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Sometimes when Hollywood remakes a classic, the classic actually emerges on DVD from a period of oblivion, but that\u2019s never happened to Ransom!<\/a><\/strong> Neither the 1956 film about a kidnapped boy nor the 1953 live teleplay are available on DVD (Region 2 land fares better), but Ransom<\/strong>, Ron Howard\u2019s 1996 remake, is (albeit only in an unnecessarily longer Director\u2019s Cut).<\/p>\n It might be rights issues, or apathy, but whatever excuse is restricting the \u201956 film to the realms of TV (such as TCM) is frankly criminal, because it\u2019s that good<\/em>. It bears one of Glenn Ford\u2019s best performances, and a superb, sharp script by Richard Maibaum and Cyril Hune \u2013 authors of the original teleplay (which I would love to see).<\/p>\n The script is so good that two scenes where retained, almost verbatim, for Howard\u2019s remake, and director Alex Segal stayed away from score and flashy montages and carried over some of the conventions of live TV by putting the camera smack in the center of Ford\u2019s anguish as he struggles with the decision to pay or not pay the ransom that may or may not free his beloved son.<\/p>\n Rudolph Mat\u00e9\u2019s Union Station <\/a><\/strong>(1950) is an equally compelling kidnapping tale set moments after the daughter of a similarly wealthy father is snatched, and one could argue the writers of Howard\u2019s Ransom<\/strong> remake interpolated Union Station<\/strong>\u2019s ruthless kidnappers \u2013 the greedy leader, his overly sympathetic moll \u2013 because the evil force that took the boy in Segal\u2019s drama is never seen<\/em>.<\/p>\n Starring William Holden, Union Station <\/strong>is about chasing down facts and clues and getting the kidnappers before the money is dropped off. Mat\u00e9 used some excellent locations, including Los Angeles\u2019 railway station and small pockets of Chicago\u2019s Tunnel Railroad<\/a>, which was shuttered a few years later. In terms of a docu-crime style, Union Station <\/strong>is kind of the kissing cousin of Mat\u00e9\u2019s chilling D.O.A.<\/strong>, made the same year.<\/p>\n Although it shows up quite often on TCM, Union Station <\/strong>is reportedly coming to DVD via Olive Films <\/a>around September (originally June) of 2010. Much like the spate of Paramount titles that were licensed to Legend Films, the new wave contains a neat mix of classic and cult titles:<\/p>\n If it\u2019s a true go, a number of rare titles will finally be out on DVD, including Andrew Marton\u2019s Crack in the World<\/strong>, Joseph E. Levine\u2019s rival Harlow<\/strong> biopc, Raquel Welch\u2019s vanity film Hannie Caulder<\/strong> (with its great Ken Thorn score), the taut drama Rope of Sand<\/strong>, Tennessee Williams\u2019 Summer and Smoke<\/strong> (featuring a lovely Elmer Bernstein score), and a trio of Otto Preminger oddities: the \u2018comedy\u2019 Skidoo<\/strong> (which TCM has been showing in widescreen), Such Good Friends<\/strong>, and the sweaty racial drama Hurry Sundown<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Some film fans may have noticed a lot<\/em> of Paramount catalogue titles have gone out of print, such as Brian De Palma\u2019s Obsession<\/strong>, David Lynch\u2019s Elephant Man<\/strong>, The Red Tent<\/strong>, and Lipstick<\/strong>. Those by major directors will probably return to DVD alongside Blu-ray editions (Elephant<\/strong> is a perfect candidate for HD), whereas lesser titles may kind of be gone.<\/p>\n Comparatively fewer are fewer classics are coming out on DVD. Fox seems content to license titles to Region 2 labels but here in North America their classics seem to be restricted to TV airings, including their own HD channel and digital download platform, whereas Paramount still isn\u2019t sure what to do with their library.<\/p>\n The Legend Films deal from around 2007-2008 \u00a0(which included goodies like Phase IV<\/a><\/strong>) felt like a test for Paramount: see whether revenues from licensed titles are similar to those derived from in-house product, and maybe the Olive deal is another test to see whether licensing \u2013 which is no new idea \u2013 is the most cost-effective way to earn cash up front. Moreover, licensing would also save Paramount from having to worry about returned physical product idling in the warehouse.<\/p>\n Perhaps the reason one finds more classics being licensed to European labels on a country-by-country basis is that the studios think it\u2019s a smaller market, and English language markets are still largely controlled by the major labels, hence Fox distributing its own catalogue in the U.S. and Canada, but licensing titles like John Huston\u2019s The Roots of Heaven<\/strong> (1958) or Roy Ward Baker\u2019s colour noir thriller Inferno<\/strong> (1953) to native Spanish labels.<\/p>\n Universal, which owns a massive catalogue (including pre-WII Paramount titles) has been spotty with classics on DVD. Some titles have been licensed as exclusive Warner Archives releases (U.S. only, yet again), others as overpriced, bare bones entries in their Backlot series (which Canadian vendors have to import, such as Trail of the Lonesome Pine<\/a><\/strong>).<\/p>\n And then there are a few titles coming out of Germany as newly transferred special editions.<\/p>\n KOCH Media in Germany has being picking through some of Universal\u2019s TV (The Bionic Woman<\/strong> series) and film catalogue. Whereas the John Wayne-Howard Hughes cult films The Conqueror<\/strong> (1956) and Jet Pilot<\/strong> (1957) are available here as heavily compressed transfers in Universal\u2019s budget-line John Wayne set, KOCH gave the two special editions in Germany, and coming shortly will be a review of Jet Pilot<\/strong>, which features a lovely 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer.<\/p>\n I\u2019m still mulling over buying The Conqueror<\/strong>, though. It\u2019s the idiot cousin of Jet Pilot<\/strong>, but it\u2019s two hours of pure awfulness, and features one of Victor Young\u2019s worst scores.<\/p>\n – MRH<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Film reviews of two great kidnapping thrillers, the original Ransom! (1956) starring Glenn Ford, and William Holden in Union Station (1950), plus a list of classic and cult Paramount films coming soon to DVD from Olive Films, and more editorial blather\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-22f","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7827"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7827\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i917.photobucket.com\/albums\/ad14\/wegeewegee\/UnionStation1950_Fr_poster_s.gif\")
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