The Extras - Warner Archive December Blu-ray Reviews PLUS a Recap of 2024

Episode Date: January 7, 2025

Send us a textGeorge Feltenstein joins the podcast for our review of the Warner Archive’s six Blu-ray releases for December. We also provide a brief overview of THE SEARCHERS (1956) 4K release and what other reviewers are saying about the Warner Archive’s first 4K release.  We wrap up our discussion with a look back at 2024, and what collectors can look forward to in 2025.Purchase links:MR. LUCKY (1943)NORA PRENTISS (1947)THE SPANISH MAIN (1945)THE TALL TARGET (1951)BLACK EYE (1974)A NIGHT FULL OF RAIN (1978)THE SEARCHERS (1956) 4K + Blu-ray THE SEARCHERS (1956) BLU-RAY Remastered 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, this is Stephen C. Smith, documentary producer and author of Music by Max Steiner, the epic life of Hollywood's most influential composer. And you are listening to The Extras. Hello and welcome to The Extras. I'm Tim Millard, your host. And joining me is George Feldstein of the Warner Archive for our first podcast of 2025. Hi, George. Hi, Tim. Happy New Year. Great to be here.

Happy New Year, and I hope you had a good holiday. I had a very good holiday. I only worked half the time, so that was good. But the discs must continue to be made regardless of the holiday season. Well, and that's a challenge for you, of course, is that the holiday is a big time. So stepping away is not easy because there's so much to monitor for you, you know, with all these titles releasing in December, which we're going to talk about, and all the way through to the end of December.

Some of them that have only come out recently this last week. Well, today we're going to go through the December Blu-ray releases from the Warner Archive, and then we'll spend some time looking back at some of the highlights from this last year. I think people enjoy when we kind of look back and talk about some of the high points of the year. But we'll start with the reviews, and I thought we'll go alphabetically starting with the four classic films. And that puts Mr. Lucky as the first one from 1943 starring Cary Grant and Lorraine Day. And this film is terrific fun. It starts off with that kind of more traditional gangster film feel before we meet socialite

Dorothy Bryant. And then the film really takes on some steam and gets going. It's clever, it's funny, and it's just a lot of fun. And it's really beautiful to look at now, which is really kind of critical to our mission statement. This was one of the earliest Warner Archive DVDs when we started, and it was a really big seller. So we knew the popularity was there for the film and Cary Grant fans were, you know, people saying constantly, when are you going to get this in HD on Blu-ray? So these things take time, but we did get the camera negative.

Again a rarity when we have an RKO film where the camera negatives survives and another meticulous restoration done by Warner Brothers motion picture imaging and it's really a delightful film. He's terrific in it. He plays a little bit off character, a little different than his normal characters. Yeah, I agree. And I think it has a nice edge to it. A nice edge. Yeah, I mean, he's the bad boy, you know, the gangster or the, you know, the one that has a play going on. And then he meets

this, you know, this woman, this socialite who he fools, but in doing so, he falls for her too. And that's the delight of it, right? Is Carrie's so good at walking that line between all of the different genres, really. A leading man that has this drama or thriller or clever roles, and then also the romance. Though he's a very reluctant romance for him in this one. But yeah, it's really fun. I enjoyed it a lot. Though he's a very reluctant romance for him in this one. But yeah, it's really fun. I enjoyed it a lot.

And I think to your point about the restoration, the film looks and sounds terrific. And that always adds to the enjoyment of these. It creates a different experience in being able to watch it and enjoy it and not be distracted by lines and dirt and scratches and things that played a lot of our earlier DVD releases when we did not have the budget. But thank you to all of the fans and people who supported Warner Archive as we head to our 16th birthday in March. It's because of the consumer support, which is happily growing as we see physical media sales figures declining. That's not what's happening for us. And it's due to the fan support of the work we put into these releases.

And I have nothing but gratitude and feeling quite fortunate that our efforts are appreciated by so many people. And that leads to us being able to revisit these titles and bring them into the 21st century. This one is loaded too. You loaded it with extras. You've got the Luxe Radio Theater Broadcast with Cary Grant and Lorraine Day. And the Screen Directors Playhouse with H.C.

