The Extras - Warner Archive October 28th Release Announcement: Four Classic Films starring Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Barbara Stanwyck, and John Garfield

Episode Date: September 25, 2025

Send us a textGeorge Feltenstein joins us to discuss four classic films releasing on Blu-ray from Warner Archive on October 28th, following the previously announced October 14th releases. These restorations showcase Warner Archive's commitment to preserving cinema history with pristine 4K scans from original negative elements whenever possible.• Manhattan Melodrama (1934) - The first on-screen pairing of William Powell and Myrna Loy, with Clark Gable, restored from preservation elements with rare Ted Healy and His Stooges shorts as extras• Out of the Fog (1941) - John Garfield and Ida Lupino star in this pre-WWII drama about fascism, featuring a 4K scan from original camera negative• The Mad Miss Manton (1938) - Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda's first pairing in this screwball comedy from RKO, beautifully restored from the camera negative• The Master of Ballantrae (1953) - Errol Flynn's final Warner Bros. swashbuckler, shot in stunning Technicolor by Jack Cardiff on location in England and Scotland• All releases include period-appropriate cartoon shorts and theatrical trailers when available• Warner Archive continues to prioritize physical media, offering film collectors pristine versions of classic cinemaLook for pre-order information on our Facebook page and in the Warner Archive Facebook group. 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, I'm Paul Hemstreet, former senior vice president of creative content for Warner Home Entertainment, and you're listening to The Extras with Tim Millard. Hello and welcome to The Extras. I'm Tim Millard, your host. And joining me is George Feltonstein to announce more of the October Blu-ray releases from the Warner Archive. Hi, George. Hello, Tim. There is more to discuss and it's exciting. October is such a huge month. We had to split it up so that people can get all the information. that you provide. And we previously recorded a October 14th release. So people should check that out if they haven't yet. And today, these are going to be four classic films releasing on October

28th. Right. And let's go in alphabetical order again. Okay. So first up, first up, we have Manhattan Melodrama from 1934. What can you tell us about this film? Well, this film is representative of a group of films that were made at MGM under the supervision of producer David O. Selsnick. And David O'Sousselnick was the son-in-law of L.B. Mayor. And he left, being the head of production at RKO, to move to MGM. It turned out to be a very brief period of time. but that time also was a time when Irving Thalberg was on basically a leave from the studio due to medical conditions.

He had a very weak heart. So Selznick started off right away with a smash hit following Thalberg's chemistry and design with Grand Hotel of an all-star mega film and Selsnik's was dinner at eight in 1933. So Selsnick produced 11 films, I believe, during his brief tenure at MGM and then he formed his own company. But one of his earliest successes during that period and a very famous movie is Manhattan melodrama. And it just happens to be the first of many screen pairings before the thin man of William Powell and Myrna Loy. And they are joined with the star of the movie, which happens to be someone who was a little popular at MGM named Clark Gable. So when you've got Gable, William Powell, Mernaloy,

and a great supporting cast, and a very, very powerful story. about basically two orphan kids because the picture opens up with the William Powell character and the Clark Gable character as kids and their best friends. And actually Clark Gable's character, Blackie, as a child, is played by a 13 or 14-year-old Mickey Rooney, which is very interesting. And the film's basic story takes place as those characters are adults who are in different sides of the law. And so Clark Gable is kind of the gangster, but he's Clark Gable, so you got to love him. You know what I mean?

And William Powell is, you know, the good guy. and they both, they both have their eyes on one beautiful woman played by Myrna Lois. And therein lies the story. It was co-written by Joseph L. Manquitch, who had an incredible career in cinema, spent many years at MGM, mostly as a producer and a writer. And it was in his later years at Twentistry Fox that he did things. like Letter to Three Wives and All About Eve. So the pedigree of this movie is spectacular. And W.S. Van Dyke is the director,

but there were a couple of scenes that were shot by George Kukor when Van Dyke was not available. This is very much a studio concoction. It was a huge hit at the box office. But the thing it's most famous for really is nothing to do with the movie. at all, and that is, this is the film that John Dillinger saw at the Biograph Theater of Chicago, Illinois, and the cops and the feds were waiting for him when he came out of the theater, and that was the end of Dillinger. So the film was better known for that than its actual movie itself, but it was a big hit and very well received, and it was part

of Selsnik's thinking of creating a movie that would just be automatically popular with the audiences of the day. And it was one of MGA's biggest hits in 1934. Every time I see these 1930, 31, 32, the early 30s restorations are that they're going to be restored here in HD. I'm so looking forward to them because we're talking a 91-year-old film. And now it gets the treatment, gets a 4K scan. And, you know, it's just going to look fantastic. It does. Yeah.

