The Extras - Warner Archive September 2022 Release Highlights

Episode Date: August 30, 2022

Warner Bros executive George Feltenstein takes us through the September 2022 Blu-ray releases from the Warner Archive.  We kick off the discussion with the release of two TV series on Blu-ray.  First is the popular comedy “Young Sheldon” season 5,  which includes a 100th episode retrospective featurette titled, "Time Flies When You're Having Fun: Young Sheldon at 100."  The 2nd series is the bittersweet sixth and final season Blu-ray of the fan-favorite show "Lucifer," which includes deleted scenes and the ever-popular gag reel as extras.Next, we discuss the re-release of the now out-of-print Blu-ray for the classic 1933 version of "King Kong," starring Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot, directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, and scored by composer Max Steiner.  While re-releases are not common for the Warner Archive, the lack of availability for a film as important as “King Kong” made it a necessity to provide a new, affordable Blu-ray to the public.  And finally, we discuss the two films new to Blu-ray this month.  First up is "Abe Lincoln In Illinois," (1940) starring Raymond Massey, Gene Lockhart, Ruth Gordon, and directed by John Cromwell.  George provides background on the restoration and history of this presidential classic.  And we end our discussion with the award-winning release "Rachel, Rachel," (1968) starring Joanne Woodward and directed by her husband and first-time director, Paul Newman.Purchase on Amazon:King Kong (1933) Blu-rayAbe Lincoln In Illinios Blu-rayRachel, Rachel Blu-rayLucifer S6 Blu-rayYoung Sheldon S5 Blu-rayOtaku Media produces podcasts, behind-the-sceneThe 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 they're released on digital, DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K, or your favorite streaming site. I'm Tim Lard, your host.

Today, George Feltenstein joins the show to take us through the September 2022 Blu-ray releases from the Warner Archive. George, as always, it's good to talk with you today. Great to talk to you, Tim. Great to be back on The Extras. Well, we had one of our most popular Warner Archive episodes last month with that mailbag episode. And there were a lot of appreciative comments from the listeners on the extras Facebook page. So I just wanted to thank you on behalf of all those listeners for taking the time to explain some of what is, you know, holding back certain releases, giving us maybe some behind the scenes on other releases and a peek into, you know, how the Warner Archive looks at all of those things. So thank you for that.

Oh, it's my pleasure. And I hope we get to do that again. And I'm grateful to be here to be able to communicate out to our customers and our fans and our supporters, because this is still a period of change as we have new ownership and lots of decisions still aren't clear in terms of like, what is next year's budget going to be? And what will next year look like? And this is happening at a level far above me. What I'm looking at right now is what's going on. We have actually a substantial, relatively substantial amount of releases for September, which I'm very excited and proud to talk about. And just want to ask all listening who've been hanging in there with us for all these years to bear with us as we align, because it's going to be a light balance of the year in terms of new offerings. be a light balance of the year in terms of new offerings. But at the same time, there are many, many, many films in various states of completion or pre-production, post-production. So there's a

lot of great stuff ahead after we get through this dry spell. So with that, let's talk about September. Yeah, why don't we? Why don't you take us right into the TV releases? I think is where you wanted to start. Absolutely. This is something that I remember. I think we talked about last year because this is a series that you were involved

in when you were here at Warner Brothers. And this is the fifth season of Young Sheldon, which originally, I believe, wasn't going to be a full season of episodes, but it turned out that it was. And for those who are unfamiliar, and I hope no one is unfamiliar, because this is season five, and this has been a very good seller for us. And it's the most popular sitcom on television, if you want to call it a sitcom, which is really not an apt description. But this year, we really saw in this season, it turned from less of a comedy about the younger days of Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory and more about equally his other family members. And it's starting to become a little bit more of a dramedy than a comedy, but not in a way where you walk away from any episode without feeling that you've just witnessed high quality

television. And if I were wearing a hat, I'd take my hat off to all of Chuck Lorre's team on this show because the actors are magnificent and they just get better. And as a series continues its run, you become more familiar with the actors, series continues its run, you become more familiar with the actors, you become more familiar with the characters, it just becomes so much more rewarding. And I'm looking at the calendar now and figuring hopefully maybe in a month or so we'll be getting ready for season six to be on CBS. But in the meantime, for those who want to watch this with the absolute best quality, not have to worry about commercials, that's the way to watch it is on a beautiful Blu-ray.

