Top 10 Films That Are Inexcusably Missing On DVD
Written
on 24/4/08
I was looking at my DVD collection and I noticed something-there are still lots of great titles still unavailable on DVD. Sure, we got our long-awaited “Star Wars” box set and our “Monster Squad” special edition, but there are still some good titles that are left in oblivion, unable to be seen either on TV or DVD. I know this could be a broad category, so I narrowed it down to titles that have some commercial appeal and that it’s really unthinkable why they’re not out to buy. So using that set up, I’ve came up with ten films that are inexcusably missing on DVD.
10-CAPTAIN AMERICA (1990, director: Albert Pyun): What? Marvel made a Captain America film? Hell yeah and is cheesy as you could only imagine. But with the screenwriters listed as Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, some of Marvel’s and Captain America’s best writers, it’s got to be worth a look. Marvel more than likely has buried this film deep within its vaults, but if Dolph Lungren’s “Punisher” is available on DVD, then why not this? Funny enough, despite the fact that I haven’t seen this since I last saw it on HBO 15 years ago, I think this would be a cool curiosity piece, of which Sony/Tri-Star owns the home video rights to! Make no mistake, it’s a bad and cheesy film and with a rumor of a new Captain America film, we might never see this again.
9-GREEN SLIME (1968, director: Kinji Fukasku): It had bad special effects, it had a groovy theme song, and of course it’s not on DVD. Like the previous title, this is a bad film, the one Mystery Science Theatre 3000 would (and maybe did?) make fun of. Fukasku directed a ton a films, ranging from all genres, and you’ll remember his “Battle Royal” film recently, but here it’s just a good old science fiction yarn about space and slim, green slime. It’s not for everyone, mostly for people who like this type of stuff, but it is a highly requested title. Apparently, Warner Brothers holds the U.S. rights to it and have been getting a lot of requests, so maybe we can take this off the list soon? Either way, sci-fi fans are clamoring for it.
8-WHITE DOG (1982, director: Sam Fuller): Okay, so the previous two titles were junk, although requested titles, so where’s some ‘good’ films? Here’s one: the film was so controversial that Paramount didn’t know what to do with it and decided to not show it anywhere. How’s this for a plot: A dog trainer is given a dog to retrain, that was once used to only attack black people. If it was any other director I’d be skeptical, but by this time in his career, Fuller was incredible at storytelling with using racial tension as underlining themes. He’s explored it throughout his career dating back to his third film, “Steel Helmet” one of the first Korean War films, which happened to deal indirectly with racial tension and stereotypes. It’s all subtle and well-executed. Here is his violent slap in the face to all bigots out there, commenting on our culture head-on, instead of indirectly. While it’s impossible to view this anywhere, I am deeply curious about it. It sounds wild and unique. Allegedly, Criterion will be releasing this film sometime this year, as they have released a few Sam Fuller titles, but as of now, they have released their list up until July and still no “White Dog”. Until they do go, get Eclipse Series 5: First Films of Sam Fuller to get ready for this one. Just take a look at that poster!
7-I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF/I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN (1957, 1958; directors: Gene Fowler, Herbert Strock): Some of AIP’s coolest horror films and while most of AIP’s titles have been released, these two have been not. Michael Landon stars in “Werewolf” a breakout role for him, decades before “Little House on the Prairie”. These titles would make a perfect double-bill and are on some old horror film fans wish lists. They’re cool, fun, and deliriously cheesy at times, but a loving product on the fifties. MGM owned a vast majority of American International Pictures’ and had a Midnight Movie line that would’ve been perfect for these two. Now that MGM is owned by Sony, who knows what their fate is…hopefully, released with audio commentaries by Tom Weaver, but Sony hasn’t treated cult titles very well.
