The Extras - EXCLUSIVE: Warner Archive April Release Announcement: Safe In Hell, One Way Passage, The Strawberry Blonde, Storm Warning, A Lion is in the Streets

Episode Date: March 16, 2023

George Feltenstein of the Warner Archive announces the April 2023 Blu-ray releases.   Safe in Hell is a 1931 American pre-Code thriller film directed by William A. Wellman (Public Enemy) and starring Dorothy Mackaill.  MacKaill gives a phenomenal performance as a woman of ill repute who’s wanted for the murder of a man under accidental circumstances.  It’s a horrifying and shocking film, as many Warner Brothers pre-code films are. The previous DVD release of the film came from a 16 mm master, however, this new Blu-ray is taken from a 4K scan of a new 35mm master nitrate print master that was discovered so the film now looks stunning.One Way Passage is a 1932 American pre-Code romantic film that reunites 2 stars that had arrived at Warner Brothers from Paramount, William Powell and Kay Francis. Powell plays a convicted murderer who meets a terminally ill woman played by Francis in a Hong Kong bar. Aboard the ship on his way to America, Powell spots Francis and over the course of the month-long voyage, they fall in love. This new Blu-ray is taken from a 4K scan from the camera negative.The Strawberry Blonde (1941) is a delightful romantic comedy set at the turn of the century.  directed by Raoul Walsh,  it stars James Cagney, Olivia de Havilland, and features Rita Hayworth, who was on loan to Warner Brothers for the film.  Cagney is irresistible as the leading man who is going to marry his sweetheart de Havilland, but he is seduced somewhat by Hayworth. This is a bona fide classic that has been adored for generations since its release. This Blu-ray is taken from a 4K case scan off of the original camera negative and looks terrific. Storm Warning is a 1951 American thriller directed by Stuart Heisler and starring Ginger Rogers, Ronald Reagan, Doris Day, and Steve Cochran.  Ginger Rogers is a dress company sales representative who goes to visit her sister Doris Day in a little southern town.  Inadvertently she witnesses the Ku Klux Klan pulling a guy out of prison and lynching him.  Ronald Reagan plays the government agent who is sent to investigate the case and Cochran plays Doris Day’s husband, who is a member of the Klan. This Blu-ray is taken from a 4K scan off the nitrate camera negative with restored picture and sound.A Lion Is in the Streets is a 1953 American drama directed by Raoul Walsh and starring James Cagney and Barbara Hale as his wife. Cagney plays a charismatic roving peddler who conspires with a local southern political boss to rise to power.  His character is loosely based on Huey Long, who was a controversial governor of Louisiana in the late twenties and early thirties. This technicolor f Warner 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. As many of you who listen to the podcast on a regular basis know,

we dedicate quite a few episodes to highlighting releases from the Warner Archive and Warner Brothers. And I want to thank all of our Warner Archive fans for your great support of the podcast. I think you'll be especially delighted with our special episode today, as you'll be the first to hear the announcement of the April Warner Archive Blu-ray releases. But before I bring on George, I just want to take a moment to encourage everyone who listens to the podcast to be sure you hit that follow or subscribe button at your favorite podcast provider. And if you're a first time listener, I encourage you to follow as well. That'll ensure that when we have these special episodes, you'll be the first to receive them. That also helps the show rate better with the various podcast providers. So please take a

moment to do that as soon as you get the chance. And just so you know, on our Facebook page and in our Facebook group, I will be posting some preliminary images and artwork for the titles. The final artwork is not ready yet. We'll get some preliminary stuff up there about the titles we discussed today. So be sure to go there after you listen to this episode. And joining me is George Feltenstein of Warner Brothers. Hi, George. Hey, Tim.

How are you? Good. Hi, George. Hey, Tim. How are you? Good. Well, George, normally you announce the upcoming releases each month online first. But as a reward to our loyal Warner Archive listeners on this podcast, you're going to announce them today here on the podcast.

So thank you for that. Well, it's my pleasure. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to do so. Well, before we talk about the individual titles here, how many films do fans have to look forward to in April? April will have five new releases. Obviously, first time on Blu-ray. All of them are 4K scans that have been done for preservation and mastered at Warner Brothers Motion Picture Imaging.

And they have the distinction of being released and restored in association with the Film Foundation, Martin Scorsese's wonderful organization. Film Foundation, Martin Scorsese's wonderful organization. And what the Film Foundation involvement has been with these five titles, all the restoration work and mastering and everything has been done by Warner Brothers and Warner Brothers Motion Picture Imaging completely on its own. But it was the Film Foundation that has agreed to support and promote these titles. And it was also the Film Foundation that helped in the selection process. Because these five films have something all in common.