And there is a special feature on this Blu-ray. I did see that and it's called Time Flies When You're Having Fun, Young Sheldon at 100. And I, you know, watched it and it's the first extra that I haven't been involved in, but it, it was, it was really good. Anytime you do one of those featurettes on, you know, the hundredth episode and everything, it's fun to take a look back. And normally when you have adult actors, you don't notice the physical attributes so differently. But with Ian and the other younger actors, you just see, wow, they went from eight, nine-year-olds for the little ones to now they're, you know, obviously five years later, six years later from that period of time. And the distinctions in their physical attributes is so dramatic. But then also just their presentation, their confidence, everything when they're sitting in front of the camera for the interviews. And it was a lot of fun.

And it's just great fun to kind of see the clips from season one and two and then and how the show has matured and they've matured. It is dramatic because as in life, when you're dealing with kids, if you're a parent and you're living with your children, you don't notice the differences from day to day. I assume that's your experience, right? Unless it's something like super dramatic. But if you haven't seen a young person in a while and they're growing up, the differences can be shocking. And I noticed it more first, you know, girls tend to mature a little earlier than boys do. The character of Missy started to really seem like a junior high school teenager in the fourth season. And this is the season where Sheldon's voice changed. In the great tradition of Peter Brady and other adolescents whose voices have changed

on television shows, you know, he's, I mean, he doesn't have a bass voice yet. He may. But I think they've handled all of that gracefully. And there are a lot of twists and turns in this season. There are character developments that are unexpected. And the season even ends on a cliffhanger. So we know it's been renewed through Season 7. I expect, frankly, that it will go longer than that. I also had the pleasure of meeting one of the producers and someone who

occasionally writes and started with Big Bang, moved over to this series. And it was just a coincidence that one of our colleagues within home entertainment was very good friends with this person who's totally a non-company related connection. But we got introduced to each other and I had lunch with him and he was talking about the show. And it was great to hear it from an internal perspective so when i finally got to see the discs and the extra piece which i didn't see until i got discs delivered and i loved the 100th episode celebration and how they handled that And it's wonderful to have that little extra something, how appropriate we deal with that on the extras.

But this is also a great season, so I think there are still people out there that haven't turned on to this show that were Big Bang fans. You don't have to be a Big Bang fan to love this show, and I'd be surprised if you were a Big Bang fan, if you didn't love the show. I think for all ages, all audiences, it's so well done, so well acted, so well performed, written. Everything about it is just the highest quality of what you look for in the ever dwindling world of network television programming on traditional broadcast media.

Well, what do we have next from the TV landscape coming up, George? well this is bittersweet because this is a show I really didn't want to see come to an end I'm grateful that we ended up with what was cancelled at the end of the third season

and then got to have three more seasons after that thanks to the support of the fanbase which is quite substantial, this is the sixth and final season of Lucifer. And I'm just amazed by the level of excellence that comes to this show, that is brought to this show. I think they tied it up beautifully.

is brought to this show. I think they tied it up beautifully. And I'm so proud that we took up the gauntlet for season one to put it on Blu-ray when it was only going to be on DVD. And that's what Warner Archive is for, is to fill in the cracks of what, you know, is not necessarily judged to be something that is going to be found in the store. Right now, we're at a kind of scary critical point where there's very little to be found in the store, but a huge amount to be found online, including Lucifer 6th and final season. sixth and final season. And this is a shout out to Tom Ellis, the star, to all of the cast members. They're pulling out all the stops because they knew that this was the last season.

And for those of you who follow the show, there are some questions that have been hanging in midair since the very beginning that are answered. And I think they found a really nice way to wrap things up. I treasured every moment of every episode because it's like a fine wine. You know that you have to enjoy it because when it's gone, it's gone. I would love to see the show come back somehow, but I don't think that's going to happen. But we're so lucky to have what we have. And there are extras on this disc, including a wonderful gag reel that really cracked me up.

