Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Free Academy Award Winning shorts on DVD

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Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 02-05-2004, 12:19 AM:

Warner Brothers Home Video has just released five Academy Award winning shorts from the Turner Classic Collection on DVD and they are free with a purchase of any one of the feature films that had won the Best Picture Oscar on WHV discs. The shorts include one by Robert Benchley, "HOW TO SLEEP" (MGM 1935). Two by Pete Smith, "PENNY WISDOM" (MGM 1937) and "QUICKER 'N A WINK" (MGM 1940). The remaining two are Warner Brothers shorts. "SONS OF LIBERTY" (1939) and "STAR IN THE NIGHT" (1945). The free DVD with the five shorts are available at any Barnes & Nobel book stores and limited to stock on hand. I was fortunate to get a copy after I had purchased the newly released 1936 three hour Best picture winner "THE GREAT ZIEFELD". I have not had the opportunity too watch the discs yet but I expect them to be very dood because of the considerable restoration work that has been done with the films. Beside "THE GREAT ZIEGFELD", I bought "MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY", "GOODBYE MR CHIPS", "MY FAIR LADY" (SE) , MRS. MINIVER" and GRAND HOTEL" at Costco because they were cheaper than Barnes. I think it is wonderful WHV is finally releasing many of the MGM classics on DVD but I honestly feel the pace is still slow compared to MGM Home Video when they were putting out these classics on laserdiscs at a faster pace. I think it would be great if Time Warner were to create another home video division devoted to releasing films on DVD from the Turner Classic Movie Collection. The division can be called "Turner Classic Home Video" and devoted to the classics from the MGM and Warner Brothers library of films.

-Claude

Posted by Patrick J. McCart (Member # 1043) on 02-05-2004, 11:52 PM:

FYI, Warner's upcoming Marx Bros. DVD's will have a ton of short subjects (some Oscar winners and some nominees, I think) like Pete Smith, Fitzpatrick travelogues, and even some MGM & Warner cartoons.

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 02-06-2004, 01:21 AM:

The two Barnes & Noble stores I've hit have only books, no video. Disappointing, as I often hear of neat video titles being available at a B&N. I wonder how the decision is made for a store to stock video as well as books.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 02-08-2004, 09:59 AM:

The Barnes store here in Bountiful is pathetic to say the least. Donno why they are even there. No DVD's, no snack bar, no nothing. There is one nice Barnes store down in SLC but then even the smaller Borders Stores still blow the socks off even the large Barnes stores. Actually I buy most of my DVD's at the Virgin Megastore in SLC. They have the best deals, best selection, and best service by far. Going into our Virgin Store is like getting Gas with W.C. Fields in the "Big Broadcast"!

Mark @ CLACO

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 02-08-2004, 03:54 PM:

Honolulu has two large full line Borders book store and one Barnes and Nobel. The Barnes is also full line including a coffee cafe and is just as large as the two Borders store here. Although I like the Borders stores very much, I think the Barnes store is a little bit better in my opinion. The store is located at the Kahala Mall where Pacific has their Kahala 8 plex which includes an auditorium with six hundred seats, 70mm, SRD, DTS and SDDs .

Getting back to the topic, I have watched the discs with the award winning shorts as well as three of the MGM features and they were all great! For those of you who are fortunate to live near a full line Barnes & Noble store and enjoy the classic films of the thirties and forties , do as I did and run down to your store right away and see if you can get a copy of the free disc with the shorts after purchasing one of the WHV Academy Award winning feature films. While all of the MGM shorts were wonderful, the two by Warner Brothers were worth buying if the disc was not free because of their story content and production values. "SONS OF LIBERTY" is almost a fifteen minute mini feature and stars Claude Raines and Donald Crisp and is about a Jewish patriot, Hyram Solomon who raised money for George Washington and the continental army during the war for independence after the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776. The film was directed by Michael Curtiz. The other film, "STAR OF THE NIGHT" is also a mini feature and is a modern retelling of the birth of the Christ child and stars J. Carol Naish, Sam Woods and Tony Caruso. This feature was directed by Don Siegel. Although it has been many years, I remember seeing these two films at my home town theatre, the Waipahu when I was just a little boy and remember enjoying them very much. If you like films with patriotic themes and lots of sentiments you will enjoy both of these films.. "SONS OF LIBERTY" is in Technicolor and the color looks great after all these years. The MGM Pete Smith speciality film "PENNY WISDOM " is also in Technicolor and is about preparing a dinner for four people for less than three dollars with 1937 currency. The other Pete Smith short "QUICKER 'N A WINK" is about high speed photography and in 1940, everything shown must have looked amazing. The Robert Benchly short, "HOW TO SLEEP" is about that and it was interesting.

Beside the short subjects, the disc also features the original theatrical trailers for all of the classic films released last Tuesday, including "MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY", "GOODBYE MR. CHIPS", THE GREAT ZIEGFELD", "MY FAIR LADY", "MRS MINIVER", "GASLIGHT" and "GRAND HOTEL".

So far, I had watched "THE GREAT ZIEGFELD", MRS. MINIVER" and "GOODBYE MR. CHIPS" and the picture quality is very clean and appears brand new except for a few places where I had noticed dust specks and scratches. "THE GREAT ZIEZFELD" presentation was the Road Show version with the overture, Intermission/ Entr'Acte
and the exit music intect.

-Claude

[ 02-08-2004, 10:03 PM: Message edited by: Claude S. Ayakawa ]