Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Fickle Wife Turns Faithless and Wrecks The Market!


Flash: Both Wolves Of Wall Street Extinct On Film!

So the ax fell on 35mm and we'll never see The (Latest) Wolf Of Wall Street on film, says Paramount (but could enterprising pirates somehow wangle a print from digital source?, to which I'd ask, why would they want to?). More unfortunate is fact we're not likely to reclaim the 1929 Wolf Of Wall Street either, it being among missing of early talkers. All of which raises question of how, or how successfully, this newborn Wolf will be preserved for eager generations to come. Do digital files rot like nitrate? I've seen laser discs and DVD that went fritzing ways. And look what became of revolutionary Eastman color and magnetic soundtracks. Not that I'm overly concerned over fate of 2013's The Wolf Of Wall Street. After all, I'll not be here to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. But enough about that: What inspired today's post was come-across of ad beauties for Cincinnati's February '29 Wolf serve with Vitaphone shorts and Movietone news (and note a changed Vita-bill in the second week --- did the Capitol offer fresh shorts for Wolf's holdover?). Told In the Tumult of the WORLD's Wildest Market, said the opener day ad at top, but could anyone as of 2/29 imagine just how tumultuous that market would become within nine short months? Caveman Bancroft is "A Titan Of The Ticker," and to that promise I'd say Bring Him On, if only we could (memo to archives worldwide: Please search your shelves again).
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2 comments:

  1. Dave K11:45 AM

    Notes here say WOLF OF WALL STREET debuted in Duluth, MN at the Lyceum, February 9, 1929 on a bill that included "a Corking Comedy with Sound!" - LIBERTY (Yeah, Laurel and Hardy with a synchronized music track). Whole show was held over which was VERY unusual for this area.

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  2. ItsThatBlogGuy3:52 PM

    35mm prints are being abandoned in the U.S. market. But there will still be demand for physical film from theaters in nations facing even greater fiscal hardships than those continuing domestic rural houses. There will be master negatives prepared for those markets, for at least the next several years, and likely reference masters struck for archival purposes even after that.

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