And then there are deleted scenes also from certain episodes. And that I found perplexing because why would they delete scenes if you don't have to fit into a broadcast time slot? I don't understand what the thinking was behind that. But whatever, those deleted scenes are on the Blu-ray. They're not anyplace else, except, of course, the DVD, which we don't handle with War Archive. But they're on the Blu-ray. And I'm also happy to say that I fought really hard so that this would be, it's 10 episodes, but it's on three discs.

And I fought hard to make sure that we had a good bit rate so the quality would be knock your socks off. And it achieves that. You know, we believed in it from the very beginning and it took on a life of its own. And I hope Neil Gaiman is happy. I hope all the people involved with the show are happy. And I always get a kick out of the fact that Tom Welling joined the show, I guess halfway through.

Right, right. And being a huge fan of Smallville, you look back and really see like half his life is represented between his years on lucifer and 10 years on smallville and you get to see what a what a cut up he is in the gag reel these people obviously had a great deal of money in the show and everybody's wonderful and I'm so pleased that we're able to complete a series. There have been incidents where we've taken over a series for Blu-ray and the sales have not been substantial enough where we could finish it. And that disappointed a lot of fans.

That disappointed a lot of fans. There was also one series where we couldn't release it because the music clearance costs were in the high six figures and it would be impossible to make a profit. So when we can start a show and finish a show, that's the goal. And I'm very pleased and proud to announce to all that Lucifer 6, the final season, will be available September, just a few weeks away as we record this. And you can have all six of those blue discs lined up on your shelf, and it's a lovely set. 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. I know we've mentioned this before on previous shows when we've talked about Lucifer and the release on, you know, for season five, I believe it was for the Blu-ray. But, you know, I also worked on this show and I had a great time. And you just mentioned about the gag reel being so funny and this cast is so funny. And we always had to cut out even funnier sections just because of uh certain restrictions uh but this cast really had a good time started with the co-showrunners they were hilarious and and made everything a lot of fun to be on the set and uh man was i happy when you were able to kind of release this on blu-ray because i was you know kind of i was disappointed

there and then when you took it over i was like wow that's so great and you know, kind of, I was disappointed there. And then when you took it over, I was like, wow, that's so great. And, you know, I obviously had a chance then to work, work on that, uh, that title. So it's bittersweet for, for both of us because it's such a good show. Yeah. And I mean, like, I always get frustrated with the bleeps on the blooper reel, you know, because in a way you're not on broadcast television and it doesn't make sense. But I also know the standards of our internal clearance people. Just don't let people say naughty words, but you know what they're saying during the bleed. If you kind of figure it out for yourself and this way,

everybody's happy and protected, but long rain lucifer morning star long may he reign and i look forward to see what tom ellis and the other cast members do next that wraps up the tv and before i get to the two new to Blu releases, we occasionally will take a title that's been out on Blu-ray for a while that goes out of print and then bring it back in print. We don't create a new disc. We take the disc that is existing and we release it in a new cover at a friendly price and people don't have to pay scalper prices because it's out of print. And the film we are bringing back into the market

is one of the most famous films of all time, the 1933 original King Kong, starring Bay Ray and Bruce Cabot, Robert Armstrong, and the eighth wonder of the world himself, Kong. And I have a long history with this because on DVD until, I think, 2005. And the reason for that was that we were having a terrible time finding good quality source material that was the complete version. Because as most Kong fans are well aware, this film was edited after the production code was reinforced. And scenes were cut out from 1938 on.

