Marlene Dietrich, Mae West and Carole Lombard Collections

Message

htdm · #26 Post by **htdm** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 2:31 am

tryavna · #27 Post by **tryavna** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 9:30 am

davidhare wrote:Have you ever read such tosh in your life. The man has no appreciation at all for Sternberg's poetry. (I always thought he was an appalling reviewer.)

I used to like Savant's reviews, but he's become really erratic lately. His glowing review of the new King Kong is almost unbelievable in its lack of any critical perspective. He's been getting some fairly important details wrong: For instance, in his review of Stalag 17, he calls that movie the first to depict WWII POW life. (Hello? What about Ealing's 1946 film The Captive Heart?) He missed the poetry of Bela Tarr and Jean Epstein in fairly recent reviews of their work. I must confess that I'm beginning to re-evaluate my opinion of his critical faculties, too.

Though he did produce the best review of Ryan's Daughter that I've ever come across, and that was only a few months ago.

#28 Post by **Matt** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 2:18 pm

According to the back cover of the Mae West collection, she was one of Hollywood's most "hilarius" leading ladies.

Morons.

Gigi M. · #29 Post by **Gigi M.** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 2:52 pm

matt wrote:According to the back cover of the Mae West collection, she was one of Hollywood's most "hilarius" leading ladies.

Morons.

Didn't you say that all you wanted was a Mae West collection at a reasonable price? Hey, now you have it. Enjoy!!!

filmfan · #30 Post by **filmfan** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 9:37 am

HerrSchreck wrote:I am in paradise with the R1 Uni DIETRICH GLAMOUR COLLECTION.. I woulda been in hog heaven with just MOROCCO for 21 bucks! But the other 2 Sternbergs, plus the Clair & Liesen, it's just

Hea-ven.. I'm in heaven...

Now CC needs to produce on SHANGHAI... and um, some-company-or-other-with-the-old-Paramount-catalog, needs to deliver the remaining Sterno silents on DVD

Toldya Dave, R1 wouldnt be far behind.

That Russian copy of "Shanghai Express", though not up to perfect quality, is awesome nonetheless. It's a GREAT lost treasure, that someday, hopefully will be given a well-deserved preservation !

#31 Post by **Matt** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 10:20 am

gigimonagas wrote:
matt wrote:According to the back cover of the Mae West collection, she was one of Hollywood's most "hilarius" leading ladies.

Morons.
Didn't you say that all you wanted was a Mae West collection at a reasonable price? Hey, now you have it. Enjoy!!!

I did say that, but I should have specified that it was contingent on the set containing She Done Him Wrong. And on not having spelling errors on the cover.

Penny Dreadful · #32 Post by **Penny Dreadful** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 6:14 pm

Does anyone else dislike the word "franchise" when used to describe an actor or director's body of work?

"Franchise" reminds me too much of fast food and corporate business. Quite fitting for Universal's DVD efforts, actually.

Derek Estes · #33 Post by **Derek Estes** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 8:10 pm

I hope Universal plans to follow these up with second volumes. This would explain the fact that some of the missing films.

HerrSchreck · #34 Post by **HerrSchreck** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 1:43 pm

tryavna wrote:
davidhare wrote:Have you ever read such tosh in your life. The man has no appreciation at all for Sternberg's poetry. (I always thought he was an appalling reviewer.)
I used to like Savant's reviews, but he's become really erratic lately. His glowing review of the new King Kong is almost unbelievable in its lack of any critical perspective. He's been getting some fairly important details wrong: For instance, in his review of Stalag 17, he calls that movie the first to depict WWII POW life. (Hello? What about Ealing's 1946 film The Captive Heart?) He missed the poetry of Bela Tarr and Jean Epstein in fairly recent reviews of their work. I must confess that I'm beginning to re-evaluate my opinion of his critical faculties, too.

Though he did produce the best review of Ryan's Daughter that I've ever come across, and that was only a few months ago.

Searching for Tryavna's report of Savants gaffe on Epstein (being a JE fanatic) I found this amusing quote in the review for 28's USHER:

Glenn Erickson on DVDSavant wrote:Horror films started as high art with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a tradition that didn't get very far. There was a popular American wave of 'haunted house' movies in the 20's, the kind derived from stage plays where someone was killing off all the heirs, etc. Even in Europe there wasn't much of a horror tradition, and the cinematic followers of the hugely successful and artistically original Nosferatu were few and far between.

