A few words about…™ Summer Stock – in Blu-ray

4 Stars A pleasure from start to finish.

Charles Walters’ 1950 Summer Stock, would be the final Judy Garland film in three-strip Technicolor. She would next appear in a 1954 Warner Bros, Eastman Color / CinemaScope production.

While not derived directly from the original negatives, Warner Archive’s new Blu-ray is a delight. It’s taken from an IP, which has been massaged to bring the records into virtually perfect alignment.

Color, densities and grain structure, are all in place, and the final result is stunning.

A pleasure from start to finish.

Image – 4.75

Audio – 5

Pass / Fail – Pass

Upgrade from DVD – Absolutely

Recommended

RAH

Robert has been known in the film industry for his unmatched skill and passion in film preservation. Growing up around photography, his first home theater experience began at age ten with 16mm. Years later he was running 35 and 70mm at home.

His restoration projects have breathed new life into classic films like Lawrence of Arabia, Vertigo, My Fair Lady, Spartacus, and The Godfather series. Beyond his restoration work, he has also shared his expertise through publications, contributing to the academic discourse on film restoration. The Academy Film Archive houses the Robert A. Harris Collection, a testament to his significant contributions to film preservation.

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notmicro

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I've always wondered what the fate was of MGM's 3-strip Technicolor OCNs; no idea if they were more likely to take any care of them. Presumably its all over the place <_<
 

Robert Harris

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I've always wondered what the fate was of MGM's 3-strip Technicolor OCNs; no idea if they were more likely to take any care of them. Presumably its all over the place <_<

They took extraordinary care of them, under Roger Mayer. Only problems were those lost in the GEH fire.
 

Astairefan

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Amazon currently showing Unavailable, Out of stock.

Realistically, I'm starting to wonder if Amazon isn't the worst place to pre-order WAC releases from, at the moment (or order at all for the first month or so, which is bad, considering that the first few months of release are the most important, sales-wise).
 

B-ROLL

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Amazon currently showing Unavailable, Out of stock.
Pre-Order up at deepdiscount
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TJPC

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Try Amazon.uk. I pre-ordered 3D copies of “Shazam” and “Captain Marvel” the weekend they each premiered and before I saw them theatrically.
 

JohnMor

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Realistically, I'm starting to wonder if Amazon isn't the worst place to pre-order WAC releases from, at the moment (or order at all for the first month or so, which is bad, considering that the first few months of release are the most important, sales-wise).

It’s almost as if WA is withholding their titles from Amazon for a while to ensure more sales on their own website. Or there is a major backlog on the production end and Amazon is just the last retailer to get fulfilled.
 

Matt Hough

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I finally got a shipping notice for The Glass-Bottomed Boat from Amazon over the weekend (should be here today), but isn't that weeks late from its scheduled release date? And yet other discs I order from them arrive in two days, just not Warner Archive product.
 

Mike2001

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I finally got a shipping notice for The Glass-Bottomed Boat from Amazon over the weekend (should be here today), but isn't that weeks late from its scheduled release date? And yet other discs I order from them arrive in two days, just not Warner Archive product.
Yeah. I just got my pre-ordered Wild Rovers from Amazon last week and have yet to see Glass Bottom Boat arrive. I will look elsewhere for my pre-order of Summer Stock.
 

Astairefan

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I can only wonder just how much the problem is where they are in the production lineup. It seems to me like everywhere is taking longer to even put up WAC pre-orders recently. It seems like, not too long ago, pre-orders for WAC releases would go up on the wbshop within a few days of WAC making their Blu-ray announcements. But it took until April before the April pre-orders went up, and the May pre-orders aren't up yet, almost a week after the announcement.
 

Garysb

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Remember the WB Shop is not owned by Warner Bros anymore and hasn't been for several years. They are just a vendor for the products like Amazon or Deep Discount. Whether they get any special consideration in receiving product I don't know. Back when Warner Bros. owned the WB Shop they had an exclusive window before archive stuff started showing up at Amazon and elsewhere. The only difference between Warner Bros Archive and non Archive these days is that the product is available online only so you won't find it at Target, Barnes and Noble, Walmart, or Best Buy retail stores but you can order the product from their websites. For some reason this allows them to maintain price so they don't show up in the $5 bin or at Big Lots. Perhaps the lower amounts of product manufactured for the Archive make them less attractive to the companies producing the discs and therefore there have been delays in getting the product to vendors. In that case it should be pretty spread out and there might not be an advantage between ordering from different vendors. All will get a share of the stock available.
 
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Astairefan

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Remember the WB Shop is not owned by Warner Bros anymore and hasn't been for several years. They are just a vendor for the products like Amazon or Deep Discount. Whether they get any special consideration in receiving product I don't know. Back when Warner Bros. owned the WB Shop they had an exclusive window before archive stuff started showing up at Amazon and elsewhere. The only difference between Warner Bros Archive and non Archive these days is that the product is available online only so you won't find it at Target, Barnes and Noble, Walmart, or Best Buy retail stores but you can order the product from their websites. For some reason this allows them to maintain price so they don't show up in the $5 bin or at Big Lots. Perhaps the lower amounts of product manufactured for the Archive make them less attractive to the companies producing the discs and therefore there have been delays in getting the product to vendors. In that case it should be pretty spread out and there might not be an advantage between ordering from different vendors. All will get a share of the stock available.

Firstly, the whole "not being released to brick and mortar stores so they don't end up in the $5 bin" is the WHOLE POINT of these being manufacture-on-demand products. But, again, my comments were on HOW LONG it is taking for the pre-orders to show up anywhere, even on the wbshop. Like I said, that is a RECENT problem, within the last two months. Before that, you could expect to see preorders up within a few days of WAC's announcements on the wbshop, on Amazon, and other places. I know Amazon has been having issues ever since last fall, but it seems like the problem is getting worse. At this point, what I wonder is how much sales have fallen for WAC in particular, because I can't imagine their print runs being too drastically different than some of the boutique labels, who don't seem to be having as much trouble (with at least the exception of Classicflix, who has had to pull back on the number of their releases recently).
 

AnthonyClarke

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They're not really a vendor like Amazon or Deep Discount.
Just as in the days when they were a WB subsidiary, they still refuse to ship outside of the USA. No orders taken from Australia, unlike Amazon and Deep Discount.
So unless the operating company is just lazy or stupid or both, then the contractual ties to WB must be very tight.
 

david hare

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These titles always turn up at importcds.com more or less as announced. I have never had to look very hard to find what I want there. My copy of SS hasn't shipped yet but the credit charge has just been "held" over my account. Other times I use Amazon, but they are less "complete" and they have also been having manufacturing and distrib issues over the last few months escp. with Criterion titles. Of course the ever enlightened Oz government passed a law for Gerry Harevey last year banning imports from the various amazon. Vote em out next month Anthony! I don't live there any more thank god.
 

B-ROLL

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As I understand it the ONLY disc replicating plant for North America is in Mexico.

Only having one plant means the production margins for getting the discs out on time have to be reduced -- due to raw material issues etc.

Not to mention if someone says they would shut down the border and let nothing in. It would make the most sense to get Aquaman out to the awaiting public before producing lower production discs like the one under discussion ...
 
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