The Extras - Warner Archive September 2021 Release Highlights

Episode Date: April 25, 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 September 2021 Blu-ray releases of four films and one TV series, providing information on the preservation and restoration of the films and insights into the storylines and production.  The current TV series "Young Sheldon" Season 4 kicks off the discussion, in what is sure to be a future classic TV show.  The first film discussed is the masterful 1935 Marx Bros comedy, "A Night at the Opera," which George considers their best film.  Next is the 1953 Technicolor restoration of the western "The Naked Spur," starring James Stewart and directed by Anthony Mann.  This is followed by the 1978 gritty drama, "Straight Time,"  starring Dustin Hoffman and directed by Ulu Grossbard.  And finally, restored from the original negative is the highly suspenseful RKO release of the 1949 classic "The Window."   Available for purchase on Amazon:A Night at the Opera Blu-rayThe Naked Spur Blu-rayStraight Time Blu-rayThe Window Blu-rayYoung Sheldon S4The 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. This podcast is one of a series looking back at some highlights from the 2021 Blu-ray releases

from the Warner Archive. In this episode, Warner Brothers executive George Feltenstein takes us through some of the September 2021 releases, including Young Sheldon Season 4, A Night at the Opera, The Naked Spur, Straight Time, and The Window. So George, September is traditionally when the broadcast networks start their new seasons, at least it was in the era before streaming, but it still is to some extent. And it's also when Warner Brothers releases usually the previous season's DVDs. It was that way when I was working there for all those years in television.

And you released the last season of Young Sheldon that I worked on, which was season four in September. Tell us a little bit about bringing that to the market. market? Generally, situation comedies have not sold well on Blu-ray, and that's why there are so few of them available. There are some notable exceptions to that. The number one major exception to that is Friends for us. And then the Big Bang Theory. When Big Bang Theory came out initially on home video, it just came on DVD. There was no Blu-ray. Right.

Ray. And it was by the third season, the popularity of the show had gotten so strong that our colleagues went back to seasons one and two to make up for their mistake. And of course, the Blu-ray sales of Big Bang were huge and it was not streaming anywhere even in its later years. It did not stream anywhere until it was off the air and it streams on HBO Max. So it was a cash cow in terms of its DVD and Blu-ray popularity. But Young Sheldon, to me, I can't describe it as a sitcom. I can't even describe it as a comedy. It is a dramedy with the emphasis on comedy. It's a slice of life type of series. And you see the main character of Big Bang, Sheldon Cooper,

the whole idea of it came from actually Jim Parsons himself who played Sheldon Cooper on the Big Bang Theory. He was noticing that his own nephew was basically like Sheldon. He was like a walking genius. And at that point, and it was what would turn out to be the last season of Big Bang Theory, was the first season of Young Sheldon. They introduced the characters of his family and they got to find the most remarkable ensemble cast of actors and actresses that it was really amazing. For example, Laurie Metcalf plays Sheldon's mother in guest appearances on The Big Bang Theory. Her real-life daughter, Zoe Perry, plays the character of Mary Cooper, Sheldon's mother, 30 years earlier, which you can't ask for better casting than that.

And it's amazing the similarities and how it all sets things up uh they found a wonderfully talented young boy to play Sheldon who who is actually a blonde child Ian Armitage uh is a blonde little kid whose parents were both actors and he used to review Broadway shows on YouTube when he was like six and seven years old. And it was like, Ian loves Broadway. And somebody found him and auditioned him. And they said, this is the perfect person for Sheldon. But everybody on that show is superb. And I'm not the only person that thinks that the true standout on that show is Annie Potts as the grandmother known as Meemaw. And it started out with modest ratings that continued to build. And it's similar in a way to the way The Wonder Years was in the 80s, the way it looked back on the 60s.

