An update on the Borzage/Murnau box set?

[Harold Aherne]

This site, which I've found to be reliable, has preliminary information on the Borzage-Murnau set. Take it with the usual grains of salt, but "Bad Girl" is now on the list (though "The River" isn't). You'd have to think more titles were being included, given the price tag.

-Harold

[rollot24]

I wonder if they will be available individually.

[LouieD]

[Harold Aherne]

According to DVD Empire it'll be a 12-disc set with the following titles (I haven't seen a formal press release)--

Borzage:
Lazybones (1925)
7th Heaven (1927)
Street Angel (1928)
Lucky Star (1929)
They Had to See Paris (1929)
Song o' My Heart (1930)
Liliom (1930)
Bad Girl (1931)
After Tomorrow (1932)
Young America (1932)

Murnau:
Sunrise (1927)
City Girl (1930)

and also the documentary "Murnau, Borzage & Fox". Don't know if the documentary will be included on another disc or or two films doubled up. When I know more, I'll post!

-Harold

[Jim Roots]

What's the connection between Borzage and Murnau? Why are they being packaged together like this?

Jim

[Gagman 66]

Harold Aherne,

Very much looking forward to the set. I never though that SEVENTH HEAVEN or STREET ANGEL would actually beat THE BIG PARADE to an official DVD release, but it's now clear that this will happen. Very hard to believe. Leaving out THE RIVER reconstruction would be relatively disappointing. Especially since it's been released in Europe, not to mention, the hefty price tag of this collection.

Even more importantly, are they keeping the vintage Erno Rapee-Lew Pollack, Maurice Barron, Movie-tone tracks to both SEVENTH HEAVEN, and STREET ANGEL? These have to be retained! I'm still peeved with what happened to the Vintage track of FOUR SONS, it was no longer the same film.

And what about LUCKY STAR, and CITY GIRL? Have the Movie-tone tracks been found, if not who is doing the scoring? Does anyone know? Last I knew LUCKY STAR was still missing the final Two-reels? LAZY BONES is a surprise, I did not expect that title at all.

Speaking of THE BIG PARADE, TCM's Charles Tabesh told me in July, that He is certain that Warner home Video will have THE BIG PARADE ready for next year for MGM's 85th Anniversary. He is anxious to run the 2004 restoration on TCM since seeing it at a film festival last year. The sad thing is THE BIG PARADE has been stuck in limbo on TCM as they have been waiting, and waiting for this version. Tabesh said that they have resisted the temptation to run the Brownlow version, as the new master was supposed to be ready much sooner than this. Perfectly understandable in 2005 and 2006, but to me in late 2008 this is wearing pretty thin. I know lot's of new to silent film fans who have never seen THE BIG PARADE, and are very frustrated!

I have been hoping that Warner's will commission Robert Israel and His orchestra to reprise the original 1925 William Axt, David Mendoza score they have preformed at a few live screenings since 2005. Was shocked to hear from David Shepard as of this past March it had yet to be recorded! Which tells me there is no guarantee that we will get this score at all! I sure hope so though.

There had also been talk of including the earlier Thames version of the film, with Carl Davis score re-mastered as well. Like FLESH AND THE DEVIL was for the Garbo Silent's set. Again no guarantee of this either. I took this even one step further, also asking for the 1931 sound re-issue, for an Ultimate Special Edition DVD set of THE BIG PARADE. After waiting for the film for this long, it deserves something far more than just a standard run of the mill release. Does anyone here have additional details about this matter?

[Mike Gebert]

[Arndt]

Am I the only one to gasp at the price of the box?
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MELIOR

[Mike Gebert]

$167 at Amazon. Around $15/title is not cheap, but it's not crazy high.

Of course, I'm not having it shipped to Germany....
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"Why, everybody at NitrateVille is pixillated— except us."

[rollot24]

[Mike Gebert]

You know as much as I do, which is, no sign of it as yet.
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"Why, everybody at NitrateVille is pixillated— except us."

[Jim Reid]

I'm planning on buying the set. At first I was thinking that since they broke up the Ford set, maybe they would do the same with this one. Then I read the other post about how they put they may have combined them to get the Borzage stuff to sell better, they might not sell them seperately.

[Mike Gebert]

My guess is they will not break this one up, because apart from Sunrise and arguably Seventh Heaven, the titles don't really have much appeal individually-- compared to the Ford set which contained quite well-known things like The Grapes of Wrath, My Darling Clementine, Drums Along the Mohawk, etc. (any of which is quite a bit better known than anything in this set).

