IdeaOfEvil

If I can make a recommendation to anyone here, buy the Mark of Zorro, then find any copy of Zorro the Gay Blade that you can, and watch them both back to back. They're severely underrated as standalone films, and together they create a fantastic example of generational movies that work well together.

kingdoxie

I think we're saying the same thing that Kino is perfectly right to sell their stuff before the license expires as opposed to dumping product on the market after reporting it 'destroyed.'

Hamilton Book is a hidden gem for sure, lots of good stuff every month.

Place Logo Here

Just want to concur that, of these, The Mark of Zorro is the one I would most hate to see permanently disappear from physical media. I'm not even a fan of swashbucklers, but this is an incredibly entertaining film.

No Highway in the Sky is unique but has some curious character behavior in it, especially from Jimmy Stewart's plane engineer. He takes a sudden action that is one of the most unexpected things I have ever seen in a picture. I loaned this out to a friend, and her engineer husband was enthralled by the aspects of that profession shown here.

Chosen Survivors is goofy as the day is the long, but I found elements to enjoy in it.

23 Paces to Baker Street is a slightly tepid film in the mold of Rear Window and other set-bound suspense films of that era, but I think those who enjoy such fare (and I am one of those people) will find something of merit

On the other hand, of the films I have seen on that list, I could not find anything to recommend The Beautiful Blond from Bashful Bend or What a Way to Go. A comedy film that fails seems to do so harder than that of any other genre, and I don't think I even smiled once while watching either movie

filmlover22

Will have to disagree with you on the Beautiful Blond film. I though it was quite enjoyable, more like a live action cartoon than anything else. Definitely one of Sturges worst films, but I still got a kick out of it.

Rzzzz

That piece of crap is probably the biggest waste of talent since Movie 43 (2013).
I got rid of that thing immediately after watching. And this is coming from a guy that loves bad movies and unintentional comedy.

Modman

No Highway in the Sky - Jimmy Stewart seems like a fish out of water in this picture, additionally, its a movie that does not know the story it wants to tell. However, its been a while since I've seen it and hence I've bought the Blu-ray; it deserves a second chance.

23 Paces to Baker Street - Bought the Blu-ray against my better judgement, Van Johnson to me is often the acting equivalent of beige, but you never it might be a distracting 100 minutes.

pretty kitty

I'm a longtime HB shopper and I have no idea what you're referring to here. HB sells many OOP releases, but never for collector prices. Sometimes they are even shockingly low when compared to the current sold prices on ebay or elsewhere. One of the many admirable things about them.

That HB drop of Kino titles in Feb. absolutely included some that were already OOP, and were not priced high at all. For example, The Landlord went OOP in Dec. 2023 and HB was selling it in Feb. 2024 for $5.95. You can find many others if you compare the OOP list to HB's drop.

gudemameshiba

The question is whether KL is within their contractual rights to sell overstock to a wholesaler before the license expires and without marking down the units as destroyed. Previously I have suggested that KL has done just that based on the assumption that it was within their rights, because overstock of underselling titles has popped up at HB near the end of multiple license periods.

But you make a good point: just because overstock pops up shortly before the end of a license (or soon enough afterward that it can be presumed that HB received and paid for the units prior to the end of the license) doesn't necessarily imply that the units came directly from KL.

I am aware of one example (not KL) of discs being sold instead of destroyed as per contract. It was a subcontractor, not a licensing deal, and while technically the titles weren't out of print, the subcontractor still got sued for $10 million. (Some of you will remember the influx of Warner DVDs—many with slashed UPCs—turning up at Big Lots and from third parties on Amazon.)

It's a moot point on both sides: regardless of what a handful of eBay scalpers may have managed to eke out, if there were any genuinely rare out of print titles, they would never be offered to HB by anyone, and if they were, it would be at a price HB would never pay.

With the exception of titles KL wanted to renew but were unable to (e.g. the now-OOP Bava titles and the better-selling Disney and Fox releases), KL titles go out of print because the demand has more or less been satisfied.

For example: another of the titles in the February drop is The Group, which, like The Landlord, went out of print in December. But that alone doesn't make it valuable. If it were worth more on the secondary market, someone would have snapped up all the $5.95 copies three days after the drop (i.e. when quantity limits were no longer in effect). Instead, HB still has over a hundred copies two months later.

Having a hundred copies of an out of print title is no guarantee that a hundred people will pay out of print prices for it.