This looks back on the late 80s and early 90s. Now it's currently in its fifth season. So we put Young Sheldon out since season one on Blu-ray because I went to my colleague when Young Sheldon was getting ready to come out on DVD. The thought was, oh, well, we're not going to release it on Blu-ray. It's, you know, sitcoms don't sell. I said, this isn't a sitcom. It's different. And there's enough of a crossover audience from the mega fan base of the Big Bang Theory that I think that we can be profitable in putting this out. And indeed we were. And that's why we had season four on the schedule for this year in September. And because of the pandemic, new episodes didn't air until October. But we have season five, which is currently airing on our schedule for next year in that same slot of right after Labor Day.

It's just a great place for it and we know the show got renewed for three seasons of which I think we're in the second season and ratings of television programs on traditional linear television don't make the kind of headlines that they used to and don't draw the kinds of

audiences that they used to this is one of those exceptions it does phenomenally well that they used to and don't draw the kinds of audiences that they used to. This is one of those exceptions. It does phenomenally well in the ratings. And now it's also in syndication and it's also on HBO Max. So Young Sheldon is everywhere. But if you want to own it with the absolute best quality, it's only two discs.

It's very reasonably priced. I heartily recommend picking up Young Sheldon season four and the other seasons are still available if you want to buy them too. And I assume that the extra is going to be on there. The one that I did called Cooped Up with the Coopers. And for a slice of television history, it's going to be interesting to look back at that extra. The reason I say that is they were filming some of the last episodes when the pandemic created the shutdown. And then like the rest of us, they had no idea when they would come back to work. So when it was eventually announced that the show would be show where they are the Coopers, the family,

but each of the actors that we got on the main six actors. And we did zoom interviews with them as a group of three, the three adults and the three children. And then we blended that together. But we asked them about their real life cooped up pandemic schedule and what they were doing. And it was quite interesting. And I think it's going to be one of those extras where you say you hear from the actors and these young people about what they were doing when this pandemic was going on. It's a good document that way. And it's also highly entertaining because they're all very funny.

They're an incredible ensemble. And that piece really, you know, brings home the challenges that they faced, like everybody faced, and we're continuing to face. They finally found a way to bring them back to work. And I think it adds an extra two hours to their workday that they're able to produce what they can. And the number of episodes that they made last year, there are only 16 on season four, and probably it will only be 16 on season five because the cost to make the show is pretty high as it is. cost to make the show is pretty high as it is. And then you add the cost to prepare for these COVID precautions and it makes it extraordinarily expensive. But the children are growing up and they're growing up fast. And it's kind of remarkable to see looking back at the early episodes versus the current

episodes and I think Sheldon's sister Missy uh she's uh in her I would say uh early probably early teens and I think Ian Armitage is as well And I think we're on the cusp of hearing his voice start to descend into a lower register. So anyway, I can't say enough wonderful things about the show. And I really hope that someday it gets Emmy attention because the work that's done on that show is really marvelous. The thing that frustrates me about it is the fact that the half hour that it's on television, about two thirds of the time you're watching it, you're seeing the show. And a third of the time you're seeing an, you're seeing the show. And a third of the time, you're seeing an enormous amount of commercials. I realized that's how it pays for the show to be on the air. But it's so

much more effective when you're watching it on a Blu-ray. You don't have to worry about commercials. You just can watch them one by one by one. And I think we have like, you know, eight episodes on each disc. So it's binge watching without button pushing. It's, it's great. And, uh, I highly recommend it. Well, for our next title, I'm really curious about the response you received when you announced the Blu-ray for the Marx Brothers classic A Night at the Opera. People went ballistically happy and deservedly so. So there is, I'd say, an ongoing battle amongst Marx Brothers fans of what's their best film. Is it Duck Soup, which they made at Paramount, which was such a financial fiasco that it ended their film career? And the other contestant in the contest is the night at the opera,

