Kino Lorber Studio Classics

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by Kino Lorber Insider

Some sold well, others not. At this point, we're not interested in acquiring Call Me Bwana, but we would never say never. The good news we have a few in our Universal deal.

Great news, there are many great Bob Hope films that have yet to be released.

[SpaceBlackKnight]

KL Insider, would these MGM titles also happen to be part of the latest package or possible to pursue in the future?

The Call of the Wild (1971, Charlton Heston; MGM owns some rights as they put out a MOD DVD with a anamorphic transfer, but the source they used may not have been a HD master)
The Call of the Wild 1976 (Charles Fries/Worldvision TV movie, has a HD master making the rounds on ITunes and Vudu)
Never Say Never Again (MGM releases are OOP)
P.I Private Investigations
Illegally Yours
National Lampoons Movie Madness (needs a HD transfer, but would go good with National Lampoon's Class Reunion which KL is planning to release)

Former TT titles that are definitely sold out:
Equus
Salvador (needs a new transfer as the TT disc used an old master used for the original MGM DVD)
Richard III
Support Your Local Sheriff & Support Your Local Gunfighter (KL also released the double feature on DVD; both could use new transfers)
Mississippi Burning
Mississippi Mermaid
Lenny
The Fabulous Baker Boys
The Dogs of War
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Broadway Danny Rose
The Bounty

[AnthonyGG]

Originally Posted by Kino Lorber Insider

Yes, I made a mistake. Bwana Devil is with Shout, Call Me Bwana is still with MGM.

Damn! Thanks for clarifying. Looking forward to the Universal licensed Paramount Hope films, though. I know the later ones aren't held in particularly high regard and I read your statement that some of the Hopes sold well and others did not. Would love to see both Bwana and Eight On The Lam from Kino one day, however. Again, thanks for the update and correction.

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by SpaceBlackKnight

Never Say Never Again (MGM releases are OOP)

Never Say Never Again would be great, but I don't think MGM would sub-license even one of the non-EON 007 films preferring to release it themselves. Though I wish MGM re-release it again even if it is bare bones and Casino Royale just for completeness sake(even though its horrible).

[SpaceBlackKnight]

Originally Posted by StarDestroyer52

Never Say Never Again would be great, but I don't think MGM would sub-license even one of the non-EON 007 films preferring to release it themselves. Though I wish MGM re-release it again even if it is bare bones and Casino Royale just for completeness sake(even though its horrible).

I did hear somewhere that MGM had that and 1967's Casino Royale available for licencing but didn't get any takers.

MGM has been hardly releasing any new catalog titles themselves through Fox that aren't re-re-re-reissues ala Princess Bride and many other Fox titles. However, with Fox soon to be engulfed in the Disney buyout, that leaves where MGM would go if they Disney terminates their deal or MGM decides not to renew it. Weather they would still continue to grant new licences to labels by themselgf (which is what I've noticed they've been doing more of recently, as several SF releases just list MGM and not TCF HE alongside), or go with another studio that is pickier or doesn't sub licence (ala Lionsgate) is another can of worms once that road comes ahead.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by Kino Lorber Insider

No, the new MGM deal does not include any spaghetti westerns.

Interesting. That would rule out, I think, Man of the East and The Hills Run Red. Is Run Man Run still with Blue Underground? I'd like to see some of the Cat Stevens films although I think Ace High is one of those Paramount on DVD so can't be released on blu-ray titles.

[The Great Owl]

Double-posting from the dedicated thread...



Residents of Kansas City, Missouri and the nearby college town of Lawrence, Kansas go about their everyday lives while news updates of escalating tensions in Germany between NATO and the Soviet Union air on televisions and radios with increasing frequency. A doctor in an upscale neighborhood prepares to travel to a college lecture while coming to terms with the fact that his adult daughter is moving away to Boston. Airmen stationed at a Lawrence missile silo joke about their weekend fishing plans. A farmer expresses good-natured concern for his daughter, who sneaks off into the night with her college student fiancé two days before their wedding. Media broadcasts announce that the Soviets have formed a West Berlin blockade and that a skirmish is imminent, but small-town Americans, KSU students, and metropolitan workers all have their own plans, their own dreams, and their own busy schedules. When apprehensions about the possibility of nuclear war surface, these citizens quell their nervousness by assuring themselves that rationality will ultimately win as it always has before.

