Tweet Show People now available from Warner Archive

http://www.wbshop.com/product/code/1000302262.do

Can Greed, The Big Parade, The Crowd, and The Wind be far behind?

http://www.wbshop.com/product/code/1000302262.do

Can Greed, The Big Parade, The Crowd, and The Wind be far behind?

Yes, very far behind.

Great news... love Marion Davies in this. What a comedienne! Love the cameos also - too many too count.
King Vidor was active for 50 or 60 years, but I think his silents were his best works.

Question is.... Carl Davis score or movietone/vitaphone score?

According to their email it has the Movietone soundtrack:

SHOW PEOPLE (1928) Long before Hollywood underwent the sardonic silent treatment in The Artist, Marion Davies delighted audiences in this showbiz satire from the Silent Era. King Vidor directs the mirthful Marion, who ably demonstrates just how gifted a comedienne she was in this tale of a serious actress whose career gets sidetracked by slapstick. William Haines co-stars as the clown who spritzes the drama out of the wannabe diva. Show People comes staffed with a stellar array of Silent celeb guests, including Douglas Fairbanks, John Gilbert, William S. Hart, Charlie Chaplin and, in an inspired bit of meta-comedy, Marion Davies herself. Original Movietone soundtrack version.

According to their email it has the Movietone soundtrack:

SHOW PEOPLE (1928) Long before Hollywood underwent the sardonic silent treatment in The Artist, Marion Davies delighted audiences in this showbiz satire from the Silent Era. King Vidor directs the mirthful Marion, who ably demonstrates just how gifted a comedienne she was in this tale of a serious actress whose career gets sidetracked by slapstick. William Haines co-stars as the clown who spritzes the drama out of the wannabe diva. Show People comes staffed with a stellar array of Silent celeb guests, including Douglas Fairbanks, John Gilbert, William S. Hart, Charlie Chaplin and, in an inspired bit of meta-comedy, Marion Davies herself. Original Movietone soundtrack version.

That's kind of a bummer, because I like the Carl Davis music.

I'm under the impression that this is an on the set photo from SHOW PEOPLE but a look at the sign in the back indicates THE PATSY. Left to right, William Haines, Polly Moran, Marion Davies, King Vidor:

I'm under the impression that this is an on the set photo from SHOW PEOPLE but a look at the sign in the back indicates THE PATSY. Left to right, William Haines, Polly Moran, Marion Davies, King Vidor:

Somebody didn't bother to take the sign off the truck. This is definitely a Show People gathering. Or was The Patsy shot simultaneously with Show People? Both were released in 1928.

Both The Patsy and Show People were released in 1928 and both Davies films were directed by King Vidor. But The Cardboard Lover was released in between the other two. That doesn't mean the films were released in the order they were filmed.

Great photo! It's always nice to see William Haines with his beloved Polly Moran!

Somebody didn't bother to take the sign off the truck. This is definitely a Show People gathering. Or was The Patsy shot simultaneously with Show People? Both were released in 1928.

I'll bet it was a deliberate in-joke (let's not forget that 'Show People' is full of them - right up to Vidor referencing his own 'The Big Parade'). Great picture!

The odder reference was to Davies' upcoming Marianne, which if I remember right included the sets and costumes from either the silent or talkie version or both.

The sign says LOEW'S STATE NOW SHOWING. So obviously it was a little free advertising for Loews Inc.'s latest LA show on what is a location shoot.

According to their email it has the Movietone soundtrack:

SHOW PEOPLE (1928) Long before Hollywood underwent the sardonic silent treatment in The Artist, Marion Davies delighted audiences in this showbiz satire from the Silent Era. King Vidor directs the mirthful Marion, who ably demonstrates just how gifted a comedienne she was in this tale of a serious actress whose career gets sidetracked by slapstick. William Haines co-stars as the clown who spritzes the drama out of the wannabe diva. Show People comes staffed with a stellar array of Silent celeb guests, including Douglas Fairbanks, John Gilbert, William S. Hart, Charlie Chaplin and, in an inspired bit of meta-comedy, Marion Davies herself. Original Movietone soundtrack version.

That's kind of a bummer, because I like the Carl Davis music.

The music in the Carl Davis score for Show People is also the theme
and incidental music for the Hollywood series. It fits the movie perfectly.
DVD technology allows multiple soundtracks. Why not include it?

Blu-ray technology is less expensive that most believe it to be.

Production costs have never been the issue. Intellectual property rights
are.

I think it's the combination of production costs AND intellectual property rights.

One of the problems with bringing THE BIG PARADE to DVD was that the 1931 Axt-Mendoza score and the modern Carl Davis score wouldn't sync with the film on the same disc, since they required different projection speeds. I can imagine a similar problem with the original Metrotone and later Carl Davis scores for SHOW PEOPLE.

Then there's negotiating for the rights of the "special contents" of the Photoplay productions of the various MGM films involved. These things can take a lot of time and money to set up and put into place. And, of course, these costs are eventually passed on to the consumer.

Yeah, you could wait a little longer to get SHOW PEOPLE with both scores. Or you could have it now with just the Metrotone score. Perhaps Time Warner decided it was better all around to end the wait by releasing what they had already on the Warner Archive. That's my two cents.

