The Extras - Warner Archive Spring 2022 Release Highlights

Episode Date: May 1, 2022

Warner Bros executive George Feltenstein takes us through the Spring 2022 releases from the Warner Archive.  We kick  off the discussion with the March Blu-ray release of “Captains of the Clouds�� (1941) starring James Cagney, Brenda Marshall, Dennis Morgan, and directed by Michael Curtiz.   Beautifully restored in Technicolor, this film has never looked so good. Next George details the David O. Selznick version of “A Star is Born” (1937) starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, and directed by William A. Wellman.  This film has been in desperate need of restoration and this new blu-ray returns it to the proper sound and visual it deserves.  And we wrap up the month with a review of the classic TV show "Head of the Class" season 4 on DVD, starring the late Howard Hesseman.  Kevin Costner rules April with Blu-ray releases of two films released in 1985.  The first is "American Flyers," followed by the cult favorite "Fandango." For May, George reviews the Blu-ray of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1941) starring Spencer Tracy in both roles, and co-starring Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner.  Next is "The Carey Treatment" (1972) starring James Coburn and Jennifer O'Neill.  And also in May is season 5 of the hit TV show "Lucifer," on Blu-ray.  We wrap up the podcast with a discussion on the recent 4K release of "Singin' In the Rain" and what it could mean for future 4K releases of Warner Bros classics.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.  www.otakumedia.tvThe 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 Millard, your host.

Today, George Feltenstein from Warner Brothers joins the show to take us through the spring 2022 releases from the Warner Archive. George, it's good to talk with you today. Ah, Tim, it's great to be back. Thank you for having me. Well, March was a really strong month of releases for the Warner Archive. Well, March was a really strong month of releases for the Warner Archive. However, in our podcast for that month, we focused just on the restored Blu-ray release of the Cineramas, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm. And we had special guests, Dave Strohmeyer and Tom March, and they shared the epic story of the restoration. So for those of our listeners who haven't yet had a chance to listen to that podcast, it is number 43 and you definitely don't want to miss it. But there were several other highly anticipated releases that month.

So maybe you can take us through those, George. Well, yeah, I'd love to, because the wonderful world of the Brothers Grimm has been a phenomenon for us. Far more successful than I could have even dreamed. And so rewarding, especially for Dave and Tom, who worked on this, you know, actively two, three years. But for Dave, it was actually like a 20-year journey. And it's been a grand success for everyone. But we had two other big Technicolor restorations in March, which we never got to talk about. And I would love to talk about them now. The first is from 1942.

It was actually filmed in 41. 42. It was actually filmed in 41. And it was shot in the amazing three-strip Technicolor process. And it was the first time that the Technicolor cameras were used to shoot James Cagney in a movie. It was his first Technicolor film, and it's called Captains of the Clouds. And it takes place really as a patriotic, let's get the axis booster for American morale, and was shot at a time when the U.S. had not joined into World War II. And by the time the movie was released, Pearl Harbor had happened and the country was very much in World War II. So an unfortunate, horrendous calamity triggered the film being even more timely and powerful to audiences. And it's also directed by Michael Curtiz, who we've talked about previously when Alan K.

Rohde joined me to talk about Angels with Dirty Faces, the consummate Warner Brothers director. Angels with Dirty Faces, the consummate Warner Brothers director. And Dennis Morgan is in the film and Brenda Marshall. And it's stunningly, beautifully shot in Technicolor and shot entirely, to my knowledge, in Canada. That's where it takes place, of course, because it's about the Canadian Air Force and about an American feisty flyer who goes up to Canada to help with the war effort. And Cagney plays the usual kind of non-gangster Cagney role. And it's very entertaining. But what everyone has told me in reaction to seeing the Blu-ray is they're just astounded by the gorgeousness of the Technicolor and the restoration that our folks at Warner

