The Extras - Warner Archive November Announcement: Marx Bros, Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Technicolor & Technirama

Episode Date: October 14, 2025

Send us a textSeven new Blu-rays land for November with new 4K restorations that fix past audio issues, honor original aspect ratios, and bring back theatrical context with shorts and radio plays. We also unveil three film collections for Gene Kelly, Doris Day, and James Cagney.• Marx Bros At the Circus with era-accurate shorts and trailer• Powell and Loy’s I Love You Again with a Lux Radio Theater adaptation• Bette Davis’s underrated comedy It’s Love I’m After in a fresh 4K scan• Errol Flynn’s Silver River with corrected sound and matched cartoons• Davis and Cagney’s The Bride Came C.O.D. plus Warner Night at the Movies• Technicolor showcase The Iron Mistress and Alan Ladd’s studio shift• The Miracle restored Technirama from a 6K scan • Why film collections exist and how to use them to start or gift librariesPre-order links are only available for the film collections: JAMES CAGNEY COLLECTION BLU-RAYGENE KELLY COLLECTION BLU-RAYDORIS DAY COLLECTION BLU-RAY The Extras Facebook pageThe Extras Twitter Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog Group As an Amazon Affiliate, The Extras may receive a commission for purchases through our purchase links. There is no additional cost to you, and every little bit helps us in the production of the podcast. Thanks in advance. Otaku 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. [e-mail]

Hi, this is filmmaker Constantine Nassar, and you're listening to The Extras with my good friend, Tim Millard. Hello and welcome to The Extras. I'm Tim Millard, your host, and joining me is George Feltonstein to announce the November Blu-A releases from the Warner Archive. Good morning, George. Good morning, Tim. An exciting day to talk about seven new exciting releases. Yeah, and I was just seeing that seven. I mean, you had eight in October, so it's quite an abundance. of releases here toward the end of the year. What has led to that? Basically, they were ready. We have so many different films in different stages of mastering, production, pre-production, evaluation of film elements, so forth and so on. Some things get done quicker than others.

And if it's ready, I'd like to get it out to the people so they can put the discs on their shelves. Right. I think it's a really nifty lineup of good, good films. The response that we've gotten since we announced on Friday has been really very gratifying and very exciting. Yeah, yeah. And I know that just last month you're telling us that there are so many that you have being worked on now that have been approved. So this is an abundance, but fans can hope and look forward to more of this. continuing as we go into the end of the year and into next year. But let's dive into these, because you have a lot to go through. And let's start off with a few laughs. Why don't we?

First up, you have a Marks Brothers film at the circus from 1939. Tell us about this film. Well, this is the film where Groucho introduced one of his more famous songs, Lydia the Tattooed Lady. and I think that's the thing that this film is best known for we released a night at the opera we released a day at the races

a little while later and at the circus was almost going to be called a day at the circus and they decided to trim the title so it wouldn't be a night a day you know and they thought they were going to be boxed in

but this was the first Marks Brothers film that was done without any input or direction or oversight from Irving Thalberg. Irving Thalberg was the reason the Marx Brothers came to MGM, and he died before a day at the races was released, but he was involved with its early preparation. This went into pre-production and preparation without any vestige of Thalberg. but it has a very witty screenplay

it also is a very brisk running time so we do get to have the obligatory harpo musical number and Chico playing the piano but there isn't that much that takes away from the

storytelling of the Marx brothers themselves and of course you have the requisite love interests of Kenny Baker, Florence Rice. There are nice songs in this film that were written by staff songwriters that were working on another picture that year called The Wizard of Oz.

Harold Arlen and E.Y. Yip Harburg wrote the songs for this movie. And they're mostly cute, but Lydia the Tattoo Lady is the one that went on to fame, especially since Groucho would perform it here and there. And of course, there are perennial foils, specifically Grouchos, Margaret Dumont is here as part of the proceedings. And it's just a very cute, fun film. And the Marks Brothers only made 13 feature films, if my memory is serving me correctly.

And we have six in our library. We have five from MGM, and one from RKO. So having at the circus ready to go now was something I was really delighted about because we know people want more Marks Brothers and we're happy to provide. Yeah, that's exciting.

