RCOM 9/18/07; what other Paramount titles from Criterion? - Robinson Crusoe on Mars Discussion

[–] ThisIslandEarth 18 years ago

well, it's in widescreen on the criterion laser, and thats been out for eons. Pity you had to wait so long!

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[–] hobnob53 18 years ago

Yes, I know, and know from your other posts you love your laser. It'll be more of a treat to see it in proper widescreen after such a long wait.

But that still doesn't help me on the question of other Paramount titles coming from Criterion. Hoping there may be some other gems, like CRUSOE and ACE.

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[–] CatTales 18 years ago

search the Criterion site's "coming soon" page

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[–] hobnob53 18 years ago

Thanks, I look at that a lot, but they only post three months in advance. That helps, but I was hoping someone may have heard some inside stuff farther off! No big deal.

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[–] grandeprairieboy 18 years ago

Days of Heaven is already solicited for October. Besides that, other Paramount titles that are coming are Face to Face (Bergman), White Dog (Fuller), and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.

I'm sure there are others that haven't yet been hinted at/announced. Check out the forthcoming list at .org if you want that kind of info.

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[–] hobnob53 18 years ago

Thanks for the info. As I wrote previously, the Criterion site only posts releases three months in advance and I was wondering if anyone knew of other actual or rumored titles, as you do.

Since "Spy" has already been released by Paramount itself, it's too bad Criterion wastes its time reissuing another version of something already out in perfectly acceptable form, instead of concentrating its efforts on films Paramount hasn't released. Sure, Criterion is of superior quality, but I'd prefer new titles to recycled ones.

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[–] cary-morris 17 years ago

I have been reading the digital bits and they have good insider reporting. they released news about RCOM in January but with no specific date. Also the RCOM they are releasing has been remastered and cleaned up so it should be superior to the earlier laser disc relese.

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[–] grandeprairieboy 18 years ago

One other one that is forthcoming that I didn't list is One-Eyed-Jacks with Marlon Brando. It is a Parmount title that went into public domain, so it can be purchased easily at just about any dollar store but with horrible transfers. Because of it's public domain status I guess Paramount thought they would never make any real money on it, even if they released a DVD with a pristine transfer so they gave it to Criterion.

I guess the Maysles brothers also created a documentary funded by Criterion about Marlon Brando's life which will be a special feature.

I don't mind them redoing a couple of available titles like Days of Heaven or The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, since none of those dvds had any special features and transfers that could be improved.

It is also nice to see a mix of unreleased films and improved editions of available films.

One that there is a few rumors about but nothing substantial is Robert Altman's Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. More Altman is always good! Paramount owns Nashville, but I think Nashville is waaay too high profile for Paramount to ever give that to Criterion. (The Nashville DVD is pretty good anyways)

Cheers!

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[–] hobnob53 18 years ago

Hey, thanks for all your terrific info, grandeprarieboy! "One-Eyed Jacks" would be a good Criterion title. I also wondered if another older Paramount title they might have is a 1951 film called "The Mating Season", with Thelma Ritter, a very good and underrated comedy with serious undertones about class distinctions and the American mania to get ahead. Thelma gave what's generally considered the best performance of her career, one of her six, all unsuccessful, Oscar nominations, and this sounds like something Criterion might put out if they could obtain it. It's never been released on home video by the studio, so maybe....

If ever you hear of anything else, please share it -- and thanks again.

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[–] grandeprairieboy 17 years ago

Criterion in their most recent newsletter confirmed that the next Paramount title is Sam Fuller's controversial White Dog. :)

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[–] hobnob53 17 years ago

Yes, I saw that. I just wrote a newspaper review of recent Sam Fuller releases on DVD, including the Eclipse series from Criterion of "The First Films of Samuel Fuller", plus the recently released (by Fox) DVDs of "Fixed Bayonets" and "Hell and High Water". I understand there's a poor-quality, non-letterboxed Canadian-made DVD of "White Dog" coming out on 9/11 or 9/18/07 if I remember correctly, but people should be alerted to wait for the Criterion version, due out in '08.

Once again, thank you for your helpful information!

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] grandeprairieboy 17 years ago

Hey! Still don't know if anyone is still reading this thread, but the new Criterion newsletter came out today.

The "clue" of the month is for the Paramount film "The Naked Prey" which will come out in January. It sounds like it will be a good film for Robinson Crusoe on Mars fans, since it's a similar B-Adventure movie. The plot listed on IMDB reads:

A group of men are on (African)safari. One of the party refuses to give a gift to a tribe they encounter. The tribe is offended, seizes the party, and one-by-one, kills all but one of the safari members in various creative and horrifying ways. The last surviving member is given "The Lion's Chance" by the tribal leader to be hunted down by a party of tribal warriors. Naked and weaponless he is set loose, the hunters hot on his heels, beginning a life-or-death hunt through wild Africa.

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[–] hobnob53 17 years ago

The Criterion Newsletter came in on email as I was on this site! Haven't read it yet, but if that's their "clue" (your quotes are most apt), they might as well just give you the title. Their formal list of January releases should be noted on their website in about a month (October 2007).

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] grandeprairieboy 17 years ago

I wouldn't mind seeing 1492. I've never actually viewed the film, but it seems to be one of those movies the fans clamor for. It's probably more of a rights issue, as looking on IMDB there are 9 seperate production companies listed who financed and produced the film including Paramount.

I think Criterion are trying to mine Paramount's back catalogue....especially since Paramount seems to ignore anything prior to 1990 these days, so I would look at the idea of anything contemporary to be rather shakey....

