Well, it always happens. You can't get too definitive in a column like the one I wrote two weeks ago because invariably you miss something. In this case, a reader alerted me that although I had listed it as unattainable, "The Tarnished Angels" — one of those "Holy Grail" movies fans have yearned to see on DVD — is indeed out there.
As the old comic maestro Kay Kyser used to say, "That's right, you're wrong!" "The Tarnished Angels" came out a few months ago but I missed it.
In my defense, it's a Universal film but it's not among that studio's burn-on-demand Universal Vault Series. Rather, it was picked up for exclusive DVD release by Turner Classic Movies.
Yes, the best channel on cable television also has a website that has been selling a number of exclusively licensed titles from Universal, Columbia and RKO. That list I compiled a couple of weeks ago included many sites you can peruse when you're on the lookout for long-lost vintage movies but I failed to include one of the most selective.
At TCM's online shop you can find the excellent 1958 Rock Hudson drama "The Tarnished Angels" (both as a single disc and as part of a box set) and a lot of other titles you can't get anywhere else. (Well, except Amazon.com, where they are listed for inflated prices by sellers who purchased them at TCM!)
Although Universal and Columbia have their own manufacture-on-demand labels, and many RKO movies have been issued by Warner Archive (the Big Daddy of MOD websites), TCM also has several exclusive single-film, double-feature and box-set DVDs featuring long out-of-circulation titles, including these:
"Humphrey Bogart: The Columbia Pictures Collection" is TCM's latest acquisition, and arguably its most highly anticipated. This box set has five good films, three of them previously released on DVD: "Tokyo Joe" (1949), "Sirocco" (1951) and Bogie's last, "The Harder They Fall" (1956).
But fans will rejoice about the other two pictures, both making their DVD debut: "Love Affair" (1932), with Bogart in his first leading role (as a straight-arrow aircraft engineer!), and especially "Knock on Any Door" (1949), in which he plays a lawyer with a conscience who defends a juvenile delinquent (John Derek) — complete with the famous line, "Live fast, die young, leave a good-looking corpse."
"Jean Arthur: Comedy Collection" is another newly issued box, featuring a quartet of Arthur's lesser-known flicks: "The Public Menace" (1935), about a bumpy romance and marriage; the comedy-mystery "Adventure in Manhattan" (1936), co-starring Joel McCrea; the workplace romance "More Than a Secretary" (1936); and "The Impatient Years" (1944), with Arthur helping her returning-soldier husband readjust to civilian life.
"Cary Grant: The Early Years," with a trio of Grant's pre-star roles: "Devil and the Deep" (1932), with Charles Laughton and Gary Cooper; "The Eagle and the Hawk" (1933), opposite Frederic March; and "The Last Outpost" (1935), featuring Claude Rains.
"Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray: The Romantic Comedy Collection." The biggest hit of their seven collaborations was "The Egg and I," which is not here (although it's available elsewhere). But you will find "Gilded Lily" (1935), "The Bride Comes Home" (1936) and "Family Honeymoon" (1948).
"Audie Murphy Western Collection" has four of Murphy's oaters: "Sierra" (1950), "Ride Clear of Diablo" (1954), "Drums Across the River" (1954) and "Ride a Crooked Trail" (1958), the latter with Walter Matthau in a flamboyant supporting role.
"Douglas Sirk: Filmmaker Collection" showcases the versatile director in four genres, three starring Rock Hudson: the aforementioned melodrama, "The Tarnished Angels"; "Taza, Son of Cochise" (1954), a western, also featuring Hudson; the thriller "Thunder on the Hill," starring Claudette Colbert; and Hudson again in a colorful costume adventure, "Captain Lightfoot" (1955).
"The Lost & Found RKO Collection" has six films considered lost until recently, none of which has previously been on home video: "Rafter Romance" (1933) starring Ginger Rogers; "Living On Love" (1937), a remake of "Rafter Romance"; "Double Harness" (1933), William Powell; "Stingaree" (1934), Irene Dunne; "One Man's Journey" (1933), Lionel Barrymore; and "A Man to Remember" (1938), a remake of "One Man's Journey."
"Universal Cult Horror Collection" has the still shocking pre-Production Code "Murders in the Zoo" (1933), along with the more tame "House of Horrors" (1946), "The Mad Ghoul" (1943), "The Strange Case of Doctor Rx" (1942) and "The Mad Doctor of Market Street" (1942).
"Back Street," a double feature, two movies adapted 20 years apart from the Fannie Hurst story of a woman hopelessly in love with a married man: the 1941 black-and-white Margaret Sullivan-Charles Boyer version, and the glossy 1961 color adaptation starring Susan Hayward and John Gavin.
"Murder, He Says" (1945)/"Feudin', Fussin' and a-Fightin' " (1948), two zany hayseed farces, the first with Fred MacMurray and Marjorie Main and the second a musical with Donald O'Connor, and co-starring Main and Percy Kilbride (after "The Egg and I" but not as Ma & Pa Kettle).
"Pre-Code Double Feature: 'Song of Songs' (1933)/'This Is the Night' (1932)" offers this pair of racy features made before the Production Code went into effect in 1934. Marlene Dietrich stars in the first film and the second features young Cary Grant in a supporting role that marked his film debut.
Many of the films in the box sets above are also available singly, and Warner Archive titles can also be found at the TCM site.
And, of course, there are more to come.
EMAIL: hicks@desnews.com