The Extras - Celebrating 100 Years of Warner Bros History Through Releases From the Warner Archive - The Early Years

Episode Date: April 4, 2023

The Warner Archive's George Feltenstein and Warner Bros archivist Jeff Briggs join the podcast to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Warner Bros on April 4th, by reviewing many of the classic films released by the Warner Archive on DVD or Blu-ray.  We start with silent classics from 1924 and make our way through the Vitaphone Varieties, the Jazz Singer, and into the talkies.  Then we touch on the Forbidden Hollywood releases, Busby Berkeley musicals, and gangster pics.  We also review some of the major stars of the first two decades of the studio's history, including John Barrymore, Al Jolson, Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, Errol Flynn, and someone often called the 5th Warner Brother - Bette Davis.  These classic films on DVD and Blu-ray represent most of the best of classic Warner Bros and are the films that led to the early success that cemented Warner Bros as a major Hollywood Studio.Shop the films discussed on the podcast via The Extras websiteDodge City Premiere LinkVintage Friday the 13th (1939 WB Party) LinkThe Sitcom StudyWelcome to the Sitcom Study, where we contemplate the TV shows we grew up with and...Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify MovieZyng Affiliate The BEST place to buy all of your Warner Archive and Boutique DVDs and Blu-raysWarner Archive Store on Amazon Support the podcast by shopping with our Amazon Affiliate linkDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.The Extras Facebook pageThe Extras Twitter Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog GroupOtaku Media produces podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connect creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals. www.otakumedia.tv

Hi, I'm film historian and author John Fricke. I've written books about Judy Garland and the Wizard of Oz movie, and you're listening to The Extras. Hello and welcome to The Extras, where we take you behind the scenes of your favorite TV shows, movies, and animation, and their release on digital, DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K, or your favorite streaming site. I'm Tim Millard, your host. and the release on digital DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K, or your favorite streaming site. I'm Tim Millard, your host.

Today, April 4th, 2023, is the 100th anniversary of Warner Brothers. And as some of you know, I had the good fortune to work at Warner Brothers for 14 of those years. And during that time, I had the pleasure of working with the two guests joining me today. And they are very well known to regular listeners of the podcast. But for those who might be new, I'll just reiterate why they are the perfect guests for today's celebration of the studio. George Feltenstein has been with Warner Brothers for 27 years and is the guiding force behind the Warner Archive,

which has released a huge portion of the classical Warner Brothers library. And joining him is Warner Brothers archivist Jeff Briggs, who has been with the studio for 29 years and as an archivist deals with the studio's history on a daily basis. Well, George, Jeff, it's good to have you both on the podcast on this 100th anniversary of the founding of Warner Brothers. And what better way to do that than to talk about some of the great films in the Warner Library that have been released through the Warner Archive? A topic I love. Well, this is a particularly fortuitous time. It's a great moment for all the employees here, past and present. And we have a legacy of great people that have been part of the Warner Brothers family. And I'm really,

really grateful that the company is behind celebrating this monumental event because it's been such a rich history and the history continues as we look to the future. But today, we're going to look at the past and specifically the earliest years of Warner Brothers and how so many of those great moments of celluloid are available from the Warner Archive collection and from Warner Brothers Home Entertainment, both on DVD, Blu-ray, 4K. There's so much to discuss, so I think we should just jump in at the beginning so how far back does the warner archive kind of go in the history of the releases of the studio so the

beginning of warner brothers history after the april 4th 1923 incorporation as it is reflected in the releases from warner archiveive begins with Bo Brummel starring John Barrymore, which was a 1924, obviously silent film. It was hugely successful. And John Barrymore's arrival at Warner Brothers was pretty special. Wouldn't you say, Jeff? Absolutely. He was certainly their first big human star. No, Rin Tin Tin preceded him by a year or so. But I think getting Barrymore, an actor of his stature, who had done he had done some films, but he was known as a stage actor, of course, to obtain him to make motion pictures was a big coup for the studio. was a big coup for the studio.

And it gave them an air of legitimacy, I think, something they really craved as they were trying to, you know, enter the realms of the big movie studios. That was in 24, you said, Jeff? Right, 1924. Yeah, just like in the second year of the company then. Right, yeah. And that was certainly their most prestigious release of 1924. And one of the few movies from that year that probably still exists.

