Peacock Universal and pre-1950 Paramount Library Titles

[buskeat]

As loathe as I am to sample yet another streaming service, I took a glance at PEACOCK this morning. Run by NBCUniversal, it has a not-terrible selection of pre-1980 Universal and pre-1950 Paramount titles. Certainly not perfect, but it wipes the floor with the pathetic library titles offered on Disney Plus and HBO Max.

Code: Select all

https://www.peacocktv.com/watch/movies/Movies-Classics

It looks like some titles are only available to watch if you become a Premium subscriber, but most are free to watch. The most notable are Universal Horror titles, as you might expect, but there are some curveballs like Wesley Ruggles' True Confession (1937).

[Dylanskye]

Nice find.

They have a few more interesting titles that are less expected. To Each His Own which has yet to get a physical release in the US. Man of a Thousand Faces, despite being on disc from Arrow, is one I didn't expect to see, and is a great film. King Vidor's Texas Rangers and Frank Borzage's Desire are nice treats too that are less than expected.

[brendangcarroll]

I got all excited and then...the screen says "This Service Is Unavailable In Your Region"

So I guess it is only accessible in the USA.

Damn!

TCM and AMC ...and now this.

[sethb]

There are several interesting (and previously unavailable) titles listed on Peacock, particularly on the upper tier additional-cost plans. But a lot of this stuff looks like what we used to see on the "Million Dollar Movie" on WPIX out of New York 50-60 years ago. Hopefully, the prints are in better shape now than they were back then, and at least we won't have to set the alarm clock for 2 a.m. in order to watch KING KONG or MY MAN GODFREY, as was the case in those pre-VHS and pre-DVR days.

I'm not complaining, mind you, and I'm glad that lots of classic titles are being run again. But as far as I can see, the Peacock programming isn't as deep or unique as what you could view on TCM, if you can still get TCM through your local cable provider. SETH