Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Oh, Bat Lady!

The Martin & Lewis Collection Volume 2 is coming out on June 5. I would have thought it would have included all their color films (the first volume had all their black and white films except for At War With the Army, which is public domain), but according to the listing, and the total time length given, there are only five films in the set. Why Paramount is leaving Money From Home and Three Ring Circus in limbo, I have no idea.

The good news is that the set will be the first DVD release -- and, I think, the first wide-screen home video release -- for Frank Tashlin's two films with the team, Artists and Models and Hollywood or Bust (in which, Tashlin claimed, they didn't speak to each other through the entire shoot). You've heard me yammer on about how much I love these two movies, where Tashlin got to indulge his love-hate relationship with pop culture and his uncomplicated love for cartoony jokes, beautiful women and splashy colors. Nobody had ever made anything quite like these two movies before. The VHS releases didn't do justice to the VistaVision photography, so I'm hoping for the best from the DVDs, since Paramount usually does a pretty good job on transfering old movies (it's just that they hardly ever bother to release old movies).



3 comments:

Ivan G Shreve Jr said...

I can do without Three Ring Circus (a.k.a. Jerrico, the Wonder Clown) but leaving off Money from Home is a heartbreaker. (I realize, of course, that I may be the only one who's a fan of that film. "So do me somethin'")

jim kosmicki said...

Artists & Models is a great film -- surprisingly so. I thought I had seen all the Martin & Lewis films until this one came out on VHS and then popped up on movie channels every so often. This is good news.

A†Z said...

Paramount...Wake up!!!

Put "Three Ring Circus" AND "Money From Home" in Volume 2!

Raise the purchase price so you don't have to release a dvd "combo version" [later on] around the holidays. Don't you make enough with your Sponge Bob / Star Treck franchises??

Sheesh...even life's "little pleasures" can be so irritating.

PS- Dean and Jerry were "IT" back in their day!! How soon their [money-making] studio forgets.