Shout Factory is taking pre-orders (via Amazon.com) for a triple-set entitled ROGER CORMAN'S SCI-FI CLASSICS. Included in the set are ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS/ NOT OF THIS EARTH (1957)/ WAR OF THE SATELLITES.
Reportedly, CRAB MONSTERS and NOT EARTH will be letterboxed, while SATELLITES will be full frame. All three pictures for one bargain price!
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Beat me to it again, jobla! Your info last month was as usual on target. But I did get to post the news on the sites of the other two.
I'm most looking forward to War of the Satellites, which I haven't seen in decades. (I have the other films, in poor prints.) As you said, to get all three in a high-quality DVD from Shout! Factory (which reportedly has been doing a good job with other Corman films) is fantastic.
And as I've said on the other two sites, how about It Conquered the World one day?
Don't hold your breath for IT CONQUERED THE WORLD, as that one is mired in the package owned by Susan Hart Nicholson, the widow of former AIP prez James H. Nicholson. She controls IT CONQUERED THE WORLD, I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF, I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN, INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN, THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, THUNDER OVER HAWAII, and a couple of other titles. Word on the street is that she is holding out for a king's ransom (even while the video retail business is practically declining by the hour).
Back to the Corman tryptich: I think Shout has the original negative for CRAB MONSTERS, and something like an interpositive for NOT OF THIS EARTH. Those two will be letterboxed and should look pretty good, given their age. WAR OF THE SATELLITES (Corman has a non-speaking cameo in that film) will be full frame, so I suspect that a 35mm print will provide that transfer.
Yes, we've discussed Mrs. Nicholson and her titles before. Still, Colossal Man did come out on VHS (from Columbia), and I still think Saucer Men is available, though I may well be thinking of some other title. So you never know.
But this set is a long-overdue, welcome addition to the ranks. Not to mention it's a triple feature...even better than Shout's previous double features. I guess you can cram a lot on a disc when each movie is less than 70 minutes long!
When I had first heard that Not of This Earth was coming out, I assumed it would be the original, only to be disappointed when they released the Traci Lords version. But things are getting back to normal, i.e., truly classic Corman. Let's hope there's not another postponement, as there has been once or twice already.
All of those AIP flicks from the fifties (except THE SHE CREATURE and TERROR FROM THE YEAR 5000) did come out from RCA/Columbia on VHS, as you say. The split came later, when James Nicholson passed away. His widow Susan Hart Nicholson got several titles as we've discussed, and the Samuel Z. Arkoff heirs got the rest. The Arkoff heirs were able to place their titles on DVD for modest profit, but Susan Hart is still "waiting for her ship to come in" (a ship that may never arrive, IMO).
Some of those AIP prints aren't the best quality. I've heard that more than one studio or label "passed on the option" of releasing them to DVD (I'm speaking of the Arkoff titles).
There have indeed been two delays on the Shout Corman set. Those were due to the quality of the film elements available. Now that Shout reportedly has the CRAB negative and the EARTH interpositive, quality is no longer an issue.
Yes, Mrs. N's ship may have struck an iceberg and gone under. Or, like many people, she keeps looking for a money figure that just isn't there. Joseph P. Kennedy, in explaining why he got out of the stock market in the months before the crash of '29, said, "Only a fool holds out for the top dollar." Take that to heart, Mrs. N.
I believe I'd mentioned somewhere else that Terror From the Year 5000 is available on DVD. The only place I've found it is from Movies Unlimited, and the basic price is a steep $24.95, but after not having seen it for decades I was glad to get it. It is pretty good.
I'm glad that Shout has now gotten the best prints available and will come through with this set, but you kind of wish they'd at least not announce an actual release date until they're certain they have what they need to produce a good disc. Saying they're working on a release or looking for the best prints is one thing and exciting, but the letdown of repeated postponements isn't fair. (Sony has just issued its fourth postponement of its Rita Hayworth set, and for reasons that don't appear to have anything to do with getting better masters. They've done this with several sets lately, but this is the most egregious case.)
Of course, it's rare when you find a situation like what happened with Criterion a few years ago. They were planning to release Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game and had scoured all possible archives in Paris and elsewhere looking for I think the film's interpositive (it may have been another print). They had heard this existed but couldn't find it, and finally gave up and struck 60,000 copies from the next-best source. Then, just before the street release, they got word from Paris that the print they'd sought had just been discovered. They ran a side-by-side comparison of both prints and noted only a marginal difference between the two. Nevertheless, there was a very slight improvement in the newly-found print, so they scrapped their initial run of 60,000 and went through the time and expense of striking new discs from the minutely better print. Now that's dedication!
