Tweet Fox gets into the MOD business....

....according to Mr. Lumenick:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/321050/fox-cinema-archives-mods-are-coming-in-june

Hope that it yields some good results.

-HA

This news will probably yield some lists but here's a title that never seems to make them:

SWANEE RIVER (1939) in Technicolor with Don Ameche, Andrea Leeds and Al Jolson.

A couple wishes that come to mind immediately -

SPACE MASTER X-7, a 1958 film with Moe Howard in a cameo role.
TALES OF MANHATTAN, a 1942 film with W.C Fields.

This news will probably yield some lists but here's a title that never seems to make them:

SWANEE RIVER (1939) in Technicolor with Don Ameche, Andrea Leeds and Al Jolson.

Oh shoot, Bob, this title has been available through the International Al Jolson Society for years -- but you have to be a paid-up member to get it. Good print, too. But Fox can probably do them one better . . .

This news will probably yield some lists but here's a title that never seems to make them:

SWANEE RIVER (1939) in Technicolor with Don Ameche, Andrea Leeds and Al Jolson.

Oh shoot, Bob, this title has been available through the International Al Jolson Society for years -- but you have to be a paid-up member to get it. Good print, too. But Fox can probably do them one better . . .

I've been a paid up member of the Al Jolson Society for many years and I have bought a few of their videos. I have two different bootlegs on dvd and both look OK, plus I have an original 16mm print but in b/w. I was referring to an official studio release of SWANEE RIVER that should beat out anything currently available, legally or otherwise.

Here's another vote for SPACE MASTER X-7, which scared the crap out of me when I was 10 years old. It was probably at least three months before I gathered up the courage to go to a Saturday matinee again.

Let us also not forget DANTE'S INFERNO (1935), with Spencer Tracy, Claire Trevor and Henry B. Walthall, which has been on shown on the Fox cable channel, but has not had a DVD release as yet. SETH

No dates yet, but the first batch of 35 titles has been posted:
http://www.classicflix.com/update-cinema-archives-titles-announced-a-1239.html

The earliest ones are Career Woman (1936); Love is News, Slave Ship (both 1937); The Baroness and the Butler, Kidnapped, Always Goodbye, Suez (all 1938) and Frontier Marshal (1939).

-HA

Career Woman (1936)
-HA

Awesome! Another El Brendel film makes it to DVD!!

Does anyoone think they will release any of the Fox Film releases? Love to see some pre-codes. I saw a film callled Trick or Trick at Cinecon one year that I loved.

The title I'm chomping at the bit to see is Me & My Gal with Spencer Tracy, based on this blurb on TCM's Movie Morlocks blog recently:

Me and My Gal (1931), directed by Raoul Walsh

The first movie I wrote about here at Movie Morlocks, and one of the most energetic every made. Each frame pops with invention, whether it’s Spencer Tracy’s slangy NYC argot, trick shots or parodies of popular movies of the day, there’s something happening every frame. The whole production seems drunk, from Walsh on down to the gaffer, tossing around ideas and shooting the bull until the shooting day ended. The result is chaotic, messy and joyful – filled with the most life per square inch of film stock in history.

But after my recent enjoyment of his WB loan-out, 20,000 Years in Sing Sing, I'll take any early Spencer Tracy performance if Fox will part with them.

The title I'm chomping at the bit to see is Me & My Gal with Spencer Tracy, based on this blurb on TCM's Movie Morlocks blog recently:

Me and My Gal (1931), directed by Raoul Walsh

The first movie I wrote about here at Movie Morlocks, and one of the most energetic every made. Each frame pops with invention, whether it’s Spencer Tracy’s slangy NYC argot, trick shots or parodies of popular movies of the day, there’s something happening every frame. The whole production seems drunk, from Walsh on down to the gaffer, tossing around ideas and shooting the bull until the shooting day ended. The result is chaotic, messy and joyful – filled with the most life per square inch of film stock in history.

But after my recent enjoyment of his WB loan-out, 20,000 Years in Sing Sing, I'll take any early Spencer Tracy performance if Fox will part with them.

