Columbia Classics

[DeprongMori]

Reference Question:

I’m sorting through a lot of Columbia outtakes, 2nd unit shots, etc., and am trying to match the film to the “Production #” on the clapperboard. Through internal evidence, I’ve been eventually able to figure out most of them, but for convenience and accuracy does any know of a reference work that lists Columbia Production # to Film Title?

Examples:
Production #
911 is “Riders of the Whistling Pines” (1949)
932 is “Tokyo Joe” (1949)
1198 is “Cargo to Capetown” (1950)
1212 is “The Killer That Stalked New York” (1950)
etc etc

[eerik]

4K Ultra HD Collection Volume I:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Lawrence of Arabia
Dr. Strangelove
Gandhi
A League of Their Own
Jerry Maguire

[Ribs]

Well, shout out to Sony for curating six movies I totally love that make me totally happy to buy something like this at release to support more exploration of the catalog

[eerik]

More details in the press release. Dr. Strangelove will carry over all the Criterion special features, while Lawrance of Arabia and Gandhi will be split across two discs.

[domino harvey]

Dr. Strangelove will carry over all the Criterion special features

Isn't Sony the label that contractually owns any new supplements produced for their licensed titles? This may not have been Criterion's call

[hearthesilence]

More details in the press release. Dr. Strangelove will carry over all the Criterion special features, while Lawrance of Arabia and Gandhi will be split across two discs.

I imagine Lawrence of Arabia will be sourced from the same 2012 4K restoration that based its work off of 8K scans of the OCN. From what I can remember of the DCP screening I attended is a super-clean image, which is no surprise given the source elements.

[Roscoe]

I'm hoping that at some point soon afterward LAWRENCE OF ARABIA at least will be available individually...

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

A Czech retailer has a standalone release up for preorder with a release date of June 3rd. I have to assume it'll be released elsewhere around the same time.

[captveg]

If not at the same time I would think by the end of the year. I just can't see Sony passing up additional sales via individual release for some of their more popular catalog titles.

[bluesforyou]

The 4K box is available for CAD 99.99 from Amazon.ca which is about $72 (significantly cheaper than the US price).

[What A Disgrace]

Anybody wanna take a guess as to what's forthcoming in future volumes? I'd say Taxi Driver is a given, and maybe On the Waterfront if being distributed by Columbia counts.

[Ribs]

These are the titles included in the quotes page of the book that have not been released:

It Happened One Night
On the Waterfront
Oliver!
Easy Rider
Taxi Driver
Stripes
Tootsie
Awakenings
As Good As It Gets
Talladega Nights
The Social Network
Captain Phillips
Little Women

Which suggests two further boxes from this pool and one standalone (which could be Talladega Nights due to seeming such an odd duck out, or The Social Network for its anniversary, or maybe Little Women bc its release cancelled and they didn’t update the art...)

[RitrovataBlue]

I think the best guesses for a second volume come from the first half of that list. A box without historic prestige titles won’t sell the kind of numbers they’re going to see from Vol. 1. It Happened One Night, On the Waterfront, and Taxi Driver make the most sense as anchors for Vol. 2, if it’s going to be anything like the first set. The remainder of that box will probably be as random as the latter titles in the first one, but I doubt anything as recent as Captain Philips will make the cut. Tootsie, Little Women, and As Good as It Gets seem more likely than the rest.

[Ribs]

The goal isn’t to front-load all the best library titles into one set; it’s to spread out the titles so each set appeals to a wide variety of interests. So “the best” titles, your Easy Riders and Taxi Drivers, should be spread out to balance movies like Awakenings or Oliver! that are more filling a slot because they have 4K masters done. If they cared about just the most appealing titles they would have put Taxi Driver in Gandhi’s place in the first set. Similarly, the premise of the sets is “the Columbia library - from then to now!” and the fact of their inclusion in a list of “the great Columbia quotes” shows that recency is not preventing Captain Phillips or Little Women from meeting that criteria. In fact, the survey upthread indicated one of the goals in these sets is to have a “modern classic” to go with the rest - which just happened to be a ~25 year old title.

It’s odd, IMO, you think Awakenings is more likely to be included then Captain Phillips, basically the only movie in recent memory to have entered the collective consciousness with a classic movie quote other than maybe the Social Network. The inclusion of recent movies will help sets like these sell, and limiting it to just the old ones would cut off the type of movies most UHD consumers seem to be interested in.

