Does Julie Zahn Have Beef With Just Kidding Films

Plenty of films have yet to brand the hi-res journeying to Blu-ray, simply there are hundreds that never even made it to DVD. Empire has been excavation, and we've exhumed these 25 movies never officially pressed onto a small-scale, argent disc... to date. If yous feel inclined, suggest your ain lost treasures in the comments.

The rules, then. Availability in some regions but not others doesn't count – these are films that, as far as we can ascertain, have never been released on DVD anywhere. Likewise, things that have been available but are now out of impress do non make the cut. And nosotros've kept it to films with either reasonably recognisable directors or cast. We didn't bother with Tales From the Quadead Zone, for case...

(Thanks to 20th Century Flicks in Bristol for the trawl through their VHS archive.)

The Keep (1983)

Managing director : Michael Isle of man

Starring : Scott Glenn, Jürgen Prochnow, Gabriel Byrne, Ian McKellen

What's the Story? In betwixt Thief and Manhunter, Michael Isle of mann directed this dreamlike historical-horror oddity. During Globe War Ii, German language soldiers unearth a dangerously powerful entity in a castle in Romania (specifically pegged every bit a Golem in the film just not in F. Paul Wilson's original novel), who is understandably furious about the Nazis' handling of the Jews. Mysterious, sorcerous stranger Glaeken Trismegestus (Scott Glenn) arrives to salve the mean solar day with a light testify.

What'due south the problem? Author F. Paul Wilson hates it, and Isle of man'south three-hour director'due south cut was chopped in one-half by studio Paramount. Mann is doubtful that much of the cut footage still exists, and didn't enjoy the experience anyway, and so has been reluctant to revisit information technology - and then in that location are the possible rights issues around Tangerine Dream'south score to consider. Released on VHS and LaserDisc and occasionally shown on TV, The Keep remains a mesmerisingly foreign cult oddity that's been difficult to meet for the last couple of decades. But incredibly, having skipped an entire engineering science, it is currently available on Netflix. Hurry earlier it disappears again, and don't hold your breath for whatsoever sort of restoration...

Grim Prairie Tales (1990)

Managing director : Wayne Coe

Starring : Brad Dourif, James Earl Jones, William Atherton

What's the story? A gothic portmanteau Western in which ii strangers spin scary tales around a campfire. Similar most album films, the individual stories are hitting-and-miss. Merely what makes Grim Prairie Tales such a lost gem are the wraparound segments in which Dourif'due south uptight city clerk is forced to spend a long, dark nighttime of the soul with Jones' grotesque bounty hunter (and the corpse he'southward got in tow).

What's the problem? Unclear, but information technology barely got a VHS release, let alone anything subsequent. You may accept caught it on Alex Cox's Moviedrome on BBC2 in the 1990s. Wayne Coe never directed again, but even so works as a professional story board artist.

The Wild Life (1984)

Director : Art Linson

Starring : Chris Penn, Eric Stoltz, Lea Thompson, Rick Moranis, Sherilyn Fenn, Randy Quaid

What's the story? Teenage post-high-school hi-jinks in an apartment circuitous in the LA suburbs. Cameron Crowe wrote it before he made his directorial debut with Say Anything..., and it's often compared to the too Crowe-written Fast Times At Ridgemont High. Some have even called information technology a pseudo-sequel, although it isn't officially that.

What's the problem? The music rights. A jukebox soundtrack that lines up Prince, Madonna, Little Richard, Van Halen, Baton Idol, Steppenwolf, Jimi Hendrix and many others but seems to accept fabricated a digital-era release prohibitively expensive. Universal did offering a fabricated-to-order disc in its Vault serial for a while, only the version proffered chopped about of the choons.

The Concluding Movie (1971)

Director : Dennis Hopper

Starring : Dennis Hopper, Julie Adams, Peter Fonda, Kris Kristofferson

What's the story? Hopper's berserk follow-upwards to Easy Rider involves the making of a Western in Republic of peru. When the manager quits after the expiry of a stuntman, the locals start acting out the violent script for existent and pretending to motion picture themselves with simulated cameras made of sticks. Legend has information technology that Hopper came up with a reasonably straightforward cut, simply was persuaded by his peers to make it more 'out at that place', even handing it to Alejandro Jodorowsky to edit, earlier taking it back again.