Potter and Cary Grant. I was listening to those. Those are a lot of fun and always great that whenever you're able to put those on. So I thought that was a really nice package of extras as well. If you're a fan of Cary Grant, like most people are, it's always great when titles from the catalog come out in HD so that you can revisit them. Looking and sounding so terrific. Well, next we have Nora Prentiss from 1947. This one stars Kent Smith and Anne Sheridan, and both of them are terrific. Kent Smith plays a very, I guess you would say repressed or regimented, but successful

doctor and he just goes off the rails after he treats Nora Prentiss, after she's been hit by a car and falls hard for her. And that leads him down the spiraling. Down, down, down. And that's the noir of it all, the fun journey as you see him spiraling into this love that tears his regimented life apart. And Sheridan is delightful as the nightclub singer. And it's this very, you know, opposites attract in this story, cause she finds the doctor

and the successful person very attractive for her. So it's solid, it's really good. It delivers the goods. And that's no surprise when you consider all the people behind the camera on this one as well. Absolutely and my friend Eddie Mueller who's now a TV star thanks to TCM he would often speak of this as one of his many favorite noires. one of his many favorite Noirs, is the power of Anne Sheridan as Nora Prentiss that leads Kent Smith to throw away his entire life and family because of obsession.

I remember seeing this movie when I was quite young and being just amazed. It was unlike any movie I'd ever seen where a normal, you know, happy family man suddenly just throws away his career, his marriage, his children, everything because of the power of Anne Sheridan as Nora Prentiss. It's a lot of fun. And it's also just a little bit almost, it almost has a quality of absurdity. Because the story is somewhat implausible that someone would do that. And yet, if you read the news, you hear stories like this all the time. Crazy things happen.

But the performances are strong, the direction amazing. And just like Mr. Lucky, Nora Prentice was a very early Warner Archive DVD that looked, how else can I put it, wretched. We were working with whatever was on the shelf, I have DVD that looked, how else can I put it, wretched. We were working with whatever was on the shelf. People have heard me say this many times before,

but our journey from trying to backfill and make titles available to remastering for DVD, then Blu-ray, then remastering for Blu-ray. Now, of course, we've just come off this new adventure with our first 4K. I mean, just being able to make these things look and sound tremendous. The improvements are staggering when it comes to a film like No Prentiss. And it's got a great musical score and the Warner Orchestra is just in there, tugging at your heartstrings

as things just get worse and worse for Ken Smith. And Anne Sheridan is completely befuddled as to the wrath that she has created merely by being herself and being irresistible. So it is enjoyable to watch this as a really finely crafted noir that is a byproduct of its era of the late 40s. And what was going on here at Warner Brothers at the time.

People really at the top of their craft. Again, we went back to the camera negative for this, Scandid 4K, really beautiful master. So every time we can take one of these films that exists as a 35-year-old standard definition master and suddenly, you pull off all the horrible things that have happened to the movie in the last several decades and make it look fresh and new.

It's somewhat miraculous in a sense. So anytime we can do that, there's a big, big difference. And of course, this all built upon taking care of our library film preservation. I usually will coordinate efforts with our preservation department and say, you know, this is what I'm interested in. Can we get this on the schedule? And sometimes it takes two or three years before we have a master to make available to the public, because we never know when we bring the negative in, are there problems with the negative?

Do we need a secondary element to replace bad shots? You can open up a can of nitrate that's been cared for by an archive, and yet when you expose it to oxygen, you're subjecting it to the image disappearing under bad conditions and we've seen that happen before. So every time that we can do this, we're saving another film, protecting another film at its best. So I'm very, very happy with this and I think we talked about this before when we announced that this was gonna be coming out.

But I did find that one of the cartoons that opened with the film, we put on the desk, which was a lot of fun, because we knew that the film had opened with the cartoon and it's creating that night at the movie sensibility. It always adds a little fun to the procedure. And I'll just go back for a second just to throw out some of the names that we've been talking about.

We didn't mention him and that is director Vincent Sherman. And I know he's one of your favorites and he's done so many great films, Reader's, Warner Brothers. Absolutely. and he's done so many great films, Witter Years, Warner Brothers. And then also cinematographer James Wong Howe, and this is a beautifully shot film, no surprise there. And then the music that is so good from Franz Waxman. Yeah, I mean, we could do a whole program or two just talking about the music of Franz Waxman

in our library, not counting the work he did at other studios. He did some amazing work at Paramount and Fox, but what he did at Warner Brothers and MGM and before that, I think his first work in the United States was at Universal. He wrote the music for Bride of Frankenstein, died at in relatively young age and wrote so many mega business scores. I could talk endlessly about the genius of him as a composer and that would take a whole different show. Maybe someday we'll do that. Well it's so great that you know the people who worked at Warner Brothers that we get to revisit their work and highlight their work like we're doing here with this one.

