Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Ford At Fox

If this is Home Theater Forum post is correct, this sounds like one of the more ambitious classic-films-on-DVD projects a major studio has taken on:


Now set for release for December, 2007, the collection, to be titled “Ford at Fox,” will consists of 25 features that Ford made for Fox, including five silents, 18 of which will be new to DVD.

The box will list for $299.98 and also contain a new documentary on Ford by Nick Redman, a book of photographs featuring an essay by Joseph McBride and a reproduction of the program book for “The Iron Horse.”



Update: Credit where due; the original source of this information is Dave Kehr.

6 comments:

Mark Mayerson said...

There are films that are not well known, such as Riley the Cop, Up the River and Pilgrimage, that are terrific films.

I wonder if the two Will Rogers films directed by Ford that have yet to make it to DVD, Dr. Bull and Judge Priest, will be included in this set. Ditto for Wee Willie Winkie, which I assume will turn up sooner or later on the Shirley Temple releases that Fox puts out.

Anonymous said...

I wonder what kind of materials Fox has on JUDGE PRIEST. I once read that Fox had sold the picture outright to Republic when Ford remade it there as THE SUN SHINES BRIGHT -- and that Republic later neglected to renew the copyright on the earlier film, which is how it fell into the public domain. I don't know whether that's true, but it would help explain why JUDGE became a perennial public domain item.

Brent McKee said...

This sounds great, with the exception of the price. I don't suppose there are any plans to either package the films individually or in smaller sets as well.

Ivan G Shreve Jr said...

I agree with Brent -- it's a dan-dan-dandy set, but that price is a dealbreaker.

Anonymous said...

>>>I agree with Brent -- it's a dan-dan-dandy set, but that price is a dealbreaker.

Should they just give it away for free?

Everyone complains that the studios aren't releasing their back catalogue titles on DVD but they are only going to do so if the economics to make sense.

Ivan G Shreve Jr said...

Should they just give it away for free?

No...but Jesse James used to do the same thing wearing a mask and they called him a bandit. You can't tell me it's impossible to release this kind of material without asking for an arm and a leg--even the Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton sets didn't cost this much.