The Extras - Warner Archive September Announcement: Four New Films, Classic Hanna-Barbera, & Three New Film Collections

Episode Date: August 16, 2025

Send us a textGeorge Feltenstein joins host Tim Millard to announce the September Blu-ray releases from Warner Archive. The lineup includes five films from various eras, all receiving meticulous 4K restorations that dramatically improve their visual and audio quality.• Beast of the City (1932): Jean Harlow's breakout film as a leading lady, an MGM attempt at Warner-style gangster pictures, with a new master from 4K scans of preservation elements• The Beggar's Opera (1953): Technicolor British film starring Laurence Olivier in a singing role, based on a 1728 operetta that later inspired Brecht's "Threepenny Opera"• Black Samson (1974): Fan-favorite blaxploitation film with a musical score by Alan Toussaint, scanned from original camera negative• I Died a Thousand Times (1955): CinemaScope remake of "High Sierra" starring Jack Palance and Shelley Winters• Touché Turtle and Dum-Dum: Complete series of 52 Hanna-Barbera cartoons, never before released in its entiretyAlso announced are three multi-film Blu-ray collections coming September 2nd: a six-film Errol Flynn collection, a four-film Greta Garbo collection, and a four-film 1950s sci-fi collection, all offering excellent value at approximately $10 per film.PURCHASE LINKS:Touche Turtle and Dum Dum: The Complete Series Blu-rayTHE BEAST OF THE CITY (1932) Blu-rayI Died A Thousand Times Blu-rayThe Beggar's Opera Blu-rayBlack Samson Blu-rayErrol Flynn 6-Film CollectionGreta Garbo - 4 Film Collection50's SCI-FI - 4 Film CollectionThe 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]

Hey, I'm Bonnie Spence, former vice president of special features at Warner Brothers, and you're listening to The Extras. Hello and welcome to The Extras. I'm Tim Millard, your host, and joining me is George Feltonstein to announce the September Blu-ray releases from the Warner Archive. Hi, George. Hello, Tim. As always, it's wonderful to be with you. Yeah, it's always fun to do these announcement podcasts, and September is looking like another great month from the Warner Archive. So let's dive right in because this is always exciting for the fans to hear what you have coming on Blu-ray. And we'll go alphabetical. So that means the first one we have up is The Beast of the City from 1932. What can you tell us about this film?

Well, this really was the first film that Gene Harlow was recognized as a leading lady. and, you know, she catapulted to greater fame after this film. She had been in other films before of significance. Even at MGM, like The Secret Six, she had a small part in that. But she's the leading lady in this. And I call this movie MGM trying to be like Warner Brothers. Because it is after the success of Public Enemy and Little Caesar and the gangster films and the gangster genre in general.

MGM kind of took off their gloves to make this film and it deals with Walter Houston as the star dealing with crime and corruption and Gene Harlow plays the leading lady Daisy who wants to, you know,

achieve greater adoration and fame and it all goes downhill not in a very pretty way this is a kind of gritty movie that goes against the MGM house style but the source material came from W.R. Burnett who had written Little Caesar

and later wrote High Sierra and even contributed to another film we're going to talk about later in this podcast. So it was interesting that Thalberg at MGM took this particular piece of material and made a very uncharacteristic MGM film.

What's really great about this new Blu-ray is that the master we've been distributing both on DVD and television is over three decades old and looks wretched. This film desperately needed a makeover. Now, a lot of people would say, but there are more important Gene Harlow movies that have yet to make it to Blu-ray. And they have said that.

And my answer to that is, we're working on them, but this was ready now. People have to understand that we can't predict if something's going to take three months or six months, nine months, a year, two years. Every film is different. And we've been working on this a long time, but there are some more famous Gene Harlow movies we're working on right now that will be coming soon. We're trying to push all the buttons and get all the levers, but there's certainly nothing negative to say about this film. It's very entertaining, and it really was a linchpin in her screen career, brief though it was due to her untimely death at age 26.

But this is the beginning of her MGM stardom, and it really holds up well, just like the Warner Gangster films hold up so well. And you have a few extras on here as well. Yeah, we have two Warner Brothers cartoons, and the reason why we don't have MGM cartoons is that MGM didn't make cartoons at this time. They were distributing cartoons made by other people. So we have no ownership,

but it gives us an opportunity to create that night at the movie's atmosphere. We also don't have a trailer on this film, which is not unusual. We really don't start seeing the trailers kick in on the MGM side until a little bit later 32 and then 1933, it sort of comes together. And they were very good about saving trailers thereafter.