which was their return to the screen by going to MGM under the watchful eye of wunderkind genius young producer and head of production Irving Thalberg. He saw there was greatness in the Marx Brothers that wasn't coming through in the films they made at Paramount. And he thought that he could get things just right to make a hit film with them. And that's exactly what happened with The Night at the Opera. I happen to like it a lot more than Duck Soup,

and that's not to say anything that Duck Soup isn't entertaining. It is got great moments. But in terms of overall better film, I think A Night at the Opera wins hands down. And if I had to show somebody one film to represent the Marx Brothers, A Night at the Opera would be it. Now, this film was so popular that it was re-released and re-released and re-released and re-released and then went to television in 1956, as most films did, and found a new audience again in 1972. I don't know what triggered this, but there was something that was referred to at the time as the nostalgia boom, somewhere around 1971, movie theaters started showing regular movie theaters, started booking Marx Brothers movies, neighborhood movie houses, not revival theaters.

And so Universal, who owned the early Paramount films, and MGM suddenly found themselves making money hand over fist running the old Marx Brothers movies. And A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races was the most popular double feature of all the Marx Brothers movies. popular double feature of all the Marx Brothers movies. And so I remember seeing them. My parents took myself and my brother to see those movies. And I'd never seen the Marx Brothers before. And I became completely addicted to their humor. And, you know, they made only 13 films. They made five films at MGM with a loan out to RKO in the middle. And they made their, I think, six films at Paramount, five or six. And then the last two were independent productions that were released to United Artists.

But the quality of Annihilation at the Opera is what it is, primarily because Irving Thalberg had this idea. Marx Brothers began their career on the stage as young, like, you know, in their late teen years and whatnot, doing vaudeville and then eventually getting onto Broadway in the 20s. So Thalberg had an idea to set A Night at the Opera up as a stage play and test out the routines and bits on stage in a stage version. You know how we have, there are Broadway shows now made out of movies. Well, this was an opposite of that.

This was taking a film script and turning it into a legitimate stage production and playing small cities on the West Coast, seeing what routines worked in front of an audience and what didn't. It was really a remarkable idea. It was Thalberg's concept. And the Marx Brothers loved working for Irving Thalberg and it shows in the movie and I think probably the funniest scene I can think of in any of their movies is the stateroom scene where they're all in Groucho. So all these people go into Groucho's stateroom as he's sailing on a ship from Europe to New York.

And all these people get crammed in. It's just, it's so funny. And, you know, we're talking about something that's almost 90 years old, and it's still hysterically funny. You know, the Marx Brothers were also, I think their popularity in the early 70s was with college kids primarily due to the fact that they were anti-establishment and young people kind of hung on to that. And, you know, this is when Vietnam was still going on, but winding down. remarkable, inexplicable two-year period where the Marx Brothers movies were playing in theaters all over the United States. And I don't know if the fandom spread to other countries in that way, maybe in the UK,

but their films were popular all around the world during their heyday. And A Night at the Opera was one of the most, again, requested titles in our library. worn out or worn to death or I don't know why it was gone or what caused it to be it had to be destroyed it could have been because of nitrate decomposition but what survived on the film the best material we had was a third generation duplicate negative, but we were able to make it look so much better than it ever looked before. And it is just a timeless comedy. It holds up wonderfully. And if it isn't their best film of the 13 films they made, if someone wants to give duck soup the edge, it's certainly the best of the MGM films they made. I happen to think it's the best film they made, period. But that's up for debate. It's beloved. We have a lot of extras on the disc. We were able to interview

a lot of people for some documentaries that were produced in-house. And we also have on the disc a commentary by Leonard Maltin, who's a good friend of mine personally, and he gives a great overview of the history of the movie. So I highly recommend you upgrade to Blu-ray if you don't already own it. Night at the Opera from 1935. I'm already on it. Night at the Opera from 1935. Well, the hits in September just keep coming. This next release, I mean, I'm a big Jimmy Stewart fan.