Me And My Gal is well worth seeing, a lot of fun. There's plenty of other Fox precode films that need releasing, like the Walsh-directed Sailor's Luck.

I'm curious--aren't precode Fox films rather scarce, given that 1937 NJ vault fire? How many early Fox films from the early '30s survive in decent shape?

I'm curious--aren't precode Fox films rather scarce, given that 1937 NJ vault fire? How many early Fox films from the early '30s survive in decent shape?

I think there are a lot of titles missing but a lot are still around, but probably mostly in 16mm which were preserved by Alex Gordon in the early 60's (someone help me if I am wrong with this).

UCLA has a lot of titles and I just found out this week that the 1929 title "Frozen Justice" survives at the LOC in nitrate and a preservation negative, but no print for projection.

I think the issue is maybe Fox doesn't give a hoot about these early titles. I know there are ones I have been wanting to see for years like "High Society Blues", "Mr. Lemon of Orange", "My Weakness", "Disorderly Conduct", "Handle With Care", "My Lips Betray", "Olsen's Big Moment", "Six Cylinder Love", "Dance Team", "Hold Me Tight", "Sailor's Luck", "Second Hand Wife", "Heartbreak", etc. All are at UCLA.

From what I've seen, based on looking into archival holdings and the titles marked "print viewed" or "not viewed" in the AFI catalogues, there are a number of lost Fox titles from 1929-30 but not so many from 1931-35. In the latter category are a quartet of Charlie Chan films and a couple of independents that Fox distributed (Racetrack, 1933 and Gambling, 1934)--along with, presumably, the never-released El Brendel film Born to Fight.

Men Without Women and The Lone Star Ranger (both 1930) survive only as quasi-silent "work print" versions. One reel is missing from Oh, For a Man! (1930), and only one reel exists from both Married in Hollywood (1929) and Annabelle's Affairs (1931). There may be other lost bits here and there, but Fox still has plenty to draw on for this MOD series (and I hope they do).

-HA

First 35 titles to be released:

Always Goodbye (1938) - Barbara Stanwyck, Herbert Marshall (Director: Sidney Lanfield)
The Baroness and the Butler (1938) - William Powell, Annabella (Walter Lang)
Career Woman (1936) - Claire Trevor, Michael Whelan (Lewis Seiler)
Chicken Every Sunday (1949) - Dan Dailey, Celeste Holm (George Seaton)
Claudia (1943) Dorothy McGuire, Robert Young (Edmund Goulding)
Dangerous Years (1947) - Billy Halop, Scotty Beckett, Marilyn Monroe (bit) (Arthur Pierson)
Diplomatic Courier (1952) - Tyrone Power, Patricia Neal (Henry Hathaway)
Do You Love Me (1946) - Maureen O'Hara, Harry James, Dick Haymes (Gregory Ratoff)
The Foxes of Harrow (1947) - Maureen O'Hara, Rex Harrison (John M. Stahl)
Fraulein (1958) - Dana Wynter, Mel Ferrer (Henry Koster)
Frontier Marshal (1939) - Randolph Scott, Nancy Kelly, Cesar Romero (Allan Dwan)
Hudson's Bay (1940) - Paul Muni, Gene Tierney (Irving Pichel)
Intent To Kill (1958) - Richard Todd, Betsy Drake (Jack Cardiff)
Junior Miss (1945) - Peggy Ann Garner, Allyn Joslyn (George Seaton)
Kidnapped (1938) - Warner Baxter, Freddie Bartholmew (Alfred I. Werker)
Life Begins At Eight-Thirty (1942) - Monty Woolley, Ida Lupino, Cornel Wilde (Irving Pichel)
Love Is News (1937) - Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, Don Ameche (Tay Garnett)
The Man I Married (1940) - Joan Bennett, Francis Lederer (Irving Pichel)
Mr. Scoutmaster (1953) - Clifton Webb, Edmund Gwenn (Henry Levin)
Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell (1951) - Clifton Webb, Joanne Dru (Henry Koster)
My Wife's Best Friend (1952) - Anne Baxter, Macdonald Carey(Richard Sale)
Outcasts of Poker Flat (1952) - Anne Baxter, Dale Robertson, Miriam Hopkins (Joseph M. Newman)
The Perfect Snob (1941) - Charles Ruggles, Lynn Bari, Cornel Wilde (Ray McCarey)
The Raid (1954) - Van Heflin, Anne Bancroft, Lee Marvin(Hugo Fregonese)
Rings on Her Fingers (1942) - Henry Fonda, Gene Tierney (Rouben Mamoulian)
Secret Agent of Japan (1942) - Preston Foster, Lynn Bari (Irving Pichel)
Slattery's Hurricane (1949) - Richard Widmark, Linda Darnell, Veronica Lake (Andre de Toth)
Slave Ship (1937) - Wallace Beery, Warner Baxter, Mickey Rooney (Tay Garnett)
Suez (1938) - Tyrone Power, Loretta Young (Allan Dwan)
Sunday Dinner for a Soldier (1944) - Anne Baxter, John Hodiak (Lloyd Bacon)
Sweet Rosie O'Grady (1943) - Betty Grable, Robert Young (Irving Cummings)
They Came to Blow Up America (1943) - George Sanders, Anna Sten (Edward Ludwig)
Three Brave Men (1957) - Ray Milland, Ernest Borgnine (Phillip Dunne)
Twelve Hours to Kill (1960) Nico Minardos, Barbara Eden (Edward L Cahn)
Way of a Gaucho (1952) - Rory Calhoun, Gene Tierney (Jacques Tourneur)

