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What Happened To Olive's Signature Series? (1 Viewer)

Dick

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After several great-looking upgrades of HIGH NOON, JOHNNY GUITAR and THE QUIET MAN, the series seems to have died. I was really hoping for a new INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956) to emerge from this, but there is only silence.

Olive?
 

Josh Steinberg

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I think they said (maybe in a Facebook post?) that the series was on hold for now. Perhaps sales numbers were not what they expected. From the customer point of view, they were perceived to be very expensive releases that were improvements over the previous editions but still not perfect, which isn't necessarily the best sales hook.
 

Dave B Ferris

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I think they said (maybe in a Facebook post?) that the series was on hold for now. Perhaps sales numbers were not what they expected. From the customer point of view, they were perceived to be very expensive releases that were improvements over the previous editions but still not perfect, which isn't necessarily the best sales hook.

It certainly seems true that "The Look and Sound of Perfect" is an easier soundbite for marketing purposes!
 

Josh Steinberg

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:D

I think they were definitely hurt by the perception that these were releases they should have gotten right the first time, and not titles that they should have needed double dips on. And then there was some frustration that the double dips still weren't perfect, but as RAH pointed out in the case of Quiet Man, could have been made perfect with a minimal amount of time and effort. Ultimately, I think for people skeptical of Olive releases, the signature editions kinda showed that there was still a limit to the amount of effort they were willing to put in. (But to perhaps be a little fairer to them, it's unlikely a label like Twilight Time would have put that extra effort in either, and their reviews are generally filled with more praise than Olive ones. So I think the Olive reputation may have caused people to be looking more critically at the Signature releases in the first place.)
 

J. Casey

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Last I heard directly from Olive was that they were going to take a break for a few months before any further Signature releases. The one release that was substantial: Welles' MACBETH....2 discs with 2 versions of the film. The other release that had something new to offer was JOHNNY GUITAR (widescreen on the Signature, 1.37 on the original blu). I think they all looked quite good, though.

I take Olive at their word that the series will continue. It's a bit disturbing that their release schedule of late has been much slower than last year in terms of classics.
 

battlebeast

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I want to buy The Quiet Man, but it's just too darned expensive. $44.78 (Can) + GST from Amazon.ca; $42.49 Can ($32.77 US) from Amazon.com With Currency conversion and Shipping and import Fee. Just too much for that title. :/
 

Josh Steinberg

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The simple fact for me has been that there are less titles that I've been excited about.

It ebbs and flows for me, but I'm also noticing an overall slowdown for me. There are still plenty of movies I've never seen, and I'm still discovering stuff all the time. I'm much more of a "sale" buyer than I used to be, and I'm also content with doing HD streaming rentals for titles instead of blind buys a lot of the time. My recent Twilight Time blind purchases have started to wake me up to the fact that maybe it's not worth spending $30 plus shipping on a movie I don't know when I can rent the same transfer of the same movie for $5 and see if it's something I'll enjoy. Olive has gotten purchases from me last year and this year because for certain titles, what they have available is the only option, or they may have a Blu-ray of something based on an HD master from a studio like Paramount, where the only thing available for streaming is an SD copy or nothing at all - in those cases, I can justify buying the disc easier than if it's something I can just rent elsewhere.
 

Jesse Skeen

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I REALLY don't have much confidence in Olive at this point- they royally screwed up "Money From Home" by using an older 2D master when 3D Film Archive offered to do a new one, and they've put out at least 2 titles (Cheech and Chong's Corsican Brothers and Fatal Beauty) with mono sound when it should have been stereo, even going back to the original VHS releases of them. A lot of their earlier Blu-Rays had bad compression artifacts, but they seem to have at least improved on that.
 

larryKR

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I have the original Olive Blu-ray of High Noon, and had thought that I would upgrade to the Olive Select version, but it was way too expensive at Amazon Canada. Currently they are asking $52.22 for it, $59.01 after taxes. The good news is you get free shipping!
 

battlebeast

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I have the original Olive Blu-ray of High Noon, and had thought that I would upgrade to the Olive Select version, but it was way too expensive at Amazon Canada. Currently they are asking $52.22 for it, $59.01 after taxes. The good news is you get free shipping!
That's my problem with Amazon.ca ... they price themselves out of a sale more often than note, even with free shipping. :(

Maybe if the Dollar goes back up...
 

Robin9

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Josh Steinberg

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I think they're two of Cary Grant's finest, and there definitely is room for improvement over the previous discs.

That said, the previous editions have technically been out of print for a little while - they may just be pressing some new copies of the existing version.

But if they were actually new transfers with better color, included subtitles, and had some bonus features, I'd double dip of those two.
 

Josh Steinberg

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It's such a fun movie. Cary Grant and Tony Curtis are just fantastic together.
 

Blimpoy06

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"We just sank a truck!"
My favorite line from the film. I watch Operation Petticoat at least once a year.
 

skylark68

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Well, Olive's rep for me improved drastically when they released Strategic Air Command. But now it's been hit and miss, mostly miss, because the titles have been pretty obscure (at least for me). I was mildly interested in picking up Phaedra, but the KL and TT sales have pre-empted that for the time being. Now we have another current TT sale and Kino has the upcoming Halloween sale. Looks like I might keep postponing that purchase. Out of the signature series, I picked up High Noon just because I didn't have the earlier release. The others didn't interest me all that much.
 

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