But no trailer, but two cartoons and a really terrific film that deserves to be better known. And when you take a film like this and you watch it and it is a pretty deplorable looking copy master, it doesn't draw you into the film the way that you could be drawn into the film now. The new master comes from a 4K scan of our best preservation safety elements, original negative, long, long destroyed, as I sound like a broken record talking about the terrible fate of MGM nitrate. But what we have is a result of preservation that took place in the 1960s.

And thankfully, that brings us 60 plus years later the ability to make that available in a pristine new master that looks and as important sounds really good because we need to have a clean track and to make sure that it has the watch. frequency response and doesn't sound like people are under a pillow. So we're very careful about making sure that the tracks have their vibrancy on the high end while taking away clicks and pops and noises that don't belong there. So really, really terrific film. We're excited to be releasing it. And I think people are really going to enjoy it, especially since it isn't as well known as some of Harlow's other films. I, you know, we're talking 93 years old, and that's a pretty old film, but I've been amazed at what you've been able to do with the films that you've been releasing that are

over 90 years old. So I'm looking forward to this one as well. Well, next we have... The credit there goes to Warner Brothers Motion Picture Imaging. Of course. It's those talented people that do this amazing work, and it's basically done by hand. And humans. Yes.

We applaud work done by human beings. Well, next we have a Technicolor film, The Beggars Opera, from 1953. What can you tell us about this film? This is a very unique film. And first, let me say that it is yet another restoration from the Technicolor negatives. So they've been recombined and using our proprietary technology to do so, it looks remarkable. And this is a British film shot by a wonderful cinematographer, Guy Green, and it's beautiful to look at. And it was a very experimental film, I would have to say, in a sense.

It's based on, I would say, an operetta, if you will, that was written in 1728 by John Gay, the Beggers Opera. And what it deals with basically, not unlike Beast of the City, it's about a criminal named McKeith, and who is a rogue with the ladies and responsible for murders and all sorts of terrible things. And there are also other characters whose names may be familiar like Polly Peacham and Jenny Diver. And what does this resonate with me? I'm a huge fanatic for the Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Vile works of the late 20s and early 30s, and the three-penny opera is something I've been obsessed with since I was in college. So I had not seen this earlier version on which Brecht and Weil had adapted this piece,

I guess, 200 years later. So Olivier teamed up with a producer, Herbert Wilcox, who was pretty, famous for making films with his wife Jesse Matthews. She was a British musical star. And Wilcox and Olivier collaborated together to produce this film, but the film was directed by Peter Brooke, who didn't make too many films.

Lord of the Flies is probably his most famous film, but he was primarily known as a British stage director and a very young, break all the rules kind of director. So you have an enormous amount of talent telling this story that is now almost 300 years old, the basic source material. I mean, we're three years away from 2008. So historically, it's of importance. And Lawrence Olivier sings.

And he actually, as a pleasant voice. the only other person I know of in the film that also does his own vocals. Most of the people are, many of the actors were dubbed. But Stanley Holloway, who would later become well-known to American audiences, as Alfred Doolittle in the film and stage versions of My Fair Lady. Stanley Holloway is in this film, and you have the beggar at the beginning of the film, played by Hugh Griffith, who had later become known internationally for his performance in Ben Hur.

So it's a great cast, and it's just a really unique film. It's certainly not for everybody. It has a cult following, but yet again, what we had been distributing, if you look at our current DVD, we didn't have the ability to take advantage. of the process to deal with Technicolor properly, and now we do. So this is a

wonderful opportunity to see and hear this film with far greater quality. And Olivier was, he certainly wasn't Frank Sinatra, but he had a pleasant voice, and

he's much more charismatic in this film than he is in some of his later films where he's supposed to be charismatic and it doesn't really come off. I think he's very likable as basically a crook and murderer. So I think people who share my interest in three-penny opera and don't know about the original source material,

the beggars opera, will find this as interesting as I did when I first saw it. It was one of those titles, not unlike, the Beast of the City. That was an early Warner Archive shelfmaster DVDR, you know, and now we have a beautiful Blu-ray that's been a 4K scan from Technicolor negatives makes quite a difference. Right. And we did put some Warner Brothers cartoons on here. So that adds to the fun. Yeah. And I have to say, I'm interested to hear Olivier singing on this one. his acting, we all know, his prowess there. But that does add a twist. That'll be kind of fun.