And the stars speak for themselves, obviously. And it's really fun that this is, you know, Powell and Loy before the Thin Man. And I'm just such a big fan of those as almost everybody is. So really looking forward to this. Now, do you have some extras on here? Yes, we do. We have very special extras, actually, because we have two MGM shorts. And both of them feature the team known as Ted Healy and his stooges.

And basically Ted Healy served as like the straight man to these three wackos that were Howard, Fine, and Howard. And they called him his stooges. And of course, it was Mo Howard, Larry Fine, and Jerry Howard, better known as Curley. So Mo, Larry and Curley, along with Ted Haley, were under contract to MGM, appeared in a few features, but mostly appeared in a series of six shorts that give you a glimpse of what was ahead for them when they broke away from Ted Healy, went to Columbia Pictures, and with Mo and Larry staying all the way through, Curley, retired due to health reasons. The 40s was replaced by Shemp, and then eventually by Joe Dorita. But for almost, I'd say close to 25 years, it wasn't exactly that, but a little less than that, they were making two real shorts for Columbia, which probably provided them more money at Columbia than most of the feature films they made, because Columbia during the 30s and 40s was

with some very notable exceptions, a B movie studio. They would occasionally make an A movie with Frank Capra involved or later Rita Hayworth. It made some really great movies, but they didn't really become a major studio to be reckoned with until the later part of the 50s and the 60s and so forth. So the Stooges' legacy is important. And so we have two shorts, the big idea, which is in black and white, and then roast beef and movies, which I believe is in early two color, technicolor. And it's just a delight for people to be able to see them. They're very much a product of their time.

And we also have a Manhattan melodrama radio, Lux Radio broadcast, audio only, that does. bring back William Powell and Myrna Loy to recreate their roles for the radio productions. From 1940, Clark Gable is not in the radio version, but just to have Powell and Loy, that's pretty good. I always love when we can put on a classic radio broadcast, and this has got the trailer, so it's a very strong release on multiple levels. And I should note that, like most, unfortunately, like most MGM films, black and white that were shot on nitrate, the negative went up in the fire at Eastman House in 1978. So we're working from second generation preservation elements, but it looks so great that I think people would say, I can't believe this isn't from the negative. But it's the next best thing and we're lucky to have it. Yeah, I'm looking forward to this one.

I've been watching some of these, you know, Stooges, pieces that you've been putting on, and they're very entertaining, very entertaining. So it's fun to see those on there. We're delighted to be able to present them, and they're in HD, which is nice. Yeah, that's pretty good, too. Well, next up, we have a film from 1941 called Out of the Fog. What can you tell us about this release? Well, Out of the Fog is a very interesting film.

Some people consider it to be a film noir. I don't know if I would agree with that, but people's definitions of noir, they are subject to interpretation. What's important about this film is it stars John Garfield and Ida Lupino. It deals with, as some Warner films of that era did, with prospective fascism and, you know, not great people, along with very good people. And it's set in a small town, and it was actually adapted from a play by Irwin Shaw.

It was probably best known for having written the book, Rich Man, Poor Man, which became... a very important miniseries on television in the late 70s, but Erwin Shaw wrote this play called The Gentle People. And this is kind of a pre-World War II warning about the allure and danger that fascism could create. And Garfield, I find to be remarkable in almost everything he did because he was so, you know, he was a byproduct of the group theater in New York in the late 30s. And he brought a very different acting style to his work.

