getting people into the theaters and it was instant box office. And back in the old days of DVD, we put together a Warner Brothers romance collection with these films in it. So Summer Place is finally making the leap to high definition. It's a 4K scan off the original camera negative. And it is from that period of time, 1959, where the Eastman College Color 5248, negative stock, succumbs to yellow layer failure. And so we had to work with the separations as well as the original negative to rebuild the color. And it looks and sounds sensational. And the acting is really quite good. You've got Dorothy McGuire, who we talked about a couple of months ago with the Enchanted Cottage. Richard Egan is terrific. Their rekindled romance is quite believable. Dorothy McGuire is married to a nasty man played by Arthur Kennedy, who really succeeded in playing nasty men. If anybody's seen Peyton Place, he's pretty awful in that, his character. But that only spoke to what a good actor he was. And he made early appearances at Warner Brothers in the early 40s. He had quite an impressive career and isn't as well known today as he should be. And as the shrewish, awful life of Richard Egan, you have Constance Ford, who gives a, you know, Full throttle performance as the most despicable, horrible wife and mother. She's one of the great screen villains of all time. The way the film is constructed, you don't have any compassion for the spurned husband and spurned wife because they're just awful to their spouses. And you want Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue to fall in love. of and all to the beautiful music of Max Steiner. It's great entertainment. Is it a masterpiece of cinema? No. Is it populist entertainment that continues to really attract an audience? Yes. And I think our new presentation coming from The Negative and scanning in 4K, it's a gorgeous Blu-ray. I think people are going to enjoy it. It is a longer movie than the normal 90-minute movie of the era. It's 130 minutes because there's a lot of storytelling going on. So when I was putting together extras for this, I only saw selected one Looney Tunes cartoon, and that is Bugs Bunny and Witch Hazel and A Witch's Tangled Hair. And I was able to go back to the Los Angeles Times from 1959 and see what cartoon opened with this movie, and it was A Witch's Tangled Hair. So that made it very easy for me to select which cartoon. Of course, the cartoon is remastered in HD. It's been available before, but it's nice to have it there So you recreate that movie going experience from 1959. So all hail a summer place.
TimMillard:Looking forward to it. It's going to look and sound fantastic. And at 130 minutes, that is a much longer movie than usual.
GeorgeFeltenstein:Yeah, especially for a melodrama, you know, not a biblical epic. It's not Ben Hur.
TimMillard:Well, next we have a musical that's lovely to look at from 1952. What can you tell us about this Technicolor film?
GeorgeFeltenstein:Well, it is very much a Technicolor film. And I say that first and foremost because I'm very proud and awed by what we as a company and specifically what Warner Brothers Motion Picture Imaging has been able to do with our Technicolor films in recombining the three original negatives and getting the perfect alignment with our proprietary technology. The sharpness. And the vivid colors are just, they really blow you out of the water with this film. And it's beautifully shot. It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy, who was a very, very legendary director, did a lot of work here at Warner Brothers, and then moved over to MGM around 1939, produced a movie called The Wizard of Oz, and directed a lot of really terrific films. Lovely to look at is actually a remake of the 1935 RKO film Roberta which in itself was an adaptation of a Broadway musical called Roberta and Roberta on stage I believe one of the cast members was Bob Hope before he became famous but Jerome Kern wrote the music for Roberta and when they transferred it to the screen at RKO in 1935 They changed the story around a little bit so they could add in kind of meaty supporting roles for a guy named Fred Astaire and a woman named Ginger Rogers. They had to figure a way to get Fred and Ginger in this movie. And the song, I Won't Dance, which is an American songbook popular standard, was added to the score for Roberta in 1935. And of course, that was... perfect opportunity for Mr. Astaire to do his thing. So Roberta was a successful, Broadway show was a successful film, but MGM bought the property from RKO specifically to make it more advantageous vehicle for some of their most popular musical entertainers. So you've got lovely Katherine Grayson playing opposite Howard Keel, who the year before, they were teamed in the 1951 version of Show Boat, in which I think they were magnificent. Then you have My dear late friend, Ann Miller, who initially is the girlfriend of Howard Keel, but ends up getting together with Red Skelton. And Marge and Gowra Champion round out the cast. And this film is a particular... It's a particularly wonderful opportunity for Marge and Gower Champion, who had been in Show Boat, like Kiel and Grayson, to have a wonderful dance sequence to Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, which was written for Roberta. It's such an American classic song, but it's one of the many great songs that were in this score. They also do their own version of I Won't Dance, which is charming