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http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/...arx-bros_x.htm

The Marx Brothers are romping to DVD in fine style. The Marx Brothers
Collection, a five-disc set, comes to DVD May 4 with seven films from
the second half of the top comedy team's movie career, including their
masterpiece A Night at the Opera.

"We wanted them out with an irresistible price ($59.92 for seven
movies) so that people will buy the whole collection," says George
Feltenstein, Warner Bros.' senior vice president for classic catalog.
"We've got to get the new generation hooked on their timeless humor.
This has been a high priority for a long time. There are new
documentaries for A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races, and
we've loaded up every disc with classic cartoons and shorts from the
same year as each movie. The last time the movies themselves looked
this spiffy was probably when they first came out."

The three most highly regarded movies in the set, Opera (1935), Races
(1937) and A Night in Casablanca (1946), also are being sold as
individual DVDs.

Note to fans of the early Marx Brothers: Universal, which now owns the
first five Marx Brothers movies (including the peerless Duck Soup),
has no plans to release them on DVD.

****

....and as I was pasting this I remembered we have a temp subscription
to Variety:

Warner Home Video will release seven classic Marx Brothers movies for
the first time on DVD, with the five discs due out May 4.

Centerpiece of the collection is "A Night at the Opera." The 1935
production is the first Marx Brothers movie for which Warner owns
distribution rights through its MGM library. It also was one of the
original 13 films released on videocassette by MGM.

Leonard Maltin, who recorded an audio commentary for the movie on
laserdisc, has recorded a new commentary for the DVD, while "The Marx
Brothers Encyclopedia" author Glenn Mitchell provides audio commentary
for "A Day at the Races" (1937). Both films also feature an original
documentary about the Marx Brothers.

Those two movies and "A Night in Casablanca" (1946) will be available
on separate discs. The other two discs will feature two movies apiece,
pairing "Room Service" (193 with "At the Circus" (1939) and "Go
West" (1940) with "The Big Store" (1941).

Each disc includes an assortment of vintage MGM shorts of the era and
other bonus features.

WHV senior veep of classic catalog George Feltenstein said although
each disc can be purchased separately at a suggested per-disc price of
$19.97, the studio priced the entire package at $59.92 to encourage
collectors to own all seven films.

The earliest Marx Brothers movies -- "The Cocoanuts," "Animal
Crackers," "Monkey Business," "Horse Feathers" and "Duck Soup" -- were
produced at Paramount Studios and are now the property of Universal
Studios, which is considering releasing a DVD collection of them later
this year to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the release of
"Cocoanuts" in 1929.

Image Entertainment previously released those five titles on DVD in
the late 1990s through a licensing agreement with U that expired in
2000. The titles have not been available since then.

-Otter

On Sun, 01 Feb 2004 05:33:37 GMT, jayembee
<> wrote:

>Richard S. Foster <> wrote:
>
>> ixspam (Card53) wrote:
>>
>>>To settle any uncertainty once and for all, the collection will include:
>>>
>>>A Night at the Opera
>>>A Day at the Races
>>>Room Service
>>>At the Circus
>>>Go West
>>>The Big Store
>>>A Night in Casablanca
>>
>>Thank you for this...any knowledge if the previous released issues
>>will have been remastered....or is this about the best we're going to
>>get.
>
>I'm not clear on what you're asking. None of the above-listed films
>have been released before on DVD (except for a Region 4 edition of A
>NIGHT IN CASABLANCA).

They've all been issued on laserdisc, and those masters for all except
"Room Service" and "Casablanca" were supposed to have been "Digitally
mastered" and actually look pretty good. I suspect however, that
using their usual quality standards, they will pass them through a
scanner again, maybe even go to the sound stems for true stereo on the
music numbers, as has been their policy since the massive
vault-clearing of the 90's.

. Steve ..
>
>Are you perhaps wondering if the five movies that had been previously
>released on DVD, and are now out of print, are going to be reissued?
>
>Universal hasn't made any announcement about them, but I would assume
>that they are (hopefully) working on restoring them.
>
>-- jayembee

In article <>,
jayembee <> wrote:
>Richard S. Foster <> wrote:
>
>> ixspam (Card53) wrote:
>>
>>>To settle any uncertainty once and for all, the collection will include:
>>>
>>>A Night at the Opera
>>>A Day at the Races
>>>Room Service
>>>At the Circus
>>>Go West
>>>The Big Store
>>>A Night in Casablanca
>>
>>Thank you for this...any knowledge if the previous released issues
>>will have been remastered....or is this about the best we're going to
>>get.
>
>I'm not clear on what you're asking. None of the above-listed films
>have been released before on DVD (except for a Region 4 edition of A
>NIGHT IN CASABLANCA).
>
>Are you perhaps wondering if the five movies that had been previously
>released on DVD, and are now out of print, are going to be reissued?
>
>Universal hasn't made any announcement about them, but I would assume
>that they are (hopefully) working on restoring them.

