New Warner Archive Silents Released Today

florodoragirl · Post by **florodoragirl** » Tue Jan 26, 2010 6:18 pm

Hi Mike,

Thanks for sharing the backstory behind the scoring of Love. That dark and somber love theme has been playing in my head all day and it really gets into my "soul" on many levels.

With today's modern recording technology one would think that the audio layers could be broken down to remove the unwanted audience reaction sounds. Too much work for WB to do it now I presume?

Jim Reid · Post by **Jim Reid** » Tue Jan 26, 2010 6:59 pm

florodoragirl wrote:With today's modern recording technology one would think that the audio layers could be broken down to remove the unwanted audience reaction sounds. Too much work for WB to do it now I presume?

I think you're putting a little too much faith in modern technology. You could probably get rid of some of it, but in places where there is music and crowd sounds together, it would be nearly impossible. (I'm just putting the nearly in there as a safety net. I don't think it can be done without affecting the music)

missdupont · Post by **missdupont** » Tue Jan 26, 2010 8:50 pm

The problem is that the music and crowd noises were recorded at the same time, so they are on the same track. If they were different tracks, no problem, but as it is, it's married together. You really can't pull it apart without just removing the whole thing.

FrankFay · Post by **FrankFay** » Tue Jan 26, 2010 9:45 pm

missdupont wrote:The problem is that the music and crowd noises were recorded at the same time, so they are on the same track. If they were different tracks, no problem, but as it is, it's married together. You really can't pull it apart without just removing the whole thing.

Anything is possible, but there comes a point where someone might have to spend an interminable amount of time on a few minutes of soundtrack. Effort would be better spent recording the score again.

ratkins · Post by **ratkins** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 10:29 pm

Mike S.

I have to ask after that comment, what other films did you have scored. I'm assuming that you were responsible for the MGM/UA Wild Orchids.

Thanks,

Ron

Gagman 66 · Post by **Gagman 66** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 11:08 pm

Ron,

WILD ORCHIDS has the vinatge Axt-Mendoza scoring track. WILD ORANGES was scored by Vivek Maddalla.

Caroline,

Your one of the few people who liked the TCM score to LOVE. Most everyone else I know didn't think very much of it.

Harold Aherne · Post by **Harold Aherne** » Tue Feb 02, 2010 9:52 am

Aside from The Last Flight, three more Richard Barthelmess titles have now been added: Weary River (1929), Son of the Gods (1930), and Central Airport (1933). I hadn't even been sure that Son of the Gods still existed, so this is a nice surprise. Has anyone seen it?

-Harold

Post by **Danny Burk** » Tue Feb 02, 2010 10:19 am

Harold Aherne wrote:I hadn't even been sure that Son of the Gods still existed, so this is a nice surprise. Has anyone seen it?

-Harold

It was on TCM awhile ago (a few years, I'd guess)...yet another that I haven't watched yet.

Salty Dog · Post by **Salty Dog** » Tue Feb 02, 2010 11:33 am

Is that on this site:

http://www.wbshop.com/Warner-Archive/AR ... lt,sc.html

I'm not finding the Barthelmess titles here...

radiotelefonia · Post by **radiotelefonia** » Tue Feb 02, 2010 11:37 am

drednm wrote:Weird.... the disk will not play on my computer but plays fine on the DVD player....

That is because the disk is encrypted. Send me an e-mail tonight and I let you know how you can do it.

drednm · Post by **drednm** » Tue Feb 02, 2010 11:44 am

Jorge... thanks but I don't need to play it on computer... I just thought it was weird since almost anything plays on the computer....

Post by **silentfilm** » Tue Feb 02, 2010 12:09 pm

Salty Dog wrote:Is that on this site:

http://www.wbshop.com/Warner-Archive/AR ... lt,sc.html

I'm not finding the Barthelmess titles here...

Go to the new releases page http://www.wbshop.com/New-Releases/ARCH ... lt,sc.html

T0m M · Post by **T0m M** » Tue Feb 02, 2010 5:54 pm

This may or may not have been previously posted, but I just noticed that Deep Discount has dropped their price on these discs to $14.98. Previously, they were more expensive than buying direct from Warner's, but now they are $5.00 cheaper. Unfortunately, they don't appear to be offering the full selection of titles. Maybe Warner's will not do a large, discounted run for them until a specified period after the initial release date?

35MM · Post by **35MM** » Tue Feb 02, 2010 9:24 pm

drednm wrote:Jorge... thanks but I don't need to play it on computer... I just thought it was weird since almost anything plays on the computer....