Brothers Motion Picture Imaging did for this movie. They're used to seeing it looking grungy and now it looks gorgeous. And that can make a good movie into a great movie going experience. And so as a result, it's been a very surprisingly hefty seller and very well received by the reviewers and the critics and the public. So we're very happy about that. And we certainly recommend Captain of the Clouds for everybody. But the other film that we released along with Grimm in March was intended to be released the week before Brothers Grimm came out, but there was a delay at the factory, so it was released on March 29th, the same day as Brothers Grimm. And so it was kind of overshadowed by Brothers Grimm. So it did get some attention, but it really is a landmark event in not only the history of home entertainment, but certainly in the history of Warner Archive. And this is the

original 1937 version of A Star is Born, which was followed by three remakes, all of which were musicals. But this is the original film, and this had been circulating around in gray market copies made off of prints, looking really wretched, to say the least. looking really wretched, to say the least. And it was really up to us to go back to the original negative and do a restoration on that, just as we did for Captains of the Clouds. And we did just that. And the results were really amazing,

especially since this is two years into three-color Technicolor being used by the industry. And David O. Selznick produced it, and it stars Frederick March and Janet Gaynor. And it is basically the same story that people are used to seeing in the other versions. It's especially close to the next remake, which was Judy Garland's in 1954. But this is a very, very tender love story. And it also is the shortest of all the Star is Born movies how great it was. And I still think it should have won the Oscar. And Judy Garland's remake in and of itself is a masterpiece of cinema. But this original is also a masterpiece of cinema and directed by one of my favorite directors, William A. Wellman, director of Public Enemy, director of The High and the

Mighty, director of so many wonderful films. And some people say that this is in itself an unofficial remake of a film that was made five years earlier at RKO when David O. Selznick was head of production there. It was a film called What Price Hollywood with Constance Bennett. And it's about a woman that is a waitress and she wants to become an actress and a director believes in her and his career tumbles while hers rises. And the circumstances and plot devices are very different than A Star is Born. But the similarities are enough that people kind of felt, well, why didn't RKO sue Selznick? You know, because he was basically stealing from that earlier film in some fashion. But apparently RKO didn't think so. original 1937 version of A Star is Born was acknowledged by the Academy and was really one of the first films, at least I know, I can think of one silent movie that is in our library show

people with Marion Davies that makes fun of the film industry. But there were very few films made about the movie industry at that time in the 30s, especially in the sound era. And this is a serious and sometimes seething look at the underbelly, the dark side of the film industry. And it was, of course, especially in the 1930s, you had thousands of young people coming out to Hollywood trying to make it big. And I guess that still goes on today. But in the 30s, it was like, you know, the Depression was going on and the film industry was affected by the Depression. And then eventually the film industry was a savior during the Depression because for five cents, people could forget their troubles for two hours. So this film is it's always been a favorite, but it never looked good because everything you ever saw came from prints. And if they were in color, the colors were muted. And what we have here is

near perfection. And the response of the fan community, I've just loved reading all the comments on all the forums from people who've seen this. They thought it was impossible. This could never happen. And, you know, it is a roll of the dice for us to release a film that has been out there so much, release a film that has been out there so much, but it's been out there looking like garbage. And now it looks like it came from Tiffany's. And I'm very proud of my colleagues who worked so hard. Once again, Warner Brothers Motion Picture Imaging, the home of the wizards of ours.

I love saying that because I can't praise their work highly enough because they're really artists and everybody took particular care and pleasure in doing this so that this really, really important film wasn't left to, you know, the garbage pile of films that were not given their due. Now it's protected and now it's been restored and now it can be yours by going to your computer and ordering it from your favorite online retailer, whoever that may be. But Grimm, Captains of the Clouds, and A Star is Born made for quite a release month in March for Blu-ray. And yet, I don't want to leave out that we released a DVD set that month as well. It was on March 15th that was the street date where we released season four on DVD of the 1980s sitcom Head of the Class, starring Howard

Hessman. And this is actually the last season that Howard Hessman was on the series. It lasted another season, I believe it was on ABC. But Howard Hessman left the show. They brought in somebody else to be the teacher of these goofball teenage students. And the fourth season was different than previous seasons and eventually led to Hessman saying, okay, I've had enough. The show's been great, but I don't want to do anymore. And they tried a season without him, but then the show ended its run. But it's so well-loved and so well-remembered. We released seasons one, two, and three in prior years. And with our staff

being so reduced and our resources being so reduced and a little bit of a roller coaster ride at the company, we didn't want this series to get lost in the shuffle. We wanted to continue to make it available. And if it were up to us and it isn't, I would make sure that we were releasing a lot more of everything. But we're doing the best we can with very limited staff and what we have. And I'm so glad that we got this season four out there because the fan base for this series has been asking for it, for my experience, for at least the last 20 years. And there were a lot of obstacles in the way that prevented us from being able to do it. We finally did take care of clearing those issues and making it available.

