Warner Archive September 22nd Announcement: 5 Classic Films PLUS Maverick

We walk through Warner Archive’s September 22 classic film Blu-ray releases and explain what makes each title special, from new restorations to the most fun bonus features. We also spotlight the Maverick complete series set coming in early October, including a broadcast-style extras surprise that even longtime fans may not expect. 

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THE LOST PATROL (1934) Blu-ray

BOYS TOWN (1938) Blu-ray

DEAR HEART (1964) Blu-ray

THE GREAT WALTZ (1938) Blu-ray

BUNDLE OF JOY (1956) Blu-ray

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Transcript

September Lineup Kickoff

Tim Millard 0:14

Hello and welcome to the Extras I'm Tim Millard, your host. And joining me is George Feltenstein to announce five classic films releasing on September 22nd at one early October TV Western that's releasing from the Warner Archive.

George Feltenstein 0:31

Hi, George. Hello, Tim. Great to be with you as always.

Tim Millard 0:35

Well, we have another batch of highly anticipated films and a TV series, which we haven't had for a little while. And I have to say I'm especially excited about your TV announcements. So everyone needs to stay tuned for that. But let's dive in first to some of these classic film Blu-rays. And first up, I think we have a uh one that I'm noticing a lot of positive response, and that's The Lost Patrol from 1934.

The Lost Patrol And RKO Challenges

Tim Millard 1:06

What can you tell us about this film?

George Feltenstein 1:10

John Ford?

Tim Millard 1:11

Yep.

George Feltenstein 1:13

Exactly. That's all you have to say in my book. I mean, if not the great American filmmaker, certainly one of the top revered directors. And uh rarely did he have a misfire. And The Lost Patrol actually was quite a big success. It was made at RKO in 1934 and features a superb performance by Victor McLaughlin, who the year later would end up winning an Oscar as Best Actor in the Informer for Mr. Ford under his direction that following year. So there's just such a wonderful connectivity between what RKO was at that time. This was a very popular film. It's a very unique film because it's set during World War I, and there's a bunch of soldiers that are stuck in Mesopotamia, as I like to call it. And um you don't just have Victor McLoughlin here, you also have Boris Karloff among a great cast of supporting players. And it is an efficiently told story. It only runs 74 minutes long. And what fascinates me is that when RKO decided to reissue it, they cut it down to 66 minutes. Like the film is already really on the short side. Why would you want to make it any shorter? But that is a factor in dealing with this film, which we've dealt with before, but not for at least 20 years. That's how long it's been since we last remastered it. And uh this is one of the RKO films where there is no camera negative, but there are surviving nitrate materials reflecting the different releases. So this was a bit of a challenge to meet the Warner Archive standards of pristine excellence, but I think we have. And I know a lot of people, and you've seen it on social media already, uh, a lot of people are really, really happy about this.

Tim Millard 3:28

Yeah, every time you put out a John Ford film, and you've put out quite a few in the last few years and last few months, even, um, there's just a huge excitement because so many people want to get all of his films. So there's so much excitement. And you have some nice extras on here as well.

George Feltenstein 3:49

Yes, we do. We ran into uh a not uncommon problem with R. KO films here. There is no known existing trailer. Even my friends who are film collectors and who collect trailers, nobody has a Lost Patrol trailer. And I've talked about the RKO trailer problem many times before. So what I decided to do here was give a little showcase to uh the Sailor Man with Spinach and have some 1934 Popeyes that you might have seen in the theater when the movie opened. And uh black and white Popeyes exist in HD Masters. They're not of the level of mastering we would do for a Blu-ray collection. There's some film issues within the Masters, but they still look phenomenally improved from what you'd see on a DVD or on television. So you have Axe Me Another and the Man on the Flying Trapeze as the extras here. I I think it's it's a great little disc. I mean, it's just wonderful. We found some really cool artwork for the cover, much nicer than what we had on our DVD of the Oz. And uh I think it's a great way to start off this September lineup.

Tim Millard 5:11

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well, next up we have another film, this time from 1938, now the 30s film, and this one is Boys

Boys Town And MGM Heart

Tim Millard 5:22

Town. What can you tell us about this film?

