Arliss Alert! TCM Shows DISRAELI on 2/16 @ 4AM ET

[bobfells]

DISRAELI is Back!!! TCM on Sunday Feb 16 @ 4:00 AM ET
It’s the start of Academy Award Season so naturally Mr. A’s 1929 Oscar winner is one of the first films honored by Turner Classic Movies (TCM). DISRAELI is not yet available on DVD so be sure to set your tivo, vcr, or whatever you use for time-shifting so you don’t miss it. See George Arliss and the famous Arliss Stock Company including 19th century players such as Florence Arliss, Ivan Simpson, David Torrence, and Charles Evans. Youngsters include a 19 year old Joan Bennett.

[Phillyrich]

Nice poster. Why is the film not on a dvd? Is there a rights issue? Lack of a good print?

[bobfells]

DISRAELI received an official home video release on VHS in the 1990s. While four George Arliss films have come out on DVD through the Warner Archive, DISRAELI is not one of them so far. Indeed, what are they waiting for? It's an Academy Award winner (Best Actor - Mr. A was the first Brit to win it) and was also nominated for Best Picture. The film holds up very well today especially for a 1929 talkie based on a stage play. I think the key to its success on the screen was the fact that the play is a series of fairly absorbing conversations, none of which become tedious or overstays their welcome, and moves the story along rather nicely to its climax. Also, Mr. A's screen presence has to be seen - he really is the whole show.

[Donald Binks]

I remember in my youth being fascinated by this early talkie - which of course was impossible to see anywhere in those long since departed days. I longed to see it and was talking about George Arliss to a number of people who had never heard of him.

It wasn't until this century that I was finally able to see it - and a number of other of Mr. Arliss' pictures. "Disraeli" was well worth the wait and I have enjoyed becoming well acquainted with a lot of Mr. Arliss' work.

Anyone who effects a monocle cannot be bad - which is probably why I like Richard Tauber too.