What's the problem? Its total failure and burial by studio Universal led directly to Hopper's wilderness years. Hopper eventually retrieved the rights, and planned his own DVD release, but this never came to pass earlier his too-early death in 2010.

Dudes (1987)

Managing director : Penelope Spheeris

Starring : Jon Cryer, Daniel Roebuck, Flea

What's the story? A punk-rock route movie, in which ii friends travelling across-state in a Volkswagen Beetle get into problem with some rednecks over the murder of their buddy.

What's the problem? Again, very likely the music rights to the manyl '80s rock, metallic and punk bands on the soundtrack. Spheeris' Reject Of Western Civilization documentaries remain unavailable for the same reason.

Song Of The South (1946)

Directors : Wilfred Jackson, Harve Foster

Starring : Ruth Warwick, Bobby Driscoll, James Baskett

What's the story? 7-year-old Johnny goes to live on a Georgia plantation with his mother and grandmother later the American Civil War, while his father's away working in Atlanta. At that place he befriends the kindly Uncle Remus, and his live-activeness real life is interspersed with blithe sequences equally Remus recounts the various adventures of the trickster Br'er Rabbit.

What's the problem? Children of the '80s could reliably sentry clips of the Br'er Rabbit stories on bank vacation episodes of Disney Time. The whole picture show was occasionally on Goggle box too, but has dropped off the radar in recent years due to its contentious racial stereotyping. Uncle Remus isn't a slave, but he is an Uncle Tom, and as of 2010, Disney'southward line (via CEO Bob Iger) was that the motion picture is "antiquated" and "adequately offensive". Any hereafter release would demand copious extra features engaging with its historical context. A set like that isn't on the cards yet, although information technology remains the subject of give-and-take inside the Mouse Firm.

Rad (1986)

Manager : Hal Needham

Starring : Bill Allen, Lori Loughlin, Talia Shire

What'due south the story? BMX racing drama, with immature Cru Jones (Allen) passing up college against his mother's wishes for a sponsorship deal and a shot at the Helltrack title. Needham was the stuntman-turned-director of Smokey And The Bandit and The Cannonball Run, only with this and Megaforce he didn't have a cracking mid-'80s.

What's the trouble? Critically derided and a flop at the box role, Rad did actually proceeds some enthusiastic cult success on video – but not to the extent that an official digital version ever materialised. Like The Keep, information technology skipped disc completely and is at present bachelor from iTunes.

The Godfather Saga (1977 / 1990)

Director : Francis Ford Coppola

Starring : Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, James Caan

What's the story? The Godfather Parts I and 2, chronologically edited (so the De Niro sequences from Godfather 2 are no longer flashbacks, but shown at the commencement before the events of The Godfather) into a Television set mini-series incorporating copious scenes deleted from the theatrical versions. The Godfather Part III was included in the process in a later VHS box-set release.

What's the problem? Apparently you can get the Godfather Trilogy in a spiffy new Coppola-restored Blu-ray set with all the deleted scenes as extras. Only the chronological edit remains a Tv set and VHS curio. Coppola simply originally did the mini-serial bargain to raise the finance for Apocalypse Now, and it was manifestly never his preferred version. Godfather II in item suffers structurally from having the rising of Vito and the fall of Michael separated. But it's a version many people still prefer and miss. AMC played it in 2012: the only time it'southward ever been shown in high-definition.

Inchon (1981)

Manager : Terence Young

Starring : Laurence Olivier, Jacqueline Bisset, Toshirō Mifune, Richard Roundtree

What'due south the story? A film well-nigh a famous battle of the Korean War, from the director of Dr. No and Thunderball and starring Henry V, Yojimbo and Shaft. It sounds like a nailed-on cult classic – which it is to some extent – but it's as well ane of the most notorious flops in cinema history.

