Coming to Criterion
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dbg1224 — 17 years ago(December 22, 2008 04:54 PM)
I'm trying to see all the Best Picture winners and this and Cavalcade are really getting on my nerves. I guess I'm going to have to buy old VHS copies on Amazon.com and dig out my VHS player from the garage.
My three favorite films (order changes): Vertigo, Taxi Driver, and 2001: A Space Odyssey -
rbbrittain — 17 years ago(February 18, 2009 05:44 AM)
It's been rumored on another site that Paramount is preparing a new restoration for release on Blu-ray and DVD sometime in 2009. I'm not sure what the point is in putting a B&W silent film on Blu-ray, but I have a Blu-ray drive so I'll probably get that when it comes out. If Paramount is releasing it, odds are it won't be on Criterion; that's probably the Russian film mentioned earlier.
At this point, the only other option is eBay, and you takes your chances therethough there IS one seller who MIGHT be legit, since he claims his transfer is directly from film, he also sells many other early public-domain films (silent and early sound), his feedback is 100% positive over many years (i.e., no MPAA lackey to spoil it), and he's in the U.S. The copyright notice on the VHS release subtly acknowledges the underlying film is PD (it states the original 1927 date but NOT the renewal that would have been required in 1954-55, so later extension laws don't apply), but any copies from VHS would be illegal due to Gaylord Carter's original organ score; most DVD copies on eBay appear to be Asian bootlegs from VHS. -
swojtak — 16 years ago(June 13, 2009 05:58 PM)
I got a DVD from www.earthstation1.com. I wish it was restored but it seems not. The movie was better than I could possibly have thought. The flying, battle scenes, music all great.
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playerpage — 16 years ago(January 15, 2010 01:55 PM)
My usual source is http://www.eFilmic.com.
You have to be careful with "Wings." Yes, these are usually overseas rips. Some of the "masters" are off of VHS, but if you get lucky (and I think if you get the "brown border" DVD box, you will) you will find a DVD made from the old Laserdisc master, which is as good as can be hoped for.
EP -
magic8ball2112 — 15 years ago(January 13, 2011 12:51 PM)
Pure chance is probably the only way you'll see it.
Either it pops up randomly on TCM or, as was my case, I happened to be walking thru downtown San Antonio during a rain storm & inexplicably saw it being screened inside a building undergoing renovation at the time!!
It seemed the interior was being propped for some kind of fancy event & yet
Wings
was being screened as people went about doing their business!
Talk about surreal, lol.
Glad they never noticed me standing outside the place, umbrella in hand, watching the film for as long as I could. -
joeschrauf — 14 years ago(September 11, 2011 02:40 PM)
You can watch the entire film on YouTube. I really recommend that you do because the flight sequences are stunning and Gary Cooper has a memorable cameo.
Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyZuJlohI84 -
HoneyBakedHam — 14 years ago(September 12, 2011 12:41 AM)
Yeah and there are a number of others on youtube too. Good stuff
http://www.imdb.com/board/10018578/board/thread/177944693?d=186439853&p=1#186439853
Was wondering if anyone knew any more. There was a twitter post on it too (a link to a forum thing), about a bunch of people working on it or something, due out sometime end of this year, start of next. I should find it.
Anyone know anything more on it? -
motfilms — 14 years ago(November 17, 2011 01:19 PM)
Paramount is finally putting it out on blu-ray.
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=7733
If I'm not mistaken, it's the first silent film on blu-ray released by a major studio. -
Jake-219 — 14 years ago(February 07, 2012 10:23 PM)
Hey, be thankful for what you can get! It's practically the only silent film restored on dvd by a major studio! Fox' print of "Sunrise" is a real beaut, but I'm not sure how much restoration they did (or was needed); they may have just taken better care of their elements. (I can't personally speak for their few other silent releases, like the John Fords.)
Virtually every other major studio's silent output (that's still under copyright, except for Columbia) is controlled by Warner, and, although they've finally gotten around to releasing some on dvd via their (vastly overpriced) "Archive" series, by their own admission they aren't doing anything to restore them, though it's pretty obvious from comparing old vhs prints that MGM, at least, took a lot better care of their materialnotwithstanding a certain warehouse explosion back in the 60'sthan Paramount did. The stuff they occasionally show on TCM is usually from pretty good prints, though obviously unrestored.
Even there, they seem to only grudgingly release silents at all; I've been waiting for "West of Zanzibar" and Lillian Gish's "Scarlet Letter" for years now, neither of which was ever even out on vhs. And I'm assuming you're counting "The Jazz Singer" as a talking film, not a silent. Warners did do one hell of a restoration to that!
(By the way, Universal gave up all rights to their silent films years ago. And goodness only knows about Columbia. I can't even think of any silent Columbia films, though the studio was already around, so obviously they made them. Sony has been, shall we say, a bit tardy about releasing some of the gold mine they're sitting onincluding their early talkies, for that matter. Hell, look how long it took them to finally give the Stooges a nice release! But, in all fairness, Paramount, as far as their silents go, doesn't have a whole lot to brag about, either. They had just started releasing them in a nice series on vhs years ago, when the digital revolution broke out. Now I'm pretty sure that "Wings" is their first one given a rerelease.)
I do find it somewhat odd that someone earlier on here wondered why anyone would bother releasing a silent film in blu, as if, back in those days, filmstock also had poorer resolution, or something. Actually, quite the reverse is true: back then films were on nitrate, which most experts agree was a far superior stock than anything else. Look at prints of some of the better-kept films from back then that have been released largely UNrestored (the Chaplins and the Keatons, for instance) and you might see what I mean. They're gorgeous, even now that they've been transferred to safety stock! (Of course, you also have to have a taste for black and white.) Now if only nitrate didn't have that disagreeable tendency to EXPLODE now and then
When you consider that, night after night, this highly unstable and flammable material was being projected with an arc lamp, it's astonishing that more theaters didn't go up in flames back then!