Official Film Noir on Blu-ray Thread

[Vlad Draculi]

When is Criterion going to release Naked City on BD?

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Vlad Draculi

When is Criterion going to release Naked City on BD?

About three months after they announce it.

[Arkadin]

Has anyone gotten The Big Clock from Germany and can report on the quality?
It's only available in a Koch noir collection along with 3 other noirs already released in the US.
the price of the collection has gone down to a decent point at the moment and I might order it if I could get some kind of confirmation of quality.
thanks in advance!

[EVERYONE LIES]

Originally Posted by Vlad Draculi

When is Criterion going to release Naked City on BD?

Probably the same time they release The Lost Weekend.

[Vlad Draculi]

Originally Posted by EVERYONE LIES

Probably the same time they release The Lost Weekend.

And when is that?

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by Vlad Draculi

And when is that?

No one knows Criterion's future release schedule but Criterion. There might be some clues as to what they might release, but we're in the dark knowing when it will happen.

[RiFiFi1955]

Originally Posted by Vlad Draculi

When is Criterion going to release Naked City on BD?

I want Night and the City more...Arrow has Naked City already. Hey even some thieves Highway would be sweet or wait a box set of all three

[kaseaver]

After looking at classic film noir titles that have been released on Region A BD, it looks at though we may not see many more without licensing. I looked at the top 50 film noir titles according to imdb, excluding gangster films pre-1940. 15 of the top 16 are on bd. This includes all of the top 10 and 5 of the next 10. Then it falls off to 8 of the bottom 30. What this seems to indicate is that studios or rights-holders are paying attention to market potential in deciding on upgrading. Go figure. Keep in mind that all have been released on DVD, so the studios have knowledge of market demand on that format.

23 of the top 50 are on bd, leaving thae following 27 yet to be upgraded:

The Big Sleep (Warner), In a Lonely Place (Sony), Mildred Pierce (Warner), Night and the City (Criterion), Key Largo (Warner), Asphalt Jungle (Warner), Gaslight (Warner), The Killers (Criterion), Gilda (Sony), Woman in the Window (MGM), Pick-Up on South Street (Criterion), The Letter (Warner), Nightmare Alley (Fox), Thieves Highway (Criterion), Murder My Sweet (Warner), The Naked City (Criterion), Gun Crazy (Warner), Brute Force (Criterion), The Set-Up (Warner), The Big Clock (Universal), The Narrow Margin (Warner), Where the Sidewalk Ends (Fox), Green For Danger (Criterion), Dark Passage (Warner), High Sierra (Warner), The Desperate Hours (Paramount), Detective Story (Paramount).

Warner has rights to 12 of the 27, and Criterion has 7. There has been a lot of complaining about Warner not licensing some of these. But what can be said about Criterion? They released DVD for all of their titles, so they have sales figures. Their reluctance to upgrade seems to indicate these titles may not have sold too well.

Would Criterion consider licensing to TT, Kino or Olive? I can't think of a single title on the list that these 3 companies wouldn't like to have.

[Feiereisel]

Originally Posted by kaseaver

After looking at classic film noir titles that have been released on Region A BD, it looks at though we may not see many more without licensing. I looked at the top 50 film noir titles according to imdb, excluding gangster films pre-1940. 15 of the top 16 are on bd. This includes all of the top 10 and 5 of the next 10. Then it falls off to 8 of the bottom 30. What this seems to indicate is that studios or rights-holders are paying attention to market potential in deciding on upgrading. Go figure. Keep in mind that all have been released on DVD, so the studios have knowledge of market demand on that format.

23 of the top 50 are on bd, leaving thae following 27 yet to be upgraded:

The Big Sleep (Warner), In a Lonely Place (Sony), Mildred Pierce (Warner), Night and the City (Criterion), Key Largo (Warner), Asphalt Jungle (Warner), Gaslight (Warner), The Killers (Criterion), Gilda (Sony), Woman in the Window (MGM), Pick-Up on South Street (Criterion), The Letter (Warner), Nightmare Alley (Fox), Thieves Highway (Criterion), Murder My Sweet (Warner), The Naked City (Criterion), Gun Crazy (Warner), Brute Force (Criterion), The Set-Up (Warner), The Big Clock (Universal), The Narrow Margin (Warner), Where the Sidewalk Ends (Fox), Green For Danger (Criterion), Dark Passage (Warner), High Sierra (Warner), The Desperate Hours (Paramount), Detective Story (Paramount).

