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Looks like there are more silents from the Warner Archive Collection made available today:

Wild Oranges (1924)
La Boheme (1926)
Captain Salvation (1927)
White Shadows in the South Seas (1928)
The Flying Fleet (1929)
Tide of Empire (1929)

Other new releases of interest. . . .

Early talkie alert: Marilyn Miller in 1930's SUNNY.

Warren William alert (!): UNDER EIGHTEEN and BEAUTY AND THE BOSS.

The cover of the BEAUTY box features a photo of the lovely Yola D'Avril in the bath; she has about 2 lines in the picture.

Great news! those are some key releases! Though there is still no NOAH'S ARK. What is taking so long with that one? I hate to ask this, but there are two version os TIDE OF EMPIRE with different scores. I have been told that there is a version with a modern score that has aired in Europe. The version I know has the original William Axt, David Mendoza scoring track. Sure hope that is what they went with. Even though thie film is missing the final reel, I still love this picture. .

CAPTAIN SALVATION is a very nice surprise. I think it is one of the most underrated of all MGM Silents. Infact, I watched this back to back a few years ago with THE WIND, and liked CAPTAIN SALVATION the better of the two.

Two more Vidors! That brings the grand total of Archive Vidor entries to seven:

Wild Oranges (1924)
La Boheme (1926)
The Patsy (1928)
The Citadel (1938)
Comrade X (1940)
H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941)
Lightning Strikes Twice (1951)

Pretty good, considering that only 15 Vidor films have been commercially released outside the Warners Archive. Now maybe they'll get around to releasing Peg o' My Heart (1922), Three Wise Fools (1923), His Hour (1924), Wine of Youth (1924), and Proud Flesh (1925).

and The Sky Pilot (1921) with a good music track.... Wine of Youth is terrific and deserves an audience....

and The Stranger's Return, dammit!

LOVE NEVER DIES (1921) with Lloyd Hughes and Madge Bellamy is a very good early Vidor film. Or wait a minute? was that Frank Borzage? I think it was Vidor?

Chances of seeing HIS HOUR anythime soon appear remote, if they still have not translated the titles to English yet? So just how much of WIFE THE CENTAUR was found in 2008? Maybe they could use the fragment as an Extra on the long awaited DVD of THE BIG PARADE?

I haven't seen any "Archive" silents that haven't already appeared on TCM. That makes sense, since they create new scores for TCM screenings; if they don't yet have a score, they're not going to release a "mute" DVD. If a silent hasn't yet run on TCM, I wouldn't expect it to appear in the Archive.

Danny,

Yeah, but they will shortly be out of titles. Won't they? They will have to start releasing the Chaney's or the Thames Tie in features before to long. I would expect to see NOAH'S ARK and THE PAGAN by the middle of the year, if not sooner. They announced THE VIKING several months ago, but was it ever actually released?

Incidentally, I was hoping for a much better restoration of LA BOHEME. Improved transfer, music, adjusted Speed, title cards that don't blow by in heartbeat etc. Guess it isn't going to happen. Was hoping for the same with THE MERRY WIDOW. Especially, now that we know that better print material exists, and at least two Orchestra scores are around for it as well.

Gagman 66 wrote: LOVE NEVER DIES (1921) with Lloyd Hughes and Madge Bellamy is a very good early Vidor film. Or wait a minute? was that Frank Borzage? I think it was Vidor?

It's Vidor. I'd like to see that one as the only version I've ever seen was the wretched "National Film Museum" one, which ends in mid plot with no explanation of what happens. Does the complete film exist?

Gagman 66 wrote:Danny,

Yeah, but they will shortly be out of titles. Won't they? They will have to start releasing the Chaney's or the Thames Tie in features before to long. I would expect to see NOAH'S ARK and THE PAGAN by the middle of the year, if not sooner. They announced THE VIKING several months ago, but was it ever actually released?

Incidentally, I was hoping for a much better restoration of LA BOHEME. Improved transfer, music, adjusted Speed, title cards that don't blow by in heartbeat etc. Guess it isn't going to happen. Was hoping for the same with THE MERRY WIDOW. Especially, now that we know that better print material exists, and at least two Orchestra scores are around for it as well.

Apparently we're supposed to expect THE PAGAN and THE MERRY WIDOW from the Warner Archives on January 26.

No Merry Widow yet, but Lady of the Night and The Pagan have been added.

-Harold

I'll definitely get Lady of the Night- a fine performance from Shearer and an unexpectedly superb one from George K. Arthur- after seeing him in this film followed by Kiki and Irene it dawned on me just how versatile an actor he was.

Are you folks who have previously recorded these films from TCM seeing much difference in the quality of these DVD-Rs? I assume they would be slightly better due to lesser compression and so forth, but are they $15-20 better? I've bought a few so far and decided that the answer was "no", but that was when the initial batch was offered...perhaps quality has improved since then?

My question applies only to visual quality and not to lack of TCM bug, support of WB Archive, availability or lack thereof, and other non-quality issues. Thanks.

Danny Burk wrote:Are you folks who have previously recorded these films from TCM seeing much difference in the quality of these DVD-Rs? I assume they would be slightly better due to lesser compression and so forth, but are they $15-20 better? I've bought a few so far and decided that the answer was "no", but that was when the initial batch was offered...perhaps quality has improved since then?

My question applies only to visual quality and not to lack of TCM bug, support of WB Archive, availability or lack thereof, and other non-quality issues. Thanks.