It seems this edition of Show People is the same version shown by TCM. Is that correct? WAC's recent release of Tell It to the Marines was also the TCM version.

TV rights and home video rights are not the same thing. Because a score is cleared for TV rights doesn't mean that WB/TCM negotiated video rights or that a score was work-for-hire.

Music is the same for these two films

Show People is not a warhorse by any means.

It is the Hollywood satire only hinted at by
The Artist.

Instead of the threat of sound looming around
the edges of the frame in The Artist (and sometimes
within the frame), Show People has no such burden.

You are looking at the genuine article which is still
capable of moving viewers to tears and peals of
laughter.

Marion Davies' finest performance.

I agree. it's a great performance by Davies, but King Vidor also gets a controlled performance from William Haines. What a pity these two never teamed up in a talkie.

Marion Davies' finest performance.

Indisputably...in a silent picture. But without such talkies as Marianne (her best, in my opinion) & Peg, her extraordinary gift for dialect would have remained unknown, except to lucky guests at the "Castle." And though no great vocalist, her singing was far from unpleasant. Sound (including tap-dancing) exhanced her career, I think.

Don't forget Davies' Fifi D'Orsay impersonation in Going Hollywood.

Ed,

The Thames/Photoplay presentation of SHOW PEOPLE has a few bits and pieces of footage here and there that are not found in the TCM print at all. I'm not surprised in any way though that Warner's went ahead and released the Movie-tone track version, since that is what TCM runs. In-fact, it's pretty much what I expected all along. I doubted they would run off a new transfer and match it will the Carl Davis score. Even though I know that better material exists. That being said A WOMAN OF AFFAIRS has a Movie-tone track version as well. Yet TCM always airs it only with the Davis score. Just the opposite scenario. So in other words, Warner Archive could potentially release A WOMAN OF AFFAIRS with the vintage track, just to finally get the title out there, but I can't see that happening. They probably haven't even considered it. In some ways I prefer the original score, so I wouldn't complain if they did.

I don't think it's any coincidence that thus far no Silents with Carl Davis scores have been released through Warner Archive. However, they are fast running out of Silents to release that do not have Davis scores, and it is surprising that two were just issued with a Robert Israel score in THE BLACKBIRD and TELL IT TO THE MARINES.

The long promised Warner's/Photoplay Productions collaborations have never materialized. If they are going to release THE BIG PARADE in the painstakingly restored print I have been waiting eight years to see, this is the perfect time. Coming on the heel's THE ARTIST, and of WINGS unexpected revival from Paramount, which is actually touring Theater's right now. I'd hoped THE BIG PARADE would shortly follow. What is taking so long? I'd be plenty happy with a TCM Vault type thing such as they have been working with Universal and Columbia just to get films like THE BIG PARADE, OLD HEIDELBERG, and THE CROWD out there at last. These vault sets consistently sell well on TCM. COM, even when most of them seem like non entities. I gotta believe THE BIG PARADE/THE CROWD would sell at least as well there.

If they are waiting for some sort of miraculous economic turnaround to proceed, Fat Chance!

Don't forget Davies' Fifi D'Orsay impersonation in Going Hollywood.

When I forget that, check me into the Ahlzheimer's ward. (Hated that dope director yelling "cut," making Fifi stop when she was just getting warmed up!)

Jeff.... I think Warners is getting a lot of stuff out there on DVD and that's good. I asked about Brown of Harvard since it was released on VHS years ago with a music track, assuming that would be an easy one for DVD. But they tell me that VHS release was "unauthorized" so they can't make a deal to release a DVD.

The film was part of the Critics Choice Masterpiece Collection, which released a bunch of VHS films. I have no information on that company's past or if it still exists.

So that apparently leaves Brown of Harvard in the same bin with all the other mute silents.

Ed,

Interesting. So what about LILAC TIME? Also put out by Critics Choice, and likewise technically owned by Warner's. Awhile back you said they were considering THE PATENT LEATHER KID.

I didn't ask about Lilac Time, but I inferred that the VHS copies from that company were not necessarily "legal." But I'm not saying they were not since I assumed they were. But what a shame. Brown of Harvard exists in a nice print with a decent music track and that's that.

Yes they said that The Patent Leather Kid was in line and they may be pursuing a restored Rio Rita. But these may be years off.

But these may be years off.

My ghost will be waiting. Anything more terriffic than the current Rio Rita, however, is pretty hard to imagine.

With info from Ed Watz I directed WAC to a complete 16mm? (I can't remember) version of Rio Rita in an archive. They seemed interested in the complete version since there isn't much point in "restoring" the incomplete one that most of us have seen.

[Mike Gebert]

I think Critics Choice had Lilac Time because they had licensed some Killiam titles at some point and Killiam had rights to that.

My old vhs tape of SHOW PEOPLE has stuff that is not in the LASER DISC and now DVD-R release. I am sure that the version on vhs would not sync up with the MOVIETONE (VITAPHONE?) track. Anyone know if there is stuff in the LASER DISC/DVD-R version that is not in the old vhs version? Hmmmmm....