And almost every film he did, even if the film isn't like top notch, there were a few he did that were like moderate films versus instant classics. but he's always fascinating to watch. This is an important film, and it's a film that doesn't get enough credit for the kind of storytelling it provides. The acting is really superb. Garfield and Lupino are wonderful. Thomas Mitchell, who is so well-known

for so many wonderful supporting roles, I mean, he was Scarlett O'Hara's father, gone with the wind. The same year he was in stagecoach, which he won the supporting actor Oscar for. And he also had a very important role in Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. That was just in 1939. And he worked up until his death in the early 60s. He was a great, great supporting actor. And he's got a great role in this. And the screenplay is very tight and written by very impressive screenwriters, Robert Rosen and Jerry Wald, both of whom contributed to the screenplay for the Roaring 20s from 1939,

which is another Warner Classic. And this was directed by Anato Lidvac, who was one of the top directors at Warner Brothers during this era. So it's very much a film worthy of rediscovery if you haven't seen it. And happily, this is a 4K scan. off the camera negative and our previous iterations and what you've been seeing on TV is kind of looks like it's been run through a meat grinder. So the leap up to a 4K scan off the camera negative is quite impressive here. Yeah. And it's a very, very memorable film and very prescient,

unfortunately, given the world in its current state. But the disc also does come with a few extras. We've added two superb cartoons from 1941, the heckling hair, which is a Texavery Bugs Bunny cartoon that I happen to be very much a fan of. And Hollywood steps out, which is the Warner Brothers Cartoon Unit, basically skewering Hollywood celebrities of the era. And both of those are in HD, and then we have the theatrical trailers. So it's a very, very nifty package, and I think people will like it. Yeah, and this is two months in a row that we get a Ida Lupino film. Yep.

At the hard way last month. And the man I love seems like it was just something we released a few months ago, but that was over a year ago. Right, right, yeah. They drive by night. We've tried to give Ida her due. Yeah. And I hope that we can bring more of her films out to the public for certain.

that's great for for fans well next we have the mad miss manton from 1938 what can you tell us about this screwball comedy well that you just said the magic words you said screwball comedy barbara stanwick was at home doing very serious drama and she was also exceptional at screwball comedies. This is from RKO in 1938. This is another 4K scan off the camera negative. A rarity when it comes to

RKO movies, and this is another movie that's been looking awful for years that now looks great. And Stanwick plays opposite, none other than Henry Fonda. This was their first screen appearance together. And Stanwick plays

a madcap New York rich lady. who somehow gets involved initially in being a prankster and finds herself in the middle of a murder mystery. And Henry Fonda is a New York City reporter out to find out the truth about the murder and ends up falling in love with Stanwyk. And it's 80 minutes long,

so it moves with tremendous pulsation. And there's not a wasted frame in the movie. It's very efficient filmmaking. And the two of them together on the screen are just terrific. It's a delight. It really is. And this disc we've added two Warner Brothers cartoons to the presentation, the Penguin Parade and Porky, the Gob, Porky being Porky Pig.

And both those cartoons are in HD. And this is one of those Archao movies where we actually still had a trailer. because probably 95% of our archa-movies, we don't have a trailer. Right. Because they didn't make their trailers themselves. They farmed them out to National Screen Service. So when the library was sold, there weren't a bunch of negatives for trailers sent along with it. So this one we happened to procure a couple of years ago, and it's on the disc.

So it's going to be a wonderful presentation and quite a step up from what we had on DVD. I'm very, very proud of it. I think people will love it. Yeah, and people are always asking winners. They're going to be more, Stenwick, winners, there are going to be more of her films. So here you go. And, you know, a comedy at that so that people can add this to their collection. Well, I've been delighted at the response since we announced that this was coming out.

People were like, oh, my God, I love this movie. I'm so glad it's coming. So that is very gratified. and I hope people will really enjoy it. I'm confident of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a lot of fun. Let's see here. We have one more film, and this one, it's special in a lot of ways, of course, but it's a swashbuckler from 1953, the master of Ballantray. What can you tell us about this release? Well, this was Errol Flynn's final swashbuckler at Warner Brothers as a contract player. He would return. heard to the studio one more time

right before his untimely death to play John Barrymore in the story of John Barrymore's daughter, Diana, too much too soon. That was his final Warner Brothers' appearance. But this was the last appearance of Flynn, you know, running out his contract at Warner Brothers. He had been under contract there for about 18 years.

