The Extras - Warner Archive May 2021 Release Highlights

Episode Date: January 16, 2022

This podcast is one of a series looking back at some highlights from the 2021 Blu-ray releases from the Warner Archive.Warner Bros executive George Feltenstein takes us through the May 2021 Blu-ray releases of four films, providing information on the preservation and restoration of the films and insights into the storylines and production.  First is the 1939 classic film, "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex,"  starring Bette Davis and Errol Flynn.  Next is the rare 1947 RKO film Noir "They Won't Believe Me," which previously only existed in a cut version.  And finally, the gorgeous 1946 Technicolor Best Picture Oscar Nominee "The Yearling," starring Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman and directed by Clarence Brown.  George also gives a brief background on the Golden Harvest release of "The Drunken Master 2," which will be highlighted in more detail in a future podcast. 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. Joining me is George Feltenstein of Warner Brothers to take a look back at some Warner

Archive titles from the summer of 2021. So George, before we dive into the discussion of the May titles, what were you wanting to do by going back to look at some of these titles? Well, I thought it would be a great idea to talk about some of the things that came out during the middle of 2021 after the old Warner Archive podcast was no longer in existence and there wasn't an opportunity to share behind the scenes information and some of the technical aspects of what went into making those discs. It didn't keep people from buying them. 2021 has been a terrific year

for the Warner Archive business, but I thought it would be fun to kind of share some of the background because the films are so different and each of them have their own story. Well, let's dive into some of the May ones, because that was the first month, I think, after that last podcast. And there were some that that you wanted to highlight for the fans. We're not going to be exhaustive in doing every title, but let's start off with the private lives of Elizabeth and Essex, the 1939 film. Well, this was something that I was hoping we could do forever because the DVD of this film

was really an embarrassment to the company. The film looked terrible. The film was shot in the old three strip Technicolor process. And the master that went into the DVD was basically out of focus half the time. And this was due to bad lab work and people who are no longer long disassociated with the company, creating bad film elements. And it was just not a good thing that that's the way the film looked, because 1939 is often referred to as the greatest year in film history because more great films were made in 1939 than any other year. And lately, some people have contested that, but just Bette Davis alone

made four films at Warner Brothers that year. She did The Old Maid. She did Dark Victory. She did Juarez. And she did The Private Livesid. She did Dark Victory. She did Juarez. And she did The Private Lives of Elizabeth in Essex. And she was fearless. She was 31 years old, I think at the time, if I'm adding up correctly. She's 31 and she played Queen Elizabeth I and basically shaved her head and put on this wig and was portraying

the elderly queen who had this younger lover, Lord Essex, was played by the dashing Errol Flynn, straight off his success as Robin Hood the year before. And the film was also co-starring in a smaller part, Flynn's frequent co-star, Olivia de Havilland. So it was just one of many great films released in 1939. And it was based on a play that had been on Broadway a few years earlier. And it's got a phenomenal cast. And we were able to bring in the original nitrate camera negatives from the Library of Congress. have been absolutely knocking themselves out with these 4K preservation restoration masters that they've been creating by carefully scanning and aligning each of the three primary camera records that go into making a Technicolor film down to the pixel.

And the quality is outstanding and breathtaking. People were very suspicious how the Blu-ray was going to look because the DVD was so bad looking. But fortunately, the folks at Warner Brothers Motion Picture Imaging, they're, I think, in a class by themselves. They're incredibly talented artisans and they created a beautiful master. And the film has a beautiful score. And you've got all the Warner Brothers contract players. It was shot on the lot. You're supposed to think you're in England and you would think that you were because there were so many more sets.