George Feltenstein 5:25

Well, first and foremost, it's based on a true story based on Father Edward Flanagan, who believed there was no such thing as a bad boy and was out to conquer juvenile delinquency. And his story was so impressive that MGM made a film about him. And it wasn't the kind of posthumous biography made years after someone, you know, he was a relatively young, vibrant individual who had done remarkable things to help young boys who were in trouble. Again, this is the depression, so that added to the troubles of teens. The film was a mammoth success at the box office and earned Spencer Tracy his second consecutive Oscar for Best Actor. And there's also another amazing performance in this film by 18-year-old Mickey Rooney, who is still considered a juvenile, and therefore he got a special Oscar for his performance. Uh, he was really uh on fire at the box office at this point because he was doing the Andy Hardy movies, and MGM had him working like, you know, mad. But his performance in this film will tug at your heart. This movie will tug at your heart. It's it's quite remarkable. And you know, Boys Town was a charity, and people needed to support it through charitable donations. And the film actually kind of communicated that people assumed that Boys Town basically didn't need any more money because that was the story in the film. Like people were supporting Father Flanagan and so forth. So MGM had their radio show at the time, Good News of 1939, I guess it would have been, because this would have been the second season. They did one show where they kind of focused on Boys Town and the success of the movie and promoting the movie. But then they did another show a few months later where they invited Father Flanagan on. If I remember correctly, I think he was in conversation with LB Mare, and it was basically to communicate to the radio audiences that Boys Town needs money. And in order to continue to save kids' lives and give them a better life, that people needed to support it. The institution still exists, and it's called Boys and Girls Town, and it supports children who are in need. And this movie may be almost 90 years old. It still packs a punch. Interestingly, the screenplay was co-written by Dory Sherry, who 10 years later would uh start his VP assignment at MGM, eventually leading to the backstabbing of L. B. Mare. But at this time he was just not becoming screenwriter at MGM. Uh, but this film was a mammoth hit, was so successful for Tracy, and also was representative of the kind of family values and goodness that L. Mare really tried to instill in the films that MGM made. Uh, I don't think this film would have been made at any other studio. And uh I'm just delighted that we now have a new Blu-ray available because the master we've been dealing with for the last many years is not very good looking. And every time we make these improvements, it's gratifying because we need to take care of these films and we need to make them more attractive to a new generation. And that's what this new master does.

Tim Millard 9:37

Yeah, and these uh films, you know, I started off mentioning that this is another film from the 30s. I'm always so impressed with the restoration uh that uh you guys do there at the Warner Archive to bring these uh films to the modern audience looking, sounding so much better so that they're much more accessible to the modern audience. And this is a type of story that endures because it's a human story. And I love it when these classic human stories are brought forward because I don't know, they just hit me, and and uh I love the fact that no matter what generation, we all have the same issues, we all have the same things we need to do and help each other. Because we're not all given the same opportunity in life.

George Feltenstein 10:27

No, so that's really what this film is about. I mean, it was nominated for five Oscars. It was yeah, uh it was very well received at the time. I'm just grateful that we're able to give it the fresh coat of paint, as it were. Right. Because that's so important. Because if you're looking at a digi-looking old master, it's not going to attract the same broad cloth of audiences as something that really looks great.

unknown 10:59

Yep.

George Feltenstein 11:00

That changes your perception of what you're seeing and what you're experiencing and what you're feeling. And that's why the quality of a presentation is so important and it's very important to us. And if we can't achieve those levels, we really can't do our job properly. So the the real credit there goes to our preservation team led by Craig Johnson, our wonderful colorists at Warner Brothers Motion Pictures, imaging, everybody involved in the chain, our mastering department, all my colleagues, we all work together for the same goal to improve picture and sound so that you know what you're able to put on your disc that no one can take away from you. And if the internet is out, you can still watch it. That's why physical media rules, and I will continue to beat the drum about that. But this is really an essential MGM classic, and I'm so glad we're able to give it this new presentation.

unknown 12:05

Yep.

Tim Millard 12:06

And I think I'll just add here the extra you mentioned, and then there you have a promotional short, City of Little Men and the theatrical trailer.

George Feltenstein 12:16

The City of Little Men is important because MGM rarely did this, but they made a short subject about Boy's Town and Father Flanagan on a nonfiction basis to kind of prime the pump, as it were, for audiences to understand the importance of Boy Town. And it was very much, this was a very much a representation of El Bimare's ethics and values. Um, there are a lot of people who think because he was a movie mogul, there's a certain presumption, if you will, of uh of him as a person. And there have been a lot of bad things said about him, and most of them are apocryphal. Uh, most of the people I knew who had been MGM contract players who've since sadly passed away, but I met them in my youth and got to really talk to them about L. Mayer. And I also spoke to his late grandson, Danny Selznick, about his grandfather and the portrait of him in a negative way, uh most of that just seems completely fabricated. And of course, different people have different experiences with people. It's never going to be straight the same thing all the time. But when you're watching MGM films where LB Mare was overseeing what was going on at the studio, there is a constant theme of the importance of love, caring, and uh family and goodness. Um, and that was what they tried to communicate. This is a perfect example of that.

