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Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 12:52 am
by Precious Doll
Big Magilla wrote:The Archive is putting independent DVD makers out of business. Joe's has been inactive for months. In the last two days I've gotten e-mails from both FreeMovies on DVD and Timeless Theater advising they were going out of business but orders already processed would be completed. Both websites have been taken down.
Another site has had an order of mine placed December 4th which he keeps telling me is being mailed soon.
None of these sites are admitting to pressure, they are are basically saying that they are quitting to have more time to do other things, but it's too coincidental to be anything else.
I placed an order with Scooters Movie Shop over 3 months ago and still no sign of the 6 DVDs I ordered. I have emailed them twice and received the same response 'I'm working on them'.
I ordered over 120 movies during the period Aug 08 to Sep 09 and always had them within a month for my order so this is very out of character for them.
Edited By Precious Doll on 1263966995
Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 5:01 pm
by dws1982
These Archive things are ruining the market for catalog films on DVD. Old catalog titles are going out of print in record numbers, and most will no doubt be part of these burn-on-demand series. Whereas we could once buy a good DVD (an actual DVD) of a catalog title for $15 or less, now we're going to have to pay $20+ for a DVD-R, which has a shorter shelf-life and is of inferior quality to regular DVD's.
I do not like this at all. If these archive titles were $10 a piece, I wouldn't have a problem with it. But they're asking us to pay more for a lesser product.
Edited By dws1982 on 1263938629
Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 2:50 pm
by Big Magilla
The Archive is putting independent DVD makers out of business. Joe's has been inactive for months. In the last two days I've gotten e-mails from both FreeMovies on DVD and Timeless Theater advising they were going out of business but orders already processed would be completed. Both websites have been taken down.
Another site has had an order of mine placed December 4th which he keeps telling me is being mailed soon.
None of these sites are admitting to pressure, they are are basically saying that they are quitting to have more time to do other things, but it's too coincidental to be anything else.
Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 8:23 am
by Big Magilla
Due later in the month: The White Cliffs of Dover; The Valley of Decision; It's a Wonderful World; Cry Havoc; 5th Avenue Girl; The Bride Goes Wild and more TV mini-series: I know My First Name Is Steven; Blood & Orchids and The Awakening Land.
Now available from Amazon: DVD-R pressings of Universal films such as Death Takes a Holiday (previously available as a bonus on Meet Joe Black); Ruggles of Red Gap; The House of Seven Gables (1940); The List of Adrian Messenger; The Chalk Garden; Resurrection (1980); 40 Pounds of Trouble; The Brass Bottle; The Perfect Furlough; Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here and more.
Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 6:16 am
by Precious Doll
Latest from Warners
Angel Dusted
The Bad Seed (1985 - TV film)
Beauty and The Boss (1933)
Captain Salvation (1927)
Deadly Tower (1976 - TV)
Desperate Lives (1982)
Divorce Wars: A Love Story
The Flying Fleet (1929)
Hostage Flight
A Killer in the Family (1983 - TV)
La Boheme (1926)
Operation Heartbeat (1969 - TV)
Split Second (1952)
Sunny (1930)
They Met in Bombay
Tide of Empire (1929)
Under Eighteen (1932)
White Shadows in the South Seas (1928)
Wild Oranges (1924)
Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 2:01 pm
by Big Magilla
This outfit has been notorious for ordering and shipping problems since they began. However, I have not personally had any problems with them until last week.
I had ordered seven films, eight, actually but one was on pre-order and was shipped separately - before the first seven, actually.
Finally last Friday I received the seven films, but not seven DVDs. Whoever typed up the packing slip indicated a quantity of seven next to each title so they shipped seven times seven or forty-nine DVDs.
I immediately looked for a return shipping label, which is standard with UPS shipments, only they had removed the label so I e-mailed them for one. Today, five days later, they responded saying they don't provide return labels but if I provide a copy of the postage receipt IN THE RETURN PACKAGE they will reimburse me up to $15.00 when they receive it.
How the hell do you place a receipt for a SEALED package in the SEALED package? You can't!
Anyway, I took the package to the Post Office and fortunately for the first time in weeks the line was down to normally slow instead of excruciatingly slow and surprisingly it cost me less than $7 to ship the package media mail with delivery receipt.
Merry Christmas, Warner Bros.!
Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 2:11 am
by Big Magilla
Actually these are December releases.
Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 1:37 am
by Precious Doll
January releases from Warners Archive
The Boy with Green Hair
The Canterville Ghost
Dondi
The Easiest Way (1931)
The Enchanted Collage
Golden Dawn (1930)
The Happy Years (1950)
Hard, Fast and Beautiful (1951)
Hollywood Revue of 1929
It's a Great Life (1929)
Journey for Margaret
The Next Voice You Hear
On With the Show (1929)
Rio Rita (1929)
Sally (1929)
Show Girl in Hollywood (1930)
Smart Woman (1948)
Union Depot (1932)
Untamed Youth (1957)
The Woman on Pier 13 (1950)
Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 9:09 am
by Big Magilla
From the N.Y. Post:
DVD Extra: Warner Archive gets some remastering.
"Some of the early Warner Archive releases should not have been put out because of the quality,'' admits Warner Home Video's George Feltenstein, who says the studio has set a "higher bar'' because of fan complaints. "We've rejected a lot of things we planned to release, like 'Lucky Night' with Robert Taylor and Myrna Loy, which has a very shaky image,'' says Feltenstein, who I interviewed recently in connection with this week's superb Blu-ray release of "Gone With the Wind.'' The original concept of the Warner Archive was to use existing digital masters created for TCM and VHS to make a large number of films -- more than 350 so far -- available on demand that wouldn't have supported a regular commercial DVD release. "Now we're going to do some re-mastering on a small group of films, and hopefully more if we can get the budget,'' Feltenstein says. (There are a number of widescreen WB. films from the '50s and '60s, like "The Chapman Report,'' that presently exist only in old pan-and-scan transfers and would have to be redone in letterbox).
He is particularly keen on the "beautiful'' new high-def master for Roy Rowland's "Our Vines Have Tender Grapes'' (1945) with Margaret O'Brien, one of a group of Edward G. Robinson movies that became available yesterday at warnerachive.com. (The others are Raoul Walsh's rousing "Manpower'' with Marlene Dietrich and George Raft; Howard Hawks' "Tiger Shark,'' Mervyn LeRoy's fascinating "Two Seconds'' with Mary Astor; "The Man With Two Faces,'' from a play by Alexander Wollcott and George S. Kaufman; and "The Last Gangster'' with a moustachioed James Stewart).
Coming up from the Archive is a remastered version of Michael Curtiz' "Mammy'' with Al Jolson, complete with restored Technicolor sequences. "That one looks good enough for Blu-ray,'' he says. For those "myopic individuals'' griping that WHV is focusing its resources away from regular DVD releases to Archive releases and Blu-gray upgrades, Feltenstein says "we have a very robust schedule planned for both regular DVD and the Archive. I think people are going to be pleased.''
The studio has already announced a 10-title fifth volume for its film noir series for 2010, as as well as another Errol Flynn set (the latter will not include "Santa Fe Trail,'' which is being photochemically restored after long-missing original elements were discovered).
Over at the Archive, Feltenstein promises more titles featuring stars who haven't been well represented so far -- James Cagney, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart and Wallace Beery. Sales for the relative handful of TV movies and mini-series released so far "blew everyone away. We had our best month yet in October. I have found some stuff nobody even knows about. There was a series called 'Conflict' that Warners made for ABC in the '50s, with a lot of stars in remakes of old movies, like Natalie Wood in a version of 'Pretty Baby.' '' One of the big vintage titles bowing on Blu-ray -- within the next six months, Felteinstein says -- is George Cukor's 1954 version of "A Star is Born'' with Judy Garland. "It's an extraordinary presentation, with a lot of exciting extras,'' he says. Felsteinstein confirmed our earlier report that the extras include a remastered version of William Wellman's classic 1937 version. But not Cukor's "What Price Hollywood,'' which is considered a precursor. "We considered it, but there wasn't space and it truly isn't a version of the same story.''
Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 3:57 pm
by Big Magilla
Lots of new stuff added today including Comrade X; The Vribe; The Subject Was Roses and a number of made-for-TV films including The Two Mrs. Grenvilles for which Claudette Colbert won a Golden Globe in her last role opposite Ann-Margret.
Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 8:32 am
by Big Magilla
Precious Doll wrote:Warners have released some post 1980 films through the archive series. Orphans with Albert Finney comes to mind.
Yeah, I guess there really is no cut-off, any film not released on DVD in the U.S. is probably eligible.
Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 2:38 am
by Precious Doll
The Search has been released in France.
Warners have released some post 1980 films through the archive series. Orphans with Albert Finney comes to mind.
Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2009 6:57 pm
by Big Magilla
Several archive titles have had releases outside the U.S.
Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2009 6:19 pm
by Cinemanolis
"Wrestling Ernest Hemingway" is already out in DVD, in Greece at least.
Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2009 5:57 pm
by Big Magilla
Great if true, but I thought the cut-off date was 1980, not so if they're including such nineties titles as Men Don't Leave and Wrestling Ernest Hemingway.