I'm curious--aren't precode Fox films rather scarce, given that 1937 NJ vault fire? How many early Fox films from the early '30s survive in decent shape?

I think there are a lot of titles missing but a lot are still around, but probably mostly in 16mm which were preserved by Alex Gordon in the early 60's (someone help me if I am wrong with this).

UCLA has a lot of titles and I just found out this week that the 1929 title "Frozen Justice" survives at the LOC in nitrate and a preservation negative, but no print for projection.

I think the issue is maybe Fox doesn't give a hoot about these early titles. I know there are ones I have been wanting to see for years like "High Society Blues", "Mr. Lemon of Orange", "My Weakness", "Disorderly Conduct", "Handle With Care", "My Lips Betray", "Olsen's Big Moment", "Six Cylinder Love", "Dance Team", "Hold Me Tight", "Sailor's Luck", "Second Hand Wife", "Heartbreak", etc. All are at UCLA.

Thanks. What a tantalizing list! Kudos to UCLA; what a boxed set they could deliver!

Dang, no silents or pre-codes. But there's four or five titles there I find tempting (even Slattery's Hurricane, which Richard Widmark later dismissed as a miserable experience).

The Fox slate for August includes a few surprises:

The Power and the Glory (1933)
The Daring Young Man (1935)
Banjo on My Knee (1936)
The Country Doctor (1936)
36 Hours to Kill (1936)
Nancy Steele is Missing! (1937)
Josette (1938)
Love on a Budget (1938)
The Return of the Cisco Kid (1939)

Full details at http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/movies/cinema_archives_first_cooper_garfield_MSJUsfbRyJ8pVfzaUpqF9K

-HA

So far I've purchased 4 of the Fox MOD discs, RINGS ON HER FINGERS, SUEZ, DIPLOMATIC COURIER and THEY CAME TO BLOW UP AMERICA. I've watched most of RINGS ON HER FINGERS and the quality is excellent. Great contrast and image quality. Very "film-like" in appearance.

It should be noted that some of the CinemaScope releases are pan and scan because they don't have updated video masters. INTENT TO KILL is one of these and although it's a really good picture, the cropping of the image really harms the film. Avoid it.

I only know 'The Power and the Glory' by reputation but I've always been very eager to see it. It's supposed to be similar (some say suspiciously similar) to 'Citizen Kane'.

