Warner Archive Part 1 August Announcement: 7 Classic Films, TV & Scooby-Doo

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Hello and welcome to The Extras.
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I'm Tim Millard, your host, and joining me is George Feltenstein to announce the August Blu-ray and 4K releases from the Warner Archive.
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Hi, George.
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Hello, Tim.
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Great to be with you, as always.
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As always, it's great to do these announcements, and I'm excited because now this month we have some 4Ks we're going to be talking about.
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And you have been saying they're coming, and this is a great month to go over a few of those, so people can stay tuned for that.
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And I thought we'd actually start off with one of them, which I'm very excited about.
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It's one of my favorite movies, let alone a favorite noir, and that is Out of the Past.
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What can you tell us about this 1947 classic?
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Well, 12 years ago, we released Out of the Past on Blu-ray, and that was a pretty momentous release for us.
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It's one of our best-selling titles.
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And that master looked quite good.
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It had been made from a fine grain, second generation fine grain, which is what we used back then.
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And uh we thought it really looked good, and we've been very proud of it.
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However, this film is really known as not only one of the most seminal noirs of all time, but Nicholas Musicara's cinematography should be really a billing along with Mitchum and Jane Greer and Kirk Douglas.
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I mean, it's incredibly photographed.
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Unfortunately, the original camera negative on this RKO film does survive.
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So we were able to scan the nitrate camera negative at 4K and do a 4K HDR finish.
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And with many of the older films, the benefit that 4K and HDR bring is questionable depending on what kind of an element you're working from and what is in the photography.
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This is a film because we were working from the original negative, and because we could get deeper blacker blacks and whiter whites with HDR, we all agreed that this would be a wonderful Warner Archive 4K release.
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And we're very excited about it.
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And it was shown, albeit without HDR, it was shown in 4K at the TCM Film Festival a couple of months ago.
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And the response to it, it was like watching a nitrate print.
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It was just incredible.
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As I've said previously, 4K releases will be the exception, not the rule here.
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And I stand by the quality of everything that we release, but this seemed like a perfect opportunity to do something that was more traditionally photographed, but because of the information in the negative and the way the film was shot, it just seemed like a natural.
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And I hope people will really enjoy it.
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It looks gorgeous.
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We not only have the commentary that we had previously, but we also have a little intro, I should say, from our wonderful friend Eddie Mueller, the czar of Noir, and who's now a famous TV star, thanks to TCM being one of the hosts there.
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But I always like to say I knew you before you were famous because we've been good friends for a very long time.
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And it just makes me so pleased that the world is a better place to live in because of Eddie Mueller.
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So we have that.
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And then to add to the film itself, we've also put some uh radio shows with Robert Mitchum, including two episodes of the famous radio series Suspense, and we have a Kirk Douglas uh episode of Suspense.
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All of these are from 1947, so they're really contemporary, basically, to the release period of this film.
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The film is just a remarkable noir, and uh with the extra added quality that Dolby Vision brings to the presentation, I think people will be able to immerse themselves even more in the movie.
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And I do want to mention also that this is a combo pack, that we do have a Blu-ray version of the new remaster in the combo pack.
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And for an MSRP of $29.98, I think that's a good value.
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I also should mention that the disc encoding is being done by the magnificent David Mackenzie at Fidelity in Motion.
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And you know when you get an encode from Fidelity in Motion, the film has been treated with the utmost excellence.
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So we're very grateful to have David's talents added to this release.
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Yeah.
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Well, let's go into some of the Blu-rays.
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And the first one that I wanted to talk about is Torrid Zone from 1940.
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What can you tell us about this film?
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Well, we've been getting a lot of comments from people who want more Jimmy Cagney.
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Right.
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Um, and Lord knows we have a lot of it, but this was a big hit for him back in 1940, and he's co-starring with my favorite Oomph Girl, Ann Sheridan, and his good friend in real life, Pat O'Brien.