Now, in the 1960s, the late 1960s, someone found a 16mm print with the censored scenes and they were blown up and cut into the movie. And it actually played revival theaters like that and so forth and so on. But even though DVD came along in 1997 and we've owned this film since 1996, we waited a really long time until we found good source material to work from. And the original negative to this film,

like many RKO films, is long gone. So we finally found material in Europe that we thought was good enough. And that ended up being a DVD. And I was very proud of the DVD because we released it in a steel case. That, I think, was the first time we used the term Ultimate Collector's Edition because what we did was we reproduced the original opening night program from Grauman's and a couple of other pieces of paper, booklets that were of a collectible nature. And it was a huge seller on DVD. And then the Blu-ray came out, I think sometime around 2009, 2010, and continued the great selling trajectory. And it was in a digibook. But, you know, as is often the case with physical media, the heavy costs involved in special packaging

don't always pay off, depending on the film. And, and you know a lot of people say well i already have the dvd and i have the tin i have all those things and is there much of a difference between the dvd and the blu-ray because it's not from the original negative well yes there is a significant improvement and we are very proud of this and delighted to be bringing it back. It also has a lot of extra material on it, including a recreation of a deleted scene from the film that Peter Jackson and team recreated down at Weta Studios in New Zealand.

And I actually met Peter Jackson when he was in Los Angeles. He assumed, and assumed correctly, that he would get the Academy Award for the last Lord of the Rings movie. And so that's why he was in town. that he would get the Academy Award for the last Lord of the Rings movie. And so that's why he was in town. And we went over to see if we knew his passion for the film and that he had some of the original puppets and so forth and so on. And so we, myself and other colleagues, had a discussion with him about him doing that. And meanwhile, another group of people worked on

additional material. And also, Photo Play Productions, Kevin Brownlow and Patrick Stanbury in London, produced a documentary called I'm Kong, which is basically the story of Marian C. Cooper, who is one of the co-creators of King Kong, as well as one of the co-directors of the movie. He had a fascinating career, and this went into great detail about Mr. Cooper and the other projects that he worked on and what preceded this. One time he was head of production at RKL. So you've got a plethora of extras on this disc and a fine presentation of the film. It was out of print for almost two years. And during that time, it was going for outrageous prices on the eBay and other marketplaces.

So now it's no longer going to be rare and hard to find. It'll be available at all online retailers. And we're delighted that we could do it. And I think everybody would be very happy with it. delighted that we could do it. And I think everybody would be very happy with it. So just to clarify, George, that documentary, the Weta piece, these are all new extras that were not on the previous one that went out of print? Nothing. Nothing is, everything was created for the DVD. Okay.

And carried over to the Blu-ray. Okay. And there's nothing, this is very important because we're not trying to infer that this is a new master or a new encode. This is the same exact disc that was on the market 10 years ago. It's just that it is now a Warner Archive release in an elite case. There's no booklet. There's no fancy packaging. It's just a very friendly priced copy of one of the greatest films of all time, looking great on Blu-ray, and adding to our list of versatile classics of all kinds. I mean, it certainly gets...

Anytime we have something from the AFI Top 100 and can add it to our portfolio, it's something to be proud of. So, Long May He Rain. I happen to like this version the best. And it ran every year. I grew up in New York and every year they would run it on Thanksgiving Day during the day. So I can't help watching King Kong without smelling turkey and yam. I know a lot of kids also had similar experiences. Well, I think it's a great service for the fans out there that, you know, you don't have to spend an arm and a leg to try to get your copy.

Now you'll be able to go out and get an affordable copy of the movie and have all the extras for your libraries. So this is a great re-release for everybody. Yeah, we've done this with probably, I'd say, at least 20 films by now. We're very selective about which films we do re-release because some things go out of print and the market is flooded with unsold merchandise at Dollar General. Right. And also have no connection to the Warner Archive mission statement. Now, I will be honest and say there are a few titles we put out that don't quite align with the Warner Archive mission statement of rare and hard to find and,

you know, having a certain area of great reputation one way or another. Specifically, the one film I'm thinking of is there was never a Blu-ray of the movie version of Starsky and Hutch and with Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson. And it just kind of fell between the cracks. There was an HD DVD version, but there was never a Blu-ray. So while it's certainly not known as a masterpiece of cinema or a great classic. I knew it had a fan base and I felt we had a responsibility to make sure it got out there. So we filled the gap and we will do that when it makes sense. There are films that come and go and some of them are best left gone. They are thankfully rare in our neck of the woods, but this was one of those times where we decided, okay, we need to get it out there.