So you've got a lot of different performers all getting to celebrate the music of Jerome Kern. And many of the original Broadway lyrics, or I should maybe say some of the Broadway lyrics, were rewritten for this screenplay. And the new lyrics were created by Dorothy Fields, who was a frequent collaborator with Jerome Kern. They wrote the score for Fred and Ginger's Swing Time in 1936. And Dorothy Fields was a lyricist on Broadway, really up to her passing. I think the last Broadway show she did was Seesaw with Cy Coleman in 1973. So you had this amalgam of talent, and we often talk about the musicals at MGM that were produced by the great Arthur Freed, and then the different kind of more populist musicals that were produced by Joe Pasternak. But there's a third person that usually gets overlooked when they talk about MGM musicals, and that's Jack Cummings, who, by the way, was a nephew of L.B. Mayer, but that had no effect on his ability to produce musicals. Quite an amazing group of fine films, including Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Kiss Me Kate, and even Viva Las Vegas. I think Jack Cummings needs to be appreciated a little more. And this is really a delight. It's a confection. It's beautifully shot, but the... The Thing That Makes This Film Really Special thought it was best if a guy who was hanging around the MGM lot, if he had a little spare time, that maybe he should be the one to direct the fashion show. So Mr. Vincent Minnelli took on the assignment, and it is pure Minnelli from start to finish. And to add a little bit of MGM history even more so here, all the beautiful gowns in the fashion show sequence were designed by Gilbert Adrian, better known as Adrian, who was the chief MGM costume designer up until 1941. And he returned to MGM after a decade to design the gowns for that fashion show. So the fashion show sequence is really spectacular. Because it uses different songs from the score. And my favorite of the sequences, because there's kind of like four, there is a pas de deux that's got a real jazz feel to it. The Marge and Gower Champion dance to the song Yesterday's. And it's completely antithetical to the soft ballad that that song is usually performed in. It's jazzy. and it's got power and the use of color Minnelli's red is very visible and you'll see other Minnelli trademarks visually through that number it's great entertainment and our DVD was so ugly in the past the work was done from an interpositive that was not particularly well aligned and all the people in the movie looked like they had tuberculosis. The colors were just gray and ashen. It's important for us to get these films that have looked terrible to look great. We can check one off the list with Lovely to Look At. We're very proud of it. I think people are going to really enjoy it. We've got a Tom and Jerry cartoon there and we have a Pete Smith short there and the trailer just a balance everything out. But if you're an MGM musicals fan, this is definitely for you.
TimMillard:Well, next, George, we have a 1975 drama, Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins. What can you tell us about this film?
GeorgeFeltenstein:First of all, the fact that it's 50 years old is something I can't wrap my brain around. But this was a road movie from the mid-70s and really evocative of the era of sally kellerman had established herself as the original hot lips hula hand in the movie mash that robert altman made mackenzie phillips had just made such an impression as the young girl in american graffiti and of course in the lead role you have alan arkin who had already established himself as an actor to be reckoned with between The Russians Are Coming and Wait Until Dark. And he had, Hart is a lonely hunter. He had just done so many wonderful things. So to have him in this movie, he's basically a nebbish type of guy that somehow gets involved with this crazy woman and this teenage girl, and they end up getting in the car and going on for a road trip. Along the way, you'll find people like Charles Martin Smith, who was in Red and Graffiti, and notably a lesser known at the time, Harry Dean Stanton. The performances are fun. The film has a nice energy to it. You see these three odd individuals kind of bonding together as they travel. The three stars really make the movie. They really make the experience enjoyable. And this was a modest success when it was released. It wasn't a huge blockbuster, but it was successful. And it was available on VHS when Warner Home Videos started putting movies out on VHS and Betamax. But it never came out on DVD. This is a Blu-ray premiere that has skipped over the DVD. And I had wanted to put it out on DVD years ago, and we had no intermediate film element to work with. It is a scope film. It's a 2.39 aspect ratio. So there was no interpositive. There was no... Anything except the original negative. And until recently, we basically were not touching original negatives. Now that we can scan original negatives without the negative actually being touched by sprocket movement or anything, everything runs delicately through the scanners. We were able to scan the original negative at 4K yet again. And so it really looks magnificent. And it's a film that we often got many requests for. A lot of 70s films that have fallen into this abyss of being forgotten have not been forgotten by people who enjoyed them. And I'm really glad we're able to add this film to the Warner Archive collection.