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It's set on a banana republic plantation, and there's kind of a little bit of a, I would say a little bit of a sensibility akin to red dust, but very much postcode.
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But the script is so witty.
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It is a melodrama, but also a comedy in a sense.
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It's not a screwball comedy or a laugh out loud slapstick comedy.
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It's just that perfect combination of wit and wisdom in the writing, and it is very, very much a Warner Brothers film from 1940, beautifully directed by William Keeley.
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And uh I have to mention that the famous Andy Devine is one of the supporting players.
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There's a lot of really great supporting actors and actresses in this film, but uh the talent really carries it, and we also have some nice shorts here with this, which were on the DVD version that we released 20 plus years ago, I would say, at this point.
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We have a newsreel, uh, we have Ozzie Nelson and his orchestra as a Warner Brothers musical short.
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We have a Warner Brothers historical short, Pony Express Days, and last but certainly not least, the Oscar-nominated cartoon that firmed up the definition of Bugs Bunny, and that's Tex Avery's cartoon, A Wild Hare.
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So it really gives you a wonderful 1940 night at the movies.
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This is another 4K scan off the original camera negative, so it looks luscious, and uh, I think people are gonna be very, very happy with this release.
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I certainly am.
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Well, next we have All Through the Night, starring Humphrey Bogart.
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What can you tell us about this 1942 film?
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Well, if I'm smiling, it's because All Through the Night is such an interesting movie.
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This is very Damon Runyon-esque in its style, but it had he had nothing to do with the film.
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But Bogart had established himself by this time as Bogart.
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And this is after the Maltese Falcon and after High Sierra, and he plays a tough guy, Gloves Donahue, in this movie, who's uh doing the usual things that uh Runyan-esque characters do in New York, and he gets involved with uh going after basically uh Nazi spy ring in in New York.
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The plot is very, very compact.
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The storytelling is excellent, the direction by Vincent Sherman is excellent, and the cast includes Conrad Weight, who was, of course, the super bad guy commandant in Casablanca later that year with Bogart.
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Karen Verne is the leading lady, Peter Laurie is in this film, and uh you also get a lot of uh comics of future, meaning two people that became big stars after this film, uh, specifically Jackie Gleason, who's billed as Jackie C.
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Gleason, and Phil Silvers.
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And uh he had already made his mark in the movies, but William Demerist is in this movie also.
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It's it's terrific.
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We have a lot of Bogart films that are very popular, and this is one that people really, really wanted to see.
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And uh, I'm so glad we could do the upgrade because we think all of Bogart's filmography should be available on Blu-ray, uh, especially the films he made in the 40s, and there are still some very prominent titles that are only available on DVD.
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So we're in the process of changing that.
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This is one example.
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One thing that this film benefits from, which we were fortunate enough to pull off when we were releasing this on DVD, is the director of the film, Vincent Sherman, was still alive and very healthy and with all his faculties, and he helped us create commentaries for several of his films uh before he passed away.
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He he died just before turning 100.
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But he he was completely sharp in terms of his memory.
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And uh he does the commentary on here with a very fine writer who was a Bogart biographer, Eric Lax.
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And we have a featurette called The Usual Suspects, which talks about the craft of the character actor.
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Very appropriate on this film since the character actors helped bring it together.
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Uh, and we have a 1942 newsreel, a Joe McDogue short, the actual first Joe McDougall short, uh So You Want to Give Up Smoking, which was made by Richard L.
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Bear as his graduate film from USC Film School.
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And Warner Brothers bought the film and then he ended up working here for another 14 years.
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And uh Warner Brothers cartoon from 1942 that I like a great deal, Lights Fantastic, and the trailer.
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So it's a pack disc.
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Don't want to sound like a broken record, but it is a 4K scan off the nitrate camera negative.
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How can you go wrong?
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Um and what's interesting about this movie is a very long time ago, we're talking like over 50 years ago, at the very beginning of the 70s, there started to be this nostalgia boom.