I would probably expect some of Paramounts 80s Altman and probably even The African Queen before 1492...which is too bad. I'd love to see them all!

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[–] hobnob53 17 years ago

I wasn't too enamored of the C. Columbus films, but as to mining Paramount's extensive library of obscure films...

A couple of very obscrue, forgotten exceptions they'll never even think of looking at: ESCAPE FROM ZAHRAIN (1962); JAMAICA RUN (1953); the better-known CRACK IN THE WORLD (1965); and as I said earlier, THE MATING SEASON (1951). Guarantee the first two will never see the light of day again, on Criterion or anywhere else.

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[–] grandeprairieboy 17 years ago

I would also like to see a special edition of Harold and Maude. I know it's been released already, but it's a pretty big cult movie and the dvd looks like crap.

A crack in the world would be interesting, never seen it, but the IMDB page makes it look interesting.

I've only seen a few people speculate, but I'm sure that Robert Altman's Welcome Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean will show up eventually...criterion does love it's Altman.

Paramount also has some unreleased John Huston films besides The African Queen (which would be a big coup for Criterion.) They seem to be making an effort to grab as many Houston's as they can with both Under the Volcano and Wise Blood coming out in the near future.

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[–] hobnob53 17 years ago

Does Paramount own THE AFRICAN QUEEN these days? It was originally a United Artists release but I know ownership has been batted around a bit. I've heard the problem with a DVD release of QUEEN by anybody is the lack of suitably good picture elements; supposedly the UK DVD is of poor picture quality. But at this point I'd take a DVD made from the same elements as the old laserdisc or even VHS sources, until something better comes along.

CRACK IN THE WORLD is very good sci-fi...better than ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS in my opinion, with a very unusual ending.

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[–] grandeprairieboy 17 years ago

Well A Crack in The World is something that looks like I would enjoy, so let's keep our fingers crossed.

A bit of an aside: I'm assuming the reason you started this thread is to speculate on what Hollywood studio films might make it into the collection in the near future, if so....another interesting topic might be their relationship with MGM. They traded a bunch of commentaries from the laserdisc days including Raging Bull etc. in exchange for 5 MGM titles. The first was House of Games, the second is the rerelease of Salo which should be out in Jan or Feb., but there are 3 others coming from the MGM library. All Criterion said about the deal is that all of the titles would be films that they have never released before on laserdisc or dvd except for one. (Which is Salo)

So any MGM's you want to see in the collection?

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[–] hobnob53 17 years ago

I didn't know about the MGM deal. Probably there are some titles I'd like to see...but I assume Criterion's selections would all be post-1970s films (SALO, from 1975, notwithstanding), as the pre-'82 library is mostly controlled by Warner. But this also reminds me that Criterion still has its agreement with Fox, and I've heard that among other 20th titles they may release is 1948's CRY OF THE CITY. One of the fun things about Criterion is you can never tell what sort of stuff they'll see fit to put out. It's easy to guess things like RASHOMON or THE SEVENTH SEAL, that kind of film; but FIEND WITHOUT A FACE? FIRST MAN INTO SPACE? Even RCOM! Go figure. But at least they're not predictable, and are unpretentious enough, and willing enough, to issue films you wouldn't ordinarliy think of as cinematic milestones.

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[–] GamblinMike 17 years ago

From the MGM library I predict Robert Altman's Streamers. I hope they get Strawdogs back from them with the extra minutes that MGM edition contains. Criterion also lent one of their commentary tracks to Warner Bros' release of The Umbearable Lightness of Being, therefore I predict something like Badlands or The Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man as a trade. Bottle Rocket is next from Criterion and will perhaps build their relationship with Columbia Tristar, Ingmar Bergman's After The Rehearsal might be lent, maybe along with Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, but that has yet to be seen.

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[–] grandeprairieboy 17 years ago

The other MGM titles are going to be ones that have not appeared in the Criterion collection as either laser discs or dvds. So they are either going to be contemporary films, or part of the United Artists (like Salo) or Orion catalogue (like House of Games).

At any rate...next year is looking great already with confirmation of Salo, The Ice Storm, Bottle Rocket, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, The Last Emperor, Wise Blood, White Dog, Diva, Lubitsch Musicals, Cry of the City, Merry Christmas Mr.Lawrence, amongst others. Certainly the coming year will have a lot more contemporary/recent films than normal. Though with Eclipse, I suppose the annual number of films they release just shot up 25 percent or more, so that would figure into the equation....

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[–] GamblinMike 17 years ago

When and where were The Spy Who Came From The Cold, The Cry of The City, Wise Blood, and The Ice Storm confirmed?

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[–] grandeprairieboy 17 years ago

http://www.criterionforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23

This is the forthcoming Criterion list. There are about a 100 films listed that Criterion has the rights to that will make it onto DVD at some point. Check it out to see what Criterion has in store for you in the future. Bookmark it too!

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] grandeprairieboy 17 years ago

I emailed them off their website about One-Eyed Jacks. They didn't confirm it, but said to expect to see Marlon Brando soon. IMO, it really couldn't be anything else. (This was last year, so whatever Brando flick it is, is obviously going to be an '08 release.)

I don't think there are any other Brando films without a proper dvd release and obviously Paramount don't want it with it's public domain status, so I assume it's a similar thing to Charade, My Man Godfrey, etc.

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[–] GamblinMike 16 years ago

It might be The Last Tango In Paris, MGM is in good terms with Criterion and has recently given them some of their films -House of Games and Salo.

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