The next film I thought we'd talk about, George, is the lone Technicolor release, I believe, that you have in December outside of The Searchers, which we'll hold onto for a little bit later. But of the classic films from 1945, and that's The Spanish Main, starring Paul Henry as the pirate Barracuda and Maureen O'Hara as the lovely Francesca. This Swashbuckler is, I mean, it's very entertaining and I know a lot of people were looking forward to seeing the remaster and watching it. And I think it looks terrific, just like all of your other Technicolor film. Well, anytime we get the opportunity to work with the three strip Technicolor negatives,

in many cases, they haven't been fooled with that much because the original Technicolor printing process used die matrices to make the prints. They didn't make prints off the negatives. And very often that leaves us with negatives that haven't been touched and subjected to as much wear. But what we're able to do, and I've talked about this endlessly, given the proprietary technology that we have in terms of that pixel, down to the pixel alignment of the three records, bringing the negative together. Fortunately, this was the first RKO production that used the three-strip Technicolor process.

Maureen O'Hara's blazing red hair was made for Technicolor. She was one of those few people that, she was beautiful in every film she ever did, even when she was older. But Technicolor and Maureen O'Hara were kind of made for each other. And the film was a great deal of fun. Paul Henry was under contract to RKO, and yet made very significant impressions

when he was loaned out by RKO to Warner Brothers, because 1942 he had that one-two punch of now Voyager in Casablanca and you know people think he was a Warner contract player he was actually under contract to RKO and borrowed frequently by Warner Brothers. I think he enjoyed having that kind of dashing swashbuckling role, and Walter Slaszak is very entertaining as the villain. And then of course, you've got the great Frank Borzegi directing, and Mr. Borzegi has a great fan following out there.

So when we make his works available, I always know that people who appreciate his work are very grateful for that. And this is one of those films where what we had been working with in standard definition were really awful elements that had been made poorly and cheaply. And to finally have this looking great, it just adds to the entertainment. Yeah, I was looking at, you know, clips online or images from the DVD. And then you watch this new restoration and it's like, people are going to really, really appreciate how much the colors pop and just how much better it looks and how that's going to add to their enjoyment of this film. It's a huge, huge, huge progression forward.

And then you have a nice amount of extras in here as well. I thought it would be fun to stay in the seafaring boat. Yeah, you've got a classic Technicolor short subject, Movie Line Magic, and then the classic cartoons Buccaneer Bunny and Captain Hairblower, plus the trailers. Well, those give Yosemite Sam a chance to be a pirate. So I thought it was a good combination for the cartoons. The short is enjoyable. It's a great deal of fun. And I'm hoping that you will be able to...

You know, it's a popcorn movie, George, right? So that's the kind of film it is. You just have a lot of fun with it. I'm hoping we will have more of the Technicolor Squashbucklers because I know there's a big fan base out there for them. And we have many more in the library that are waiting to be rescued. Well, next up, we have the Anthony Mann directed crime drama, The Tall Target from 1951 starring Dick Powell

and the lovely Paula Raymond. And The Tall Target of course is President-elect Abraham Lincoln. And Dick Powell plays New York City Police Sergeant John Kennedy, who gets on a train bound for Washington, and he's hoping to thwart what he suspects is an assassination attempt on the newly elected president at his inauguration. This is a tense, it's atmospheric, and it really moves along and is highly entertaining.

The action is mostly on the train, which gives it, I thought, a bit of that claustrophobic feel. And then you've got the train whistles and the steam pouring from the rails. That really adds to the tension. And I'm guessing based on some of the stuff you mentioned earlier that this remaster also is a vast improvement. The new look, how much better it looks and sounds, it really adds to all of this atmospheric elements of this film and really makes it enjoyable.

It brings you more into the action and this has kind of been a good year for Anthony Mann fans at the Warner Archive because we've brought out several of his really superb works. And every time we're able to get another one out of the vault and into the hands of the magicians at one of our resolution picture imaging, so we can go forward with the restoration. Most of these films haven't been mastered in 30, 35 years, and technology's come a long way since then, and it's about time. This film is so taught.

