A 2013 DVD Wish List

You would think by now that every movie ever made would officially be on DVD, but there are still plenty of films missing in action. The following is a quick list of movies that I'd like to see officially released on DVD or Blu-ray in the coming year. I'm sure some of these are available through unlicensed means, or on YouTube. I try to stay away from the bootleg stuff when it comes to DVDs because you never know what kind of quality you are going to get. I'm also sticking to movies that are not on any official Region One DVD, because, well, I'm an American, and I don't have a region-free DVD player. (But as I've mentioned before, any of you gracious readers are more than welcome to buy me one....)

Here's the list:

1. WATERLOO
This 1970 film depicting the famous 1815 battle has always been a favorite of mine because it has the most stupendous war scenes ever filmed. Producer Dino DeLaurentiis and Russian director Sergei Bondarchuk were able to make use of the Red Army, and it shows. It really looks as if thousands of men are trying to kill one another. This movie would really be something in Blu-ray and 5.1 DTS sound.

2. THELMA TODD/ZASU PITTS/PATSY KELLY COLLECTION
Thelma Todd was one of the most beautiful women to ever appear in movies, even though she played mostly comedy roles. In the early 1930s she worked for Hal Roach Studios in a series of comedy short subjects with first Zasu Pitts and later Patsy Kelly. The idea was to try to create a sort of female Laurel & Hardy. The shorts are not as great as L & H's product, but they are certainly worth an official DVD release (there is a huge Thelma Todd cult). One would like to see a box set on the order of the fantastic Laurel & Hardy collection released a couple years ago. As a matter of fact, there's tons of movies produced by Roach that are not available on DVD (including a lot of stuff with Charley Chase).

3. SUPERNATURAL
This is a 1933 film made by Paramount starring Carole Lombard as a woman in danger of being possessed by a murderess. It's certainly one of Lombard's most unusual roles, and it has the added interest of being made by the Halperin Brothers, who had just produced WHITE ZOMBIE. The rights to this are actually owned by Universal, who have a lot of other subjects of interest that they don't seem too concerned to release to DVD.

4. ISLAND OF TERROR
Of course, I have to pick a Peter Cushing film. This one was not made by Hammer, and it's not set in Victorian times. It's a neat little thriller about a remote island community being decimated by man-made bone-devouring creatures. This is more science-fiction than horror, and it is done very well. The director was genre specialist Terence Fisher, which makes one wonder all the more why a Peter Cushing-Terence Fisher movie is not out on Region One DVD. But....it's owned by Universal (see entry above).

5. ANOTHER FRANK CAPRA BOX SET
As I mentioned in an earlier post on the FRANK CAPRA: THE EARLY COLLECTION set, there are still Capra-directed movies not out on DVD. Hopefully Sony sees fit to release a FC:TEC Volume 2, with films like FLIGHT and DIRIGIBLE.

This is just a short list...I'm sure there are plenty of other titles that I'm forgetting. And there's also the number of movies that were released on DVD but are now already out of print. It's kind of funny how people are demanding that certain films be upgraded to Blu-ray, when there are so many titles that haven't even debuted on DVD yet.