MOVIES THAT LONG AGO SHOULD HAVE COME TO BLU-RAY

3 Stars

As the years continue to roll by, and with the advent of 4K displays, there remains a shocking dearth of deep catalog titles that ought to have seen the light of day on regular Blu-ray in region 1 by now. This list is compiled of personal favs as well as legitimate contenders that remain MIA on Blu-ray in 2018. Start the discussion, list your own, keep the interest alive and let the industry insiders who read these posts know how you feel. It is our best and only defense to help promote some of these titles from hopefully someday seeing the light of day. Here goes…

OSCAR WINNING BEST PICTURES
The Broadway Melody
Cimarron
The Life of Emile Zola
The Great Ziegfeld
Going My Way
The Lost Weekend
Hamlet
The Greatest Show on Earth
Around the World in 80 Days
Ordinary People

MUSICALS
The Gay Divorcee
Swing Time
Roberta
Follow the Fleet
The Barkley’s of Broadway
You Were Never Lovelier
Royal Wedding
The Belle of New York
Three Little Words
Yolanda and the Thief
Broadway Melody of 1936/38/40
Maytime
Rose Marie
Luxury Liner
The Chocolate Soldier
Gold Diggers of 1933
Footlight Parade
Dames
Babes in Arms
Babes on Broadway
Girl Crazy
Strike Up The Band
Million Dollar Mermaid
Easy to Love
Bathing Beauty
The Thrill of a Romance
The Toast of New Orleans
That Midnight Kiss
The Great Caruso
Holiday in Mexico
Till the Clouds Roll By
Words and Music
Anchors Aweigh (remastered)
Small Town Girl
Nancy Goes to Rio
A Date with Judy
Rio Rita
Coney Island
Sweet Rosie O’Grady
Ziegfeld Girl
Lovely To Look At
Love Finds Andy Hardy
Thousands Cheer
Little Nellie Kelly
Rosalie
Good News
The Harvey Girls
For Me and My Gal
The Pirate
Romance on the High Seas
The Pajama Game
Summer Stock
That Night in Rio
Sun Valley Serenade
Alexander’s Ragtime Band
Hello Frisco, Hello
Greenwich Village
Down Argentine Way
Springtime in the Rockies
If I’m Lucky
The Dolly Sisters
High Society
The Student Prince
Star!

COMEDIES
Adam’s Rib
Wive Vs. Secretary
The Talk of the Town
The Lady Eve
Pat and Mike
Theodora Goes Wild
The Time of Their Lives
Who Done It?
Hold That Ghost
Brother Orchid
A Night at the Opera
A Day at the Races
Susan and God
Abbott and Costello in Hollywood
The Thin Man
After the Thin Man
Another Thin Man
Shadow of the Thin Man
The Thin Man Goes Home
Song of the Thin Man
I Love You Again
Libeled Lady
Idiot’s Delight
The Seven Little Foys
The Pleasure of His Company
The Teahouse of the August Moon
Roman Holiday

DRAMAS

The Heiress
Executive Suite
Camille
National Velvet
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
Captain Blood
Captains Courageous
Anna Karenina (1935)
The Sign of the Cross
Les Misérables (1935)
The Sea Hawk
Gentleman Jim
Scaramouche
The Country Girl
Boy’s Town
Arrowsmith
Kismet (1944)
The Rains Came
Jezebel
My Reputation
Random Harvest
The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
Marie Antoinette (1938)
Dinner at Eight
San Francisco
Red Dust
Honky Tonk
China Seas
A Place in the Sun
Butterfield 8
A Woman’s Face
Harriet Craig
Flamingo Road
The Bad and the Beautiful
Blackboard Jungle
The Three Musketeers (1948)
When Ladies Meet
Mrs. Parkington
Calling Dr. Kildare
The Valley of Decision
Ivanhoe
Julius Caesar (1953)
The VIP’s
Green Dolphin Street
Lassie Come Home
Little Women
The Yearling
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
Week-end at the Waldorf
State of the Union
The White Cliffs of Dover
The Human Comedy
Miracle in the Rain
Johnny Eager
Johnny Belinda
This Gun for Hire
Young Man With A Horn
King’s Row
Storm Warning
Advise and Consent
The Nanny
All This and Heaven Too
Written on the Wind
Now Voyager
In This Our Life
Old Acquaintance
Boom Town
Meet John Doe
The Fountainhead
Beau Geste
The Wreck of the Mary Deare
Angels with Dirty Faces
The Roaring Twenties
City for Conquest
Mayor of Hell
Nightmare Alley
Son of Fury
Lloyds of London
Heidi (1937)
The Little Colonel
The Littlest Rebel
Wee Willie Winkie
A Little Princess
Captain January
In Old Chicago
King of Khyber Rifles
Black Legion
Black Angel
Test Pilot
Riffraff
The Carpetbaggers
Elephant Walk
Raintree County
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
Death on the Nile (1978)

