--UPDATE--
Word just came in from VCI that Meet John Doe (70th Anniversary Collector's Edition) has been pushed back to around December 16th due to issues with the manufacturing process. We've put it officially as the 14th being that all releases occur on Tuesdays.
| WHAT: WHEN: STUDIO: PRICE: | Meet John Doe (70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition) VCI Retail: $14.99, Our: |   |
Being billed as "a keeper" and an edition that will "retire all previous DVD versions in your collection," VCI has announced a November 30th release date for Meet John Doe (70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition).
This Ultimate Collector's Edition has undergone extensive restoration and if it is anything like VCI's restoration of A Christmas Carol, the results should be spectacular.
Bonus features include an audio commentary plus loads of other great stuff (below).
In addition, and rare for VCI titles, it is subtitled. Not just in English, but also in French, German and Spanish.
Retail will be $14.99, but it's available at ClassicFlix.com for only $12.99. However, for 3 days only (until September 19th), we'll have it for the SPECIAL LOW PRE-ORDER PRICE of $9.98. ORDER TODAY!
SYNOPSIS:
The unique Frank Capra touch is evident all through this fascinating social commentary. The naive Cooper is hired to spearhead a national goodwill drive benefiting the corrupt politician Arnold. Barbara Stanwyck plays the cynical promoter who first dupes Cooper, but later falls in love with him. Capra says several different endings were filmed...and he wasn’t fully satisfied with any of them. Of them all the current conclusion best states Capra’s idealism.
For more than 50 years, Meet John Doe has been dogged by a lack of proper attention to its original film elements. In December of 1945 the film’s original producers – Frank Capra and Robert Riskin – sold all rights in the film to New York distributor, Sherman Krellberg’s Goodwill Pictures.
While in Goodwill’s possession the camera negative eventually deteriorated due to poor storage conditions and was junked. In the years that followed most existing prints fell into generally poor condition. But in the mid-1970s, the American Film Institute launched a partial restoration of this important film combining Krellberg’s surviving 35 mm nitrate prints with the Warner Brothers’ studio print. It was these elements that formed the basis for a duplicate negative, which is now held in the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.
This DVD is derived from one of the surviving European prints. The general image was only fair; it was faded, scratched and carried various forms of age-related damage. But after transfer to Digi-Beta , the picture underwent substantial digital restoration, image processing and noise reduction eventually yielding a fully watchable picture.
BONUS FEATURES:
- Audio Commentary (with optional English subtitles) by Laureate’s Ken Barnes with “archival contributions” from Frank Capra
- Three Featurettes:
- “Meet Mr. Cooper”
- “Meet Miss Stanwyck”
- “Meet Mr. Capra”
- Extensive Cast and Crew Profiles
- Production Background
- A before and after comparision of the digital restoration of “Meet John Doe”
- Vintage “Lux Theater” radio productions
- "Sorry Wrong Number “ starring Barbara Stanwyck & Burt Lancaster
- “For Whom The Bell Tolls” starring Gary Cooper & Ingrid Bergman
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