What'southward the problem? It died at the box office, losing $44m and establishing itself as the biggest disaster of 1982. It never got a VHS release, let alone annihilation subsequent. Adding to its limbo status is its unusual financial prepare-up: it was bankrolled by Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church building, with MGM taking distribution rights for a much lower-than-usual cut of the profits – of which at that place were obviously none anyway. While the Unification Church owned the Goodlife Television Network, they occasionally played Inchon there. Since they sold the Network, however, Inchon is dorsum to non having an outlet of any description.

Let It Be (1970)

Director : Michael Lindsay-Hogg

Starring : The Beatles, Yoko Ono

What's the story? A documentary about The Beatles, which, as it turned out, chronicled more-or-less their final days – although a lot of the footage of the band falling out with each other was cut to make to brand the moving picture less annoying. The terminal product follows the ring recording at Apple Corps Headquarters and staging an impromptu gig on the studio roof.

What'southward the problem? Permit It Exist had a VHS release, and work was underway for a digital restoration incorporating the cut footage. But as the project progressed, the scenes of George Harrison's temporary walk-out (the band considered replacing him with Eric Clapton) and the footage of John Lennon and Yoko Ono gave the surviving Beatles pause. Unnamed inside sources claim that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have now blocked any re-release, fearing that footage of the Beatles abrasive i another would damage their global brand.

Encounter The Applegates (1989)

Director : Michael Lehmann

Starring : Ed Begley Jr., Stockard Channing, Dabney Coleman

What's the story? Lehmann directed this satirical black comedy horror in between Heathers and Hudson Hawk. Information technology involves a family of giant praying mantises who accept on human form and go and live a perfect family life in suburbia while Dad tries to wipe out the homo race by engineering the end of the world at the nuclear power plant he works at. One of a slew of late '80s and early '90s comedy horrors – Club, Parents, The 'Burbs etc. – picking the scabs of middle class America.

What's the problem? Possibly to practice with the defalcation of studio New World, although that hasn't stopped other New World titles (Hellraiser, House, The Punisher) from reaching DVD. The NW catalogue was with Anchor Bay for years, but the Applegates rights are now at Lionsgate. It's probably prophylactic to say information technology's just nobody's top priority and has fallen through the cracks, simply it has been circulate in Hard disk drive on the Offset channel.

Expressionless Solid Perfect (1988)

Director : Bobby Roth

Starring : Randy Quaid, Kathryn Harrold, Jack Warden

What'southward the story? The saying goes that the best golfing moving-picture show always made is Caddyshack, and the worst is Caddyshack II. And somewhere in the centre there's this: an HBO golf dramedy with Randy Quaid, from around the aforementioned time as National Lampoon'southward Christmas Holiday. It's based on a bestselling novel past Dan Jenkins; Tangerine Dream did the soundtrack; and it's apparently ane of PGA champion John Daly's favourite films.

What'south the problem? It has quite the post-obit among golf game enthusiasts, and collectors will pay pretty high prices on eBay for a tape. But without a Kevin Costner, an Adam Sandler or a Beak Murray, it's peradventure historically been considered by the moneymen simply that bit also niche to be worth reviving. Plus, of course, Quaid'south recent transformation into conspiracy-theorist sex activity-tape loon has probably kiboshed its chances of e'er seeing the lite of day over again in the futurity.

Conan Doyle's Master Detective Sherlock Holmes (1932)

Director : William K. Howard

Starring : Clive Beck, Reginald Owen, Miriam Jordan, Ernest Torrence

What'due south the story? Significant as the earliest surviving Sherlock Holmes "talkie", bridging the gap between the silent era and Basil Rathbone'south 14-film stint beginning in 1939. Information technology's based on the 1899 stage play by William Gillette, which had already been filmed at to the lowest degree twice earlier. The story mashes up Arthur Conan Doyle's A Scandal In Bohemia and The Final Trouble with some other weird embellishments and a Holmes who's naught really similar Holmes. After defeating Moriarty, the famously asexual detective gets married at the stop!

