Adventure's End seems to have disappeared from circulation in 1953 when it was last reissued.
I found it interesting that NBC Universal took down California Straight Ahead from YouTube due to copyright violation. Someone had made available the entire film.
It proves that Universal still retains ownership of the six-film series, and cares enough for a cease and desist order.
This means, however unlikely, anyone releasing Adventure's End on DVD other than Universal would have legal problems.
Posts by RoughRider
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Adventure's End seems to have disappeared from circulation in 1953 when it was last reissued.
I found it interesting that NBC Universal took down California Straight Ahead from YouTube due to copyright violation. Someone had made available the entire film.
It proves that Universal still retains ownership of the six-film series, and cares enough for a cease and desist order.
This means, however unlikely, anyone releasing Adventure's End on DVD other than Universal would have legal problems. -
If Olive Films' allusions are correct, we should see The Oregon Trail soon.
I tested the latest batch of Blu-rays from Olive for region-coding: The Quiet Man, Frontier Horizon, King of the Pecos, and The New Frontier are definitely locked to Region A.
The pre-2013 John Wayne titles from Olive are region-free.
Even though all the artwork says Frontier Horizon, the actual discs (DVD and BD) show the film's original title in the credits, New Frontier. Like Republic Pictures, who renamed New Frontier (1939) to Frontier Horizon for television to avoid confusion with The New Frontier (1935), Olive Films has essentially done the same, except with artwork.
The Quiet Man BD has a funny, minor flaw: the single English-language audio track is reported as Polish. Someone didn't put in the correct language ID during authoring. -
As mentioned in a previous post some time ago, London-based Hollywood Classics Ltd. has licensed some Blu-rays to European labels, notably Soul Media which had the Blu-ray debuts of The Barbarian and the Geisha and McLintock! Soul Media also has titles never released on Blu-ray anywhere, including Hellfighters and North to Alaska (licensed from Hollywood Classics).
The library of Hollywood Classics is rather small, but they do have rights to a few other John Wayne titles such as The Alamo, Brannigan, Pittsburgh, Allegheny Uprising and -- this is the interesting one -- Sea Spoilers, which of course has never been released on home video.
So there's always the chance that Soul Media will release Sea Spoilers. It doesn't have to be on Blu-ray -- I would be content with the DVD!
It wouldn't hurt for people on this board to send Soul Media an e-mail asking for the film to be released.
http://www.soulmedia.dk/
If they did release the film on DVD, however, it would most likely be in PAL/Region 2 format. -
I did some more tests with the John Wayne titles released previous to 2013 by Olive Films.
Using AnyDVD HD and the software players WinDVD and TotalMedia Theatre, all show the same results as my Oppo Blu-ray player: they're region-free.
Attached are some Blu-ray grabs of the errors produced by The Longest Day (Fox), North to Alaska (Soul Media), and Stagecoach (Criterion) when the region codes are set incorrectly.
No such errors with the Olive titles with John Wayne previous to 2013.
The post-2012 titles may be a different story, though. -
There is a thread on hometheaterforum.com about the Blu-ray region-coding of The Quiet Man.
<http://www.hometheaterforum.co…an-bd-release-01-22-13/60>
This is a quote from one user:
"It may be Region A locked because some other recent Olive BRDs have been. But don't go by what DVD Beaver says because according to him every Olive BRD is locked - and most of them are not."
Another user writes:
"I get most Olive releases and live in B land. They have all been A locked for a few months now."
I'm sure the above thread will get more posts since the Blu-ray is trickling to users in the mail.
I'll post my results in a few days.
I suspect Olive may have changed its Blu-ray authoring workflow to make region-coding more concrete and robust across various players. DVD region-coding is a no-brainer, whereas Blu-ray region-coding is more complicated it seems, very much dependent on the player's firmware. But done correctly, there should be no reason for variances among players.
Look at Rio Grande, for example. The site blu-ray.com says it's region-free, yet others say it's region A.
I really believe Olive Films has suffered growing pains with its Blu-ray authoring software and region-coding. -
Olive Films answered this question on their Facebook page on January 7:
Olive Films Region A for BD, Region 1 for DVD
This was brought up before, so I'm a little confused.