So head of the class season four DVD, that and the three Blu-rays, that's what made up in March. Yeah. And I was just going to say that March was really strong and it was too bad we didn't get a chance to kind of get a little more promotion for A Star is Born. But let's hope that we can get that now and just remind people that that's a classic that they really want to own. And again, as you've said before on this show, just because there's a street date, that's just the day that it's available. These are great movies and available for people to buy now that they've been restored at any time. 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. And when you can put them on your shelf and know that they're there, and if your internet is out or your internet is slow, your image on your monitor will still be beautiful when the Blu-ray spins. And we can't underscore the importance of that. Some people, they choose not to want to own books. They choose not to want to own music.

They choose to have everything be transitory. But there are a great deal of people out there who want physical media, physical discs, physical books, physical discs of music and vinyl. Everybody should be able to get what they want. vinyl. Everybody should be able to get what they want. And I'm someone who subscribes to, I think, five or six streaming services. I have, you know, over a thousand movies in my digital locker. I take advantage of all ways of watching things and reading things and listening to things. But when it comes down to it and I want the best quality, you know, I want to listen to high resolution audio. I want to watch a 4k or HD Blu-ray disc.

And I want to read a book. There have been many books I've, uh, I've read on my Kindle and it's a very minimal price. And I've liked them so much that I want to add them to my physical book library. And my bookshelves are many and they're bursting at the seams. So, you know, when you, when you find something that you really love, building a film library is a wonderful thing.

And it's a thing that I think a lot of people take for granted now, you know, because for the last 40 plus years, people have been able to buy and own movies. And it really wasn't until the first video cassettes started popping up in the latter part of the 70s that this once impossible dream became possible. And people were paying $90 to buy a movie on VHS. So prices have come way down. Quality has gone way up. So prices have come way down, quality has gone way up, and what is available to the consumer to build their library is really phenomenal.

And we're happy to be a part of that. Well, we didn't have a chance to record anything for April. There were several Blu-ray releases that month. What can you tell us about those April releases? Well, we had mapped out quite a robust 2022 schedule and had all sorts of things planned. And the schedule got kind of spread out over a longer period of time just because you can only get so much out of a limited amount of people. And so we only released two movies in April on Blu-ray, but they were both focused on someone who was really one of the biggest stars in movies, you know, in the 90s. one of the biggest stars in movies, you know, in the 90s.

And in recent years, he had kind of not been as visible. And now he's once again the focus of millions of people who are watching him on TV in Yellowstone. That's, of course, Kevin Costner. And we have two films that Kevin Costner made for Warner Brothers that were released in 1985 that were just made before his stardom took off. And I think the first film that really launched his stardom was Silverado. It was a Columbia film. So Kevin Costner made two films in 1985 that really bookended the release of Silverado. But the first of the two is called American Flyers. And American Flyers stars Kevin Costner and David Marshall Grant, who's billed in the film as David Grant. And it's a story of two brothers and family conflicts and also about cycling. And the screenplay was written by Steve Tesich, who won an Oscar for another bicycling movie that

was made about six years before called Breaking Away, which is a wonderful movie. This film has a cult following, as does the other Costner film I'm about to talk about, and has a quintessential 80s soundtrack with very memorable music of the time. And it's very much a product of its time. And I say that in a very encouraging way, in a very joyous way, because, explore film in the 70s and the nostalgia boom of that era. And now young people are looking at these old movies from the 80s and finding all sorts of things in them. But Kevin Costner was, I guess, probably about 30 when he made these movies, but he looks like he's about 18. And they're really quite enjoyable. But American Flyers is also the product of director John Battam, who made another study of young people that was quite successful a few years before called Saturday Night Fever. So the pedigree of filmmakers and cast all come together very nicely.

And it's very, very entertaining. So I heartily recommend in its widescreen glory, American Flyers. widescreen glory, American Flyers. And people were so happy that we brought this to Blue because the DVD wasn't exactly anything to write home about. And the same goes for the next film, which is the one that has the really heavy duty cult following. It's called Fandango. And it was directed by a friend of Kevin Costner's, Kevin Reynolds, who later directed him in the infamous Waterworld film that came out in the 90s. But Fandango was actually based on a short film Kevin Reynolds had made when he was a film student. And I think it was Steven Spielberg who saw his film and Spielberg's production company, Amblin, was involved in the production of Fandango. And it's about five, you know, college kids getting together, going out into the mountains and what happens to them.