I don't know for sure, and don't entirely feel like searching through AMS to verify this, but my recollection is that the individual sets were discussed more or less at the same time as the complete set in Ford's case, where there's not been a word about any such here.
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"Why, everybody at NitrateVille is pixillated— except us."

[Arndt]

[LouieD]

I always love when people complain for years and years that certain films aren't out on whatever visual format we are up to this year THEN bitch about the price when they do come out.
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www.louiedespres.com
www.elbrendel.com

[radiotelefonia]

[precode]

"And what about LUCKY STAR, and CITY GIRL? Have the Movie-tone tracks been found, if not who is doing the scoring? Does anyone know?"

Christopher Caliendo is scoring these two and I believe one other.

Mike S.

[LouieD]

[Jim Roots]

[Arndt]

[Mike Gebert]

Still having shelves full of $69.95 laserdisc sets of single movies that ran over 120 minutes (necessitating two discs), they haven't made the DVD yet that strikes me as expensive.

Now the 16mm collectors can rip on laserdisc owners, and the 35mm collectors can rip on 16mm collectors...
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"Why, everybody at NitrateVille is pixillated— except us."

[Mike Gebert]

[greta de groat]

[Mike Gebert]

Yes, they're all Fox, so there are many top titles that won't be present-- Man's Castle, Little Man What Now, History Is Made at Night, Three Comrades, etc. Instead it's a grab-bag of largely unseen films-- which is, in its own way, wonderful.

What matters more is that after dropping off the radar for so long-- remember, Borzage won two of the first five Oscars for directing, yet there's very little written about him in the 70s and 80s compared to directors of comparable stature (Vidor, say)-- Borzage has slowly been lifted back into the ranks of name directors.

I'm not exactly sure how it happened. Certainly the rediscovery of Lucky Star was one focal point. People like Martin Scorsese have championed him. Yet I'd be hard-pressed to point to any major screening or article that was the main cause, no Napoleon with orchestra or Kenneth Tynan in The New Yorker moment. Yet somehow it's become recognized that he's a significant stylist and filmmaker, and that Murnau and Borzage doesn't sound like "Sirk and David Lowell Rich." For someone like me, who's steadily tracked down film after film wherever I could, and come to the conclusion that he's one of the great directors of the late silent and early sound period, not great as in top 20 but as in top 5, it's very exciting.
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"Why, everybody at NitrateVille is pixillated— except us."

[Danny Burk]

I'm greatly excited about the set - it's something I thought would never come about. I think everyone today is spoiled by pricing on Warners box sets and the like. Not that I'm complaining - it's great to get beautiful quality films at $5 apiece - but $15 each for what we are seeing in this Fox set must still be considered very reasonable. It's a miracle that we're seeing these released at all; as a comparison, if they were Paramount films, there would be little if any chance.

I've seen most of the silents, but not LUCKY STAR, which I've been waiting years to see. There are poor quality copies floating around, but I've never been able to bring myself to watch one of them. Nor have I seen this version of LILIOM and several of the other talkies, so this set provides me with a number of new discoveries. Let's hope that Fox will continue to mine their remaining rarities; a set of Fox pre-codes, anyone?

[Arndt]

[Mike Gebert]

You were right to hold off on Lucky Star. It deserves to be seen in as good a copy as possible. Its strongest feature is its visual scheme and photography, not its plot or acting, so you might as well see them at their best.

I've owned Grapevine's City Girl for years but I have to say, likewise, I'm not sorry I never watched it and have waited for this set (since even before I knew it was coming).
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"Why, everybody at NitrateVille is pixillated— except us."

[Danny Burk]

[silentfilm]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/technology/news/e3i1e78793628949bf08249f4c3921d7a68

Fox preps Murnau, Borzage set
Includes 'Sunrise' and '7th Heaven' restored, remastered
Staff report

Sept 10, 2008, 05:19 PM ET
Fox is preparing its second ultra-collector's edition set, a 12-film DVD library honoring the careers of directors F.W. Murnau and Frank Borzage at Fox Studios.

The collection, coming Dec. 9, features fully restored and remastered versions of such films as "Sunrise" and "7th Heaven," which earned Borzage a best director Oscar.

All 12 films in the Murnau-Borzage set are new to DVD; the package also includes Murnau's famous lost film "4 Devils."
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Bruce Calvert
http://www.silentfilmstillarchive.com

[rollot24]