And a very good film, too. And the irony of why it still exists, just to give some context, there was a terrible fire that occurred on the Warner lot in the early 30s, I believe. 1934. 34 counts as early 30s, I believe. 1934. 34 counts as early 30s, yes. Right. 1934, there was a terrible fire that took out many, if not most, of the silent film negatives, not only from Warner Brothers, but also from First National,

Warner Brothers, but also from First National, a company that Warner acquired in 1928 partially and then fully in 1929. And because of that fire, I would say probably 95% of the silent films from Warner Brothers or First National no longer exist, at least in pristine form. There are very few original negatives that survived, and the films that did survive, survived in either a release print where we've located things overseas, but it did damage not only to the silence, but to a lot of early talkies. It did damage not only to the silence, but to a lot of early talkies. And we're terribly disadvantaged by that. Bo Brummel was purchased by MGM for remake. And MGM's remake in 1954 with Elizabeth Taylor was one of our Technicolor restorations not too long ago.

So I don't know exactly when the transaction of selling the literary property and the remake rights happened, but the film elements went from Warner Brothers to MGM at some point. And I think that's one of the reasons Bo Brummel survives. But it is really an entertaining costume drama and shows why Barrymore was so important, and so therefore it's very appropriate that we're talking about John Barrymore

because he played such an important part in the history of the company, and when Sam Warner convinced his brothers to take a risk on using the Vitaphone process, which was a sound-on-disc process synchronized with the film developed by Western Electric, Bell Labs, Developed by Western Electric, Bell Labs, Warner Brothers invested in this technology and produced an epic adventure called Don Juan, which was released in 1926. And it premiered in August of 1926 with a series of short subjects preceding it. And Don Juan was a silent film with synchronized music and sound effects, no dialogue. And at the time, they didn't think that the Vitaphone would be used for bringing talking to films, they saw it as a way to

efficiently bring musical scoring to films without theater owners having to pay for orchestras, as you had in big cities, or piano players, as you had in small cities, everybody could have synchronized music and sound effects on their silent films without extra cost to the theater owner, and it would improve the quality of the presentation. So that was their thinking. Now, when Don Juan opened in August of 1926. It was preceded by shorts, some of which had operatic singers. One of them had a ukulele player. Jeff and I were just talking about it yesterday. Yes, the Eddie Van Halen of ukulele players. Yes.

And the New York Philharmonic performing the overture from Tannheiser. So the shorts showed that there could be more than just musical underscoring. And Warner Brothers continued to make Vitaphone shorts before they took the leap with the jazz singer, which we'll talk about in a moment. But I want to call out specifically the fact that we have several collections of Vitaphone shorts going back as early as 1926 in our Vitaphone Varieties DVD collections from the Warner Archive. And one of them features a comedy team doing a comic routine. It's all dialogue.

There's no music. And as they continue to experiment with the technology, they saw that dialogue and singing were very much a part of what Vitaphone could provide. And then, of course, we have the Jazz Singer, which is available as a deluxe Blu-ray with one Blu-ray disc of the feature, which has been meticulously restored, and then two discs featuring rare Vitaphone shorts and a documentary on the history of how sound came to film called The Dawn of Sound, which we produced specifically for that home video release when it came out in 2007. And the documentary doesn't date because that story ends basically in 1930. So, you know, years can go by and the documentary doesn't change because, you know, that history is written in stone. But we're very proud of that documentary and very proud to be able to continue to distribute it. And it gives great context to why the jazz singer is so important in film history, even though it isn't the first all talking picture. Everybody calls it the first talkie. And that's you know, just way to use one word to apply to that. But people might not know that Jazz Singer is not really a talking picture. It's only about, what would you say, maybe 10% dialogue, maybe 15%?

Oh, not even that. There's just a few scenes. The moment I think that silent movies, the first nail in the coffin was probably when Jolson improvised at the piano when he was talking to his mother in the film. And he started giving his little dialogue, a patter. That was the beginning of the end of silent film right there. Stay with us. We'll be right back. Hi, this is Tim Millard, host of The Extras Podcast. And I wanted to let you know that we have a new private Facebook group for fans of the Warner Archive and Warner Brothers catalog physical media releases. So if that interests you, you can find the link on our Facebook page or look for the link in the podcast show notes.

show notes. And Jolson improvising that dialogue, that basically greenlit the idea to explore things further. And of course, you also get to see, you know, he sings Toot Toot Tootsie and that movie in a nightclub setting. You get to see how exciting a performer he was and why he was so innovative in presenting singing in not a constrained way. And he paved the way for people like Bing Crosby, who paved the way for Frank Sinatra, who paved the way for others that followed. So it's a very important role in American singing and musical performance that is captured with the jazz singer. And after the jazz singer, they continued to make these Vitaphone shorts, and one of the producers of those shorts had a budget to make a 20-minute two-reel gangster short. make the film at a little over an hour length, which therefore made it a feature film and thus was born the first 100% all-talking picture which Warner Archive has out on DVD called The Lights of New York.