It's a buddy film. Judd Nelson co-stars. And it has memorable moments that the fans quote. And we had had so many requests for it that we gave it a brand new master and a brand new Blu-ray disc. So Costner ruled April. As we move on to May, we have two films that are separated by, it seems like longer, are separated by, it seems like longer, but they're only separated by 30 years. One film from the 1940s from 1941, one film from the 1970s from 1971.

And yet they seem like they're 50 years apart, you know, when you look at them for what they are, but they're each quite unique. when you look at them for what they are, but they're each quite unique. And the first film is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from 1941. And I want to say that this is particularly remarkable because it comes from a 4K scan made from the best preservation elements that we have to create a new 1080p master. And that's very important because all we've had thus far is standard definition, not looking very good, dirty. The film is so great. It's directed by Victor Fleming, who directed Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz. It's got a pretty good pedigree. Spencer Tracy takes on the role of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and

makes it his own. And his co-stars are not exactly chopped liver either. exactly chopped liver either. We've got Ingrid Bergman on loan from David O. Selznick for the occasion, and MGM's own upcoming weeding lady of the time, Lana Turner, as the two women in Jekyll slash Hyde's life. This is, I think, the third film. I think there was a silent in the 20s with John Barrymore, a very famous 1931 release that most people saw in 1932 because it opened, I think, December 30th or 31st, 1931 with Frederick March and Miriam Hopkins. And people who ask, well, why aren't you releasing that one? Because Frederick March won the Oscar. Fear not, we're working on it right now and hope to have it out before the end of the year.

But right now we're focusing on Mr. Tracy and his take on the role. And it's a beautiful new master and it's from a 4K scan. And it's absolutely something no one who loves this story should miss. So we're very proud of that. And then moving into the 70s, we have a very unique and provocative film that was made in 1971 at the same studio at MGM and directed by Blake Edwards, who's best known for his comedies. But this is a murder mystery with a medical twist. And that shouldn't be so surprising when you find out that it comes from the writing of one gentleman by the name of Michael Crichton, who was not only a director, but a writer who was basically writing a lot about science fiction and occasionally about medicine because it was his, I don't remember exactly the chronology, but he, when he was an intern to become a doctor, he wrote, I think a film script

that eventually became the pilot for ER 25 years later, if I have my chronology correct. But Crichton was very hot at the time. And James Coburn stars in the movie, along with Jennifer O'Neill. And it is a quintessential early 70s movie. It is just, you look at it and you look at the haircuts and the shag carpeting and whatnot. And it's just a time travel movie for sure. And also at the end of the month, we will be releasing the penultimate fifth season of a show that I am nuts about that I'm so glad got to six seasons. I wish they would keep making it forever. And that's Lucifer season five. And we'll be releasing that on May 31st.

And I just find that show is really unique. It's, it's really like no other. And the fact that it has its aegis in Vertigo Comics is just amazing. We fought hard to get that on Blu-ray from season one. And there were always DVDs along the way. But we had it on Blu-ray from the very beginning and we will release the sixth season later on in the year. And therefore all the episodes will be out.

And there's a couple of deleted scenes thrown in just to give you a little extra piece of Lucifer because everybody wants a piece of Lucifer. And that wraps up our May releases. I'll just jump in here for a second, just to say that I had the good fortune to work with the cast on Lucifer and they had some great gag reels over the years. They were also a joy to work with, but the showrunners were even more of a joy to work with. They just made themselves so available and everybody just seemed to really enjoy working on that show. And the show really shot up in popularity after it played on Netflix and moved

over there and it's done very well. But for those who want to finish their collection, that's so great that the Warner Archive is putting these out. Yeah. And I, I'm so glad you brought that up because did you work with the, with the, uh, cast and crew when they were shooting here in LA or when they were in Vancouver? Well, they moved between season one and two. Right. And we did a nice little feature that went on the season to release about that move. They actually shot three extra episodes, if you can believe that, in the first season to launch the second season because they needed the time to move everything down to the stages here at the lot, at the Warner Brothers lot, and rebuild everything.

And we got some great footage of them rebuilding everything. And just a wonderfully shot show. Just it's a beautiful one to look at. It's gorgeous on Blu-ray, yeah. It looks terrific. And the sets and everything that they rebuilt down here, I mean, they shipped a few things, but they basically had to rebuild it. Yeah. I watched, maybe it was a piece you did.