A lot of those sets don't exist anymore. There were fires on the back lot that destroyed a lot of those sets of merry old England. And then there was one set that I think was demolished after the filming of Camelot in the 60s. But all of these sets were in fine fettle for this movie, and it's gorgeous to look at. The acting is wonderful, and it's gorgeous to look at. The acting is wonderful and it's a beautiful disc and it

sold very, very well, which made me very, very happy. Well, I saw the restoration, you know, and the image is just amazing looking. And so it was well worth the wait to bring that to Blu-ray. I think so. Very, very happy in it. The next film I want to ask you about was They Won't Believe Me, the 1947 RKO film noir. What can you tell us about that? Well, this is a film that never even came out

on DVD in the United States because RKO had this very bad habit. Warner Brothers did too, to be fair. RKO would re-release films a few years after they were made and cut the original negative, make the film shorter, so they could put two films on a double feature. And they would throw out the negative that they were cutting out of the movie. Oh, wow.

For years, our materials on They Won't Believe Me, which stars Robert Young and Jane Greer, it's a terrific picture, our materials were missing 15 minutes of the movie. And it was very critical footage. And we weren't going to release the film until we could find an element that was complete. And it took us a very long time to do it, but we finally did it. And it actually had its premiere about two or three days before the Blu-ray came out on the TCM Film Festival, which was virtual last year because of the pandemic.

And it was on both TCM and I believe HBO Max. And I thought it was very appropriate that the film get its premiere as part of their virtual festival since they couldn't have thousands thousands of people travel to hollywood as had been the you know in prior years that's the way it always was and last year they couldn't do it i I hope this year they can. As we record this, we really don't know what is going to happen this spring. But last spring, television viewers got to see the premiere or they should say the repremier of the uncut version. uncut version. And this is a great film noir and one that was highly requested. But what you would see on television prior to this was missing 15 minutes of critical storytelling. And all the materials we had were not only cut, but they were bad. So to bring this out using mostly the original negative, scanned at 4K, and then we found 35 millimeter nitrate materials of the sequences that had been cut out,

and they were able to be put together and cleaned up. And it's a beautiful release. And it's a really suspenseful, excellent film noir. And when it was shown on TCM, it was introduced by Eddie Muller, who's the host of their Noir Alley showcase that they have very frequently on TCM. And Eddie is like the, they call him the czar of film noir. And he's a wonderful, wonderful guy who has been a champion of film noir. And he's worked with the Film Noir Foundation. And now he's one of the revolving hosts on TCM because he's so good at what he does. And he just generates enthusiasm and passion for these films. And I'm very happy that someone whose claim to fame was books and occasionally doing commentaries for some of our DVDs years ago is now somewhat of a television celebrity. He seems to be one of the favorite hosts on TCM. So I tease

him about it when I see him, but he's a great guy. And he was so enthusiastic that we had restored the film. And now it's available on Blu-ray for everybody to own. So we're very proud of that. to own. So we're very proud of that. So the next May release we want to talk about, George, was The Yearling, the 1946 film starring Gregory Peck. What can you tell us about that release? 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. 1946 had a lot of great films that year. And the film that won the Oscar that year was The Best Years of Our Lives. But a very hot contender and the film that actually people thought was going to win the Oscar was The Yearling.

And it was it was based on a novel by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, a novel that won the Pulitzer Prize. It was intended to come out in, I think, 1940 or 41 with Spencer Tracy with location photography in Florida. And they had to basically abandon the production. They were having problems with the Technicolor cameras and weather was also a problem. So then you had World War II kind of put very expensive productions that weren't patriotic in nature kind of put on hold. And the yearling went back into production after World War II was over, and it was released

basically at the end of 1946 and then had a general release later on in 1947, but it cost $4 million in 1946, which is very, very big budget for that time. That would be like making a $150 million movie today. But the film is about settlers in the Florida area who are living off the land. And Gregory Peck plays, you know, a farmer. And Jane Wyman, who was under contract to Warner Brothers at that time, was borrowed by MGM to play his wife. And this is before she won the Oscar two years later for Johnny Belinda. And people really didn't think of her as a serious actress. And she gives a remarkable performance, as does Peck. Peck was always great in everything he did. But the real remarkable find of this film is the young actor who plays their only son.