They are Warner Brothers movies. And April just happens to be April 4th is Warner Brothers 100 and April just happens to be April 4th is Warner Brothers 100th anniversary. So I thought it would be a great idea to release Warner Brothers movies

to celebrate Warner Brothers 100th anniversary. No movies that were produced by other studios whose libraries we own are going to be part of the April releases because I believe we should celebrate Warner Brothers' legacy with Warner Brothers Productions. We celebrate and kiss the ground that we own thousands of other wonderful movies made by other companies. For the anniversary of Warner Brothers 100, I thought, what an opportune time

to bring these exciting and diverse classic releases to the Blu-ray market. Well, I'm sure everyone is anxious to hear what these are. So let's get started with our first title. Well, I want to preface before I talk about the titles in saying that some of these films are really well known. Some of these films are not as well known. but with the eye and I want to say somewhat curational support and collaboration with the Film Foundation, they're all highly worthy of recognition. So if there's something you haven't heard of before, these are films to sit up and take notice of. before. These are films to sit up and take notice of. And with that, I'll start with the first film, the oldest film, the oldest film, which is 92 years old. And this is a film that was

directed by William Wellman, the director of Public Enemy, the masterful director of so many great Warner Brothers movies, as well as movies from other studios, one of my personal favorite directors. This is a film that really was virtually forgotten, and we released a DVD about 11 years ago from what we thought were the only surviving elements in 16mm. The film is called Safe in Hell, and it's basically about a woman of ill repute who's wanted for the murder of a man under accidental circumstances. She's really the heroine of the story, and what she has to put up

with is downright horrifying and shocking, as are so many Warner Brothers pre-code films. And this is as pre-code as you can get. And this film stars a woman whose career really requires rediscovery. Dorothy McHale was her name. She had a brief career in films, I believe in the late silence, but really in early talkies. She was quite remarkable. And when we were releasing her films on DVD as part of the Warner Archive, you know, in our early formative days, people were really sitting up and taking notice of her. rift from the headlines story. And she's absolutely compelling because she gives a phenomenal performance in what is a very dark and depressing tale, frankly.

It's phenomenal filmmaking. Wellman directs at a clip. And there aren't that many famous people in the supporting cast, but I do want to note the inclusion of Nina Mae McKinney. And Nina Mae McKinney was the female lead in MGM's 1929 film, Hallelujah. She also made short subjects at Warner Brothers in subsequent years, but this is a woman who really had exceptional talent. And because she's African American, obviously the roles were not made available to her. And this is one of the few films in which her race really doesn't play an issue. And she was a very important part in the storytelling.

The film runs a very brisk 74 minutes. And I was thrilled when the Film Foundation folks said that they wanted and recommended that we work on Safe and Health. So I was talking before about the DVD and how it came from 16mm. We thought all 35mm materials on this film

were lost and there had been no hair or anything in 35 millimeter turns out that there was one lone 35 millimeter nitrate print still in existence and we were able to secure the print scan it 4K, do our usual spotless restoration job at Warner Brothers First Picture Imaging. And the net result is an incredible leap of quality compared to the DVD that was done from 16mm. People will hear and see this film look light years better than they've ever seen it before if they've seen it before the chances are most people have not seen this film and they need to

so that's how we start off then we go to 1932 and we have a film that was a big hit when it was released. And it was such a big hit that it actually got re-released four years later. This 1932 film is called One Way Passage. And it reunites two stars that had arrived at Warner Brothers from Paramount, William Powell and Kay Francis. And it also co-stars Eileen McMahon, who I always have to give a plug for because I think she's one of the underrated supporting actresses in the history of cinema.

It was directed by Taye Garnett, a very prolific director who later went on to do The Picture of Dorian Gray, also available on Blu-ray from War Archive. And this is a 4K scan of the original camera negative. Light years better than previous masters.

Restored picture and sound. It's a terrific film. Basically, William Powell plays a convicted murderer on his way to San Quentin and on a ship headed eventually to San Quentin. He meets a beautiful woman played by Kay Francis, who he doesn't know is suffering from an incurable terminal illness. And she doesn't know that he is going to be, you know, sentenced to either jail for the rest of his life

or most likely to be executed. And so they meet, they fall in love, and I'll let the film speak for itself from there. But it became an immediate classic and William Powell and Kay Francis worked together again in one of my favorite films, which right now is available on DVD, but I hope someday we can bring it to Blu-ray,

Jewel Robbery. They were terrific together. And I have to say, I think, aside from the obvious Myrna Loy, I think William Powell's chemistry with Kay Francis was just perfect at Warner Brothers. With Myrna Loy, he was at MGM, obviously. So One Way Passage is a heart-tugging film. It's a romance. It's very pre-code. And people are going to love it. And it's obviously a 4K scan off the camera negative.

