It’s hard to keep up with releases from the Warner Archive Collection, the manufacture-on-demand program that’s made more than 500 often tantalizingly obscure titles available on DVD for fans over the last 15 months. Several have been collections of theatrical short subjects, like “Classic Musical Shorts From the Dream Factory,” a terrific four-disc collection of MGM rarieties that became available a couple of weeks ago.
The set includes Metrotone shorts providing an invaluable record of long-forgotten vaudeville acts from the late ’20s — Fuzzy Knight is the most recognizable name — and legendary radio DJ Martin Block introducing big band leaders like Freddy Martin, Ray Noble and Les Brown from the ’40s. Not to mention Keenan Wynn plugging his children’s album!
Plus there’s Jack Benny introducing a collection of composers — and a couple of lyricists, most notably future producer Arthur Freed — some of whom look uncomfortable to be appearing on camera. This may be your own chance to see David Snell, less known as a songwriter than for composing the
scores for dozens of MGM B-movies from the ’30s and ’40s. Ray Heindorf, future head of the music department at Warner Bros., is also on hand.
Two discs are in Technicolor. The quaint-looking two-color variety, with tones tending to salmon and azure, is on view in a series of bizarre Colortone shorts from the early ’30s, some of which repurpose musical numbers from the legendary abandoned revue “The March of Time” (1930). Charles “Ming the Merciless” Middleton turns up in the title role of Nick Grinde’s art deco musical “The Devil’s Cabaret,” though solo billing goes to future MGM director Eddie Buzzell.
Arguably the oddest Colortone item is “My Grandfather’s Clock,” a musical murder mystery with “Philo Holmes” (Charles Judels), “Dr. Watkins” (Franklin Pangborn) and lots of scantily clad chorines. One of them jumps into the title device with an old man to make whoopee in the definitely pre-Code climax.
My favorites in the set are the nine all-star shorts (mostly in lush full Technicolor) produced by Lewis Lewyn, who had supervised similar endeavors at Columbia, Educational Pictures and Paramount. Hosted by B-listers like Leo Carillo, Reginald Denny and Elissa Landi, they offer mostly mute glimpses of stars like Clark Gable (with his then-wife), Robert Montgomery and Constance Bennett, as well as character actors like El Brendel and the wonderfully named Sir Guy Standing.
For some reason, Paramount’s contract list is heavily represented in these MGM shorts: in “Star Night at the Coconut Grove,” Bing Crosby, no less, performs “With Every Breath I Take” after being introduced by Mary Pickford.
In addition to the much anthologized sight of Paramount roommates Cary Grant and Randolph Scott cozily sharing a table while listening to Judy Garland, there’s also a glimpse of another reputed biseuxal couple at the time, “Lives of a Bengal Lancer” stars Gary Cooper and Richard Cromwell.
The oddest of the lot is probably “Hollywood Party” — not to be confused with the 1934 MGM feature of the same name. Its Chinese theme encompasses a fashion show with Anna May Wong
(turned down by MGM for a role in “The Good Earth”) and some yellowface clowning by Charlie “Chan” Chase.
Of historical interest is “Billy Rose’s Casa Manana Revue,” a black-and-white record of the over-the-top show at the future Mr. Elizabeth Taylor’s truly massive Texas nightclub. How massive? Well, I can’t imagine how they could have lit the joint brightly enough to film with three-strip Techicolor cameras of the era without the customers passing out en masse.
COMING ATTRACTIONS: It’s been a while since a studio offered a set with major participation by a retired star, but Sony’s “The Kim Novak Collection,” due Aug. 10, includes new interview material with the relusive Ms. Novak. New to DVD are “Middle of the Night” (1959) with Frederic March, is an adaptation of a Paddy Chayefsky play irected by Delbert Mann; and George Sidney’s “Jeanne Eagels” (1957), which micasts Novak as the doomed, hard-living ’20s star. It’s unclear if Sony has remastered the other three films in the set, all certified classics: Joshua Logan’s “Picnic” (1955), one of the earliest movies I can recall seeing in a theater; Sidney’s “Pal Joey” (1957) with Frank Sinatra and Rita Hayworth; and a personal favorite, Richard Quine’s “Bell Book and Candle” (1958), arguably Kim’s best peformance, as a Greenwich Village bohemian who bewitches publisher James Stewart.
Flicker Alley, the small distributor that releases wonderful films you didn’t know even still existed — like King Vidor’s long-lost “Bardelys the Magnificent” — has unearthed the original 1928 version of “Chicago,” credited to Frank Ursini but reputedly mostly directed by producer Cecil B. Mille. Contemporary reviewers praised Phyllis Haver’s performance (she’s pictured above) in the title role. Eugene Pallette, no less, is the lover she plugs. In addition to what’s said to be a near-mint-condition print of this late silent from Cecil’s personal vault, the feature-packed two disc release includes two vintage documentaries and a new one. It’s due July 6.
Warner Home Video confirmed to Home Media Magazine that “King Kong” (1933) will be arriving on Blu-ray on Sept. 28. They’ll be a new 32-page book written by film historian Rudy Behlmer, along with all the extensive special features from the excellent DVD Ultimate Collector’s edition. Over on the Warner Archive Collection side, the manufactured-on-demand debuts of Mervyn LeRoy’s “Five Star Final” with Edward G. Robinson and Sam Fuller’s “Verboten,” originally scheduled for yesterday, have been delayed by remastering, most likely to June 16.
Sources confirm that Elia Kazan’s long-delayed and much-requested “A Tree Grows In Brooklyn” is finally scheduled for release DVD sometime this year. And that Fox has finally cleared the rights to Kazan’s “Viva Zapata” starring Marlon Brando, though it’s not scheduled yet. Probably coming eventually is yet another of Kazan’s Fox efforts, “Wild River,” a restored print of which was shown at April’s TCM Classic Film Festival. Fox hasn’t released a new classic title on DVD since the long-delayed “Man Hunt” more than a year ago, but I’m promised that some new titles will be included in a huge 75th set whose titles were picked by studio chairmen Tom Rothman and Jim Gianpoulis. We’ll see. On the Blu-ray front, a Fox release promises the bows of “The Sound of Music,” “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Moulin Rouge!” (the Baz Luhrmann one, alas) and Michael Mann’s best film, “The Last of the Mohicans.”