Tim Millard 14:12

Yeah, and you just released you just released uh one one, I think, last month.

George Feltenstein 14:17

Human comedy, of course. You know, I mean, uh, and again, Mickey Rooney nominated for a real Oscar, as he was the following year after Boy's Town. When he was 19, he was nominated for best actor for Babes in Arms. Uh, because he just gave like he was a bundle of energy. And having met him and known him uh from the early 90s until the early 20 teens, I think the last time I saw him was 2011. You know, he was still coming up with wild, crazy, money-making ideas. Uh, he had come to the studio to help us promote our Andy Hardy DVD set. And I interviewed him on our old Warner Archive podcast. And he always had these get rich quick schemes. And you hear these stories about him as a young man. He was doing that even then, you know, and had eight wives to prove it.

Tim Millard 15:21

So well, that's why he had to get richer, uh, in part. Well, next we have a film from 1964, Dear Heart. What can you tell us about this film?

George Feltenstein 15:52

This is a very different film. Putting this film into context, it it was released in Los Angeles at the very end of 1964 so that it could hopefully qualify for the Academy Awards. The rule was at that time you had to run at least one week in a Los Angeles theater before the end of the year to qualify

Dear Heart And A 4K Rescue

George Feltenstein 16:19

for the Oscars. So the film opened in Los Angeles during the last two weeks, I think, of 1964. The general release happened in early 1965. It's an uncommon love story between two very different people. Glenn Ford plays a traveling salesman who's been around the block a couple of times and has had like a girlfriend in every city, and he's about to settle down and marry a small town, wealthy matron played by Angela Lansbury, who I think was 38 at the time she was playing. They had her playing older women parts from the time she was in her twenties. And two years after this movie was made, uh, she exploded in the Broadway show of Mame. But, you know, in the early 60s, she was playing Elvis Presley's mother, and she was only eight or nine years older than Elvis. So she plays this not particularly grounded woman that Glenn Ford's planning to marry. And in the meantime, while he's in New York, there's a postmaster's convention, and a small town, eccentric, adorable, middle-aged woman named Evie Jackson comes to town for the Postmaster's convention, and she's a lonely spinster. And somehow Glenn Ford and Geraldine Page's characters meet and make a connection, and it doesn't seem like anything is going to happen. And then the film goes on from there. I'm not going to spoil anything, but it's a hard tugger, and it's really different, and it feels very much of its time. Like you're in the middle of the 60s, as cinema is starting to really mature, and you're not yet at the point where it's Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf and the Graduate? movies that challenge the production code. This movie pokes around a little bit. Another star of this movie who's not in front of the camera is Henry Mancini, who wrote the score for the movie. And the song Dear Heart wasn't supposed to be the title of the movie. It was the theme for this movie. The movie was supposed to be called a title that would be used later, The Out of Towners, because it takes place at a convention in New York City where all these people come in from out of town. Right. Dear Heart ended up becoming a beautiful song written by the great Henry Mancini, and it became a hit record. I think Andy Williams had the hit record. So they changed the name of the film to Dear Heart. And it does kind of fit the title. And the film got mixed reviews when it opened. And over the years, it has developed quite a following. Now, we put it out on DVD through Warner Archive in our early days of modestly budgeted mastering intended for DVD. So we could never make the film look the way it should look and give it the treatment we can now give it. Going back to the camera negative, scanning it 4K, having a beautiful new 1080p master to work with. And it's really nicely capturing New York City in black and white in 1964, shot on location, directed by Delbert Mann, who directed Marty, you know, which won the Oscar in 1955 for Best Picture. He was very much a director of like live television and New York stage, but his film work was also quite exceptional. I just like the sensibility of this movie. It feels very, for lack of a better definition, 1964 modern. It's a charming, lovely film. And uh we did very well with the DVD. So I hope the Blu-ray will repeat that kind of uh financial performance. Our stockholders would like that too.

Tim Millard 20:54

Well, you know, when I sometimes see a 1960-something film, I think, oh, it's not that old. But this is a 62-year-old film. So getting HD treatment, getting this new 4K scan from the original camera negative should really uh make it pop in HD compared to that DVD that you mentioned.

