# Movies unavailable for purchase on DVD, VHS, etc. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 31, 2013, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720 "2013-10-31T04:51:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2013, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720/41 "2013-11-01T23:07:22Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > “Yellow Submarine” is really hard to find. It shouldn’t be–it was just reissued last year as both a DVD and blu-ray. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2013, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720/42 "2013-11-01T23:27:53Z")
Star Wars Holiday Special has never had a legitimate release. Song of the South has been released in some countries but not America. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2013, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720/43 "2013-11-01T23:31:10Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > It shouldn’t be–it was just reissued last year as both a DVD and blu-ray. TYVM! I’m not a big Beatles fan or anything, but a couple years ago, I looked for it and couldn’t find it, except for a VHS copy at the library that I let them know was too scratchy to watch. ---
**Author:** ![Zago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecccb3/32.png) [@Zago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zago)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720/44 "2013-11-02T00:27:16Z")
Mother Love, 1989, BBC starring Diana Rigg and David McCullum. It’s a fantastic movie, I would pay a good amount of money to get my hands on a copy but it’s been buried. There’s even a petitioin to the BBC to release it. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720/45 "2013-11-02T01:25:06Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > It shouldn’t be–it was just reissued last year as both a DVD and blu-ray. Netflix says it is unavailable to stream (nothing is; that service is a myth) but is available through them on DVD. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720/46 "2013-11-02T01:40:03Z")
Pretty much anything with Traci Lords. ETA: Warning. Careful Googling. In case you didn’t know, she was a porn actress that performed most of her stuff underage, and therefore that stuff is now considered child pornography. ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720/47 "2013-11-02T01:44:43Z")
I’ve been hoping for years for a DVD release of _Providence_. I have it on VHS but alas no longer have a tape player. This is the first English film by Alain Resnais, released in 1977, and one of the best films I have ever seen. I check on it occasionally (and just did again) but I don’t have much hope. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720/48 "2013-11-02T03:21:43Z")
[Heartbreak Hotel on DVD.](http://www.amazon.com/Heartbreak-Hotel-Charlie-Schlatter/dp/B004ZNF1EI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1383362318&sr=8-2&keywords=heartbreak+hotel) My title is [The Biscuit Eater](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032254/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2) (not hte Disney remake). My grandfather took his kids to see it back in 1940, and they all bawled like babies, including my Detroit-cop grandfather. Even mentioning hte movie 60 years later could make them tear up. StG ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720/49 "2013-11-02T04:32:11Z")
Frederick Wiseman’s documentaries aren’t easy to find either. He’s best known for “Titicut Follies”. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720/50 "2013-11-02T14:29:16Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > It did? > > Anyway, I was living in a town that didn’t have TCM on their cable lineup at the time. ☹ > > Two other movies, both of them megabombs, that I want to see and don’t seem to be available are “Americathon”, which came out when I was in high school, and “Ishtar”. I did see “Ishtar” a couple years ago on TV, and it wasn’t THAT bad. > > Another I’d like to see is a TV movie called “Special Bulletin” that was a “War of the Worlds”-esque TV broadcast regarding a terrorist who had acquired a nuclear weapon and used it to hold an East Coast city hostage (and did detonate it at the end). > > I just don’t like to watch movies online, which is why I like to see them on other formats. > > p.s. For some years in the 1990s, “The Music Man” was not available for purchase, not shown on TV, and not performed by theater groups because of an issue with Meredith Willson’s estate. I had another movie in my Netflix queue (can’t recall its title right now) that was completely removed from their catalogue because of a legal issue. I know this because I got an e-mail about it. Special Bulletin is on Youtube. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720/51 "2013-11-02T17:32:49Z")
The 1980s miniseries Amerika has never been released on DVD and the VHS set is long out of print and is quite expensive to buy used. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720/52 "2013-11-02T20:24:03Z")
I keep a list of hard-to-find movies I’d like to watch that have won at least one Oscar I consider a major category: best picture, best director, all the acting awards, and all the writing awards. Only two of them (The Way of all Flesh and The Patriot) are outright lost, with no known copies extant. By scouring library catalogs and TV listings, I’ve managed to whittle my list down from dozens to just ten: Arise my love (1940), starring Claudette Colbert and Ray Milland, written by Billy Wilder. It won an Oscar for Best Story (a category now defunct) Bad Girl (1931) won two Oscars for directing (Frank Borzage) and best adapted screenplay. It can only be purchased as part of a Frank Borzage collection that costs nearly $200. The Dawn Patrol (1930) directed by Howard Hawkes. Much less well known that the 1938 remake starring Errol Flynn. Another Oscar winner for Best Story. Kentucky (1938), starring Loretta Young. Walter Brennan won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Marie-Louise (1944). A German-language film from Switzerland that won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. The Patriot (1928) a silent film starring Emil Jannings as Tsar Paul I. It won an Oscar for writing. A lost film. The Scoundrel (1935) starring Noel Coward. It won a writing Oscar. Seven Days to Noon (1950). Won for Best Story. Skippy (1931). Starring Jackie Cooper. Norman Taurog won Best Director. Way of all flesh (1927), not based on the Samuel Butler novel. Emil Jannings won Best Actor. A lost film. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720/53 "2013-11-02T20:31:50Z")
I should have searched before posting. It appears that _Seven Days to Noon_ and _Arise my love_ are finally available. Now I know what’s going in my letter to Santa. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720/54 "2013-11-02T22:03:07Z")
[Kin-dza-dza!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin-dza-dza!) - an obscure Russian Sci-Fi comedy that has a strangely Monty Python feel to it. It’s not exactly a barrel of fun, but it’s very intriguing to watch - available online, but not on DVD or anything. ---
**Author:** ![clnilsen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecccb3/32.png) [@clnilsen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clnilsen)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720/55 "2013-11-02T22:51:14Z")
One movie that comes to mind is Something Special aka Willy/milly, featuring a 9 year old Seth Green. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720/56 "2013-11-02T23:05:41Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > “Americathon” This and “FM” are at the top of my wanna list. I see that the latter is around but I don’t really want to pay $100 for it. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720/57 "2013-11-02T23:07:41Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > [The Keep] is, however, available to stream on Netflix. Or at least, it was about a year ago. Not there now. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720/58 "2013-11-02T23:52:49Z")
I keep wanting to get a copy of _Kafka_ Dir. Steven Soderbergh 1991. I know that it was released on DVD in region 3 or 4 or something but never in North America. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720/59 "2013-11-03T19:42:01Z")
Earlier today, I saw a reference to Synanon on another website, and remembered that I don’t think the movie “Synanon” is on DVD or VHS either. I did get to see it a while back, on TCM. It was pretty good, although clearly dated in its philosophy. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2013, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720/60 "2013-12-26T19:26:13Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Two other movies, both of them megabombs, that I want to see and don’t seem to be available are “Americathon”, which came out when I was in high school, and “Ishtar”. I did see “Ishtar” a couple years ago on TV, and it wasn’t THAT bad. Istar is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray. I have always been curious about that movie so it had been on my Netflix queue. It just popped up as being available. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-unavailable-for-purchase-on-dvd-vhs-etc/672720.md?page=4)