MovieChat Forums > The Colossus of New York (1958) Discussion > DVD release 8/16/11

DVD release 8/16/11

posted 13 years ago by hobnob53
14 replies | jump to latest

The Colossus of New York will have its overdue legitimate DVD release on August 16, 2011.

Olive Films, which has been licensing movies from the Paramount library since the spring of 2010, is acquiring more, and Colossus is their first new film after the initial 27 they released over the past year. The price is Olive's usual $24.99, though it can always be found for less on line.

Thus far, Olive's Paramount DVDs have been of very high quality. Few if any extras, which is not unusual these days for classic films, but the movie is what's important. As of the date of this posting, I have heard nothing about what other Paramount films Olive may be releasing (the 1952 thriller The Atomic City has been rumored, but no confirmation). In contrast, last year they announced their full roster of 27 films at the outset. But there's at least hope for more gems from the untapped portions of Paramount's extensive library.

[–] Big G-2 13 years ago

Hobnob, for now on I'm going to give you a list of titles I'm waiting to be released on DVD!

Actually, how about these Paramount films?
The Uninvited (1944)
Samson and Delilah (1949)
Secret of the Incas (1954)
Jivaro (1954)

I know that some (or maybe all) are owned by Universal, so I am not sure if Olive has any rights to release them. But you are right that Olive's DVDs are high in quality. I have a great print of CRACK IN THE WORLD to prove it!

As for COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK, I was about to buy a bootleg until I heard this news. When I first saw this movie a long time ago, the advertisements led me to believe that this Colossus was as huge as Godzilla and thus, I looked forward to seeing city destruction! Of course, that was never the case. It is still interesting, but never liked the fact that Otto Kruger, never really got his comeuppance at the end!

[–] jquirk-1 13 years ago

Hobnob, you scooped me on this one. I came here to make the announcement after noticing it listed on Amazon yesterday. Big G, I, too, thought many times about buying a bootleg copy, but I'm real glad I held out.

This is actually one of my favorite science fiction films from the '50s. This has one of the coolest looking robots ever. Can't wait to finally have a copy of it.

As for other titles I'd like to see released:

The Thing That Couldn't Die
Curse of the Undead
The Amazing Colossal Man
It Conquered the World
Invasion of the Saucer Men

[–] hobnob53 13 years ago

Sorry, jquirk! But I agree with your wish-list, too. I understand Sam Arkoff's widow is holding up stuff like The Amazing Colossal Man and It Conquered the World. Maybe she doesn't need the money.

[–] hobnob53 13 years ago

Big G -- Universal does own The Uninvited, which we all want to see finally get a DVD release. But Universal is notoriously unresponsive, preferring to re-release the same old films over and over in different DVD cases.

The other three are owned by Paramount, and while I doubt Olive will be able to get hold of S&D, I hold out great hopes for Secret of the Incas and lesser hopes for Jivaro. There are a bunch of Paramount B's from the ealy 50s I'd like to see issued, including Jamaica Run and The Last Outpost. And I'd also love to have the dreadful anti-Commie flick, My Son John, released.

Incidentally, The Atomic City is being released by Olive, on August 30. That's a good one, too.

How about The Buccaneer (1958)? (The '38 original is owned by Universal, which inherited the pre-1949 Paramount library from MCA, which in turn had bought it from Paramount in 1956 for something like $12 million: Paramount thereby getting some quick cash in exchange for hundreds of millions in future revenues. Brilliant corporate decision.)

Colossus is pretty oddball, not really one of my faves, but one that I've already pre-ordered: knowing me, how could I do otherwise?

Agree with you about Otto. Also, how did "Big C" (Cony) walk under water without shorting himself out?

[–] jquirk-1 13 years ago

Regarding Samuel Arkoff's widow, the impression I get is that she wants "Star Wars" money for those movies. With that in mind, we're likely not going to see them released until after she dies.

As for "Colossus of New York," I'm surprised, hobnob, that this one doesn't rate higher on your list. As for the robot walking under the water without shorting himself out, I always figured he operated something like a submarine. It's definitely better than "The Gamma People."

[–] Big G-2 13 years ago

Yes, THE BUCCANEER is another one I've been waiting for with Anthony Quinn directing and Yul Brynner starring (and the two were going to reverse their roles for THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, but they eventually had a falling out).