And Jeff, what do you think of The Lights of New York? I would call it primitive but fascinating. It's funny, if you haven't seen the movie well even if you've seen it i guess but if you've seen singing in the rain when they have a lot of those gags with the microphones being hidden in very conspicuous spots and people moving away from the microphone and not having the best quality as they move away sound quality as they move away from the microphone you can see that on screen in front of your eyes in lights of New York. If someone is talking right by a telephone,

you can be pretty sure that there was a microphone inside that telephone. It's a fascinating, again, a fascinating movie to watch. Absolutely. If I may, if I want to just jump back to Don Juan for a second, one thing that's interesting from a Vitaphone standpoint is Don Juan, the DVD of that, which I have on my shelf right next to me, has the option of playing all those Vitaphone shorts. And it's about an hour's worth of Vitaphone shorts before the film. So you can recreate what those audiences in New York experienced that summer night in

1926. And it starts with the, you know, fairly charisma free will hayes you know the chairman of the what became the mpa the motion picture association of america talking about the wonders of vitaphone and sound on film and followed by all the shorts that he mentioned you can feel what that was like you know 97 years ago to experience sound not dialogue well actually in the will hayes short there is dialogue in that and that's a harbinger of things to come. And what's interesting, just as a little aside, when Don Juan opened in Los Angeles, it opened at the Egyptian Theater, which had not been wired for sound yet. So Don Juan actually opened in a silent version.

And I believe that was in September, maybe a little bit after New York. And then the Egyptian closed for a few weeks. They added the sound equipment and the speakers and then Damwan reopened. And I believe that was November with the full Vitaphone experience. And that ties into all of the collections of Vitaphone shorts that Warner Archive has put out. They're fascinating. They can be overwhelming at times because there's so many of them, but they're just, they're an incredible window into a transitional period in the motion picture industry. Absolutely. And that ties into lights in New York. Yes. I was just going to add too, that, you know, that Warner Brothers is very early on, but they were one of the smaller studios, were they not? When they, when they

started. So using technology and going towards sound, that was really something that was important to help them gain a greater audience. Absolutely. And I think it also established kind of what Warner Brothers has been known for, which is being on the cutting edge of a lot of technology over the history of the studio. Exactly. And I also add to that the jazz singer is certainly the most famous of Jolson films, but it was really his second movie, The Singing Fool, that were several more nails in the coffin of silent cinema, because that was a far bigger hit than The Jazz Singer and had much more dialogue, much more talking and singing than The Jazz Singer and less of just the silent portions. and singing than the jazz singer and less of just the silent portions.

And I believe, if I'm not mistaken, that was the biggest box office hit ever when it came out and remained that way until Snow White, perhaps, or maybe Gone with the Wind. It was Gone with the Wind. A movie that was, you know, basically the biggest hit of all time for around 10 years and no one really talks about it anymore. Wow. And I believe the song, yeah, Sunny Boy, which he sings in the movie, I think three times, if I'm not mistaken. That was also the first million selling record.

And no doubt the film helped propel the sales of that song as well. And the DVD is available from Warner Archive, and it gives people a chance to see the film. And, you know, when you look at it today, you don't understand why it could be such a financial blockbuster. But it was so innovative at its time, and it used a lot of really, I mean, the Sunny Boy, as Jeff just pointed out, that was really probably the most famous song from that movie because of the little boy. The actor Davey Lee played that role. But, you know, he also sang songs like I'm Sitting sitting on top of the world which is a big hit for a lot of people but especially jolson and it all depends on you it's a really fascinating

curio of the time and we have other films that are little landmarks in in the history as the technology kept improving we have on with Show, which only exists today, except for a few frame fragments in foreign archives. It was shot in two-color, technicolor, only exists in black and white, by and large. But it does preserve a wonderful performance by Ethel Waters. But it was originally, I believe, the first full-length musical shot entirely in Technicolor and with 100% synchronized sound. Jeff, am I right? That's correct, yes. And they, if you look at, um, advertising materials from that time, they really played up. I believe they called it, I wish I had the, uh, we have a

flyer in our archives. I believe it says a hundred percent, all talking, all singing, all color musical, something to that effect. Right. It's a shame that it doesn't exist in color, but in the movies, the movies, again, from a modern standpoint it's not something you can imagine people responding to too much now i mean with the exception ethel water singing am i blue is absolutely magnificent and there's some other musical sequences in there but that's certainly the highlight but again that was you know the first color musical basically and you know sadly forgotten nowadays um did that precede Show of Shows, George? I think it did. I believe it did. Which was also a Technicolor film. Our print has one whole

sequence that exists in that two-color Technicolor, right? Yes, and there actually is another sequence which has been found. It's called the Meet My Sister sequence. It's a whole production number of singing actresses. And it's very, very cute. And I did see it shown, I think, at a film festival here in Los Angeles in the last decade. I can't remember which one, but it was really it was really astounding but the Chinese Nightingale sequences with the girls going up and down ladders and Nick Lucas

sings to them and you even get to see Rin Tin Tin and Hear Him Bark in two color Technicolor so Show of Shows was like every other studio did. Everybody made an all-star musical review. Paramount did one.

