Stranger on DVD

[Michael O'Hara]

Listed on Amazon....no special features listed......yet....

AMAZON

[colwood]

I don't really expect any extras, except for maybe the trailer. But as far as quality goes, wasn't it MGM that released a German R2 dvd of the Stranger some time ago that (at least at dvdbeaver.com) is considered the best print on any Stranger dvd?

[Michael O'Hara]

So did anyone else pick up the new Stranger DVD? I got it a couple of days ago. The picture quality is quite good. The only other version I’m familiar with is the Roan version, which itself wasn’t half bad, but this is definitely a superior release, and I suppose it will banish those public domain prints into oblivion. I am still annoyed that MGM/FOX couldn’t even be bothered to include a trailer. I mean, this package is as bare-bones as you can get. This DVD will sit on my shelf with shame beside the complete Mr. Arkadin. Don’t these studios realize the importance of Mr. Welles? Each of his films should be presented as historically significant and have a healthy supply of extra features. What, was Peter Bogdonovich busy that week or something? Gimme a commentary, a trailer, anything. Jeesh. Well, at least we have the film, and it’s a terrific little picture and now it looks better than ever. Now where the hell is Chimes At Midnight?

[purplepines]

Was there a special trailer made for The Stranger that you're talking about? Because if not, you have the movie - why mourn a trailer? Unless the making of a movie or the background of its topic is really noteworthy, or if all the extras lend a VASTLY informative perspective to a film, I have to side with David Lynch - a movie is what matters for a DVD release. Spend your resources on its restoration/preservation, not ephemera. An opinion, merely.

[Michael O'Hara]

I agree, it's the movie that matters, it just seems that they could have included some form of bonus features, especially since they wanted $17.99 for it. Typical MGM/FOX. But yes, the clean print of the film is the most important thing, and it's worth every penny.

[smartone]

Hulu.com is ad supported online video -- It is totally legit - not pirate site but site run by studios.

Pretty good looks like a good print

http://www.hulu.com/watch/34115/the-stranger

[Glenn Anders]

Thank you, smartone.

The picture quality is beautiful, and hulu.com tells us exactly how long the little commercials will last.

Watching THE STRANGER, after quite a few years, I was reminded that the opening of the film, as it now stands, is in certain ways like the version of MR. ARKADIN I saw in London, back in 1955. THE STRANGER also has a mood like that of Charles Laughton's NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, an upscale resemblance.

Having this copy here should help us settle a few of our arguments on other threads.

Glenn

[Randy Cook]

THE STRANGER also showed last week on MGM's HD channel, making it the first Welles-directed film I've seen in HD. I assume this transfer is also the source for the hulu print and also the dvd (which I've not seen).

In any event, the picture looks damn good in HD, better than I've seen it in many previous incarnations. I hope it's an indication of things to come.

[ToddBaesen]

Randy:

This has nothing to do with this thread, but given your background and expertise, would you care to make any comments you think might be germane about Welles use of Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion footage from EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS in F FOR FAKE?

Did you like it, think it was cut into F FOR FAKE well, or perhaps think Welles might have been better off using someone like Jim Danforth to create original footage for Welles WAR OF THE WORLDS broadcast for the film?

[Randy Cook]

Hi Todd

Well, as Peter Cook once said, "Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear. "

I never met Welles so I can't provide any real insight, only guesswork. Ray Harryhausen, I can state with warm pride, happens to be a friend of mine, as well as a hero. While I'm loath to indulge in amateur psychological sleuthing, there are a few inferences I've drawn which might nibble at the edges of the truth.

F FOR FAKE was screened for investors at, I believe, Paramount shortly after its completion. Somehow, as a UCLA student I got in to this rather large screening and was surprised to see the EARTH VS. shots included. I confess I wasn't as impressed by Welles' achievement then as I would later become...I was hoping for a dramatic narrative film in the TOUCH OF EVIL style: Welles was probably ahead of his time, but he was definitely ahead of ME!