And this is, of course, based on a Robert Louis Stevenson novel, and it is beautifully shot in Technicolor by the master of color cinematography, Jack Cardiff. And it was shot in England on location. So you have that wonderful look of what I call British Technicolor, because there's something about how the films that were shot three-stripped technicolor looked due to the lighting and the cinematography. You know, the outdoor shots reflected the fact that it was very cloudy in England most often. And it's a luscious-looking technicolor film, and we have applied our proprietary technology and using our technical registration abilities to make this

just a dazzling 90 minutes of fun. It also comes with two 1953 Warner Brothers cartoons. Plop Goes the Weasel and one of my very favorite Bugs Bunny cartoons, bully for bugs. So there's an original trailer on it. It's a wonderful package. And this has been very highly requested. The last time this arrived in people's collections was when we released a snapper DVD somewhere around 2002 or 2003. So this has been a long time coming. And the difference between this and what we had previously is staggering.

So I tend to maybe seem like I'm too enthusiastic about the improvement of the picture presentation. but that's how much these films are improved by getting a 4K scan from the original, in this case, from the original to color negatives, it's just a glorious thing to see. And Errol Flynn, unfortunately, lived life on the edge. It's no secret that he was a heavy smoker, he was a heavy drinker. I think, if I'm doing my math correctly, he was only in his early, early 40s when he made this, but he looked like he was 60.

You know, I mean, you really could see the wear and tear and the age on his face. But that doesn't take away from the real joy of the fun of this movie. And I should also mention this was not just shot in England, but it was also shot partially in Scotland, which wasn't too far away. And they really wanted to make this a humdinger of a swashbuckler, and they succeeded. And so we're delighted to finally answer the cries from consumers who wanted to see the Master of Ballantre.

They're always asking for more Earl Flynn, and we have a lot more Arrow Flynn that we're working on right now, which is very exciting. Yeah. Because we made a lot of movies for this studio. and it's our job to fix him up, make him look great, and bring him back out on Blu-ray. I'm a huge fan, and so I love it every time you mention,

you know, that you have one of his films coming out. So, and then I'm also a huge fan about these Technicolors, and you have two in the month of October. We already talked about the one coming out on the 14th, lovely to look at, and then now this one on the 28th. So, Technicolor fans can rejoice that they have a double dose in the month of October. Absolutely. Yeah.

And you have two noir in October as well. Like, there's a, it's just a loaded month for classic films, October 14th, four classic films on October 28th. And of Curse of Frankenstein, which is a seminal horror classic on the, 14th as well. Yeah. And in one of our rare ventures into 4K. Right. So we're very excited about all of it.

Yeah. And then you have those film collections also on the 14th. So October is hacked. It's a loaded month. It really is. And it's fantastic to go into October and toward the end of the season with so many films for the classic film fan. Well, as always, George, thank you for coming on and explaining and giving us all the details and the fun stories.

I love your stories, George, and I get so many comments for the podcast where people say, I love hearing from George. I love his stories and the details. And that's the fun part of listening to the podcast or watching the YouTube channel is getting these directly from you. So thank you again. It's my pleasure. And I love being able to spread the word. Because so many of these films do have a very interesting backstory.

Yeah. And all of these films have a place on classic film collector's shelves. And that's why we say physical media rules. Nothing better. That's right. Physical media rules. Thanks, George. Thank you, Tim.

For those who'd like more information about the titles announced today, we will have postings on our Facebook page and in our Warner, Archive Facebook group, and we'll also put the pre-orders there when they become available. And as I mentioned, this is part two of the October announcements. There were four titles announced for release on October 14th. You can look for that podcast or video on our YouTube page so that you can catch up on those if you would like. October is a great month with a lot of releases, so there's a lot of information you'll

want to check out to be sure that you heard about all of the great Blu-rays and 4K is coming from the Warner Archive in October. 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 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.