I watched the whole piece about certain handing off of roles and responsibilities of the crew where they had a Vancouver crew and then people taking over and they had to recreate Lux, his nightclub. And I went on that set. I was walking around the sound stages one afternoon and I just walked in, you know, the door was open. There was nobody there. And this was in between the cancellation after being on Fox for three seasons.

after being on Fox for three seasons. And then Netflix fairly quickly picked it up for a fourth season and fans prayed and they got a fifth season. And the fifth season was almost done when the COVID lockdown happened. And so it took a long time to get the fifth season, and we don't get to release them on Blu-ray or DVD or whatever for a year until Netflix, they have an exclusive window.

So that's why there's been such a delay between season four and season five. I think we released season four before, if I'm correct, and I may be incorrect, but I don't think so. I think season four came out right before the pandemic. I believe that's correct. I know that they sent me the deleted scenes for season five and they sat in my office for quite a long time because that was a long stretch.

Yeah. The whole transition and the Netflix hold back. They had two episodes left to finish the season. And season five has 16 episodes, which is really hefty. And season six, unfortunately, is only 10. But I thought they did a really good job. Well, I'm not going to talk about season six now because then what will we talk about when we release it?

That's right. So I'll just celebrate season five. I also find that the show is eminently rewatchable and I've gone back and watched earlier seasons sequentially on the previous disc sets that we've put out more than once because I'm just fascinated by the amount of talent both in front of the camera and in back of the camera. The creative crew, the writing, spectacular. The photography is amazing. The production values, the set design, and the cast, they're spectacular. And there's also this strange combination of murder and kind of spirituality and science

fiction and music and comedy. The show is filled with comedy and how you get that right balance. They nailed it every time. And it really hurts me in my heart when a show like that is so great and comes to an end because you want it to come back. And in most cases, they never will. And sometimes when they come back, you wish they hadn't because they spoiled by trying to revive it. There have been some shows that were rebooted recently, last couple of years, some successfully, some not. And the ones that were not successful, it was painful, you know, to see a show that was so well admired come back. When you leave on top, you want to keep it that way and to try to recreate.

Some have done so successfully, but's very very rare i think one of the most interesting television shows to have lasted so long because you never knew if it was coming back or when and it's coming back again happily for all of us within warner brothers discovery is uh curb your enthusiasm on hbo that's right they're coming back for another season the first within Warner Brothers Discovery is Curb Your Enthusiasm on HBO. That's right. They're coming back for another season. The first season was in 2001. So over 20 years, you know, he went like maybe four or five years

without doing it and then said, I'm going to do it again. That's a show that, you know, I could talk about forever. It's writing genius and very funny. And we're very, very proud to have it amongst the myriad of products that our colleagues make available for people to put on their shelves. And I'm sure there'll be more of that coming the way of everyone, as there is more coming from the Warner Archive. A lot of people have been speculating on our future, and it's very much solid.

It's just that we have to reduce the amount of content that we can release each month simply by the fact that our staff is about, I'd say, 10% to 15% of what it was. And the people responsible for that are no longer around. So hopefully we will rebuild from the ashes and be able to do more. But what's good also to communicate to the people that really care about this is the restoration and preservation efforts don't stop. They have never stopped. They continue. We have an abundance of wonderful, wonderful films and television programs to choose from in the future. So if people are disappointed by the slowing down of the release schedule, I share their pain, but I also want to communicate to all that it will get better and there will be more. that it will get better and there will be more. And we are listening and we have an abundance of treasures that are being worked on right now for a future release.

And so just stay patient and you might not be spending as much money every month, but that's good too because you're going to need to save for when the new releases arrive. So it's always fun to talk about these things and to hear from the consumers when they share their messages with us, and I hope they would do the same contacting you on your website and letting people know what they like.

Right. I think there's an appetite for some more animation, which I have an animation project. And I'll even share that Jerry Beck and I are developing an animation project and I'll even share that Jerry Beck and I are developing an animation project that is not something that we've talked about before and if we can make the numbers work hopefully we'll have something for people before Christmas that will really be aimed squarely at the most avid collectors. And along the lines of what we did with Popeye and Tex Avery,

who are still not done with yet, but we want to try something a little different and something that we think fans will really, really appreciate because we're blessed with the world's greatest film library. We want to give everything its due. So hopefully our planned project will be greenlit and we'll be talking about that in the future. We'll be talking about that in the future. Well, George, there was one more title that I thought we could talk about before we wrap up today. And even though it's not a Warner Archive release per se, it is a Warner Brothers release. And the audience of this show, it's a favorite of theirs. And that's the Singing in the Rain 4K.