There's not a wasted frame. It just gets you from the very beginning, and there's no Hollywood music, underscoring or anything. It's the movement of the train. It just takes on a whole different sensibility. And I attribute a lot of that to Anthony Men because he brought a sense of style

to the films that he made. And I'm glad that MGM borrowed him as much as they were able to get him so that we have so many of his fine works. It was a particular treat to be able to bring this film out in a new 4K scan of the preservation elements. This is one of those films where the camera negative burned in the tragic fire. So fortunately our second generation safety elements were made before the negative burned and it looks terrific. And we put a radio show on there, an episode of a series called Mr. President

with Edward Arnold that kind of deals with this same period of time and the potential assassination of Lincoln. And that's a real, it's not like a Luxe radio theater or something where you'd expect there could possibly be a radio show. This is a little different, but I wanted something that would give a little more color and a little more background and it's rare.

So that just adds to the value of the disc. And then you also have the two cartoons on here. Yeah. You get Jerry's cousin and slicked up pup, which were really fun to watch. And they look terrific in HD as well, plus the theatrical trailer. And then you mentioned it previously, George, but it's very timely because this is January and we have the inauguration coming up here later in January here in the United States. So that's also timely for that reason. Absolutely.

That was not intentional in terms of timing of the release. It's just when the master is finally done, you know, like we have Gabriel over the White House coming out in the end of January after the inauguration. So I had hoped it would be ready before, but I have no control over, you know, when things get completed. I can put them in early and see if people will bless my request and give us the funding that we need to make these things happen. But it's close enough for good comfort and it just gives people more of an opportunity

to basically be thought provoked by what they're seeing in these films. Especially a film like The Tall Target, it's not as much in the old Hollywood style. It's showing a progression towards a little more modernistic. The sense of post-war modernism that entered into American filmmaking very, very slowly. After the war, Hollywood started to grow up and get a little more audacious in its storytelling. This is a terrific film,

and people are very pleased that we released it. The initial sales have been terrific. So that only leads to more great things to follow when people support these releases. So gratitude to all those who did and do. Well, the next film is also a kind of a crime drama, obviously, a detective story. And we're going to jump ahead a couple of decades to the 70s. we're going to jump ahead a couple of decades to the 70s. And that's The Black Eye from 1974. And it stars football star turned actor Fred Williamson. George, I really enjoyed this film. Williamson's pretty good in this role. He's understated. He's like a ball. The action keeps the story moving forward. I love the filming locations in Venice. I used to live

I love the filming locations in Venice. I used to live in Ocean Park and the old Ocean Park, which is part of Santa Monica. Those locations where I guess it was shot on location down there. Now you go down there, it's beautiful. But in this film, it's seedy, it's rundown, it's what it looked like in the 1970s. And then you have that contrast with the beaches and the boardwalk and all the great parts of Venice. The action is very good. That car chase through the Venice canals is especially noteworthy. And then it has the jazzy music. It's the style, the look of the 70s. I just thought this was a really entertaining film. It is a modern of the 70s, you know, modern detective story. It's not what we would refer to as a quote unquote, black exploitation movie. This is Fred Williamson having established himself as a significant screen personality and providing him with a screenplay and good direction that tells a solid detective story.

That's not to negate other films that are in the more urban action drama. Those are equally compelling and attractive. Those are equally compelling and attractive. But this is a detective film and Fred Williamson's screen persona was really, it made him one of the most popular in terms of both box office and audiences. Popular screen performers certainly of the early to mid 70s without question. And he continues, I think he's still working, I'm not sure about that. But I know he has appeared in films in the last maybe 10, 12 years. I know I've seen him in other films. He continued to work.

I think he's in his mid-80s, so he may be now retired. But he was great on the football field, and that led him to his screen career. And that doesn't always work out that way. But he's one of the people that moved successfully from football to the big screen, as did Jim Brown. I remember seeing this film when I was in college. It was in the film series.

