Missing Movies from Classic Hollywood
Posted on October 24, 2015 at 3:32 pm
Michael Hiltzik writes in the LA Times:
700 titles assumed to be nestled in the vaults of Universal Pictures, which inherited Paramount’s 1930s and 1940s film archive from its forebear MCA, which acquired the collection in 1958. They’re frustratingly near at hand but out of reach of film fans and cinephiles.
Like most of the other major studios, Universal is grappling with the challenging economics of making more of this hoard accessible to the public on DVD, video on demand or streaming video. Studios have come to realize that there’s not only marketable value in the films, but publicity value in performing as responsible stewards of cultural assets.
The list of unavailable films is tantalizing and I hope this article inspires Paramount to issue them on DVD as Warners has.