Fox did two. MGM did one. And Warner Brothers did Show of Shows. And it was intended to be a lot even more spectacular than it was. But today, you look at those films, and they're really museum pieces. But they're incredibly valuable to have. And until the Warner Archive collection came along, they were very, very hard to see. I had done some collections of early talkies on Laserdisc years prior, but that was such a niche medium that the general public didn't get access to those things. And because of Warner Archive DVDs being so available anywhere people do their shopping online, that gave people a chance to really

see some of these films that are really museum pieces, literally, and get to enjoy them. And we're very, very proud of that and very, very happy that that has become possible because of having Warner Archive as a niche boutique label under the umbrella of this wonderful corporation we work for. So we're very proud of all those releases and what they can provide to film fans, young and old. And some of those, the Vitaphone collections go further into the 30s, and they actually include some three-strip Technicolor short subjects, a few of which I watched fairly recently. One of them on the, is it the Vitaphone musical collection, George, that has Service with a Smile?

I think there's six discs in that collection. Yeah, there's six discs set. And the last two are all three-strip Technicolor. And boy, do they look great. Oh, my goodness. They do. And that's because the negatives survived and you're able to. I think that might be the Vitaphone cavalcated musical comment. That's it. That's the one. But I'm just pulling that out of my brain. I don't know exactly how we titled it. But what Warner Brothers did was after the Vitaphone sounddisc process was eclipsed by sound-on-film,

they continued to use the name Vitaphone for short-subject presentation, both live-action and animated. So you'll notice if you see a Looney Tunes from, let's say, 1942, the copyright will say the Vitaphone Corp. at the bottom because it was still a company entity. And there was a Vitaphone studio in Brooklyn, New York, where they made some of the Vitaphone shorts and the others were made here on the coast. phone shorts and the others were made here on the coast. But that studio continued to produce short subjects for Warner Brothers release up until the late 1930s. So it's really a fascinating part of history. And some of the ones I had watched recently were the Fatty Arbuckle shorts when he had his brief comeback that was sadly interrupted by his untimely death. And those were all shot in Brooklyn. And if you're a fan of early comedy, even silent comedy, which I mean, they're sound films, but they definitely have that silent comedy appeal.

Those Arbuckle shorts are really treasures. And there's some amazing and very, very funny stuff in those. And until Warner Archive, you wouldn't have been able to see those anywhere. That is true. And it's been overwhelming to be able to go from virtually no Vitaphone shorts to the Jazz Singer release, which had a few of them on there. Singer release, which had a few of them on there, and then to be able to present collections as we continue in partnership with our friends at the UCLA Film and Television Archive and our friends at the Library of Congress. We're all joined together in this quest to find missing discs and reunite them for the picture, with the picture,

if the picture still exists. And this is an ongoing cause. And I want to call out and honor the memory of the founder of the Vitaphone Project, a wonderful man named Ron Hutchinson, of the Vitaphone Project, a wonderful man named Ron Hutchinson, who sadly passed away a few years ago and is sorely missed by all those who knew and loved him. But he was passionately dedicated to leading the charge to bring Vitaphone discs and film together in partnership with Warner Brothers and the archives. And if it wasn't for Ron and other individuals 30 years ago, more than that even, we would not have a lot of these great Vitaphone shorts to present to the public. So I have to shout out to Ron Hutchinson. And of course, we should shout out to Sam Warner, who really led the charge to develop Vitaphone. And single-handedly, if one person more than any other was responsible for sound revolutionizing the motion picture industry, it started with Sam. Jeff, would you agree? Absolutely. Yeah, he's, I can't say without him, there wouldn't have been sound on film,

but it wouldn't have happened as soon and wouldn't have been as big a success because at that point, at least in 19, you know, 26, 27, the Vitaphone technology primitive by today's standards, which was sound on disc, they were actually playing, you know, what we would call records nowadays, single-sided records that were in sync with a projector. And sound on film at that point, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, George ended up happening was there were the optical processes. One that was sponsored primarily with the financing from William Fox. And then there was a similar optical process that was being fostered by RCA. And those optical sound on film processes ended up being more practical and more successful. In the long run, Vitaphone made sound on film possible and started the revolution. But the practicality of synchronizing

