Of Lubitsch, Sturges, and Wilder June 12, 2008
Posted by clydefro in : Classic Films, 1930s, 1940s, Billy Wilder, Ernst Lubitsch , trackbackThough it initially seemed anticlimactic, the recent fire at Universal Studios in California proved to be more damaging than common sense would have first envisioned. Screening prints of the classic Paramount films of the ’30s and ’40s, owned by Universal and including films by the three directors in the post title as well as several others, were destroyed forever. A programmer for Film Forum in New York told the NY Times that a potential Preston Sturges festival would most likely be scrapped as a result. Bad news all around. The media focused on a comparatively inconsequential King Kong theme park ride while beautiful silver celluloid is transformed into ashes. I can’t hardly classify the loss as tragic, a word which really should be reserved for life and death calamities, but it’s upsetting nonetheless.
These three guys, Lubitsch, Sturges and Wilder, form the backbone of classic Hollywood comedy. Their colleague Leo McCarey was another vital presence who also worked at Paramount and whose key films (including Ruggles of Red Gap) remain largely unreleased, now increasingly difficult to see in repertory screenings, as well. Josef von Sternberg is right there, too. If there’s anything at all worth smiling about, it’s that several films related to this trio have recently surfaced on DVD. Quite a few of their films as writer and director are still without a DVD release, possibly deterred even further by this turn of events, but I wanted to mention the few that have reached the market, which, conveniently, I’ve also reviewed for DVD Times.
Back in February, Criterion’s Eclipse line released Lubitsch’s four Paramount musicals in a nifty, extras-less edition. It’s a must-own for fans of the director. Around the same time, Wilder’s The Apartment got a nice upgrade from MGM. (It was originally released by United Artists.) More recently, the BFI put out Lubitsch’s final completed film, Cluny Brown. Made for Fox in 1946, it’s an appropriate ending to a great career. I had vastly underestimated the film after an initial viewing when I put up a review back early last year on this site. The more pertinent Paramount/Universal titles hit stores in April. I’ve reviewed all these, including Wilder’s first film as director in Hollywood, The Major and the Minor. Also out are a pair of Mitchell Leisen-directed efforts. Easy Living, with screenplay from Sturges, and Midnight, a sparkling film written by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder, finally received their digital releases, I believe, for the first time anywhere in the world.
This still leaves several Paramount-made, Universal-controlled pictures from the Lubitsch, Sturges, and Wilder cycle unavailable on R1 DVD. Most notably - Angel, directed by Lubitsch and available in a Marlene Dietrich set in R2, Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife, another Lubitsch picture and written by Brackett and Wilder, Remember the Night, written by Sturges and directed by Leisen but not on DVD anywhere, Hold Back the Dawn, which was directed by Leisen and scripted by Brackett and Wilder, and two early Wilder-directed films, Five Graves to Cairo and A Foreign Affair. Both of those latter movies are available in other regions, but still absent in R1. There are a handful of others, things like Arise My Love which I’ve been anxious to see, but I’m now hesitant as to whether any of these films will make it onto R1 DVD in the near future. Despite business concerns, it would seem appropriate for Universal to reveal exactly what films were lost (surely their bookkeeping contains such records) instead of playing so coy.
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As far as I know the material lost in the fire were prints which were sent out for theatrical showings. The biggest effect of this is the cancellation of some showings and the possibility that some titles which were rented only infrequently may not be reprinted. This is, of course, bad news. However, we should bear in mind that such prints have nothing to do with home video releases.The kind of prints that may have been lost in the fire get damaged all the time (sloppy handling by projectionists etc.) and are therefore never used for DVD transfers.
So, I agree it is upsetting but it should not influence whether or not a given title receives a DVD release.
No, these prints most likely wouldn’t have been used in DVD transfers. However, and this is what I was alluding to about future releases possibly being deterred, the loss of the prints and need to restrike new ones cuts into the studio’s economics. Universal is obviously a large corporation and the divisions for home entertainment and theatrical repertory are separate, but I still have to wonder if the fire might not distract, in terms of an overall budget, from future DVD releases.
The studio already puts out an inadequate number of releases per year, and those are rarely restored. If they were more commercially viable, one would think that number would be higher. I could see the umpteenth versions of The Big Lebowski and The Breakfast Club, both on their way soon, and that ilk winning out over currently unreleased titles as a cost cutting measure to offset the substantial expense in creating these new prints.
(I may not know what I’m talking about there. I’m just spinning out some thoughts.)
Well, first of all, the damaged or lost prints would surely be insured so Universal are unlikely to be out of pocket. The big question is whether certain less successful titles (i.e. titles which are rarely requested for exhibition) will ever be reprinted. I have a hunch the answer to that is probably no.
As for DVD releases, whether they increase or decrease their output is more likely going to be affected by the perceived profitability of any given title.
BTW, I don’t have any inside info either, so I’m just speculating too.
Bluebeard’s Eight Wife is available in France from a publisher called BAC.