The Thin Man

[seentv]

Hi,

Does anybody know if/when there will be a Blu Ray set of the Thin Man movies, with William Powell and Myrna Loy?

thanks

[drak b]

Unless someone on the site has insider knowledge, no one knows for sure.

If/when it comes out, it'll almost certainly be through either the Warner Archive line or the The Criterion Collection. Outside of TV shows, I don't recall Warner Archive really doing any large, multi-disc blu-ray sets so my bet would be The Criterion Collection. Unfortunately, they can take forever to actually get their licensed material on disc (e.g. their slowness with the Chaplin films...).

That said, all of the above is pure speculation. In any event, all we can do is wait and hope 'Soon!'

[Ned Brainard]

Another wrinkle is that WAC seems to have some reluctance towards releasing pre-1940 films on blu. In all of the years WAC has been releasing blu-rays, we've seen exactly one 1930s title. This is my only criticism of WAC. In other every other way it is pretty much stellar with the exception of this irksome prejudice against 1930s films (and for for that matter silent films as well). Anyway, I would love to see an HD upgrade of the The Thin Man series. A month doesn't go by in this household without at least one of these films receiving a screening.

[afr52]

Originally Posted by Ned Brainard

Another wrinkle is that WAC seems to have some reluctance towards releasing pre-1940 films on blu. In all of the years WAC has been releasing blu-rays, we've seen exactly one 1930s title. This is my only criticism of WAC.

Which 1930's blu-ray title are you talking about? The Public Enemy? Little Caesar? The Petrified Forest? That's 3 Warner titles from the 1930s that I can think of off the top of my head. I would love to see The Thin Man come to blu-ray.

[javi92]

Originally Posted by afr52

Which 1930's blu-ray title are you talking about? The Public Enemy? Little Caesar? The Petrified Forest? That's 3 Warner titles from the 1930s that I can think of off the top of my head. I would love to see The Thin Man come to blu-ray.

Those were all released under the normal WB branding a while ago. 42nd Street is the only 30s title released under the Warner Archive banner.

[DavePS3]

MGM if memory serves... those and David Copperfield should have been released on BD long ago.

[seentv]

Originally Posted by drak b

Unless someone on the site has insider knowledge, no one knows for sure.

If/when it comes out, it'll almost certainly be through either the Warner Archive line or the The Criterion Collection. Outside of TV shows, I don't recall Warner Archive really doing any large, multi-disc blu-ray sets so my bet would be The Criterion Collection. Unfortunately, they can take forever to actually get their licensed material on disc (e.g. their slowness with the Chaplin films...).

That said, all of the above is pure speculation. In any event, all we can do is wait and hope 'Soon!'

Thanks for the reply Drak B. My weekly viewings of these great movies may one day need an upgrade!

[CinemaScope]

Originally Posted by seentv

Hi,

Does anybody know if/when there will be a Blu Ray set of the Thin Man movies, with William Powell and Myrna Loy?

thanks

If you have the DVD box set, I'd hang on to it. I rather stupidly got rid of a lot of DVDs that I thought I'd have on Blu-ray in no time at all. The last couple of years I've been buying back some DVD sets, Errol Flynn, Marx Brothers, Tarzan, plus a few Paramount titles, Catch-22, Paint Your Wagon & The Longest Yard, & of course these titles on DVD don't look as good as Blu-ray, but they don't look half bad.

[phraseturner]

I've just picked up the DVD box set used this week, so a Blu set should be announced any day now. You're welcome.

[captveg]

Originally Posted by Ned Brainard

Another wrinkle is that WAC seems to have some reluctance towards releasing pre-1940 films on blu.

Their reluctance is that it's exponentially more expensive to clean the image up to their standards the furthe back they go, and on average the older the movie the poorer it sells. So, more expensive for less return = lower interest in releasing those titles.

[Ned Brainard]

Originally Posted by captveg

Their reluctance is that it's exponentially more expensive to clean the image up to their standards the furthe back they go, and on average the older the movie the poorer it sells. So, more expensive for less return = lower interest in releasing those titles.

Or WAC has unreasonable standards, and I'm glad that Kino and other similar companies don't share those standards. As someone else on this forum once said, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by Ned Brainard

Or WAC has unreasonable standards, and I'm glad that Kino and other similar companies don't share those standards. As someone else on this forum once said, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Kino? LOL, they will put out any shoddy old DVD-era master no matter the quality. They have no quality control. I would rather stick with DVDs and wait for proper remastering than have average transfers just because it's blu-ray.

WAC has the standards every other company SHOUD have.

[Ned Brainard]

Originally Posted by Bates_Motel

Kino? LOL, they will put out any shoddy old DVD-era master no matter the quality. They have no quality control. I would rather stick with DVDs and wait for proper remastering than have average transfers just because it's blu-ray.

WAC has the standards every other company SHOUD have.

So 2K and 4K masters provided by various studios and archives (including the Library of Congress and the Museum of Modern Art) are "shoddy"? It's just so awful that Kino will be releasing/has released "shoddy" junk like Old Ironsides (which incidentally never had a DVD release - so much for a DVD-era master of little to no quality) from a 2K LOC master, You Never Knew Women (another "shoddy" 4K master), and many others. So much for quality control. Yep, we wouldn't want WAC releasing movies of similar quality.

[captveg]

Originally Posted by Ned Brainard

Or WAC has unreasonable standards

They got an early rep on some boards as having "Criterion quality images" for their WAC releases and they've been paranoid about releasing anything that would hurt that reputation. I'm not saying whether that standard is right or wrong, but rather that it just is.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by Ned Brainard

So 2K and 4K masters provided by various studios and archives (including the Library of Congress and the Museum of Modern Art) are "shoddy"? It's just so awful that Kino will be releasing/has released "shoddy" junk like Old Ironsides (which incidentally never had a DVD release - so much for a DVD-era master of little to no quality) from a 2K LOC master, You Never Knew Women (another "shoddy" 4K master), and many others. So much for quality control. Yep, we wouldn't want WAC releasing movies of similar quality.

Apparently you only want to pick and choose titles, instead of looking at their entire catalog. Did I say EVERY title was bad? Nope, but you want to start a faux argument. Kino is about 60/40 on bad vs good quality, but obviously since you want to see through blinders for the small handful of 2K and 4K remasters they've been releasing LATELY, you obviously skipped their first 3-4 years of shoddy — yes, shoddy — DVD-era transfers. And yeah, only within the last year or so have they been releasing these select remasters. The fact that they encode with less than ideal gamma is another matter entirely, but it does affect picture quality, too. Not to mention the years of not including readily available subtitles, then having spelling errors when they do, and encoding errors (they didn't even transfer the extras for The Good, The Bad & The Ugly at the correct frame rate, causing them to stutter during playback). That's the quality control I'm talking about, and it's a fact.

It's cute how you only pick and choose select titles that fit you agenda, and ignoring all the really bad transfers they've put out over the years. Funny how that works, huh? They have released some good discs, but mostly within the last year. And were is that Old Ironsides disc that was supposed to come out a year ago??

But yeah, you're right, we certainly wouldn't WAC releasing anything that looked like Prizzi's Honor or some of their other VHS-looking disasters. WAC has more respect for their library than to slap any old outdated master on a disc just to try and make a quick buck.

[ChromeJob]

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