George Feltenstein 21:16

So I like the fact that it was shot in black and white because by 1964, a big budgeted studio film would have been in color. They were really moving away from black and white by this time. And if a film was made in black and white at that period, it was intentional. It wasn't to save money. Because when the industry switched from the expensive three-color technicolor process to the more economic Eastman color process, that meant that the cost of making a movie in black and white and the cost of making a movie in color were not that different. So if someone chose to make a film in black and white when everything was going color, this film, you know, when I think about, and these are, you know, toddler era memories for me, but when I think of, you know, going into Manhattan in the 60s with my parents being a, you know, a little kid peeking out the window, you know, it kind of reminds me of what New York City was to me as a wee little one. Um I just I think Glenn Ford also, and Geraldine Geraldine Page's stature as one of the great actresses of the twentieth century is well established not only by her Oscar for The Trip to Bountiful, which was many years later than this film and well into her career, but she had established herself on Broadway in so many important roles and on film in so many important roles. And her praise is pretty much uh a constant. Glenn Ford was a big movie star for decades, and he never got really the recognition for his talent. Because he he did a lot of westerns, he did a lot of very serious dramas, he could also be in comedies. And I think he was very versatile and really we need to remember these performers who gave their art such life during their careers. And we've released many films with Glenn Ford, and I don't want people to forget Glenn Ford. And one of the ways to keep him in the public eye is by keeping his films available and making people interested to explore them. This is not, you know, a movie when you go to film school and they tell you, oh, you have to see Dear Heart. No, this is uh this is not cinematically revolutionary. This is not the Battle of Algiers. It's not Jules and Jim. This is a Hollywood finance shot in New York movie. It almost feels a little on the cusp of an independent film with a budget, but you've got big stars, and it it also has the feel of Warner Brothers post-production. It's terrific. I think people will really enjoy it. When the movie's over, you feel better. Yeah. It's a movie that makes you feel good by the end of the movie. And I'll leave it at that.

Tim Millard 24:43

Yep. I love those movies. That's uh that's why many of us first fell in love with movies. Because they of course, or they made us feel something. Uh, we shouldn't move on until we talk about these extras because you have a few on here.

George Feltenstein 24:57

Well, we have two 1964 Warner Brothers cartoons. We have Hawaiian Ai and the Iceman Ducas.

Tim Millard 25:09

And do you have the theatrical trailer as well?

George Feltenstein 25:11

And the theatrical trailer, of course. I I shouldn't ever take that for granted because on the older pictures we don't. We don't, yeah. But here we do. Yeah, yeah. So um it just felt like a good fit. You know, if you had gone to the theater in 1964, you probably would have seen these two Warner Brothers cartoons.

unknown 25:32

Yeah.

Tim Millard 25:34

Well, we have another classic film, and we're gonna zip back to the 30s here from 1938 called The Great Waltz. What can you tell us about this film?

George Feltenstein 25:47

This movie is very different. It's it's really very unique. I can't think of another film that's quite like it. This was a big budget MGM film directed by a French director who worked in the United States very rarely.