Last month, we just talked about some of the shorts that you had put on some of the releases in October. So that was kind of a nice little tease. Now you're going to get the whole thing here with this release. And what extras do you have on here? Because you said the running time is a little shorter. Yeah, we have the cartoon and the short subject that I believe we had on the DVD. We have an R Gang comedy from 1939 Dog Days.

And then we have a 1939 black and white MGM cartoon called Jitterbug Follies. We have the audio trailer that MGM prepared for radio stations at the time. Leo is on the air, and that's on the disc, and of course the theatrical trailer. So it's a very neat little package, but people who are Marks Brothers diehard fans, and there are a lot of them, thankfully still, we're happy to add another title onto the shelf from the Marks Brothers. Yeah, I love it. And just in time for the holidays, whether it's Thanksgiving or Christmas.

So it's going to be fun. Everybody needs some humor in their life. And it's great to have the Marks Brothers coming out on Blu-ray. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, next we have I Love You Again from 1940. What can you tell us about this romantic comedy? well we know that people are pretty much in love with the thin man movies because of

William Powell and Myrna Loy and for October we're releasing Manhattan melodrama with them which was the first movie they made before the thin man but after the thin man movies became a series there were already three thin man movies made by the the time they made i love you again and this is amnesia uh themed comedy where paul and loy are just perfect and uh it's hard to imagine them ever not being perfect but the script is very w s van dyke was once again their director he had directed them in their thin man movies and it moves along as a clip and Powell is really wacky in this movie and Loy is Loy and it's just a very popular entertainment and it was very successful at the box office and very well received when it came out

so there are still other movies with Powell and Loy that we haven't gotten to upgrade yet but I'm hoping that this will continue so this is all very very good good news. Yeah, two months in a row to get films from them that, you know, people have been, I'm sure, eager to see on Blu-ray with these new remasters that you put out is great fun. So, and then what do you have four extras on here? Well, we have a Lux Radio Theater broadcast with Murna Loy, but not William Powell. Carrie Grant takes over the William Powell role for the radio broadcast. It was done about close to a year

after the film was released theatrically. The radio show was done in 1941. There was another Lux Radio Theater many years later with William Powell and another female leading lady, that of Anne Southern. That is not on this disc.

But we do have one, and it's a pretty substantial performance and quite enjoyable. And we always like to include those were possible. We also have a Fitzpatrick Travel Talks short subject called Cavalcade of San Francisco from 1940. And we have an MGM cartoon from 1940 in high definition called The Milky Way.

And there were actually two MGM cartoons nominated for Best Animated Short for the year 1940. The other one was something called Puss Gets the Boot. which, as we have discussed previously, I would imagine, we've discussed it, was the film that ended up launching Tom and Jerry. But the Milky Way won the Oscar. So that's a wonderful little addition here. And, of course, we have the theatrical trailer. So it's, once again, a 4K scan from our best preservation elements.

It looks terrific, it sounds terrific, because everything goes through an audio restoration as well as remastering. So this is a must add to the collection for real hardcore cinephiles. Yeah, yeah. Well, we have for our next film another comedy, and it also has the word love in it. So that might be a little bit of a theme here. But it's the 1937 film, It's Love I'm After. What can you tell us about this film? This is pretty interesting in the fact that Betty Davis had been lent to RKO in 1934 so that she could star opposite Leslie Howard in the very famous classic film of Human Bondage.

And they formed an immediate friendship, and Leslie Howard was considered quite an important actor from, you know, the British theater and had established himself as a cross-continental movie star, if you will. They made another film together at Warner Brothers, The Petrified Forest, 1936, with Humphrey Bogart, recreating his role as Duke Man. T. But Betty Davis was not happy with the roles that Warner Brothers was giving her, and she basically went on strike. I think we may have talked about this in the past, but she went to London and basically did not win legally her case to be off of contract. So she returned to the studio. And she always used to say, I lost the battle, but I won the war. Because when she did come back, they had much better scripts waiting for her. And I believe the first film she made upon her return to the studio was Marked Woman, which is a tremendous, I think somewhat underrated

film where she's magnificent and very strong. And then after that, that she had expressed interest in wanting more diversity of roles. And this is a light comedy. It's kind of got screwball aspects to it. But basically, Leslie Howard and Betty play an on again, off again, romantic couple in real life who are teamed together on the stage. And it's a very, very well-written and very well-performed comedy. And Olivia DeHavland, who is a lifelong best friend for Betty Davis, she has a role as a star-struck young person who's got a thing for Leslie Howard.

