The Extras - Warner Archive Mailbag January 2023

Episode Date: January 3, 2023

George Feltenstein of Warner Bros answers questions from fans of the Warner Archive and Warner Bros catalog.  Topics discussed include how long it takes for a planned restoration or remaster and Blu-ray release, whether there is any truth to the rumor of a potentially longer version of Batman Forever and Clint Eastwood films releasing on 4K,  more musicals, silent movies, and Clark Gable in 2023, the relationship between Warner Archive and TCM, early sound era lost films, and more.  George rarely answers mailbag questions so this is an episode you don't want to miss.The Sitcom StudyWelcome to the Sitcom Study, where we contemplate the TV shows we grew up with and...Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify 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 Lard, your host. Today, George Feldstein joined the show for a special Warner Archive mailbag episode. Now,

these questions were submitted exclusively from our Warner Archive and Warner Brothers catalog group members. So if you're interested in submitting questions in the future, this is just another reason to join the group today. So here's George. Well, George, we have a lot of questions from the fans out there. So I thought we could do a little mailbag questions, which we haven't done since August. So that was a really popular episode. And everybody always wants to hear the latest on these things. So let's dive in. We have a question here, George, from Frisso. And his question is, can you tell us about the leaked Clint Eastwood 4K titles and what was done in the scanning

restoration process? Well, I can talk about the fact that the leaked Clint Eastwood titles may have come from one of the other studios that has a couple of Clint Eastwood titles, from one of the other studios that has a couple of Clint Eastwood titles, but there is absolutely nothing happening with Clint Eastwood's films in terms of 4K releases that have yet to hit the market. Obviously, Unforgiven is out and some of the more recent films. I hope there will be more of his incredible output. I know there have been discussions about that, but I'm not aware of anything happening. So it just goes to prove that when things leak on the internet, you can't always believe them to be real.

Right. There's lessons to be learned with that, folks. Yeah. All right. Well, next question. We have a question here from Jeff. He says, hi, George. First, thank you for your outstanding work and also for answering our questions.

I'm curious, how many projects are being worked on at any given time? And can you explain the timeline from when a project gets the green light to when it's ready for purchase? It's a great question and the answer is so varied, I really wouldn't know where to begin. Some titles are in scanning. Some titles are in color correction. Some titles are in sound restoration. Some titles are in the middle of frame-by-frame picture restoration. are so many variables in each film that we work on or television program or animated cartoon. And then there will be situations where this is a really good example. I won't be title specific and people can guess, but about two years ago, we had scheduled the release of a very well-regarded color cinema scope sword and sandals movie from the 1950s.

And we brought in an interpositive and that was problematic and then we had another film element to work from and that was problematic and we had to put the title on hold and now

all these years later even though it was on our release schedule and we were planning on it it was basically 2-3 years schedule and we were planning on it, it was basically two, three years until we could start working on it again. We went back to the camera negative, back to the color separation positives. And I should actually say, theoretically, they're black and white separation positives that put together build color. And we're working on that title now for release, hopefully in 2023. But it was probably 2019 or 2020 when we threw in the towel and said we have to wait for, you know, being able to work from the original negative.

for, you know, being able to work from the original negative. And anytime we do work from the original negative, it means scanning it 4K for preservation. And there's a conga line. And, you know, there could be like six films in the queue or 20 or, you know, it varies. And, you know, amidst that, they can be doing, you know, it varies. And, you know, amidst that, they can be doing, you know, 14 seasons, each with 30 episodes of a classic television series. So we have multiple scanners of the highest quality,

but we don't have 10 of them, and we also don't have 10 scanning experts. The gentlemen that scan our films, I can't even find the words to communicate the artistry and their knowledge of working with all these different film stocks and knowing exactly how to handle them. These people have been with us for a very long time, and I can't say enough great things about their expertise. We're so lucky to have them as part of Warner Brothers Motion Picture Imaging. And that's where it starts is with the scanning. So some titles, they go on the schedule and they're a breeze.

They go through the various stages. There are no problems and everything's fine. no problems and everything's fine. There's one movie that we wanted to remaster for DVD almost 13 years ago that we still haven't been able to do anything with at all because we're missing a reel of the negative. And that's not Warner Brothers' fault. It's the fault of the company that owned it before we did. And as we try to solve this mystery, and I think we may be getting close,

but, you know, I made the mistake of making a comment on our Facebook page back in 2010 that this movie was coming. And at that point, I knew it was. This movie was coming. And at that point, I knew it was. And that's one of the reasons why we're playing things kind of close to the hip, if you will, or not showing our cards, because we don't want to end up with disappointed consumers. And in the days before podcasts and social media, we used to do chats on the home theater forum. And I referred to something on one of those chats about 16, 17 years ago and what i referred to that we were working on at the time it looked like we were

going to work on that title and then a week later you know the boss i had at the time slashed our release schedule so that he could use catalog money to make slasher horror movies direct to video. So that didn't happen. But for years thereafter, people were, you know, complaining, but you promised. And, you know, we don't promise. We try to share information. try to share information, and if we end up getting kicked in the caboose because it backfires and people get upset, people are very passionate about this.