the disc, if you lost one frame on a print, you'd be out of sync. So the sound on film process ultimately made more sense for everyone. So the Vitaphone process eventually was sunset. process eventually was sunset. However, it broke through at a crucial time and helped our company to grow into a major studio, so much studios like Paramount and Fox Film and, of course, Metro-Golden-Mare. So they were in the competition and really doing remarkable films. segue to talk about technology and sound and color all coming together because Warner Brothers had made a commitment to the Technicolor Corporation for a great deal of color film and they had to complete their contract and their commitment. And they ended it by making two two-color horror films that have recently been restored through the joint efforts of ourselves, through the joint efforts of ourselves, UCLA, the Film Foundation, with funding from the George Lucas Family Foundation, we were able to bring 1932's Dr. X with Lee Tracy and Lionel Atwell

and 1933's Mystery of the Wax Museum with Lionel Atwell and Fay Wray. Beautiful restorations that were never possible on Blu-ray. And they represent a very important moment in Warner Brothers history. And with the completion of those films, Warner Brothers' commitment to Technicolor Corporation ended. And meanwhile, the Technicolor Corporation was developing their three-color process. We'll talk about that a little later on in this podcast and how Warner Brothers got involved with that. But one of the things that set our studio apart in the early 30s and going on for decades thereafter was Warner Brothers was the proletariat studio. Warner Brothers was the studio of the people, making films ripped from the headlines that were about common man issues and not being afraid to take on social issues with a sense of reality

that you would not find in films from other companies. And this is before the enforcement So we released on DVD 10 collections under the branding of Forbidden Hollywood. And we did so starting in 2004 with Warner Home Video. And then Warner Archive picked up the mantle after three releases through Warner Home Video. Warner Archive released volumes four through ten. And almost all the films in those collections, not all, but almost all, are Warner Brothers films because the Warner films were so groundbreaking and risk-taking. And I've talked about these sets with great pride for many years. But if we're talking about the history of Warner Brothers, you can't overlook the importance of films like Babyface with Barbara Stanwyck and how we found a pre-release version that was even more salacious than what was released. And you also see films starring the great Warner performers of the era

who went on to even greater heights at Warner Brothers, and we'll talk about them in a minute. People like Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, Betty Davis, they were all making these kind of cutting-edge films. And then there are performers who aren't as well-remembered today beyond diehard film fans whose great work is represented in these early collections, people like Kay Francis. And we will be releasing on Blu-ray at the end of April, five great classic Warner Brothers films from the 30s, 40s, and 50s, including a film with Kate Francis and William Powell,

restored to Blu-ray, great quality, one-way passage, which is just a masterpiece in my opinion and there you have k francis and william powell in a pre-code film that was released as a single disc not in a forbidden hollywood collection on dvd but now it's coming to blu-ray with a 4K scan off the original camera negative. So all of that is very, very exciting. And that represents a very distinct part of Warner Brothers history that came to basically an end toward the middle end of 1934 when the production code was enforced and it did create a different kind of storytelling at Warner Brothers. But before that happened, there was a revolution at Warner Brothers that created a ripple effect in the entire history. And that was Busby Berklee coming to Warner Brothers to bring his unique kaleidoscopic

viewpoint and choreography to reignite the genre of the musical, which had died. Because when sound came in, everybody was making musicals, and most of them were not good and it got to the point in 1931 where uh theater owners were hanging out signs saying this is not a musical and films that were made with musical sequences had all the songs taken out before they were released musical was considered the dirtiest word in Hollywood. And it was 42nd Street at Warner Brothers that really completely brought the genre back. And across town, over the mountain, at RKO, they made a musical called Flying Down to Rio with supporting players Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

toward the end of 1933. And with the Warner-Busby-Berkeley musicals like 42nd Street and the Fred and Ginger appearance at RKO, the genre was back and there to stay for decades to come. We have three of the Busby Berkeley Warner Brothers musicals on Blu-ray, which we're very proud of. 42nd Street, of course, as I just mentioned, Gold Diggers of 1933, and Footlight Parade. All of those films feature Ruby Keillor and Dick Powell, But Footlight Parade is famous for having the male lead played by none other than James Cagney. We can't talk about the history of Warner Brothers and the early 1930s without talking about James Cagney. Jeff, would you agree? Yes. And I was just going to say, Footlight Parade is my favorite of the Busby Berkeley films. And watching him in Footlight Parade, he's just so, I want to use the word cocky, but in a good way, he's just so dang sure of himself, you know, when he's out there dancing and performing. He's such a joy to watch. And, you know, again, he he brings another level and 42nd Street and Gold Diggers are great.