Which is hilarious as NOSFERATU absolutely destroyed Prana-Film, which was the brand new company Murnau made his masterpiece for. The film as we know was hamstrung by a lawsuit situation via Stoker's widow who obtained an order that all prints of NOS be not only pulled but trashed. This was the first and-- owing to the early yank from distribution-- only film the company ever made. It completely ruined the company.

Aside from that gaffe based on the reality of the real world beyond the bounds of Glenn's sentence, read the sense of the sentence itself. If the film itself was Hugely Successful, how could it's cinematic followers possibly be few and far between???

Gregory · #35 Post by **Gregory** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 4:15 pm

So would it be a correct recap to say that the French release "Agent X-27" is the best way to go for Dishonored and that Shanghai Express is still inexplicably nowhere in sight?
By the way, these sets are now $15.99 at Amazon.

filmfan · #36 Post by **filmfan** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 7:05 am

Unfortunately, to get "EVERYTHING" puts some importance on films that are, frankly, uneven....not everything she or ANYONE ever did was THAT good, and I'm sure this is something that even she would agree with.

For me, of the released titles I think "Morroco", "Pittsburgh", and "Scarlett Empress" will do it for me, in addition, presently, of course to the available Russian release of "Shanghai Express".

Von Sternberg's films with her are really exceptional.

Andre Jurieu · #37 Post by **Andre Jurieu** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 11:56 am

HerrSchreck wrote: If the film itself was Hugely Successful, how could it's cinematic followers possibly be few and far between???

Aren't a great many films hugely successful in financial terms, but quickly forgotten in the collective conscience after a few months or years? I think Erickson is assuming that not all the people who attend movies and thus contribute to their financial success are "cinematic followers" of the films they watch - I guess some are just considered to be consumers.

#38 Post by **Matt** » Sat Apr 15, 2006 10:15 pm

How interesting--the back cover of the Mae West set also credits an "Archie Night" with directing Night After Night.

Well, it's not like "Mayo" is a household word... d'oh!

HerrSchreck · #39 Post by **HerrSchreck** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 1:38 am

matt wrote:How interesting--the back cover of the Mae West set also credits an "Archie Night" with directing Night After Night.

Well, it's not like "Mayo" is a household word... d'oh!

I gotta go downstairs & find out what the fuck HVAC is pumping into Distribution's air. Archie Night-- sounds like wednesday evenings at some cheeseball hole in the wall bar where they devote the whole 8pm-midnite hours running ALL IN THE FAMILY reruns.

HerrSchreck · #40 Post by **HerrSchreck** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 1:47 am

davidhare wrote:Andre that line you often draw between consumer (contemporaneous) and cinephile had a recent coincidental outing at a_film_by in a discussion on Sternberg.

From word go his 1925 debut (made for peanuts) the Salvation Hunters was a "success" and indeed caught Chaplin's eye sufficient to have him employ Sternberg to make A Woman of the Sea to resurrect the failing career of by now alcoholically stupefied Edna Purviance.
Subsequently Underworld was a huge popular success (indeed probably the first real gangster picture.) .

Andre you may be right, i e that's what Glenn meant by that question repro'd above. It's very ambiguous and screams for an editor. No way to know what he meant unless someone asks him, but I've never had contact with the guy.

Dave I'd have to correct you on the gangster film thing (I've heard that claim before about UNDERWORLD). REGENERATION from '15 is probably the first gangster feature (beyond PIG ALLEY short by Grif)-- TRAFFIC IN SOULS is a gangster picture too... thats from 1913.

But aside from REGENERATION, the other straight up hardcore real-deal gangster pic that leaps to mind is (among some of the pre-25 Chaney's-- i e WICKED DARLING from 1919) THE PENALTY from '20 (in my view is also the first true film noir and one of the greatest crime melodramas ever made, period.)

tryavna · #41 Post by **tryavna** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 10:49 am

HerrSchreck wrote:Andre you may be right, i e that's what Glenn meant by that question repro'd above. It's very ambiguous and screams for an editor. No way to know what he meant unless someone asks him, but I've never had contact with the guy.