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And people started selling movie poster reproductions in bookstores, and there were not a lot of them available.
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But all through the night was one of those posters that you could buy at a bookstore for like ten dollars.
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And so it's the same image we have on the cover of our disc.
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Why should we do anything different?
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It's such it's become an iconic image because it was a very available movie poster look at a time when if you weren't a movie poster collector, it was easily accessible and viewable.
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So um it's just a little added historical note there, but I I really think the film is really a delight.
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And Bogart is clearly having a good time in the film.
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Yeah.
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You can just tell.
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Everybody really is.
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And I think that's one of the things Vincent Sherman brought to his sets because uh the stories on the background of the films that he made are almost all very positive.
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He was very well liked at the studio and directed many wonderful films here, as well as some work at other studios as well.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Well, it's always great to get another Ogart film.
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Well, next we have Montana.
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What can you tell us about this 1950 Western?
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First and foremost, it's in Technicolor.
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And you know that if a film is shot in Technicolor and we get to use our special proprietary technology at Warner Brothers Motion Picture Imaging, that's gonna look amazing.
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And this does.
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Once again, Australian, or I should say, Tasmanian-born Errol Flynn is cast in a Western.
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This one set in Montana.
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And his leading lady is Alexis Smith, who he also co-starred with in another Technicolor Flynn Western we released a few months ago, San Antonio.
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They're really terrific together here.
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And interestingly, Alexis Smith plays a very strong-willed woman who's not the usual fawning leading lady that Errol Flynn was often cast with.
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They wrote her a very meaty role in this.
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It isn't a very long film, but it's very entertaining, very efficiently made, directed by Ray and Wright.
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But you don't think of Errol Flynn as a singer.
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And we didn't think of Alexis Smith as a singer back in 1950, which is when this film was released.
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21 years later, she opened in a Broadway show that won her a Tony Award the following year, Stephen Sondheim's Follies, in which she was the leading lady and she was brilliant, and she sang wonderfully.
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But I had to double check to make sure she wasn't dubbed in this movie because I know that she was dubbed in other movies made before this, but they have a song called Reconham in Love that's just a cute little ditty that Errol Flynn's playing the guitar during, and uh, it's a very tightly scripted, well-shot, beautifully made Western.
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And the fans of Errol Flynn have demanded more.
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I also want to say that there are many more famous Errol Flynn movies that have yet to get their Blu-ray upgrade.
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They're all in the queue.
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We release them when they're done.
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So it's not like we're gonna hold back Montana while we're still waiting for a more famous film.
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So I want to explain that to our supporters and consumers and our fans that there's a lot of really famous Flynn still in the works.
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Um, you know, this isn't the first film that rolls off the tongue when you're thinking of Errol Flynn.
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But if you haven't seen this movie, I highly recommend it.
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We also put some slightly older Warner Brothers Western shorts from the 40s on here.
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We had done that on DVD and we carried over all the special features that were on the DVD because people have told us that they want to be able to have everything.
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So there's there's a Joe McDowell short on here, So You Want a Raise, and a great Warner Brothers cartoon.
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It's Hummertime and the trailer.
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So it's it's it's a great package, and I think people will be very, very happy with the film.
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Yeah, I have uh the DVD of some of I think it's like four Westerns with Flynn.
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Yeah.
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We did a whole Western set.
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So I'm uh looking forward to upgrading my Montana with this new Blu-ray release.
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So always great to get upgrades to Errol Flynn films.
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And we have another Western next that we're gonna talk about, Sergeant Rutledge.
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What can you tell us about this 1960 Western?
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This is a very important film.
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This film, John Ford bravely addresses racism at a time when people just weren't doing that.
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And I think that it reflected a personal change within him as a filmmaker.
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Sgt.
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Rutledge, the titular character, is played by Woody Strode.
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And if things had been proper at that time, he would be first billed because he is the central character on which the story is based.