Well, next, George, we jump a few decades to the 70s for another urban action film, and that is Black Samson from 1974. What can you tell us about this film? Well, this is definitely a fan favorite amongst the community of people who love grind house films and specifically those that would fall under the black exploitation genre. Warner Brothers made several of these.

This is from 1974. It is everything you'd want out of a good black exploitation movie. The photography is really terrific.

The performances are great. It moves at a very quick pace. It has a musical score that was written by Alan Toussaint,

who was a very famous New Orleans-based R&B musician. And I don't think a lot of people know he was involved with this movie. He was primarily not related to film, but they got him to do the score for this movie. And it's your typical crime film where the hood is being invaded by bad people and Black Samson is there to go get him. and this was one of those films, because we've talked about this before, there was a four-pack that I was asked to put together for Walmart

like several years ago, that included Three the Hardway and this film and two others, and it was this huge seller, and everybody was asking me, like, why are these films so popular? And I had to explain to them that there's a massive audience that loved these movies when they came out. And now you've got several generations later, because it's a 51-year-old movie, discovering them if they haven't already discovered them.

And here again, we've scanned the original camera negative at 4K. We have a beautiful Blu-ray that has... I've never seen this film look so good. I've seen it have a magenta cast, just not representative of what things could and should look like. I would venture to say this looks better than it did the day it opened. I didn't see it then, obviously, but I was thrilled at how really terrific it looked for a very modestly budget film.

This was not meant to be an A picture. This was the equivalent of a B picture in the 70s. But we treat every film with the same kind of reverence. This comes with its original trailer. We didn't have any archival, you know, behind the scenes featurette made for syndication or anything that would be relevant. But the film stands on its own. And we have released several of these films in the genre over the last year and a half.

And they've sold very well and been very well received. And so we're glad to add this to the Warner Archive Collection. Yeah, more than several. I think this is the fifth one that we've talked about over the last couple of years. And this one has been requested highly. So there's a lot of people I know looking forward to this one. So that's terrific. Well, next we have a noir.

I died a thousand times from 1955. What can you tell us about this film, George? Well, this is the second remake of the classic that put Bogart on the map as a leading Man Star, High Sierra. This is a remake of High Sierra. It's not taking the story of High Sierra and changing the names and the locale. That was done, I'm trying to figure out five, six years earlier with Colorado Territory, which came out in 1948, which was a remake of High Sierra turned into a Western.

This is not. This is really a remake of High Sierra, adding color. adding cinemascope, adding stereophonic sound, and really as a vehicle for a relatively young Jack Palance. I don't ever know how to pronounce his name as Palance or Palance.

I don't know. But the proper pronunciation is. I know who Jack is, and I like his work in many, many films and doing the push-up at the Oscars when I was a kid. That was fun, too. But he's terrific in the movie. No, he's not Humphrey Bogart,

but he is his own man and he holds his own and Shelley Winters is his love interest and then there's this whole side plot to show the human side of Mad Dog Earl where there's this

ill young girl who he cares deeply about and wants to help her. So you see that this criminal on the run has a heart and that is the thing that also makes you want to care about the characters. You know, anytime you remake a movie, usually the remake is never held in

high esteem as the original. And that's completely understandable in this case, but as its own film, it's very entertaining. And I did read somewhere, someone referred to it in a review as very specific to, like, the mid-1950s and making a gangster picture in the 1950s and taking advantage. There's a lot of location photography, and it's very entertaining, and it looks and sounds magnificent, because yet, once again,

we've scanned the camera negative at 4K. Our new master looks fantastic. It sounds great. I mean, having the stereophonic score is really wonderful, and it's very, very entertaining. And so if you don't compare it to the original, this is a case where the original is an unmitigated classic. This is an important film in its own right and should be appreciated for what it is. Now we're making it available the way it should be seen and heard. Yeah.

