Here at MovieFanFare, we are huge fans of the work being done by the Warner Archive Collection. Their releases bring classic and rare films to home video, preserving them on digital disc in order to make sure that they aren’t forgotten by time…or the millions of fans across the globe that want to possess them in the highest audio and video quality possible. We want to celebrate the Warner Archives in this post that celebrates three of the company’s recent releases, complete with a glimpse at their original theatrical trailers. As you’ll see, the Warner Archive Collections showcases all sorts of motion pictures, creating an indelible portrait of the diversity of films that Warner Brothers has released across the decades.
After he’s accused of murdering his lover’s husband, Londoner Jonathan Cooper (Richard Todd) turns to the only person who believes he’s innocent, drama student and ex-girlfriend Eve Gill (Jane Wyman). As Eve plays detective to find the real killer, her search leads to a fateful confrontation with the victim’s wife, famed and ruthless stage actress Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich). Michael Wilding, Kay Walsh, Alastair Sim, and Sybil Thorndike also star in Hitchcock’s flavorful thriller.
The beloved Louisa May Alcott novel received a glossy treatment in this favorite adaptation from MGM, as young New England sisters Jo (June Allyson), Amy (Elizabeth Taylor), Meg (Janet Leigh), and Beth March (Margaret O’Brien) rally around their beloved “Marmee” (Mary Astor) while hoping for the safe return of their chaplain father (Leon Ames) from the Civil War. Peter Lawford, Rossano Brazzi, Lucile Watson, C. Aubrey Smith also star; Mervyn Leroy directs.
Victorian gentleman Phileas Fogg (David Niven) made a pricey wager that he could circumnavigate the globe in record time…and, with valet Passepartout (Cantinflas), proceeded on a peril-fraught make-good. Michael Todd’s lavish production of the Jules Verne globe-trotting adventure classic, winner of five Academy Awards, co-stars Shirley MacLaine; the dozens of cameo appearances include Frank Sinatra, Marlene Dietrich, Ronald Colman, Buster Keaton, Charles Boyer.
A group of astronauts sent to investigate inexplicable destruction to a space station find themselves shanghaied to Venus and imprisoned by a civilization of voluptuous short-skirted women. With the despotic queen (Laurie Mitchell) bent on Earth’s conquest, can the voyagers rely on the sympathies of the evening gown-rocking chief scientist (Zsa Zsa Gabor) and escape? Camp masterpiece inspired by a Ben Hecht story co-stars Eric Fleming, Dave Willock, Paul Birch, Patrick Waltz.
Named as a person of interest when members of his supermodel clientele turn up dead, high-end plastic surgeon Larry Roberts (Albert Finney)–who hadn’t understood why each gorgeous victim asked him to perform barely perceptible work–started his own investigation. The trail leads to an ad research firm with an uncanny hi-tech marketing scheme…and they’ll kill to keep their trade secrets. Michael Crichton’s sci-fi thriller co-stars Susan Dey, James Coburn, Leigh Taylor-Young, Dorian Harewood.
Let us know which of these, and other Warner Archive Collection releases, you want in your personal library in the comments!