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Jeffrey Hunter got first billing, and then Constance Towers and Billy Burke, the Good Witch from Wizard of Oz, they all get billing before Woody Strode, but Ford really got behind Woody Strode, and to get this movie made at Warner Brothers was pretty brave because it it kind of is reminiscent of certain other films where Sergeant Rutledge's character is accused of a crime he did not commit.
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I don't want to give away too much of the plot, but the whole way Ford handles the storytelling, it's built around the court case of this sergeant who's basically being court-martialed for a crime he did not commit, and that he is an African-American man in a movie made 66 years ago.
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Uh, this was brave filmmaking for that period of time.
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And I want to say that Jeffrey Hunter is excellent in this film as he was in Ford's The Searchers.
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Constance Towers didn't really have much of a screen career.
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She did a lot of stage work in New York, and she was also on soap operas in later years.
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She's very good in this film.
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Woody Strode is great in every film he ever did, in my opinion.
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And the same goes for someone I've talked about before here with emphatic passion because I think he was one of the most remarkable actors in history, Juano Hernandez.
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And I just love the fact that he's in this movie.
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I love the fact that Jack Warner supported John Ford making this movie in 1960 because it brings up issues that are issues that we are dealing with in society today.
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Um so Ford's filmmaking is as always remarkable.
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This is such an improvement from the DVD, which had really not very good color.
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This is from a time when the Eastman Color stocks were suffering from yellow layer failure, blue channel conditions.
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So the colors never looked correct.
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We now have the tools that can bring out the full color as intended.
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So the 4K scan of the camera negative was able to bring out a full palette of color.
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It doesn't look like people are suffering from anemia.
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It's beautifully photographed, it's well shot, it's beautifully acted, well written.
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And to give the film a little context, we have an audio interview that was done with TCM's primary host, Ben Manquich, and the magnificent film historian and author, Donald Bogle, who has written many books about the black experience in cinema.
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And I've talked about him before I bought his first book when I was 11 years old.
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He's a hero to me because he's such a great writer and he's put such a wonderful lens on so much of cinema that needs to be examined.
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So they had a conversation about the film, and our friends at TCM were kind enough to give us access to that conversation.
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And that was very important to me because I wanted there to be some historical context.
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We have some 1960 Warner Brothers cartoons, West of the Pesos, and Hopalong Casualty and the trailer.
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But uh the talk between Ben and Mr.
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Bogle uh is about 15 minutes and very illuminating, talking about the very issues that I'm just hinting of in the description of the motion picture.
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Yeah.
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Well, next we have a film from 1997, George.
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We don't have too many films from the 90s, but Wag the Dog.
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What can you tell us about this political satire?
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Aside from the fact that it should have been released on Blu-ray uh when the format came out 20 years ago.
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Yeah.
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Um, this is one of those films I had been like begging to get remastered because it needed to be on Blu ray.
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The HD master the company had was.
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Interlaced from the late 90s, and you couldn't put that on a Blu-ray, or at least we wouldn't.
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So this is a 4K scan of the camera negative.
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This is directed by Barry Levinson.
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And you've got Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman and Ann Haish and Dennis Leary, who I think is woefully underrated as an actor.
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I I really like him very much.
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And this is a very interesting story because it's all about a presidential scandal that a fixer and a Hollywood producer conspire to create a little external noise from the political corruption that's going on.
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David Mammoth co-wrote the screenplay with Hillary Hincken.
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It was original.
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And it was certainly very prescient.
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This film has a lot of fans.
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It's almost 30 years old.
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And I'm just delighted that finally we're bringing it to Blu-ray.
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We've got some wonderful extra features here, all of which were created by New Line Home Entertainment for prior DVD releases.
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But there's a featurette called From Washington to Hollywood, in which there are a lot of participants who people will recognize.
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I think it's a great piece.
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And uh there's also an audio commentary with Barry Levinson and Dustin Hoffman and the trailer.
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Dustin Hoffman's company, Robert De Niro's production company, and Barry Levinson's production company formed a Troika to get this film made, and Newline got behind it.