And it never dawned on me that the Colossus could have shorted his circuits while walkiing underwater, but as jquirk said, he was indeed probably built like a submarine!

Anyway, still holding out hope for SECRET OF THE INCAS and JIVARO which was shot in 3D (and for which Rhonda Fleming was almost now becoming the Queen of 3D!)

[–] hobnob53 13 years ago

If Olive does release Secret of the Incas and Jivaro, it will mean that every one of Paramount's quartet of jungle films from 1954 will be out on DVD, joining The Naked Jungle and Elephant Walk.

While the release of The Colossus of New York brings to completion Paramount's entire inventory of 1950s robot movies available on DVD, i.e., one.

[–] hobnob53 13 years ago

Well, Colossus is also better than Fire Maidens of Outer Space, however much of a criterion that is. (Maybe Criterion should have released this film. After all, they have a deal with Paramount too, and any outfit that issued First Man Into Space is at least broad-minded.)

I think TCONY an okay movie, not bad, but for some reason it never grabbed me all that much. I think it was trying to be something more than what it is; it becomes kind of pretentious as it goes along, particularly that UN wind-up and beating swords into plowshares and whatnot. Apart from his submarining under water out of nowhere, the sudden appearance of the convenient but unexplained ray-beams from Cony's eyes is cool but ludicrous, even within this story's bizarre context.

Still, as long as we're making comparisons, it's better than Tobor the Great, and I'll be pleased to have this minor oddity among my collection, already bulging with oddities of all sizes.

[–] jquirk-1 13 years ago

Well, I'll tell you what, TCM recently showed one I never saw before - The Cosmic Monster (a.k.a. Cosmic Monsters) - and boy was it lousy. I was looking forward to seeing it because it was the one Forrest Tucker science fiction movie from the late 50s I never saw before. The other two - The Crawling Eye and The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas - rank pretty high on my list of favorite 50s sci-fi flicks, so this was something I didn't want to miss.

Wow, was I ever disappointed. It featured a decent cast, but the special effects were below poor, even for a 50s flick.

[–] hobnob53 13 years ago

Wow, jquirk, I'm shocked -- shocked! -- that you, of all people, had never seen Cosmic Monsters before! Even its US title is a source of confusion, as you pointed out: it was advertised as Cosmic Monsters and is generally known by that title, but on-screen it's The Cosmic Monster, singular.

This was one I saw at a very young age. Yes, the effects are generally crummy, but there's one shot I'm sure even you might have thought was cool: the infamous "face-sucking" sequence, when one of the bugs -- it looks like a grasshopper -- pounces on a soldier and sucks his face off. That was astoundingly gory for its time.

Anyway, may I suggest you journey over to that film's site? I've posted there, in particular about the film's availability on home video. I have a so-so DVD-R from Sinister Cinema but a pristine R2 DVD from England under its original British title, The Strange World of Planet X.

But I also like Tucker's other two Brit flicks from the same period, which I have both in their US versions as well as in their original UK titles and prints: The Abominable Snowman/The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas and The Trollenberg Terror/The Crawling Eye.

Remember: Only you can prevent Forrest Tucker.

[–] jquirk-1 13 years ago

Yeah, this is one I obviously missed back in the day. I would venture to guess, however, that nobody was broadcasting it a lot back in the 70s or I would have certainly seen it. I rarely missed anything back then. If I had seen it back then, maybe there would have been a small place reserved in my nostalgic heart for it today?

Oddly, "The Crawling Eye" is one of the 50s sci-fi flicks I never get sick of. I probably watch that one more than anything else. There's something about it that has really grown on me over the years. When I watched it as a child, I couldn't wait until the end to finally see the monsters. Now, I enjoy the film thoroughly from start to finish. I have the American version of this on VHS, and the British version on DVD. "The Abominable Snowman," meanwhile, is another one that never wears out its welcome. I think Peter Cushing might just be the best horror/science fiction film actor of all time. He could do it all - villain or hero - and make it believable every time.

[–] hobnob53 13 years ago

I like The Crawling Eye a lot too -- one of my favorites, a film I'd seen since the early 60s on TV. I think it's actually pretty good -- decent, not great effects, but in general well done, with some offbeat plot aspects. I actually always liked it throughout, not just for the monsters, which I guess is odd for a kid. I liked the dead guys sent back by the Eyes, not to mention the shot of them pulling Brockhurst out from under the bunk in the hut. It's also one of the very few British sci-fi films of the 50s that wasn't cut for its American release, as both Cosmic Monsters and The Abominable Snowman were. (I have the same VHS/DVD combo you have.)

