U.S. DVD from Fox Cinema Archives coming December, 2012

Hey, Big-G (and belated Merry Christmas!) --

Yeah, I found the cover a bit disappointing (and not even in color!), but what the hey.

Now, I understand that Fox, for some unknown reason, does not list films from FCA on its site (at any rate it doesn't sell them directly). If you want a look at the available titles I'd go to classicflix.com and check on this or another FCA DVD for a link for Fox Cinema Archives. That will provide a list of all the films currently available (or announced).

Alternatively, go to screenarchives.com, click on their Company Labels link, then click Fox Cinema Archives. Same list, both in reverse order of release. Classic Flix seems to be a bit more up-to-date. Five more titles were announced the other day for January, shown on a link on the right of Classic's main page.

BUT!! Beware the fact that this label has turned out to be a huge and baffling disappointment in one major area: almost all the widescreen films released on the FCA line have been in lousy, grainy pan & scan versions, not their correct aspect ratios. You also have to be cautious about product information on this point, as some sites give the wrong a.r. for the DVD.

For the studio that pioneered the use of widescreen with CinemaScope to be releasing such films, not only with half the picture missing, but in poor prints to boot, is infuriating and inexplicable. So far there haven't been too many widescreen films released in this series, but most of those that have been are "fullscreen", including such major titles as Night People with Gregory Peck. The w/s prints of these movies exist (they've been shown on TV), but for some idiot reason the morons at Fox have chosen to show their contempt for the customer by slapping him in the face with inferior junk.

However, in so far as standard-ratio films go, the series has been pretty good, so I'm hoping Inferno will be decent. Just thank God it was shot in 3D and not 'Scope!