I was too young to see it when it came out, but I caught it in college and just thought it was a lot of fun. And this is another one where we went back to the camera negative and we're able to do a 4k scan of the camera negative and make it look really really wonderful and keep the grainy quality of 1974 films. So if people see grain on screen, that's because grain is part of film. And I like the organic feel of the way this film looks. Yeah. And I can't help but think of, you know, your recent release, Black Belt Jones, same kind of era, similar storytelling style. I mean, that's a total martial arts film, but they both look terrific. You know, they have the grain in them and they both have the action stars. And I think

it's terrific that you're able to bring out these 70s films. Some of them aren't, you know, not as well known, but they are very good when you break them down and you watch them. They're really solid films, especially in that action genre. This is kind of like a neo-noir style of film. Yes, absolutely. And there won't be more. Yeah. So I think it's great. All those people out there who have been wanting more 70s films, this is terrific news for them. Well, there's one more 70s film and that's from 1978. Well, there's one more 70s film and that's from 1978. And that is, I'll give it the full title here, George, A Night Full of Rain. Go for it.

It'll take you a while. Well, when you watch a film, you understand the title. But A Night Full of Rain, also known as The End of the World in Our Usual Bed in A Night Full of Rain from director Lena Wirtmuller. I wasn't familiar with her films, but this is a fascinating dreamlike kind of meditation on life, on love, on politics. You have these two characters, this very chauvinistic Italian man, and this feminist American journalist. I guess they're both journalists.

They're battling each other, but they also have a love story in there. It's complicated, but it's unique and interesting as well, and just like a lot of the 70s Italian cinema from that era. I thought that this new remaster really showcases the beauty of the cinematography in this film because the locations are amazing. I sound like a broken record, but once again, we went back to the camera negative and scanned at 4K and Burt Muller's, I talked about this when we announced it, she was an extremely globally popular filmmaker, had two huge hits that not only were popular in Europe but had crossed over to the United States and made big bucks at the box office, swept away and then followed by Seven Beauties and that led Warner Brothers to sign Lena Bergmuller to a three-picture contract.

This was the first of the three and the other two never followed, this film did not click at the box office. And I think that it's not the film. I think it may have been the way it was marketed. And one of the ways that sometimes there's a little bit of a disconnect is the foreign films of that era in the 70s and even in the 60s were best handled by small independent companies that really got behind them and knew what theaters to put them in and knew how to market them. And when studios tried to do it, it didn't always work out. And I think that that was the case with this film. I'm very pleased that we've been able to bring it out in a proper aspect ratio and a new

master of high quality because Lena Verde Muller was a rarity in her time in the 70s one of the few female filmmakers who could translate her name to equating box office and it was the success of swept away in seven beauties that led to a lot of her earlier films that hadn't come to the US being brought here later by small companies and that's what led up to the Warner Brothers deal. So we do have the one film and whether you're a fan of Burt Mueller or Giancarlo Giannini or Candice Bergen, it's a lot of fun and quite interesting and very much of its time. Right. Yeah. I think the, you know, the fans who want to own her films, this is a great remaster, looks and sounds terrific. And it's so great that The One Archive could bring this out for all

of those fans. So, well, that's the main body of the films released in December, George, but there's one kind of mammoth name we haven't really gotten into and we're not going to do a full review today because I think it's worth a discussion on its own. But you did release The Searchers in 4K in December. It looks terrific. It sounds terrific. It's amazing.

You and I have talked about this a little bit earlier when it was announced. The reviews are pouring in and they're fantastic, the reviews. People are still getting them in the mail. This is still kind of an unfolding, evolving story. I just want to say, hey, look, if you waited, get your order in. This is a fantastic film and it's a fantastic release on 4K. But we'll get into some details about the restoration and other things later on. Anything you wanted to say about this? I'm so grateful that people appreciate all of the work that went into this from many, many different people.

We wanted our first 4k release to be of great substance and when you're working with one of the greatest American films ever made and one of the most important films in Warner Brothers history and to treat it with the best possible care in all areas. It's an honor. And that's why we're so fortunate to be the people who are tasked with the care of the legacy of the studio, as well as the other libraries that we own. It's a very, very huge responsibility.

So anytime that we're able to bring our, this was our A plus game. Cause we entered into new territory because for classic films, 4K HDR is really the ideal way to view a wide format film, especially if it was shot in VistaVision, which not very many films were. VistaVision and Technorama both were similar formats where the film went through the camera sideways and doubled the frame, which gave you this amazing depth of field and clarity. The nice thing about this release is we also had a remastered Blu-ray. We have two hours of special features. We had wonderful compression and authoring from Fidelity in Motion because they're the best in the business. And we wanted this disc to be something that people would want to own.