I understand that. I'm passionate about it. So we don't want to promise what we can't deliver, and we never know. There have been so many films just in the last year where I thought we had wonderful film elements that had been made in the last decade and they should be no problem

to create a new master for Blu-ray. And guess what? Those film elements weren't so wonderful and that means more severe measures need to be taken. And that takes time and more money. And that's what creates delays. Hopefully the end result of what we put out is worth it. I think I referred to this not long ago when we talked about Attack of the 50-Foot Woman.

That we were going to use the fine-grained master positive, found out it had a lot of mold and problems, and we had to wait until we could use the original negative. Well, we did it. We got it. It looks great. It's out there. People are loving it. I'm happy. The next question is from Glenn.

I'm happy. The next question is from Glenn. Are there any of the silence coming out this year from Warner Brothers, or are they all from MGM? Well, we have several silence in the queue, and I'm not going to give any more clues than that, simply because a lot of things are not yet at the stage where they've gotten their check marks all the way. So just know that we're working on them.

And just this is a matter of public record and fact, very few Warner Brothers silents survive, whereas more MGM silence survived than any other studio's library of silence. That is reflective of the fact that MGM started doing film preservation in the mid-1960s and converting anything that was still extant on nitrate and converting it to safety film way back then. And sadly, a lot of Warner Brothers' silents were destroyed in a nitrate wall fire in the 1930s.

We had several fires on this lot. And the big ones, there was one in the late 40s and two in the early 50s. And my understanding is that no film was damaged, just physical sets and sound stages on those.

But there was a fire in the 30s that got a lot of the silence, which is heartbreaking. So we don't have as much to work with from the Warner Sound Library because of that. Next question we have is from Raphael. I am truly excited about the January lineup. Keep those Hollywood Golden Age titles coming.

Any more Garson coming in 2024? And what about MGM musicals? Thanks. There are some MGM musicals coming, and I think by 2024, it's likely that there will be more Gerd Garson.

Obviously, we have Gerd Garson coming in a month with Goodbye Mr. Chips, which was her first film. And hopefully there will be more after that. Next question is from David. Thanks so much for the upcoming release of Wife vs. Secretary. Any plans for Blu-ray upgrades of other 1930s Clark Gable films,

such as Too Hot to Handle or later films like Mogambo? such as Too Hot to Handle or later films like Mogambo? I can't be title specific, but I can say there is more of the King of Hollywood coming from Warner Archive on Blu-ray. Next question is from Tom. Dear George, I'm very grateful for your passion for quality and advocating behind the scenes for physical media releases in ways we may never fully understand, especially given the corporate twists and turns. I know we all have our what about this film or that film thoughts when announcements are made.

I understand there is much to be carefully considered before a restoration project for physical media releases undertaken. I just wanted to give a big thanks to you and all involved in the endeavors. I just wanted to give a big thanks to you and all involved in the endeavors. Oh, that's very gracious. And I am very grateful for the kind words. They're deeply appreciated. Next question is from Land. Any chance of some more Esther Williams titles on Blu-ray?

The Million Dollar Mermaid and Take Me Out to the Ballgame were fantastic. It would be great to see more. You will see more Esther Williams on Blu-ray in 2023 from the Warner Archive in Technicolor. That's going to make a lot of people happy. Next question is from Paula.

What is the condition of the elements for Random Harvest and is it in the queue for a Warner Archive Blu-ray? Random Harvest is is it in the queue for a Warner Archive Blu-ray? Random Harvest is one of the films where the original negative burnt in the fire in the late 70s. However, safety protections were made and we should be able to make a beautiful Blu-ray when that title comes up for selection. Right now, it's not in the queue,

but who knows what next year could be. Next question is from Chris. Are there any plans for the remainder of Warner's Hammer-owned titles to be released on Blue? She, Hysteria, Crescendo, Moon Zero 2, and The Saints Girl Friday? Well, I want to be clear. The Saints Girl Friday was distributed by RKO, but we don't own it. RKO had distribution rights for either seven years

or ten years. It was a very limited distribution term. And we have no rights to that film, no access to the elements. Wish we did. And as far as Hammer Films in general,

we have a couple of ideas of what we want to do going forward, and I can't really speak about that. But some of those films will be

eventually surfacing. I have to be vague because there are a lot of moving pieces to the puzzle and nothing has been green lit or checked but it's being discussed next question is from rich since they are both divisions of warner brothers discovery and they have similar if not the same audience base why isn't there more synergy between warner archive and turner classic movies Turner Classic movies? Well, there actually is, and there has been for a long time. They're a sister division, and we did a lot of joint activities together. In the years of DVD,

