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I noticed this afternoon that BBC2 showed a restored version of "King Kong" as part of a two film tribute to the late Fay Wray.
Knowing that Universal control the rights to the RKO library worldwide except for North America and that Warner Bros control the North American territory, and being aware that Warners are doing/completed a major restoration of King Kong, would Universal automatically have access to the new restoration? Or would they have to contribute to a restoration before they could have access? What would happen if Universal thought a restoration was a waste of time but Warners felt differently- would the restoration still go ahead but with Warners only having access to the finished restoration?

[Ken Barnes]

In the case of RKO, Ted Turner - who is currently linked with Warner Brothers - bought ther enitre RKO catalogue for North America. Universal have ONLY the UK rights to RKO. All other countries are licensed on a territory-by-territory basis. Thus Universal are not inclined to pay out huge amounts for restoration of titles for which they own only area.

In the case of CITIZEN KANE - for which Laureate was commissioned to produce a Special Edition - we had hoped to use the Region 1 Turner restoration but the cost proved prohibitive. The original camera negative of "Kane" had been burned in the early 1950s ( under mysterious circumstances ) - but I obtained a 35mm fine grain interpositive from the British Film Institute which had been struck from a borrowed copy negative. We spent two months restoring the picture and a further month on audio restoration. The time and expense was far less than the two years and $450,000 that Turner spent on their version ( which many film experts consider too "overcooked" ). Our version, on the other hand, has a more filmic look and is - in the opinion of many reviewers - a superior rendering of this classic film. The cost was little more than 10%
of Turner's.

This is not to say that ours is the better of the two, I can only tell you that I prefer it. So, as the saying goes, "yer pays yer money and yer takes your choice."

Would Universal be interested in doing a similar job on "King Kong" ?
I doubt it.

[Guest]

I would really appreciate a Tourneur-RKO-Boxset with the Laureate treatment.

[James LM]

I am glad that this has been explained to me. This is why Warner brothers' film noir boxset has no chance of being released here. Three of the five films are RKO films. Who then, has DVD distribution rights for the King Brothers films? One of their films, "Gun Crazy / (Deadly is the Female)" is in the collection, and is the best of the five. great picture quality and a vary informative commentary from fil noir historian Glenn Erickson. It would have been great if it had come with a Peggy Cummins audio commentary. I suppose as she lives in the south of england it would have been a little impractical for the US producers of the DVD to arrange. It would be good if one was recorded for a release here. I just love that one take Hampton robbery sequence.

[Ken Barnes]

I think you have to thank Ted Turner ( an avid film buff ) or someone who works for him - for obtaining "Gun Crazy." I don't know how this came about, but probably Turner or Warners bought the King Brothers library.

No, you won't see this excellent Film Noir collection released over here.
In fact, with the recent Sony MGM acquisition, we may not even see "The Asphalt Jungle" on Region 2. The Warners box set is listed as Vol 1 - so hopefully, we'll see a second set that will carry more RKO and King Brothers titles - and possibly some interesting Warner titles like "Three Strangers," "The Unsuspected" and "The Mask of Demtrios." Then again, maybe not, since MGM own all Warners material up to 1949.

[James LM]

Don't Warners own all MGM titles up to a certain year? Possibly the same year. Why don't they swap them back, make things a little less confusing.

[Ken Barnes]

The whole thing with Warners and MGM is confusing. There's a certain chronology that goes something like this:

A. Back in the late 1960s, United Artists bought all of the Warner catalogue up to 1949. Thus, in the early years of video and laser,many classic Warner titles - the Cagneys, the Flynns, the Bogarts, etc. - were released by U.A. and later - after the merger - MGM-UA.

B. In the 1980s, Ted Turner "bought" ( if that's the right word ) the MGM catalogue ( which did NOT mean MGM-UA - the Bonds,The Pink Panthers, The Great Escape, etc. remained with MGM-UA )

C. in the 1990s, Ted Turner's organisation joined forces with Warners - which is why such MGM classics as "High Society," "Singin' In The Rain" "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone With The Wind" were issued on DVD under the Warner banner.

D. Turner also bought the RKO catalogue BUT for the USA only - since this catalogue was broken down into different territories for the rest of the world. And this is why Warner UK cannot issue the Film Noir Collection or the U.S. versions of the Marx Brothers Collection, the Cary Grant Signature Collection and the Hitchcock Signature Collection.

Now that Sony has acquired the MGM catalogue ( which includes the Bonds and the Panthers, etc. ) what's to be made of this ? Does the Turner Company still retain the pure MGM classics ? Or does EVERYTHING go to Sony ? These are questions that have not yet been fully answered. But the coming months will reveal all. In the meantime, Warners are still planning to issue DVDs of the Astaire films "Easter Parade" and "The Band Wagon." Also a new Special Edition of "Gone With The Wind." So go figure !