one man band Bogdanovich version

[Tony]

Just bid on the Bogdanovich "One Man Band" dvd on eBay- hung in til $50, then dropped out. The item just sold for $106.50!!!
Mind you, it sure is rare. Will that ever get a commercial release, or did Bea put the kibosh on it?

[Glenn Anders]

Tony: I remember Rick Schmidlin pointed out that Showtime restricted the number of legal copies for his reconstruction of Von Stroheim's GREED to a very small number. Perhaps the same is true in the case of Bogdanovich's ONE MAN BAND. Who can say why the cable companies do what they do?

They may feel that ten or twenty years from now these works will be of greater value, perhaps in a series, perhaps in a new format.

Glenn

[Wilson]

GREED is up as one of Warner's next batch of films that viewers can vote on for release. I would imagine any DVD release would include the Schmidlin reconstruction. I think Turner Classic Movies' web site probably has the details up somewhere. As for One Man Band, the agreement to let it be screened might only have covered screenings on TV, and not any provisions for release.

[Glenn Anders]

Great news, Jeff, about a Warner's release of GREED. Perhaps, that was one to the things Schmidlin said he was going to discuss with Warner Brothers the week after we had occasion to speak. You also put your finger on a difference among TV, Theatrical and Video releases.

I would hope you are right that Schmidlin's reconstruction is included. It is so very fine.

Glenn

[Tony]

what music would be used for Greed?

[Sir Bygber Brown]

Wow, 106 bucks! I think I got mine for US$42.51 including shipping. You can be lucky - just depends on who's bidding and how many have seen it. The other day I paid fifty bucks for something they got for five bucks.

As much as i love OMB, i dont' think i'd pay 200 Aussie dollars for it.

[Sir Bygber Brown]

I'd prefer to see Stroheim's Merry Widow put on VHS even! Just saw it at the Sydney Film Festival with live accompaniment - it was really great. The audience were cracked up by the subversive salacious sense of humour. They even cheered - during the movie!

And whatever you've heard about "all those shots of shoes" is such hogwash. There are about five or six total, and when you see them in context its so obvious... one character is staring at shoes and salivating! Its so bleeding obvious he's a foot fetishist. Ah, the naivety.

[Glenn Anders]

Sir Bygber: THE MERRY WIDOW, BLIND HUSBANDS, FOOLISH WIVES and THE WEDDING MARCH are splendid, I agree. [I saw a restored THE WEDDING MARCH a couple of years ago, with Fay Wray in attendance.] But in the context of the AMBERSONS-like destruction of the original, and its literary, historical and epic American scope, the 1999 restoration of GREED is more impressive. The influence of the original on CITIZEN KANE, no matter what Welles may have said, is likely, and on Huston's THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE unmistakeable. To see it at 250 minutes is overwhelming.

Tony, for the music, Schmidlin used a new score by Robert Israel.

Glenn