Preliminary Magnificent Ambersons DVD info on amazon.com

[Dan]

Average price = $10.31, cheap. Will probably be even less in a few months. At least it didn't end up on VOD.

[Jay]

I bet that all of those people who paid upwards of $40 on ebay for it when you couldn't officially buy it on its own are kicking themselves now.

[RayKelly]

There was one fellow selling dubs with a second audio taken off the Criterion laser disc for $10!

[Dan]

There was one fellow selling dubs with a second audio taken off the Criterion laser disc for $10!

Wait till Warner's lawyers get a hold of him!

[RayKelly]

I would normally feel bad for a studio, but WB has not done right by fans with this release
Releasing a standard DVD with no extras, even the trailer, is a sin.
WB could have issued this package as a made-on-demand 2 years ago!
My guess is thye hope to squeeze a few bucks from die-hard fans before offering them a deluxe package a year from now.
I will hold off on buying this title in hopes of a Blu-ray with extras.

[A Sled in Flames]

I have a question: I already have the Criterion LD of Mag. Ambersons. Is the new transfer on the recent DVD improved to a level to merit trying to get it (if it comes out as a stand-alone)?

I have both, and I think that the DVD represents a significant upgrade in picture quality. Now that it's coming out as a standalone DVD (amazon has it listed for about $10 right now), I think it's definitely worth buying.

Thanks for the advice, Jay!

There was one fellow selling dubs with a second audio taken off the Criterion laser disc for $10!

I wonder if the commentary audio is properly synced... It would be interesting to see that audio track (which I recall as quite informative) with the significant upgrade Jay describes.

[atcolomb]

The following is a dvd review of Ambersons from The Digital Bits webisite...can't agree about the reviewer's look of the print used for the dvd.

"I don't propose to say anything new about a film that has been justly praised and analyzed over many years. Suffice it to say that if you haven't somehow had the opportunity to see The Magnificent Ambersons, you are indeed in for a special time. Despite its unfortunate history that saw the film be taken out of Welles's hands by RKO when it previewed poorly, chopped from 130 minutes to under 90 (albeit by a skilled editor such as Robert Wise), and with some scenes reshot by assistant director Freddie Fleck, The Magnificent Ambersons remains a remarkable profile of a bygone era, following the story of the socially prominent midwestern Amberson family whose fortunes become undone and whose chief scion Georgie (Tim Holt), a spoiled brat of a child, may be in for a deserving comeuppance. Many of the Welles hallmarks of incisive and mellifluous dialogue (narration at times intoned by Welles himself), superb deep-focus cinematography, and of course the presence of numerous of his Mercury Players (Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Ray Collins, Erskine Sanford, e.g.) help to set and maintain the film's hold on the viewer. It's a pleasure to report that Warner Bros. DVD of the film looks and sounds excellent. The film's outstanding cinematography has been beautifully captured in a bright, crisp, clean 1.37:1 image that retains a fine component of grain. The contrast is a delight to behold. The mono sound delivers the dialogue clearly throughout, with no trace of hiss or distortion. English (SDH), French, and Spanish subtitles are also provided as is a Spanish mono soundtrack. It is less of a pleasure to report that the disc contains no supplements at all, a distinct disappointment given the amount of information about the film's history that exists. One can only hope that Warner Bros. has The Magnificent Ambersons in its sights for a full-blown Blu-ray release that would correct the supplement oversight and maybe even include Wellers's Journey Into Fear as had been once hinted at by the studio. For now though, The Magnificent Ambersons DVD is recommended, if grudgingly so. Certainly those of you who have made do with European DVD releases to date will be pleased by the much improved image component of the film that Warners has managed"

[Dan]

Preliminary Magnificent Ambersons Blu-ray info -

http://www.amazon.com/Magnificent-Amber ... B0059XTUYU

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Magni ... ray/56156/

Sign up and be notified if/when it is released at the above links.

[edmoney]

Dan, are these new pages that have been recently put up by Amazon and Blu-ray.com? Or have they been around for quite awhile? Just curious if the timing means anything.

[Dan]

Dan, are these new pages that have been recently put up by Amazon and Blu-ray.com? Or have they been around for quite awhile? Just curious if the timing means anything.

Really don't know. Amazon will put up a placeholder page years before a release like they did with the DVD of Ambersons. I'm too new to the Blu-ray.com website to discern a pattern.

[Jeff Wilson]

Blu-ray.com uses Amazon listings for fee referrals and probably has a script that automatically uploads anything that gets added to Amazon's blu-ray listings so members can click through to buy. I wouldn't take it as a sign they know anything.

[Roger Ryan]

One might note that Amazon had a listing for the DVD release of AMBERSONS up for 13 years before the thing was actually available (as noted on the first page of this thread). As I noted back in 2007, I had signed up with Amazon back in 2000 to be notified when the release was imminent, but they never bothered to send the alert when the disc was finally issued in late 2011!

[Dan]

One might note that Amazon had a listing for the DVD release of AMBERSONS up for 13 years before the thing was actually available (as noted on the first page of this thread). As I noted back in 2007, I had signed up with Amazon back in 2000 to be notified when the release was imminent, but they never bothered to send the alert when the disc was finally issued in late 2011!

I signed up back in 2007 but don't remember if I ever received a notification when it came out on DVD.

[Dan]

Preliminary Magnificent Ambersons Blu-ray info -

http://www.amazon.com/Magnificent-Amber ... B0059XTUYU

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Magni ... ray/56156/

Sign up and be notified if/when it is released at the above links.

Here we are 4 years later and both those Ambersons placeholder links are still active, but still no Ambersons on Blu-ray. Happy Summer everybody!

[edmoney]

This is only speculation, of course, but I think there is quite a reasonable chance that it gets released by Criterion ... hopefully in the not too distant future. As someone on the Bluray.com forum has pointed out, a whole bunch of Warner titles all went OOP around the same time. Of those, the following have become Criterion releases since then:

Dreams (Akira Kurosawa)
Blow Up (Michelangelo Antonioni)
The Breaking Point (Michael Curtiz)
Barcelona (Whit Stillman)
The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston)
Day for Night (Francois Truffaut)
Before Sunset (Richard Linklater)
Cat People (Jacques Tourneur)
Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater)

The remaining titles are:

Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)
A Face in the Crowd (Elia Kazan)
Klute (Alan Pakula)

I'm sensing a pattern here ...