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It was very well received and very successful for its time.
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So I just didn't understand why there hadn't been a Blu-ray years and years ago.
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So it was up to me to keep fighting, and I kept fighting, and finally, we now have the result.
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I think people who haven't seen this film will find it very eye-opening because when you find a film that's nearly 30 years old, that is scary in terms of what it predicts for the future.
00:24:23.170 --> 00:24:27.650
It is certainly uh a conversation starter.
00:24:27.810 --> 00:24:28.130
Yeah.
00:24:28.370 --> 00:24:30.769
So I hope people will appreciate the film.
00:24:30.769 --> 00:24:32.130
It looks amazing.
00:24:32.130 --> 00:24:35.970
We scan the negative at 4K, and it's a beautiful Blu-ray.
00:24:35.970 --> 00:24:37.730
I think people are going to be very happy with it.
00:24:37.730 --> 00:24:41.570
I'm so grateful that we're able to release it properly.
00:24:41.890 --> 00:24:45.330
Yeah, I remember when it came out in theaters and it was a big deal.
00:24:45.330 --> 00:24:46.850
It uh was very popular.
00:24:46.850 --> 00:24:51.810
So it's it is somewhat shocking that it hasn't been released on Blu-ray, but finally we get it.
00:24:51.810 --> 00:24:54.370
It really was an instant classic when it came out, I think.
00:24:54.690 --> 00:25:10.370
Well, and it also seemed a little far-fetched in the storytelling, but historical events, even right after the movie came out, there were things going on about presidential scandals and so forth and so on.
00:25:10.370 --> 00:25:12.289
So it is entertainment.
00:25:12.289 --> 00:25:12.769
Yeah.
00:25:12.769 --> 00:25:20.690
And you know, Mammoth is one of our great playwrights, certainly of modern times, has done great work for the screen as well.
00:25:20.690 --> 00:25:26.370
I happen to really, really like this movie, and it's 98 minutes long.
00:25:26.370 --> 00:25:29.650
They did not have to make a movie that was two and a half hours.
00:25:29.650 --> 00:25:36.850
I think one of the problems with with filmmaking in recent years is the films are just too long.
00:25:36.850 --> 00:25:37.090
Yeah.
00:25:37.090 --> 00:25:40.289
And efficient storytelling is great.
00:25:40.289 --> 00:25:42.289
Yeah, you're not patting the movie.
00:25:42.289 --> 00:25:52.210
And I think one of the reasons this movie was so successful was it appealed to all audiences and it was intelligent filmmaking.
00:25:52.210 --> 00:25:57.730
It wasn't all about you know noise and explosions, it was about storytelling.
00:25:57.890 --> 00:25:58.049
Yeah.
00:25:58.289 --> 00:26:00.289
So I hope people enjoy the Blu-ray.
00:26:00.450 --> 00:26:02.529
And that's a hallmark of Mehmet as well.
00:26:02.529 --> 00:26:04.690
Uh, very, very tight.
00:26:05.250 --> 00:26:07.410
This command of the language is remarkable.
00:26:07.410 --> 00:26:07.970
Yeah.
00:26:07.970 --> 00:26:11.330
So uh it shows in this film for certain.
00:26:11.330 --> 00:26:12.130
Yeah.
00:26:12.450 --> 00:26:35.440
Well, next we have uh a film I'm very excited for, and that is The Wings of Eagles.
00:26:35.440 --> 00:26:39.039
What can you tell us about this 1957 drama?
00:26:39.920 --> 00:26:51.759
Well, this was a very personal film made by John Ford and John Wayne about one of their dearest friends.
00:26:51.759 --> 00:26:59.920
Ford had a little group of people that he hung out with a lot that were like his closest friends.
00:26:59.920 --> 00:27:08.799
And Frank Spig was his nickname, Weed, was a great aviator uh in the military.