I only know 'The Power and the Glory' by reputation but I've always been very eager to see it. It's supposed to be similar (some say suspiciously similar) to 'Citizen Kane'.

Well, yeah, sort of, only without humor and technique.

I only know 'The Power and the Glory' by reputation but I've always been very eager to see it. It's supposed to be similar (some say suspiciously similar) to 'Citizen Kane'.

Well, yeah, sort of, only without humor and technique.

I think that assessment is a bit unfair. I watched POWER/GLORY, and although I thought it was a slow starter, it picked up steam pretty well, and had an excellent bangup finish. Great story, fine acting by Tracy, and pretty decent cinematography as well.

Although KANE does have a somewhat similar storyline, there are different motivations and diffrent twists at the end. And the idea of a third-person narrator is the same, but that concept wasn't new in 1932, it's as old as the hills. And the photography in KANE was indeed groundbreaking and beautiful, but by 1941, there were also vastly improved (faster) film stocks and better lenses, too.

I think each movie stands on its own merits. SETH

This month's addition to the Fox MOD program include

Gallant Lady (1933)
Change of Heart (1934)
Lancer Spy (1937)
Three Blind Mice (1938)
Battle of Broadway (1938)

All are posted at
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/323632/new-fall-2012-releases-from-fox-and-cbs-on-mod

-HA

I'm actually excited about Wake Me When It's Over (1960) with Ernie Kovaks, Dick Shawn and Don Knotts. It'll be my first Fox MOD purchase.

What's the best place to order these from? I'm in Canada, and I've been using either oldies.com or Movies Unlimited for my WAC titles. I'm guessing they probably have the Fox ones as well.

I want BERKELEY SQUARE!

This news will probably yield some lists but here's a title that never seems to make them:

SWANEE RIVER (1939) in Technicolor with Don Ameche, Andrea Leeds and Al Jolson.

We got it, Bob! Release date October 16!

Thanks for the good news, CoffeeDan!



Now if Fox will just pry loose its three Arliss films we'll really have something to celebrate.

Awesome news about Swanee River. I've been wanting to see this movie for some time. I love listening to Jolson's Stephen Foster records (which were the last commercial recordings he made before his death in 1950).
Bob, I agree with you about the Arliss pictures. I've recorded House of Rothschild and Cardinal Richelieu off the Fox Movie Channel and enjoyed them greatly. From what I have read about "The Last Gentleman," I'm sure that I would greatly enjoy that title too.

Little Caesar,

If you've only heard Jolie's Decca Stephen Foster records, you're in for a nice surprise. I've never cared for them and, worse, he doesn't seem to be in very good voice. The orchestrations are rather ersatz. For SWANEE RIVER, Louis Silvers, Jolie's old collaborator from Broadway, provided the orchestrations and my only complaint is that Jolie should have been allowed to sing more songs in the film. He sings Oh Susannah, Camptown Races, and Old Folks At Home.


Don Ameche bought Jolie's home after Al's divorce from Ruby Keeler. When he remarried after WWII, Al bought his house back from Ameche.

Little Caesar,

If you've only heard Jolie's Decca Stephen Foster records, you're in for a nice surprise. I've never cared for them and, worse, he doesn't seem to be in very good voice. The orchestrations are rather ersatz. For SWANEE RIVER, Louis Silvers, Jolie's old collaborator from Broadway, provided the orchestrations and my only complaint is that Jolie should have been allowed to sing more songs in the film. He sings Oh Susannah, Camptown Races, and Old Folks At Home.


Don Ameche bought Jolie's home after Al's divorce from Ruby Keeler. When he remarried after WWII, Al bought his house back from Ameche.

Wow! Now I'm really looking forward to the film! I have seen a few youtube clips from the film, and I know that Jolie was in top voice there (as he was also in Rose of Washington Square from the year before).
I have noticed Jolie's voice faltering a bit in his last Decca recordings. The one that comes to mind is "The Old Piano Roll Blues", but the energy he shows with the Andrews Sisters makes up for his voice not being in top form anymore.