6-HANNA BARBARA’S FANTASTIC FOUR (1966-1969): Warner’s have been releasing a lot of Hanna Barbara’s series on DVD and they have missed four opportunities to release this awesome and surprisingly faithful to the comic, superhero series. They could’ve released it when either the recent “Fantastic Four” films were in theatres or when they were coming to DVD, but did not. This show was fun and entertaining, still being better than any later attempts at bringing The FF to cartoon TV shows. Just 20 episodes were made but I can remember them all. I have many fond memories of the show and it will be “clobbering time!” to WB if hey don’t release this show. Truth be told, none of Marvel’s animated shows have been treated to DVD season sets; the 1990s versions of “X-Men” or “Spider-Man”, only the ‘60s incarnation of Spidey is out. The animation is as good as any of Hanna Barbara’s superhero shorts, like “Space Ghost” or “Birdman” and the series had all of the cool villains like Galactus, Silver Surfer, Skrulls, and Dr. Doom. I’d snatched this up in a heartbeat.
5-WILLARD/BEN (1971/1972, directors: Daniel Mann, Phil Karlson): I was assuming these titles were going to be released when the “Willard” remake was happening as it would have had built in recognition, but no, they never appeared. You would have to double bill these together, so you think an Anchor Bay or some cult label would be eager to release these. “Ben”, the sequel, which followed the rat who betrayed Willard in the original, was Oscar nominated and even won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song, sung by none other than Michael Jackson! While these are curious little horror films, they would be rightfully placed next to my “Willard” remake DVD. I couldn’t find who owned the rights to their home video distribution, so it’ll take someone like an Anchor Bay to rescue them.
4-THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN (1981-1984): Here’s another fun, great animated series MIA. Mixing “Star Wars” with “Conan the Barbarian” and setting it in a post-apocalyptic world, three heroes go around battling evil. It lasted three years and I remember watching all the episodes numerous times. My dad worked the night shift during the early eighties and demanded my mom to record each episode so when he got off of work, he’d watch them, usually with me. It had that Filmation animation style like the original “He-Man” but to me this was my show growing up. I miss it and it’s just confusing to the reason why it is not on DVD. You can help by signing this petition with like-minded “Thundarr” fans and help this get a release: http://www.petitiononline.com/thundarr/petition.html
3-BRITANNIA HOSPITAL (1982, director: Lindsay Anderson): This is the third in a loosely based trilogy featuring Malcolm McDowell as Mick Travis, his second famous character besides Alex in “A Clockwork Orange”. Criterion released “If….” the first in the trilogy as a nice two disc set, then months later Warner released the second film, “O Lucky Man!” as again a nice 2 disc package, and, well, where’s the third? Apparently HBO owns the rights, so why didn’t they capitalize on the previous two being released, is beyond me? It would have been nice to have all three. This one focuses on Mick creating a documentary about this hospital and all the errors in England’s medical policies. I want this now.
2-GODZILLA 1985: A LEGEND IS REBORN: (1984, director: Koji Hashimoto): One of Godzilla’s only titles yet to be released, is the one zilla fans have been dying to get their hands on. This was Godzilla’s glorious return to the silver screen after a near decade absence and it was a great return. This was the first and possibly the best in the Heisei era, even though this marked a more serious and dangerous tone to the series that got quite campy towards the end of the Showa series. I remember seeing this at the theater and again on VHS. The shots of Godzilla dying in the volcano are still vivid and this film even featured Steve Martin! The special effects were quite good and the tone was thankfully serious, as this was meant to be a direct sequel to the original 1954 film, ignoring the rest of the Showa films. I did hear Anchor Bay was trying to get the rights to this film, but whoever does needs to include “Bambi versus Godzilla”, the short that was played prior to the film in theaters, on the DVD. You can seek that out on Youtube.
1-THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (1942, director: Orson Welles): This film was Welles’ second film, the one he did right after “Citizen Kane” as part of his RKO contract. It’s supposed to be as good as “Kane” but his intended cut was recut by RKO against Welles wishes. RKO desperately wanted to re-edit “Citizen Kane” and had a quite a famous battle with Welles on it. While they couldn’t touch “Kane” due to contractual reasons, they could to “Magnificent Ambersons”. Most of what they did cut is now lost forever and this title is one of the few Welles films not on DVD. I keep reading that Warner is working on a huge special edition, but that’s been three years ago. What’s the hold up? To me this is one of the most glaring omissions not on DVD.