Fantastic improvement. So we're very excited about that. And then we go a little further into the history of Warner Brothers. We go from the 1930s to the 1940s. This next film is a little bit more famous. It is actually a remake of a 1933 Paramount movie. Warner Brothers bought it to remake it, and it was based on a play that was a hit play.

The film is called The Strawberry Blonde, and it stars James Cagney, Olivia de Havilland, and Rita Hayworth, who was on loan to Warner Brothers just for the occasion. It's just a charming turn of the century romance, and Cagney is irresistible as the leading man who is going to marry Olivia de Havilland, who's been his sweetheart, but is seduced somewhat by the beautiful Rita Hayworth. This is kind of the film that brought Rita Hayworth from supporting to starring position

by being borrowed for this movie. It's very charming, and that's why they changed the title of the work. It was based on the play One Sunday Afternoon. That had been filmed in 1933 with Gary Cooper. And that DVD is available from the Warner Archive collection. Then Warner Brothers bought the property from Paramount and remade it with a much lighter tone and had the screenwriting team of Julius Epstein and Philip Epstein,

part of the trio of writers that wrote the screenplay to Casablanca, because Howard Koch came in. There were probably other people there too, but Fred did it. The Epsteins had a great ability for screenwriting, and this is just Cagney at his absolute best. And there's an important ingredient here. The director is Raoul Walsh, one of the greatest directors of the golden age of cinema. Cagney worked with him two years before on The Roaring Twenties, which, yes, folks, that will be coming to Blu-ray at some point,

but we can't talk about it now. Raoul Walsh and Cagney were just terrific together on this movie, and then they worked again together at the end of the decade on what might be Cagney's masterpiece, along with Yankee Doodle Dandy. White Heat was directed by Raoul Walsh, starring James Cagney's masterpiece, along with Yankee Doodle Dandy, White Heat was directed by Raoul Walsh, starring James Cagney. And that was really Cagney's breakout performance in a whole other psychological level as an actor.

But here is a delightful romantic comedy set at the turn of the century, It's a delightful romantic comedy set at the turn of the century, and it is a sheer delight and is a bona fide classic that has been adored for generations since its release in 1941. This, again, is a 4K scan off the original camera negative. Beautiful restoration. Sounds great, looks great, and we're delighted to be releasing this film. And then the next film on the list is a film that may be obscure to certain people, but it deserves to be seen and deserves to be better known. The first time I saw it, I was shocked by how frank and uncompromising it is. The film's name is Storm Warning. Made in 1951. Jerry Wald, who had produced Mildred Pierce and so many other great movies at Warner Brothers.

He produced this film. The screenplay was by Daniel Fuchs and Richard Brooks. Richard Brooks would later go on to direct films like In Cold Blood and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. And most importantly, the stars of the movie are Ginger Rogers, Doris Day, who plays Ginger's sister. This is her first real darkly dramatic role. A future president of the United States by the name of Ronald Reagan. And a classic Warner Brothers movie bad guy, Steve Cochran.

movie bad guy, Steve Cochran. So basically the plot of the movie is that Ginger Rogers is a dress company sales representative and she's on her way to New York City and decides to get off the bus in this little southern town where her sister Doris Day has married a young man and she hasn't, Ginger hasn't met her new brother-in-law and Ginger hasn't met senior sister in a really long time. She gets off the bus and things are really weird that night because all the lights get turned off and businesses close early. And what Ginger witnesses is the Ku Klux Klan pulling a guy out of prison and lynching him. 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. Ginger sees this, runs home terrified. She finds her sister, Doris Day, at the local bowling alley. The scenes are almost reminiscent in terms of design of Streetcar Named Desire, which was made around the same time.

I wonder if they use the same sets. And Ginger tells Doris what she's seen. And the horror is that when Doris Day's husband comes home and takes off his hood, Ginger sees his face and realizes that that was the guy that actually was responsible for the murder of the man that was pulled from the jail. And the tight atmosphere of the movie never lets up. lets up and the government agent who comes in to try to solve the crime is none other than a very heroic Ronald Reagan. Everybody in the movie is really, really good. And if you think about it, made in 1951, this is all too prescient mob violence hatred these are themes that are relevant today 72 years later after the movie was made unfortunately and warner brothers had the courage to make this movie