I bought a half-dozen silents from the very first batch and they all play on all three of my computers. Thats with XP and Windows Media player yet. I'll try and copy one and see what happens.

Rodney · Post by **Rodney** » Wed Feb 03, 2010 2:33 am

drednm wrote:Jorge... thanks but I don't need to play it on computer... I just thought it was weird since almost anything plays on the computer....

Computers can be weird, especially low-end laptops. Mont Alto's personal DVD releases are not encrypted and are region free to be as easy as possibly to view, but I've had two complaints about them not working on some laptop DVD drives.

drednm · Post by **drednm** » Wed Feb 03, 2010 11:31 am

My last few DVD players (Panasonic, Sony) would absolutely NOT play PAL DVDs so I had the labor of converting PAL disks through various programs... hours per disk. By a fluke (and because I have to buy a new DVD player every year) the Magnavox I now have will play PAL disks.

As for playing DVDs on computer, I just cannot remember the last time I couldn't get a film to play or even read. Yet It's a Great Life plays just fine on the Magnavox and I enjoyed finally seeing the Duncan Sisters and Lawrence Gray in the "Sailing on a Sunbeam" number.

T0m M · Post by **T0m M** » Sun Feb 07, 2010 9:45 am

DVD Talk review of Wild Oranges

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/42135/wild-oranges/

precode · Post by **precode** » Sun Feb 07, 2010 12:49 pm

ratkins wrote:Mike S.

I have to ask after that comment, what other films did you have scored. I'm assuming that you were responsible for the MGM/UA Wild Orchids.

Thanks,

Ron

No, just those two.

Mike S.

Harold Aherne · Post by **Harold Aherne** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 4:25 pm

The new releases today include three early talkies: So This is College (29), Love in the Rough (30), and Sweet Kitty Bellairs (30).

With all the early musicals they've been releasing lately, is there any chance they might consider Viennese Nights or Under a Texas Moon, or are there underlying legal obstacles for both of them? I don't believe either has been on TCM.

-Harold

Harold Aherne · Post by **Harold Aherne** » Tue Mar 16, 2010 8:00 am

Among the new releases today are Chasing Rainbows (30), Lord Byron of Broadway (30), Midnight Alibi (34), and a collection of the Ripley's Believe It or Not short subjects (30-32). Also noteworthy is that WA releases now have full artwork, usually resembling original posters.

-Harold

Richard P. May · Post by **Richard P. May** » Tue Mar 16, 2010 10:36 am

When I was at Turner and WB, Texas Moon and Viennese Nights were not part of the pre-1950 collection. There were original prints at UCLA which they preserved.
It's possible music rights or some such thing kept these out of release.

DM

moviepas · Post by **moviepas** » Tue Mar 16, 2010 4:33 pm

For many years I had read that Viennese Nights was a 'lost' film but recently I located it as having been restored and in color.

Chasing Rainbows had clips on the Dawn of Sound Laserdiscs series. The end reel, in color with the finale Happy Days Are Here Again is said to be lost in both color or b&w. This release gives another of the many Marie Dressler titles now in this series.

Barios in his book on the musicals etc of this depression era states that Technicolor sent all their 2-strip negs to destruction in 1957. One wonders why they did not return the footage to the studios or one of the then extant film archives in USA. They did have a policy at one time that all color negs that left the company had to be returned to them. One wonders if....

Under a Texas Moon is mentioned in Barios and he laments that Monte Blue was replaced as the lead just before shooting by Frank Fay who he cannot stand in any film. He also refers to Murphy's Law that such a film was miraculously saved, restored and in color.

Good News(1930) has been listed as the end reel missing but I have seen articles that this has been patched in with stills and soundtrack discs to replace the missing visuals. I have not seen it but have clips from the film.

I like the new covers on the Warner series and hope that it is true that some newer titles have better transfers than the past. Funnily, enough, in my country at least, Paramount had a series of encore issues of titles they had issued earlier in the DVD era and put a gold border around the original full-out covers for this cheaper series. It looked awful. I have yet to get any of the new WB covers so jpgs on the web are all I can see. There is a delay before these discs become available for export thru a couple of places like TCM/Movies Unlimited or DeepDiscount. Whilst they don't make the likes of Tarzan available in the box sets for export at this time, the shorts sets are also not available which is a pity. Some titles(later films after 1950 have been previously or are available in UK as normal replicated releases). The examples are Green Mansions and Kaleidoscope which I have those versions before they were on Archive.

