Paste Magazine
Tired of watching Turner Classic Movies and going, "Wow. This movie is really cool. I'll have to buy it on DVD," only to find out, well heck, they don't make it on DVD? Thanks to Warner Brothers, those frustrating days may soon be coming to an end (to an extent, anyway) with the studio's innovative idea to make available to the public nearly every film in its vault.
Joining its nearly 1,200 films from the vault already available on disc, Warner Bros. is hoping to gradually expand availability of its films (by 20 or more each month) by allowing consumers to purchase custom DVDs from its
Warner Archive website. Currently, there are 155 of these never-before-available digital copies (at the outset of this article, there were 151), quite a ways away from the roughly 6,800 remaining. George Feltenstein, senior vice president of theatrical catalog marketing at Warner Home Video, tells
USA Today that he's shooting for about 350 available by Christmastime, and that he has hopes to eventually have most of them accessible.
For each title, you have your choice: a $15 download or a $20 hard copy, case and artwork included. And from all indications, these are going to be up to the standards of the packaging you see on the shelves. As for special features, the original trailer for each film is the only thing available thus far, but according to Feltenstein, more features may be added in the future. Also, no definitive word if Warner Bros. will continue it's Criterion Collection-esque, high standard of cleaning up the picture and soundtrack in this new venture.
Although none of the movies are going to be instantly recognizable to most people, a lot of the players involved are household names, including Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Joan Crawford, Steve McQueen, Lana Turner, Tony Curtis, Francis Ford Coppola, Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray and really, too many to mention. Of course, there are a bunch of rare, unknown film noir/crime dramas included like
I Was a Communist for the FBI,
Al Capone and
Beast of the City. So, a little something for everyone.