I think if you're watching on anything but an old smallish CRT set, the answer has to be yes....at least that's my experience. Remastered for dvd or not, the feed I get for TCM over Dish Netw. is not very good....pasty, blocky & with poor sound (distorted & with some crappy fake stereo spread on what should be mono tracks). Can't say if the pseudo HD feed available in some areas improves this, because I don't get that yet.

On the other hand, at least one of the Warner Archive silents with a modern score that SHOULD have been in stereo was not....can't remember if it was Scaramouche or The Sea Hawk, perhaps.

I just received my Warners It's a Great Life, haven't looked at it yet but it arrived with no shrink wrap or seals on the case, and the playing side was smudgy and dirty. Are all the new Warners films sent out like this for $20 ?

drednm wrote:I just received my Warners It's a Great Life, haven't looked at it yet but it arrived with no shrink wrap or seals on the case, and the playing side was smudgy and dirty. Are all the new Warners films sent out like this for $20 ?

The answer should be "no". I received that one about a month or so back, and it was covered, and it played just fine. I'm disappointed to hear that they could make such an error in judgement about sending a package that way. Bad business. So far, I've bought forty or more of their DVDs, and only one was bad. They replaced it, no questions asked, in about two days! Service has been great. The only problem I had at the beginning was playing the things!! I had to buy a simple play only machine. I can't use my DVD recorder/player with the Warner Archive Collection about 70% of the time. Wierd, but for an investment of $17.95 I don't really care. Besides which, I discovered the cheapie machines don't read encryption codes most of the time, so I can now play my Region 2 PAL DVDs through the cheap player, too, as long as my TV is HD.

drednm wrote:I just received my Warners It's a Great Life, haven't looked at it yet but it arrived with no shrink wrap or seals on the case, and the playing side was smudgy and dirty. Are all the new Warners films sent out like this for $20 ?

I've got 9 of 'em, and none came shrink-wrapped. Just in keep cases. None were dirty or scratched, however, and all play just fine.

I have about 25 Archive titles, and like Dr.Giraud, none of mine came shrink wrapped. Since they are burned on-demand, I actually didn't expect them to. None of them will play in my Sony VHS/DVD recorder unit, but they do play in my other DVD player as well as the Blu-ray and the Mac. I'm also quite happy with the quality, which is superior to any of the DVD-r dubs off of TCM via Comcast.

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

Well I had NOT seen the "Sailing on a Sunbeam" number before... I just ran that one number. Overall the print looks better than what TCM runs.... the musical number is quite good with Lawrence Gray and the Duncan Sisters (as part of Vivian's dream) and in nice Technicolor with a surprising amount of blue. Usually the 2-strip color process is heavy on reds and greens....

I was informed that these WB DVD-Rs are not supposed to play on a computer. I have a laptop here and the built in drive sometimes recognizes them at Blank CDs. My SONY external drive sometimes sees them as Data Discs. The rest of the time- nothing.....

On the other hand, at home my desktop has a Bluray player/burner that reads them just fine. So go figure.

Harold Aherne wrote:No Merry Widow yet,
-Harold

Has Love been issued yet? Both have live scores - TMW on the Mighty Mo organ at the Atlanta Fox.

Maybe it's a rights thing for the performance

- or maybe they are thinking of an orchestra score sometime in the future.

Harlett O'Dowd wrote:

Harold Aherne wrote:No Merry Widow yet,
-Harold

Has Love been issued yet? Both have live scores - TMW on the Mighty Mo organ at the Atlanta Fox.

Maybe it's a rights thing for the performance

- or maybe they are thinking of an orchestra score sometime in the future.

Harlett, I do believe Love on out already

rudyfan wrote:

Harlett O'Dowd wrote:
Harlett, I do believe Love on out already

With the live score they use when it runs on TCM?

Harlett O'Dowd wrote:

rudyfan wrote:

Harlett O'Dowd wrote:
Harlett, I do believe Love on out already

With the live score they use when it runs on TCM?

That I do not know. Oh Floradoragirl, have you got this?

rudyfan wrote:

Harlett O'Dowd wrote: With the live score they use when it runs on TCM?

That I do not know. Oh Floradoragirl, have you got this?

Yes, with giggles and howls intact. At least there are such things as mute buttons!

-Harold

rudyfan wrote:

Harlett O'Dowd wrote:

rudyfan wrote: With the live score they use when it runs on TCM?

That I do not know. Oh Floradoragirl, have you got this?

Yes, the WB release contains the same live score, complete with audience laughter, that runs on TCM - which is a shame, really, because I am actually quite fond of this score.

In regards to the Love (1927) score, I particularly like the love theme that you hear in the attached scene - one of my favorites from the film.

This haunting music is heard throughout the movie and I thought for sure it was classical Russian, but a closer look at the credits revealed that this is, in fact, and original composition. The composer's name escapes me at the moment, but a job well done!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfrYs--P4pI

florodoragirl wrote:In regards to the Love (1927) score, I particularly like the love theme that you hear in the attached scene - one of my favorites from the film.

This haunting music is heard throughout the movie and I thought for sure it was classical Russian, but a closer look at the credits revealed that this is, in fact, and original composition. The composer's name escapes me at the moment, but a job well done!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfrYs--P4pI

It's Arnold Brostoff from the Chicago Symphony--I hired him to compose the score back in the '80s when I was at MGM/UA Classics. (The reason they used the "live" score on the track is because they didn't think they could justify the expense of re-recording it in a studio.) A few years later when I was at Paramount, we did the same with THE LAST COMMAND, though I don't think it's ever been heard outside of the live performances.

Mike S.