HORROR

The Man Who Laughs (1928)
Freaks
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)
The Seventh Victim
I Walked With A Zombie
The Leopard Man
The Ghost Ship

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Rick Thompson

Rick Thompson

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The John Wayne titles trapped in Paramount hell:
Sons of Katie Elder
The Shootist
The High and the Mighty
Island in the Sky
The last two may have some chance as I recall they are actually owned by Batjac, not Paramount. Maybe Batjac could go to another company for a blu-ray release, or at least threaten to if Paramount doesn't. I'm assuming, of course, that Batjac didn't sign over the distribution rights to Paramount, in which case they're also trapped in Paramount hell.
 
Thomas T

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You have Coney Island on your wish list. It's already been out on blu ray. I have it. Fox released it in 2016. Apparently it's out of print as Amazon has a used copy listed for $150..
 
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Angelo Colombus

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I will say the only VHS tape i have is the movie UFOria (1985) with Fred Ward & Cindy Williams. A funny film that was not even released on dvd!!
 
Thomas T

Thomas T

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JQuintana said:
Aren't there several threads with this same theme?
Click to expand...

It's a favorite topic among certain members of the HTF crowd. :) "Where is Fill In The Blank on blu ray?", "Why is Bob's You Uncle on blu ray but not Fill In The Blank?", "Warners, why isn't Fill In The Blank blu ray?", "Favorite 1980s films still not on blu ray", "What is your wish list for 2019 classic blu ray releases?". You name it and it's here. They're harmless, still it's frustrating to see the same topics regurgitated so close together. Maybe if one hasn't been done in a couple years, sure bring it back but ......
 
PODER

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That's a great list, Nick Z. I'd add pretty much all the Oscar Nominees from the first four years,
as well as such other Nominees as:
SKIPPY
HOLIDAY
STATE FAIR (Will Rogers)
THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED
THE PIED PIPER
and, from 1951 alone, these Nominees:
BRIGHT VICTORY
DEATH OF A SALESMAN
THE BLUE VEIL
COME FILL THE CUP
THE MATING SEASON
Ah well, one can only hope ...
 
Robert Crawford

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The following are just some of the classic films released on Blu-ray in Region A for the first time in 2018. More titles are coming before the year is out like "The Thing from Another World" and "The Glenn Miller Story". Again, there are several titles I didn't list below, but 2018, was a terrific year for classic movie fans that love to own their favorite classics on Blu-ray disc.

Young Mr. Lincoln
The Young in Heart
Not as a Stranger
Intermezzo
The Garden of Allah
My Cousin Rachel
The Hanging Tree
Dragonwyck
Westfront 1918
Kameradschaft
The Way West
Along Came Jones
Casanova Brown
The Covered Wagon
Tom Jones
The Outlaw
Ramrod
Topaze
Birdman of Alcatraz
It's the Old Army Game
While the City Sleeps
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
Stingaree
Don't Bother to Knock
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
The Egg and I
The Thrill of It All
Cleopatra (1934)
Les Girls
The Awful Truth
Ruby Gentry
The Maze
Down 3 Dark Streets
Gun Crazy
Moonrise
The Old Dark House
Odds Against Tomorrow
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Designing Woman
The Woman in the Window
Under Capricorn
Two Weeks in Another Town
A Bill of Divorcement (1932)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938)
A Matter of Life and Death
I Walk Alone
Village of the Damned (1960)
Never So Few
Merrily We Live
Home From the Hill
The Last Hunt
Heaven Can Wait (1943)
The Naked and the Dead
The Invisible Man Movies (Universal)
My Man Godfrey (1936)
A Raisin in the Sun
Trapeze
The Farmer's Daughter
The Spiral Staircase (1946)
The Naked Prey
 
