The Extras - 4 Restored Classics: An Act of Violence, Hitchcock’s Screwball Comedy "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," "The Man I Love" with six more minutes restored, and "The Shining Hour"

Episode Date: July 18, 2024

Film noir aficionados and classic film lovers alike are in for a treat with our latest episode of "The Extras." Join us as George Feltenstein, a true cinema historian, shares his deep knowledge about Warner Archive's June Blu-ray releases. We start off with a gripping discussion on the film noir gem "Act of Violence," exploring its compelling narrative, Fred Zinnemann's expert direction, and the standout performances from Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, and Janet Leigh.Switching gears, we highlight Alfred Hitchcock's rare foray into comedy with "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," starring the brilliant Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery. Discover the delightful chemistry between the leads and Hitchcock's unique touch on the screwball genre. Next, we celebrate the musical legacy of Ida Lupino with a deep dive into the 1947 film "The Man I Love." Uncover the fascinating story behind the film's original cut and the restoration of its missing six minutes of footage, including the song "Bill" by Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II, and P.G. Wodehouse. We end with a review of the melodrama "The Shining Hour" (1938) from acclaimed director Frank Borzage and showcasing standout performances by Joan Crawford, Margaret Sullavan, and Fay Bainter.We provide a full review of each film, a detailed explanation of the HD restoration, and background all of the included extras.Purchase links:THE MAN I LOVE (1947)MR. & MRS. SMITH  (1941)ACT OF VIOLENCE (1948)THE SHINING HOUR (1938) The Extras Facebook pageThe Extras Twitter Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog GroupOtaku Media produces podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connect creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals. www.otakumedia.tv

Hi, this is Alan K. Roady, author and film historian, and you are listening to Tim Millard's podcast, The Extras. Hello and welcome to The Extras, where we take you behind the scenes of your favorite TV shows, movies and animation. Their release on digital DVD, Blu-ray and 4K or your favorite streaming site. I'm Tim Lahr, your host. And joining me is George Feltenstein to review four June Blu-ray releases from the Warner Archive. Hi, George. Hi, Tim. Welcome back from your well-earned vacation.

Thank you very much. It felt like a little extra long vacation for me this time, but well needed. I feel well rested and I was excited to come back and finish watching up the June blu-rays we're going to talk about today. I'd already seen a few of them but I couldn't get them all in before my vacation started there for the 4th of July holiday but it was fun to come back knowing I had a few of these still to watch. And I really enjoyed, I mean, we're going to only talk about four today because I previously talked about The Flash with John Wesley Shipp and the co-creator there, Danny Billson. So just as a reminder for fans that they can listen to that one. But these four are obviously from the 30s,

three are from the 40s and one's from the 30s, I should say. So they're a classic film lovers dream, I think, in terms of the variety that you released here in June. So I'm looking forward to talking with you about these. Absolutely, so am I, because I'm always anxious to hear what you think after you've seen them. I assume you had never seen any of these four before.

Well, I had seen Act of Violence, but the others were newer to me. And why don't we start off with Act of Violence? I think that's a great idea. It's the one noir and of course we have an Alfred Hitchcock but it's not a noir this month but it's the one noir we'll talk about here and it's a terrific film. It's been a while since I've seen it so watching it and seeing it with the restoration was a pure joy and this thing moves right from the beginning.

When you see Robert Ryan's crippled character coming in a very menacing way on camera, it just moves and it's a terrific story with a lot of substance. So well directed by of course, Fred Zinneman. And the cast is fantastic. What else are you going to say? It's a classy.