When missiles are launched into the air, a bewildered populace watches in slack-jawed terror, instantly forgetting their sports events, their work commutes, and their farm duties. The missiles will reach Russia in 30 minutes, and, in turn, a Russian counterattack will reach the multiple strategic targets around Kansas City during the same time frame. A flash of light suddenly appears above Kansas City. Cityscapes are instantly vaporized. People are burned alive in microseconds. An electromagnetic pulse shuts down distant power grids. Survivors struggle to restore order in the aftermath, but the effects of radiation exposure, the chaos in the absence of authorities, and the realization that the broken pieces may never fit together again threaten to envelope them with a gradual sense of resignation.

The Day After, a made-for-television movie that aired on November 20, 1983, brought the horror of nuclear destruction into almost 40 million households around America, and is still revered today as an unprecedentedly groundbreaking pop culture phenomenon. I was in sixth grade during this initial television airing, and, much to my dismay, my parents wisely heeded the advance advisories that the graphic depictions in the film would be inappropriate for children and confined me to my bedroom, despite my protests. After trying in vain to peek around the corner of the living room and watch this movie from behind the shoulders of my parents, I was shooed back to my room, where I left the door cracked open so that I could listen with fascination to the dialogue, the explosions, and the panicked fray. In retrospect, the experience of listening to the audio of this film probably traumatized me more than I would have been had I actually been able to see it, because the images on the television screen were nowhere near as scary as the images formed in my 11 year-old brain.

I was particularly unsettled as I overheard one scene where a girl, who was overwhelmed with claustrophobia while staying in a cellar shelter with her farm family, ran up the stairs and out of the house, initially believing that it was a beautiful day outside, only to be informed by a male voice about the radiation. “You can't see it... you can't feel it... and you can't taste it. But it's here, right now, all around us! It's goin' through you like an X-ray! Right into your cells!”

Director Nicholas Meyer, who had previously helmed the amazingly popular Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, disregarded studio protests and plowed forward with his instinct to release a television film that would not pull punches with regard to disturbing content, because he was spurred by a civic responsibility to inform the public about the seriousness of the issue at hand during a time when the Cold War and the prospect of Mutual Assured Destruction ruled the day. His resolve was noted by none other than President Ronald Reagan, who, after watching the film a few nights before its airing, noted in his diaries, “It’s very effective and left me greatly depressed.”

Meyer initially intended to cast the production with unknown actors, so that star power would not take the minds of the viewers out of the story, but pressure gave way to the inclusion of a few recognizable names. Jason Robards (All the President's Men), JoBeth Williams (Poltergeist), Steve Guttenberg (Police Academy), John Cullum (1776), John Lithgow (The World According to Garp), and even Stephen Furst, who played “Flounder” in National Lampoon's Animal House, are all featured in roles of uncanny seriousness, but even their presences are drowned out by the sight of hundreds of background extras in shaved heads, bald caps, and gory makeup to illustrate the realities of radiation sickness.

Although The Day After pales in comparison to the bleaker documentary-style approach of the BBC television film, Threads, which was released the following year and introduced the masses to the concept of a nuclear winter, it still rises above its conventional storytelling setup to strike fear in our hearts. When I finally saw it during a syndicated airing a couple of years after its initial showing, after my experience of seeing Threads during its first presentation on our shores, I realized that the frightful hype was well-earned. I now own this film on Blu-ray, and I can watch it whenever I want (Take that, Mom and Dad.), but I am still reduced to a state of unease, despite the dated special effects. The moment that still resonates today with uncanny power is the scene where people at a crowded sports stadium watch with shock as missiles fire from the silos on the outskirts of the town. It's really happening. There's no turning back. The missiles have been launched. A nuclear war has actually started.

Now, over 30 years after its release, I would like to think that the scenarios outlined in The Day After are no longer possible, and that the world has moved past the point where nuclear war is considered to be an option. As one character in the film sadly observes, however, stupidity has a habit of getting its way.