The incredible positive feedback we've gotten both from consumers as well as reviewers is heartening. And 4K will not be our primary focus. It can't be just because of economics, but when the film deserves it, maybe we'll get a chance to be able to make that happen. And as a company, we're committed to the physical disc as the best way for people to watch their films at home. Well, I'll just give one review that's very brief,

but let me say that it takes you all of one shot to know the quality of this remaster that you've done, George, you and the team there. The very first shot opens on that doorway and the camera goes through and you see the contrast between the interior of the cabin and the exterior. Looks terrific. Camera moves out and you see that vista, the mountains, the orange. It's stunning.

And as you're doing that, the sound of that score from Max Steiner, so crisp and clear, you're brought in. Obviously that's, that's John Ford's directing, but the remaster, the sound, the visual, you're absorbed and you're in for the next duration. And I think that I was, I think I've spoken about this publicly. I had nothing to do with the creation of the last master that made it to Blu-ray. But when I saw it, I was deeply disappointed and frankly, a little bit embarrassed that I didn't think that we as a company had done the film any favors. Initial Blu-ray had yellow sky, frankly. It just was a revisionist approach.

People involved with that are not the people who are involved with creating this, the people who are involved with creating this, the colorist John Yarbrough and the mastering supervisor, extraordinaire Miles Del Oyo. They're chiefly responsible for that and our sound department, who wisely, this was not a film that needed a Atmos track or a 5.1. There was nothing organic possible. There was no stereophonic recording involved in the making of this film. It was manoral and it needed to stay that way because it would have been fakery otherwise.

When we do have original production elements to go back to, if you look at North by Northwest, that music was recorded three channel stereo, creating an Atmos track was organically possible. You weren't introducing 2024 sound elements to a 1959 movie. When you do that, it's ridiculous. I think they did an awesome job on North by Northwest. I hope we've done an awesome job with the searchers. It certainly seems, from what everybody is saying, we succeeded in what we were trying to do.

I certainly feel incredibly proud and very emotional about it because it's a terribly important film in the history of American cinema. And coming from John Ford and John Wayne, and John Ford's cast of characters and the cinematography, everything is captured so beautifully. And we had a lot of obstacles to overcome working with that very inferior film stock that was prevalent in 1956, Kodak 5248. The yellow layer collapses and fades and what went into the restoration, as you so wisely mentioned earlier, Tim, that's

really enough of a story for a whole other podcast. So we should best discuss it at another time. But if you have ordered the searchers and you haven't got your copy yet, we're in the middle of our third reorder and trying to get copies because the orders keep coming in and everybody's working overtime and over the holidays, especially to get people their discs. We anticipated that it was going to be a strong seller, but this release is very, very empirical evidence that physical media is alive and well within a big studio.

It doesn't take a third party to make it magic. We can make it magic right here. Well, I look forward to talking about that a little bit more, but I thought now we would take some time to look back at this last year of 2024. I think it's been a stellar year. But I thought maybe we'd focus in on a few standout moments.

And I'll start with mine, and you can put your thoughts in, George, as to that as well. But I did wanna go back to March as a moment that I thought was really special. And I know a lot of people who are major supporters of the Warner Archive felt that way as well. And that was the 15th anniversary that you had in March.

It was a real outpouring of support for the work that you do in March. It was a real outpouring of support for the work that you do, George, and just your commitment to the Warner Archive and these classic films and to bringing them out on physical media and, you know, making it 15 years, quite a milestone. And there were a lot of challenges for you, especially in the last five. That, that is the understatement of the century. Yeah. But but you got there. And so we had a terrific celebration of it. And then it ended up that this this year 16 or 15, I don't know how you count it,

but has been, I think, maybe one of your best yet. This is year 16. I was grateful that we were able to broaden the canvas a little bit by doing things that we had done in the DVD realm in terms of bringing in more Hanna-Barbera animation, bringing in TV shows like Gold 45 and the Alaskans, which people hadn't been able to see at all. They were never on DVD and for them to come off the camera negatives and look so good.

And we've got Cheyenne coming, you know, in this, now that we're in 2025, people know it's, it's we're working on that and it's going to be a very exciting complete series from the original elements. And there were so many releases. We were able to continue on with Looney Tunes and we will be continuing on with Looney Tunes even more in 2025 in a different way that I think is going to be very, very pleasing to the fans. We're going to build on the success we had in prior years and take it a step further.

