Rare Films

[lovenorwegians]

Does anyone know why some British films from the 1940's - 1960's are seldom, if ever, aired on television? There are many films featuring Susan Shaw, Diane Cilento, Barbara Shelley and Suzy Kendall which I have been waiting for decades to see. It gets very frustrating at times.

[JamesM]

When television companies buy films to screen on television they often get rights to screen them several times and usually pluck for more popular films.



In the early days of Channel Four, a single film screening would expect to catch a greater share of the television audience than it would today so it was less expedient to repeat films. It also costs less per screening to prepare a film to screen several times.



Often television companies deal with the same rights holders and this often leaves smaller distributors catalogues untouched.



With the advent of satellite television, some opportunities have arisen for smaller companies to sell television rights to companies who need to fill screen time with non-commercial product of interest in order to gain a decent slot for their shopping channels. This is how we got to see so many films from the Renown catalogue recently.



Perhaps if more companies go down this line, we may get to see other obscurities unearthed.



Let us know which films you are thinking of and I will look to see who holds distribution rights.

[smudge]

name='lovenorwegians']Does anyone know why some British films from the 1940's - 1960's are seldom, if ever, aired on television? There are many films featuring Susan Shaw, Diane Cilento, Barbara Shelley and Suzy Kendall which I have been waiting for decades to see. It gets very frustrating at times.

Nobody seems to like B&W so much anymore...



Well, not the schedulers anyway!



I suppose FILM FOUR and MORE 4 are the best sources of late.



Smudge

[CaptainWaggett]

When was the last time there was a season of old films on tv in the evenings? Back in the day, BBC2 would show oldies at 5.30 (I remember an excellent season of films based on radio - ITMA, Crooks' Tour, Radio Parade of 1935 etc) and in prime-time there was Fred'n'Ginge seasons, Orson Welles, RKO etc. Unimaginable now - even BBC4 doesn't show that much in the way of old stuff. Film 4 is good but I've seen Cottage to Let and Green for Danger 358 times now. Likewise, while I love Gainsborough, there really is a limit to how many times one can enjoy The Man in Grey.

[Carmel]

Most of these films were far better veiwing that what we get today but they seem to repeat the up to date movies over and over again please some more oldies please.

[HIPPIEDAVE]

I could list lots of films I have not seen on tv since the 70s

[Steve Crook]

name='HIPPIEDAVE']I could list lots of films I have not seen on tv since the 70s

But what about limiting the list to the ones you'd like to have seen on TV?

There must be loads that have never been seen on TV because they're not very good.



Steve

[Able Abel]

I remember as a child, back in 1972, my parents rented their first colour tv set. Just a couple of years later they reverted back to a b&w set, because there were so many b&w films still being shown in the prime time slot, they didn't think it was worth the cost of a colour licence, for the amount of b&w films that were being broadcast. The world cup football tournaments in 1978, saw them revert to a colour set once again, and it's been that way since.



I myself miss the days when a nice b&w classic film was always shown on BBC1, on a Sunday afternoon, those were the days before the omnibus edition of that dreary soap opera, "DeadEnders", started monopolising the tv schedules.

[PaulPlowman]

When I was young (not so long ago), there used to be silent comedies on TV all the time, seemingly. I used to love Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton, et al. Now, you never seem to see them. Ever.



...admittedly, I don't watch TV these days, but when I did, you never seemed to see them. Ever.



:)

[stevie boy]

Jigsaw with Jack Warner & Pool of London with Bonar Colleano are due a showing.

[Shaun]

I've given up checking the schedules for TV film screenings as it tends to be the same old thing re served over and over. I suspect that there are many films - good or not so good that will probably never get another screening, certainly on mainstream TV and it seems that unless someone had the foresight to video TV film screenings in the early 80's then that's about your only chance. I wouldn't hold my breath too much either in the hope that another Bravo or Carlton will re emerge to show older films. Commercial releases may be an option but what price the lesser known features?

A film I first tried to find on the site, Lisa aka the Inspector almost proved impossible to find until someone very helpfully pointed me in the direction of a dealer in the US - couldn't find it in Britain, not been shown on TV forever etc etc, not available commercially. Can be a bit of a challenge finding some titles and I have to ask, are we that much of a minority interest group? If so we may well wait forever to see some our favoured holy grails.



Shaun

[Brief Encounter]

name='JamesM']

Let us know which films you are thinking of and I will look to see who holds distribution rights.

Is that the same as who would be able to issue it on DVD?

[Steve Crook]

name='Brief Encounter']Is that the same as who would be able to issue it on DVD?

It doesn't have to be, you can have a situation where one distributor has the rights to screen a film in cinemas and a different distributor has the rights to make DVDs. But they are often the same company



Steve