Kino Lorber, God bless 'em, have given us both the U.S. Television Cut, which sports the best picture quality and remains the most impactful version of the story, and the slightly longer Theatrical Cut, which differs only marginally in terms of content. My advice to all of you is to watch the Television Cut for the picture quality and the resonance, but then watch the Theatrical Cut for the excellent commentary track. A director interview and a JoBeth Williams interview are icing on this radioactive cake.

[Abdrewes]

Like Me (which Kino released on blu in April) is now streaming on Amazon.

[jshaide]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

Interesting. That would rule out, I think, Man of the East and The Hills Run Red.

God, where is this thing?

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by StarDestroyer52

Never Say Never Again would be great, but I don't think MGM would sub-license even one of the non-EON 007 films preferring to release it themselves. Though I wish MGM re-release it again even if it is bare bones and Casino Royale just for completeness sake(even though its horrible).

Danjaq co-own them as part of the MGM/UA settlement with Kevin McClory. I worked on the extras for both titles for the DVD special editions and they were delayed for a couple of years because EON/Danjaq really aren't wild about them being available on a regular basis and MGM/UA were a little overcautious about the whole thing for fear of pissing them off. Complicating matters more recently was a successful class action lawsuit over their absence from the Bond boxed set:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/th...d-films-992172

https://variety.com/2017/film/news/j...it-1202515941/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/th...action-1127738

...though the final settlement covered digital copies rather than physical discs.

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by Aclea

Danjaq co-own them as part of the MGM/UA settlement with Kevin McClory. I worked on the extras for both titles for the DVD special editions and they were delayed for a couple of years because EON/Danjaq really aren't wild about them being available on a regular basis and MGM/UA were a little overcautious about the whole thing for fear of pissing them off. Complicating matters more recently was a successful class action lawsuit over their absence from the Bond boxed set:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/th...d-films-992172

https://variety.com/2017/film/news/j...it-1202515941/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/th...action-1127738

...though the final settlement covered digital copies rather than physical discs.

I remember that lawsuit vividly since the lady said the Bond 50 set didn't have all of the 007 films. So I guess were resigned to the fact that Never Say Never Again isn't probably coming back to BluRay for a long time? Its really too bad since once you get past the fact it isn't Thunderball, Never Say Never Again is quite enjoyable.

[mja345]

Watched the Kino BD of "Loophole" last night. Not a bad film, one of those that you rank as a 6.5 or 7 out of 10 that could have easily been an 8 or a 9. Martin Sheen plays Stephen Booker, an architect whose partnership dissolves out of nowhere, so he's left with zero income while his wife (Susannah York) is attempting to start her own business and tend to two children. Booker attempts to try to find jobs and bide time with the bank, but in the meantime, Mike Daniels (Albert Finney) comes along with a job that is hard to refuse despite the murky details. Desperate for money, Sheen leaps at the opportunity, only to find himself involved in a crime soon after.

This is a competently-made (in terms of budget and basic competence), entertaining film that is held back by pedestrian, unoriginal writing and direction. Finney is the kind of actor who can go to really interesting places if the director wants him to go there, but he's basically playing a character that many actors could play. That's unfortunate because Finney is an incredible talent who could have taken this character way beyond what is written on the page. I'm a huge fan of Finney, but they didn't unleash him in this film at all. Sheen actually fares better because he's given more to do as a guilt-ridden family man trying to pay for a pricey lifestyle. The great Susannah York probably gives the best performance in the film as Sheen's wife, who is completely in the dark.

It's a film that could have done with a complete re-write IMO. Cut the heist scene in half, make it 150 minutes, and really flesh out the characters that Sheen and Finney were playing. Give two great actors a lot to work with. There's simply a lot of meat left on the bone with this film IMO. I do like it as a piece of entertainment (the 105 minutes breezed by). And listening to the commentary with director John Quested, he seems like a nice man, but the opposite of somebody who could truly execute what this film needed to be. When you have Finney, one of my favorite actors, and Sheen, you simply can't give them rote characters. This isn't meant as a condemnation of the film, as I do enjoy it, but it is a bit of a disappointment IMO. If you can, pick this one up in a sale and see what you think.

[BarnDoor]

Originally Posted by jshaide

God, where is this thing?