We had TCM-branded collections. And as staffing changed there years ago, there was a change in policy. And there used to be cards after a movie ran that said, this movie's available on DVD, for I'm more on video. I'd like to see that happen again. Right now there are so many changes going on within Warner Brothers Discovery as

there have been changes in staffing and roles and responsibilities throughout the organization but I'm very proud of the relationship that we have with TCM, with TCM's Film Festival.

There have been many Warner Archive titles which have premiered at the TCM Film Festival right before we released the Blu-ray or right after. So we have a very active dialogue, and I think we'll be able to do more things together in the future. 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 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. Next question is from Manuel. Hi, George. I wanted to ask, is there any possibility of a future Gone with the Wind 4K Blu-ray? I think this film with the added HDR has the possibility of becoming one of the best releases ever. Thank you again for all your efforts to preserve films from the Warner Brothers and MGM vault. I hope so.

I mean, I want it desperately. It's an extraordinarily expensive proposition because Gone with the Wind is the length of two movies, and we've gone back to the negative twice before using our ultra-resolution process for the DVD, the Lux edition, and then the Blu-ray that came in 2009. We've got to go back and do it again, and it's incredibly costly. But the demand is obviously there, and it's going to happen at some point.

It's been actively discussed. No work has begun yet, but of course that wouldn't be from Warner Archive. It would be from Warner Brothers Home Entertainment, but I do make my voice known when I'm at the table, but I'm not the person that makes the ultimate decisions. All I can do is suggest. Next question is from Rich. While the archive is now focused on pristine Blu-rays, would you ever consider DVD releases of films with problematic or missing elements, including a warning that this is the best we can do? This may be the only way some films in the WB catalog will ever be released on physical media.

And some of the archive early releases were far from perfect, but collectors such as myself appreciated the opportunity to own them. Well, that's a great question. Well, that's a great question. the existing master is so old and it had to warn a remaster and it would be blatantly irresponsible to put it out on the disc and we chose to remaster those in a limited cost manner and that was before Blu-ray became in a limited cost manner. And that was before Blu-ray became predominant in our business.

We have such a skeletal staff that each person that works on a particular title, the time they spend on that title needs to be where we can maximize the most profit for the shareholders of this company. This is a company. This is not a private company. It's a public company, and it's a company where every dollar is scrutinized so we need to make sure that there's going to be return on investment and this is the consistent struggle that has existed in not just the film industry but in the arts in general art versus. We try to walk the fine line of being able to make as much of our library available as possible and make as much money for the company as possible.

And we were releasing some very, very deep DVD-only titles, and the sales of them were not justifying the amount of resources that we had to dedicate to getting that title done. And that's why we're focusing on a more reduced schedule than, let's say, we had 10 years ago. We were releasing 30 titles a month. But the cost structure was completely different. And also, the business has changed. And so we've evolved. I mean, right now, I wish we could be doing 4k releases

it's four times the cost we can't afford that but i think someday we will get there i never thought we'd be able to do blu-ray and we've now released probably close to 450 Blu-rays. So it's just a give us time. I do understand that the very niche appeal, I mean, our whole business is a niche business, but I understand that there's like a sub-niche and people like a lot of the short subject collections we did and I would like to do more of them. I don't think it's any secret that this company is facing, not our division, but the whole company in general,

is facing difficulties. I think our new owners are very, very supportive of our library and bringing in every dollar we can from that library. And there's a tremendous amount of respect for the legacy of the company and the legacy of the library and the acquired libraries as well. So I do think you're going to see more of that kind of content become available. And when we have released a film for the first time and it's never been available on DVD or Blu-ray, many of those times we made a Blu-ray and DVD available. So I can see more of that happening. technology continues to progress, that some of the really, really heavy costs that are involved in our work will hopefully come down so that we're able to do even more. 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.