But generally, when we bring things back in print, it's been films like Cabaret, Streetcar Named Desire, Man Who Would Be King, Papillon. These are beloved films with great reputations. The Jazz Singer. Yep. So we're in an ever-changing environment. And when I spot something out of print that I know people want,

and I don't want them to have to spend outrageous amounts of money getting it. Everybody wins. I mean, we even did it with the Tom and Jerry Golden Collection Volume 1, which came out, I think, in 2013. And that was out of print for a couple of years. And people wanted to have those cartoons on Blu-ray. And now they do. they do. So now we go to talk about movies that have never been on Blu-ray before that are making their debut. And that's very, very exciting. The first of these is The Older, and it's Abe Lincoln in Illinois. This is a film that came out in 1940. And this stars Raymond Massey playing Abraham Lincoln brilliantly.

He had done so on Broadway in the play that was written by Robert Sherwood. And the film was directed by John Cromwell, who was an underrated director, by John Cromwell, who is an underrated director, but whose son James Cromwell, Star Trek fans may know as Zephyr Cochran, the inventor of warp technology. Just a little Trek joke in there. But John Cromwell, his dad, directed a lot of classic films, including a favorite of mine that isn't one of our films, Since You Went Away, which is a great wartime story about the home front. But he was a very talented director and a fine choice to make this movie.

And there have been a lot of Abraham Lincoln portrayals on the screen just the year before John Ford at Fox had made Young Mr. Lincoln with Henry Fonda. But that's about a very specific part of his life. The year later, RKO came out with Abe Lincoln in Illinois, which covers much more of his life. And Massey's performance

is outstanding. And I think also of note to film fans is you get to see a relatively young Ruth Gordon, who, with her later years as a more senior citizen had a whole second career as an actress, first in Rosemary's Baby and then in movies like Where's Papa and Harold and Maude and even in Every Which Way But Loose with Clint Eastwood, which is now a movie getting close to 45 years old, which blows my mind. Wow.

But this is Ruth Gordon 38 years before Every Which Way But Loose. And she plays a married Todd Lincoln. And she gives a really exceptional performance. Not necessarily a balanced character. And what's interesting also about this film is Abe Lincoln in Illinois was one of the 150 DVD titles that we launched Warner Archive with in 2009. And it had never been upgraded or remastered. And the master we used for the DVD

came from a fourth generation fine grain. So it showed its age. And this is one of the films where we knew we needed to go back and find the best material. Another RKO film where the original negative is gone. We did find second generation nitrate materials that were almost in excellent shape. We had to work with some other elements for certain scenes, but the overall result is beautiful, both in terms of picture restoration and audio restoration. And I can't stress that enough because especially on the older movies that

come from the optical sound era, which is basically like pre-1953, 52, optical sound can be not good at times. And also can be revelatory that you can't believe you're listening to an optical track because the frequency response occasionally can be mind-blowing and it all depends on what studio did it and what the technology was being used and who was the sound guy on the movie and you know so every studio had a different sound department, different staff. And RKO happened to have an exceptionally good sound department. began, the initials stood for Radio Keith Orpheum, and the radio portion was representative of an initial investment made by the Radio Corporation of America, aka RCA. And David Sarnoff, who was the founder of RCA, wanted to make an investment in motion pictures. And they had developed an optical audio system to kind of compete with the Warner disc system

of Vitaphones. And the sound was on the film, very similar to Fox movie tone, but this was RCA Photophone. And RCA's investment in Arpaio kind of wafted in and out for years. They were always a struggling company, but I've noticed that on many of their films, especially from the 30s and the early 40s, they can have remarkably broad spectrum sound recording. And that really enhances when you have a beautiful restored image, you want to have a beautiful restored audio track, because I still think psychologically, if you hear crackles on your audio, even if your picture is immaculate, you'll still think you're seeing speckles.