His name is Claude Jarman Jr. And he won a special Oscar for his juvenile performance. And I believe he's still alive. He did a few films after this that as he grew older, but he made such an impression with this film. And the family has gone through the tragedy of all the other children having died at, you know, as in infancy. And Claude Jarman Jr.'s character of the little boy, Jody, he is the only surviving child. And it's all about the dynamics of the family relationship, living off the land. And it's shot with the most exquisite technicolor photography and directed with enormous sensitivity by Clarence Brown, who is one of MGM's greatest directors. I think he was the either the favorite or one of the most favorite directors of Greta Garbo.

And what he did with this film was create a very meticulous, I think of it almost like a painting because it's such a beautiful, well-paced story and portrait character study of this family. Jane Wyman as the wife has seemingly no love in her because she's gone through so much trauma having lost children. And here she has this wonderful son who's filled with joy and she doesn't relate to him like a mother should relate to her son. She's almost, she's been hardened by the losses of the other children. Right. And then something remarkable happens where Gregory Peck is out and they're, I think they're chasing after some animal or whatnot, but they're trying to catch an animal for hunting and a deer is shot.

And I don't believe they were shooting the deer for food. And I think the shooting of the deer was accidental. My memory is not clear on this, but the point is that the little boy, he's about 12, 13 years old, maybe 11. little boy, he's about 12, 13 years old, maybe 11. He's an adolescent and he discovers this little yearling deer, this baby deer, and he raises it. And the relationship between him and the animal is so beautiful. And the relationship between Gregory Peck as his father, there is so beautiful and the relationship between Gregory Peck as his father there is so much warmth and beauty in this and there's also old yeller like tragedy in this movie there are necessary dark moments to tell the story uh and I can't talk about it without getting upset.

Right. Because if you're an animal lover, it's, it's just, it's very moving. You can hear me choking up because I'm thinking about it. If you, if you're, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to kind of figure out what, what happens, but I don't want to spoil it for anybody who hasn't seen it. But I never saw the movie look like this until I saw the master after Warner Brothers Motion Picture Imaging had finished the restoration. So to put this on Blu-ray looking unbelievable.

And we actually got to do this with two real family classics this year. The first was this. And then later on in the year, Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet, which was made two years prior to The Yearling. Both are gorgeous technicolor films that looked really not very good on home video for years, looked terrible on television for years, and now they glow and they've been restored. And so this restoration of the yearling is just an amazing Blu-ray. And I'm so proud of it. And this movie is 75 years old. If you watch it, you just can't believe you're looking at something that's three quarters of a century old because it just has timeless sensitivity and sensibilities to it. And I've been a big Gregory Peck fan since I was a kid.

And I saw To Kill a Mockingbird in junior high school. And I wanted to learn more about his films. And The Yearling was a later discovery. I didn't see The Yearling as a child. I saw it as a teenager. I didn't see The Yearling as a child. I saw it as a teenager. And it didn't move me nearly as much as a teenager as it does now.

And I think that's because I didn't grow up with animals. And I didn't develop my fondness for animals until my early adulthood. So this is really an amazing film. It did win two Oscars, and I think it was nominated for five that it didn't win. Everybody thought that this was going to win the Oscar this year, particularly in 1946. And MGM had a marketing campaign. This is the year of the yearling. And they had a blimp that flew over the United States, you know, promoting the film that way. And they really got behind it. And the surprise Oscar winner was a truly fine film, another film that we don't own,

but we have the good fortune to be the distributor of for home video. And that's the best years of our lives, which is a masterpiece of cinema and captures the post-war era in a way that could only be done at that time by the people that made it. So you can kind of forgive when you have such an abundance of great films. It's like when the Godfather and Cabaret were both neck and neck for best picture in 1972, uh, the Godfather won best picture, but Cabaret won eight Oscars, including best director. Coppola did not win Best Director for Godfather