And you have some classic cartoons on here, hairbrush, and. Sahara Haira Hair, which I think is hilarious, and then the original theatrical trailer. So a nice package there. But we have one more title, George, and I think I've already seen just a lot, a lot of excitement about this one, because it is another Hannah-Barbera TV series. Tell us about what's coming in September from Hannah-Barbera. Well, Touchet Turtle and Dum Dum were a series of 52 cartoons that were prepared. aired for local syndication to television stations throughout the country, and then eventually

around the world. There were three different character cartoons developed for a syndication package, Tushay Turtle and Dum Dum, Wally Gator, and Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har Har. These were done on a very low budget. The original negatives were 16 millimeter, not 35 millimeter. So there is a definite drop inherent in quality when you're working from 16 millimeter versus 35 millimeter.

Sure. We had released on DVD, Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har Har and Wally Gator, each in their own DVD set, but we couldn't do a DVD set of Two-shaped Turtle because the existing masters were deplorable and the film elements were a mess. And as we've been doing with many, many different programs, not just animation or television series, but all the, everything that we do in trying to improve things, original negatives were scanned at 4K and where we didn't have original negatives because some of them were lost. We had to work from some prints. But MPI's team really did their best work on this to make what was originally produced 63 years ago, if I'm doing the

math right, making these look as good as they can and sound as good as they can. And we will be releasing for those who ask, yes, there will be a Wally Gator Blu-ray somewhere down the line. There will be a lippy the lion. Blu-ray somewhere down the line. But there's real confusion around these three cartoons because in some markets they were put together as a half-hour programming. Whereas in other markets, they were shown individually and used individually. So all 52 cartoons are on this two-disc set.

And we've also priced it as the same as a one-disc release to make it more inherently a consumer value proposition. And we know that the Hannah-Barbera fans want everything. And because this one wasn't on DVD, that's why we chose to put this out first, because the audience has nothing else to watch unless they want to watch television. and that's a whole different thing. But this is the way you get to own it and keep it and look it with the best possible quality. So if I'm hearing you correctly, this has never been out on DVDs,

and probably never on Laserdisc, right? No, there was a VHS tape. It came out with a couple of cartoons, but this was like... First time the entire series has been out... It's got to be like early 90s, but no, it was far from the entire series. Yeah.

The entire series is more than four hours in length. It's almost five hours of programming. The cartoons are each about five minutes with a few extra seconds. Right. So there are 26 cartoons on disc one, 26 cartoons on disk two, which enables us to have a very high Warner Archive bit rate and have them look terrific to the degree. that they can. We can't make them look better than how Hannah Barberra finished

them. Unlike Huckleberry Hound, Quick Dr. McGraw, and then Yogi Bear in the middle kind of with his own show, those were all sponsored by Kellogg's. That gave Hannah Barbera more of a budget to work

with. These went into syndication without a commercial sponsor. It was up to the local station, to take care of the ad time. Right. So I think that's why they made the financial decision to shoot these on 16mm.

And basically until we got into the world of home entertainment, home video, and to some degree cable television, suddenly the switch was from 16 millimeter to 35 millimeter, thankfully, with the exception of a few stations in the United States, Most local stations only ran 16 millimeter. Networks ran 35 millimeter. Growing up in New York, we had one channel, WPI, Channel 11, that did run 35 millimeter, and it was so noticeable.

But it was a rarity. And, of course, they had no choice. I think WPiX, Channel 11 had this package of cartoons. And, of course, they had no choice to run them in 16mm, because that's how they were made. Sure. But the majority of syndicated content throughout the 50s, 60s, 70s, it was all about 16mm. You know, even the most famous shows, I Love Lucy, Bewitched, you know, Gunsmoke, whatever,

16mm Prince was what went to the stations for reruns. Fortunately, if things were made in 35mm, we get to take advantage of that. The very first Hannah Barbera series, which did go to network, which was right before Huckleberry Hound was rough and ready. That, too, was made in 16mm, because Hanna-Barbero was barely formed when they made their first sale. Right. So I don't think at the end of the day, it takes away from the good writing.

And there are special voice talents involved here because Touche Turtle was voiced by a radio actor named Bill Thompson who happened to also be the voice of MGM's droopy. And you can hear the similarity. Of course, droopy had the droopy qualities in his speaking. But it's Bill Thompson doing the voice of Touche. And then Alan Reed, the original voice of Fred Flintstone, does the voice of Dum Dum, his companion.