So there are various multiple romantic complications. but it's just kind of fun to see they kind of lampoon a little bit, you know, the high tone theatrics of the era, especially there's a scene where Betty Davis and Leslie Howard are doing a scene from Romeo and Juliet. And of course, Leslie Howard had played Romeo about 25 years older than the character

is supposed to be at MGM a year before. So they're having a great deal of fun and that fun comes through in the film. And fans hold this in very high regard. You know, the Betty Davis, she's not given enough credit for her comedic talents. And we're very happy that this is a 4K scan off the camera negative. It hasn't been mastered in about 30 years. I think it's time. So, you know, every time we do this, we're getting to protect the film and as well make it look and sound the best that it can be. I've always thought this was a very underrated movie.

Again, you know, with a career like Betty Davis had and like Olivia DeHavalin had, there are many times where there are films that sometimes aren't supposed. talking about. But this film, I think, has been, it's been around. It's been on TCM. Sometimes it played revival theaters. But it's not as well known as some of the others, but it's also held in very high regard. And we're glad to be adding this to the filmography of all the individuals involved in its creation. Well, Betty Davis fans, you promised them that more was coming, and so here we go. Here's one that they can add to their home collection. And you have some HD extras on here.

Yes, we have two Porky Pig cartoons in glorious black and white. Porky's building and Porky's Bad Time Story, both from 1937. And we have the theatrical trailer. and it's going to be a terrific disc. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's always great to see for those who pay attention to the cartoons that you're putting on here for the extras when they're in HD, so that's a good one. Next, we have a drama from 1948, Silver River.

What can you tell us about this film? Well, this is like a Western drama, you know, and one of the, the things I can say about this is that it was the last time, pretty sure of this, that Errol Flynn and Ann Sheridan worked together. And Flynn was pretty much at top of his game when this film was made, and it was quite popular. And one of the things that was gnawing at me about this film is if anybody had seen the DVD

that we put out not only did it not look really good, it didn't. But it sounded really awful. It was like warbling, wobbling. This was in need of restoration

in a big way. And we do have several Arrow Flynn film in various stages of production, so people can look forward to more aeroplane coming from us. This is very, very entertaining.

And it's Raoul Walsh directing, so it's not exactly a chopped liver movie, that's for sure. And again, it's a 4K scan off the original camera negative, and there's some really great performances in this. Anne Sheridan is she's never not great. You know, you also have Thomas Mitchell, who is one of my favorite character actors, who has a pretty substantial role. And there's a lot of wit to this movie. It's very well written.

And I think people will enjoy it greatly. And, of course, it's got the music by Max Steiner just to put the cherry on top of the Sunday. So that's exciting. Right. And you just had an Errol Flynn coming out in October as well. Master of Ballantre. So, again, some of the stars of Warner Brothers, the brightest stars, you're making sure to bring more of their content out here toward the end of the year.

So it's terrific. And you have some more nice extras on here as well. We have two terrific cartoons from the same year. We have Rabbit Punch and two Gophers from Texas. And I did actually, as I usually do, I try to find out what cartoons. played with a specific feature for short and cartoon and matched them up. So it is a little bit more historically meaningful. So when Silver River opened in Los Angeles, the ads proclaimed it was with Bugs Bunny in Rabbit Punch.

So Rabbit Punch is here. And we've got Rabbit Punch at two gophers from Texas with. Mac and Tosh, my favorite gophers. And both cartoons are in HD. And we have the theatrical trailer, and it's going to be a beautiful disc. Yeah. Well, next we have a 1941 comedy, The Bride Came COD. What can you tell us about this release?