10-CAPTAIN AMERICA (1990, director: Albert Pyun): What? Marvel made a Captain America film? Hell yeah and is cheesy as you could only imagine. But with the screenwriters listed as Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, some of Marvel’s and Captain America’s best writers, it’s got to be worth a look. Marvel more than likely has buried this film deep within its vaults, but if Dolph Lungren’s “Punisher” is available on DVD, then why not this? Funny enough, despite the fact that I haven’t seen this since I last saw it on HBO 15 years ago, I think this would be a cool curiosity piece, of which Sony/Tri-Star owns the home video rights to! Make no mistake, it’s a bad and cheesy film and with a rumor of a new Captain America film, we might never see this again.
9-GREEN SLIME (1968, director: Kinji Fukasku): It had bad special effects, it had a groovy theme song, and of course it’s not on DVD. Like the previous title, this is a bad film, the one Mystery Science Theatre 3000 would (and maybe did?) make fun of. Fukasku directed a ton a films, ranging from all genres, and you’ll remember his “Battle Royal” film recently, but here it’s just a good old science fiction yarn about space and slim, green slime. It’s not for everyone, mostly for people who like this type of stuff, but it is a highly requested title. Apparently, Warner Brothers holds the U.S. rights to it and have been getting a lot of requests, so maybe we can take this off the list soon? Either way, sci-fi fans are clamoring for it.
8-WHITE DOG (1982, director: Sam Fuller): Okay, so the previous two titles were junk, although requested titles, so where’s some ‘good’ films? Here’s one: the film was so controversial that Paramount didn’t know what to do with it and decided to not show it anywhere. How’s this for a plot: A dog trainer is given a dog to retrain, that was once used to only attack black people. If it was any other director I’d be skeptical, but by this time in his career, Fuller was incredible at storytelling with using racial tension as underlining themes. He’s explored it throughout his career dating back to his third film, “Steel Helmet” one of the first Korean War films, which happened to deal indirectly with racial tension and stereotypes. It’s all subtle and well-executed. Here is his violent slap in the face to all bigots out there, commenting on our culture head-on, instead of indirectly. While it’s impossible to view this anywhere, I am deeply curious about it. It sounds wild and unique. Allegedly, Criterion will be releasing this film sometime this year, as they have released a few Sam Fuller titles, but as of now, they have released their list up until July and still no “White Dog”. Until they do go, get Eclipse Series 5: First Films of Sam Fuller to get ready for this one. Just take a look at that poster!
7-I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF/I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN (1957, 1958; directors: Gene Fowler, Herbert Strock): Some of AIP’s coolest horror films and while most of AIP’s titles have been released, these two have been not. Michael Landon stars in “Werewolf” a breakout role for him, decades before “Little House on the Prairie”. These titles would make a perfect double-bill and are on some old horror film fans wish lists. They’re cool, fun, and deliriously cheesy at times, but a loving product on the fifties. MGM owned a vast majority of American International Pictures’ and had a Midnight Movie line that would’ve been perfect for these two. Now that MGM is owned by Sony, who knows what their fate is…hopefully, released with audio commentaries by Tom Weaver, but Sony hasn’t treated cult titles very well.
6-HANNA BARBARA’S FANTASTIC FOUR (1966-1969): Warner’s have been releasing a lot of Hanna Barbara’s series on DVD and they have missed four opportunities to release this awesome and surprisingly faithful to the comic, superhero series. They could’ve released it when either the recent “Fantastic Four” films were in theatres or when they were coming to DVD, but did not. This show was fun and entertaining, still being better than any later attempts at bringing The FF to cartoon TV shows. Just 20 episodes were made but I can remember them all. I have many fond memories of the show and it will be “clobbering time!” to WB if hey don’t release this show. Truth be told, none of Marvel’s animated shows have been treated to DVD season sets; the 1990s versions of “X-Men” or “Spider-Man”, only the ‘60s incarnation of Spidey is out. The animation is as good as any of Hanna Barbara’s superhero shorts, like “Space Ghost” or “Birdman” and the series had all of the cool villains like Galactus, Silver Surfer, Skrulls, and Dr. Doom. I’d snatched this up in a heartbeat.
