The DVD treatment of classic movies

The DVD experience has created a new audience with a new attitude – one that demands that every DVD version of a movie should offer more than the VHS-like replication of a movie, says KEN BARNES. The “extras” represent a unique selling proposition in DVD-Video and it is in this area that the industry has room for improvement.

But speaking as a producer of Special Edition DVDs, I find that too often these days producers are selling customers short. We see DVD packaging proudly pronouncing "Special Features" only to find nothing more than a theatrical trailer, a set of chapters and, if you’re lucky, a couple of sparse biographies.

It remains that new feature films these days generally carry a host of "extras" as part of the production package – interviews with the stars and technicians, behind-the-scenes “making of” documentaries, director’s commentary and so forth. Every new movie is conceived in terms of its post-theatrical market and geared towards creating as long a shelf-life as possible.

The major releasing companies – the Columbias, Warners, Paramounts, Foxes, Universals, Disneys, et al – are immensely skilful in penetrating markets, satisfying their audiences and delivering huge boxoffice returns. And that’s good.

But what about the classics? The much-loved titles that have delivered sustained popularity on TV, at film festivals and have enjoyed a long shelf life on VHS and in the catalogues? Those widely admired films of the 1940s, ’50s and ‘60s present a very different situation.
Certainly, the film companies have recognised the importance of these older classics by releasing them as basic repeats of their VHS counterparts. But, surely, to issue a film-only programme on DVD is a wasted opportunity. It is a disservice to the DVD buyer/renter.

No-one says it’s easy to do a thorough presentation on movies of bygone periods. But progress is being made. A shining example of this is Columbia TriStar’s exemplary presentation of Lawrence of Arabia. Lawrence, of course, was restored – as a film – back in 1989 at the urging of top film directors like Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorcese who admired the film and wanted to see it preserved for posterity. This, of course, was long before the emergence of DVD. This restoration philosophy continued on such major works as My Fair Lady, Spartacus and Vertigo.

And the DVD is now the recipient of all this good work – but what of the many other films of classic status? Films that are close to de-composition through neglect? The cost of restoring Lawrence and those other titles ran into millions of dollars. David Lean’s masterpiece was restored a frame at a time. But restoration doesn't always have to be on that scale or at that level. One of the functions of the company I set up, Laureate Collection, is to rescue as many of these titles as possible and to present them in a way that makes full use of the DVD’s many features.

With many of these movies now showing their age, there are sophisticated technologies that can help to put the sparkle back into the movie’s images. This can be achieved with two devices. The first is known as (DVNR) a Digital Vision Noise Reducer and the second is a primary and secondary colour correction system. Both devices work together to provide a broad spectrum of adjustment and enhancement to the movie’s imagery. It takes a fair amount of time and expertise – but it does work.

In recent times, we’ve seen special editions of such films as The Wizard of Oz (1939), Casablanca (1942), It’s A Wonderful Life. (1946) and, of course, Lawrence Of Arabia (1962). And Universal, it has to be said, has done a wonderful job on its series of Hitchcock classics.

Not surprisingly, MGM/UA has seen to it that all of the James Bond films have been thoroughly documented for DVD. The same goes for Paramount’s exemplary presentation of The Godfather Trilogy.

In the wings is a special high-priced box-set editions of A Star Is Born (1954) and Bullit (1968).

Criterion, which were the pioneers of the special edition, beginning with their 1985 laserdisc versions of King Kong and Citizen Kane, have done some splendid work. The company has proved over the years the wisdom of appealing to the dedicated film buff.

Criterion is probably the film company that made the smoothest transition into DVD. In many cases, they simply remastered laserdisc editions (which were always excellent) and added the necessary refinements.

All of the above examples – and others like them – show what can be done. But, in the majority of cases, the production costs involved in these special DVDs have been enormous and to apply such procedures to every film of classic status would certainly be prohibitive – even for the majors.

Movie makers of the past didn’t have a video production unit following them around picking up behind-the-scenes shots and on-set interviews.

But with a little imagination, careful research and production expertise, excellent extras can be done with reasonable economy. The key is understanding how to become conversant with the period in which these old movies were made.