What's the trouble? It's in the public domain, and so y'all can lookout a ropey re-create in YouTube, simply it has neither the historical importance of the first silents or the "classic" cache of the Rathbone films. As such, nobody's e'er bothered to restore it properly.

Metropolis Of Hope (1991)

Director : John Sayles

Starring : Vincent Spano, Chris Cooper, Angela Bassett, Gina Gershon, John Sayles, David Stathairn, Lawrence Tierney

What's the story? Considered by many to be Sayle's masterpiece (it's currently at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes), City Of Hope is a series of interlocking stories set in New Bailiwick of jersey, taking in political abuse, racial tension, little crime, bent cops and personal dramas. It's often compared to Paul Haggis' Crash, with the comparing almost always in Sayles' favour.

What's the problem? A tangle of rights issues. Sayles would like to get the motion-picture show back and release it himself, merely has so far been unable to cut through the Gordian legal knots. Amazon Prime offers a pan-and-scan version for streaming, but Sayles' widescreen original remains elusive.

I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957)

Director : Gene Fowler Jr.

Starring : Michael Landon, Yvonne Lime, Whit Bissell

What'southward the story? A drive-in B-motion-picture show classic, in which dysfunctional teen Landon starts attention hypnotherapy sessions to cure him of his antisocial tendencies. Sadly he ends upwardly with an unscrupulous therapist who uses regression therapy to ship him on a lycanthropic rampage. Famous enough that its title solitary became an indelible role of pop culture. Teen Wolf, very obviously, owes information technology a debt.

What'due south the problem? Rights tangles once more: original studio American International Pictures merged with Filmways who were bought by Orion who later went broke. Orion had distribution deals with Warner and MGM. Somewhere in all that, the Teenage Werewolf is howling for release. There'due south a remastered DVD listed on the German Amazon (Der Tod Hat Schwarze Krallen – "Death Has Blackness Claws") but information technology seems never actually to have come out.

The Road Dorsum (1937)

Director : James Whale

Starring : John 'Dusty' King, Slim Summerville, Andy Devine, Dwight Frye

What'southward the story? Whale was best known for his Universal horrors (Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Human, The Old Dark House), only he intended this sequel to All Serenity On The Western Front to be the crowning celebrity of his career. Its story sees the soldiers of the 2d Company returning home and struggling to readjust to noncombatant life after the horrors of World War I. Only its anti-war and anti-German stance made Universal nervous, and it was drastically cutting to tiresome its bulletin. Whale later cited it as the worst job he e'er had.

What'southward the problem? All Tranquility On The Western Forepart is these days lauded equally culturally and historically significant, only The Road Dorsum remains a footnote to that story. Neutering the pic to appease the Nazi regime (or "cultivate the proficient volition of Germany" as it was worded) is not Universal'south finest hour. Without the materials to reassemble Whale's managing director'southward cut and put the mistake right, it'due south an episode they would probable prefer stays in the vaults.

So Red The Rose (1935)

Director : King Vidor

Starring : Randolph Scott, Margaret Sullavan, Walter Connolly

What's the story? A romance from the director of Duel In The Sun, set during the American Civil State of war. Sullavan plays a Southern plantation possessor whose earth gets turned upside down by the conflict between the Confederacy and the Union. But even in her darkest hours, she has her love for Randolph Scott to sustain her. Aww. Information technology wasn't a great success, to the extent that studios were wary of Civil War films for a few years afterwards, until the juggernaut striking Gone With The Air current cheered them up again in 1939.

What'southward the problem? Probably rights. It was made by Paramount but sold to Universal in the '50s for idiot box distribution. DVD rights would presumably need a new negotiation betwixt those two parties, and they've both got much higher priorities.

Freddy's Nightmares (1988-1990)

Director : Various (including Tobe Hooper and Mick Garris)

Starring : Robert Englund, Brad Pitt, Lori Trivial, Jeffrey Combs, George Lazenby

What's the story? Okay, this is a Television receiver serial, just given that it's a spin-off from a high-profile pic franchise (A Nightmare On Elm Street, if y'all need telling) we're allowing information technology. An anthology horror prove, it ran for 44 episodes, each introduced and wrapped up by Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger. Occasionally he was actually in the stories too, nearly notably Tobe Hooper'south pilot, which gives us the Krueger back-story and trial.

