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And exactly how many original negatives are floating around in the vaults for films of the 1930's? Universal hasn't exactly been giving us stellar transfers of their horror titles - look at THE INVISIBLE MAN and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, which I consider their single best 1930's efforts! Very average. If brilliant negatives still exist (and I'm not saying for a moment that they don't) why doesn't Universal use them? What damage would be done by these films going public domain, provided that a hardworking company put time and effort into locating the best elements? Kino did just fine with THE OLD DARK HOUSE, and films where no original material is present (like NOSFERATU) have been well served... And we'd get so many more extras as well!


The original negs for the early Universals are probably lost or overprinted and unuseable, but the material in Universal's vaults would still be superior to the materials in private hands. The aren't using comp prints of the kind collector's have--probably a mix-and-match of surviving fine grains.

Kino did "just fine" with OLD DARK HOUSE? It's etremely dark and murky, lacking in fine details and the sound is mediocre at best, with some dialogue almost impossible to understand. Universal's worst transfer looks like a masterpiece in comparison.

We'd get more extras? Really? If thousands of films sudddenly went p.d., why do you think YOUR favorites would be singled out for deluxe treatment? Also, compare the extras on Kino's OLD DARK HOUSE--or ANY Kino DVD--with the extras on the first wave of Universal discs. Universal wins hands down. With all the original partipants dead, how much more could even Criterion reasonably do? They'd just offer commentaries and/or documentaries with genre experts, plus maybe stills and poster galleries. Maybe they'd dig up some old TV interview with Karloff. It's not like there are fabulous deleted scenes or screen tests surviving on these films--and if they did exist, they'd probably be in Universal's vaults, where Criterion couldn't get them.

The damage done to these films by having them fall in the public domain is that the studios would lose the financial incentive to care for them, so original materials would be allowed to rot. No private or government institution would have the funds to take up the slack, and thousands of films could be lost by neglect. Titles as popular as the Universal monster films would be o.k., but less famous titles? Forget it. I'm no fan of big corporations, but films are expensive to preserve, and if the financial incentive to preserve them is lost, the impact will be devastating.