# Famous unreleased movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 11, 2008, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189 "2008-02-11T19:52:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/21 "2008-02-12T19:11:47Z")
[QUOTE=Cheez\_Whia] Disney’s [Song of the South](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038969/) may never see daylight again. It’s a shame, really. [/QUOTE] But that doesn’t make it an “unreleased” movie- not only was it seen by a large portion of the moviegoing public when it was originally released (it was, after all, a Walt Disney film), it was rereleased numerous times to 1987. I would hardly call that “unreleased” by the OP’s definition. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/22 "2008-02-13T02:59:18Z")
[QUOTE=Sublight] Was [**The Kid & I**](http://www.avclub.com/content/node/59122) ever officially released? [/QUOTE] [Box Office Mojo does not indicate a theatrical release](http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=kidandi.htm), [Internet Movie Database suggests a limited American theatrical release with a DVD release later.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416891/releaseinfo) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/23 "2008-02-13T03:34:13Z")
I don’t think the dimensional-animated movie **I Go Pogo** , based on Walt Kelly’s famous comic strip, was ever released theatrically. This was in the days before Direct-to-Video, but it got a sort-of video release, I understand, through Fotomat (remember those?) This site claims a brief theatrical release, but that’s not what I read at the time. In any event, it never did get a wide theatrical release. Or even a wide video release, for that matter: [http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie.aspx?m=48916&pkw=PI&vendor=Paid+Inclusion&OCID=iSEMPI](http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie.aspx?m=48916&pkw=PI&vendor=Paid+Inclusion&OCID=iSEMPI) > **[I Go Pogo (1980) ⭐ 6.5 | Animation, Comedy](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087925/)** > > 1h 26m | PG The opening, at Toon Tracker: [http://www.toontracker.com/igopogo.html](http://www.toontracker.com/igopogo.html) … ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/24 "2008-02-13T07:24:25Z")
I don’t think the second _Tales from the Far Side_ movie ever got a commercial release (at least, not a wide one). ---
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/25 "2008-02-13T11:09:07Z")
[Queen Kelly](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Kelly) was never released to Eric Von Stroheim’s original vision - it was basically siezed from him and heavily edited to the point of bastardization by the studio. ---
**Author:** ![Cheez\_Whia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@Cheez\_Whia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheez_Whia)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/26 "2008-02-13T14:15:46Z")
[QUOTE=mobo85] But that doesn’t make it an “unreleased” movie- not only was it seen by a large portion of the moviegoing public when it was originally released (it was, after all, a Walt Disney film), it was rereleased numerous times to 1987. I would hardly call that “unreleased” by the OP’s definition. [/QUOTE] Maybe so, but it will probably never be released on DVD, so I thought it should be included. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/27 "2008-02-13T14:34:22Z")
[QUOTE=Governor Quinn] _The Other Side of the Wind_ has been “just a short time from release” for over thirty years. [/QUOTE] Per Wikipedia Peter Bogdonaovich recently said all problems have been worked out and it is scheduled for release this year. Here’s the [complete](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Unreleased_films) Wikipedia list. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/28 "2008-02-13T14:59:42Z")
[QUOTE=Cheez\_Whia] Maybe so, but it will probably never be released on DVD, so I thought it should be included. [/QUOTE] It was also released on VHS in the UK and LD in Asia. In addition to its numerous theatrical releases until the early 80s, I’d hardly call that “unreleased.” ---
**Author:** ![Panurge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@Panurge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panurge)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/29 "2008-02-13T15:07:26Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] Most of **Greed** was never released. … [/QUOTE] Yes. But a few years ago an edition was released that includes a lot of material previously unseen. Most of it consists of panning over stills from the movie, but it is still worth a watch. I forget where this material was discovered - something about a box hidden in the storage rooms of the American Film Institute, perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/30 "2008-02-13T15:23:39Z")
I was about to say _Electric Heart_, the biography of trumpet player Don Ellis, which has been in various stages for, well, forever, but now I see it’s on the film festival circuit and may well be in some sort of release this year, even: [http://www.donellisfilm.com/](http://www.donellisfilm.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/31 "2008-02-13T15:51:32Z")
There was a version of **The Devil and Daniel Webster** made a few years ago that ran into some difficulties and sat on the shelf for a few years. According to Wikipedia and IMDb, it was purchased by another company, retitled, and had a limited release last year (but I don’t remember hearing anything about it, and just about everything plays in Boston). Can anyone confirm that this was actually in a theater? Anthony Hopkins and Jennifer Love Hewitt; I must admit I’m curious. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/32 "2008-02-13T19:29:09Z")
[Superstar: the Karen Carpenter Story](http://imdb.com/title/tt0094075/) - Todd Haynes’ infamous film-school project in which he used barbie & ken dolls to act out the singer’s tragic life. It was never even supposed to be in general circulation, but bootleg copies do exist (I saw a tape of it about 15 years ago.) ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/33 "2008-02-13T20:20:05Z")
[QUOTE=Robot Arm] There was a version of **The Devil and Daniel Webster** made a few years ago that ran into some difficulties and sat on the shelf for a few years. According to Wikipedia and IMDb, it was purchased by another company, retitled, and had a limited release last year (but I don’t remember hearing anything about it, and just about everything plays in Boston). Can anyone confirm that this was actually in a theater? Anthony Hopkins and Jennifer Love Hewitt; I must admit I’m curious. [/QUOTE] [“Shortcut to Happiness”](http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/monday/business/ny-bzinside045563561feb04,0,4262982.story) This was just in the paper the other day. According to the article… "A recut version of “The Devil and Daniel Webster” was released briefly last summer in several small markets, including Columbus, Ohio, under the title “Shortcut to Happiness.” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/34 "2008-02-13T20:25:21Z")