Well, this is the second and final pairing of Betty Davis and James Cagney. Note that Cagney gets billing over Davis. It was unusual for Cagney to do comedy, but he had over the years made some impressive comic performances among his many others. Here he was teamed with Betty Davis. So the sparks fly in this, again, a romantic screwball comedy. From what I understand, I believe that Anne Sheridan was supposed to be who the studio chose for this movie. And she turned it down and Davis was happy to take up the opportunity to do something

because she was doing very heavy dramas one after another. And this was a nice break for her. And you can tell that everybody involved in the film is having a good time. And there are a lot of the standard Warner Brothers supporting players. It's just a lot of fun. And it moves at a clip. It's very, very entertaining. One of the things that we've done for this release is replicate what we did for it

when it came out as a DVD about, I'm saying, over 20 years ago. But we're doing Warner Night, the movies, 1941. So all the things we had that would recreate the true movie-going experience so that you can watch the newsreel, two shorts, and on the DVD, it was two cartoons. We've added a third cartoon. And then finally, the feature film. So you can watch all of that. We also added another cartoon, which wouldn't fit in Warner Night, the movies.

because it was made in 1942. So we have it as a standalone cartoon, but the reason that is on here is because it was called the bird came COD. And Warner Brothers would do this a lot. They would put out, you know, instead of angels with dirty faces,

you got thugs with dirty mugs. They would often play on, you know, instead of all this in heavy, and two, all this in rabbits do. They made fun of their own titles. And so I had to put the Bird Came COD on here in high-def, which is great. And then we have a Lux Radio Theater broadcast of the Bride Came COD with Neri a Warner Brothers star appended to the broadcast.

You have Paramount Contract Player Bob Hope taking over for Jimmy Cagney. and you have MGM glamour gal Hetty Lamar taking over for Betty Davis. So it's a very different dynamic in the audio presentation, which I think people will find very interesting. This is going to be a loaded disc with a lot of fun. And the film is really quite delightful. It's very well written, very well-paced. The Epstein brothers wrote the screenplay. And their work on so many classic Warner movies is already spoken for itself.

So I don't think anybody will be disappointed in this. And again, like all the Warner films that we've talked about today are 4K scans from the nitrate camera negatives. So they're going to look. I've seen early versions, and they look tremendous. and this is no exception. And another one desperately in need of a new coat of paint. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, that's exciting to Betty Davis now that we've talked about here. Well, you have been treating Technicolor fans with something almost every month, very often anyway. And here in November, you have another one. The Iron Mistress from 1952. So, very exciting. What can you tell us about this film? Well, this is an interesting film on a lot of levels, because it basically is a biography of Jim Bowie, who invented what is very famously the Bowie knife, which people still use today. But this was also a sumptuous technicolor production.

And when we do our Technicolor Restorations with our proprietary equipment, the results are pretty stunning. And this one just looks gorgeous. And also gorgeous is Allen Ladd's leading lady Virginia Mayo, who he would work with again here at Warner Brothers. But this film was the top grossing Warner Brothers film from 1952. It was a really big hit when it came out. And it is Alan Ladd's first film at Warner Brothers and first film after a 10-year contracted period at Paramount where he had become a star with his appearance in This Gun for Hire.

And there were, I think, two films, Ladd completely. fleeted at Paramount that were released after his contract period was over, most notably Shane, which sat on the shelf for like a year and a half before they released it in 1953. But this was his first of many films he made here at Warner Brothers, and he worked at other studios as well. He did Universal and I believe he did. UA and Columbia, he made his way around, but he made, I would say, post-paramount, most of

his work was here. He had, eventually had his own production company working through Warner Brothers Jaguar Productions, but that was not to happen for a few more years. This was him basically being a free agent. I think he's somewhat neglected and somewhat forgotten, especially today, I think some of his other films and some of the ones that we've put out on DVD and whatnot, I mean, I think that helps people realize that he was a really incredible screen presence. And it explains his screen stardom that lasted for many, many years. He had a very untimely death at a very young age. but his work on the screen speaks for itself.

And this being a technicolor film, it was certainly screaming out that it needed to be beautiful. And it almost has a 3D appearance to it. It's just, it's so beautiful to look at. And it was directed by Gordon Douglas, who was a very prominent director, not just at Warner Brothers, in the 50s.