Image Entertainment is another company that occasionally did the right think at no small expense. They had searched for the "Continental" (risque)version of DEVIL DOLL (1964), but couldn't locate it. Just before pressing the standard cut, somebody found the Continental verson in England. So, the disc was delayed by a month or two, but it came out with both the export and the Continental versions included on separate discs, if memory serves. That was a very legitimate postponement, IMO.
Shout probably did jump the gun on announcing the Corman titles. The materials they received were not satisfactory, so they delayed the project while seeking superior film elements. During the search, they considered simply releasing CRAB MONSTERS by itself, as well as releasing CRABS and WAR OF THE SATELLITES as a two-fer. Fortunately, somebody did turn up an interpostive (I believe it is) for NOT OF THIS EARTH, and the current three-for went into production. Apparently, the print they have of SATELLITES isn't good quality enough to be considered for a stand-alone release. I'll still be happy to have it, since it has never been released on home video before (at least in the US). Also, I'm old enough to remember attending genre triple-bills throughout the 1960's, so this disc will recreate that experience.
Most double and triple bills from the sixties and seventies were comprised of pictures that were somehow thematically linked, either in terms of genre or in terms of star or director. Here is the weirdest triple bill that I saw:
SHOCK CORRIDOR (Sam Fuller psychodrama)
GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS (Elvis musical)
SEVEN SLAVES AGAINST THE WORLD (Italian sword-and-sandal flick)
That unlikely combo was circa 1965. The only "thematic" link I can imagine for that triple-bill is maybe Paramount Pictures was distributing all three titles? That's a guess off the top of my head, and it's probaby incorrect.
No, your memory of that weird triple feature is pretty good, though I think only two of the three were Paramounts (Shock Corridor was an Allied Artists film, at least originally). But movies didn't have to come from the same studio to be lumped together by inventive theater owners.
My favorite story of a double-bill was the pairing, in 1960, of Caltiki the Immortal Monster with...Sunrise at Campobello!
Yeah, while I certainly appreciate the dedication to quality that some companies evince -- in not wanting to turn out DVDs from less-than-excellent prints -- sometimes I feel they overdo it a bit. In the case of WOTS, I might have settled for a decent print, even if not wholly satisfactory, just because it was so rare...though of course I'm glad they held out for a better one. I do know that that film was once available from Sci-Fi Station (from whom I've never ordered but whose site I check out every once in a while), but that it was pulled from their catalogue over a year ago. My guess is their print probably wasn't very good. They also carry (still) NOTE, as does/did Sinister Cinema (they had it, pulled it, and temporarily have it back now), but SC's print wasn't too good, and I assume the same holds for S-F Station's.
Still, this sort of thing probably falls under the "better something than nothing" rule, though having proper, upscale DVD releases (as opposed to DVD-Rs from weaker prints) is by far preferable...though even mainstream Lionsgate's DVD of Corman's Teenage Caveman wasn't in its proper 2.35:1 aspect ratio, but p&s.
ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS has been around forever, in home video circles. One of the very first VHS labels back in the early 1980's was Allied Artists Video, which released a few Allied pictures in VHS, including CRABS. Those tapes all had white boxes with a small insert picture on the cover. At some point, the label went defunct.
Suddenly, circa 1994, CRAB MONSTERS resurfaced on VHS (and much later on DVD) from a company calling itself "Allied Artists Classics." Word on the street is that this mysterious "label" was the product of someone who had previously worked for Allied Artists Video. He probably acquired that mouldy CRABS print when the original video label went belly up. Anyway, it was the same poor quality print, and was probably the source of the later, little-seen DVD. I will say that the reissue did have vastly better cover art than those old generic AAV boxes.
One more comment about SHOCK CORRIDOR/GIRLS/SEVEN SLAVES. I suspect that the independent theater booker had no idea what SHOCK CORRIDOR actually was, but probably assumed that it was more like a Vincent Price/Edgar Allan Poe flick. In terms of family entertainment, CORRIDOR isn't really a good fit with an Elvis musical or an Italian "HERCULES" epic.
I loved your CALTIKI/CAMPOBELLO double-bill! I can imagine that the old-timers attending CAMPOBELLO would have had little tolerance for CALTIKI. And of course, the kiddie matinee audience for CALTIKI would have been bored to tears by CAMPOBELLO. As a kid, CALTIKI freaked me out because its narration was peformed by "the voice of Steve Reeves" (the same dubbing actor, George something or other).
