Treasures on VHS?

[Jonathan]

In the UK of the 1970s the 8mm distributor Collectors Club sold silent features on their unique (?) "reel-a-month" system. Films such as THE GENERAL, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN, THE GOLD RUSH and METROPOLIS (the last two on Standard/Regular 8 only for some reason) were automatically posted to the member on one 200ft reel each month until you owned the complete film. It took me more than a year to acquire INTOLERANCE (!)

[andybenz]

... (and what was the point of that given many silent features only ran for another reel or two well into the 1920's?)...

These five-reel 8mm prints were often sourced from 16mm Kodascope prints which were already cut down to five reels for the Kodascope library in the 1920s, e.g. DANCING MOTHERS (1926) or ELLA CINDERS (1926) only exist as a Kodascope five-reel cut down.

[Harlowgold]

I really enjoy all these posts about the old days of 8mm - I was a kid in the 1970's, too young to be able to buy the films but totally fascinated that one could actually see "real movies" in one's own home anytime you wanted to. I picked a couple of Ken digests as Christmas presents and talked my parents into occasionally screening them when we watched our home movies but didn't get my own projector until my teens at the end of the decade - by then the digests had disappeared by department stores so I couldn't add to my collection although I was able to check out some films from the small collection at my local library (one I remember was Theda Bara's Madame Mystery which oddly has become fairly rare in the dvd era especially considering how few Bara films still exist.)

[JohnArmer]

I have a lovely 8 reel print of THE GOOSE WOMAN on standard (regular) 8mm. I don't think that's been released on VHS or DVD. I believe it originated from a Kodascope print and it's quite sharp and clear. It was released by Perry's Movies in the UK.

[Jim Roots]

For reasons I won't go into here, I got curious yesterday about whether The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was ever released in any home video format.

I found out that only two "Best of" volumes were ever released, and only on VHS. The prices being asked for these videos are crazy ... hundreds of dollars apiece.

It seems a little odd that there hasn't been a whisper of interest in assembling a blu-ray or even a DVD of this immensely important show, especially when I see "complete series" products of Gilligan's Island, The Monkees, Perry Mason, Laugh-In, Taxi, Mary Tyler Moore, Hill Street Blues, even Green Acres, It's About Time, and The Beverley Hillbillies.

I suppose music rights are a problem, but surely that can be overcome. I'm puzzled that businessmen as astute as Tommy and Dick haven't figured out a way to put this show out there to make a lot of money in their old age.

Jim

[syd]

Season 3 was released in 2008:

https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/34677/s ... e/?___rd=1

I checked ebay and seasons 2 and 3 can be purchased for under 50.00 each.
Sometimes if ebay if flooded with them, you can negotiate a better price.

[Jim Roots]

Thanks for that info. Unfortunately it doesn't say whether the discs are captioned or not.

Jim

[JediFonger]

couldn't someone like criterion channel get rights to these and push them out via their streaming channel? they wouldn't even need to bother w/remastering just throw it up there.

is the legal hurdle so large it cannot be done?

[Jim Roots]

couldn't someone like criterion channel get rights to these and push them out via their streaming channel? they wouldn't even need to bother w/remastering just throw it up there.

is the legal hurdle so large it cannot be done?

If you're referring to TV shows like The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Criterion doesn't do TV stuff. Shout Factory is one company that seems to specialize in old TV series, but I wouldn't want them to get hold of the Smothers stuff because Shout never captions anything they release.

Jim

[JediFonger]

https://www.criterion.com/films/3560-th ... television

couldn't someone like criterion channel get rights to these and push them out via their streaming channel? they wouldn't even need to bother w/remastering just throw it up there.

is the legal hurdle so large it cannot be done?

If you're referring to TV shows like The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Criterion doesn't do TV stuff. Shout Factory is one company that seems to specialize in old TV series, but I wouldn't want them to get hold of the Smothers stuff because Shout never captions anything they release.

Jim

[mwalls]

couldn't someone like criterion channel get rights to these and push them out via their streaming channel? they wouldn't even need to bother w/remastering just throw it up there.

is the legal hurdle so large it cannot be done?

There would still be underlying rights issues to the film that was placed on VHS. All that would have to be worked out as with any release. In terms of them putting a VHS copy up on their channel, I do not believe they would do that. Criterion is known for pristine prints. Even the Columbia Noir up on the channel right now, while Criterion did not have any involvement in releasing them on disk, the picture on all of them is very nice. I am sure the condition of the print was one factor in deciding upon which movies to license for the channel.

Matthew

[JediFonger]

i didnt mean literally dumping vhs copy on stream but that is what their eclipse series are for. they wont have budget to remaster/restore everything single title but part of what they do is release it as is even without making it look nice. so while pq on eclipse isnt the best you can at least view it as good as the telecine work. so there’s been precedence for this.

my point is about licenses... is it that complicated?

couldn't someone like criterion channel get rights to these and push them out via their streaming channel? they wouldn't even need to bother w/remastering just throw it up there.

is the legal hurdle so large it cannot be done?

There would still be underlying rights issues to the film that was placed on VHS. All that would have to be worked out as with any release. In terms of them putting a VHS copy up on their channel, I do not believe they would do that. Criterion is known for pristine prints. Even the Columbia Noir up on the channel right now, while Criterion did not have any involvement in releasing them on disk, the picture on all of them is very nice. I am sure the condition of the print was one factor in deciding upon which movies to license for the channel.

Matthew

[Jim Roots]

https://www.criterion.com/films/3560-th ... television

Not the same thing at all. That Criterion set is a bunch of stand-alone plays that were produced for a repertory show on TV. The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was a TV show, not a bunch of stand-alone plays.

Jim