MovieChat Forums > The Decks Ran Red (1958) Discussion > DVD from Warner Archives 6/4/13

DVD from Warner Archives 6/4/13

posted 11 years ago by hobnob53
8 replies | jump to latest

Warner Archives has released The Decks Ran Red on home video for the first time. The film is available as of June 4, 2013. Retail price from WA is $18.95; prices vary elsewhere.

An interesting but not great film from Andrew L. Stone, two years before his other seaborne disaster film, The Last Voyage. Plus Hollywood's first actual interracial (i.e., black/white) kiss, between Dorothy Dandridge and Stuart Whitman. (Yes, she plays a Maori, but even so.)

I'll be curious to see whether they've restored the original print. Though the film is in black & white, in the titles (and also in the theatrical trailer) the word "RED" is actually written in red, even while everything else is in b&w. This was obviously done for effect but as with other b&w films with brief color sequences it was never worth the expense of reprinting such a small portion in color for television prints, especially back in the days of b&w TV.

Today, most such color sequences have long since been restored in color for DVD and TV, even just title sequences (such as the red-and-blue title word in Them!), but I suspect Warner hasn't bothered with this film, or maybe the original is lost. We'll find out.

THE DECKS RAN RED.

[–] sansradio 11 years ago

I am over the moon about this release; I'm a Dandridge nut/completist.

Helga, I'm not mad at you; I'm mad at the dirt.

[–] hobnob53 11 years ago

Have you gotten it yet? Is the word RED in red in the title?

[–] sansradio 11 years ago

Not yet! I'll let you know first thing.

Helga, I'm not mad at you; I'm mad at the dirt.

[–] hobnob53 11 years ago

Thanks! I haven't ordered it yet either. I usually order WA titles directly from Warner Archives during one of their weekly sales, but newer releases generally don't become available at lower prices during a sale for the first three months or so after their initial release.

[–] sansradio 11 years ago

Isn't WA the best? Fortunately, my favorite local video store has a massive "Archive/Vault" section. The buyers are genius, the cost isn't prohibitive...it's a cinephile's paradise. TDRR just appeared on their website for the first time; I haven't stopped in or called about it yet. But I'm ecstatic! This was my Holy Grail as far as my Dandridge collection is concerned.

Helga, I'm not mad at you; I'm mad at the dirt.

[–] hobnob53 11 years ago

I never heard of WA titles being available anywhere but on line. The WA site itself (on WBshop.com) has the titles before anyone else, of course, and at their normal retail prices, which have changed occasionally over the years. Most sites list them at much higher retail prices (sometimes as much as $10 or $11 higher than at WA), then "reduce" them to something closer to the actual retail price direct from WA. You do have to do a bit of shopping around to get the best price. As I said, WA itself has a sale virtually every week (usually from Friday-Monday) at which its DVDs are discounted by varying amounts.

Currently I believe TDRR lists for $18.74 on the WA site.

You really must be a Dorothy Dandridge fan, from your enthusiasm! So, do you have in your collection, and have you spotted her in, A Day at the Races with the Marx Brothers, from 1937? She's there somewhere, but I've never found her.

[–] sansradio 11 years ago

Oh, she's the living end. I do not own A Day at the Races yet, but she's in the big Harlem-style production number with the Dandridge Sisters in the crowd wearing overalls or a jumper. One of my Dandridge docs isolates her in a freeze-frame with her arms in the air. Told ya I'm a nut.

Helga, I'm not mad at you; I'm mad at the dirt.

[–] hobnob53 11 years ago

There are two sequences in A Day at the Races featuring black performers in mass dance numbers, which are the only two conceivable parts of the film where Dorothy Dandridge could be.

The main one comes first, about 2/3 through the movie, set in a barn. It's the one I've always assumed had 14-year-old Dorothy in it, but I've never been sure which girl she might be (there are dozens of men and women dancing in both sequences).

The second number occurs at the very end, when the black crowds we'd seen earlier pour out onto the racetrack after Harpo has won the race, forming a chorus behind the stars. DD is likely in this scene too, but it would be much harder to tell. It's much shorter than the earlier one, and she'd be in the crowd behind the principle performers, not out in front as in the previous number.

The first number is very varied in its music and performing, while the second is basically a condensed version of part of the first (centered on a tune called "All God's Chil'un Got Rhythm"). The music is sort of a combination of jive and spirituals. By today's standards the scenes are anything but racially enlightened, with the black people seen as a combination of simple, honest "darkies" and their hip youngsters, everyone without a care in the world...in Depression-era, segregated Florida. Unfortunately, that's the kind of world and attitude Dorothy Dandridge and millions of others had to cope with.

All that said, on its essential merits, A Day at the Races is one of the Marx Brothers' best movies.