My Oppo BDP-93 Blu-ray player is region-free. However, unlike DVD, for Blu-ray I have to manually set the region through the remote. If I set it to region B and try to play, for instance, the US Criterion version of Stagecoach, the player warns me the disc itself is locked to region A. It won't play.
With the player still in region B mode, all of the Olive Blu-rays play fine.
If I remember correctly, Dooley in the UK said the Olive Blu-rays played fine in his region B player.
The DVDBeaver reviews, of course, say the Olive BDs are verfied as region A on the Momitsu player. This matches what Olive says.
But why would my player say they're region-free?
Dooley, if you're chiming in, could you or someone else please verify your results.
There must be many people in the non-region A world that have purchased Olive's Blu-rays.
Olive's DVDs are definitely locked to region 1.
Wikipedia states, "Unlike DVD region codes, Blu-ray region codes are verified only by the player software, not by the optical drive's firmware."
Because of this statement, maybe that's why my hardware-modified Blu-ray player interprets the region coding differently?
Other people need to chime in on this, since I think The Quiet Man Blu-ray will prove to be very popular internationally. But if it's truly locked to region A then some people will have to take other avenues. -
Roughrider, you must be very busy these days updating your website.
Yes indeed, Paula. Olive Films kept me busy updating last night!
I can only blame you <g>.
I know it sounds crazy, but I just bought The Searchers HD DVD. I'm into the format a little late to say the least. But a player and a few boxes of films (still shrink-wrapped) cost about $2 per title.
Just another crazy film buff. -
Roughrider, you must be very busy these days updating your website.
Yes indeed, Paula. Olive Films kept me busy updating last night!
I can only blame you <g>.
I know it sounds crazy, but I just bought The Searchers HD DVD. I'm into the format a little late to say the least. But a player and a few boxes of films (still shrink-wrapped) cost about $2 per title.
Just another crazy film buff. -
A Man Betrayed is also known as Wheel of Fortune, which was it's re-release title. The only version I have ever seen is the re-release version. I wonder of Olive has the original or if they are issuing the re-release?
A Man Betrayed played at a film festival a few years ago under its original theatrical title, and not under its re-release title which is actually its television title. (Republic Pictures was vilified by Hollywood for being one of the first studios to sell their product to TV.)
From what I read about the festival, the print for A Man Betrayed was pristine.
I suspect Olive Films will use the festival print. -
Red River is to be released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 6, 2013 in France by Wild Side Video.
It looks like it will be the director's cut, along with a documentary on the film's restoration. The BD/DVD combo-pack will also include an 80-page book. -
Red River is to be released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 6, 2013 in France by Wild Side Video.
It looks like it will be the director's cut, along with a documentary on the film's restoration. The BD/DVD combo-pack will also include an 80-page book. -
Well I finally received a phone call back from the people at Universal Pictures and they do not own the rights to Adventure's End. So now I'm on the quest to find out who does own the rights or (this would be great) it is public domain (not a great chance) I will be back in touch when new information is found and will keep you informed as this WILL get done!
I am surprised Universal would say they do not own the copyright to Adventure's End.
Universal Pictures Co., Inc. renewed the film's copyright on September 21, 1965 (renewal number R368573), about two months before the initial 28-year expiration.
It could be that the person at Universal who phoned you is simply wrong, or legal claim to the film was subsequently sold outright to another entity (e.g. a television distributor). -
Along with The Quiet Man, Olive Films is also releasing Frontier Horizon (New Frontier), King of the Pecos, and The New Frontier on DVD and Blu-ray on January 22, 2013.
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Some of his thirties films are simply not available on DVD legally at this moment, but it would help us if you would tell what ones you are looking for.
His 6 Universal pictures have never been available on DVD, at least in region one. As for his Republic output for that decade, you are just going to have to wait like the rest of us for Olive films to release them.
As for his 16 Lone Star/Monogram westerns, no one has of yet even bothered to do a proper restoration. So you best bet are those cheap multipacks that can be found everywhere.
Warners however have done a decent job in releasing the 6 B westerns he did for them in 32-33, You can either buy two triple features or all 6 individually.
His one feature with Buck Jones, I was lucky enough to get on an El Cheapo triple feature disc that I think has gone out of print.
Sony on the other hand has released the one John Wayne film they had in their library on DVD years ago.