And I think that it's such efficient filmmaking. Right. Because it tells the story in under 90 minutes and you're taken in right away. and very uncharacteristic for the time, and especially for MGM, the credits are at the end, which is radical for 1948. And I do want to clarify something about this film that some people are not clear about. And that is 1948, late in the year, is when Dory Sherry became the head of production. L.B. Mayer was still head of the studio, but the powers that be at MGM's parent company, Lowes Incorporated, wanted to have someone kind of taking on the role that was once held by Irving Thalberg more than a decade

earlier because they wanted to have another voice at the table, which eventually stabbed L.B. Mayer in the back. But in the meantime, what what Sherry did was start to infuse into MGM a new kind of filmmaking. Well, Act of Violence was completed right about the time Sherry made the move over to MGM. So this had nothing to do with Dory Sherry, and that's one of the things that I wanted to clarify in terms of the timeline. This is very much under the aegis of El Bimar without Sherry,

making a very contemporary, very modern, very gripping film that is atypical of the MGM style of years prior. And Van Heflin gives a superb performance. I don't think he ever didn't. But to have him and Robert Ryan, it just kind of blows the film apart and everybody is so terrific in it. Janet Lee is magnificent and you're just transfixed by the storytelling and it is a thriller with a beautiful noir touch to it and I can't recommend it more highly and we had released it previously on DVD about 20 years ago, maybe a little less than that,

but it was part of one of our film noir collections, but it needs to have its own mantle as a standalone and being able to remaster it with a 4K scan off our preservation elements. Given when I say the preservation elements, that's usually a sign there no longer is a camera negative. This is one of the hundreds of MGM films where the original negative burned in the tragic fire at George Eastman Museum at the time known as George Eastman House.

Our second- generation fine grain gave us such a beautiful image that in many cases you think you're looking right off the negative. It's that good. And it handles the shadows of a noir the way that you would want it to be. There's tremendous fine detail in the image, and the images are so striking, which helps to build the tension of the storytelling. It's a remarkable film, and we were able to carry over some of the special features we had done for the DVD release.

For the commentary, we have the wonderful Dr. Drew Casper, who until about five years ago was a very well-respected film professor at USC. He's responsible for many of our commentaries and also was featured in many of our many documentaries and featurettes. So his contributions are always valuable.

And I think that his perspective is one of those commentaries that really warrants after you've watched the film, it's such a short film, you should watch the film and then watch it again, just listening to his commentary. It's that good. We have a little featurette that has some film noir experts as well as Oliver Stone, and the late Richard Schickel.

It's called Dealing with the Devil, and that's what this film deals with. It's a Dealing with the Devil, and that's what this film deals with. It's a wonderful package. Of course, we did throw in some cartoons in high definition to round out what would be the theater going experience of the era. We're very proud of the disc and I do hope people will purchase it and add it to

their collection because they certainly won't be sorry. Yeah. And I think that fans of noir and fans of this film, I'm sure are, or we're chomping at the bit to get this new scan and to get it as a standalone, as you said, so well deserved for so many reasons. And we don't have to repeat the plot or anything for those who know it well, but just for those who don't,

I thought there is something noteworthy there to talk about. That is the fact that this film, unlike the noir that came out during the war, this is dealing with the soldiers coming back from the war. And PTSD, which was not the news then. Which gives it a real, to me, that psychological element, the dealing, the kind of the medical element and the psychology of that, gives it a real modern feel in a way, because we're talking about not just kind of some paperback novel type psychology, but real issues that the service people, service men and women were

dealing with. But it's all wrapped up in this fantastic drama and a chase. And it just got a really great storyline there, inhabited by these fantastic actors who really bring it to life. And I love the way it unfolds. You know, you start off with Van Heflin, seeming like the idyllic husband in the situation at home with his wife. And it just unravels because there's a reason for that. And it's quite, quite, quite good. And then the Robert Ryan character is this kind of avenging angel in a way of retribution for the choices he made. And we don't have to break it down, but that is a fantastic story and just the way it's put together and the structuring of it, the writing of it, everything. And then you get this kind of casting

shock, I thought, with Mary Astor. Yeah. We have to talk about that. Well, and this was kind of Mary Astor in her, I guess she was probably in her early 40s by this time, I'm guessing, I don't know exactly, but she had kind of segued into mostly like playing the mother in Meet Me in St. Louis in 1944. And it was a long stretch in Meet Me in St. Louis in 1944. It was a long stretch from when she was playing the femme fatale in Maltese Falcon earlier in the decade. But I think the real superstar of this film,