A

Arthur Powell

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I've posted my fair share of criticisms toward Warner, Paramount, Disney, Criterion, etc. over unreleased films, and I certainly have a wish list a mile long. However, all of this must be tempered by reality. Case in point, this morning as I was working in my home office I hear my doorbell. I open my door to find an Amazon courier delivering a small package. I open it to find my Kino blu-ray of You Never Know Women, a 1926 Paramount silent that I was only vaguely aware of prior to its release announcement. So I go from being only vaguely aware of the film to having in my hands this blu-ray taken from a restored 4K master with a newly recorded Donald Sosin piano score and extras. The only problem is that now I'm tempted to bump some of my tentatively scheduled Halloween-themed movie viewings to watch it, but I think I can hold out for two days. ;) While it can be irksome seeing some of our pet favorites passed over for release year after year, it's certainly not a bad time for classic film fans.
I will say this though in closing - Errol Flynn certainly deserves the same treatment given by WAC to Humphrey Bogart and John Wayne. Also, the Laurel and Hardy silents (especially the restored version of The Battle of the Century) desperately need a new DVD or blu-ray release.
 
P

PMF

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Robert Crawford said:
The following are just some of the classic films released on Blu-ray in Region A for the first time in 2018. More titles are coming before the year is out like "The Thing from Another World" and "The Glenn Miller Story". Again, there are several titles I didn't list below, but 2018, was a terrific year for classic movie fans that love to own their favorite classics on Blu-ray disc.

Young Mr. Lincoln
The Young in Heart
Not as a Stranger
Intermezzo
The Garden of Allah
My Cousin Rachel
The Hanging Tree
Dragonwyck
Westfront 1918
Kameradschaft
The Way West
Along Came Jones
Casanova Brown
The Covered Wagon
Tom Jones
The Outlaw
Ramrod
Topaze
Birdman of Alcatraz
It's the Old Army Game
While the City Sleeps
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
Stingaree
Don't Bother to Knock
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
The Egg and I
The Thrill of It All
Cleopatra (1934)
Les Girls
The Awful Truth
Ruby Gentry
The Maze
Down 3 Dark Streets
Gun Crazy
Moonrise
The Old Dark House
Odds Against Tomorrow
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Designing Woman
The Woman in the Window
Under Capricorn
Two Weeks in Another Town
A Bill of Divorcement (1932)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938)
A Matter of Life and Death
I Walk Alone
Village of the Damned (1960)
Never So Few
Merrily We Live
Home From the Hill
The Last Hunt
Heaven Can Wait (1943)
The Naked and the Dead
The Invisible Man Movies (Universal)
My Man Godfrey (1936)
A Raisin in the Sun
Trapeze
The Farmer's Daughter
The Spiral Staircase (1946)
The Naked Prey
Click to expand...
This serves as an excellent reminder that Wish-Lists do come true, Mr. Crawford.
And don't forget the Bergman 39 Boxed Set, Anne of the Thousand Days and Irma La Douce.:thumbs-up-smiley:
 
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Alan Tully

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Rick Thompson said:
The John Wayne titles trapped in Paramount hell:
Sons of Katie Elder
The Shootist
The High and the Mighty
Island in the Sky
The last two may have some chance as I recall they are actually owned by Batjac, not Paramount. Maybe Batjac could go to another company for a blu-ray release, or at least threaten to if Paramount doesn't. I'm assuming, of course, that Batjac didn't sign over the distribution rights to Paramount, in which case they're also trapped in Paramount hell.
Click to expand...

You missed out In Harm's Way (1965), it's the Paramount Duke I want the most. There are a lot of obvious films that you'd have thought would have been released on Blu-ray by now, but I suppose that's balanced out by the surprising releases we thought would never happen, like One-Eyed Jacks. But the catalogue releases keep on coming thick & fast. I haven't bought that many this year but that's mostly due to my appalling taste in films, I do have this feeling that next year is going to be mega...& maybe Paramount will start licensing films out to a trusted company (I'd pick Twilight Time, limited to 3000 releases & a premium price point I'd think Paramount would love all that).
 
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