Where is the DVD?

Yeah...where the heck is the DVD???? Is it pending? Anytime soon? I see a link that indicates the title *is* available on DVD, but alas no such luck. Arrr matey...a pox on ye....

A Japanese company called First Trading puts out a low quality DVD of this film in Japan (Region 2 DVD). It's confusing, but under Japanese copyright law films made before 1953 are considered public domain. The 50 year copyright for such films ended on December 31, 2003, and the revised law (pushed for by Hollywood) which should extend the copyright for another 20 years should have begun on January 1, 2004. But First Trading argued in court that even though the dates for the two laws are contiguous, somehow the 50 year copyright expired before the 20 year extension began. Unbelievably, the Japanese courts bought this argument. So, for the time being at least, a large number of classic films are available for only 500 yen each, and it's perfectly legal.

Of course, Paramount is under no obligation to provide prints of their films to First Trading, so they must get prints where they can find them. That means that the quality is not what you would expect from a DVD. Furthermore, this is a low budget product so there are no extra features. There's not even a menu! You pop in the DVD and you are stuck with the Japanese language subtitles.

Nevertheless, the image quality is better than I had from my old worn-out VHS. And for only around 5 dollars, I feel like I got a bargain. I'd rather someone would release a studio-approved DVD of high quality, but in the meantime I'm glad I have this one.