The Great Waltz And MGM Spectacle

George Feltenstein 26:09

And it is one of those musical biopics of a composer. The composer happens to be Johann Strauss, and it's all about Johann Strauss, Vienna, and Waltz's. What makes the film interesting is the leading lady who plays Mrs. Strauss is Louise Reiner, who had been by this time the recipient of two Best Actress Academy Awards, The Great Ziegfeld 1936, and for 1937's The Good Earth. I find her captivating whenever she's on screen in anything she did. And MGM put her in many different films, and she ultimately left MGM because she was not comfortable. That's one person who was very uh upfront on the record about not getting along with Mr. Mayer. So there's that. But this is a very aggressive film in how it was shot. And the cinematography won an Oscar. Joseph Rottenberg was the cinematographer. The film whirls, I think that's the best way to describe it. The whirl of a waltz, the three-quarter time, the whole thing is a rapid movement and pacing in telling a basically fictionalized story of Johann Strauss's life built around his waltzes. And one of the things that really impressed me with the new master is the sound quality lives up to that amazing orchestral luster. And this is not the typical music you would hear in a film of the period. This is going back to European music from decades and decades earlier. And you could feel a rhythm within the filmmaking, within the editing, the cinematography, everything. An actor named Fernand Grave played Johann Strauss and was very, very good in the film. And he made another film here at Warner Brothers called The King and the Chorus Girl. But from my understanding, was he went back to Europe and didn't make an American film for decades. So his name is not very well known. And then there was an opera diva who almost steals the picture. Melissa Corgius, and she plays a uh soprano who basically tries to steal Johann Strauss from Louise Reiner. And uh that's the conflict of the story. But the thing that's really remarkable about Melissa Corges, MGM really wanted to make her into a star, and so the poster says, Melissa Corges rhymes with gorgeous, you know. So and then there's a scene in the film that was excerpted in That's Entertainment Part 2, where Melissa Corgies and Fernand Grave are riding through the Vienna Woods, and little teeny things going on, like the hoofbeats of the horse that they're in the carriage and birds tweeting and everything inspires da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, uh, the tales of the Vienna Woods. And it's it's somewhat ludicrous, but yet within the film, it doesn't feel that way. But when they excerpted the sequence in That's Entertainment Part 2, it was strictly for laughs because it was crazy. Interestingly, the coachman who is riding in the carriage with Strauss and uh his lady friend is an actor named Christian Rube, who is not only the voice actor for Geppetto in Walt Disney's Pinocchio, but they actually used his face and body to draw the character. So Geppetto's voice actually looked like the guy who was the voice actor, you know, and in the film. So if you see the Great Waltz and you hear that voice and say, where do I know that from? It's Christian Rube, and uh he is indeed the voice of Geppetto as well. This film was a huge hit at the box office. Julien DeVuvier, who directed it, was back to Europe kind of in a flash. It didn't stay in Hollywood very long. That may have had something to do with what was going on in Europe at the time, but he went back there. He didn't escape there. His contribution to American cinema was very limited, but he came to MGM at just the right time. Just the right time. And the film was so successful that it got a full-fledged, wide theatrical re-release in the early 1950s. And that was very rare. It was very rare at that time for a film to get a wide reissue. The Disney people did it every seven years, that was established. Gone with the Wind did it every seven years. But generally, studios were hesitant to bring back what the theater owners called at that time vaulties, V-A-U-L-T-I-E-S. You know, they're from the vault, they're no good, they're old. Uh, they gave it a new art campaign, they gave it a new sell, and gave it a big theatrical reissue. And uh that kind of tapered down once local stations got pre-48 movies for television syndication. But I think this happened around 1953, maybe 1951, I'm not sure. But it was a very successful theatrical reissue because the film was so unique and people talked about it. People still talk about it. Dimitri Dionkin, one of the great film composers of all time, he was under contract to MGM in the 30s. And what he did was he re-orchestrated and arranged the Strauss Waltz so that even on the music cue sheet, it's credited Strauss Tiankin. His contribution to this film was quite impressive. And there's another person who people don't know that was associated with this film. They wrote English lyrics to some of the melodies, and those lyrics were written by a guy named Oscar Hammerstein II. And at this period in his career, Oscar Hammerstein was collaborating with Jerome Kern, but not to particular success. It was actually Hammerstein's eventual teeming with Richard Rogers after the parting of the ways with Richard Rogers and Lawrence Hart that ended up giving Hammerstein a whole rebirth of his career, uh, beginning with Oklahoma. And all that's well documented and well known by people who follow such things as I do. But um I did not know until, you know, several years ago when I first saw this film, that I was, oh wow, I didn't know Hammerstein had anything to do with it. It's it's wonderful entertainment, and it needs to be viewed through the lens of what it is with a fictionalized composer biography, but it's there to entertain. And it is also MGM's Dream Factory, using all of its resources, its huge orchestra, beautiful sets, beautiful costumes. It's efficiently well made and was a huge success. I think it was one of the biggest grossing films of that year. So we're delighted to be bringing it to Blu-ray looking gorgeous, as it should rhyming with Melissa Corges. So there you go.

Tim Millard 34:43

You also uh put your extras in here. Tell us a little bit about those.

George Feltenstein 34:48

Well, we've got a cartoon, The Little Bantam Wait. And uh that's one of the Happy Harmonies cartoons, which were very, very popular uh at MGM. I know we had a lot of people who ask us, uh, you know, they want to see a collection of those, and I'm hoping we can make that happen someday. I'm asking. Uh so far, no one's saying yes, but I'm gonna keep asking. We also have a live-action short subject which gave birth to sequels. The short is called Nostradamus. And MGM's short subject department was quite expansive and aggressive at doing all sorts of different things. And they made these historical oddities, they called them. And so a lot of people obviously know about Nostradamus, but MGM put that on the screen in 1938 for the first time. They ended up making four or five more Nostradama shorts until I think the last one was in the early 50s. So a lot of people know those shorts because occasionally they pop up in the middle of the night on TCM. But uh I thought it was perfect to put the first Nostradama short on with this film because they came out around the same time. And then we have the trailer, which is pretty impressive. Not only the trailer, but we also have the audio trailer, the radio trailer, Leo is on the air for the Great Waltz. And that's narrated by the studio's head of advertising was a guy named Frank Whitbeck, who talked like this and had a very nasal, you know, like you would never expect that to be your narrator, right? Yeah. Uh he narrated all the radio trailers, and you can even hear his voice in a lot of the theatrical trailers. Metro Golden Mare brings you the Wizard of Oz, never to be seen, but you know, like they didn't think maybe it would be a better idea to hire an actor. As the studio developed, he fell into that role. He did a great job. And uh I love the fact that he was actually creating the advertising campaigns and then delivering the message himself.