You know, there are audio speckles in your head, but they're not real. But if you have a restored track and a restored picture, they are of equal importance in my book. And so audio is restored here on the lot. The picture was restored here on the lot. And it is it's a spectacular preservation of a great performance by a great actor who would later go on to be Dr. Gillespie on the Dr. Kildare show in the 60s. And a long and prosperous career, really terrific actor. But this is one of his best performances. And I highly recommend this film. You know, I don't think that I had ever seen this film in its entirety. And I sat down to watch this. And there was only one scene where I thought maybe the,

you know, you mentioned that some of the elements maybe were a little bit tougher to get exceptional, but the rest of the film looked great, sounded great. And the story really does hold up. I mean, I'm a history buff myself, so I enjoyed that part of it. But with the performances, But with the performances, it comes across just really with a lot of power in Massey's performance. And the story is, of course, so important to all of us here in America. Yeah. And I'm so glad you said that. You know, we've had a more recent portrayal of Lincoln. And it would be interesting someday to, that was of course Daniel Day-Lewis in the Spielberg film,

which is already 10 years old. But I'm so glad you said that you really were compelled by the performances and whatnot. I'm excited because this isn't, you know, at the top of everybody's list. Oh, my God, I must own a Blu-ray of this movie. Well, actually, if you're a film fan or a history fan, or both, as you and I both are, this is really essential for your show. And we, to what you were saying, there was one brief section of the film where this beautiful second generation nitrate element we had, had some missing footage and damage due to nitrate decomposition. So we had to go to something a little lesser for one shot. One shot.

It's very obvious, but it doesn't really take you out of the storytelling. It's not at a pivotal moment in the story. We want everything to be 100% perfect, And this is like Ivory Soap. It's 99 and 44, 100%, you know. So I'm very, very, very happy with this. And I think audiences will be too. So look for it at your local online e-tailer. online e-tailer.

So the last film I think we have for this month is Rachel Rachel. Is that right? That is correct. This was originally supposed to be an August release and it was going to end up being our only August release. So I had it held back until we could release it with some kind of substance and surround it with other titles. And this is a film I saw when I was very young and way too young to understand how great it was because it's

not a kid's picture this is about a middle aged or heading towards middle aged spinster who is trying to find herself and this is so much a product of it's time 1968

Joanne Woodward is the star, and another great movie star, who happened to be her husband, was behind the camera directing for the very first time, Paul Newman. So this was a collaborative effort between the two of them. They had worked together on screen many times acting, but this was Paul Newman's first chance to direct and he'd always wanted to. And they were both entering new territory. This is at the very point where cinema was changing. And a small film set in New England about this woman and her journey is not necessarily the kind of thing that would have been made a few years earlier. This is already reflecting the changes in the screen being more mature. And Joanne Woodward was nominated for an Oscar for her role. It was a very tough year. She lost out to the tie of Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl and Katharine Hepburn in Lion in Winter.

If it would have been another year with weaker contenders, she likely would have won a second Oscar because she won her first for The Three Faces of Eve in the 1950s. But she gives a fantastic performance, as does Estelle Parsons. James Olsen is in this movie. It's beautifully done, beautifully written. And what makes it timely is that HBO, and I believe, I know it's HBO Max, but it might also be on HBO. I'm not sure if it's both or just HBO Max. series called The Last Great Movie Stars, a documentary made by Ethan Hawke about Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, about their lives, their careers, their marriage, what we saw as the public and what was really going on. It wasn't all perfection. was really going on.

It wasn't all perfection. And it was fascinating for me, having just completed the work on this disc, to then see this movie and find out more about their lives because they were very private people. And apparently, Paul Newman had intended to do some kind of project about them and asked a friend to start interviewing all these other people. And Paul Newman decided not to proceed with it.