5-WILLARD/BEN (1971/1972, directors: Daniel Mann, Phil Karlson): I was assuming these titles were going to be released when the “Willard” remake was happening as it would have had built in recognition, but no, they never appeared. You would have to double bill these together, so you think an Anchor Bay or some cult label would be eager to release these. “Ben”, the sequel, which followed the rat who betrayed Willard in the original, was Oscar nominated and even won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song, sung by none other than Michael Jackson! While these are curious little horror films, they would be rightfully placed next to my “Willard” remake DVD. I couldn’t find who owned the rights to their home video distribution, so it’ll take someone like an Anchor Bay to rescue them.
4-THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN (1981-1984): Here’s another fun, great animated series MIA. Mixing “Star Wars” with “Conan the Barbarian” and setting it in a post-apocalyptic world, three heroes go around battling evil. It lasted three years and I remember watching all the episodes numerous times. My dad worked the night shift during the early eighties and demanded my mom to record each episode so when he got off of work, he’d watch them, usually with me. It had that Filmation animation style like the original “He-Man” but to me this was my show growing up. I miss it and it’s just confusing to the reason why it is not on DVD. You can help by signing this petition with like-minded “Thundarr” fans and help this get a release: http://www.petitiononline.com/thundarr/petition.html
3-BRITANNIA HOSPITAL (1982, director: Lindsay Anderson): This is the third in a loosely based trilogy featuring Malcolm McDowell as Mick Travis, his second famous character besides Alex in “A Clockwork Orange”. Criterion released “If….” the first in the trilogy as a nice two disc set, then months later Warner released the second film, “O Lucky Man!” as again a nice 2 disc package, and, well, where’s the third? Apparently HBO owns the rights, so why didn’t they capitalize on the previous two being released, is beyond me? It would have been nice to have all three. This one focuses on Mick creating a documentary about this hospital and all the errors in England’s medical policies. I want this now.
2-GODZILLA 1985: A LEGEND IS REBORN: (1984, director: Koji Hashimoto): One of Godzilla’s only titles yet to be released, is the one zilla fans have been dying to get their hands on. This was Godzilla’s glorious return to the silver screen after a near decade absence and it was a great return. This was the first and possibly the best in the Heisei era, even though this marked a more serious and dangerous tone to the series that got quite campy towards the end of the Showa series. I remember seeing this at the theater and again on VHS. The shots of Godzilla dying in the volcano are still vivid and this film even featured Steve Martin! The special effects were quite good and the tone was thankfully serious, as this was meant to be a direct sequel to the original 1954 film, ignoring the rest of the Showa films. I did hear Anchor Bay was trying to get the rights to this film, but whoever does needs to include “Bambi versus Godzilla”, the short that was played prior to the film in theaters, on the DVD. You can seek that out on Youtube.
1-THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (1942, director: Orson Welles): This film was Welles’ second film, the one he did right after “Citizen Kane” as part of his RKO contract. It’s supposed to be as good as “Kane” but his intended cut was recut by RKO against Welles wishes. RKO desperately wanted to re-edit “Citizen Kane” and had a quite a famous battle with Welles on it. While they couldn’t touch “Kane” due to contractual reasons, they could to “Magnificent Ambersons”. Most of what they did cut is now lost forever and this title is one of the few Welles films not on DVD. I keep reading that Warner is working on a huge special edition, but that’s been three years ago. What’s the hold up? To me this is one of the most glaring omissions not on DVD.
