MovieChat Forums > Prince of Players (1955) Discussion > Hopefully this movie will be out on dvd ...

Hopefully this movie will be out on dvd soon

posted 17 years ago by CinderellaWoman
11 replies | jump to latest

I saw this movie on American Movie Classics about ten years ago and taped it, but so far this film has never been released on vhs or dvd. I hope there's enough interest to have a dvd release soon. It has a great cast, Richard Burton, John Derek, Maggie McNamara and Raymond Massey, and is a fairly accurate portrayal of Edwin Booth, the greatest actor of the 19th century, and his brother John Wilkes Booth. Hopefully it can be out on dvd soon so everyone can enjoy it.

[–] Dejael 16 years ago

Yes, let's continue to pester Fox Home Video to release this excellent classic film. Richard Burton was certainly at the top of his form in character as Edwin Booth in Shakespearean roles, something Burton was both capable of, and challenged by, according to his biography. He was definitely up to the challenge for this tour-de-force acting assignment with a first-rate script, director, and cast, with music score by the genius of Bernard Herrmann.

Easily one of Burton's greatest films...if he can be forgiven a bit of ham acting in his first American film THE ROBE (1953): "Were you...out there?",
he asks, overdoing it as Marcellus, the Roman Centurion fated to have had the ugly assignment of the crucifixion of a Jewish rabbi-carpenter from Nazareth.
His acting in that film was uneven, but mostly is superlative.

Fox, where is the DVD ???

Dejael

[–] prjdean 16 years ago

I would love to see the Cinemascope version of this quasi classic released

- it is long overdue with this cast and Herrmann score!!

Fox really does not appreciate the worth of many of its films...

[–] Mike-957 15 years ago

Dear Cinderella Woman,
I agree! This is cited as the first CinemaScope film to lose money but also the one which received the best critical reviews of any Fox 'Scope film up until that time(!?) Phillip Dunne worked hard on this film as writer/director and was told by many workers at Fox that his dailies were outstanding . The Bernard Herrmann score is unique and wonderful, as were all of his scores.(The soundtrack is out on CD with the scores from Garden of Evil and King of the Khyber Rifles).
Having Eva le Gallienne ,one of Broadway's greatest Shakespearean actresses, on film playing Hamlet's mother is reason alone to release this on dvd.Also, it is one of Maggie McNamara's few film performances (she commited suicide in 1978)
Do you remember if the AMC screening was in CinemaScope (ie. letterbox format)? Cheers, Mike

[–] prjdean 15 years ago

this has never been shown on US television in Widescreen, even by the Fox Movie channel

[–] hobnob53 14 years ago

Since Fox has shut down the production of any classic films on DVD for the foreseeable future, the sad truth is that there's no chance this interesting and entertaining film will be released on DVD any time in the near future (like maybe through the 2010s?). There are lots of great, even some exceptionally obvious, Fox films that they have never issued on DVD, while sometimes obscure junk gets out.

prjdean is correct, this film has never been shown in widescreen on TV. (Forget AMC, which never letterboxes things anymore, with rare exceptions, of which Prince of Players is decidedly not one.) Even FMC has so far not run this in 'Scope. This is not uncommon for them -- there have been a number of films they ran pan & scan for as much as a couple of years before finally switiching to full CinemaScope, and several others have still not been run widescreen. What purpose does this serve? Why not run the widescreen prints? This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

[–] Dejael 14 years ago

Yes, Fox, where is the DVD??? Yes, in widescreen CinemaScope and Stereo! Preferably with a few extras such as the original theatrical trailer.

Why this studio continues to crank out crap and dreck and third-rate mindless garbage for today's jaded audiences, and neglects to release its classic films from the 1950s, is a mystery. Only a few of Fox's current releases are anywhere near what would qualify for classic status to film critics.

As someone I know who was in upper management at Fox in the 1990s told me, 'the yuppies at Fox, kids in their twenties and early thirties, think movies made in the 1950s are ancient history, and audiences today only want to see current product.' This has to be the reason why Fox ignores its classic films being released on video.

Dejael

[–] hobnob53 14 years ago

Fox was actually doing a very good job releasing its library of classic films up through 2008. I think their sudden halt had more to do with economic reasons, and the diversion of resources to Blu-ray, than to the mindless preferences of the 30-something dolts who permeate all the studios, not just Fox. (Fox's abrupt halt of any such releases also affects the MGM/UA series, which is owned by Sony but produced and distributed by Fox.) Warner was also exceptionally good until recently, though they're now putting out a lot of old films in the MOD Warner Archive series.

It appears that the likelihood of getting these older films may rest on whether the other studios decide to follow Warner and make them available on burned rather than pressed DVDs, like the "Archives" series. Some people object to this alternative, but while a pressed disc would be preferable, so far the WA films I've seen have all been of good quality, even though the films aren't "remastered" or "enhanced" in any way for their release. They're in their proper aspect ratios and have good sound and picture quality. Universal is also starting a similar project, its "Vault Series", and the few releases there so far also look good. Supposedly there are questions about the longevity of DVD-Rs and other aspects (much as there were about VHS 30 years ago), but the technology seems good enough that such things will probably turn out to be non-issues. So, given the choice between having these films on high-quality DVD-Rs, vs. not having them at all, I'll opt for the former...while still hoping that many of these movies, at least, will get a proper, pressed DVD release.

[–] TakeARisk 8 years ago

It's finally coming out as a MOD DVD http://videoeta.com/movie/products.html?id=23490

[–] hobnob53 8 years ago

Thanks, destani. I hadn't heard the news but after reading your post checked around and found it just became available yesterday (May 3). As you indicated, as an MOD it's been released on the Fox Cinema Archives line, which didn't exist the last time anyone was on this thread -- six years ago!

Unfortunately, there was no information on its aspect ratio, which means it'll probably be pan & scan, since with only a few exceptions that's how FCA presents its CinemaScope films -- more neglect by Fox. I was glad when they emulated Warner Bros. and started this MOD series but their refusal to release more than a handful of widescreen films in their proper aspect ratio is outrageous. It's not like they're saving time or money not doing so.

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