Not on DVD

[auto-da-fey]

From Pook and Night of the Creeps to girl and The Woman Chaser (which I keep meaning to investigate), to the chorus of O Lucky Man fans, movies not being available on DVD has been a recurring theme on the film threads lately. Does it need a thread of its own? Of course not! But since it's no less unimportant than Lil Wayne lyrics, The State, or ad campaigns--none of which I'm suggesting are unimportant at all--I say, why the hell not?

[auto-da-fey]

I like to support independent video stores, so even though I'm hooked on Netflix I try to rent locally every now and then. I always go for stuff that's only on VHS, since that makes the most sense. It doesn't always pay off--I just saw The Reincarnation of Peter Proud, a bland 1975 suspense-drama notable only for a fairly graphic scene of Margot Kidder masturbating in a bathtub--but it's a good way to recapture moments that technological obsolescence seems to be erasing from the cinematic historical memory.

[auto-da-fey]

Also--since this thread so far is my own stream of consciousness--how is that something like Reincarnation, which I believe was a moderate box-office success and could presumably recoup whatever studio outlay would be necessary to get it on DVD, remains unavailable, while the almost inconceivably dreary 1975 drama Aloha, Bobby and Rose, which is about as forgotten as a film can be, is out?

Also, why Aloha and not director Floyd Mutrux's far-superior 1971 junkie film Dusty and Sweets McGee? I know, I know: legal bullshit, music licensing issues, etc. etc. etc. Still, I mean, where the fuck is Frank Perry's Last Summer?  You know?

[Ah_Pook]

i really wish Prospero's Books was available on DVD

[auto-da-fey]

I had no idea it wasn't. Yeah, that's weird, and oughta be rectified.

[dieblucasdie]

The Love Parade

I check about twice a month and am disappointed. 

[Ah_Pook]

I had no idea it wasn't. Yeah, that's weird, and oughta be rectified.

its especially annoying because the legit VHS copy from years ago is full frame and totally butchers a lot of the scenes, especially the multiframe stuff.

there is a DVD of it, but its only available as part of this huuuuuge Dutch boxset for some reason. ah well, my burned copy of that disc will have to last until someone out there is cool enough to do it up right i guess.

[auto-da-fey]

I think my #1 DVD dream would be a legitimate release of Monte Hellman's 1978 western China 9, Liberty 37. It's got Jenny Agutter and Warren Oates, and the only versions that have ever circulated on VHS or DVD have been butchered edits that take out the sex, which is apparently integral to the plot--I've always refused to watch the cut versions, so I've never seen the thing. Most film geeks had long since given up on it when a clip of what appeared to be a new, pristine print showed up in that documentary Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession, so now there's a tiny ray of hope.

[ellaguru]

My two and a half choices (selected partly in the hopes that they've been released since I last checked and somebody will school me) are Eustache's La maman et la putain, Rivette's Céline et Julie vont en bateau, and, for half a point because it's out on Criterion and I can't afford to cop that shit, Stillman's Metropolitan. Awesome movies, all.

[diesel_powered]

How about Lost Highway? I think the story with that film is that in typical Lynchian fashion, the distributor doesn't want to meet Lynch's demands and Lynch doesn't care enough about it to push the issue until the contract is up. Too bad, too. It's a pretty decent movie. It got released in Germany and I've got a rip from that DVD, but I'd like to give the man some money for his work.

[hannah]

My two and a half choices (selected partly in the hopes that they've been released since I last checked and somebody will school me) are Eustache's La maman et la putain, Rivette's Céline et Julie vont en bateau, and, for half a point because it's out on Criterion and I can't afford to cop that shit, Stillman's Metropolitan. Awesome movies, all.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Celine-Julie-Boating-Juliet-Berto/dp/B000H5TIH4

I'm going to say Edward Yang's (RIP) A Brighter Summer Day. Also, too much of Max Ophuls. And of Budd Boetticher.