With Shout. But don't get excited - they put out a double feature DVD of this and Apache years ago, I'd be very surprised if they upgraded it. Attack! is another MGM title in this position. You sense Kino would jump at the chance to release these. Could they negotiate a trade with Shout perhaps?

[Bradsdadg]

KL Insider, any chance of getting Disorderlies with the Fat Boys?

disorderlies.jpg

[bugula]

Originally Posted by Bradsdadg

KL Insider, any chance of getting Disorderlies with the Fat Boys?

Hahahah, I'd actually buy this. Haven't thought about this movie in decades.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by mja345

Watched the Kino BD of "Loophole" last night. Not a bad film, one of those that you rank as a 6.5 or 7 out of 10 that could have easily been an 8 or a 9. Martin Sheen plays Stephen Booker, an architect whose partnership dissolves out of nowhere, so he's left with zero income while his wife (Susannah York) is attempting to start her own business and tend to two children. Booker attempts to try to find jobs and bide time with the bank, but in the meantime, Mike Daniels (Albert Finney) comes along with a job that is hard to refuse despite the murky details. Desperate for money, Sheen leaps at the opportunity, only to find himself involved in a crime soon after.

This is a competently-made (in terms of budget and basic competence), entertaining film that is held back by pedestrian, unoriginal writing and direction. Finney is the kind of actor who can go to really interesting places if the director wants him to go there, but he's basically playing a character that many actors could play. That's unfortunate because Finney is an incredible talent who could have taken this character way beyond what is written on the page. I'm a huge fan of Finney, but they didn't unleash him in this film at all. Sheen actually fares better because he's given more to do as a guilt-ridden family man trying to pay for a pricey lifestyle. The great Susannah York probably gives the best performance in the film as Sheen's wife, who is completely in the dark.

It's a film that could have done with a complete re-write IMO. Cut the heist scene in half, make it 150 minutes, and really flesh out the characters that Sheen and Finney were playing. Give two great actors a lot to work with. There's simply a lot of meat left on the bone with this film IMO. I do like it as a piece of entertainment (the 105 minutes breezed by). And listening to the commentary with director John Quested, he seems like a nice man, but the opposite of somebody who could truly execute what this film needed to be. When you have Finney, one of my favorite actors, and Sheen, you simply can't give them rote characters. This isn't meant as a condemnation of the film, as I do enjoy it, but it is a bit of a disappointment IMO. If you can, pick this one up in a sale and see what you think.

I'd go along with that. I worked in the same building as Quested for a year or so when he was running Goldcrest, and he is indeed a nice guy, but he's a rather unexciting director, which is why he only directed two films (Loophole was the last).



One of five films made in quick succession that failed to set the box-office alight that marked Albert Finney’s movie comeback in 1981 after only making two brief cameos since 1974’s Murder on the Orient Express, heist movie Loophole was at the time the most expensive independent British picture ever made but quickly vanished from UK screens – at the Empire Leicester Square it was hurriedly replaced with a reissue of De Mille’s 1956 The Ten Commandments – and found its way to TV in record time, just nine months later at a time when films still took five years to make it to UK TV. An attempt by Brent Walker films to go for a more respectable audience with the profits from The Stud and The B**ch, along with Les Egouts de Paradis and Sewers of Gold it was one of a trio of films inspired by the 1976 heist at the supposedly impregnable Société Générale bank in Nice by Albert Spaggiari, which was itself inspired by Robert Pollack’s 1973 source ‘how to’ novel that no-one had got round to filming until the real crime, and the French police detective on the case and Spaggiari himself citing it as his muse, briefly pushed it back into the public eye.

On paper it sounded promising enough: a gang of thieves recruit an architect to help them break into a safety deposit vault holding millions, not by blasting their way in but by digging in through the sewers underneath. The loophole is that even if the bank finds out they’re in there, because of the time lock there’s nothing they can do about it until it opens on Monday morning. Unlike the real crime, naturally there’s something they didn’t account for to literally muddy the waters, but despite all the money and talent involved the film just never grips or thrills.