So it's great Hannah Barbera TV fun. and it's a long time coming for the collectors, and I hope people appreciate it. Yeah, yeah. I'm sure there's many people also wondering, George, since this was on 16, and you're able to bring this out from the original 16. Other stories that were shot on 16,

does this mean that they have a chance, maybe in the future as well, to come to Blu-ray? Absolutely. I mean, we have found that we have on, certain occasions, if that's all that exists, we did it with a feature film originally for DVD. Safe in Hell, we thought all that existed was a 16mm print. Finding the 35 millimeter print, which was the only known element by 1956 when the Warner Library had been sold off for television, and then we got it back 40 years later. But safe in hell, the only

only element that existed for the 1950s sale was a 35 millimeter nitrate print. But we didn't know about that until a few years ago. So what we were distributing came from 16 millimeter. The Blu-ray we put out in 2023, thankfully came out from 35 millimeter print. And for a movie that is as old as it is, 1931, the results were very, very satisfying. So we try not to let those kind of problems getting our way if something deserves to be seen. But, you know, in the case of that film, we were on a search to see if there was something better. And there was. If something was produced in 16mm, there's only so much you can do. Right, right. Well, George, that's a great lineup for September. Before we go, though, I did want to also ask you and mention so that the listeners

know that you have three different Blu-ray film collections coming out in early September, September 2nd. And I know you've released a few of these before, but I did want to mention that today so that fans know you have the six film Errol Flynn collection, you have a four-film Greta Garbo collection, and then you have a four-film 50s sci-fi collection. So was there anything you wanted to say about those before we go? Well, if you're a loyal subscriber to the extras, the likelihood is you probably own these films already on Blu-ray. We wanted to create these multi-feature sets of previously released titles so that we could add a value proposition at a reasonable price.

These are more intended for newbie collectors that haven't started their collection yet because these are really all essential classics to add to one's library or for gift giving. And we started this a couple of years ago with the Bogart Bacall collection, with the Hitchcock Collection, a film noir collection, a horror collection, and we're building upon that with these new releases. in this kind of set where you get these wonderful quality discs

that we've been producing for the last few years. And we've also been able to include some non-Warner Archive releases that were classic films I was involved with before there was the Warner Archive Collection. So we're able to pay proper tribute to a particular talent, like putting the Adventures of Robin Hood

in the Arrow Flynn Collection makes a great deal of sense. This is the film he's most famous for. I can't think of anything he ever did that's more famous than Robin Hood. So there's a great value, six movies, 5998 list price. People really like getting their movies

for $10 a piece. We couldn't stay in business if we released them new at $10 a piece. I hope people understand that. But once we've recouped our expenses, after a certain period of time, this now gives us the flexibility. We're going to be releasing more and more of these, but we will only do so after a film has comfortably recouped the massive investment we make in our mastering. Well, September has a lot between those collections, which come out early, and then the five films that come out toward the end of the month. So thank you again, George, for coming on.

It's my pleasure, Tim, as always. And I want to let people know that there were a couple of titles we had intended to be released in September. But in order to make our dates, if they didn't hit the deadline, they got pushed into October. So October is going to be quite a substantial month. Looking forward to it. And I'll leave it at that. And just to provide a little further clarification on what's in the film collections, in the Greta Garbo collection, there are four films.

Camille, Queen Christina, Ninuchka, and Anna Christie. So you have those four films, all previously released on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive, now in a four-film collection. And again, the price on these comes out to about $10 per Blu-ray. So it's a great value. And then for the 50s sci-fi collection, there's Attack of the 50-foot woman, the beast from 20,000 fathoms, world without end, and them. And then the one that's really been exciting people is this Errol Flynn collection of six films. And as George mentioned, that includes the Adventures of Robin Hood, Seahawk, Santa Fe Trail, Edge of Darkness, Objective Burma, and the Adventures of Don Juan.

Once again, about $10 per film, so you're looking at close to $60 for that collection. All of the five films for September are available for pre-order, as well as these three film collections. So look for those in the podcast show notes, and you can get your orders in for those if you haven't yet already. Until next time, you've been listening to Tim Alarm. Stay slightly obsessed.