TimMillard:Yeah, I think that's so huge that this finally is going to get a release. I mean, VHS, that's so ancient, right, in our memory. So it's good that it's finally getting an HD release looking and sounding so good.
GeorgeFeltenstein:With a 4K scan off the camera negative. Exactly. The quality is quite wonderful. Right.
TimMillard:Well, the last of the four we're going to talk about today, George, is a 1951 gangster film, The Racket. What can you tell us about this release?
GeorgeFeltenstein:Well, There's two Roberts in this movie, and I think that's really the most important thing. You've got Robert Mitchum, and you've got Robert Ryan. Together again, they had worked before, most notably in Crossfire. They are powerhouse actors, in my opinion. And this is a great noir. And it's a gangster film where there's definitely a femme fatale in the personage of Elizabeth Scott. And it's actually based on a play that was written in the 1920s called The Racket. And it was made as a silent film in 1928 called The Racket. But RKO bought the rights to make it and this is during Howard Hughes tenure as the owner and the guy that was running RKO so this film is looked upon I would say as one of the better film noirs from RKO which is saying something because RKO made so many film noirs, and I can't think of any of them that aren't at least good. This is an excellent film, and it deserves an excellent presentation. So we brought in the original negative, scanned it 4K. We have this new, beautiful Blu-ray, and it's a quantum leap from what we had on DVD. So I'm very excited about that. And our good friend, Eddie Muller, who everyone now knows as one of the TCM hosts. But when we were preparing this film for DVD, Eddie was very involved, as he still is, with the Film Noir Foundation. So we asked Eddie to record a commentary for this movie. And that is part of what we have. And he has introduced the film on... classic movies many times with his insight and his passion for the particular film and with a comprehensive feature length commentary you just get to learn so much more. He goes into great detail about the history of what was going on at RKO at the time and why this is so important in the history of RKO and the history of film noir and we have so many noirs that need and deserve the upgrade. And I'm so glad that the racket is finally getting that.
TimMillard:And you mentioned, I mean, this is from the original nitrate. So this should look fantastic.
GeorgeFeltenstein:It does. It really does.
TimMillard:You know, I'm a huge fan of the Noir and having Eddie's commentary on there will be wonderful to have. But I've got a lot of shelf space over here reserved for more of the Noir coming from the water.
GeorgeFeltenstein:Well, we have a lot of them in the queue. I mentioned, I think on our last talk, that we had 79 different films in various stages of planning and production. Well, that number just increased to 85 because we were able to add a couple more to the queue, and we're trying to hit as many different types of films and genres and eras. we understand that, you know, certain people get kind of morose when they say, why isn't film X available? And why did you, this is important. Also, they see us putting out a film with a particular talent and that particular talent has other films that might be even more important and better, but they, what comes out initially versus what comes out later is just a matter of what's ready. And we don't have the luxury of making sure that all the best films are are first taken care of. And there is also a factor because we all kind of work together in deciding what we're going to do. I have my request lists and I get down on my knees and beg. I'm almost being literal about that. But in this case, The racket is just one of many noirs that I see people asking about, you know, why is film X not available? Why is film Y not available? And we're actually working on those films while people are complaining. So once we announce those films, then they'll find something else to complain about. This is a given, but. Our pleasure is to provide as much of our library as we can in a responsible manner to keep our division profitable and to keep having people trying to make more room on their shelves for new Warner Archive releases.
TimMillard:Yeah, I mean, the way I see you, George, is you are the advocate for the fans putting out their comments, their requests. We would love to have this film, that film. And you're already advocating You're ahead of the, because you've been doing this for decades, working in classic cinema. You know these films and what people want. You're already advocating for them. So that's how I see you. And then when they finally are done and we announce them here, it's a joy because of all of the efforts and work that you've been putting into it, advocating these classic releases so they won't be forgotten.