One problem is that while the film goes to great lengths to create a motive for Martin Sheen’s honest architect to get involved, like Albert Finney’s charismatic planner it ultimately doesn’t come down to anything more than maintaining a lifestyle well beyond his means (country club, private schools, expensive riverside house, flights on Concorde, £50,000 overdraft) and getting his wife who spends money like it was going out of fashion (Susannah York) to stop arguing with him and start shagging him again (in the novel he was so broke he was driving a minicab). Nobody else has any distinct motivation. Unlike the real crooks, who robbed the bank in the hope of funding an unlikely OAS fascist paramilitary coup, Loophole’s firm are a bunch of professionals played by a disarmingly large number of British Shakespearean actors who manage against the odds to at least make their nothing parts work better than they should through sheer professionalism and personality. And they really have next to nothing to work with in the way of characterisation: Jonathan Pryce is a bit claustrophobic, Alfred Lynch doesn’t like rats, Colin Blakely passes the time while on lookout duty by reading ‘Managing your Money’ and Tony Doyle and Christopher Guard don’t even get that much. Robert Morley’s bank manager has more character, and he’s only there to badger Sheen about his overdraft over lunch and tear up his chequebook.



John Quested directs with a relentlessly even pace that just emphasises the film’s lack of any real dramatic conflict to liven things up – these thieves never fall out and there’s never any real chance of discovery – while failing to make the details and mechanics of the heist as compelling as a Jules Dassin or a Jean-Pierre Melville would. He’s resolutely unable to generate any tension even when the few opportunities in the script do arise. Pryce’s claustrophobia is no problem, one of the crew getting gassed fails to generate much of a do we stay or do we go dilemma and no-one even mentions the risk of flooding until the 80-minute mark. Even when the film finally comes up with a cliffhanger as the weather turns nasty, the film completely shoots itself in the foot with a real cheat of an ‘and with a single leap he was free’ ending that left audiences with a bad taste in their mouth rather than going for broke.

This feels like a 60s quota quickie with a bigger budget and an A-list cast that goes through its paces with a disinterested professionalism, where everyone does their job but nothing really matters. There’s a kind of easygoing lazy rainy afternoon dated comfort food filmmaking feel to it that carries it over some of its weaknesses if you like the cast, but it never rises beyond passing the time painlessly. Francis Megahy’s Sewers of Gold may have failed to get even the limited cinema release that Loophole had, going directly to TV, but it’s a much better and much more compelling proposition.

Unsurprisingly given its failure the film hasn’t had a proper home video release since the very early days of VHS aside from a few dodgy Public Domain DVDs in the States, so Kino Lorber’s Region A-locked Bluray at least offers the first chance to see a decent widescreen transfer, although the film’s rather unexceptional visuals never really stand out until they reach the sewers and the high visibility jackets at least add some colour to proceedings (and it is nice to remember a time when they weren’t the wardrobe of choice for parsimonious photo-op hungry politicians trying to show they were really men of the people while cutting their wages). Extras are an audio commentary with Quested, which is more of a career interview about his producing career with little reflection on why the picture didn’t work the way it was supposed to, the original UK trailer and a selection of trailers for other Kino Lorber titles. Definitely an 'only in a sale' title.

[Arawn]

Originally Posted by Bradsdadg

KL Insider, any chance of getting Disorderlies with the Fat Boys?

It's more likely than getting it without them!

[Nailwraps]

Originally Posted by Bradsdadg

KL Insider, any chance of getting Disorderlies with the Fat Boys?

Attachment 207248

Better ask Warner (or Shout! Factory).

[jaws3dfan]

Originally Posted by StarDestroyer52

I remember that lawsuit vividly since the lady said the Bond 50 set didn't have all of the 007 films. So I guess were resigned to the fact that Never Say Never Again isn't probably coming back to BluRay for a long time? Its really too bad since once you get past the fact it isn't Thunderball, Never Say Never Again is quite enjoyable.

How do you redeem your digital copies?

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by StarDestroyer52

I remember that lawsuit vividly since the lady said the Bond 50 set didn't have all of the 007 films. So I guess were resigned to the fact that Never Say Never Again isn't probably coming back to BluRay for a long time? Its really too bad since once you get past the fact it isn't Thunderball, Never Say Never Again is quite enjoyable.

I ended up getting mine from France and Germany (as usual, despite working on the discs I didn't get sent copies of the finished discs ).