Anyway, he framed the use of the UFO footage in terms of "how silly" an alien invasion would look if actually shown, rather than left to the radio audience's imaginations. In that context Welles' use of the Harryhausen footage seemed to be a deliberate slam. As an admirer of both men I was puzzled & affronted, like a kid watching Mommy and Daddy fighting.

I don't think the Harryhausen footage was a random choice.

Here's anecdotal evidence: Welles had actually agreed to appear in a Harryhausen picture a short time before. A July 1972 Variety announced the commencement of production, in Spain, of SINBAD'S GOLDEN VOYAGE, With John Philip Law...and ORSON WELLES. Great! Reading this was a thrill, I was out in Flagstaff doing summer theatre and the idea that Welles was going to be in a Harryhausen picture was ample indication that the stars were aligning in the heavens with the sole purpose of making little Randy happy.

When THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD came out a few years later, there was no Orson.

According to Ray, in a conversation some years later, Welles had waited till the week before shooting and then doubled his fee, and producer Charles Schneer told him to go to hell...so Robert Shaw wound up playing the part, uncredited. But Robert Shaw wasn't the VILLAIN... he was a mysterious poetry-spouting ORACLE wearing ram's horns.


That's all I know. The rest is fevered conjecture. If the following is too boresome or silly, picture the events as a "CSI crime reconstruction", full of flash pans and soundtrack whooshes and trucks-into faces and FX shots of alcohol being absorbed into bloodstreams.

I figure that Welles read the script late and saw that he had to speak a bunch of portentious exposition from behind several pounds of goat makeup, & figured that the only war he could get out of it was by asking too much money.

Maybe he even roped Robert Shaw into it.

Maybe Robert Shaw got drunk and burned down Welles house in Spain as revenge.

Maybe the above is ridiculous (of course it is...what I MEAN is that maybe it's not true). But hasn't it al the elements for a nice showy/cornball/awful CSI montage? Hmmm?

Anyway, I think maybe Orson was getting back a little at the man who wanted to fit him for a Ram's horn helmet.

But it's just a guess.

ps.

Oh. I just re-read your post. You requested any GERMANE comments.

Never mind.

[Randy Cook]

I left out a final "oh dear" in the P. Cook quote. Sorry.

I meant "swish-pan", not flash pan, which is a camera move used by someone whose success is very brief.

"the only war he could get out of it" is another Freudian slip...I meant "way".

"Al the elements" should be ALL.

The sad is, I DID proof-read the post. Sigh.

[Randy Cook]

Sad THING. Damn.

[ToddBaesen]

Randy:

Thanks for your comments. I found it especially interesting to find out that Paramount had an interest in distributing F FOR FAKE. At the time, Robert Evans was in charge of production there, and there was a little group called THE DIRECTORS COMPANY, which was composed of Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Ford Coppola and William Friedkin.

Supposedly, Bogdanovich wanted Paramount and the Director's Company to finance a Welles film, but a very stupid Paramount executive named Peter Bart said "NO WAY!" Coppola and Friedkin apparently sided with Bart, and so no formal offer was ever made to Welles. On the other hand, I've heard stories that Robert Evans had offered Welles several films to direct and Welles turned them all down!

But why wouldn't Paramount want to pick up the completed Welles film, F FOR FAKE and distribute it in America? It would have certainly been seen by far more people and gotten much better promotion from Paramount that what Specialty Films of Seattle did with it!

As you note, Ray H. wanted Orson Welles to play in Sinbad, which was ironically around the same time Welles was using Ray's Flying Saucer footage in F FOR FAKE. Obviously Welles had to pay Columbia some kind of fee for using that footage, so it seems that if he agreed to lower his fee for appearing in Sinbad's Golden Voyage - instead of raising it - both parties might have come out ahead, and one of Ray's finest later movies would have had the added value of Orson Welles appearing as the voice of the Oracle!

Sad Indeed!