Have you heard
the news that Warner Bros has opened up
their vaults? Seems at least one of the major studios has realized that those who truly love the cinema love the entire history of it. They'd like to see more of that history.
Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery live Private Lives but they
still want to show off their brand new DVD collections!
There's a reason that some former mega stars (
Norma Shearer is a good example) fade in the public consciousness quicker than others. Actually there are many reasons: changing tastes, mediocre filmographies, undramatic personal lives -- especially if they don't end tragically, pop culture's rapid "who's next?" star meat grinder, lack of gay appeal (think about it: fascinating the gays insures a long shelf life for entertainers. I don't think I need to cite examples... they've probably popped into your head just reading that sentence). But I'm thinking of the most infuriating reason for premature fading: sometimes their work just isn't seen.
Part of that is public disinterest in film history (Boo!) but a lot of it is Hollywood's weird disinterest in their own history. They'd rather remake an old film than promote the previous best of their industry. I know that it all boils down to money but in an industry filled with so many "creatives" you'd think more of them would funnel some cash back into film preservation and film history education and promotion. It stands to reason that if everything was available, some titles and stars would not remain as obscure. Surely the renaissance of interest in
Louise Brooks was fueled at least partially by
Pandora's Box VHS release.
Starry titles now available include: a few from both Clark Gable and Joan Crawford, Liv Ullman in
The Abdication, Spencer Tracy in
Malaya and
Edison the Man, Warren Beatty and Eva Marie Saint in
All Fall Down (the tagline is too funny on that one... "male enough to attract a dozen women... not man enough to be faithful to one!"), Greta Garbo in both
Love and
Wild Orchids, Cary Grant in
Mr. Lucky and
Crisis, Greer Garson in
Sunrise at Campobello. Shearer herself gets at least three titles:
Strange Interlude, Private Lives and
We Were Dancing... though it's hard to say exactly since
the archive isn't very user friendly. It's not searchable in convenient ways.
As I continued reading the articles about this and scanned the archive I realized that the whole thing is less juicy than it sounds. Only 150ish titles are now available within this new "custom order" dealio. The Warner library is nearly 7,000 films strong and
according to the AP Twenty more films or TV shows will be added to the program of re-releases each month, with 300 expected by year's end. To put it in perspective, the studio has released only about 1,100 movies on DVD since the technology was spawned 12 years ago.
While I'm glad that this is happening, I'm also disappointed that it's so tentative. They haven't so much opened the vault as installed a mail slot in the wall by which they can shove a few DVDs through when they feel like it. Cinephilia needs its own Moses to storm the studios with righteous fury
"Let My Movies Go!"*
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