For example, in our first batch of DVD titles in the Laureate Collection, we did a couple of Fred Astaire musicals – Royal Wedding and Second Chorus. Because I had worked with Fred, I also knew his daughter Ava, who happened to be on the set of Royal Wedding when the famous scene where a love-struck Fred Astaire dances all around a room – even on the walls and the ceiling – was being shot.

Movie buffs have been arguing for years on how this sequence was done. Based on Ava’s description, we produce a sequence of this dance routine not from the camera’s viewpoint – but from Ava’s point of view, an 8-year old schoolgirl at the time. It made a precious extra.
Basically, what is required is an individual archaeological dig on each movie to see what turns up. Usually, one finds something of interest but on occasions you hit paydirt and come up with some real gems of historic importance.

Last year, when we were commissioned by Universal to do a Special 2-disc edition of Citizen Kane, I was hesitant to accept after I’d seen the print they used for their original “vanilla” DVD release.

Fortunately, having had the most appalling reviews for their existing release, they wanted me to find a better print. I should explain that the original negative of Citizen Kane had been burned back in the early 1950s under mysterious circumstances. The best restoration of the Orson Welles classic available was the one released by Turner through Warner Bros on Region 1 (Turner does not have the rights outside of the USA). So Universal applied to Warners to see if they could license that version. I was told that the asking price (for the UK only) was around £25,000 (and for all territories, excluding the USA, £200,000).

This,of course, was prohibitive. So I tried several other sources and, happily, the British Film Institute carried an unused fine grain 35 mm interpositive (struck from a borrowed duplicate negative). This turned out to be the best available source – but it would still require some high quality restoration. The cost of our restoration (which many reviewers and film buffs regard as superior to the Turner version) was less than £14,000 inclusive of the interpositive.

The cost of Turner’s – admittedly excellent – DVD was close to $500,000. This included two fine audio commentaries and a feature length made-for-TV, “The Battle Over Citizen Kane.” We didn’t have anything like that budget, so I looked for a way to be just as impressive for a lot less money and I engaged Phoenix of Denham, England, to handle the restoration. But what of the extras? Could we compete with the might of Turner?

The 2-hour documentary on the US version was brilliant, no doubt. But it dealt with the various legal battles that ensued after the film was made between William Randolph Hearst and RKO. This monumental tussle is part of Hollywood folklore.

I decided instead to make an original documentary about the film itself and all the background stories concerning the young Orson Welles. I titled it “Anatomy of a Classic.” Universal liked this idea and, after scripting and budgeting, I was lucky to get Barry Norman to host the production. Then I did an audio commentary that was different again from the two commentaries that were on the US version. I also obtained a copy of the film’s original budget and DVD rights to Welles’ original 1938 radio broadcast of “War of The Worlds.” Also Welles’s famous adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s “The Happy Prince.” The result was a Special Edition of Citizen Kane that could stand alongside the Region1 release and was even worth purchasing for its own original extras.

One area in which our version has been judged superior to the US release – which many reviewers felt had been “overcooked” to give it a too-perfect look – was in the picture image itself. We decided to go for a more filmic look and to present Citizen Kane as it would have looked to cinema audiences on its original release.

The cost of Universal’s Citizen Kane Special Edition was less than 10% of the U.S. version. And while Universal control it only for the U.K. they do,at least, have it for the next 10 years – and, if ever a film was guaranteed a long shelf life, it’s Citizen Kane – perhaps the most important film to come out of America.

There are still companies – with catalogues of huge potential – who are continually releasing films in “vanilla” versions simply because they do not believe that the cost-benefit ratio of “extras” is worth the time or the money.

They could not be more wrong. The extras and Special Features do not have to cost a fortune.


Ken Barnes is an author, scriptwriter, record producer, songwriter, broadcaster and film historian. Throughout the 1970s and ‘80s Ken worked as a record producer in Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, Paris, Hamburg, Montreux and London with such lengendary artists as Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee, Jack Jones, Peter Sellers and Fred Astaire. In 2000 he formed The Laureate Company and is now one of Britain’s foremost DVD producers.
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