I think the real superstar of this film, if there's one, is behind the camera in Zinnaman. Yeah. This is really, he had done some very fine work before. He had been at MGM throughout the 40s, moving from shorts into features and had made some wonderful films like The Seventh Cross and The Search, but Act of Violence was I think almost a breakthrough film for him. And within a few years he would make films that are you know tent poles of

greatness like High Noon from Here to Eternity and The Nun's Story which we've make films that are tent poles of greatness, like High Noon from Here to Eternity, and The Nun's Story, which we've talked about recently. What a phenomenal filmmaker. This is really where you see his talent on full display. Just delighted that every time we're able to rescue one of these films and bring it out of standard definition mock into beautiful Blu-ray, it is a tremendously rewarding experience. And we're very, very happy with the way this turned out. And I'm glad that

you enjoyed it. Yep, it's a terrific film. Highly recommended for every area, which is the classic noir, a Ziniman film. The transfer looks terrific. A terrific package of extras on here. I really enjoyed those little featurets as well. They gave nice insights into the film. And as you said, because of the the

audio commentary on here, it being a short film, you get you get a robust package. So this is a highly recommended release and just a just a lot of fun to watch. And then when you can watch over and over again, too. Absolutely. Well, speaking of fun, and what may be not expected, people don't expect an Alfred Hitchcock comedy, but he did what? Just one, I think. And this is Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I love this movie.

I thought it was fantastic. I know there's some people who maybe, you know, wonder why he did a comedy, but the film is just so much fun to watch and the pairing of Lombard and Montgomery really sparkles. Stay with us. We'll be right back. Hi, this is Tim Millard, host of The Extras Podcast and I wanted to let you know that we have a new private Facebook group for fans of the Warner Archive and Warner Brothers

catalog physical media releases. So if that interests you, you can find the link on our Facebook page or look for the link in the podcast show notes. They're terrific together. The whole way that this film kind of came together is really quite fascinating. RKO could have cast many different people in the lead, but they specifically chose to borrow Robert Montgomery from MGM. I think the chemistry between Lombard and Montgomery is just a key ingredient to what makes this film so special and so enjoyable.

I mean, it really is. They have a great chemistry on screen, in my opinion. Yes, I totally agree. I mean, there's a sparkle in both their eyes, you know, a twinkle. And as you're watching, you just get, at least for me, I just had a perpetual smile on my face because I'm just chuckling and enjoying it. I mean, it has the fast pace banter, but it also has the plot that kind of gives you the, well, and just to talk about the plot, of course, they're married, but then they find out there was some little quirk of court documentation

that says, well, maybe they weren't married and that starts all the fun there. And it's a great little premise that kicks off all of the charm that ensues after that. And the casting, the banter, the script, the direction by Hitchcock, it all makes for just a great entertainment. There are comedic moments in Hitchcock films

that are primarily dramas and thrillers that he is known for. But here, you really don't see any of his sensibility that you would see in the films that he's best known for. But at the same time, he does a wonderful job bringing out the relationship between the two characters. It's very clear that they have a very good marriage and they're not cookie cutter characters

that one would see in many films of that era. They feel like real people. I think the film is wonderful in establishing that. I don't think enough can be said about the gift that Kara Lombard had with the camera. The camera loved her. She was wonderful in the films that she was in. Of course, her career was tragically cut short when she was killed in a plane crash not long after this film was made. She was at a very happy point in her life just having married Clark Gable and everything just

kind of came together here and Hitchcock was delighted to work on this film. It wasn't like a contractual obligation or anything like that. Everything worked and the fact that this was the only one of Hitchcock's American-made produced films that wasn't on Blu-ray. It was obviously a hole in his filmography that we needed to fill. And when you're dealing with an Archeo movie, that usually means you're dealing with problematic film elements because most of the archaic films are in wretched shape. And when we can rescue them and make them look great, that is all the more the reward. And I hope we've done so here.

