The Official Olive Films Thread

[pro-bassoonist]

Update:

Trying to recover the first page now....

Pro-B

[SpiderBaby]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Update:

Trying to recover the first page now....

Pro-B

Thanks.

[pro-bassoonist]

The first post is up to date (with review links).

Will get the complete Republic library catalog listings in now.

Pro-B

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Pro-B

So that's where Chocolate News went...

[pro-bassoonist]

I am doing my best to rebuild some of these threads (first posts), but there is a ton of announcements I personally posted from PR sheets between the end of April and June that is probably gone.

I will repost as much as I could.

Pro-B

[pro-bassoonist]

First post updated with reviews/covers/links....

Pro-B

[Monty70]

Thanks Pro-B

[dsman71]

Cool - well at least we all are trying to help get our favorite topics back on track.
Twilight Time will have an announcement over the weekend for the Sept/Oct releases

[JMK]

Unfortunately two of my recent Olive reviews, Project X and The Space Children, haven't ported back over to the live reviews listed on the home page. You can still search for them individually.

[pro-bassoonist]

Jeff,

They are fine for me. So, they just need to be manually switched (I assume) for regular members to see them.

This should be fixed by the morning hours.

[ddwall]

Just pre ordered Night of the grizzly,ordered the perfect weapon,the Jayhawkers from ImportCD. for $14.73 including shipping there having a 10 percent sale wright now

[Monty70]

Originally Posted by ddwall

Just pre ordered Night of the grizzly,ordered the perfect weapon,the Jayhawkers from ImportCD. for $14.73 including shipping there having a 10 percent sale wright now

I saw Night of the Grizzly on netflix a few weeks ago, pretty good film for what it is. The BD comes with what seems to be Olive's first originally produced extra feature which is really encouraging. (a 27 min. interview with the film's star Clint Walker) Hope you enjoy that one.

I am contemplating picking up Sands of the Kalahari during this current sale. (already own, and really enjoying, The Mountain, Amer, and Despair)

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by Monty70

I am contemplating picking up Sands of the Kalahari during this current sale. (already own, and really enjoying, The Mountain, Amer, and Despair)

Very entertaining film, and a good transfer. I think you will enjoy it, Monty

Pro-B

[Leviathan]

Let me help bring everyone up to speed. Among the things brought up in the recently lost posts:

- Olive Films' BDs are "raw" transfers from predominately well-cared for 35mm film elements.

- How good they look varies from reviewer to reviewer (Dex Robinson thought the recently released TOO LATE BLUES looked great. DVDBeaver... no so much). But with a handful of exceptions (WHO'S MINDING THE STORE being a prominent one), consensus is that they range from pretty good to excellent.

- According insider Scott Peck, Olive Films remasters the films they release in HD. Generally, budgets do not allow for extensive, elaborate restoration, but some key films have gotten it (the forthcoming TWLIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING will be one)

- Olive releases generally lack subtitles, again for budgetary reasons.

- Paramount has apparently started to allow bonus features on these discs; witness the Clint Walker interview on NIGHT OF THE GRIZZLY and the announced audio commentary for the forthcoming release of THE BOOGENS.

- Olive Films has started to release films from the NTA/Republic Pictures library (separate from their existing deal with Paramount). Whether their license includes the entire library or selections hasn't been declared authoritatively, but FWIW the titles they've announced thus far include "A-List" films that were previously released on DVD (HIGH NOON, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, et al.) as well as "cult" titles making their R1 disc debuts (THE BOOGENS, JOHNNY GUITAR, et al.).

-According to Olive Films insider Scott Peck, they have plans to release Max Fleischer's Betty Boop cartoons (part of the Republic library), but currently have no intention to release the cartoons that have been allowed to enter the public domain.

- Republic holds title to the pre-1950 Max Fleischer, Famous Studios and George Pal cartoon libraries (short Popeye and Superman, controlled by Time Warner). If Olive Films got the whole Republic package like Artisan/Lionsgate did, then they likely have access to the cartoons as well. The original elements are held, and in many cases have been restored, by the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

[The Duke]

Originally Posted by ddwall

Just pre ordered Night of the grizzly,ordered the perfect weapon,the Jayhawkers from ImportCD. for $14.73 including shipping there having a 10 percent sale wright now

The 10% off sale at ImportCDs runs through June 24. They open upcoming releases for pre-order 4 weeks in advance, so folks should be able to pre-order High Noon & Invasion of the Body Snatchers on & after June 19 and get them during the sale.

[Blu-Velvet]

Originally Posted by ddwall

Just pre ordered Night of the grizzly,ordered the perfect weapon,the Jayhawkers from ImportCD. for $14.73 including shipping there having a 10 percent sale wright now

THE JAYHAWKERS is much better than I expected it to be. Earlier today I reposted my user-review that was lost in the server crash (although oddly the page had still retained my user ratings without the review itself).

Haven't gotten NIGHT OF THE GRIZZLY yet, but with the ImportCD prices about $10 less per movie than Amazon's, I'll definitely be buying a much larger percentage of Olive's releases than I had been doing. I also picked up SANDS OF THE KALAHARI after hearing about ImportCD's prices, and was quite impressed with that one as well -- both entertainment value and picture quality.

[Trekkie313]

Lack of captions/subtitles is bullcrap...does it really cost that much? There should be a law requiring all home movie release to at least have them for the "hearing impaired or deaf" like myself.

[Tyfighter]

Just picked up a cold Colt .45 and Hit!....was a bit disappointed with transfer and lack of pretty much anything....

[Leviathan]

This isn't official (or confirmed by Scott Peck/misterlime yet), but IMDB's Olive Films page has recently listed them as the distributor for PENNY SERENADE (1941) and THE FILE ON THELMA JORDAN (1950).

Every Republic film currently planned for release was listed on that IMDB page before the official announcements started coming in, so their veracity is solid.

PENNY SERENADE is the more interesting of the two, since it's in the public domain and has been released on numerous budget DVD's.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by Leviathan

- According insider Scott Peck, Olive Films remasters the films they release in HD. Generally, budgets do not allow for extensive, elaborate restoration, but some key films have gotten it (the forthcoming TWLIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING will be one).

What does that mean, exactly?

Do they tweak HD transfers done by Paramount (ala Criterion) or do they get original elements and do the entire transfer/master/restore process themselves?

The latter would be pretty remarkable given their prices and the overall quality of their releases.