The Masters  
The Powell & Pressburger Pages

Dedicated to the work of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and all the other people, both actors and technicians who helped them make those wonderful films.

A lot of the documents have been sent to me or have come from other web sites. The name of the web site is given where known. If I have unintentionally included an image or document that is copyrighted or that I shouldn't have done then please email me and I'll remove it.

I make no money from this site, it's purely for the love of the films.

[Any comments are by me (Steve Crook) and other members of the email list]

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News from Criterion about DVD releases

I emailed Criterion about plans for future DVD releases of P&P films :- 

To Jon Mulvaney <mulvaney@criterionco.com>:
>
> Hello Jon,
>
> I was given your name as somebody who might be able to
> tell me if Criterion have any plans to put the other
> Powell and Pressburger titles that were in the laserdisc
> collection onto DVD?
>
> The remaining titles are 49th Parallel (1941),
> The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) and The
> Tales of Hoffmann (1951).
>
> As Criterion already has all the material, including the
> commentary tracks and supplementary material I'd have
> thought they could be slipped into the schedule quite
> painlessly (I hope).
>
> I run an email group, the Powell and Pressburger Appreciation
> Society and there have been a lot of people (not just group
> members) asking about these titles.
>
> All the best
>
>    Steve Crook
>

From: Jon Mulvaney <mulvaney@criterionco.com>:
Dear Steve, 

Unfortunately, no further Powell/Pressburger titles appear on 
Criterion's year 2001 production schedule. Please keep an eye on our 
website for any future news and updates. 

Thanks for your mail and please feel free to contact me with any 
future questions or concerns. 

                                Best,
                                        JM

Now that's a terrible shame.

Of course if enough other people were to contact them asking the same thing they might eventually get the idea that it's worth releasing those other title.

I later mentioned to Jon that I'd seen mention in one of the DVD reviews that Criterion had plans to release ToH. I asked him if this was true.

On July 17th, Jon emailed me to say 

From: Jon Mulvaney <mulvaney@criterionco.com>

Dear Steve,

Expect Criterion's release of TALES OF HOFFMANN in 2002.

Thanks for your mail and please feel free to contact me with any
future questions or concerns.

                                Best,
                                        JM
That's better :)

I started the New Year with another request to Jon to ask how they were getting on. He replied on Jan 28th 2002: 

From: Jon Mulvaney <mulvaney@criterionco.com>

Dear Steve,

Look for COLONEL BLIMP in the second half of 2002. I'm afraid that's
all the information I have at this time. I would assume that it would 
include most or all of what appeared on the laserdisc, but
I'm not sure about that. Nothing definite has been decided.

Unfortunately, Criterion has had to postpone the release of TALES OF
HOFFMANN due to trouble with the film elements. Hopefully, we'll have a 
chance to release it in 2003.

Thanks for the documentary suggestion! I'll definitely pass it along
to the BLIMP producer.
[This was a suggestion that they might like to include
Kevin Macdonald's documentary about Emeric "The Making of an Englishman"
on the Blimp DVD]

Thanks for your mail and please feel free to contact me with any
future questions or concerns.

                                Best,
                                        JM

Both Blimp & ToH feature on the Criterion DVD website in their "coming soon" pages (or did when they had "coming soon" pages), but don't have any dates mentioned there (yet).

But we mustn't let them forget about 49P.

Update: October 2003

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp has now been released on Criterion DVD.
See also the reviews of the DVD.

Update: November 2003

Daniel Stenvall reports a message from Jon Mulvaney at Criterion

"I would say TALES OF HOFFMAN has been postponed indefinitely. I wouldn't expect it until 2005 at the earliest."

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