RELEASE THIS ON DVD!!!

Why should they release this? I mean, why release a great old movie based on one of the greatest novels of all time when we can simply watch Epic movie, Date movie and "The best of big brother".

"Absorb what is useful, Discard what is not, Add what is uniquely your own" Bruce Lee

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Well, a lot of time has come and gone since my earlier posting on here, and my guesses have been, unfortunately, a bit over-optimistic. I daresay, however, that it had more to do with the state of the economy than with any of Universal's intentions.

Everyone's cutting back on old dvd releases nowadays (except, oddly enough, Sony. For years old Columbia stuff wasn't being released, and now, suddenly [and under new management] they've become just about the only game in town). Universal's been barely a trickle for several years now, and Fox and Warners, by far the best at releasing old stuff for the last couple of years, are doing little more than just sitting still. (In fact, Warners is discontinuing a lot of stuff even as I speak.)

And no, I won't even go into the "Warners Archive Series" here, it would take too long, and I've done it elsewhere. Suffice to say that I love the movies being available and have grave reservations about what they're charging for them.

But holding stuff back has (evidently and obviously, though you'd be hard-pressed to get a studio exec to admit it) always been a nice marketing ploy. If you release all the good stuff at once in some box set, there'll be nothing worth buying in the follow-up second one.

Cases in point: Universal released the "Marlene Dietrich Glamour" box with a lot of great pictures, but notably (painfully!) missing arguably the best of the Dietrich/von Sternberg collaborations, "Shanghai Express." Why? Because the guys at Universal don't understand its marketing value? Or...because they do?

They've also released two W.C. Fields collections, neither of which had "If I Had a Million" (along with many other Fields movies, for that matter). Admittedly "Million" was a Paramount showcase, and not a pure Fields pic, but it was certainly one of his best (and they had released "International House," another Paramount showcase and far inferior to "Million," on one of the sets). Why?

Admittedly Warners has released the cream of the crop of the Bogart films in their three sets (though "Conflict," while if not the best, nevertheless a nice noir flick, is still sadly missing); but keep in mind that they released them one at a time, and all the good stuff in set 2 (and the Bogart/Bacall set, for that matter) didn't come out for awhile until after set 1 was out. (I admit that I'm assuming this, as I'm not sure of the actual release dates.)

So I stand by my contention that Universal was deliberately holding back "Island of Lost Souls" as a selling point for a future horror box...which, between the blu-ray revolution (which is actually hurting us!) and the terrible economy, hasn't come to light yet...and may never.

Oh, and speaking of a Universal vault fire...someone earlier mentioned "London After Midnight" as having perished because of neglect. From every source I've encountered, that wasn't the case at all. MGM was perhaps the very best studio at preserving its heritage, including its silents. "London" was evidently lost in a massive fire in one of MGM's vaults back in the '60's. What's even sadder, in a way, was that it wasn't until several years later that, little by little, people began to realize that it was gone, that the final print had been in that warehouse. Yes, one could argue that the fire was caused by insufficient attention to those old nitrate prints, but it certainly wasn't just a case of it being left to decay.

Addendum, a couple of weeks later: to those interested, I've just discovered that Universal will soon be releasing that previously-exclusive Horror Classics box to the mass market, as is (i.e., with only the original five movies included).

You are absolutely correct!! This is coming from Criterion in October 2011. Just in time for Halloween. I can't hardly wait. I've been wanting to see this again for years.
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And now also an excellent Blu-ray + DVD release in the UK by Eureka in their Masters of Cinema line. Region B/2.

Criterion Collection DVD at (my local) library. Excellent movie. The performances (especially Charles Laughton) are terrific. I hope that Hollywood does not try to remake this and ruin it like they did for 'The Day The Earth Stood Still'.