It's a quantum leap ahead again from what we had on DVD. And I'm delighted how it turned out. Yeah, the word I was looking for earlier, of course, I don't know why it was eluding me was screwball comedy. By all means. Yeah, and Carol Lombard is known for that, of course. So associated with that. But as you said, I mean, she's just magic, right?

She's just magic on screen. The camera loves her. You can't help it. But fall in love with her as well. At least I couldn't as you're watching this film. But I just love all of the little digs they have and all the little banter that they have and another movie little banter that they have. Another movie you can watch over and over again, really enjoy. It's just great fun.

And I'm a big fan of the screwball comedies of that era. You know, you think certain films, could they ever be redone? And those screwball comedies with those actors and those writers can never be replicated. I mean, we can come close maybe with other funny types of films, but they are of an era and it's just a joy to see them with these restorations. And we didn't really talk about the audio, but these are dialogue driven. So that's an important part of it as well, but to see them and to bring them to a, you know, to an audience fresh with this great visuals so that people of all ages can enjoy them and see them the way they were meant to be appreciated is fantastic. And we didn't even talk about the extras here. This is also a loaded disc. Yes, absolutely. I mean, you have to have that kind of context and background when you're

dealing with a film like this that has such a notable pedigree and what people would think, how to put it in the context of Hitchcock's career and Carol Lombard's career and so forth and so on. A good friend of our company, Laurent Boussereau, directed the featurette that's on here. We had released a whole box of Hitchcock titles in the golden days of our weekly box sets of DVDs when the industry would support such things. I think we had nine Hitchcock films in a box or something that substantial.

That's why Laurent was brought on to do, I think, most of the featurettes for those releases. And he did a terrific one. And thankfully, a lot of people who are no longer with us, but who were with us at the time that this was being produced, the featurette. Peter Bogdanovich is in the featurette and Hitchcock's daughter Pat and Robert Osborne and Richard Schickel. There's so many wonderful people speak out about the unique qualities of this film and what sets it apart. I personally find the most attractive part of the film is the relationship between Montgomery and Lombard. Their chemistry together is really terrific and both Montgomery and Lombard were terrific with other people in many other films.

So the fact that they came together for this, and Hitchcock was borrowed from David O. Selznick, Montgomery, as I mentioned before, is borrowed from MGM. They put it all together, and the results are a film that really stands the test of time of being quite entertaining and enjoyable. Yeah. And just to go back to the script for a minute, that was from the Academy Award winner, Norman

Krasna. You know, there you go. You put that combination of a fantastic script writer, fantastic director and fantastic cast and you just get a fantastic film that endures like this one does. Yeah, and he really was a terrific writer and his filmography speaks for itself. And we're very lucky to have many of his films

in our library. But I think he wrote many different kind of genres. He wasn't just specific to writing good comedies, but his list of comedies and screwball comedies in particular is very, very impressive. And I think people would be doing themselves a favor to explore his filmography a bit. Yeah, yeah.

So the next film is The Man I Love from 1947. And I mean, the three for three here, I mean, out of the ballpark, this film, I so enjoyed watching this film and I was not familiar with this film. And let me start off with the music. Just wonderful, wonderful music. And then Ida Lupino. She is fantastic. I don't know what I expected, of course, other than to expect that Ida Lupino is great in everything that she is in. But I was just swept away, carried away by this film and enjoyed it from the minute began all the way through to the end. I love this movie. It is not just a film noir. It's really a melodrama romance and you can't call it a musical, but music plays a great part in it. And I happen to be a little bit fond of the way music was handled in Warner Brothers movies.