Schreck, if you're really curious to know what Savant meant, by all means you should feel free to contact him via e-mail. (His address is made available on the Savant main page.) He's very approachable and generally responds quickly. We exchanged a few e-mails last year over a couple of different titles that he seemed to be the only person on earth reviewing (Kino's Therese Raquin was one, I believe), and I think he appreciated the fact that one of his readers noticed. I'd only advise you to keep your initial e-mail brief, as he seems to scan them quickly.

htdm · #42 Post by **htdm** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 12:30 am

McCusker's review of the Dietrich collection is up at DVDTimes.

reaky · #43 Post by **reaky** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:33 am

I'm curious about something with regard to the Lombard set, and I wonder if anyone else here can comment.

Having just received the set in the post, I opened the seals, but was surprised to find the discs dusty, scatched and with some debris. Oddly, a reviewer on Amazon seems to have had the same experience. What's happening here? Are online retailers resealing and selling on returns? (I should mention that, as so often with Universal DVD-18s, I've had playback problems). Has this happened to anyone else?

tryavna · #44 Post by **tryavna** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:41 am

reaky wrote:I'm curious about something with regard to the Lombard set, and I wonder if anyone else here can comment.

Having just received the set in the post, I opened the seals, but was surprised to find the discs dusty, scatched and with some debris. Oddly, a reviewer on Amazon seems to have had the same experience. What's happening here? Are online retailers resealing and selling on returns? (I should mention that, as so often with Universal DVD-18s, I've had playback problems). Has this happened to anyone else?

I believe that some retailers do indeed reseal/resell some returned DVDs. The same thing happened to me once with the CC "Devil and Daniel Webster," which I purchased from DVD Planet. I find it a bit underhanded, but in my case, it was just the booklet that was crumpled and dusty; the disc looked and played fine. So I guess it's up to you whether or not you want to return it. If the disc is scratched, I think you're well within your rights to demand an exchange.

alandau · #45 Post by **alandau** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 11:42 am

My Carole Lombard is scratched too (albeit very light scratches) and dusty.

Bought from Amazon, and I think it is an inherent problem with the DVD, and nothing to do with Amazon.

The DVD plays fine. Moreover, was not too surprised to see Universal have Clark Gable all over Lombard on the menu for HANDS ACROSS THE TABLE. Gable has nothing (thank God) to do with the movie (he did marry Lombard and was her co-star in No Man of Her Own). Universal's breadth of knowledge of classic movies is fascinating. It is a miracle we are getting these movies.

Jean-Luc Garbo · #46 Post by **Jean-Luc Garbo** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 3:59 pm

Any opinions on Blonde Venus? I was rather underwhelmed, but then again I'm not used to that style of Cary Grant. I liked Dietrich, but the movie just didn't do it for me. In any case, I'd like to know what anyone else thinks.

Derek Estes · #47 Post by **Derek Estes** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 5:23 pm

Blonde Venus is one of my personal favorites. Though it is very unusual for the Sternberg cycle. I think part of the appeal for me is the unusual balance of Dietrich's character, as a loving mother, sacrificing wife, exotic nightclub singer, and destitute outlaw. Rather than Dietrich playing femme fatale, she is constantly being seduced by the men in her life, and is ultimately captured, due to her love for her son.

Derek Estes · #48 Post by **Derek Estes** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 7:37 pm

let us not forget Hot Voodoo!

Jean-Luc Garbo · #49 Post by **Jean-Luc Garbo** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 8:21 pm

Well, I certainly know more now, thank you. I've only been used to one facet of Dietrich so I suppose now I'll have more to savor in her acting as I watch more of her filmwork. Are those silent von Sternbergs you mentioned available on DVD somewhere?

htdm · #50 Post by **htdm** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 11:12 pm

davidhare wrote:Also have bootlegs of Underworld (a poor copy from a diabolically expensive Japanese Laserdisc, ex ragged 16mm prints held at Tkyo University).

Actually the ragged 16mm print used for that laserdisc was from the Southwest Film/Video Archives at the Southern Methodist University (Dallas, Texas). Every once in a while, you can find a guy on eBay selling DVD-R copies of Docks of New York and Last Command ripped from the Paramount VHS tapes. The quality is not bad and he chaptered them.
Nice caps of Shanghai Express by the way. As much as I liked Clive Brook in that role, I always wondered how Ronald Colman would have been.