Best Non-R1 Alternatives to Burn-on-Demand Titles

[Gregory]

I noticed this has come up twice in the past couple of days, and many times before that, so I thought it deserved a thread so we can pool our knowledge about alternatives to usually pricey burn-on-demand titles from Warner Archive and that ilk. Beaver has done some comparisons of Warner Archive titles, but more often than not I'm not sure how the options stack up.

Even in cases when picture quality of a non-R1 alternative isn't noticeably superior (or is perhaps ever so slightly inferior) to that of a Warner Archive release, price can also be a deciding factor, of course. Some of the ones below are priced in the range of 5 to 10 pounds or euros, which makes them all the more attractive compared to $14-$25 for burned media. I don't say all this to beat a dead horse in complaining about the cons of the burn-on-demand stuff we're getting in the U.S., but there are a lot of cost/benefit comparisons for those with multi-region players that are hard to make when most of the on-demand stuff is not really getting reviewed.

So, here's what comes to mind for me:
Moonfleet (Lang) (French, "Les Contrabandiers de Moonfleet")
Party Girl (Ray) (French, "Traquenard")
Hot Blood (Ray) (UK, very inexpensive)
Rosebud (Preminger) (UK, very inexpensive)
Verboten! (Fuller) (French, "Ordenes secrets...")

What else?

[domino harvey]

Might be helpful to keep a running tally in the first post (or I could do it in mine if you don't want to sign on) arranged alphabetically by studio

Sony MODs available in good R2 UK releases:
Deadly Affair
Footsteps in the Fog
Sometimes a Great Notion

MGM MODS available in good R2 UK releases:
Rolling Thunder (Optimum)
Two for the Seesaw (And its even anamorphic, which the $20 DVD-R couldn't get right)

I can attest to the quality of all of these except Rolling Thunder

[fdm]

Blue Collar R2 UK release is decent (PAL speedup not terribly noticeable), anamorphic, very cheap last I checked.

[souvenir]

10 Rillington Place is another R2 UK Sony that was modded in R1.

There are lots and lots of Editions Montparnasse discs in France of RKO titles later put in the Warner Archive, I can think of Berlin Express, The Window, Experiment Perilous, Bodyguard, Fifth Avenue Girl, Primrose Path, The Boy with the Green Hair...

[knives]

The Boy with the Green Hair...

I'm not aware of how good it is, but there is a UK release of this title. Speaking of Odeon's RKO releases as I mentioned earlier their version of The Locket is basically identical to the Archive version.

[Frankinho007]

Browsed through my collection and I do own the following discs:

All from France - NO forced subtitles:

Rancho Notorious (Lang) (L'Ange des maudits) - Films Sans Frontières - quality on par with the Archive disc, way better than the British DVD
The Fastest Gun Alive (Rouse) (La première balle tue) - Warner France
Along the Great Divide (Walsh) (Une corde pour te pendre) - Warner France
The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Minnelli) (Les quatre cavaliers de l'apocalypse) - Warner France
Scaramouche (1923) (Ingram) - Warner France <-> only available in the Édition Collector as a bonus feature to the 1952 Scaramouche
Split Second (Powell) (Même les assassins tremblent) - Editions Montparnasse
The Mad Miss Manton (Jason) (Miss Manton est folle) - Editions Montparnasse
Experiment Perilous (Tourneur) (Angoisse) - Editions Montparnasse
Berlin Express (Tourneur) (Berlin express) - Editions Montparnasse <-> has been released in the UK by Oden as well
The Search (Zinnemann) (Les anges marqués) - Warner France

Italy - NO forced subtitles:

The Fallen Sparrow (Wallace) (Il passo del carnefice) - Sony Italy <-> has been released in the UK by Oden as well

[Narshty]

MGM MODS available in good R2 UK releases:
Rolling Thunder (Optimum)

I can attest to the quality of all of these except Rolling Thunder

It may be worth noting that Optimum are also issuing this on Blu-ray, which bodes well.

[McCrutchy]

The Offence (Lumet) is an MGM burn-on-demand in R1, but MGM EU/Australia released a DVD in 2004 that is comparably pretty good. In the UK at least, that disc is now OOP, and has been replaced by a 2008 Optimum non-anamorphic (!) widescreeen disc, so AVOID that one and get the anamorphic MGM disc instead.

Alternatively, Wild Side in France released a DVD in 2009 of slightly superior PQ with a new (French-language) featurette, BUT the feature has forced French subtitles, which you may or may not be able to disable with the remote in your system.

[Murdoch]

Apparently there's an Italian release of Colorado Territory here, which as of now is available through the Warner Archive. No idea of the quality.

[PillowRock]

Of the few Editions Montpernasse RKO Collection disks that I have, I only know of one that has been released to the Warner Archive.

Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) ("L'Iconnu du 3eme Etage")

The others that I have, but don't think that I've seen mentioned in the Archive releases (or anywhere else in R1 that I've noticed, though I may have missed something), are:

Vivacious Lady (1938) ("Mariage Incognito")
Blackbeard the Pirate (1952) ("Barbe Noire le Pirate")
Mademoiselle Fifi (1944)
Thirteen Women (1932) ("13 Femmes")

From what I've seen, that entire collection is priced at 9.99 euros per film and all of them come with a short (say, about 2 minutes) video introduction (in French, no subs), optional subtitles, and no other extras (some also have a French dub).

Of those, Blackbeard is what seems to be a French theatrical print, with the credits and one brief insert shot of a note passed between two characters being replaced with French language versions.

During the Madman sale a while back, I picked up that Aussie edition of I Married a Witch (1942). I haven't gotten around to watching this one yet.

[PillowRock]

During the Madman sale a while back, I picked up that Aussie edition of I Married a Witch (1942). I haven't gotten around to watching this one yet.

OK, I watched this tonight.

Sound level is a little uneven, occasionally getting very low.
Picture is often a little soft, and for the last 4 or 5 minutes is exceptionally soft.
It seems to have lost a little bit at both ends of the final flash forward.
And the headline and sub-head of newspaper that we are shown is a foreign insert. (From the news boy's yelling, I expect that it should say "Wooley Exposed!", but it says "Wooley Odhalen!". Anybody know what language that is?)

I have no idea how that compares to any of the other editions available from other countries.

[swo17]

You guys do remember I Married a Witch is forthcoming from Criterion, right? Unless I suppose they end up just uploading it to Hulu and leaving it at that.

[matrixschmatrix]

Browsed through my collection and I do own the following discs:

All from France - NO forced subtitles:

Experiment Perilous (Tourneur) (Angoisse) - Editions Montparnasse

There's a DVD Beaver comparison on this one, and it looks like the Archive version is significantly higher picture quality.

[Cash Flagg]

It may be worth noting that Optimum are also issuing (Rolling Thunder) on Blu-ray, which bodes well.

Not anymore.