Tim Millard 37:16

Yeah.

George Feltenstein 37:16

So a lot of people don't know his name, Frank Whitbeck. That's who you're listening to.

Tim Millard 37:21

Well, we have one more classic film we're going to talk about today, and that's from 1956. This is Bundle of Joy. What can you tell us about this film?

George Feltenstein 37:34

Well, Bundle of Joy is, I think, more well known for things that really aren't related to the actual story of the film. It is a remake of a 1939 R. KO classic comedy called Bachelor Mother that starred Ginger Rogers. And I made sure to put in the description

Bundle Of Joy And Holiday Charm

George Feltenstein 37:57

for the film that yes, Bachelor Mother is coming from the Warner Archive collection. We have literally over a hundred, maybe close to 125, 135 feature films of renown that are all in the conga line of production. Bachelor Mother isn't ready yet. I actually had hoped to release them both the same month, but it's taking longer to work on Bachelor Mother because it's coming from Nitray. Bundle of Joy and Safety. You know, when something's ready, I want to get it out to the people that want it. Now, this film casts Debbie Reynolds in the leading role of a young sales girl who works at a department store, and she's fired from the store for being a little bit wacky. And on her way home from the store, she finds uh an abandoned baby, and the owner of the store decides to give her her job back because he thinks she's an unwed mother. So this was made during the production code, both Bachelor Mother and the remake. So it was all implication. What makes Bundle of Joy different than Bachelor Mother are two factors. The first factor is Bundle of Joy is a musical version of the storytelling, featuring new original songs written by Joseph Myro and the great Mac Gordon. And there's some really good songs in this film. But the reason why this film got so much attention was it was the screen teaming of relative newlyweds, Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher. One of the more famous Hollywood marriages, not because it happened, but because how it ended. And uh, I think anybody who knows Showbiz history knows that Elizabeth Taylor was Debbie Reynolds' good friend. And when Elizabeth Taylor married showman Michael Todd, Elizabeth was her matron of honor, washed her hair, and Debbie was married to the boy next door singer, famous from television records, Eddie Fisher. And when Elizabeth Taylor's husband, Mike Todd, the Impresario, was killed in a plane crash, Eddie Fisher went to Elizabeth to comfort her and never went back home to Debbie Reynolds or the two children. So Bundle of Joy's appearance on subsequent television broadcasts over the years always brought kinds of snickers. Now, to add to the magic brew of this movie, while they were filming, Debbie discovered that she was with child. So life imitates art. And Debbie does some rather, you know, she was a, she wanted to be a gym teacher. She wanted to be an actress. She's very athletic and very spunky. And uh she does some dance moves in this film that are remarkable, especially when you consider the fact that she was several months pregnant with who turned out to be Carrie Fisher. So Princess Leia is inside Debbie during the movie. Uh it's very charming, it's very entertaining, it's colorful, it's one 185 widescreen. Arkale was at Death's Door as a studio. They'd already sold off their library, but they were trying to stay alive by remaking some of their properties as musicals, and this was one of them. I'm glad that we're able to now remaster it from the camera negative and give it a nice presentation because it's very cute. And most importantly, you see this film turn up every year at Christmas because it takes place in the department store where Debbie works at Christmas. And Eddie Fisher's character is the son of the owner of the store. And the owner of the store is played by Adolf Manjou, who is great in everything he ever did. So this is really a Christmas film in the sense that it's seasonal. And that's why I wanted to make sure it was ready in time for Christmas. So it was actually ready a little early, and we're still waiting for Bachelor Mother, but that will come soon. We put some uh holiday-themed Warner Brothers cartoons with this. One of them, Fright Before Christmas, is not a theatrical cartoon. It was actually made for one of those late 70s, early 80s Warner Brothers television specials for the network. Uh, but the other cartoon on here, Gift Wrapped, that was made in the early 50s, and that's a theatrical Warner Brothers cartoon. But it makes for a nice package. And we do have a trailer. Always hard to get trailers on RKO movies. It's a nice Christmas package that you can expect in September. So I think that's the best way to put it.

Tim Millard 43:16

Yeah. Well, George, I'm very excited for this last title we're going to be talking about today. It is a TV series and it's a classic Western. Everybody's heard of it. And that is Maverick. And Maverick ran from 1957 to 1962. What can you tell us about this release?