Warner has rights to 12 of the 27, and Criterion has 7. There has been a lot of complaining about Warner not licensing some of these. But what can be said about Criterion? They released DVD for all of their titles, so they have sales figures. Their reluctance to upgrade seems to indicate these titles may not have sold too well.

Would Criterion consider licensing to TT, Kino or Olive? I can't think of a single title on the list that these 3 companies wouldn't like to have.

Per Criterion's Wexner Center talk, any number of reasons can hold up an upgrade or rerelease, including rights clearances and other legal business, as well as availability of new film restorations.

Night and the City would probably look terrific based on the high-def scan Criterion based their DVD on (maybe--it's been a while), but a restoration based on a new high-res scan would make for an even better package, wouldn't you say?

I think they also mentioned a loose guideline of releasing one film per director per year outside of guaranteed bestsellers like Anderson or Kurosawa; it's been a little less than a year since Criterion released Rififi.

Sometimes we just have to wait, it seems.

[Leonidas King]

The Crow should be added in the Modern Neo Noir list

[Arkadin]

Originally Posted by RiFiFi1955

I want Night and the City more...Arrow has Naked City already. Hey even some thieves Highway would be sweet or wait a box set of all three

already released in Germany last year.
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Night...Blu-ray/91494/
(not sure if you knew or not)

[MifuneFan]

Region B (and region free) folks, Arrow (UK) will be releasing Sweet Smell of Success (1957) on March 16th, 2015

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:

Restored High Definition (1080p) presentation of a digital transfer from the original 35mm camera negative
Original uncompressed PCM mono 1.0 audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
New video essay by critic and film historian Philip Kemp, author of Lethal Innocence: The Cinema of Alexander Mackendrick
Mackendrick: The Man Who Walked Away Dermot McQuarrie s Scottish Television documentary from 1986, featuring interviews with Mackendrick, Burt Lancaster, producer James Hill and many others
Theatrical trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring an original poster and newly commissioned artwork by Chris Walker
Collector s booklet with new writing on the film by Michael Brooke and excerpts from Alexander Mackendrick s writings on film directing, illustrated with original stills and posters.

[RiFiFi1955]

Originally Posted by Arkadin

already released in Germany last year.
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Night...Blu-ray/91494/
(not sure if you knew or not)

Yeah I knew about that one but I heard the PQ is not all that great so I figured let's wait for a Criterion upgrade, until then I am ok with the Criterion DVD. Thanks though!

[5150z]

Originally Posted by RiFiFi1955

Yeah I knew about that one but I heard the PQ is not all that great so I figured let's wait for a Criterion upgrade, until then I am ok with the Criterion DVD. Thanks though!

I have it. Region free and I think it looks simply fine on my VT60's. It's grain structure is nice. It's not as nice looking as, say, Out of the Past, but still very good. I think the best reason to wait to see if/when Criterion would release it is for any quality extras, which don't exist on the German release.

[Arkadin]

it looks pretty dang good to me.
if Criterion ever releases it, great.
in the meantime it's not even expensive.
well worth getting from Germany imo.

[LegacyCosts]

Been really wanting to splurge on some amazing noire blu ray lately but the titles do tend to be pricey. If you had to choose a top 5 to grab immediately, what would they be?

[kaseaver]

Out of the Past
Double Indemnity
The Killing
Maltese Falcon
Touch of Evil
Laura

[Cranston37]

I'd also add Kiss Me Deadly and Panic in the Streets for your consideration

[JulesAndJim]

Scarlet Street
Touch of Evil
The Killing
Sweet Smell of Success
Double Indemnity

[ergumat]

Any news on more Bogart? Difficult to understand how great classics like Key Largo, To have and to have not, The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, In a Lonely Place etc haven't yet had a release. The Letter with B Davis and Mildred Perce w J Crawford are other great titles I would pick up on bluray (if and when released).