Rodney · Post by **Rodney** » Tue Mar 16, 2010 4:45 pm

moviepas wrote:For many years I had read that Viennese Nights was a 'lost' film but recently I located it as having been restored and in color.

Viennese Nights was shown last summer at the Capitolfest in Rome, New York. It was a fun picture -- a plot much like the Student Prince of Heidelberg, and a few slow places, but nice music, songs better than many in early musicals, and occasionally some genuinely funny bits.

moviepas · Post by **moviepas** » Wed Mar 17, 2010 2:32 am

Thanks Rodney, I like your orchestra and have the DVDs with your scores attached. I hope it gets to DVD soon in the series at least. Would have been nice if they considered a normal box set, though, of some of these early efforts. I would be there even though I have the lasers of some. One can hope. I am always interested in getting surviving reels or Vitaphone discs of lost visuals on sets but it is yet to happen.

It somewhat amazed me that someone would go to the trouble to restore and issue Paramount's Redskin film and not include the opening credits song that does exist and I have it courtesy of the currently dormant Vitaphone Varities site.

The Student Prince I have as Old Heidelberg on Laserdisc and it sure is different to the musical of the 50s-different starting point to the story. Didn't particularly like Purdom in the musical remake.

drednm · Post by **drednm** » Wed Mar 17, 2010 5:18 am

Unless I missed it, it's odd that Warners doesn't mention the ending to Chasing Rainbows is missing. There's a note about the release having NOT been remastered, etc. Wouldnt a buyer want to know the film has no ending?

Rodney · Post by **Rodney** » Wed Mar 17, 2010 6:38 am

moviepas wrote:It somewhat amazed me that someone would go to the trouble to restore and issue Paramount's Redskin film and not include the opening credits song that does exist and I have it courtesy of the currently dormant Vitaphone Varities site.

On the American Film Archives "Treasures" set, there are two alternate audio tracks for Redskin -- one is a complete piano score, the other is the surviving Vitaphone discs, which are not complete, but do contain the opening song. Unfortunately, some of the scenes that would be of most interest to me to see how they were scored -- the drumming in the Navajo ritual and Wingfoot's argument with the Medicine Man about tradition vs. science -- are silent, since the discs don't survive.

While I would have liked to get our score on that disc, at least the pianist had the original character themes by J.S. Zamecnik, and he (quite amazingly, actually, and to their eternal credit) was able to get permission from the copyright holders to use them free of charge. Sometimes it's nice being a nonprofit!

Daniel Eagan · Post by **Daniel Eagan** » Wed Mar 17, 2010 10:10 am

moviepas wrote:For many years I had read that Viennese Nights was a 'lost' film but recently I located it as having been restored and in color...

Under a Texas Moon is mentioned in Barios and he laments that Monte Blue was replaced as the lead just before shooting by Frank Fay who he cannot stand in any film.

I was lucky enough to see both during the "Dawn of Sound" series at the Museum of Modern Art. Viennese Nights I found a little poky, but I'm not a good audience for operetta. I know a lot of people trash Under a Texas Moon but I thought it was charming. I guess it helps that I like the song, but the plot makes good use of Fay's overwhelming ego, and Raquel Torres and Myrna Loy are unbelievably beautiful. I think it's the first Technicolor sound Western shot on location.

moviepas · Post by **moviepas** » Wed Mar 17, 2010 2:26 pm

And Fox says their Arizona is the first in b&w western shot in sound outdoors. Might be the first sound feature also????

drednm · Post by **drednm** » Wed Mar 17, 2010 6:13 pm

If you mean In Old Arizona I believe it was the first talkie feature filmed entirely on location.

moviepas · Post by **moviepas** » Wed Mar 17, 2010 7:23 pm

I do mean In Old Arizona, I was just being economical with the language.

In respect of reference to the pre-1931 musicals etc, The Hollywood Revue of 1929 is missing two sequences, one I believe, is at the beginning. There were foreign language versions, I wonder if any footage survives of those? I know some footage of the Swedish version of Paramount on Parade has been found with the main actor/singer Ernst Rolf who in a couple years had succeeded in some attempts of suicide.

New Warner Archive Silents Released Today

Warner Archive Collection

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Warner Bros Archive Collection

Re: Warner Bros Archive Collection

Re: Warner Archive Collection

Warner Archive Collection

Warner Bros Archive Collection