But you add Cagney to that type of movie and it just shoots it through the stratosphere. Just an amazing performance. And the fact that he could do that, a movie like Footlight Parade, when two years before he was making The Public Enemy and playing just a vicious gangster, he could do anything. He's, you know, such an incredible talent. And and like you said, you know, such an incredible talent. And, and like you said, you know, it's hard to imagine Warner Brothers without James Cagney. Right. And so what Warner Brothers is most famous for, once the early talkies were passed, and the early sound era began, Warner Brothers established itself very quickly with a film that was released at the dawn of 1931,

and that was Little Caesar, directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Edward G. Robinson, New York stage actor who had just come to Hollywood and done a few films before he landed at Warner's playing Rico in Little Caesar. And the gangster was the hero, basically. Something that wasn't allowed once the production code was enforced. But Robinson became an instant star, and Warner Brothers Home Entertainment released a Blu-ray restoration of Little Caesar, I would say probably somewhere around 2008 or 2009, that was revelatory in how much better the film looked. But we have many of Mr. Robinson's films

for Warner Brothers on Blu-ray. Most recently, we released Confessions of a Nazi Spy. And Jeff was kind enough to join me here on the Extras podcast to talk about that film. So we would suggest you look for that podcast if you want to learn more about it. But it's brand new and doing very well out in the market. We also had one of

Robinson's greatest performances in The Seawolf with John Garfield as his co-star. And that Blu-ray restored, I'd say, about 15 minutes or so of footage that had been unseen since the film was re-released for a reissue. And we were very proud of that release. Robinson also made a great performance that people still talk about in Key Largo with Bogart and Bacall. with Bogart and Bacall, and even as late as 1955, he was playing the tough guy in Hell on Frisco Bay with Alan Ladd, which is a Warner Archive Blu-ray in breathtaking cinemascope. But we're getting a little out of the era here.

Going back to Cagney, he came to Warner Brothers also from the stage. He had been in a play called Penny Arcade. And Joan Blondell and Cagney were both put under contract to Warner Brothers. And when that stage play was made into a film, they starred in it. And the film version is one of the forbidden hollywood dvd titles but that didn't make cagney a star it took about a year and then he starred in the public enemy directed by william wellman which today 90 plus years later packs a huge. And that is a Blu-ray available from Warner Brothers Home Entertainment. I think, George, if I may really quick, when you said that, I was going to say packs a punch. Related to these pre-code films and the social consciousness films that Warner is famous for, 80, 90 years later, they still pack

a punch. I'm going to use that phrase because we recently dug up an old Warner Brothers trade ad from the teens and they advertise the movies down the side of the ad as pictures with punches. I think that's a perfect term. I recently showed The Public Enemy and I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang to my son, who's a teenager, and he was surprised at how vibrant and relevant and just powerful they still are nearly 100 years later. Warner Brothers had those punches, delivered those punches better than any other studio. There's just no question about that. And it's something that the studio is justifiably proud of, even to this day.

Without question. And we are very fortunate to have so much Cagney available in the Warner Archive collection. Cagney available in the Warner Archive collection. On the DVD side, almost everything that he did, with rare exception, there's either a DVD or, in some cases, a Blu-ray. So you can experience virtually their entire output of screen hits. But for Cagney, as Jeff mentioned, you know, Footlight Parade is just astounding to see this tough guy show off his vaudeville hoofer roots. And I would agree that that's my favorite of the early Berkeley classics for sure just because of that extra edge that Cagney brings to the storytelling and also his dancing is just spectacular and his dancing is also part of what got him an Academy Award for Best Actor at Yankee Doodle Dandy

a decade later. And that's a film that we're incredibly proud of, and the Blu-ray is gorgeous and loaded with extras. But I'd say probably his most impactful role in the later part of the 1930s was in Angels with Dirty Faces. And that was a 1938 release that co-starred Pat O'Brien, the Dead End Kids, even Humphrey Bogart in a supporting role. And our Blu-ray restoration of that, which didn't come out that long ago, was something we were terribly proud of. And we also have on the Cagney front, The Strawberry Blonde coming out, directed by Ralph Walsh. This is a new 4K scan off the original camera negative and was done in conjunction with the Film Foundation.