What can you tell us about that release? Well, basically, when it comes to the classic library, I'm involved in one way or another. And when it came to Singing in the Rain, this is a film that I have a long history with, both as a fan. I think the first time I saw it, it was chopped to ribbons on television and it was in a 90 minute time slot and it's a 103 minute film. So I only got to see a 70 minute singing in the rain. Didn't get to see the full thing until I went to a revival theater in my late teens. But I have had the great good fortune of having gotten to know Gene Kelly toward the end of his life and spent a lot of time with

him. And I worked on the 40th anniversary, the 50th anniversary. I didn't work on the 60th anniversary, although I was here, but that's the one that came in the box with the umbrella. So I didn't have anything to do with that. But I knew this was happening and I got to basically be in a position of giving it a view very early on. And one of our most wonderful colorists who recently retired out of her own volition, she wanted to retire. She'd been with us for a long time. This was, I think, her second to last project, I think her last project was Giant, which is coming out on 4K later on through Warner Brothers Home Entertainment. But the second to last thing she finished was Singing in the Rain. And what's so unique about it is that there are a lot of people that don't like musicals.

There are a lot of people that don't like musicals. And I don't know anybody who doesn't like musicals who doesn't also like or love Singing in the Rain. Singing in the Rain is the musical to put on way the songs move the story along, and it's particularly clever in that all the songs in the movie, with the exception of one or two, were written years and years before and written in the period that the movie takes place in, which is the movie's transition from silence to talkies. And Gene Kelly and Stanley Donnan's direction as a team, they directed three films together. This is the second of the three. The first was On the Town. The last was It's Always Fair Weather. This is really the apex. Gene Kelly at his zenith,

because right before Singing in the Rain came out, an American Paris had just won the Oscar for Best Picture. Gene had just been given an Oscar for his accomplishments in the art of choreography on the screen. Because of what he did in An American in Paris, choreographing, developing the ballet, American in Paris, I think, won six Oscars. It was just such a phenomenal hit. And Singing in the Rain was released, I think, two or three weeks after the Oscars were given out for An American in Paris. And it got great reviews and it had a profitable release.

Audiences loved it, but it was not considered to be the masterpiece that it is now known to be. It took many years for it to develop that reputation. And I had a personal experience with the film when I was quite young. Radio City Music Hall, I grew up in New York, and Radio City Music Hall was like the most amazing place to see a movie. And MGM was going to be debuting a movie there called The Wind and the Lion with Sean Connery and Candice Bergen. And they were late. They were not going to be able to deliver the film to the hall on time as promised. So MGM filled in the four-week delay with reliable films that they would often bring out when needed.

And the first week was Gone with the Wind. And then it was followed by 2001 A Space Odyssey, and then I believe the third, probably Dr. Zhivago, and then as a surprise, they put in Singing in the Rain. And there was Singing in the Rain, this is 1975, Singing in the Rain playing in the same theater it had played in when it opened in 1952. And they grossed about $200,000 that week. They were selling out every show. And I went, I think, twice, which means I also had to sit through their stage show with the Rockettes,

which was a little on the bizarre side. But there was nothing like seeing a movie at Radio City. And that was really a remarkable thing for me because I looked around and saw kids that were five, six, seven years old and people who were in their 70s and 80s, every kind of person you could think of and all loving the movie. And hearing 6,000 people laugh and applaud at this wonderful movie, it was a phenomenal experience. And it led to a modest national theatrical reissue. And this was coming on the heels of That's Entertainment's release the year before in theaters, which really had put a spotlight on the MGM musical in a way that really never had been done before. And it was just remarkable to be able to experience the movie in that theater.

