Billy Connolly - ‘Big Banana Feet’. Connolly’s finest ever set of material, back when he was at the very peak of his popularity and his comedic powers of invention. In my all-time top five single comedy performance shows. Not available on DVD, not available in any format, even though it was commercially available on VHS back in the day.
I’d pay quite a bit for the privilege of seeing this show again.
Billy Wilder’s A Foreign Affair. It’s like a post-war Casablanca, set in a ruined Berlin with an American soldier played by John Lund in love with a local German woman played by Marlene Dietrich.
I love old Bette Davis movies, I’d like to see some of the rarities that are not on DVD. “Stolen Life” where she plays twins, is one I’ve been trying to get hold of for years.
That’s the one I saw. It may be a British release but it’s advertised as a region-free NTSC disc so I think it would be playable. Which is a moot point as it’s out of print.
I am getting so tired of waiting for this. I’ve been told that there is an HD tape sitting on a shelf, it’s available for streaming on Hulu (which sucks because it’s filled with ads), it was released on VHS, Beta and LaserDisc. So why the hell not DVD? My theory is that some cretin of a studio executive is waiting to release it on Frederick’s birthday, so I every time February 29th rolls around I get excited…and nothing.
Get Crazy! - I haven’t seen it in years, so it may not be as great as I remember, but … come on … there’s a six foot talking joint in this movie. And Lou Reed!
Also, I remember seeing a Billy Joel concert on HBO years ago - Live on Long Island, I think - that never made it off VHS.
Civilization (1916), Tih Minh (1918), Sky High (1922), Sylvester (1924), Hands Up! (1926), So’s Your Old Man (1926), Stark Love (1927), L’argent (1928), The Docks of New York (1928), The Last Command (1928), The Power of the Press (1928), The Wedding March (1928), The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna (1929), Heroes All (1931), Mädchen in Uniform (1931), La nuit du carrefour (1932), Liebelei (1933), Zero for Conduct (1933), Island of Lost Souls (1933), Naughty Marietta (1935), A Day in the Country (1936), Show Boat (1936), The Story of a Cheat (1936), Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), The Walls of Malapaga (1949), The Life of Oharu (1952), Anatahan (1953), Summer with Monika (1953), Senso (1954), Pyaasa (1957), General della Rovere (1959), An Autumn Afternoon (1962).
The Woman in Black, a made for British TV movie based on the excellent novel by Susan Hill (and the only decent thing she’s written, according to some critics).
From Wiki:
Such is the popularity and demand for the out of print TV movie that the shortage of officially available copies created a small black market in illegal copies of the DVD release. At the time of writing, Susan Hill’s official website states “Please do note… if you are trying to track down Video or DVD copies of the old (1988) Television adaptation of The Woman in Black. The film and TV rights are now wholly owned by someone else and this TV version will not be shown again or re-issued. Meanwhile, pirate copies are sometimes for sale on ebay and amazon. THESE ARE ILLEGAL and should not be purchased”.
Holy crap, that was made into a movie? I’ve read the book but had the impression it was somewhat obscure and never translated into another medium. My picks:
The Third Eye - this is cheating, it was a Nickelodeon tv series, and further, it was just reruns of a few British series that had vaguely similar themes (kids battling supernatural forces). One of which (or the book it was based on) is being made into an upcoming movie (Under the Mountain).
I was going to say Delicatessen, but it looks like it finally made it to DVD. Also Max is Missing, which was still a VHS earlier this year. Ditto Santa Sangre, and the Phantom Tollbooth, and Nevermore. I guess most things are finally getting processed over. Although some are bare bones transfers, with no special features…
Of course at this point, the question is probably, should they even bother with the DVD or just jump straight to BluRay?
Ok let’s get serious. Checking my Amazon wishlist for videos, it appears that the following haven’t made it past VHS yet:
Light Years
The Adventures of the Little Prince
Atlantis, The Lost Continent
Mondo
Reckless Kelly (Yahoo Serious!)
the various Not Quite Human tv movies
Wax: The Discovery of Television Among the Bees
Drawing Restraint 9* - this one is fairly recent, and wasn’t previously on VHS, but the creator is a performance artist who is philosophically against making his movies available as DVDs
Fabulous World Of Jules Verne
Brewster Mccloud
Un Chien Andalou / Land Without Bread
Weapons of the Spirit
Drowning by Numbers - OK it’s on DVD in Sweden , but not in US region
JACKDAVINCI. Not only was The Girl, the Gold Watch , and Everything a tv movie. but there was a sequel, (with different cast), The Girl, The Gold Watch, and Dynamite.
OK. I know I’m going to get laughed at for this suggestion, but I have the VHS of Tiny Toons Adventure: How I Spent My Vacation and I’ll buy it immediately if and when it ever gets released on DVD.
I got it when my kids were 8 and 6 years old respectively, and to this day (they’re now twenty-something adults) we quote this movie (and still hold our breath in tunnels).