What it boils down to is that the Duke's 30's films are woefully represented on DVD, and despite the immense popularity the studios are not willing to take risks on restoration on films that are 80 years old at this point.
The quality of that Buck Jones title you mentioned (Range Feud), on those el-cheapo compilations, is pretty bad from what I've seen. The labels have simply copied the official Columbia VHS and degraded the quality even more.
VCI Entertainment has a nice version available on DVD-R, culled directly from a 16mm Gail Pictures television print.
The other two Columbia westerns (Texas Cyclone and Two Fisted Law) were released on DVD by Sony, the latter in a compilation.
VCI's Range Feud can be purchased here:
http://store.vcientertainment.com/product/range_feud/739 -
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The reviews are beginning to come in.
Here are reviews of the Blu-rays of Three Texas Steers, Red River Range and The Night Riders from DVDBeaver:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film4…_texas_steers_blu-ray.htm
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film4…d_river_range_blu-ray.htm
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film4…_night_riders_blu-ray.htm
Reviews of the Blu-rays of Overland Stage Raiders and Red River Range from DVDTalk:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/57037/overland-stage-raiders/
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/57036/red-river-range/
Boy, my copies can't get here fast enough. Maybe they'll arrive today.
Odd... the reviews (both DVDBeaver and DVD Talk) state the Blu-rays are Region A, yet my tests show them as region-free.
DVDBeaver and DVD Talk says Rio Grande is Region A, too, yet my test shows it as region-free. Blu-ray.com shows Rio Grande as region-free, too.
The DVD equivalents are definitely locked to Region 1.
Perhaps someone else could post their results for the Blu-rays. -
Hi Rough Rider,
I bought a copy of North to Alaska, against my better judgment, and my blu ray has the same, frustrating glitch!
Did you rip the Blu ray to see if it ironed it out? Only asking as I've had a few DVDs in the past that wouldn't play on any machines so I ripped them and they worked fine!
No, I didn't rip the Blu-ray, which wouldn't do anything to fix the problem. It's a mastering flaw and as such would take some work to delete every 1000th frame and recompile. AviSynth can delete every x number of frames, so technically it can be done.
I was really hoping they would re-issue the Blu-ray without the flaw.
Send an e-mail to Soul Media like I did and complain. -
Hi guys,
I've seen reviews online for Drums along the Mohawk on Blu ray, released in Denmark through soul media, had no luck locating a copy. Does anyone know if this has actually been released or if it's been shelved?
How's your Danish?
It shows 'in stock' here:
<http://www.laserdisken.dk/html…a?vare=132396752710340918>
Also available here:
<http://www.moviezoo.dk/blu-ray…uRay-+-DVD)_5709165693120>
Someone on Amazon UK was selling it but they're all gone now:
<http://www.amazon.co.uk/Drums-…TF8&qid=1336984816&sr=1-8>
Maybe if you contact Soul Media they will sell it directly or guide you to a better source:
<http://soulmedia.dk/kat_info.php?id=690> -
It's not so strange when you consider High Noon is part of the Republic/Paramount library.
Still... a bad filler -- Blu-ray on a budget. There would probably be no money to be made by investing in a proper documentary for the actual film. -
I've had a chance to sit down and look at the 10-disc John Wayne Collection from Fox.
The bad news is that 9 of the 10 titles are simply re-issues of previous releases, right down to using the exact DVD masters (dates shown in parentheses).
The Big Trail (2003), Red River (1997), Legend of the Lost (2002), The Horse Soldiers (2001), The Alamo (2000), North to Alaska (2003), The Comancheros (2003), The Longest Day (1999), and The Undefeated (2003).
So instead of getting some new and better prints, there's nothing for these titles. In the least Fox could have included an anamorphic version of The Horse Soldiers instead of the 4x3 letterboxed version. Six of the 9 titles have been released on Blu-ray, but none of the new masters made it to DVD in this collection.
The good news is that The Barbarian and the Geisha looks lovely and to my surprise has the original 4-track audio soundtrack. The extras are as follows: original theatrical trailer, 4 Fox Movietone newsreels and a photo gallery.
Duke fans who have the other 9 titles should stay away of course. It's best to buy the combo pack (Blu-ray/DVD) from Walmart.