George Feltenstein 43:42

Well, I I would have to say Maverick is the most beloved of the Warner Brothers television westerns. Uh Cheyenne is a close second, but Maverick, because of James Garner starring as Maverick,

Maverick In HD With Vintage Ads

George Feltenstein 43:58

he was just an instant star the minute he hit the airwaves. And following on the heels of Cheyenne, Warner Brothers and ABC started to work together to develop programming that would fill the network. And Maverick was created by and produced by a gentleman by the name of Roy Huggins. He and James Garner got along so well that they worked together on later projects. Maverick was lighthearted. It was comedic. It was fun. And of course, like I mentioned when we talked about Cheyenne and Cold 45 and some of the other series, you had the resources of one of Hollywood's biggest studios. All the resources of Warner Brothers were at the service of these television productions. So their production values are very high. The writing is excellent. Almost every episode has a either an established character actor andor a soon-to-be big star. You'll find Adam West in here. You'll also find Ephraim Zimbelis Jr. kind of right before he started 77 Sunset Strip and even during. It was taking them, I believe if I have this right, eight days to film a Maverick show. And if you're filming a new show for every week, that could be problematic if it takes eight days. So it was also problematic for James Garner because he was not comfortable with that kind of a work schedule. And as he alleged, he wasn't being paid that well because he was under contract to the studio and got handed this assignment. He loved doing the show. He was terrific on it, became an overnight sensation. And Warner Brothers put him in feature films almost immediately because of that. But they decided that Brett Maverick needed a brother to be the Maverick on the shows that James Garner was not in, so they hired an actor, Jack Kelly. And there were some episodes where you had Bart Maverick and Brett Maverick, and some episodes where you just had Brett, and some episodes where you just had Bart. And that worked for about three seasons. James Garner left the series over a salary dispute and the conditions and the fact that he was being offered big movies all over town. And Jack Kelly carried on for the balance of the third season. If I have the sequence correct, another Warner Contract player took over as Bo Maverick, their cousin from uh overseas, and that was uh future James Bond, future Saint named Roger Moore. And of course, we saw him in the Alaskans, which we put on Blu-ray through the Warner Archive. And Roger Moore is terrific in the show. He really is. But he was not comfortable doing the show. And the fifth season was kind of uh the original producer had left, and uh Jack Kelly came back. There were other actors involved, but it kind of went from being the biggest thing on TV to slowly fading away. But it was and remains popular on television. It never really went away. And then, of course, in 1994, the studio here, this is now 32 years ago, but Richard Donner directed a feature film version of Maverick starring Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster and Drumroll Please, James Garner. Yep. And it was a huge hit film, great movie, love that movie. It had the spirit of the TV show and yet was its own thing, and had the benefit of being a 1994 big budget color film. And I recommend it to anybody who hasn't seen it. But the TV series is wonderful. I wanted to do something that would make this release really special. So I asked the mastering team, some of the film elements had commercials in them. Most of them did not, but I had them build me a separate master tape with the commercials. So we have five episodes that cross season one, season two, and season three. I think there are three of them in season three, one in season two, and one in season one. An episode that actually runs with the commercials a little over an hour because I added more commercials. But the primary sponsor of the series in the early seasons was Kaiser Industries. And Kaiser Industries made aluminum foil and they made dog food. They made all sorts of things. But one of the things they made that I was not aware of was they were the owner of Jeep at that time. I knew that American Motors had owned Jeep, you know, when I was a kid, but I didn't know it had a prior owner and that it was Kaiser Industries. So as a result, there are Jeep commercials, particularly in season three. And here's the real like surprise. It was a surprise to me. Buster Keaton, when he was 65 years old, did these little lessons in life vignettes at the beginning of Jeep commercials. And he did Pratt Falls and fell into the water and fell on his head and did all the kind of knockabout things he was doing since childhood in vaudeville. And anybody who treasures Buster Keaton's comedy the way I do, this is like, it's not like these commercials were completely forgotten about or unknown. People knew about them, but people will not have seen them look this good. And of course, within the context of how they were originally shown on Maverick. So you get Dial Soap, you get Salem cigarettes, you get Dash Dog Food, all sorts of things. And some of the commercials are very funny. And we also get, you know, the Brought to You By and just a little flavor. Every episode ends with the Warner Brothers Shield and saying, this is an ABC television network presentation. These are the things you don't see on television anymore and reruns, but it recreates the broadcast experience just a bit. The other thing has nothing to do with the content on the discs and the program, but more importantly, how we've packaged it. I don't know anybody who likes those big cases where you open them up and you have 30 discs fall on the floor. We're not going to ever release anything in that kind of packaging, if I have anything to say about it. So each season of Maverick has its own elite case with its own description. And seasons one, two, three, four, five, five cases inside an over sleeve or shell or whatever you want to call it, that will look great on the shelf. And most importantly, be secure packaging that won't lead to frustration and damaged disk. That was very important to me. And I was also able to get the powers that be to agree to a more digestible manufacturer's suggested retail price of $99.98, which for five seasons of a show, especially when there's 22 to 26 episodes per season, it's a lot of programming. It's 30 discs. I feel very good about the quality of the product that we're releasing. If it's going to have the Warner Archive name on it, I want it to be a product of quality. And uh I'm very proud of what we're going to be able to bring to the fans because Maverick fans are 8 to 80. They're of all ages. Anybody who sees this show falls in love with it. And for many people, this will be their first time seeing it, especially seeing it in HD. We had the good pleasure and good fortune of releasing season three, four, and five on DVD through the Warner Archive years ago. And those were with masters that were very, very old. Still very enjoyable for what they were. But now we've taken it the next step. So people who've seen what we did with Cheyenne, what we did with the Alaskans, what we did with Cold 45, it's the same level of excellence here. And I really hope people will enjoy it.