What'south the problem? Not enough people want it: Elm Street die-hards solitary do not have the numbers to make a remastered disc release worthwhile, which seems unfair when you tin become the unabridged Fri The 13th show. Eight VHS tapes were released (containing sixteen episodes between them), and Warner Bros. released the showtime DVD in an intended set in 2003. But nobody bought it, then the vast bulk of Freddy's nightmares remain in the basement, which is probably a relief to Brad Pitt and all the others who made early-career appearances. Yous can run into a couple of episodes as extras on the Elm Street Blu-ray box set.

The Swell Gatsby (1949)

Manager : Elliott Nugent

Starring : Alan Ladd, Betty Field, Ruth Hussey, Shelley Winters

What'due south the story? The second film accommodation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, and the first sound version (sadly the silent i is lost). Ladd is Gatsby, and had planned to direct until he savage out with studio Paramount over the rest of the casting. Richard Maibaum, who went on to pen loads of the James Bond films, wrote the screenplay.

What'south the trouble? The 1974 Robert Redford version got a fleck of a revival in the wake of Baz Luhrmann'due south recent film, but nobody much talked nigh this one. It plays pretty fast and loose with the book, which has irked some viewers, and Paramount actually withdrew information technology when the Redford version happened. Information technology occasionally surfaces on YouTube, with some presuming it might now exist in the public domain. A spiffy new "preservation print" was created for a Film Noir festival in 2012, so there is a decent new copy out there, merely in that location are nonetheless no plans to release it widely.

Zero Lasts Forever (1984)

Director : Tom Schiller

Starring : Zach Galligan, Lauren Tom, Pecker Murray, Dan Aykroyd

What'due south the story? A prolific director of shorts for Saturday Dark Live, Tom Schiller moved into features here, bringing several SNL alumni with him. It has all the same never been released and Schiller never directed a feature again. It revolves around Galligan living in a dystopian New York controlled by the Port Authority. He stumbles upon an underground network of tramps who secretly dominion the world, and gets sent on a mission to the Moon in a omnibus with Bill Murray. John Belushi would too take been a part of the madness, just tragically died but a few weeks before filming started.

What's the trouble? Mayhap nervous about potentially having another 1941 on their hands (the notorious Spielberg misfire starring many of the same people), Warner Bros. pulled Nothing Lasts Forever from its release slot and never showed it anywhere. These days information technology has "cult classic" written all over it, merely it remains unavailable, Warners claim, due to unspecified rights bug. It was finally shown on TCM at the showtime of this year, and Murray and Aykroyd have both said they're up for making some DVD extras. But the studio line remains that information technology'due south a long fashion down their priority listing.

Suburbia (1996)

Director : Richard Linklater

Starring : Jayce Bartok, Giovanni Ribisi, Parker Posey, Steve Zahn

What'due south the story? Linklater's fifth pic, made the year later Before Sunrise, is based on the play by Eric Bogosian; Bogosian also wrote the script. A kind of slacker reworking of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, it revolves a round a Gen-X gang of friends who hang out at their local convenience store and occasionally hassle the clerk. One of their former number who's since gone off and go a rock star, comes back to visit. Souls are searched.

What'south the trouble? Warner Bros. had this on their DVD schedule back in 2007, only it never materialised. The soundtrack is the probable culprit: a DVD or a Blu-ray would involve making costly new payments to the likes of Sonic Youth, Brook, Ministry building, The Flaming Lips, Skinny Puppy and Meat Puppets. So yous tin can't get a disc, simply the movie does sporadically show up on streaming platforms.

Ben (1972)

Director : Phil Karlson

Starring : Lee Montgomery, Joseph Campanella, Arthur O'Connell

What'due south the story? Y'all know the Michael Jackson song about the boy and his rat? It comes from this, the sequel to 1971 horror hit Willard. Having had plenty of his former master by the cease of the concluding film, giant rat Ben and his swarm befriend young Danny Garrison. And it'due south all fun and games until people starting time getting gnawed in the face.