He erased the tapes that had been recorded, but they had been transcribed. And so actors perform the transcription comments, like for instance George Clooney's Paul Newman. I'm not doing a commercial for our sister

division, but it's a phenomenal documentary. Very, very interesting. And if you see rachel rachel you'll want to see this documentary and likewise if you're one of the millions of people that have seen this miniseries documentary miniseries and been fascinated by them, there's probably no better film to check out first than Rachel Rachel, because this was done, I think they were married a little more than 10 years by this point, and they were both starting to approach the middle of their lives,

to approach the middle of their lives and putting them together is, I think, really essential. If you're fortunate enough to have access, I highly recommend the documentary. And speaking of documentaries, we do have, besides the the trailer a little extra uh a tiny thing on this disc that is i can only describe it as weird because i think what it is it's silent it's a little over two minutes and i think it's the beginning of what was supposed to be a behind the scenes featurette but we had no audio to go with it and it just cuts off but it shows

Newman and Woodward working behind the scenes and when the film was under the working title A Jest of God which you could see on the clapsticks, you know. So we had it on the DVD. We decided to add it to the Blu-ray because we don't like to leave anything out.

But we searched high and low to try to find out more about this. out more about this, but it gives you a little glimmer of what was going on when and before they said action. And this is truly an unforgettable film. And the Blu-ray is exquisite. I'm so used to seeing it all scratched up and beat up and looking dated and the colors are vibrant and rich. And this is yet another 4k scan off the camera negative and given a beautiful brand new master and every frame clean by hand.

It's a beautiful disc and a beautiful film. And I think a perfect way to close out our September. Yeah. And before we kind of wrap that, I was watching the film and the performance by Joanne Woodward. It's just so naturalistic, you know, and that's, I think you're pointing to the difference as the films were transitioning from, you know, that 50s, 60s style to that more naturalistic and style of acting. And it's very understated and it kind of slowly creeps up on you and you just start to get pulled into her world and her mind because we're hearing her thoughts. We're hearing, you know, some of her worries about getting older and other things. And she's an innocent in many

ways, but it just is a terrific performance. I mean, obviously it was nominated and it really is absorbing by the time you start getting into the first third of the film and you just start, you know, that's what a terrific actor will do. They'll just bring you right into that. And for a freshman directorial debut for Mr. Newman, you would think oftentimes first time directors really want to like push the pace and they want to push everything so much. And he just doesn't do that. He just lets it unfold. And of course, if you're fans of the two of them, this is a must have for your library. Yeah, I think it's really remarkable. And it's also indicative of the fact that, you know, he did have this, both of them, you know, came out of studio and they had this far more realistic mature way of looking at characters and how they could be

treated and warner brothers by this time had become warner brothers seven arts which it was for about two years and the management at that time was giving, as cinema was changing radically, they were giving filmmakers a chance to really push the boundaries. And, you know, no one would make a movie like this today for a movie theater. They might make a film like this today for streaming or for, you know, I guess more for streaming than anything else because the made-for-cable movies have gone away the way the made-for-TV movies have gone away. Right. But these are not the kind of stories that are going to move people into theaters. But at that time, it got wonderful reviews.

She did win the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. I believe she also won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama. I mean, it was very heavily acclaimed at its time. And I think it's somewhat of a forgotten movie and that's why it was important to us when we were looking at opportunities he said this is a movie people really need to look at again having no knowledge that this hbo documentary was in the works because it was so fortuitous, the timing. And the documentary has really turned on a whole group of younger people who aren't that familiar with Paul Newman or Joanne Woodward to really be amazed by who they were, are. Well, Ms. Woodward is still alive.

Unfortunately, she has Alzheimer's. And even that is dealt with quite openly in the documentary. But I just, I'm very moved that we have this opportunity to have this movie look so great and come out on VURA at this time. Well, it's nice to actually talk movies this month. Obviously, the mailbag was terrific, but we love talking movies and the ones that the Warner Archive is releasing.

And it's a really nice group for the month of September. So thanks again, George, as always, for coming on The Extras, giving us your time and talking us through each of these releases. My pleasure. And I look forward to the next time I can return because there will be some exciting things to talk about in the not too

distant future. Well, for those of you interested in listening to more episodes on the Warner Archive releases and with George, you can find links on the website at www.theextras.tv. Also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter at The Extras TV or Instagram at The Extras.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 to just kind of join the community of people

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