Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

[domino harvey]

You mean the '58 version, not the (shot on videotape) '84 one

[John Doe]

You mean the '58 version, not the (shot on videotape) '84 one

I don't know what ashrig was smoking but yes, they're releasing the '58 version.

[Ashirg]

That's what I meant.

[domino harvey]

Man, I just remembered: what the heck ever happened to Warner's restoration and Blu-Ray plans for Raintree County?

[Feego]

FYI, the other film being released is Man in the Wilderness. (Don't mind me, I'm just pedantic.)

[beamish13]

Man, I just remembered: what the heck ever happened to Warner's restoration and Blu-Ray plans for Raintree County?

They say it needs an expensive restoration and implied that they won't pay for it. Typical.

[FrauBlucher]

To Have and Have Not As much as I've beaten Warner up for their snail pace of upgrades, as well as their upgrade choices, they do deserve major props for their restorations and film preservation. This looks phenomenal. They are clearly one of the top resto houses, if not the top, especially amongst the major studios.

[domino harvey]

Silk Stockings looks okay (frankly the bonus Poet and Peasant Overture short looks better), very "thick" but that's mostly due to the original filmstock. Still, it's amazing we got this out on Blu and it looks better than the old snapper DVD for sure

[noirbuff]

To Have and Have Not As much as I've beaten Warner up for their snail pace of upgrades, as well as their upgrade choices, they do deserve major props for their restorations and film preservation. This looks phenomenal. They are clearly one of the top resto houses, if not the top, especially amongst the major studios.

From reviews at bluray.com:
To Have and Have Not: The film's negative has been lost, and the best surviving element is a nitrate fine-grain master positive archived at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Due to a variety of factors, including age-related deterioration, this fine-grain element required special handling in generating a new master for the Warner Archive Collection's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray. Concerns regarding the viability of the fine-grain were sufficiently grave that the Blu-ray's preparation was accompanied by a project to generate new preservation elements, ensuring that TH&HN will remain available for future generations. A dupe safety negative was used to supply a few shots where the fine-grain had deteriorated past the point where it could yield a satisfactory image.

Out of the Past: The source material for Out of the Past is either in pristine shape or has been restored to perfection. It looks as good as if the movie had just been shot.

Perhaps the reason for absence of classics on bd by Warner (Mildred Pierce, Asphalt Jungle, The Bad and the Beautiful to name a few) is due to restoration challenges like the ones with To Have and Have Not.

[Noiradelic]

Perhaps the reason for absence of classics on bd by Warner (Mildred Pierce, Asphalt Jungle, The Bad and the Beautiful to name a few) is due to restoration challenges like the ones with To Have and Have Not.

The primary reason is that Warner hardly releases any B&W titles through the main line anymore and Warner Archive has a slower release schedule. After all, the other Bogie-Bacall films were also only recently released. Fox presumably faced the same general challenges yet they went deeper into their (smaller) B&W catalog, until 2015. The Bad and the Beautiful isn't as well-known as as the other films you mentioned, so I wouldn't hold your breath for that one, unless Criterion licenses it. Hell, Top Hat still hasn't gotten a Blu.

[movielocke]

An astaire Rogers set, as well as a marx brothers set, both seem likely to be in the works at criterion, since they released at least one of both on LD and are rapidly spitting out LD titles now.

[Noiradelic]

Don't think Warner will part with the Astaire-Rogers films as a group, though I guess in a few years anything's possible. Folks here have speculated about a set of the Universal Marx Bros. films, but Night of the Opera seems like a future Warner Archive title to me. Criterion released Cat People individually, so it might be a little premature to forecast a WB-licensed box set.

[Ribs]

Love Me or Leave Me coming later in the Summer

[Ashirg]

Love Me or Leave Me coming later in the Summer

That's from Warner Archive and I think in September.

[domino harvey]

The first season of the TV show Lucifer is coming. Never even heard of it

[cdnchris]

My wife likes it, though I think it's simply because of the charms of the lead. It's basically a procedural with Lucifer as a police detective. Yes, it's pretty lame. (And if you're wondering what happened to Tom Sizemore he shows up in one episode.)

[Adam X]

I'm glad to hear they stuck to the character & plot of the wonderful comic it's (apparently) based on so closely...

[domino harvey]

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is coming next month

[captveg]

I'm still waiting for White Hunter, Black Heart myself. Maybe one of these times Clint releases a film WB will get to it on Blu.

[rockysds]

Body Snatchers soon.

[captveg]

Also announced:

On Dangerous Ground (1951)

[DeprongMori]

With Criterion's forthcoming release of The Asphalt Jungle, Warners' release of Murder, My Sweet, Out of the Past, and On Dangerous Ground, I can only hope they'll soon upgrade some of their other classic films noir, particularly Gun Crazy and The Set-Up.

[isakorg2]

Where have you seen an announcement for a blu-ray On Dangerous Ground? I went looking and couldn't find it. If it is coming, that's great news.

[Drucker]

Here, and then I confirmed it was BD, not just DVD.

[domino harvey]

Doc Savage coming to Blu... oh-kayy