And we'll be able to make announcements about that probably in about a month and a half, maybe two months. And I think one of the things that we were hardest at, because it was basically reconstructing a movie, and that was the new master of That's Entertainment, which we had to rebuild an entire film and match what had been done down to the frame in 1974. And the response for people who have.

Purchase date and those who have reviewed it has been incredibly rewarding given all the work that we put into it. And then we had so many wonderful technical restorations all of them looked amazing. color restorations. All of them looked amazing. And we were able to make inroads with great filmmakers even bringing that final Alfred Hitchcock film, albeit a comedy. Mr. and Mrs. Smith, you know, bringing all the Hitchcock films in the Warner Library out on Blu-ray. That's a big deal. Now they're all available. And we have so much work ahead of us. I'm thankful to say, and I'm hoping that the support will continue. If everything works out the way I'm hoping, 2025 will easily eclipse 2024,

which is a huge statement to make. But I believe, and again, I can't promise that because I'm still waiting for people to come back and say, yes, George, we're going to do what you'd like. But what I'd like to do is ultimately something that's going to be very, very profitable for our company and its shareholders. And that's my primary job here. So to make the fans happy, get them what they want, with one release, there's bound to be somebody who's disappointed that it isn't a different release. And we just can't make everybody happy at the same time.

We're trying to hit all the right notes. Overall, based on the response we're getting via people who send in, some people actually still send letters via snail mail, but most of the correspondence is through social media. At the end of the day, the results are in the sales. And we've had a lot of really, really impressive performances by some really great films that deserve to be on people's shelves. As one of our biggest supporters out there constantly makes the point, you don't need the internet to watch a movie from Warner Archive. And if

your internet is out, you put the disc in your player and you're gonna get the best possible quality, especially if our name is on it. And I take personal responsibility for making sure that that happens. But it isn't me by myself. I couldn't be the steward of this work without all the support that comes from our preservation team, people at Warner Brothers Motion Picture Imaging, the people at Warner Brothers Post Production, Archival Sound, all of them work with me, our Mastering Department especially. We're all, I would consider ourselves, soldiers in the battle against time to preserve, protect, and release great motion pictures, whether they be short animated motion pictures or long feature motion pictures or motion pictures made for television.

We want to give something to everyone and I'm hoping that this will be a year that will make our fans happy? Well, this last year sure was, and I'm sure that that will happen again in this coming year, George. You have a track record that says that's exactly what's going to happen. But before we wrap up, I had a few specific questions that I wanted to ask you. It's more just for fans' interest level. There's not necessarily huge importance in these things, but sometimes people like a little end of the year thing. You may have already answered it in your recap here that you just had, but what was the bestseller of 2024 for the Warner Archive? Well, I don't think it would come as any surprise. It's only been available for three weeks and it already is the 4K of the searchers.

Yeah. I figured that's probably what it was. And then beyond the searchers, would it be an animation title after that? title after that? We have, I would say, probably two dozen releases that are all very strong, solid sellers. We have really been blessed because we've had such wonderful films to because we've had such wonderful films to bring to the public. We did, I think, a little bit of a better job at bringing some more contemporary titles. Some films actually made in this millennium. Just broadening the horizons a little bit was very welcomed by people who felt that they

were being excluded. They didn't want films from the 30s and 40s. They wanted films from the 90s and the aughts or the 70s. So we're trying to hit all the points, keep ourselves profitable, and make entertainment available to the people that want it. That has been our mission from the very beginning, and rare and hard to find is still, it's very different if you say rare and hard to find and you've got a 4K of the searchers. There's an oxymoron that kind of conflicts there. But when we were given the opportunity to take this on, we felt that we could bring our A-game to the proceedings. And I think

we did. And I'm hoping it will be the beginning of more. But to clarify again, our primary focus is going to continue to be Blu-ray. And for most of the older films, that gives you really the closest approximation of what is there in the negative of the film itself. Because a lot of older films don't have 4K's worth of information in the frame. It's a little bit of a controversial point of view, but I have been counseled by several mentors and experts that this is the right approach. And when we get the opportunity to take something that just screams that it was made for 4K like the Searchers, we'll certainly take up the gauntlet and give our A-game to that should

the next one arise. Well, George, there, I counted like 67 I counted like 67 titles released over the year. If you add the 10 from the Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 that pushes us up into like 77 or whatever, I may have missed one or two, but that's a lot of titles. Was there one of those that kind of surprised you in terms of the, you know, in a positive way in, beyond your expectations? That's a really good question. I can't say there is anything that really shocked me in terms of my expectations are kind of aligned with what a film is and how it has been received in prior iterations. And that iteration may be a theatrical release.