GeorgeFeltenstein:It's an ongoing process, but every film that gets... the new treatment that gets beautiful restoration that has a great presentation everyone is a victory right so it is just part of the business that you just have to keep pushing in there keep pushing in there right and uh we've got a lot of great things in store for the rest of the year and of course 2026 and hopefully going forward um it's a very exciting Right. Right.
TimMillard:Well, before we wrap this up, George, I did want to also bring in this film collections that are releasing on October 14th. You have four of them, and they are not to be missed because you have Judy Garland's six-film collection, Betty Davis' four-film collection, Joan Crawford's four-film collection. Those three alone, oh my goodness. And then you have, because it's October, perfect timing with the Hollywood Legends of Horror six-film collection. So I just want to remind people that those are coming out October 14th. And maybe you can just tell us a little bit about who these are geared for.
GeorgeFeltenstein:Well, these sets are primarily geared for people who are either casual collectors or who perhaps are getting sick of not being able to see the movies they want to see on a streaming service because streaming services don't have them. And the only way to see them is to buy them and own them. And you don't have to worry about your internet knocking out physical media rules. Physical media rules. so That is why it's so important to have these collections because they also are great gift giving items. Right. And they have a built-in value proposition. In these collections, nothing in them is making its debut in the Blu-ray format. They've already been available singularly. Right. But by putting them together in a collection, there's a built-in value proposition basically equal $10 a movie and we've already made our profit back on those releases. So we're able to make these more popularly priced so that people who may have not gotten any of them at all or may have one film in a collection. The most unique one is Hollywood Legends of Horror because that started as a DVD set. And I'm going to say, I think it was 19 years ago. It was 2006. Very, very successful. And then it became a Warner Archive manufactured on demand DVD set because it had gone out of print. And subsequently, we've done A-plus grade remasters on all six films, and they look and sound incredible. And now, for a very reasonable price, you can own them. So I want to make it very clear, we're not putting together collections of films that have never been available before. It's a way to make things that have been available affordable at a lower price to people who may have been on the fence, or there are a lot of people now who are buying for the first time in a long time, they're buying a Blu-ray player. Or maybe they've only had DVD and they have it in the closet and they can buy a very good Blu-ray player for very little money. And they're starting to build collections because there's no other way to see these movies. And especially to see these movies with such... perfect quality or as close to perfection as we can get. We're very particular about that and we don't have any intention of changing our fastidiousness in aiming towards perfection.
TimMillard:Well, George, I do have an opinion on these and I like the way you are marketing these collections. I have noticed some other studios forcing the consumer to buy a big box or a big collection that is very expensive. And if you only want a few of those movies, you have to wait. And I prefer the fact that you are releasing them individually And then if you want to get the collection, then great. But I get a little frustrated when I see a title that I'm like, it's in a box or in something that's a really high price point. And I don't want all the other movies. So I think this is a great way for the fans and the consumer. I think it really services the consumer. So I say kudos. And it's great.
GeorgeFeltenstein:That's the goal. I thank you for that. And I just use my own personal experience because I am a collector. I am an avid buyer of all the other studios' releases that interest me. And like you just mentioned, there have been some very, very enticing sets released. of films released by other companies where I wanted one film out of six. Am I going to spend $150 if I just want the one film? I understand the thought process of going the other way, but that's not really consumer friendly in my opinion. And we really try, we won't always succeed. We can't make everybody happy, but we really try to make consumers feel good about their purchases from us and feel like they're getting good value.
TimMillard:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, George, as always, it's great to hear about the new releases and there are just so many for our Well...
GeorgeFeltenstein:I am excited and looking forward to October 14th, as I know a lot of people are, for multiple reasons. Right. And that's just half the month.
TimMillard:Yeah,
GeorgeFeltenstein:exactly.
TimMillard:For those who'd like more information about the films announced today, you can check out our Facebook page and our Warner Archive Facebook group. We'll be posting more information there and the pre-order links when they become available. You can also follow the show on social media, so look for those links in the podcast show notes as well. If you aren't yet subscribed, you're following the show. Appreciate it if you would do that. That helps us get the word out to more people about the great work that's being done by the Warner Archive. Until next time, you've been listening to Tim Millard. Stay slightly obsessed.