MovieChat Forums > Love Affair (1939) Discussion > Doesn't Warner own any rights to restore...

Doesn't Warner own any rights to restore such a big-budgeted classic?

posted 16 years ago by dacutekidd
1 reply | jump to latest

I thought RKO's library is in the hands of Warner... how come a few movies did not make it to Warner but public domain?

examples:
It's A Wonderful Life
The Conqueror (one of the worst movies of all time)
and many more i lost count.

Also, some United Artists material is also in the public domain like "A Star Is Born", which I thought is owned by ABC (current owners of the Selznick library)

Someone kindly explain for me, please.

[–] Harold_Robbins 16 years ago

Sometimes films slip through a crack - someone at MGM forgot to renew the copyrights on TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY, THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS, and ROYAL WEDDING, and someone at Warners missed the boat with LIFE WITH FATHER. It's possible that the actual rights to LOVE AFFAIR slipped through a crack when McCarey remade the film for 20th Century-Fox. (On the other hand, some films have been kept under wraps deliberately: MGM bought up Paramount's 1932 DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE to avoid competition with their 1941 remake, and kept it out of circulation for decades - they also similarly attempted to suppress the 1940 British version of GASLIGHT).

I bought a VHS tape of LOVE AFFAIR years ago, issued by one of the lower-tier video companies, but it turned out to be of excellent quality!

"Stone-cold sober I find myself absolutely fascinating!"---Katharine Hepburn