[QUOTE=Panurge] Yes. But a few years ago an edition was released that includes a lot of material previously unseen. Most of it consists of panning over stills from the movie, but it is still worth a watch. I forget where this material was discovered - something about a box hidden in the storage rooms of the American Film Institute, perhaps? [/QUOTE] There was a book **The Complete Greed** that came out in 1972. They probably filmed from that. ---
**Author:** ![Panurge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@Panurge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panurge)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/35 "2008-02-14T08:36:25Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] There was a book **The Complete Greed** that came out in 1972. They probably filmed from that. [/QUOTE] No. It was done with footage found more recently. From [vonstroheim.com](http://vonstroheim.com): “n 1997 Rick Schmidlin found over 650 still camera photos that had been taken on the set of “Greed” during production. Many of them showed scenes that had never been seen on screen. Shortly thereafter he began work restoring the film to it’s originally intended scope for Turner Broadcasting. Schmidlin and his team merged the 1924 release and the still photos, and though the techniques they used were creative, the restoration was “by the book” — actually by the script — for they uncovered the “continuity screenplay,” dated 31 March 1923. Ultimately, they restored “Greed” to mirror Erich von Stroheim’s original intentions.” I went to a screening presented by Schmidlin who recounted the painstaking process of reconstructing the film from nothing but MGM’s butchered edition and the newly discovered photos. But he did a great job, IMO, even though Greed 99 is only 4 hours long; a far cry from Stroheims own 9 hour ( :eek: ) edition. Well worth seeing. ---
**Author:** ![BACI](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ce73a5/32.png) [@BACI](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BACI)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/36 "2008-02-14T08:57:07Z")
Renaldo and Clara - the Bob Dylan Magnum Opus. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/37 "2008-02-14T19:14:42Z")
[QUOTE=Panurge] [QUOTE=RealityChuck] There was a book **The Complete Greed** that came out in 1972. They probably filmed from that. [/QUOTE] No. It was done with footage found more recently. From [vonstroheim.com](http://vonstroheim.com): “n 1997 Rick Schmidlin found over 650 still camera photos that had been taken on the set of “Greed” during production. Many of them showed scenes that had never been seen on screen. Shortly thereafter he began work restoring the film to it’s originally intended scope for Turner Broadcasting. Schmidlin and his team merged the 1924 release and the still photos, and though the techniques they used were creative, the restoration was “by the book” — actually by the script — for they uncovered the “continuity screenplay,” dated 31 March 1923. Ultimately, they restored “Greed” to mirror Erich von Stroheim’s original intentions.” I went to a screening presented by Schmidlin who recounted the painstaking process of reconstructing the film from nothing but MGM’s butchered edition and the newly discovered photos. But he did a great job, IMO, even though Greed 99 is only 4 hours long; a far cry from Stroheims own 9 hour ( :eek: ) edition. Well worth seeing. [/QUOTE] It was more in-between these extremes. From Richard Koszarski’s article “Reconstructing _Greed_: How Long and What Color?” in _Film Comment_ in November 1999: > [@](#): > > The unusually large number of scene stills taken during the production of _Greed_ have always been crucial in any understanding of the ‘complete’ version. Because they are numbered, we know that at least 656 scene stills were issued; they were widely distributed before the eventual release of the severely shortened version. Fortunately, they included considerable coverage of episodes that were eventually removed. Many copies of these stills survive in public and private collections, but until now no project has made use of of such a large number. Herman Weinberg used 347 in his 1972 volume, _The Complete_ ‘Greed’ _of Erich von Stroheim_, but 589 were assembled for the current reconstruction. The bulk of these came from a collection recently acquired by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, supplemented by unique material in other collections. The existence of the various surviving copies of the original scripts had also long been known. While more thorough than previous efforts, Schmidlin’s reconstruction should be seen as an extension (and implementation on screen) of what was already broadly known rather than completely unprecedented. But that’s usually the way with such work. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Them](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/898d66/32.png) [@The\_Them](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Them)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/38 "2008-02-17T06:32:33Z")
Read in “Crackpot” by John Waters that Pia Zadora had made a film called “Voyage of the Rock Aliens” which was never released. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/39 "2008-02-17T08:56:04Z")
[QUOTE=The New and Improved Superman] [Superstar: the Karen Carpenter Story](http://imdb.com/title/tt0094075/) - Todd Haynes’ infamous film-school project in which he used barbie & ken dolls to act out the singer’s tragic life. It was never even supposed to be in general circulation, but bootleg copies do exist (I saw a tape of it about 15 years ago.) [/QUOTE] I saw that at the Auckland Film Festival years back when I was a student. The best part was the reaction of all the middle-aged Carpenters fans who had turned up in anticipation of a “real” biopic… ---
**Author:** ![Leechboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9fc348/32.png) [@Leechboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leechboy)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/40 "2008-02-17T11:30:08Z")
[QUOTE=The Them] Read in “Crackpot” by John Waters that Pia Zadora had made a film called “Voyage of the Rock Aliens” which was never released. [/QUOTE] It was released, and I in fact, own a vhs copy of it. \* Should\* it have been released is the real question [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189.md?page=3)