But having worked with this library for a substantial amount of time, I know it well. And I also add my ear to the ground. I know what the consumers want I also know that no matter what we do as soon as what we do comes out It's like great. Thank you now. Here's what else I want Endless ridiculous It surprises me at times that people don't realize that we actually don't look at it as a list, but every film is its own animal and needs to be treated according to what kind of treatment it deserves. There are so many films out there that need help, that are missing a reel of the negative, or that are having

some other distress. And then we eventually can find the answer. I could tell you that if all goes well, the plans are to release in 2025 two films that will actually be longer versions than what was released in theaters. And I'm talking quite older films from the nitrate era. So we've got some big surprises up our sleeve. And we also have a lot of things that we're asking for that we don't know if they're going to happen or not but we hear

you we listen to all of the positive advice and we look upon what has been very successful and try to rebuild or I should say we try to build from that. I'm excited for the Tom and Jerry Cinemascope collection. We want to continue more with classic animation, theatrical animation. There will be more Hannah Barbera, some big surprises in store in that department. And one thing is not at a sacrifice for the other. There's room for all. We're blessed to have the greatest film library of any corporation, uh, in the industry, and with that comes a responsibility to make those films available to the people who want to own them.

Well, it's a, it's a fun to kind of look back with you, George, and to hear your take on it and it's, uh, it's really good to hear about the successful year that 2024 was for the Warner Archive and looking forward into 2025. And we're well into this year with you, George, in terms of what you have on the slate. And it feels like just a strong continuation of last year with all of these. Some of my favorite things were these classic TV box sets, which I think are real gems. And then the other collections that you had with the Thin Man collection, the fact that

you were able to put volume one and one through four of the Looney Tunes into a collection. I just think that's great for the fans. I know it's not always new, but having collections is great for fans who can do catch-up. The Hanna-Barbera superstars, as we mentioned. Absolutely. And the thing is that you give the consumer a choice. We wouldn't have been able to afford to remaster and restore all the thin man movies if they were going into a box set without the box set or I should say it's basically a six disc amary.

But in order for us to put that out and made our money back on the incredible investment, because we make this investment by ourselves. It's not that money comes from another division or another area. It's up to us to have a profit and loss statement that'll look good to the finance people. So that's part of my responsibility is to show them a profit. We restored each thin man movie, released it. The audience for those thin man movies ate them up. After a certain period of time,

we thought, okay, now we can make this available with a value proposition at a lower price for people who didn't buy the collection. But it is not at the expense of the people who originally bought when the films came out. They made that possible. And there are some people who would rather wait three or four years and buy a lower price

collection than buy individually. And everybody's dealing with financial struggles of one way or another, or certainly a lot of people are. And we're very mindful of that. And that's why we want to try to keep our product reasonably priced. We don't like it when we see retailers charging over list price for our product. Our single discs have been $21.98 since our very first Blu-ray, and that hasn't changed.

And yet, retailers are charging more than that. We have no control over it. It's a free country. People are able to charge what they want. But it's certainly's a free country. People are able to charge what they want. But it's certainly not what we want. We want the customer to have value. We're doing our very best to work with our partners to make certain that they understand how important it is to stay at the manufacturer's suggested list price.

Yeah. Well, it's just been a terrific year. And George, I want to thank you for all the time you've given to the listeners of the extras and all the fans of the Warner Archive out there over the 2024 year. It's been a very rewarding year. And we look forward to this year upon us as an opportunity to make more fans happy with more releases there the Warner Archive name. Well what a great year 2024 was. I hope all of you listening found some titles that you're just so grateful to add to your library this year. And I want to thank you for listening, especially to the podcast with George. Those are always a lot of fun. I know everybody enjoys them,

but thank you for your support over this last year. If you are interested in purchasing any of the films that we talked about today, there will be links in the podcast show notes, so you can always look for those there and on our website. And if you enjoyed the podcast, please think about following the show or leaving us a review. Or you can also send us a quick text message

for those who are interested in sending me a note or feedback on the show. And we always appreciate those who leave reviews at your favorite podcast provider. Until next time you've been listening to Tim Millard, stay slightly obsessed. 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 Bros.

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.