Per Dave Kehr: "The TCMDB home page contains this telling statistic: Of the 144,366 titles listed in the database, only 5,257 are available on home video. That’s 3.64 percent."

good bootlegs here, for cheap: http://www.superhappyfun.com/content.htm

[ellaguru]

My two and a half choices (selected partly in the hopes that they've been released since I last checked and somebody will school me) are Eustache's La maman et la putain, Rivette's Céline et Julie vont en bateau, and, for half a point because it's out on Criterion and I can't afford to cop that shit, Stillman's Metropolitan. Awesome movies, all.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Celine-Julie-Boating-Juliet-Berto/dp/B000H5TIH4

Serves me right for just looking at North American releases.

[Swimmy]

Angus.

I mean, really.

[auto-da-fey]

I'm going to say Edward Yang's (RIP) A Brighter Summer Day.

Hey, I was just reading about this in the LA Weekly. I agree.

And diesel, do you mean a deluxe version of Lost Highway? Because even though Amazon only lists import/R2 versions, I am nearly certain that a friend of mine bought it on DVD for like $7 at a Wal-mart in Tennessee.

[hannah]

yep yep, brighter summer day is excellent (i saw it at MoMA two years ago) and it sucks that yang, whose yi-yi is pretty well known, is not known beyond yi-yi

[jebreject]

And diesel, do you mean a deluxe version of Lost Highway? Because even though Amazon only lists import/R2 versions, I am nearly certain that a friend of mine bought it on DVD for like $7 at a Wal-mart in Tennessee.

yeah, i'm almost positve there's a region 1 release of lost highway

[Thermofusion]

I would perform lew acts in picnic sheds for either of these TV shows on DVD:

"Legend" (Richard Dean Anderson as an alcoholic dime novelist who becomes a kind of proto-Batman "superhero" in the 1880s Wild West with the help of a Tesla-esque Hungarian quack scientist)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_%28TV_Series%29


"Tales of the Gold Monkey" (kinda before my time, but I used to watch old VHS copies of this...pulpy 1930s aviation/adventure series set in the Pacific that was kinda a cross between Indiana Jones and Terry and the Pirates)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_the_Gold_Monkey

[ellaguru]

I would perform lew acts in picnic sheds for either of these TV shows on DVD:

"Legend" (Richard Dean Anderson as an alcoholic dime novelist who becomes a kind of proto-Batman "superhero" in the 1880s Wild West with the help of a Tesla-esque Hungarian quack scientist)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_%28TV_Series%29


"Tales of the Gold Monkey" (kinda before my time, but I used to watch old VHS copies of this...pulpy 1930s aviation/adventure series set in the Pacific that was kinda a cross between Indiana Jones and Terry and the Pirates)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_the_Gold_Monkey

I remember Tales of the Gold Monkey. It was pretty good. My 11-year-old self thinks he preferred Bring'Em Back Alive, although my 11-year-old self is not entirely reliable.

[Thermofusion]

I hadn't heard of Bring 'Em Back Alive, but when one of its episodes is called "The Shadow Women of Chung Tai", it's gotta be entertaining. 

Now I'm wondering how many 1930s retro adventure TV shows came out in the wake of Raiders.

[dieblucasdie]

Is that "Seven Cities of Gold" show on DVD?  I remember it having a fucking long, tedious, epic plotline, which is the sort of thing I like, and Nick chronically running all the eps out of order, making it impossible to follow.  Awesome.

[nonotyet]

It does not appear to be on DVD, but here is the theme song. Also, I think it is called "Mysterious Cities of Gold,"  And if it's the show I am thinking of it is why I named my cockatiel Cocapetal when I was a kid, and I have this feeling like someone talked about that show here before.

Edit! I lied. It's on DVD, but, um, in French.

[Greg Nog]

YESSSSSS

Back in college, I almost ordered a set of Mysterious Cities of Gold VHS tapes off of eBay.  I refrained.

I can still sing you all the theme song, though.

[alexandra]

MONSTER SQUAD

[diesel_powered]

And diesel, do you mean a deluxe version of Lost Highway? Because even though Amazon only lists import/R2 versions, I am nearly certain that a friend of mine bought it on DVD for like $7 at a Wal-mart in Tennessee.

yeah, i'm almost positve there's a region 1 release of lost highway

It came out on VHS (in a widescreen version, no less) but never on DVD that I've ever seen: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116922/dvd

Sure, it's been bootlegged...

[alexandra]

MONSTER SQUAD

HOLY SHIT THEY JUST RELEASED IT ON DVD 5 DAYS AGO.