There's tons of people who are huge Jimmy Stewart fans. But what can you tell us about the Naked Spur Blu-ray 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. on our Facebook page or look for the link in the podcast show notes. Well, this was one of the films that, you know, I was speaking about earlier when I talked about The Private Lives of Elizabeth in Essex, where the DVD was so deplorable and ugly looking.

was so deplorable and ugly looking the naked spur dvd was probably even worse than the private lives of elizabethan essex it using the original Technicolor camera negatives scanned at 4K. We're able to achieve outstanding results. You know, I sound like a broken record when I'm talking about how beautiful these masters and restorations are, But this is the work of Warner Brothers Motion Picture Imaging and the talented people that work there and what they're able to achieve just blows my mind. But The Naked Spur is one of five Westerns that starred Jimmy Stewart and were directed by Anthony Mann. And Anthony Mann has a cult following for his directorial efforts. He made some film noir that are really amazing. And he made a whole bunch of films with Jimmy Stewart,

five of which were Westerns. bunch of films with Jimmy Stewart, five of which were Westerns. I believe the first one they did together was Winchester 73. And that was a universal film. And it was, it's notable for the fact that Jimmy Stewart made the film under a system that didn't really take hold. He was kind of a groundbreaker. He had his agent negotiate a one picture deal, not a contract. Because the studio contract systems were being challenged by what Stewart did. He made a deal with Universal to do the one picture and had a piece of the profits. under the studio system had the actors and the directors and everybody else involved working under work for hire basis under a seven-year employment contract with the studio.

Well, Jimmy Stewart had been an MGM contract player. Then he went into the armed forces during World War II. I believe he was with the Air Force and flew into battle many times, risking his life. And he was decorated for his bravery and came back to the United States, came back to Hollywood, a changed man. And the first film he made when he came back was It's a Wonderful Life, which is a very different kind of film. Now it's one of the most beloved films and shown every Christmas. When it came out, it was not a success. It only became a success decades later when it fell into the public domain and was suddenly shown on every television station like hourly at Christmas time.

And the company that owns it thankfully found a way to re-protect its copyright and to stop the public domain usage of the property, restore the film, spend a lot of money restoring the film. and now it's a wonderful life looks amazing and it's it's on 4k and blu-ray it's from another company so i don't want to be shilling for them but the point is is that this is the beginning of the second phase of jimmy stewart's film career and he wasn't tied down to mgm after he had made a couple of pictures for them. So he went to Universal and made Winchester 73 with Anthony Mann and made more films with Anthony Mann and then went with Anthony Mann to MGM to film The Naked Spur in Technicolor. It's got a great cast. film The Naked Spur in Technicolor. It's got a great cast.

Janet Leigh is in the film, Ralph Meeker, and the great Robert Ryan. And the photography is more realistic than something shot on the back of the MGM lot. They went on location. It's gorgeous to look at. And I couldn't wait till the people got to see how gorgeous the disc turned out. And, uh, all the reviews were magnificent and we got a lot of posts on our Facebook page, uh, from people who were so thrilled with the disc.

uh, from people who are so thrilled with the disc and it's been a big, big success for us. And, uh, we don't have any other of the, uh, Anthony Mann, Jimmy Stewart collaboration Westerns. They belong to other studios, but I would say along with, uh, one or two others, the Naked Spurs at the top of the list. But they made a lot of other pictures together as well. Strategic Air Command for Paramount, which was obviously an Air Force picture. And the Glenn Miller story, which was a huge hit that reunited Jimmy Stewart and June Allison, who had worked together at MGM in the Stratton story. And they were they were great together on screen. They had a great screen chemistry. And that was a big hit.