when he did for Godfather two. But what do you do, you know, when you've got so much greatness in a single year? Forty six was like that. There were a lot of great movies that year, just like I was talking about thirty nine before nineteen fifty one was also like that. But the yearling is a beautiful disc and I highly urge people to see it, but have Kleenex handy. For sure. Well, there was another release that month that I think we just wanted to kind of briefly touch on. And that was the drunken master too. Oh, well, we're going to have to have a separate and that was the drunken master too oh well well

we're gonna have to have a separate chat about that because there's so much to discuss but in the united states drunken master 2 was not released until six years after it was made and it was released under a different title. And in a, in a truncated form, uh, it was called the legend of the drunken master and it was released in the year, I think the year 2000, but it had been made in 1994 as drunken master too. And this is starring Jackie Chan. And in 2000, Jackie Chan was a superstar on the screen. But in 1994, when it was originally released, he still wasn't known outside of Asia the way he soon would be. So Miramax picked up the rights to Drunken Master 2.

They re-edited it. They re-dubbed the original Chinese audio track and had Jackie Chan do his own dubbing. What we did, because the film reverted back to us, is we did a 4K scan off the original negative and we used the Cantonese track, the Mandarin track, and the English track that had been created by the Hong Kong filmmakers at the time of release. So you hear Jackie Chan, you know, Jackie Chan moves his mouth, but it's company is a company called Golden Harvest, and we don't own that whole library. But we bought about 200 films from the Golden Harvest Library many, many years ago. And we released Jackie Chan in another film about two years ago. And it did very, very well. And we decided we would

try to release more of the Golden Harvest product on Blu-ray. We had released Mr. Nice Guy, and that did very, very well. So we put together this edition of Drunken Master 2, which was not available in the United States in a proper fashion. The problem that ensued was so many people were used to hearing the Jackie Chan dubbed version that was cut and reworked by Miramax as the legend of the drunken master that they thought that we had done something wrong when in fact we were giving you the film exactly as it was released in 1994 with three different audio tracks. So my hope is that our resident expert on all things Golden Harvest,

a colleague here at Warner Brothers, Jeff Briggs, I would love to have him join us on your show, Tim, on the extras, just to talk about not just Drunken Master 2, but Golden Harvest and the very strong popularity of Hong Kong cinema in the United States. And it's all through the country. It's not on the East Coast or the West Coast. It's all through the United States. There's a rabid fan base for Hong Kong cinema. And I think we plan on releasing more of the titles, not just with Jackie Chan. And it's something I'm very interested to talk about with Jeff because he is truly an expert. Just as when we talked about Angels with Dirty Faces and Alan Rohde joined me to talk about Michael Curtiz because Alan is his biographer and he is an expert on all things Curtiz. And I think one of the delights of being able to join you on this podcast

is to bring on a true expert like Jerry Beck talking about animation and sharing those kinds of conversations. It's really interesting. But for those of you who don't know Drunken Master 2, and if you're a Jackie Chan fan, you'll want to join the clan of Chan fans who need to own that Blu-ray. So go out and get it. I look forward to that. Hopefully we'll be able to make that happen before too long.

So everybody can stay tuned for that in this coming year. Thanks again to Warner Brothers executive George Feltenstein for coming on the show today. I hope you have enjoyed his review of some of the Warner Archive Blu-ray releases for May of 2021. his review of some of the Warner Archive Blu-ray releases for May of 2021. For those of you interested in learning more about the show, please check out our website at www.theextras.tv, where we also have a complete listing of all of our Warner Archive episodes. Also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter at TheExtrasTV or Instagram at TheExtras.tv to stay up to date on the latest episodes and for exclusive images and behind-the-scenes information

about the episodes and upcoming guests. And if you're enjoying the show, please subscribe and leave us a review at iTunes, Spotify, or your favorite podcast provider. That will ensure you don't miss any of your favorite guests. Until next time, you've been listening to The Extras with 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.