laureatedvd.com

[Phil Jellicoe]

Dear Ken Barnes,

In your listing of Crosby films on DVD, you overlooked Bells of St. Marys.
An immensely popular film in its day, this is now mainly remembered as the sequel to Going My Way and as the film which co-starred Ingrid Bergman. It's still a pretty good example of Bing the actor and light comedian. It also has one or two fine songs. I would say this deserves a place in any Crosby collection.

P.J.

[Ken Barnes]

You're absolutely right, Phil. I don't know how I overlooked "Bells." THe current Region 1 DVD offers an excellent print and,of course, it's an important part of the Crosby canon.

Ken

[Paul Seiler]

Dear Ken Barnes,

I'd like to see the list of DVDs that Phil Jellicoe was referring to. Is it on the website ?

[Ken Barnes]

Hi Paul,

No, it was a list that I faxed to Phil last year before he had gone on line.

Just for the record, here's the list COMPLETE

Going My Way/Holiday Inn ( Universal Double Feature )
Holiday Inn ( U.K. Diamond Annersary Edition - Laureate )
Pennies From Heave ( Region 1 Only )
Road to Singapore
Road To Zanzibar
Road To Morocco
Road To Utopia
Road To Rio
Road to Bali ( Brentwood is the best of all versions available -Region 1 )
White Christmas ( the Best Selling of Bing's films on DVD )
High Society ( the 2nd Best Seller )
Rhythm On The Range/Rhythm On The River
Blue Skies/Birth of the Blues ( Universal Double Feature )
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court/ The Emperor Walts (Universal double Feature )
The Road To Hong Kong ( Region 1 Only )
The Bells of St. Mary's

All of the Universal Double Features are Region 1 Only.

The first four "Road" pictures are available in Region 2 and Region 4 in a Laureate Edition for Universal (Uk) Ltd.

And that, I think, covers ALL of Bing's feature films on DVD unless you count cameo appearances in various other films. But, for the puroposes of this list, these are all bona fide feature films. Not a bad collection. Let's hope there'll be more to come. But this should be enough to be going on with.

Best
Ken

[Jack Clowes]

Ken

Surely ROBIN AND THE SEVEN HOODS is more than just a cameo appearance. I mean the man has "Style"

Jack

[Ken Barnes]

You're right, Jack. There I go again. Funny that I should overlook "Robin And The 7 Hoods" because I was in Hollywood in June,2002 when Frank Sinatra,Jr recorded his audio commentary for this DVD.

Bing's part is,of course, something more than a cameo but I think I must have subconsciously lumped it together with things like "My Favorite Blonde," "My Favorite Brunette" and "Let's Make Love." Thanks, Jack, for pointing this out.

Ken

[NORTHWEST]

One film of Bing's I would love to see (and even better own on DVD) is "Anything Goes". I know Bing made this film twice and would dearly love to have both versions, but in particular I would like the 1950s version as I seem to have a very vague recollection of seeing it when I first became interested in films back in the 1970s.

Anyone know why this film has never been shown again on TV for such a long time?

[Malcolm Macfarlane]

"Anything Goes" (1956) was shown on Sky Movies twice last week!

[NORTHWEST]

Thanks Malcolm.

Not having Sky I never check listings. Now I'll just have to find a friend with Sky.

By the way was it shown on one of the 2 Sky Cinema channels?

[Malcolm Macfarlane]

Yes, it was shown on Sky Cinema. Collectors will undoubtedly have videoed it.

Malcolm Macfarlane
Editor - BING magazine
email: Macwilmslo@aol.com

[Sue Horn]

Hello, Ken!

Congratulations for this forum. As with all you do, it is a great job.

I have a question since my DVD player is Region 1. Is there a chance that I might be able to play the wonderful Region 2 DVDs that you have put out on my player? Is there some type of device that I should put on it in order to be able to read those DVDs?

The reason I ask is that I'd love to get the best versions of Bing on DVD that are out there, and your disks definitely quality!
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Sue

[Ryan]

Hello, just thought I'd mention there's a site that deals with changing region restrictions on DVD players: www.regionfreedvd.net
I'm not affiliated with the site in any way, and they say their advice is only to be used when "moving to a new region", because region restrictions are put in by strict authority. However, I believe the Laureate discs are also in the PAL format, which changing regions won't help if you have an NTSC screen (North America/Japan etc.).

[Ken Barnes]

Hi Sue

Welcome aboard the Laureate website. Good to have your interest in our Region 2 products.

Thanks Ryan, for that new website info on Regeion Free. But I seem to recall that you bought a player that did the job of playing all regions without any problem. Judy Schmid ( of Syracuse,NY ) wrote and told me she was pleased with it. So maybe Sue should try that.

It seems that there are more and more options becoming available all the time.

Many thanks for the interest and the assistance.

Best
Ken

[Ryan]

Yes, the player is called a Cyberhome 500, it converts PAL to NTSC or vice versa. Some people have complained about the player to its manufacturer and distributors that it has stopped working or blown parts for them. They received replys that weren't very helpful on fixing the problem in their opinion. However it seemed that most of the problems resulted from heavy usage. So I've tried to just use the player that converts when watching my PAL discs, and my other player for NTSC films. That wouldn't be worth it except for the Cyberhome's reasonable prices. I could go on and on about the DVD player, without knowing if it's of any interest... so I should cut it short I noticed that post I made on the other site was moved here to the box sets forum. I never knew how much work went into creating the new message site, really amazing.

[Sue Horn]

Thanks for the information on the Cyberhome 500. Do you have a ballpark figure for pricing? Is it available on line? Thanks again.
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Sue