You can just feel the incredible talent of the Warner Brothers music department as this is all put together because you had, Leo Forbesstein was the musical director for the studio, but Max Steiner did a lot of adaptation of The Underscore as did Hugo Friedhofer. They got some really terrific songs, some of which the studio had ownership of the publishing and others that they licensed out. That led to an interesting situation as we were getting ready to release this.

It turns out that the film was released at a 96-minute running time, and everything we had ran 90 minutes. The question was, well, what happened to the six minutes? My assumption was, all this must have been one of the films that Jack Warner had cut for reissue to get more shows in. And there's probably a longer version out there with the footage that's missing that was cut for time. Well, we did find the missing footage, but we didn't know exactly what was cut and why

until I started doing a little detective work. And I figured out that the song Bill, which is famous for being interpolated in the score of The Great Musical Showboat by Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II, and P.G. Wodehouse. That song, which is in the credits of the main title and always has been, that song was removed from the film in 1956. I found music cue sheets that showed that song, Bill, crossed out and it says deleted 1956. So basically almost ten years after the movie was released, somehow that song was taken out.

Through some research, I figured out that this was the time that the pre-1949 Warner Brothers Library was being sold off, and they didn't have the needed television music license for that song. They just lopped it out of the movie. It still isn't the main title credits, but everything that people have seen since 1956, hundreds of television broadcasts and syndication for decades, our old DVD, VHS,

all cut to 90 minutes missing that song that's in the credits. Well, we found it in a nitrate second-generation element, and we were able to fuse it together with our skin of the original nitrate camera negative and put the film back together the way it was. And what's interesting about Lupino's musical performances are that they're really quite arresting visually as well as musically.

And she's not really singing for herself. She's dubbed by an actress or a singer, and I believe possibly a vocal coach if I'm correct, named Peg LaCentra. When it came time for Ida Lipino to have to do singing in a film, and there are other films that made it other studios where she did this as well, where Pegla Sentra provided the voice for Ida Lupino to sing. But she does such a convincing job in her mouthing and lip-reading and emoting, that it feels totally organic.

To your good point, I really think that Ida Lupino is still not given the recognition she deserves for being such a phenomenal actress. Warner Brothers did their part in giving her good, meaty roles that showed off her talent. Just a couple of months ago, we talked about They Drive by Night and what a great performance she gave in that. And that really led to the building of her career throughout the 1940s at Warner Brothers. And then eventually, she broke off on her own to start directing

as well as acting in films. And I think she still is not given the respect that she deserves outside of certain people who have been exposed to her talent. And this film is a wonderful gathering of talents to show off just how wonderful she was. And behind the camera, you have Raoul Walsh, which really makes all the difference in the world. And that was one of the key factors in our selection of this as, well, what do we do next? Well, we needed to do the man I love. I didn't know that when we started working on the picture

that it would turn into a search for missing footage. Yeah, I think this ends up being a found footage film. I mean, like how big of a deal is that? I think it's a huge deal. And I'm trying to envision watching the film without Bill in there. It would be a real loss. But if that's the only way people have been seeing it, as you said, for... Yeah, they just locked it out. And it wasn't like it was just in there once. She sang it once, but there is an instrumental. I don't really know quite, I have to go back and

look at the old cut version to see how they managed to get it out of the film without it being so blatant. But that was incredibly rewarding to know that we were putting the film back together the way it was supposed to be. It did mean that we had to take out a new music license, and that is never a cheap thing to do when you're dealing with a famous song. But we were not going to cut corners or make compromises, and we certainly wouldn't release the film in a cut version when we knew that the footage was there.

When you have a film that's been butchered and the missing sequences don't exist anymore, you're kind of up a tree, you don't have a chance. But we were able to find the footage, put it back together, and it is pretty, I would say it's almost invisible when we're cutting in and out of the cut footage because we were working from nitrate second generation and the original nitrate negative. So you don't really see a jarring drop of quality when that footage comes in. Once again, Warner Brothers Motion Picture Imaging did a tremendous job in making it all flow together beautifully.