00:27:08.799 --> 00:27:19.279
He was a pioneer in the air, and later turned his interest into screenwriting and wrote some great screenplays here at Warner Brothers in the 30s.
00:27:19.279 --> 00:27:31.680
He wrote also wrote at other places, and the film deals with his life and his uh unfortunate passing, and it's it tugs at your heart.
00:27:31.680 --> 00:27:37.039
John Wayne's frequent co-star, five times they co-starred together.
00:27:37.039 --> 00:27:41.039
Maureen O'Hara is the leading lady, and she's wonderful.
00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:47.200
Dan Daly is also in there as a terrific friend of both of theirs.
00:27:47.200 --> 00:27:56.319
And Ward Bond, who is a member of the John Ford Stock Company, he plays a film director named John Dodge.
00:27:56.319 --> 00:28:06.000
Now, get it, Dodge, Ford, didn't call him Pontiac or Oldsmobile, but I mean, he was basically playing John Ford and John Ford's movie.
00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:15.839
So it's a very personal film, and it's it's just you could tell it was made with such love and admiration for Spigweed.
00:28:15.839 --> 00:28:21.599
Any John Wayne, John Ford collaboration is a moment for celebration.
00:28:21.599 --> 00:28:30.079
And again, finally making it to a good HD Master 4K scan off the camera negative.
00:28:30.079 --> 00:28:39.119
There is an HD Master made not for HD viewing, but it got out there anyway, that was done for DVD, that's not very attractive.
00:28:39.119 --> 00:28:46.559
So in making these films available in new Blu-rays, we're also giving the films their proper do.
00:28:46.559 --> 00:28:55.920
In addition to the trailer, we have a uh US Army promotional cartoon called Drafty, isn't it?
00:28:55.920 --> 00:28:57.599
Uh that Chuck Jones made.
00:28:57.599 --> 00:29:07.440
And I thought the military theme made it fit nicely because the sensibilities of this film didn't lend themselves to.
00:29:07.440 --> 00:29:12.000
I just didn't feel right about just using any cartoon.
00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:17.440
I wanted something that kind of felt thematically more unified with the film itself.
00:29:17.440 --> 00:29:23.279
So I think it's a nice addition and it's an HD, and I hope people will enjoy this release.
00:29:23.279 --> 00:29:23.759
Yeah.
00:29:23.920 --> 00:29:24.160
Yeah.
00:29:24.160 --> 00:29:29.839
Well, John Wayne, John Ford together, uh count me in on all of that.
00:29:30.160 --> 00:29:38.720
I was gonna say, I I can't think of any of their collaborations that uh wasn't, you know, priceless, frankly.
00:29:38.880 --> 00:29:39.200
Yeah.
00:29:40.400 --> 00:29:51.200
Well, George, we have uh an animated TV series, and we haven't had one for a little while, but people I'm sure are very excited about Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated.
00:29:51.200 --> 00:29:53.599
What can you tell us about this release?
00:29:54.240 --> 00:29:58.079
Well, this uh happened around 2010.
00:29:58.079 --> 00:30:03.759
I think it was July of 2010, this premiered on uh Cartoon Network.
00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:07.200
This was two seasons, 52 episodes.
00:30:07.200 --> 00:30:42.559
Each season had 26 episodes, and they're half hour stories with Scooby and the gang, but this was made 40 years after the character had developed, and this was much more attuned to the generation that had grown up with Scooby, and I would say it is a lot darker than you know, a pup named Scooby-Doo, or dare I speak the words of Scrappy-Doo.
00:30:42.559 --> 00:30:44.640
It's it's a really good series.
00:30:44.640 --> 00:30:55.680
The fans, the hardcore Scooby fans, really wanted this out, and it's never had a Blu-ray release, no less a complete series Blu-ray release.
00:30:55.680 --> 00:31:01.920
We also have some interesting episodic commentaries, which I think people are gonna really enjoy.
00:31:01.920 --> 00:31:08.079
Best of all, the quality is superb because this was produced digitally in HD.