[Lowry_Sam]

These random studio collection boxes drive me up a wall. I'll wait for individual releases of the ones I want (Lawrence, Strangelove, Taxi Driver, On The Waterfront, Oliver!, maybe Mr. Smith), having a disc with Tom Cruise or Greg Kinnear in my collection would give me the heebee jeebies.

[Drucker]

These random studio collection boxes drive me up a wall. I'll wait for individual releases of the ones I want (Lawrence, Strangelove, Taxi Driver, On The Waterfront, Oliver!, maybe Mr. Smith), having a disc with Tom Cruise or Greg Kinnear in my collection would give me the heebee jeebies.

Yes I'd hate to have copies of...Magnolia or Minority Report or Eyes Wide Shut in my collection.

[The Narrator Returns]

I'd buy a 4K of Collateral long before I'd even consider buying one of Oliver!.

[What A Disgrace]

Its worth noting that the quotes pages also reference several films which have already been released, like Bridge on the River Kwai and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Hopefully they'll get their own box, or be conveniently boxed with films you don't want. In reality, of course, all the ones you already own will be boxed with the films you want most, except for Little Women which will be boxed set exclusive and only available in the same box as Talladega Nights, Hook, Stripes and Spider-Man.

[Ribs]

My impression of the page is less “these are the films released in the Columbia Classics line” and more “these are the classic films Columbia has available on 4K.” Maybe that’s just being wilfully ignorant.

[Lowry_Sam]

These random studio collection boxes drive me up a wall. I'll wait for individual releases of the ones I want (Lawrence, Strangelove, Taxi Driver, On The Waterfront, Oliver!, maybe Mr. Smith), having a disc with Tom Cruise or Greg Kinnear in my collection would give me the heebee jeebies.

Yes I'd hate to have copies of...Magnolia or Minority Report or Eyes Wide Shut in my collection.

I actually have Magnolia & thought someone would probably mention it, but the character he plays is rather odious like himself, so that one does get a pass. Have avoided the other 2 because he's in them, perhaps I'll visit Eyes Wide Shut some day, but I've been avoiding it because I love Kubrick & suspect I will think less of him after seeing it. Minority Report just looks like more CGI dependent scifi/ action which leaves me cold.

[RitrovataBlue]

Mr. Smith is absolutely worth buying. I watched the new UHD with my kids a few days ago and my eight year old was captivated. The lines on Stewart’s suit were plainly visible, and the audio sounded better than perhaps any 30s film I’ve seen (with the exception of the recent Wizard of Oz UHD).

Eyes Wide Shut is one of Kubrick’s best films, IMO. It’s a pitch black comic thriller about the fetid heterosexual male unconscious. It uses Cruise even more unconventionally than PT Anderson did in Magnolia, where Cruise’s sweaty need for public approval was integral to the character. In Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick hones in on Cruise’s pathological narcissism and builds a phantasmagoric mirror image of it on screen.

[eerik]

New poll for (potential) vol.2. 4K boxset.

[domino harvey]

Interestingly only five of those were released on Blu by Sony themselves

[Ribs]

Interesting they aren’t asking after the “modern classic” this time - makes me interested if they’ve decided the sets would be better just to focus on the older titles (which would make sense, in a way, given new titles will sell better on their own). I voted for A Matter of Life and Death in both polls, as well as A Man for All Seasons and On the Watefront, all movies I really, really love (I believe, personally, On the Waterfront is such a lock for a second set it’s almost throwing my vote away to check it). Used the comment box (and implore others to as well) to suggest Little Women be allowed a release, the highest grossing studio film of last year to not recieve a 4K despite being an Oscar winner and multiple nominee. It only grossed multiple times something like Charlie’s Angels that Sony released on 4K without breaking a sweat! Having seen it seven times theatrically on film I really don’t like it having to live on a format I don’t think catches the same presentation as well as UHD manages with HDR.

Definitely do NOT recommend looking at Blu-ray’s forums for what they’re voting for.

[Calvin]

Is there any reason the survey seems restricted to US residents? The Vol. 1 release saw a UK release as well, but it seems they don't care for our opinion on what goes in the second one