EDIT: Obviously that doesn't mean scalpers won't sit on copies of things and play a waiting game hoping for impatient buyers to overpay! There are plenty of OOP KL titles that I'm waiting for the right price on, and I've been waiting a whole for some of them, but that's because someone else out there with a copy thinks they can get more than that, and they are willing to sit on it in the meantime.

waxHead

Watched The Mark of Zorro a few weeks ago and absolutely loved it. It's a phenomenal film and it's very disappointing to see it going out of print.

If you're planning to place a Kino order and don't yet own The Mark of Zorro... just buy it. Trust us.

kingdoxie

All fair points and we'll never know for sure as we're not privy to contract details.

AllieFox

Zorro the Gay Blade was an old favorite of mine with so many great lines to quote. I never cared much for George Hamilton except for this movie. It never got much appreciation, just like The Money Pit, which is another great quote-worthy movie.

Where can you find Zorro the Gay Blade? I bought the DVD release long ago. According to the search on this site set for worldwide, there is no 4K, BD, or digital release to buy. I can't even find it on Justwatch.com but Google shows it's available to stream on a few sites.

On Google a $33 BD shows up on a site I've never heard of called eCrater. If it's not listed on this site, I assume it's a boot leg.

DawnShadow

I really don’t think it should be being discussed in such ridiculous detail regardless. It’s a good thing that we shouldn’t be drawing attention to. I’d much rather 500 extra copies of a title being out in the wild than destroyed.

Yes I technically started this “debate” but I was just correcting what was clearly misinformation. Kino clearly does sell units to HamiltonBook. It is way too coincidental that large quantities of copies of heaps of titles that just had their license expire showed up at HB shortly after. I do not believe anything illegal took place whatsoever, and it is far safer to buy the titles from Kino beforehand if you want to be guaranteed a copy and a fairly good deal, but the statement I originally quoted was outright incorrect.

So if you are wanting heaps of titles that are about to go out of print, but cannot afford them all and need to choose, I would say go for the more expensive ones, as if Kino is keeping the price high, they clearly don’t have a large amount of stock to move. The ones they are selling at a cheap price are far more likely to have copies show up at places like HB after the fact, giving you a second chance to pick them up when you have more funds available.

kingdoxie

Noted.

IdeaOfEvil

All I know of is the dvd. That's why I said, "get whatever you can." =)

If you end up finding a copy, bootleg or not, let us all know how good it is (wink wink)

sprocket

Picked up a few items - while they last.

kingdoxie

Haven't gone through the list so don't know if all are currently on the WSL list or if some are going directly OOP from the main listings.

KLI update:

There's nothing to update, except some of the titles listed below will be removed very soon, either due to them selling out or our rights expiring.

3 Bad Men
23 Paces to Baker Street
100 Rifles
The Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend
Billy Liar
Boomerang
Boy on a Dolphin
The Captain's Paradise | Barnacle Bill - Double Feature
Chosen Survivors
Compulsion
Daddy Long Legs
Daisy Kenyon
David and Bathsheba
Death in the Garden
A Farewell to Arms, (1957)
Fixed Bayonets!
House on 92nd Street
I, the Jury
The Laughing Policeman
The Man Who Haunted Himself (Special Edition)
Night People
No Highway in the Sky
Outcast of the Islands
Rawhide (1951)
Tristan + Isolde
Trouble Man
Western Union
What a Way to Go!
Yellow Sky

NeoNical

Billy Liar went OOP. But to be fairly honest, this was one of my first Kino titles I bought and the quality was pretty bad. Don't feel too bad if you didn't get it on time

kingdoxie

KLI update:

Note: The following titles will be available for a limited time (some very low stock) and will be removed from distribution soon. All 23 titles will be going out of print.

3 Bad Men
23 Paces to Baker Street
100 Rifles
The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend
Boomerang
Boy on a Dolphin
Chosen Survivors
Daddy Long Legs
Daisy Kenyon
David and Bathsheba
Deadline U.S.A.
A Farewell to Arms (1957)
Fixed Bayonets!
The House on 92nd Street
I, the Jury
Night People
No Highway in the Sky
Rawhide
Tristan & Isolde
Trouble Man
Western Union
What a Way to Go?
Yellow Sky

Purchase them while you can.

NeoNical

Wow they're really having trouble selling some of those titles lol. I've been looking at Daddy Long Legs and Trouble Man for so long that I'm surprised it's there after all these years. I'm gonna get on the site and get some of the few titles left in my watchlist before I regret it, though (And there's a handful of titles I have already missed out within the last month).

gudemameshiba

I had thought they actually did an additional print run of Trouble Man but kept it at the WSL price, but now I'm not so sure. KLI provided a sales ranking of all the Fox titles.