00:31:08.079 --> 00:31:12.880
So the Blu-rays, uh, I've seen the test discs, they look terrific.
00:31:12.880 --> 00:31:17.680
I think fans are really, really gonna appreciate the way we've packaged it.
00:31:17.680 --> 00:31:23.119
It's really for the fans, and there's a lot more animation coming up.
00:31:23.119 --> 00:31:26.480
So that's always worth discussing.
00:31:26.799 --> 00:31:30.960
Well, I was working there when this series came out, and there was just a lot of excitement.
00:31:30.960 --> 00:31:32.799
It was a very popular series.
00:31:32.799 --> 00:31:38.000
I'm so glad it's coming out on Blu-ray and uh looking forward to seeing it.
00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:43.279
I just know there is such a huge audience for Scooby-Doo and for the series specifically.
00:31:43.359 --> 00:31:46.480
So this is the one that we get the most requests for.
00:31:46.480 --> 00:31:48.720
So we we eated the call.
00:31:48.720 --> 00:31:49.200
Yeah.
00:31:49.200 --> 00:31:52.319
And I think people are gonna enjoy the way the whole thing's been put together.
00:31:52.319 --> 00:31:53.920
Yeah, it's very reverent.
00:31:53.920 --> 00:31:54.480
Yeah.
00:31:54.799 --> 00:31:58.720
Well, next we have something we haven't had for a little while, and that's a TV series.
00:31:58.720 --> 00:32:05.359
And this series is called Forever, and it's a fairly new series because it ran from 2014 to 2015.
00:32:05.359 --> 00:32:07.759
What can you tell us about this release?
00:32:08.319 --> 00:32:13.200
One season, and that is a heartbreaker.
00:32:13.200 --> 00:32:13.680
Yeah.
00:32:13.680 --> 00:32:22.799
And we released this on DVD uh after the first season turned out to be the only season.
00:32:22.799 --> 00:32:34.240
When we had our old Warner Archive podcast, the producer of this series was a guest on the podcast, Matt Miller is his name.
00:32:34.240 --> 00:32:38.640
And he ended up producing the Lethal Weapon TV series here at Warner Brothers as well.
00:32:38.880 --> 00:32:39.119
Yep.
00:32:39.359 --> 00:32:40.240
A great guy.
00:32:40.240 --> 00:32:40.880
Yeah.
00:32:40.880 --> 00:32:51.119
And if you got hooked on this show, it was a devastating thing to find out that it wasn't getting renewed.
00:32:51.119 --> 00:33:06.559
And despite only running one season, it developed a cult following, not just here in the US, but all over the world, especially in places like Australia and the UK, our DVD sold very well.
00:33:06.559 --> 00:33:15.119
And there are people to this day, 12 years later, who are outraged that this series was canceled.
00:33:15.119 --> 00:33:24.480
And the producer thought the reason that the show was canceled was because the network that was running it was not promoting it enough.
00:33:24.480 --> 00:33:29.119
Uh, it was also on, like, I think it was Tuesday nights at 8 o'clock.
00:33:29.119 --> 00:33:30.880
It deserved better.
00:33:30.880 --> 00:33:35.759
And that's why we wanted to make sure it came out on DVD.
00:33:35.759 --> 00:33:38.480
But I want people to have it in high definition.
00:33:38.480 --> 00:33:41.200
I want them to have the very best quality.
00:33:41.200 --> 00:33:46.880
And so we made the decision to add this to the lineup for August.
00:33:46.880 --> 00:33:56.559
And if you haven't seen the show, it's kind of a combination procedural mixed with supernatural.
00:33:56.559 --> 00:34:02.400
But uh all the actors are really wonderful.
00:34:02.400 --> 00:34:10.960
And the show was shot on location in New York, and I just think so highly of it, and I know a lot of people do as well.
00:34:10.960 --> 00:34:15.599
And because we released the DVD, we've gotten requests over the years.