He did a lot of work here at the studio and sort of got to start as a director, directing our gang comedies at Hal Roach, and he did two of them, I think, when the series moved from Hal Roach to MGM. But it's a great entertaining film, a lot of fun, beautiful production values. And the disc itself, again, comes with two technicolor cartoons in high definition, cracked quack and hair lift. And I think you can figure out from the titles, who's in those cartoons.

Right. And you have the trailer there as well. Of course, yes. Yeah. This is a nice long movie at 110 minutes. It's a substantial film and it was given, you know, a wonderful first class released by the studio. And that's why it performed as well as it did at the box office.

So this is long overdue. to get the upgrade and people who are fans of Alan Ladd will really, really enjoy this movie. Well, next we have a very interesting film. I'm looking forward to hearing about this one, George. It's The Miracle from 1959. What can you tell us about this film? Well, this is a very interesting film on so many levels. This is based on, I don't want to really say a play, but a theatrical spectacular that was seen on the stage around 1911, I believe.

It started in London and then made its way around the world. And it's a faith-based story, and it's a historical story. And Warner Brothers announced that they were going to make the film as early as 1942, and they had the rights. And it fell in and out of production for numerous reasons over the next 17 years. Finally, in 1959, it went before the cameras. And the studio wanted to create something that was, epic in its storytelling. And what you see in the 1950s, of course, most famously, we have

movies like The Ten Commandments. And even in 1959, a little later, well, it was actually simultaneous. MGM was releasing Ben Hur around the time that Warner Brothers released the miracle. And they put Irving Rapper, who directed. at Now Voyager at Rhapsody and Blue. And he was a Warner contract director for a while. He had gone to work at other studios. They brought him back as the director for this. But because of the epic and reverential storytelling,

they decided to use the technorama process. And that's why we have explained this was a 6K scan because Technorama was similar to Vista vision in that it ran through the camera horizontally. What's different about this from Vista is the aspect ratio is 2.35 to 1, which is what Cinemascope aspect ratio was in 1959. So when you shot in Technorama,

the release prints were traditional, scope. But you didn't have the distortions in the lens. And there weren't that many films made in Technorama, but there were some really, really big ones done by Warner Brothers. I'm thinking the first one probably was a film that was produced here and distributed by us, but it was really independently owned. Sayonara with Marlon Brando. And And the studio had a limited term of distribution on that. But the year after was Anti-Mame in 1958, that was Technorama. And the miracle was Technorama in 59.

And then after that, there were two pretty important musicals, Gypsy and the Music Man that were shot in Technorama. This film has not been on DVD ever. So this is making the leap from a. a very bad-looking VHS tape to Blu-ray with a 6K scan off the camera negative. Now, I will tell you that one of the kind of driving forces behind Warner Archive when we launched only with DVDs, we wanted to look at all the films that hadn't been on DVD yet.

And so we were planning to release the miracle as early as 2010. And we were kind of horrified because the only film element we could use, because we weren't allowed to go near the camera negatives at that time,

was an interpositive that was cut off on the sides. It was basically prepared for 185. It was hard matted. So there was no way we were going to, we would not release a film even then if it wasn't in the theatrical aspect ratio. Right.

So this has been sitting, waiting for someone to say, yes, you can now move forward with the miracle. And because we have this equipment, which we've used with our, this division releases, and we've been doing some technorama scanning as well, this was now raised. One of the things that's peculiar about Technorama is that it did not automatically go out with a stereophonic soundtrack. We don't know if Anti-Mame or The Miracle were ever sent out with stereophonic soundtracks. All we can say is for both films, there is no stereophonic soundtrack that survives. This opened at Radio City Music Hall in the holiday season of 1959. So there's nothing in any, you can't find any advertisements that says,

technorama and stereophonic sound. And if somebody finds that, it'd be great to let us know, but there's nothing we can do about it because there is nothing that survives. But it does sound great. It comes from a monomagnetic source and it looks beautiful. The leading lady is Carol Baker, and she kind of had a little bit of a tainted, because she had been in Baby Doll, which was her big breakthrough movie. Some people had difficulty with her in this faith-based storytelling, and she's basically conflicted between her faith and falling in love with none other than Roger Moore. And this is the period of time where Roger Moore was under contract to the studio,

but it had primarily been doing television. So it's great to see them at this point in their career, you know, starring together. You also have Walter Slazac, who we talked about when the Spanish Maine, when that came out. And Victoria Gassman. So it's a good cast. It's a beautifully mounted production, and it's not that well known. We have had people asking us literally since the inception of the Warner Archive, which is 16 plus years.