Tim Millard 53:37

Yeah. I'm glad you you mentioned the packaging because this is a 32 disc set. And if it's not packaged well, it it's frustrating. So not only do you have the high quality of DHD for the episodes, I love the fact that you've got these uh these five with the commercials, but you'll be able to, you know, it it'll look nice on the shelf and you'll be able to, you know, pull out a season at a time and have them organized properly so that you can find the specific episodes you want or where you are as you're watching and going through it from beginning to end. And I I mean I I think that's important. And in light of that price point, I know you're spending more on the packaging. In light of that price point, on behalf of the fans, thank you. Um, because I know I really enjoyed it in my previous Cheyenne's and all the others to have it that way.

George Feltenstein 54:36

It it just it it's it must be done. If you care about the consumer, you want to care about the product being something that they can be happy with their purchase. Yeah. And we we aim to please, as Popeye would say. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or actually you'd say, we aims to please to please.

Tim Millard 54:57

Well, this is a terrific uh uh badge of titles coming out in September. We will record another podcast because you have more later in the month. Uh, and then we'll also be talking about a 4K in that one and an animated Hanna-Barbera series. So lots of good stuff there. But I'm glad we were able to talk about the September 22nd Blu-rays and then this Maverick, which will come out in early October.

George Feltenstein 55:26

Thanks, Tim. And I do want to mention to people who are listening and watching, depending on what you're how you're hearing

Release Dates Roadmap And Farewell

George Feltenstein 55:33

this information, the reason why we've split the street dates is because we've basically doubled our release schedule and doubled our output. And that puts a strain on the operations infrastructure. So, in order for us to say what the street date is and make it, a lot of that's out of our control, but we're going to do everything we can on our end to make that happen. And we thought one of the ways of doing that was to split the releases into two street dates so it's not a glut all at one time.

Tim Millard 56:15

Yeah. Yeah. And we're doing that with the podcast because there's so much to talk about.

George Feltenstein 56:20

Absolutely.

Tim Millard 56:21

And it's a wealth of great uh titles and uh animation, classic film, 4K that you have. And you've already told us there's more and more and more coming, more great stuff.

George Feltenstein 56:34

I need to stress that because as you know, we were recording this on the same day this has all been announced. And they're, you know, 80 to 85% of the comments are incredibly positive. They're uh very grateful, they're excited. And then there's always a group of people that will say, What about this? And what about that? And what about this, and what about that? Now, in the past, when I'd see that, it would be somewhat deflating because we worked so hard to bring this out, and yet you're looking for what's around the corner. I think some of that is just natural when you're a fan, and so much of our library has not been available in a high-quality format. The thing that gives me gratitude is the fact that almost every title I see people asking for are actually titles that are in the Conga line of production. So you've got a lot of great stuff to look forward to, and we appreciate all the support of all the fans for the Warner Archive Collection, and we thank you.

Tim Millard 57:44

Well, that was another great conversation with George. September is loaded, we've broken it up into several podcasts. So these titles that we talked about are releasing September 22nd, with the exception of the TV series memory, released in October 6th. We will post pre order links when they become available. And as I mentioned, there are more releases in September. A little bit later, we will have another podcast where we go over those and 4K in early October. Until next time, we'll take time to test about the Warner Archive.