Cimarron ('31) ; "Cavalcade ('33); In Old Arizona ('29)

How about Cavalcade (33), I think it is the only Best Picture Oscar winner not to be released in DVD in some form.

Oscar or not, Cimarron was made by RKO, the smallest of the "Big Five" major studios. It failed in the mid 50s. Unlike Warners or Paramount, which exist (in some form) today, there's no RKO to carefully preserve its heritage by remastering its old films. Somehow, some of these got licensed to DVD companies that don't have access to the original prints or the fancy equipment to restore the prints they have.

I've also read that the studios, including Paramount and RKO, sold a lot of their original prints, and the broadcast rights, to TV networks in the early 50s. Television was young and its management didn't recognize the need to preserve films.

Given that, we probably should be grateful that we can see these films at all, even if the quality's not what we'd like. I certainly think that about Sudden Fear which, if not for Kino's poor-quality print, I'd have never seen at all.

If you haven't seen In A Lonely Place, you should, and there's a bonus item on the restoration of the film. Even the best-quality print that Columbia had in its vaults required serious restoration, and it was made 19 years after Cimarron.

Cheers.