I have the (poor) AA VHS and DVD of AOTCM, but your story as to their origin sounds quite plausible. The only other AA DVD I have is their (poor) p&s print of The Day of the Triffids. That's another film crying out for a decent, widescreen transfer, but one doesn't exist anywhere, including in the UK. Lots of bad pan & scan versions, though. Allegedly some mysterious malefactor is holding up a proper release, a la Mrs. Nicholson re AIP, and two or three years ago some know-it-all on the film's IMDb site confidently stated that a crisp, letterboxed version was imminent. Nothing's been heard of it -- or him -- since.
Yeah, Shock Corridor does sound like an AIP horror film...one of those "and featuring a young Jack Nicholson" things.
Oh, well. I'm biding my time to see whether Sony's coming out with a new batch of Columbia Classics DVD-Rs later this month, as promised. Meanwhile, I'm splicing together a new movie, Sunrise Over Caltiki. Should be a blockbuster. "I can valk!"
There have been "rumors" that a private individual owns TRIFFIDS (1962) and has been remastering it for the last two or three years. I think a print (one of those "a work in progress" deals) of it was screened at the LA Cinematheque within the last six months. It does sound like the work is progessing, but it is being done so slowly that one hopes that there will still be DVDs by the time the restored print is ready. We do really need a good copy of TRIFFIDS. Even the widescreen Image Entertanment laserdisc was from a poor color print.
Although nothing appeared on the Warner Archives website today, an acquaintance of mine sent me a picture that seems to indicate that TEN LITTLE INDIANS (1965) is headed for an archive release. That seems a strange choice to me, if only because the film was already released as a widescreen DVD back in 2006. It may have gone out of print quickly, but I still have a copy of that DVD.
I'm still hoping to see Sony's Columbia Classics release SCREAMING MIMI on November 23rd, as has been mentioned.
Intriguing news about Triffids...at least it plants a seed of hope, or something....
I was away for a week and in checking the W. Archives last night saw 7 new titles from last week -- four comedies and three dramas, I think. The two I recall right now are Boys' Night Out and Plymouth Adventure. I had thought the approach of Thanksgiving would lead them to release the latter, and lo and behold....
Nov. 23 is the next announced date for new Columbia MOD releases? Where did you hear that, and, more importantly, have you figured out the proper link on the Sony home page to access the Classics page? Originally I'd gotten on directly from a link posted on thedigitalbits.com in their Sept. 8 column but when I went directly to sonypictures.com I couldn't find anything on their home page mentioning Columbia Classics, MOD or anything else. How did you access their titles, jobla? Thanks!
Shout Factory recently posted specs for the set that will feature this flick and I've posted that release in full at my blog: http://bit.ly/cOD7au
Schlockmania, your online guide to the schlock experience... http://www.schlockmania.com
The new Sony MOD titles had been listed as preorders with Movies Unlimited, but have since vanished. Have heard nothing else since then. We're getting pretty close to the reported street date of November 23rd, unless the second wave has been delayed for some reason.
Speaking of Movies Unlimited, they now list the new MGM MOD titles for preorder. Well,at least they're listing the two I looked up, THE SATAN BUG and CAPTAIN KIDD AND THE SLAVE GIRL, so I assume that they will carry all of them.
The MGM MODs, reportedly, are also up for preorder at the TCM website. Both TCM and Movies Unlimited report a "street date" of December 15, and both sites list 19.99 per disc.
You can watch it - and other hokey old classics - via this site:
http://oldfilmposters.tumblr.com/
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I got my copy a few days ago, the movies look awesome, especially "Attack of the Crab Monsters" & "Not of this Earth", sharp image, good balance of gray tones,good sound (especially "Not of this Earth"). Beats me why they had to get a British print of "Crab monsters" (UK distributor logo at the start and all) , I suppose it was the best one they could get (or the most complete one). The Corman trailers included in the extras,however,are really pointless, and many of them show a very poor quality (bad contrast,combing,jumps,etc). I've been waiting for a long time for these titles to be released in remastered versions on DVD, and it's really a great achievement from Shout Factory! having pulled it off.
Greetings,
Just got my copy yesterday. As others have mentioned ACM looks great even though it appears to be a print from a British distributor. Not of This Earth is even better and a surprisingly well though-out film. Much better than I recall though the string on the head-enveloping thing was painfully evident.
War of the Satellites. Never saw this one. Perhaps second rate Corman. I think Creature From the Haunted Sea is far superior! I do not think I am alone in this opinion.
All-in-all, a great package, not to mention the thirty-five or so Corman trailers! Well done, Shout!
bye,
s