Public Domain films on Blu thread!

[Crimson King]

A prestine print of "A Bucket of Blood" would be awesome, a Dick Miller and Roger Corman commentary track would be the bomb!

same goes for "The Little Shop Of Horrors" + a group commentary from Corman, Miller, Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, AND Jack Nicholson, it's fun to dream...

[Crimson King]

Originally Posted by The Driver

That's due out http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ALIG56

I don't think "public domain" is true of all if many of those films you think are genuinely PD.

I wouldn't want to argue it in court either. Just because a film ends up in the 100 Greatest Sci-FI Fims 4 DVD set or some scumbag is selling a 10th generation low-quality dupe on eBay as PD doesn't mean it is.

Some of the true public domain movies are on YouTube Movies and places like that and the copyright status is usually well tested -and even then there maybe owners who license 100s of titles for pennies. They may still own the film though.

Aweseome that Image is releasing a quality widescreen version of Five Corners! I do remember buying a copy on DVD from Passion Productions w/ crappy PQ at a dollar store as part of double faeture with Who Shot Pat?, so I do think there are some sort of rights issiues w/ the film, and according to Wiki, it's most likely in the public domain. I also have a OOP MGM VHS release that actually looks better than the cheapo DVD! Five Corners has great performances by Jodie Foster, Tim Robbins and John Turtorro, one of my guilty pleasures!

[The Driver]

I think Five Corners has had a problematic past when Handmade Films (partly owned by the Beatles' George Harrison of course) lost some court actions and the company didn't seem to pay their bills. Since then there have been 2 different owners of the HandMade Films back catalogue/name. Cineplex Odeon may also have owned/lost Canadian rights and maybe that's where some VHS releases orginated from.

Not much happening at the moment http://www.handmadefilms.com and they seemed to have sold off all the film catalogue but kept remake rights etc.

This seems pretty accurate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HandMade_Films

I quite liked Five Corners and it's a top cast for sure. I reckon Sony Pictures or Paramount own the film now. Can't prove it though

[cathexist]

I wanted to try and revive this thread and see if anyone knows of other Public Domain films available on Blu-ray.

We recently got a professional projector and screen installed at the Performing Arts Theatre that I work at and would love some material in high quality to show off on the screen without having to worry about obtaining viewing rights.

...it doesn't have to be fantastic, I was just hoping for something better than DVD or downloaded quality.

[The Driver]

Originally Posted by cathexist

I wanted to try and revive this thread and see if anyone knows of other Public Domain films available on Blu-ray.

We recently got a professional projector and screen installed at the Performing Arts Theatre that I work at and would love some material in high quality to show off on the screen without having to worry about obtaining viewing rights.

...it doesn't have to be fantastic, I was just hoping for something better than DVD or downloaded quality.

I would of imagined -my reading of the situation- that there's no implied right to publicly show any public domain material if it's be reproduced (ie someone's done a HD transfer or colorised it etc).

You'd still need their express permission as they own the new works.

I may be wrong of course.

[blonde_devil]

i would love to see a good version of "The Last Man on Earth" but unless the studio that owns/produced it wants to invest mega bucks into it to remaster it and get features no one else will have, i doubt it will happen (same with most public domain movies). it is a somewhat losing proposition for public domain movies - why would the studios invest money in a bluray when people can go buy a dvd version for a fraction of the price? unless it is something they can go all-out on and make really special, i doubt most would bother since that would take money away from the great reboots/remakes they are making now .

[OrlandoEastwood]

To let you all know, I'm securing a print of Nosferatu. Hopefully we can do something with that considering that next year is the 90th anniversary.