I think you might have seen Cosmic Monsters on TV more in the 60s. (It sounds like you're probably a decade younger than me, since I caught all this stuff growing up in the 60s in and around New York City, which had a lot of TV stations broadcasting these movies all the time.) It did seem to vanish during the 70s. It had been years since I'd seen it when I found it on VHS in the late 80s. Why it's never gotten a decent US DVD release as yet I don't know. As I said, I have the original British version, titled The Strange World of Planet X, on a Region 2 DVD, but I'd like to see a good R1 release.

I don't find The Abominable Snowman as exciting or gripping in its development as the other two, yet in some ways it may be the "best" picture of the three, in so far as it's got the most intellectually satisfying plot background and resolution. It's also interesting to see Forrest in a nasty role, vs. his hero parts in the other two. I thought he was quite effective in all three, even one with a weak script like Cosmic Monsters. (I never figured out why the US title for Snowman was the lengthy The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas. I mean, where else would he live? Or maybe they were trying to disguise the fact that the few outdoor shots were of the Pyrennes? The DVD of that film has the complete UK film, not the edited US release.)

None of this has anything to do with The Colossus of New York, of course...lest we forget our original purpose here!

[–] jquirk-1 13 years ago

Regarding "The Colossus of New York," it was something I saw very early on. I was probably only four- or five-years-old the first time I saw it. Somebody turned the channel, and there was the Colossus standing in the laboratory. Of course, at that age it left a strong impression. It became one I could never miss. Back then I preferred when WOR broadcast it because I knew I'd at least be able to see the entire film. Another station, Channel 10 from Philadelphia, which was a CBS affiliate back then but is now with NBC, was notorious for broadcasting some classic sci-fi movies on late Saturday afternoons in a one-hour time slot with commercials.

Channel 10 broadcast "The Colossus ..." as well as other beloved titles like "It Came From Beneath the Sea" "The Gamma People," and "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers" in extremely truncated versions to fit into their hour-long time slot. These movies were longer than an hour without commercials! I remember watching "It Came from Beneath the Sea" on 10 one Saturday afternoon and feeling horrified when they excised the entire sequence when the octopus attacks the ship.

WOR in the 70s was the best source for sci-fi/horror films. In addition to its Saturday morning double feature, WOR sometimes broadcast monster movies all day Saturday. They also broadcast horror movies every Saturday evening around 6, and then Fright Night would appear late Saturday night. WOR also sometimes broadcast these types of movies all week long during their 4 p.m. movie. 11 and 5 were good, too, but not as good as WOR.

[–] hobnob53 13 years ago

Yeah, WOR (channel 9, now WWOR) was the best station for such movies, but 11 (WPIX) wasn't far behind. In the 60s WOR was most famous for its Million Dollar Movie, which broadcast the same film 16 times in a week: twice nightly Mon.-Fri., then three times during the day on Sat. & Sun. (Baseball season sometimes interfered with this schedule.) I saw many of my lifelong faves on that show, or their movies at 9 AM and 5 PM, which were run five times in a week (Tues.-Fri.) and then the following Mon., in case you'd been away the previous week.

I think I first saw TCONY on channel 2, WCBS, late one night. I'd vaguely heard about it but never saw it until the late 60s. It struck me as fairly unique and weird as robot movies go, and that impression has more or less stayed with me for decades. I'm really looking forward to getting the DVD because it's been so long since I've seen the thing. It's actually quite short. When they ran it on TV with commercials, it ran maybe 90 minutes or more, but uninterrupted it's a quickie.

Though I have to say, copping shots of the Andrea Doria sinking (two years before the movie, when it was fresh in everyone's minds) -- a disaster laid down to the robot -- was a bit lame. Colossus just got too big for his sparkplugs.

This was also an odd film to come out of Paramount, which by 1958 had lost George Pal and was doing very little science fiction. This film, I Married a Monster From Outer Space and The Space Children were about it, post-1955 or so. The latter flick might also be a good title for Olive Films to release one day.

By the way, check out Olive's Aug. 30 Paramount release, The Atomic City. An excellent, little-known thriller. I've posted the only two threads on its site, last I looked.