Jimmy Stewart really had three phases of his career. There was young Jimmy Stewart that you saw like in the shop around the corner and the early films, Philadelphia story. Mr. Smith goes to Washington where he was the innocent, young, skinny kid. And then he comes back from the war and there's a maturity that sets in. And this goes from the mid 40s into the 50s. And he makes all kinds of films, but most of them are serious in nature. And then in the 60s, as he ages, he starts making more comedic films that are aimed at families. And he also did some great Westerns. He was doing all sorts of things, but certainly was one of the most beloved actors in Hollywood history, both as a performer and as a human being. He was

so beloved and respected. And we're so fortunate to have so many of his films in our library. But getting The Naked Spur to look beautiful was something I was determined to do because I was so embarrassed about how terrible it looked. And I knew how much people thought we would never get to it. And we did. And, uh, we've had a lot of those kinds of successes this year. And it's why 2021 has been our biggest year yet. I think because we gave the people what they asked for. We gave them some surprises and it spanned many decades and served different audiences. And that is our goal. And I'm hoping we're able to top 21 and 22. Well, speaking of serving different decades and different audiences, the next film that we're going to talk about here is the 1978 film, Straight Time, starring Dustin Hoffman. What can you tell us about Straight Time?

Straight Time shares something in common with Prince of the City and One Crazy Summer and Quick Change, all of which we released this year, that were fairly contemporary films that had been highly requested. And we were answering the call of the consumer. And we knew we could make a beautiful master of it. It deserved it. This is a very personal project for Dustin Hoffman. He was supposed to direct it. And I believe he started to direct it and didn't feel that the film would be as good as it could be if he wasbard, to direct the film.

And their collaboration resulted in one of Hoffman's best performances. And on the disc, we have a commentary from both Hoffman and Grossbard talking about the movie. And Hoffman plays an ex-con who gets out of jail and finds things are difficult adjusting to society as a free man. And it's a very realistic film. It's very much of its time. 1978, very gritty. New Master looks beautiful. The presentation is wonderful. And again, the amount of requests we had for this movie, when are you going to put out straight time? Well, this was the year. And we had a wonderful response to it. A lot of people, it was not a big box office hit. So a lot of people didn't know the movie. And a lot of people who were reviewing it

were seeing it for the first time. And it was really incredibly gratifying to see so many wonderful things said about the movie. And it just kind of underscored that we're on the right track of finding that right balance between films that we know people really, really want and that we also know are going to be successful. And then films we know that people are very vocal about, but we don't know how many are really going to actually shell out the money to buy the disc and help us keep our business profitable. And thankfully, the chemistry was very good this year

because we made good calls and the masters were good, the films were good, and people were very pleased with what we had to offer, and that's what we strive for. Well, the last film we're going to talk about from September is the third film from 1949 that you released over the summer, and that's The Window. What can you tell us about that release? Well, The Window has a very strange and interesting production history. RKO decided to build a soundstage on the Upper East Side, way Upper East Side of New York City, of Manhattan, to start making films in New York using New York talent. And ironically, some of the actors in this film were imported from Hollywood, but it

was directed by a gentleman by the name of Ted Tedslaff, who had built a reputation as cinematographer. Here, he is functioning as director, and it's basically a Boy Who Cried Wolf story. Bobby Driscoll, who was a child actor under contract to Walt Disney Productions, he had been in Song of the South and won the hearts of audiences all over the world.

And he made other films for Disney. And RKO borrowed him to play this little boy who just tends to tell wild stories all the time that aren't true. His character is almost, at the beginning of the film, almost borderline obnoxious. He's not snarky or snotty, but he's making up stories that you just find him to be a bit unpleasant. But he's a cute little kid, not a cutesy kid. This is a film noir, and it's very much reflective of a more neorealism

that was starting to populate films in the late 40s. that was starting to populate films in the late 40s. And RKO was probably one of the best studios, if not the best studio, when it came to film noir. And in The Window, the Bobby Driscoll child character, he is the only child of a relatively modest couple who live in, I don't want to say a tenement building, but they live in a very modest apartment. And it takes place during the summer in New York. And you can just, as an ex-New Yorker, you can feel the heat and the humidity. As an ex-New Yorker, you can feel the heat and the humidity.

