Warner: My ALLIED ARTISTS DVD Wishlist (1 Viewer)

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

Warner,

You are currently my favorite of the major DVD companies, literally opening the floodgates in the last year and releasing an astounding number of classics on DVD in fine condition, and at very reasonable prices. However, one arm of your catalog hasn't been utilized much lately: ALLIED ARTISTS (acquired when Warner absorbed Lorimar/Telepictures several years ago).

Apart from FRIENDLY PERSUASION, LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON, THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1958), CABARET, PAPILLON, and THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING (which sorely needs to be remastered & re-released as a dual layer DVD, by the way), I'm hard pressed to recollect any other AA films released to DVD by Warner in R1.

While Warner doesn't control the entire Allied Artists catalog (some are in Artisan/Republic's hands, others have fallen into the public domain, etc), they do retain rights (as far as I know) to a bunch of choice titles, including many "drive-in" classics from the 1950s. Several of these haven't seen the light of day on TV or home video for quite some time, if ever:

CALTIKI THE IMMORTAL MONSTER (1959)
THE GIANT BEHEMOTH (1959)
NOT OF THIS EARTH (1956)
ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS (1957)
THE HYPNOTIC EYE (1959)
CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM EATER (1962, aka SOULS FOR SALE)
MACABRE (1958)
ATTACK OF THE FIFTY FOOT WOMAN (1958)
THE CYCLOPS (1957)
WORLD WITHOUT END (1955)
QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE (1958)
THE STRANGLER (1964)
THE MAZE (1953)
FROM HELL IT CAME (1957)
FRANKENSTEIN 1970 (1958)
BLACK ZOO (1963)
THE SORCERERS (1967)
FACE OF FIRE (1959)
THREE THE HARD WAY (1974)

--These would make a terrific DVD collection of cult classics, similar to MGM's "Midnite Movies" line, especially if similar Warner-controlled titles (from the MGM and WB vaults) are thrown into the mix, like THE GREEN SLIME (1969), NIGHT OF THE LEPUS (1972), WILD WILD PLANET (1965), CHAMBER OF HORRORS (1966), DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK (1973), BAD RONALD (1974), etc.

Some good "stand-alone" pictures are part of Warner's Allied Artists catalog as well:

BETRAYED (1944, aka WHEN STRANGERS MARRY)
THE PHENIX CITY STORY (1955)
BILLY BUDD (1962)
CONVICTS 4 (1962)
SOLDIER IN THE RAIN (1963)
GOLD (1974)
THE INTERNECINE PROJECT (1974)

Please consider adding some of these to your release schedule, mixed in with your usual fine product from your other holdings.

Anybody else here agree?

 

[Mark Edward Heuck]

If nothing else, I would like clean and legal DVDs of such longtime AA PD hijackings like MITCHELL, THE NEXT MAN, THREE THE HARD WAY, and WHO? That would surely put a nail in the coffin of the bootleggers. Notice how these people, including the "new" fake Allied Artists, never try to do PD versions of THE BETSY or other '70's era releases that have been done by Warner? Why not, isn't their logic that "Allied Artists is out of business and all their stuff is fair game?" No, they know if Warner does a good DVD, they will have grounds to sue anyone who does try to steal the transfer.

 

[Tom Mantan D.]

I'd like to add the later Charlie Chan features from Monogram Studios starring Sidney Toler and Roland Winters and Mantan Moreland. A good chunk of Moreland's comic genius is buried in these films in some vault rotting away.

Tom D.

 

[Jay E]

Great list Peter, I would buy all of those on DVD.

A Warner Midnite Movie line would be a great idea!

 

[Dick]

Yes, BILLY BUDD , please!