And of course, we have Warner Brothers Home Entertainment released White Heat on Blu-ray several years ago. And there's even more Cagney available from the company. So if you want to explore all sides of Cagney, the Warner Archive is the place to do it, whether on Blu-ray or DVD. Absolutely. And another person I think that we should talk about who started at Warner Brothers probably about a year or two after Cagney, but is often referred to as the fifth Warner Brother, that would be Miss Betty Davis. His earliest films for Warner Brothers are available on DVD. Things like Cabin in the Cotton from 1932, which has the famous phrase, I'd love to kiss you, but I just washed my hair. George Arliss, who was one of the most respected actors on the stage and was hired by Warner Brothers to make prestigious early talkies. He won the best

actor for Disraeli in 1929-30, which is available on DVD from Warner Archive. And he selected Betty Davis, who was about to leave Hollywood and go back to the East Coast because she thought Hollywood wasn't for her, and gave her a very important part in The Man Who Played God. And that was her big break. Got her a Warner contract. She appeared in Cabin in the Cotton with Richard Barthelmas. And most of her early work is available from Warner Archive on DVD. And then when you get to 1938 and her second Oscar for Best Actress for Jezebel, Warner Archive steps in happily with a Blu-ray release of the film that gave Betty Davis her chance to be a Southern Belle when everybody was speculating on whether she would get to be in Selznick's Gone with the Wind.

Happily, she got to be Julie and Jezebel wearing that amazing red dress that you'd swear you saw red even if it's a black and white movie, directed by William Wyler. Gorgeous restoration on our Blu-ray. And then we have The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, Technicolor Restoration on Blu-ray, Dark Victory, which she was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress the same year as Elizabeth and Essex. She made four films for Warner Brothers that year. Dark Victory is available from Warner Brothers Home Entertainment on Blu-ray, and we put out a wonderful Blu-ray of The Letter from 1940, a remake of the 1929 Gene Eagle's early talkie. Warner Brothers bought the rights to the Somerset Mom story from Paramount so that Bette Davis would have that as an ideal vehicle. And we must have over 20

Bette Davis movies available, either on DVD or Blu-ray. And my hope is that someday we'll have Bette Davis available on 4K. But right now, you've got a lot to choose from to see the great films that she made for the studio

and why she was considered the fifth Warner brother. And since you mentioned The Private lives of Elizabeth and Essex, a good opportunity to bring up another Warner Brothers legend who started his career in the 1930s, and that would be Errol Flynn. Incredibly charismatic, athletic actor who began his career. George, didn't he start in some of the films that Warner made in the UK? He was in one of them in the UK. He made his first appearance in a film called

In the Wake of the Bounty, which had nothing to do with Warner Brothers, and told the same story as Mutiny on the Bounty, but that film was made down under. And based on that film, he had a brief sojourn in the UK at the Warner Brothers Teddington Studios where he had a small part. And then he came to Burbank and had another small part in the film. And when Robert Donat pulled out of Captain Blood at the last minute, they decided to take a risk with 23-year-old Errol Flynn, and the risk paid off and made him a huge, huge star. The star was born. Many films followed, but probably the film that people most remember him for is the Technicolor Marvel The Adventures of Robin Hood, which was Warner Brothers' third feature film to use the newer three-color Technicolor process. But it was the first huge budget all-star spectacular. And 85 years later, it is still as magnificently timeless as it was the day it came out.

Yes. And we have a lot of other Errol Flynn films available as well. A lot on DVD and on Blu-ray, most notably The Restoration of the Seahawk, which is another film that had gotten mutilated for reissue. We were able to reinstate the cut footage. And even one of his really kind of just magnetizing World War II features, Edge of Darkness is a gorgeous Blu-ray, and that's a 4K scan off the camera negative, and a very powerful anti-war adventure and thriller, I would say. And one of his best performances, somewhat overlooked, but I think you can say about all of these performers, the thing that they all have in common is, with the exception of a few who had left Warner

Brothers by 1943, every star on the lot made their commitment to the war effort in an all-star musical comedy called Thank Your Lucky Stars. And Errol Flynn sings a whole number in that movie. He's terrific. Bogart is in that movie, but he doesn't sing. He just has a little self-parodying routine in it. Betty Davis sings They're Either Too Young or Too Old. It's a terrific movie. It's very funny, very entertaining. And every studio made an all-star extravaganza for the war effort. Warner Brothers made three.