And he basically sleeps out on the fire escape to be cool one night. And while he's out there, he witnesses a murder. He witnesses one of his neighbors and the neighbor and his wife killing another guy. And he tries to tell the police. He tries to tell his parents and no one will believe him because he is such a reputation for telling tall stories. So it's the boy who cried wolf. Well, I don't want to give away any more of the plot, but between the location photography shot right in the middle of Manhattan or really up on the upper, upper, upper, upper, upper, upper east side, you're almost in the Bronx.

All that realism, the great storytelling, the efficient use of film time, and the fact that this film is, I think, about, it's not only less than an hour and a half long, it's probably more close to 75 minutes long. Somewhere around there. It's a very, very efficient storytelling piece because it gets right into it. You're hooked immediately. And we did this master again.

Sounds like I'm repeating myself, but I am with pride. We scan the original negative at 4K. And the master is so gorgeous. And you just feel the darkness and the shadow. And through the photography, you can almost feel the fear. It's just incredible. And I saw this film as a little kid and it scared the hell out of me. And I've never lost my affection for it.

And people were really jazzed when they heard that we were putting this out. And once again, we had another hit on our hands. And we always like to bring film noir to the people. We don't do enough of it, frankly. And I wish we could do more. And I'm hoping we will be able to do more in 2022. But I highly recommend The Window. It was an interesting story too wasn't there George about Howard Hughes and when he bought RKO. Oh yes yes I forgot to mention that Howard Hughes bought RKO around 1947

sometime around the time The Window was being made and it was made very quickly. And Howard Hughes didn't like the movie. And he basically kept it from release for two years. He kept it on the shelf. He was known to do that. I don't know why he bought RKO. I think it was probably to have relationships with actresses. I don't think he was really interested in being a movie maker.

But once he did get involved in the process, we have files with his handwritten notes about certain pictures that were made under his aegis. And he would go off on crazy tangents and he was an eccentric individual. But the fact that he kept the film for release for two years and it was so excellent speaks a lot. And then there's also another kind of dark tragedy that hangs over this film. And that is that this wonderful child actor, Bobby Driscoll, he would go on to be the voice of Peter Pan in Walt Disney's animated feature of Peter Pan. But his growing up into an adult was a very dark time.

He got involved in drugs and he ended up dying in the late 60s. And he's buried in an unmarked grave, I think, like on, you know, in Potter's Field or something. you know, in Potter's Field or something. I mean, it's a terribly tragic story of this beloved child actor who fell upon very hard times and was, you know, made a lot of bad choices in his youth. I don't know more about the tragedy of his story, except that, you know, he was basically in his mid 20s when he died. I think it was a heroin overdose. It's just a tragic, tragic story.

Yeah, that is. So when you think about that, when you watch the movie, it adds a whole other color. You know, right. And a lot of people did mention that when we did release the disc. Well, that is quite a list of great movies that we've just gone through from May through September. And it was a lot of fun. from May through September. And it was a lot of fun.

I'm glad we had a chance to do this for those fans out there who are used to hearing from you about the restoration process and also your great stories about each of the individual films and the actors and directors. So thanks for coming on the show to talk to the fans about those releases. Oh, it's my pleasure. And I only talked about probably half of what we put out because we wouldn't have time to talk about every single title. But if people go on to the Warner archive store page that we have on Amazon, store page that we have on Amazon.

They can explore the recent Warner Archive releases and find out for themselves. And of course, our product is available anywhere you can buy discs online. We're there. And the stores, all the big box stores that have dot coms, Walmart.com, Best Buy.com, Target.com, Barnes and Noble.com, as well as, of course, Amazon and so many other smaller video e-tailers. They all carry our product. And I hope people will seek it out, sample some of the goodies that we had released during 2021. And we're working on a whole bunch

more for 2022. 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 September 2021 Warner Archive Blu-ray releases. 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 The Extras TV 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 are 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.