this is directed by a gentleman by the name of Stuart Heisler, not a very well-known director, but a man with very impressive credits. And he did a great job directing this film. And I think it was part of the Warner Brothers essence, part of their DNA to make these films, to expose problematic social issues. And not to sound repetitive or boring, but this is a 4K scan off the nitrate camera negative with restored picture and sound. This is one that actually required making sure that we had every frame and every scene,

required making sure that we had every frame and every scene because there was some a little bit of i would say trimming as opposed to full-out editing but certain scenes were clipped and versions didn't match and we made sure everything was exactly as it was when the film opened sure everything was exactly as it was when the film opened. And given that we have this new master from the 4K scanner, it looks and sounds great. And again, we're moving into the 50s. We started in the 30s. And for the fifth film, this is a very interesting one, a very overlooked film. This is a lion in the streets. A lion is in the Streets. A Lion is in the Streets, pardon me, starring James Cagney, directed by Raoul Walsh, reunited again, made in 1953. And the co-stars in this movie are Barbara Hale and Anne Francis, who some of you will know as Honey West. Francis, who some of you will know as Honey West.

And A Lion is in the Streets almost positions Cagney as a Huey Long type of character. He basically works up the energy as a, he's like a peddler in a southern town and he thrives on the anger of the poor while he is conspiring with a local political boss to rise to political power. So with Raoul Walsh as director, this film is in color by Technicolor. So we had to restore this from the three Technicolor negatives, recombine them in our proprietary technology. The film looks astounding. We did a Cagney Technicolor restoration about two years ago with Captains of the Clouds. Here he's about 12 years older, but he still looks really good in the color here. This is one of those rare films shot on safety film stock in three-color Technicolor. There weren't that many made because by the time that they got to safety film, they almost immediately moved from three-color Technicolor to Eastman Color Negative because it was cheaper.

You have very few examples of these safety negative Technicolor films. This is one of them. I've always seen this film look grimy. Now it looks magnificent. It sounds great. And one of the things that makes it sound great is it has a characteristically magnificent music score by the great Franz Waxman.

So all of these films will be coming out probably toward the end of April. We don't have a date yet. And I'm kind of bucking with tradition when these are things we're still doing the finishing touches on. I'm pretty confident that they will be ready in time for the planned April street date, and we'll be announcing that at a later date. But I want people to know now that this is what's coming for April, and we're working on titles for May and June and July. And it will be the same kind of robust release schedule each month as Warner Archive returns to form with exciting new releases every month. And hopefully they will diversify into other kinds of releases as well. we're meshing ourselves in the history of Warner Brothers and looking at different aspects of the filmmaking from 30s pre-code to 1940s, just before U.S. entered World War II.

And then, of course, a post-war Technicolor work by Walsh and Cagney collaborating together. I think for the last time here. I think these are excellent choices. I'm certainly thrilled that we have the collaboration and cooperation of the Film Foundation to promote these releases and more people will know about them. promote these releases and more people will know about them. And you'll be hearing a lot more of them when we actually do the real podcast because then I can talk about all the cool extras that are going to be on each of these releases and they will all have extras.

Well, this is terrific. It's a great lineup. And there's a lot of them too with five coming down the line. We get the announcement out, people can start to look at these films and get ready to order them when they become available for pre-order and once those street dates are announced. So be sure and keep tuned into the Actors Podcast. And George will be back on to go into these in more detail and give us more updated information as we move forward. So, well, thanks, George. This is great. Thank you, Tim. And I think this is a wonderful way to give people a little preview of what Warner Archive is doing to celebrate the Warner Brothers 100 years anniversary. And we intend to celebrate that anniversary throughout the year.

But with this month specifically, I want it to be an all Warner program. And we're so grateful to have the support and cooperation of the Film Foundation. Well, as I mentioned earlier i will be posting some preliminary images and artwork on the extras facebook page and for those of you who are members of our private warner archive and warner brothers catalog group i'll have even more information posted there by the way everyone is welcome to join that group so look for the link in the podcast show notes to do that. That way you can join the rest of us continuing the discussion of these April title releases and join in on the excitement about that. And just talk about some of the ones

that are your favorites. And as we usually do, George will be back in the near future. And we'll go through these films in more detail, go through the extras in more detail and the restoration as well. I do hope to have more special episodes like this in the future. So be sure to follow or subscribe at your favorite podcast provider. And one last thing,

we are currently running some free Blu-ray promotions. So I hope you'll participate in those. As always, look for our social media links in the podcast show notes. And for our long-term listeners, please leave us a review when you get the chance. Until next time, I'm Tim Millard. Stay slightly obsessed. The Extras is a production of Otaku Media, producers of podcasts, behind the scenes extras, and media that connects creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers.

Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals at www.otakumedia.tv or look for the link in the show notes.