And Thank Your Lucky Stars is the most prominent of the three. And it is a gorgeous Blu-ray. And it seems like everybody on the lot was in that movie. And so I think it's a good way to end this entree into Warner Brothers history and the Warner Archive by mentioning Thank Your Lucky Stars and all the films that are to follow. I'd like to bring up one more thing before we finish, just one more Errol Flynn film, because I think the listeners of this podcast will enjoy a couple of links. And that's related

to Dodge City, which was another Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, three strip Technicolor extravaganza and i wrote a couple articles for wb.com four years ago for the 80th anniversary of the film one of which is actually related to dodge city there was a party held on the warner brothers lot on friday january 13th 1939 and we happened to come across about 50 or so photos from that event just only about seven or eight years ago. And I used maybe a dozen of them in this article. And if you're a fan of old Hollywood, you will love to see these photos because you can see stars like Errol Flynn, John Garfield, you can see director Michael Curtiz, you can see Olivia de Havilland with their hair down, kind of a little bit at this party, which was held on the Dodge City set. I did another article on the premiere of Dodge City,

which was held in Dodge City, Kansas. Warner chartered a train from Los Angeles to Dodge City. And we don't have a lot of event photos from that era, but for some reason we have like 300 photos from this event. And again, I took about a dozen or so and put them in there. And when you see the crowds that came to Dodge City and the other towns along the way, you will be stunned how big an event this was. And again, you'll see tons of stars, Bogart, John Garfield again, Jack Warner, the Lane sisters, tons of wonderful photos.

So Tim is going to include a link on the page for those. And again, I think if you're a fan of this era, you will really like these little photo articles I did. Well, that's an amazing recap. I mean, we just, it feels like we just barely touched on out of a hundred years, we're maybe 20 years in here, but so much of that early part of the history of the company really is classic Hollywood. What people think of those stars, Warner Brothers, just some of the best history of Warner Brothers. And it's amazing to me, not knowing classic Hollywood as well as you, George, and you, Jeff, it's amazing to me that when you mention these stars, when you mention the film names,

immediately, it's just associated. It is Warner Brothers, and it is Hollywood. For sure. And I often feel that the earliest years of the studios rise to glory and fame in a relatively short period of time. led to these incredible careers of great directors, great performers, great composers, just so many wonderful cinematographers, editors. And the fact that our lot is still as vital and vibrant as it was 80 years ago, 85 years ago, it's really remarkable. And the same buildings where they shot all those classic films are used every day as working sound stages because this company continues on with the great tradition. So to be able to focus on the early years is terribly important because I think it gets overlooked when people are thinking about some of the more recent films that we've done. And that's more reflective of their lifetime and their reference point. But things did happen here before the matrix. And we're not saying anything bad about what happened after. What happened after and continues to happen after

is a source of great pride and what makes our company so vital and vibrant. But to focus on the history, well, that's the Warner Archives job. And we are very, very grateful to have that honor, to carry that legacy, and make it available for people to have those films on their shelves to watch over and over again whenever they want. And I was just thinking that a lot of these films had preceding them a Looney Tunes short. And we didn't even get into that during this period. You know, so there's so much. And I hope you guys will come back on to talk about the growth of the studio in the 40s and 50s. I mean, we didn't even talk about Humphrey Bogart. We didn't talk about Casablanca.

Exactly. There's so much, there's so much greatness that went on, you know, in, in the studio. And it's, it's George and I are very fortunate.

And Tim, you were part of the story too, you know, that, that to have worked there. Right. And, you know,

I feel fortunate that I'm able to, you know, research the history of the studio and share the history of the studio as well. It's so rich and you just keep peeling back. There's layers and layers and there's so much, I mean, you know, research the history of the studio and share the history of the studio as well. It's so rich and you just keep peeling back. There's layers and layers and there's so much. I mean, you know, we just talked for almost an hour and there's so much we didn't talk about. There's it's so rich and so deep. And so, yeah, I think, George, we should come back and keep talking about it. What do you think? Without question. I didn't even open up the animation

door because that in and of itself would be multiple podcasts. Yeah. But we'll certainly talk about Looney Tunes and especially as I believe the 1940s through the early 1950s were truly the golden age for Looney Tunes. You had the characters all in full throttle and the animators were just at their peak. So that's just a little preview of the next time we'll all get together to salute the 100 years of Warner Brothers and the Warner Archive's involvement in bringing that to the consumer.

It's always great to have George Feltenstein and Jeff Briggs on to talk about Warner Brothers, as their knowledge of the studio and the films in the Warner Archives is unsurpassed. For those of you interested in ordering any of the films discussed today, I will have some links in the podcast show notes and even more on our website at www.theextras.tv. So be sure and check those out. If you're on social media, be sure and follow the show on Facebook or Twitter at The Extras TV or Instagram at TheExtras.tv

to stay up to date on our upcoming guests and to be a part of our community. And you're invited to a new Facebook group for fans of Warner Brothers films called the Warner Archive and Warner Brothers Catalog Group. So look for that link on the Facebook page or in the podcast show notes. And for our long-term listeners, don't forget to follow and leave us a review at iTunes, Spotify, or your favorite podcast provider. Until next time, you've been listening to Tim Millard. stay slightly obsessed.

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