I will never forget it. So now we get to see it on home video. And I wasn't involved with the videocassette releases, except for, I think, the 40th anniversary edition, where we did a laser disc and a special laser disc and a 40th anniversary video cassette that had an outtake in it. We started to add stuff. And for the 50th anniversary, we made a documentary about the making of that Debbie Reynolds hosted. And virtually everybody who was involved in the making of that Debbie Reynolds hosted. And virtually everybody who

was involved in the making of the movie participated either via archival footage, recordings, or things that were done on a contemporary basis. But that documentary, I think it's called What a Glorious Feeling. It's 20 years ago. And unfortunately, I don't think it's any place but iTunes right now. If you buy or rent Singing in the Rain on iTunes, all the special features are there. But the 4K disc is really the most beautiful I've ever seen the film, even more than in the theater. Because in the theater, you had scratches and the things that were normal in a movie theater,

you know, a hair in the gate and what have you. It's absolutely immaculate. And this is one of those films where the original negative, all except one real, burned in the tragic fire at George Eastman House in 1978. But MGM had made protection separation from which we now scan each one and then recombine them for a sharpness that is unprecedented. Now, this is a process we started using 20 years ago. We called ultra-resolution. And the screen was split into 16 parts as they would try to bring the three different strips of the primary colors together. But now we're able to bring it down to the pixel.

So you're getting a sharpness and registration that is unprecedented. And you see the, because of 4K and HDR, you see the fabric of the costumes and how the light reflects off of the jewels on somebody's costume and little things like that. It's just visually remarkable. And the colors pop and the blacks are a deep black, the way Technicolor prints used to be. And it's just a festival visually. And the film was so cleverly photographed. Everything about it was just so well done. And most importantly, you had this amazing screenplay, original screenplay by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who I'm also happy to say that I idolized as a youth and became friendly with in later years. And we saluted Singing in the Rain's 50th anniversary with a night at the Academy. And both Betty Comden and Adolph Green, as well as Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds,

and I think Sid Charisse, and I'm trying to think who else was there. I think that was that made up the entirety of who is there. We wanted Stanley. Gene had passed away several years before, but we wanted Stanley Donnan to attend and he was unable. wanted Stanley Donnan to attend and he was unable. And Rita Moreno has a small part in the movie and she was unable to attend. But I mean, we had Betty and Adolph and Donald and Debbie to talk about it. And the daughter of the film's producer, Arthur Freed, Barbara Freed Saltzman, she was there as well.

It was a wonderful night. And a lot of MGM alumni were in the audience. And the 50th anniversary was a big deal. And now it's 20 years later, and we're able to present the film with an unprecedented quality. And it really is something in 4K. And my hope is that this is the beginning of opening up the vault to start releasing more of the deep library classics that are timeless in the 4K format because it is remarkable for the right motion pictures. It can do amazing things, as we learned with The Wizard of Oz. And I know there are going to be more, and I hope there will be a lot more, but I think for the fans of this film, this is really a great gift from, frankly, it's a great gift from Warner Brothers to everybody who loves musicals and movies. And Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds on Donald O'Connor singing in their A9 4K is an outstanding achievement and something that the

company is very proud of. Well, it was great to see it come out because as you just said, if it's a precursor for more, that's a great sign for collectors and for people who just want to get the best quality image and sound on their favorite movies. Yeah. And, you know, I'm glad you brought up this sound because we created a 5.1 soundtrack years ago that was organic and not anachronistic. It was made from separate microphones were placed around the recording stage when they would record the music for these films. And MGM did that to create a balanced mono track. We figured out a way to create surround and stereo out of these stems that had been saved. And that 5-1 track is terrific. However, for the purist, I made a pitch that we needed to include the original mono track as people heard it in 1952,

so that people have a choice of how they want to experience the film. Do they want to experience the audio the way we would love to hear it now in a way that was not possible in 1952? Or do we want to hear it as people heard it in 1952? Now you have that choice because the prior Blu-ray disc only gave you the 5.1. So I kind of pitched that idea and happily it was well received. And I'm hoping that that will also mean that other titles in the future, which have an enhanced audio capability, also include the original so that everybody gets to choose for the optimum experience that they want.

Well, George, as always, whenever you're on the show, it's just a wealth of information that you give to the fans. Thank you so much for taking us through the spring 2022 releases from the Warner Archive. Thank you, Tim. And I look forward to listening to the next episode of The Extras because you've really created quite a remarkable and diverse podcast that is eminently listenable and re-listenable. So here's to you. Thanks, George. We'll have you back soon. Sounds good. For those of you interested in listening to more episodes on the Warner Archive releases,

we do have those available on the website at www.theextras.tv. You can hear a lot more from George as well. Also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter at The Extras TV or Instagram at The Extras dot 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. If you're 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.

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