00:34:15.599 --> 00:34:17.599
Why don't you put the show on Blu-ray?
00:34:17.599 --> 00:34:17.840
Yeah.
00:34:17.840 --> 00:34:21.519
And you can say that about a lot of things, and we're trying.
00:34:21.519 --> 00:34:24.480
There will be more TV coming next month.
00:34:24.480 --> 00:34:27.680
There will be two series coming next month, live action.
00:34:27.680 --> 00:34:28.000
Right.
00:34:28.000 --> 00:34:29.840
But this month we have forever.
00:34:29.840 --> 00:34:30.960
I'm very proud of it.
00:34:30.960 --> 00:34:44.000
And I hope that all the people that worked on this series will be grateful and proud that their work is not, you know, living someplace only in standard definition.
00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:48.400
It needs to be experienced in HD because it's beautifully shot.
00:34:48.480 --> 00:34:48.800
Yeah.
00:34:48.960 --> 00:34:59.199
And given the highest production value and representative of all the fine work done at Warner Brothers Television, which of course continues to this day under current management.
00:34:59.199 --> 00:35:03.360
Warner Brothers Television is a remarkable organization.
00:35:03.360 --> 00:35:08.559
And if I were wearing my hat, I'd be taking my hat off in respect.
00:35:08.559 --> 00:35:15.039
But um forever, we'll keep it going forever, even if it's only 22 episodes.
00:35:15.280 --> 00:35:15.519
Yeah.
00:35:15.519 --> 00:35:23.360
Well, I was working on a lot of TV when this show came out, and I remember watching it just being so excited, thinking, oh well, this is going to be a big hit.
00:35:23.360 --> 00:35:29.440
And it was shocking when it just, because of all the things you said, finished after that one season.
00:35:29.440 --> 00:35:32.159
But what a compelling premise, you know.
00:35:32.159 --> 00:35:32.559
Yes.
00:35:32.559 --> 00:35:36.239
And then we're not going to give anything away by telling you that he's a doctor.
00:35:36.239 --> 00:35:39.039
Every every time he dies, he he comes back to life.
00:35:39.039 --> 00:35:41.840
So it that in itself is very compelling to know.
00:35:41.840 --> 00:35:44.000
There's, you know, it's it's remarkable.
00:35:44.159 --> 00:35:45.679
He's he's a medical examiner.
00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:46.159
Yeah.
00:35:46.159 --> 00:35:47.039
Oh, yeah, that's right.
00:35:47.280 --> 00:35:53.119
And he's uh working with a very lovely, no nonsense detective.
00:35:53.119 --> 00:35:57.599
And uh there is his close friend played by Judd Hirsch.
00:35:57.599 --> 00:35:58.000
Yeah.
00:35:58.000 --> 00:35:59.920
Wonderful performance from Judd Hirsch.
00:35:59.920 --> 00:36:06.159
I mean, this this had all the ingredients to run for five to seven seasons.
00:36:06.159 --> 00:36:11.360
I I I think it must be heartbreaking for everybody that was involved with the show.
00:36:11.360 --> 00:36:15.039
So we're doing what we can to keep it alive by bringing it to Blue Light.
00:36:15.280 --> 00:36:17.840
Yeah, terrific acting in this uh as well.
00:36:17.840 --> 00:36:19.440
Hey Tim here.
00:36:19.440 --> 00:36:26.239
We have a lot more titles to discuss, but I'm going to finish this episode here so that we can get it up and out to everybody.
00:36:26.239 --> 00:36:30.320
And we will have more titles to discuss in an upcoming podcast.
00:36:30.320 --> 00:36:33.360
So you can look for that upcoming soon.
00:36:33.360 --> 00:36:38.400
Meanwhile, we will put up pre-orders for these as soon as they become available.
00:36:38.400 --> 00:36:42.559
And you can look for that either in the show notes or on our social media site.
00:36:42.559 --> 00:36:47.199
Until next time, it's like interchat about physical media.