What's the problem? Rights issues effectually production company Bing Crosby Productions (no, really: Bing Crosby financed a rat horror). Very few BCP films are widely bachelor anymore: even the original Willard seems but to be for sale in Spain. The excellent remake with Crispin Glover, however, is like shooting fish in a barrel to get hold of (Glover even sings Ben over the terminate credits). The producers of the new version got effectually the rights issue by making clear it was a completely new adaptation of Stephen Gilbert's novel Ratman'southward Notebooks. Calling it Willard again wasn't a problem considering it's merely the proper name of the main graphic symbol.

Dream Demon (1988)

Managing director : Harley Cokliss

Starring : Jemma Redgrave, Kathleen Wilhoite, Timothy Spall, Jimmy Blast

What'due south the story? A British horror roughly contemporary with the likes of Hellraiser and Paperhouse. On VHS, this sat in the Palace Horror series aslope The Hills Have Eyes, Basket Case and The Evil Dead, but information technology hasn't had the afterlife of whatever of those things. Upper class English rose Redgrave and spikey American goth Wilhoite detect themselves linked past a firm: Wilhoite through a pre-adoption babyhood she can't recollect, and Redgrave past the nightmares the house is giving her. Spall and Nail are muckraking tabloid journalists who become sucked into the layers of surreal dreams that the women battle through. It's similar Inception, if Inception had a zombie Spall getting punched right through the head.

What's the problem? Probable due to the bankruptcy of Palace Pictures. Palace simply had distribution rights to a lot of their hit titles (like the aforementioned Evil Expressionless and Hills Have Eyes) which is why they're still bachelor with no trouble, having been picked up again by others. But Dream Demon was actually produced by Palace and three other companies that no longer exist either. This explains the probably baffling ownership tangle.

Naked Tango (1991)

Director : Leonard Schrader

Starring : Vincent D'Onofrio, Mathilda May, Esai Morales, Fernando Rey

What's the story? Schrader (Paul's older blood brother) wrote the screenplay for Buss Of The Spider Woman, based on the novel past Manuel Puig. Six years later, he was "inspired" by Puig to write and direct this steamy melodrama. May plays a French trophy married woman in 1920s Argentina. She runs away, but gets dragged into an obsessive relationship with gangster/pimp Cholo (D'Onofrio), centred mostly on dancing, with an occasional fleck of violence for that extra frisson. Sometimes they trip the light fantastic toe with knives. Once they dance in an abattoir. One time she's naked – hence the name. There'due south a sexual practice scene where May is lying on fifty shades of broken glass. It's intense.

What'southward the trouble? Probably rights again. New Line picked up the distribution in the The states, and Warners did the VHS. But in that location were at least half-dozen production companies involved in the moving picture'due south creation, most of which never made anything once more.

A Fistful of Fingers (1995)

Director : Edgar Wright

Starring : Graham Low, Oli van der Vijver, Nicola Stapleton, Jeremy Beadle

What's the story? Five years before Spaced and a decade before Shaun Of The Dead, Edgar Wright made a comedy Western. In fact he made it twice, but this was the version that got released. We gave it one star (distressing Edgar!) merely the joke everybody likes and remembers is the shoot-out with pointed fingers instead of guns. That schtick would resurface in Wright'due south oeuvre…

What's the trouble? Subsequently Shaun, Wright was approached past Fistful's distributors about a DVD, but goose egg ever came of the discussions. Wright seems simultaneously embarrassed past his apprentice cult classic, and up for doing some sort of release with a lot of "pretty darn silly extras" and "very daft commentaries". Extras cost coin, so maybe that's the sticking bespeak. Wright wants whatever disc release to accept explanatory context. Who's going to pay for that?

As a side note, Wright's even earlier Rolf Harris Saves The World was never released past anybody. And you'd have to say it still looks unlikely.

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Source: https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/films-dvd/