Also, I should definitely call out the fact that the film has some terrific performances, not just by Elipino, but Robert Alda, who again was not given his due. Warner Brothers gave him a big buildup to make him into a big star, casting him as the lead of George Gershwin in Rhapsody in Blue. But he didn't really connect with the audiences or the critics, and he ended up finding more of a career

on the stage. But he's terrific in the movie. Andrea King is great, Martha Vickers, and one of my favorites, Bruce Bennett, who spent the 30s known as Herman Briggs in the secondary Tarzan movies of that era. It's just a great cast and a terrific film and such a perfect time capsule of mid-40s noir. It's just a gem. Yeah, I'm glad you brought up Bruce Bennett. He is terrific as that kind of silent, wounded person.

And the story makes so much more sense once he becomes a bigger part of it, I think, because now you have this kind of deep... Well, they're both performers. They're both musicians in the storyline. And it makes so much sense that she would eventually be attracted to that character. And I love the music, he's playing the piano. Fantastic use of the music, as you mentioned earlier, from the musical department there.

And it just makes it poignant, the use of the music. And that's why I said, going back to the, to think about this film without Bill and it, it just, it just all works together and it's great now that it is all back together and anybody coming to the film new is going to see it the way it was originally intended. Going to see it with this fantastic restoration and the sound restoration. So it's wonderful that it's coming in this great package. I guess we should talk a little bit about the extras as well. What we have on here, we got some cartoons and

the original theatrical trailer. So it's a fantastic package for the fans. Absolutely. And we're very, very proud that this is another one we can check off the list of, you know, my next Idol of Pino Wish is a film that is very, I would say very little known except among diehard film buffs, but is really a tremendously underrated classic coming from the studio, and that is The Hard Way from 1942, directed by Vincent Sherman. It is my hope that someday I'll be able to convince the powers that be that we need to get

that film up and running with a full restoration. Just know that I'm fighting for that film up and running with a full restoration. Just know that I'm fighting for that film. Yeah, I know a lot of people have requested it over the years, so they'll be hoping for the best for you. Well, I'd love to imagine that maybe in a year from now, we'll be doing an extras podcast and talking about the new releases, and we can talk about

a gorgeous restoration of the hard way with a 4k scan off the nitrate negative. That would be awesome. That would be terrific. Well, we have one more film we're going to talk about today. And this is the oldest of the films that we're talking about from 1938. And that's The Shining Hour. And this is a melodrama starring Joan Crawford. And there's a lot going on in this film. It took me a little bit to follow it because there's so much going on back and forth. But I love the way it begins

on the airplane with Robert Young overhearing these people talking about some of the social, uh, social lights, I should say, uh, marriages and then romance is going on. And I got really sucked into the whole storyline starting there in New York and then going back to Wisconsin. And the performances are quite good and it's a very entertaining film. Well, this is based on a play and the play was quite a success on Broadway and always looking for good new material, Joan Crawford really begged MGM to buy the rights to the play so that she could star in the film. There were rumors that MGM was going to make it with Norma Shearer,

but Ms. Crawford prevailed. Not only did she star in the film, but she got to be directed by one of the great film directors of all time, Frank Borzeghi. And he is more respected now than he was at that time. There are a lot of cinephiles that are really kind of obsessed with Borzeghi's work. And that's one of the reasons why we wanted to get this film a proper restoration. It had not been remastered since the late 1980s, so it was

certainly due. And in a supporting role, you have Margaret Sullivan Sullivan who's just beaming and wonderful and Melvin Douglas is exceptionally fine in the film as well and I just think that this is one of the many films that Crawford did in the late 30s that was not as successful at the box office as people hoped it would be. And it's certainly a very short film. It's barely over an hour, which is unusual for MGM, would be unusual for Warner Brothers. But, you know, it tells its story efficiently and effectively. And it's beautifully shot by George Folze. And of course you have the MGM art department in full-fledged so that every scene is remarkably beautiful to look at.