You know, when is the miracle coming out? It's only been on VHS. Well, that time is now. Well, that's terrific. I love it when we get these never-on-d-de-releases. Yeah. Because you do know that those fans have been long-suffering. And the VHS copies by now, which is probably worn out from watching and are so old.

So this is terrific. And just in time for the holidays, you said it's a faith-based movie. So that's perfect timing for that as well. And then what extras do you have on here, George? Well, I wrestled with this because the only thing we had that would be applicable is, again, the 1959 cartoons. But they're very much of a different mindset than the feature itself. But if you had gone to a theater, not Radio City Musical, but if you were at another theater, certainly there would be a cartoon and a short or two cartoons. So we have Bonanza Bunny and Harabian Nights starring the Oscar winning Rabbit.

They're both an HD that will make for a nice presentation. But again, because Technorama is such a phenomenal format, it will knock people's socks off when they see how great it looks with the 6K scan off the original negative. Yeah, yeah, the 6K scan definitely cut my attention. We've been working on this one for a long time, and it's gratifying to finally release it when we've been getting requests for it for so many years. Right, right. Well, seven new to Blu-ray classic films make for a terrific month.

But that's not all, folks, to quote a famous bunny. there are more of these classic films collections for November. So I thought maybe you could run us through those. And again, just letting people know, these are previously released on Blu-ray, but you just happen to be collecting them into these film collections. They're great for gifting and things like that. And I'm probably repeating myself,

but the reason that we've created these collections is to find basically a value-based way to kickstart your collection. If you don't have films of a particular star, like one of the titles this month is Doris Day. It's a four-film collection. If you don't have any Dara's Day movies, this is a great starter set because it also contains a span of, I'm seeing, about 14 years of her film career. And they're all great films.

They're all terrific. So that's what's exciting about being able to bring these out. You know, I see people, you know, excited about at the circus. And if they're waiting for a Marks Brothers collection, If we ever get to the other three Marks Brothers movies in our library, they're not going to come out in a collection with the other three that are already done. We won't mix and match. If you see a title coming out and you want it, buy it.

Because what comes in the collection basically represents, we've recouped our investment. We now have a way to make these available. for people on a lower cost per film basis. And it's terrific for gift-giving if you already have the films. But, you know, I got a letter from a consumer the other day, you know, last week, saying how much he appreciated these collections

because it enabled him to purchase films that he really wanted that was also affordable to him. And just people were really, really generally very positive in their response to them. So we've got Gene Kelly and James Cagney and Dara's Day for this month.

Well, November is a fantastic month, George, and the year is just standing so strong. So really looking forward to November 18th. And as always, thanks for coming on the podcast and sharing these announcements with us. It's my pleasure, Tim, as always. Thanks, George. Thank you, Tim. Well, those of you listening on the audio podcast, I'll just run through the names of the films in these collections.

For the Gene Kelly Collection, you have an American in Paris, for me and my gal, The Pirate, and Singing in the Rain. For the Doris Day Collection, we have Jumbo. Love Me or Leave Me, Lullaby of Broadway, and Romance of the High Seas. And then for the James Cagney collection, there are four films, Angels with Dirty Faces, The Public Enemy, White Heat, and Yankee Doodle Dandy. So three terrific collections so that you can look for those coming November 18th. And if you want more information on these and all of the films that were discussed today, you can always check out our Facebook page and our Facebook group.

And the links for that are in the podcast, show notes. And if you haven't yet subscribed, you may want to do that because there is a lot of exciting podcasts coming in the future. 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 Arch 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.