The next question is from Christopher. Thanks for all of your hard work. How often do you get to bring in people who worked on the original editing or previous remastering of a movie? And do you have any favorite responses from them on a great remaster? Well, if we're working on something where any of the original talent is with us, any of the original talent is with us. It's by nature that we would, of course, involve them or their designated representatives to look at the work before we lock it in. And we've had several instances of people being extraordinarily pleased and gracious,

and it's incredibly rewarding. When we're dealing with films that are 80, 90 years old, obviously we can't be bringing anyone in. Even films that are from the 1950s and 60s even. Most of the original people that worked on them are no longer with us. You know, I've had the good fortune of meeting a lot of people that have since passed, but they were incredibly grateful for the work that we were doing here, having their work live on. And at the same time,

there are some things that we're working on now where talent has been involved and they've given us their enthusiastic blessing. Next question is from James. Hi, George. I just wanted to say thank you for all the hard work you've done preserving and restoring classic films, movies, and especially animation. The bonus features on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection sets helped turn me into the animation fanatic I am today. My questions. One, as someone who really liked last year's Night at the Opera Blu-ray, are there any plans to bring the remaining Warner-owned Marx Brothers movies to Blu-ray? And two, as someone who's considering purchasing the Thin Man movies, will there be a collected edition of all six films? Well, I hope there will be more Marx Brothers movies on Blu-ray.

hope there will be more Marx Brothers movies on Blu-ray. I think it's likely. As to a collection of all six Thin Man movies, we just finished the last of the six. There are no plans for a collection

at this time, but I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that maybe a couple years down the road that there would be a collection similar to what we did on DVD. But right now, that's not in the cards. Next question is from Spencer. My question would be about the longer cut of Batman Forever that was confirmed to be in the Warner vault by screenwriter Akiva Goldsman recently. confirmed to be in the Warner vault by screenwriter Akiva Goldsman recently. I and many fans have hoped for the longer and much darker original version to see the light of day for years.

Back in 2005 for the SC DVD, it was somewhat teased that Joel Schumacher would get to make his director's cut, but it never came to pass. Can you discuss anything about this vault source? There is no alternate cut available of that movie. There is no complete film element. Now, if somebody wanted to reconstruct it from trims and outs, theoretically, that would be possible, but the cost would be enormous. And just being realistic, it's nothing that I would greenlight because we wouldn't make our money back given the work that it would take to create basically a new cut of a film.

It would be extraordinarily expensive. a new cut of a film. It would be extraordinarily expensive. When you have a film where there is already a cut element, meaning, let's say, it wouldn't be the original negative, but it would be an interpositive,

this is what happened with the extended cut of Superman the movie that was created for television I thought that was assembled on videotape one inch videotape that's what I thought and then when I went into the inventory and I saw the tv version had a film element and then I looked for the aspect ratio and it had no information. I was like, oh, my God, if this is anamorphic, we can release this version. Fans will be thrilled.

And sure enough, they called me up and said it's scope, you know, and that's what led to the extended cut. And that's what led to the extended cut, 188 minutes of Superman the movie, including everything lifted from the cutting room floor. When you find something like that, that gives you the opportunity to make something available to the fans. Unfortunately, there are so many people that think that, oh, there's a longer cut of that, that, you know, with a different ending and this and that and so forth. It's like the little shop of horrors. There was a work print of the original ending that went out with the first DVD release. And then it had to get pulled off the shelves because the producers were very upset that that was done and then 15 years later or 10 years later or whatever the time frame was they came back and said we'd love to see you do the original ending

and spend the money to redo the effects and finish it, have it right. And that's what happened on the Blu-ray. So it isn't just like it's all sitting around and, you know, for a very modest amount of money, this can be done. And I have no knowledge. People think that because they saw a rough cut in 1995 or something, that that rough cut was kept or whatever. No, it almost is never like that. So that is the reality. Somebody may have seen something at one time that was tossed or taken apart or, you know,

it's just not, not the case. So I wish I had better news on that, but it usually would have to be that a film was ready to be released in a different form. And then something radical happened. And there's an interpositive of the first cut and then an interpositive of the release version.

That's really what it would take for a fine grain if it was a black and white film. And it's just usually not the case. The last question is from Jeff. It's a longer question, has three parts to it so I'll go ahead and read it all and then you can tackle them as you will George one studios which were around during the conversion to sound especially Warner produced sound on disc talkies several films from the conversion era are fully or partially lost or either separated sound or visual is lost for

example honky-tonk My Man with Fanny Bryce, Al Jolson Outtakes, Gold Diggers, Is Everybody Happy, March of Time, The Ben Pollack Short, etc. Is effort being made to find components to seek to reconstruct and provide such movies on DVD? Collectors and enthusiasts like myself would love to obtain such movies, especially with era entertainers of major importance