And the acting is terrific and it's a wonderful film. Yeah, I kind of wish it had been a little longer, George. I agree. I think that I felt the few of the scenes could have been fleshed out a little bit more for my sake because I did not know the play. And so I had to play little catch-up and go with the story because they, I love the dance scene, okay, that scene where she's dancing, the choreography, so good, right? And we see that very early on and we see her crowd, her New York crowd, and I was enjoying

that. And then we're introduced to the love triangle, right? Stan Right. Robert Young. Dr. Pacheco Yeah. But I kind of wanted to, I needed Robert Young's character to be fleshed out a little bit more. Like, why is he coming in to this triangle quite so much? Is there some past resentment or is there, you know, with his brother or whatever? Because his brother, played by by Melvin Douglas seems like such a terrific, wonderful guy. And yet there starts this love triangle. So, I wish they had taken a little bit more time to flesh out a little

bit of that while the pacing was quick and kept it moving, I could have used a little bit more in there. Now, once we get to Wisconsin, I thought that Margaret Sullivan was fantastic. I think she was a real gem and a real terrific part of the story. And you really feel for her character in in how she emotes what she's going through and, and her positivity. Oh, for certain.

Yeah, she's fantastic. And then once they're in Wisconsin, we meet the sister and she's terrific, Faye Bainter, who plays the sister Hannah. And she is the one who kind of is supposedly the negative one, you know, expecting it all to fall apart and everything. But she has a terrific presence in the story. And I really enjoyed when she was inserted into it because it really added a whole other element.

So the three female characters in there, the female leads, I thought were really, really fun and terrifically portrayed. It's a very strong cast. And that same year, Faye Bainter would win the supporting actress Oscar for her role in Jezebel with Betty Davis. I mean, she was terrific in everything she did and she made so many films and performed so many different kinds of roles. This isn't the first film that people come to people's mind that are

film buffs where they think of, you know, what films do you remember Faye Bainter in? They won't necessarily say The Shining Hour, but our hope is that by bringing these films out in beautiful, new 4K scans and a high-definition master, that they will discover them for the first time and really see how terrific the films were and how terrific the people were in them. That's one of the reasons why we were very excited about this release. Yeah, and it's another terrific package

of extras on here as well, George. Well, we've got a little something special in the audio only department. It isn't that there was a Lux radio theater version of The Shining Hour. But what I did was I edited what was MGM had a weekly sponsored radio program that began the fall of 1937. It was called Good News of 1938, the first season, and then Good News of 1939, you know, the next year.

It'd be like the new car coming out with the year of the previous fall. It was sponsored by Maxwell House, and it was MGM's attempt to try to bring their talents into a weekly radio show that would also promote their new movies. And that's exactly what you have here, because you have cast members, including Crawford, from The Shining Hour appearing on the Good News Radio program, doing scenes from The Shining Hour, which the studio hoped would make people want to go to the theater to see it. So MGM had this show on the air for doing the math in my head. They sponsored it for two seasons.

The last season of the Good News Radio program was not sponsored by MGM. It was still Maxwell House Coffee, but it had no affiliation to any given studio. And without the support of the MGM talents behind it, the show went off the air. But most of the broadcasts survive, and they're really quite fascinating. I removed a lot of the extraneous portions of the program that weren't related to The Shining Hour. We could give you a sense of what a broadcast was like, because normally

they ran about an hour. But this is 23 minutes, so it's not entirely just focused on the Shining Hour. It gives you a little bit of a sense of what a good news radio program is or was like at the time, but it does keep the primary focus on Shining Hour and how they were adapting scenes for the audio-only radio audience. So that's a little curio. And then we've added in three Warner Brothers cartoons, all in high definition, Love and Curses, The Sneezing Weasel, which is directed by TechSaver, I must add, and then Black and White, Porky's Five and Dime.