I'm buying thesemovies, andhoping Universal decides they want to make
money too.
--
"The Pseudo Politically Correct term that I would use to describe the mind set
of postmodernism is "epistemologically challenged": a constitutional inability
to adopt a reasonable way to tell the good stuff from the bad stuff."
- Chip Morningstar

Otter wrote:

> http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/...arx-bros_x.htm
>
> The Marx Brothers are romping to DVD in fine style. The Marx Brothers
> Collection, a five-disc set, comes to DVD May 4 with seven films from
> the second half of the top comedy team's movie career, including their
> masterpiece A Night at the Opera.
>
> "We wanted them out with an irresistible price ($59.92 for seven
> movies) so that people will buy the whole collection," says George
> Feltenstein, Warner Bros.' senior vice president for classic catalog.
> "We've got to get the new generation hooked on their timeless humor.
> This has been a high priority for a long time. There are new
> documentaries for A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races, and
> we've loaded up every disc with classic cartoons and shorts from the
> same year as each movie. The last time the movies themselves looked
> this spiffy was probably when they first came out."
>
> The three most highly regarded movies in the set, Opera (1935), Races
> (1937) and A Night in Casablanca (1946), also are being sold as
> individual DVDs.
>
> Note to fans of the early Marx Brothers: Universal, which now owns the
> first five Marx Brothers movies (including the peerless Duck Soup),
> has no plans to release them on DVD.

Well lets hope that this box set is a big enough seller that it will
inspire Universal to finally release the Marx Brothers first five films
as well.

ALV

> Well lets hope that this box set is a big enough seller that it will
> inspire Universal to finally release the Marx Brothers first five films
> as well.
>
> ALV
>

Their five Paramount films, from "The Cocoanuts" to "Duck Soup," were
released on DVD by Image Entertainment several years ago. They have been
discontinued, but may still be available through sources such as Ebay.

On Sun, 01 Feb 2004 18:48:50 GMT, "Bill" <> wrote:

>
>> Well lets hope that this box set is a big enough seller that it will
>> inspire Universal to finally release the Marx Brothers first five films
>> as well.
>>
>> ALV
>>
>
>Their five Paramount films, from "The Cocoanuts" to "Duck Soup," were
>released on DVD by Image Entertainment several years ago. They have been
>discontinued, but may still be available through sources such as Ebay.

Yah, and have you liked at the prices they're fetching?!

. Steve .
>

Save your money. Buy a multi-region DVD player and then get the 4-DVD
set that came out a few months ago in UK. You miss Cocoanuts, but the
others are all there for a quite reasonable price. And the multi-region
player
will come in handy for a lot of other titles as well.

Bill Coleman

---------------

"Steve(JazzHunter)" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Sun, 01 Feb 2004 18:48:50 GMT, "Bill" <> wrote:
>
> >
> >> Well lets hope that this box set is a big enough seller that it will
> >> inspire Universal to finally release the Marx Brothers first five films
> >> as well.
> >>
> >> ALV
> >>
> >
> >Their five Paramount films, from "The Cocoanuts" to "Duck Soup," were
> >released on DVD by Image Entertainment several years ago. They have been
> >discontinued, but may still be available through sources such as Ebay.
>
> Yah, and have you liked at the prices they're fetching?!
>
> . Steve .
> >
>

Indeed, the UK Box set is great ( you can also get them individually in
the Benelux). And if you're a fan of classic comedy, look out for the
Laurel and Hardy box sets coming out in Benelux soon! ALL the sound
shorts, remastered in a nice box for aroun 70 euros...followed a few
months later by all the classic feature films! You may still also be
able to pick up the Universal Classic Monsters DVDs with all the extras
as well..



In article <0XfTb.9567$>,
"Bill Coleman" <> wrote:

> Save your money. Buy a multi-region DVD player and then get the 4-DVD
> set that came out a few months ago in UK. You miss Cocoanuts, but the
> others are all there for a quite reasonable price. And the multi-region
> player
> will come in handy for a lot of other titles as well.
>
> Bill Coleman
>
> ---------------
>
> "Steve(JazzHunter)" <> wrote in message
> news:...
> > On Sun, 01 Feb 2004 18:48:50 GMT, "Bill" <> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > >> Well lets hope that this box set is a big enough seller that it will
> > >> inspire Universal to finally release the Marx Brothers first five films
> > >> as well.
> > >>
> > >> ALV
> > >>
> > >
> > >Their five Paramount films, from "The Cocoanuts" to "Duck Soup," were
> > >released on DVD by Image Entertainment several years ago. They have been
> > >discontinued, but may still be available through sources such as Ebay.
> >
> > Yah, and have you liked at the prices they're fetching?!
> >
> > . Steve .
> > >
> >