two there are Paramount movies of that era not available on video does Archive have the ability to issue similar Paramount vintage movies in a sense of Paris, Close Harmony Big Broadcast etc and then three any chance of

adding early sound pre-Zanuck Fox films like Movie Tone Follies of the 29 and 30s, Delicious, Happy Days, Sunny Set Up, etc. Thank you for all you do. Well, thank you for the question. I can answer the second and third parts pretty quickly because we will not be releasing things we don't own. because we will not be releasing things we don't own. All the sound Paramount films made before, I think it's October 31st, 1949, with a handful of exceptions,

were sold by Paramount to what was MCA and is now NBC Universal Comcast. So they would be responsible for releasing films like The Big Broadcast. And the Fox library is now in the hands of Disney. And to the extent that early Fox films exist, which is a big question mark because they had a tragic fire in the 1930s in New Jersey that wiped out a lot of their holdings. And, you know, that's, you know, without being title specific and given that, you know, it's not ours, I can't really speak to that. So that's a Disney question.

The first one, I can say kind of taking this separated out, that for at least a decade, if not more, I've been trying to do something around the March of Time, which was this film mgm basically stopped working on after spending a million dollars in 1930 and they never they never finished it um pieces of it were released as part of short subjects there was a german uh reworking of some of the footage uh and i have found all these disparate parts i found recordings uh pre-recordings that were made for the march of time which are fascinating because they're actually binaural and I've been putting the audio together and made basically stereo. So there are so many scripts and this and that and so forth. I think this is a fascinating project and I would love to be able to get the funding for it

and have it be something that comes out on disc, have it be something that comes out on disc, have it be something that comes out that's shown at the TCM Film Festival and ends up on TCM. It's a fascinating story because for three, four years, MGM was trying to make sense of the million dollars they had spent on this movie that was never finished. The film that theoretically was the end-up version was a film called Broadway to Hollywood in 1933, and it actually only had two and a half minutes

of what was shot for the March of Time. And I don't think we have... It was in two-color, technically. I don't think we have that footage of that sequence. I know it exists in bad black and white in Europe, but I've been working on this in the background for probably closer to 15 years than 10. But the fact that I found the audio recordings,

it's a very exciting thing. To get to the other part of the question, so many Warner Brothers films from the hard talky and early talky era, the Vitaphone discs exist, but there is no existing film element. And we're constantly looking for them. There are some Vitaphone shorts where we have picture, but we have no disc.

And there are some Vitaphone shorts where we have disc and no picture. So we're always on the lookout for that and for the features. There are some features where we have a silent version, even though it was shot as a sound movie, but the sound negative, the sound version doesn't exist. So we are aware of that. We're always looking for it. I think there are one or two that we've been able to piece both picture and sound together that may surface over the next year in terms of features. A lot of work is going on with Vitaphone shorts, of work is going on with Vitaphone shorts, and a lot of work basically came to a grinding halt with the horrific premature death of our beloved friend Ron Hutchinson, who led

the Vitaphone project for years. But we are in constant communication with our partners and colleagues at UCLA and the Library of Congress as it concerns everything Vitaphone. And we're very few MGM sound films where we're missing picture. The only one I can think of, other than we're missing both of this unreleased March of Time, is the infamous Rogue Song with Laurel and Hardy Hardy where only fragments survive. But this is an area that we're always exploring and we're extending our discussions to many foreign archives because years ago people here weren't having

open dialogues with international archives and now our preservation and restoration team and myself are making those efforts. And we hope it will yield good results. Well, George, that's quite a mailbag we just went through. And your responses to everybody's questions is so appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read through those and answer those for the fans. It's my pleasure. I hope we can follow through with being able to bring some of those things to fruition,

because that would be my goal. Right. Yeah, it's always understood that, you know, these are the plans and things are in the works. Some things go more quickly than others. And sometimes as you delve into these films, you find issues that put it on the back burner or mean it's going to take longer.

Yep. Especially as the older you get with the project, the more difficult it becomes. Right. Well, thanks George. My pleasure. Thank you Tim. Well, it's always great to have George Feldstein on to talk about the Warner Archive and to answer your questions.

We do have a mailbag episode from last August. So if you are interested in listening to that episode and more Warner Archive episodes, you can find links on the website at www.theextras.tv or scroll through our catalog wherever you listen to podcasts. If this is the first episode of The Extras you've listened to and you enjoyed it, please think about following the show at your favorite podcast provider. And if you're on social media, be sure and follow the show on Facebook or Twitter at TheExtrasTV or Instagram at TheExtras.TV to stay up to date on our upcoming guests and to be a part of our community. And as I mentioned earlier, 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 subscribe 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. 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.