They're all very entertaining and then we finish up the disc with the trailer. It's a really nice package and a very entertaining film. We know there's a bevy of Joan Crawford fans out there that want us to release everything of hers. So we're certainly planning on more in the coming months. But right now we're very pleased to be putting a little spotlight on The Shining Hour and hope that

people enjoy the disc as much as we enjoyed producing it. Well, this is a terrific month of June for classic film fans. And I don't think anybody should complain if you are a classic film fan because one of these, if not all four of these, would look great in your classic film collection at home. And part of it is just, as we always say, or as I always say, George, is they look so good now. They just haven't looked as good or sounded as good in so long, if ever, since the original time that they came out. So I hope people enjoy the reviews because I know that you and I both enjoyed watching these films.

Absolutely, and it's really incredibly gratifying to hear from people, whether it's personally or reading online reviews or what have you, when people appreciate all the work that has gone into making these releases into what they are, highly collectible and really building a home library of meaningful films. I think it's also important to say that sometimes I read about other films from this era that

are coming out on Blu-ray and they say, well, there are occasional scratches and speckles, but I guess that's the best they could do. Well, we're not settling that way. We put a little bit of extra effort in to try to make them look and sound as best as possible. And I hope we're doing a good job of that. And we want to continue along that pace. Yeah. And I think people need to remember Shining Hour, 1938. This is not, you know, this is not just yesterday. This, that film goes back a ways, but I thought it looked

terrific and the others are all from the 40s and they all look terrific. So perfection is, it's hard to say what that is when you're working with preservation elements, the best elements available to you. But I know that the work you guys are doing is with the best equipment today, the best software today, and putting it out on the best possible way for the fans. And I've got no complaints. And I think that anybody who collects and sees the work that's done by other studios or by other organizations,

and they compare it to the work being done by the Warner Archive has no complaints. To build on that, and I thank you for that, but the credit really goes to Warner Brothers Motion Picture Imaging, the colorists there, the scanning staff there, the people who are involved in every step of the way, our preservation team, there's so many people involved in getting to that final result. Our audio restoration team,

our sound archive department, all of these people are intricately tied into all the things that I want to bring out to the public. And they're actually in the trenches. And we all collaborate together as a team to try to bring the best possible product to the consumer. And that's what's important. Yep. Yep.

Well, as always, George, it's fun to review these with you. This is a fantastic lineup in June. I know you have some more great ones coming in July and August that we've already announced. So I'm looking forward to those as well. Yep, lots, lots more fun on the way. And, you know, I get to see some of these things months before they come out because it is a probably these things months before they come out because it is a probably after we see a first pass probably two three four months before the release is even announced or released so you know usually every day there's a new file waiting for me to look at a new master that's in process. That is the most exciting part is to see, well, how did this turn out and what do we need to do to make it even better?

Once again, Warner Brothers Motion Picture Imaging, they're, as I say, it's so boring, but it is actually quite a tribute to them. They're the wizards of ours, and they get the credit for why everything looks magnificent. ["The Wizard of Oz"] ["The Wizard of Oz"]

As always, there are purchase links in the podcast show notes and on our website for those interested in purchasing the films that we reviewed today. For those wanting to hear a review of the Flash TV series from 1990, look for our podcast with co-creator Danny Billson and the Flash actor John Wesley Shipp, which was released in late June. And just as a reminder, the TV series The Alaskans has moved out from June to August, so you can expect a review once it has released. Until next time, you've been listening to Tim Millard. Stay slightly obsessed. The Extras is a production of Otaku Media, producers of podcasts, behind the scenes extras, and media that connects creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers.

Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals at www.otakumedia.tv or look for the link in the show notes.