Turner Classic Movies Plays Sleuth, Discovers Six Previously Lost RKO Classics
19 October 2006 - 6:44AM
PR Newswire (US)
Network Currently Making New Masters, Prints to Air Films in 2007
ATLANTA, Oct. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- In its ongoing commitment to
preserving cinematic history, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has
purchased the copyrights and all right, title and interest to six
RKO films previously thought lost from the silver screen, it was
announced today by Tom Karsch, executive vice president and general
manager of TCM. This selection of rare motion pictures includes
works directed by William Wellman, John Cromwell and Garson Kanin,
and starring such silver screen luminaries as William Powell,
Ginger Rogers, Irene Dunne, Lionel Barrymore and Joel McCrea, as
well as an early screenplay by blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo. In
association with the Library of Congress and the BYU film archive,
TCM is currently making new 35mm fine-grain masters and prints of
six pictures slated to air on the network in 2007: Double Harness
(1933), One Man's Journey (1933), Rafter Romance (1933), Stingaree
(1934), Living on Love (1937) and A Man to Remember (1938). "These
six films had slipped through the cracks of film history because
the two copyright holders-Merian C. Cooper and Ernest L.
Scanlon-had long since passed away," Karsch said. "As a result,
they were languishing in film archives around the world, largely
unpreserved. As curators of film history, TCM is proud to take the
lead on preserving these films and airing them for classic movie
fans of all ages." A Man to Remember, largely unseen since its
original theatrical release, was on the New York Times' list of the
top 10 films of 1938. Showings of the five other films have been
extremely rare since 1959. Living on Love and A Man to Remember are
"B" picture remakes of Rafter Romance and One Man's Journey. The
search for these films began as a result of a viewer inquiry
regarding the Turner Entertainment Company library status of Double
Harness. These six films were sold out of the RKO library to Cooper
in 1946. In 1959, ownership transferred to former Selznick
International executive Scanlon. Only two of the six films had ever
been properly preserved. Rafter Romance and Stingaree had been
anonymously preserved by the American Film Institute from the
original 35mm nitrate camera negatives in the 1970s. This material
is now at the Library of Congress. Brigham Young University has
Cooper's 35mm and 16mm safety-dupe television negatives for Double
Harness, One Man's Journey, Rafter Romance, Stingaree and Living on
Love. The only surviving copy of A Man to Remember is a 35mm
original nitrate, Dutch-subtitled, English-language print, which
was preserved by the Netherlands Filmmuseum in 2000. Additional
35mm nitrate dupe negatives for Double Harness were found in France
at the CNC. The original 35mm nitrate camera negatives for all six
films appear to be lost. Turner Classic Movies, currently seen in
more than 75 million homes, is a 24-hour cable network from Turner
Broadcasting System, Inc. TCM presents the greatest motion pictures
of all time from the largest film library in the world, the
combined Time Warner and Turner film libraries, from the '20s
through the '90s, commercial-free and without interruption.
Expanding TCM's role as a curator of movie history, the network
recently launched TCMdb, the Internet's most media-rich interactive
movie database. For more information, please visit tcm.com. Turner
Broadcasting System, Inc., a TimeWarner company, is a major
producer of news and entertainment product around the world and the
leading provider of programming for the basic cable industry.
Artwork from the six films available at http://www.turnerinfo.com/.
DATASOURCE: Turner Classic Movies CONTACT: Sarah Hamilton, Atlanta,
+1-404-575-631, , Julie Smith, Los Angeles, +1-310-788-691, , or
Erin Bix, New York, +1-212-275-8234, , all of Turner Classic Movies
Web site: http://www.turnerclassicmovies.com/
http://www.turnerinfo.com/
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