I've finished with this recently-released boxset and can recommend it. The films are interesting or more, and the bonus features are better than I'd have hoped for.
Alas, they are still 'talking heads', discussing the films and/or stars' place in film history, but that's fine. To me, these were more interesting than average. I'd love to have seen participation with the filmmakers, but perhaps none of them survived these decades and thoughtful historians weren't clever enough to film interviews when they had the chance.
There are separate pieces for Ginger Rogers, for Gene Tierney and Otto Preminger, then discussions of DAISY KENYON and DANGEROUS CROSSING specifically.
FOX NOIR: Daisy Kenyon, Dangerous Crossing, Black Widow
The Real Deal
Ollie,
Including the actual participants in this latest Fox Film Noir series- I was directly involved in a couple of the special features on this set- was certainly not due to a lack of effort by a number of hard-working folks.
Using Black Widow (1954) as an example, Skip Homeier and Virginia Leith are both still with us. Mr. Homeier has zero interest in reliving his career- he is retired, period. He resolutely turns down invitations to film festivals and refuses any participation in DVD special commentaries; he was practically begged to come forth for a special edition of The Gunfighter (1946) that will be released later this year. Miss Leith, despite my best efforts, simply could not be located.
In addition to locating those surviving artists who are in good health and desire to participate in these DVD releases, there are budgetary, logistical, legal and schedule constraints that are part-in-parcel with producing these featurettes that have to be experienced first hand in order to be truly appreciated. All of the studios contract out this type of work to independent production companies and trust me, it is not a vocation with high financial rate of return-on-investment.
The majority of the DVD special features on these films are produced by dedicated professionals who, like the people who populate this Oasis, have a passion for vintage film and do their utmost to deliver the goods. Steve Smith, who made the special features on this latest Fox set also produced the recent Pre-Code documentary that recently played on TCM. He is a superb filmmaker and a delight to work with.
Please understand, that I understand. We would all like to see interviews and commentary with Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Van Heflin, Joan Crawford, and Jeanne Crain on this set. But they are all gone and no one ever thought, even into the 1990's, that these films would be reproduced, packaged and sold as they currently are.
Ollie, I appreciate your thoughtful comments very much. I simply wanted to make it known that the people involved in this Fox series and similar projects consider it to be a labor of love and do the best they can.
Thanks for giving the opportunity to do so via your post.
Including the actual participants in this latest Fox Film Noir series- I was directly involved in a couple of the special features on this set- was certainly not due to a lack of effort by a number of hard-working folks.
Using Black Widow (1954) as an example, Skip Homeier and Virginia Leith are both still with us. Mr. Homeier has zero interest in reliving his career- he is retired, period. He resolutely turns down invitations to film festivals and refuses any participation in DVD special commentaries; he was practically begged to come forth for a special edition of The Gunfighter (1946) that will be released later this year. Miss Leith, despite my best efforts, simply could not be located.
In addition to locating those surviving artists who are in good health and desire to participate in these DVD releases, there are budgetary, logistical, legal and schedule constraints that are part-in-parcel with producing these featurettes that have to be experienced first hand in order to be truly appreciated. All of the studios contract out this type of work to independent production companies and trust me, it is not a vocation with high financial rate of return-on-investment.
The majority of the DVD special features on these films are produced by dedicated professionals who, like the people who populate this Oasis, have a passion for vintage film and do their utmost to deliver the goods. Steve Smith, who made the special features on this latest Fox set also produced the recent Pre-Code documentary that recently played on TCM. He is a superb filmmaker and a delight to work with.
Please understand, that I understand. We would all like to see interviews and commentary with Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Van Heflin, Joan Crawford, and Jeanne Crain on this set. But they are all gone and no one ever thought, even into the 1990's, that these films would be reproduced, packaged and sold as they currently are.
Ollie, I appreciate your thoughtful comments very much. I simply wanted to make it known that the people involved in this Fox series and similar projects consider it to be a labor of love and do the best they can.
Thanks for giving the opportunity to do so via your post.
"First is First and second is nobody"
The quality is TOO GOOD not to be completed as a labor of love. The commentaries are well done and I realize it would be SO impolite of DVD makers to make disclaimers like, "We tried but X, Y and Z refused to participate in special features". I much prefer your comments here than seeing such things smeared on DVD packages. Thanks for this thoughtfulness - I always hope attempts have been made.
Personally, I think the included bonus features are The Reasons To Buy this box-set. They aren't hour-long dissertations, but include good comments and plenty of clips-as-examples to justify the 'talking heads' comments.
I'd never seen DANGEROUS CROSSING, but it's featurette made me watch it a second time.
And since I'll never be a Joan Crawford film, it was interesting to see how those bonus features brought up different aspects of her work (Otto Preminger's insertion).
If there's anything worth REALLY complaining about - "Where are the rest of these commentaries? A lot of them had to be left on the cutting room floor?!! WHY?!! Use Part 1, 2, 3, etc!"
In summary, I'm not just complaining about "only using talking heads", I'm also complaining about NOT giving us MORE of them!! ha ha...
Personally, I think the included bonus features are The Reasons To Buy this box-set. They aren't hour-long dissertations, but include good comments and plenty of clips-as-examples to justify the 'talking heads' comments.
I'd never seen DANGEROUS CROSSING, but it's featurette made me watch it a second time.
And since I'll never be a Joan Crawford film, it was interesting to see how those bonus features brought up different aspects of her work (Otto Preminger's insertion).
If there's anything worth REALLY complaining about - "Where are the rest of these commentaries? A lot of them had to be left on the cutting room floor?!! WHY?!! Use Part 1, 2, 3, etc!"
In summary, I'm not just complaining about "only using talking heads", I'm also complaining about NOT giving us MORE of them!! ha ha...