Thursday, March 16, 2023

The Problem with Warner Bros.' 100th Anniversary Video


Warner Bros. may well have been the first studio from the Golden Age of Hollywood of which I was aware. After all, the Warner Bros. shield was prominently featured before all of the classic Warner Bros. cartoons I watched voraciously as a kid. Later I would discover their classic television shows in reruns, from Maverick to 77 Sunset Strip to F Troop. It was only a little bit later that I discovered their classic films, including The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942), Now, Voyager (1942), and Mildred Pierce (1945) on local television stations. Many of my favourite stars were signed to Warner Bros., including Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, James Cagney, and Edward G. Robinson. If I had to name my favourite movie studio of all time, it might well be Warner Bros.

It is because of that I have been eagerly awaiting Warner Bros.' 100th anniversary on April 4. It was in December that Warner Bros. dropped a video in tribute to their 100th anniversary. As it turned out, the video was not eagerly embraced by classic film buffs, myself included. The Warner Bros. 100th Anniversary video was shown during this past Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony, where it was once more met with a less than favourable reaction from classic film buffs. The problem? It includes clips from movies that were originally neither produced nor even distributed by Warner Bros.

Indeed, many of the films prominently featured in the video were produced not by Warner Bros., but their archrival MGM. The Wizard of Oz (1939), North by Northwest (1959), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Ben-Hur (1959), An American in Paris (1941), and A Christmas Story (1983) were all produced by Metro-Golwyn-Mayer. Gone with the Wind (1939) was produced by Selznick International Pictures in association with MGM. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) was produced by Wolper Pictures and distributed by Paramount.

Now all of these films are now owned by Warner Bros. It was in 1986 that Ted Turner bought MGM/UA Entertainment Co. from Kirk Kerokian. He almost immediately sold it back to Mr. Kerokian, but he kept the pre-1986 MGM/UA film and television library. It was with the MGM/UA library and other libraries that Ted Turner formed Turner Entertainment Co. in 1986. It was in 1996 that Turner Entertainment Co. was acquired by Time Warner. The end result of this is that Warner  has control of the pre-MGM library. Quite simply, Warner owns The Wizard of Oz, 2002: A Space Odyssey, and other movies made by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. As to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, it was in 1977 that Paramount declined to renew the distribution rights for the film. The rights then defaulted to Quaker Oats Company, who were involved in the production of the film. Quaker Oats Company then sold Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory to Warner Bros.

Movies neither originally produced nor distributed by Warner Bros. being featured in the 100th Anniversary video would not be so bad if it were not for the fact that many prominent classic films that were produced and distributed by Warner Bros. are nowhere to be seen in the video. Such Warner Bros. classics as Little Caesar (1931), Stella Dallas (1937), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942), Kings Row (1942), Now, Voyager (1942), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944),
and Christmas in Connecticut (1944), among others, are nowhere to be seen.

Of course, in omitting many of Warner Bros.' classic films from the video, they also omitted almost all of their classic stars. Humphrey Bogart is the only one featured prominently in the video. Absent from the video are Bette Davis, James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, Errol Flynn, Mary Astor, Joan Fontaine, and many others. Going by the video, Warner Bros. would apparently have you believe that George Clooney is more important to film history than Bette Davis.

Warner Bros. not only gave short shrift to their contract players from the Golden Age of Hollywood, but even the classic cartoon characters for which they may be best known. There is only one clip from a classic Warner Bros. cartoon and another from Space Jam (1996). Given that the classic Warner Bros. cartoons is how many of us were introduced to the studio, one would think they would have included several clips from the classic cartoons. One would think they would not only highlight Bugs Bunny, but Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, and maybe a few other of their classic cartoon characters.

As if omitting many of Warner Bros.' classic feature films and animated shorts in favour of movies produced by other studios wasn't bad enough, Warner Bros. also largely ignored its classic television shows. The classic Wonder Woman, starring Lynda Carter, is the oldest Warner Bros. show featured in the video. Missing are such classics as Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip, F Troop, The F.B.I., The Streets of San Francisco, and Kung Fu. While I appreciate that clips from ER found their way into the video, Warner Bros. effectively ignored three decades worth of television shows. Indeed, watching the video one would think Friends was Warner Bros.' greatest contribution to TV. history I hate to inform Warner Bros., but I think people will still be watching Maverick long after Friends has been forgotten.

Now I do appreciate that Warner Bros. highlighted the contribution that DC Comics has made to the company (DC Comics was bought by Kinney National Company in 1967, who then bought Warner Bros.-Seven Arts in 1969). I also appreciate that they featured a clip from Stand and Deliver (1988--although produced by American Playhouse, it was distributed by Warner Bros.). I do think that Warner Bros. genuinely meant for the video to be a celebration of the studio's history. The problem is that in some ways it plays more like a celebration of MGM's history.

As a fan of Warner Bros. since childhood, what I wanted to see in this video was a real tribute to the studio. I wanted to see clips from the many classic movies they produced and/or distributed. I wanted to see clips from The Adventures of Robin Hood and High Sierra. I wanted to see clips from such classic cartoons as "What's Opera, Doc?" and "One Froggy Evening." I wanted to see clips from such TV shows as Maverick and 77 Sunset Strip. I wanted to see clips from Warner Bros.' history. As much as I love The Wizard of Oz and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, they are only movies that Warner Bros. currently owns, and as such are not a major part of the studio's history. Warner Bros. did not produce them and did not originally distribute them. Indeed, while I think Louis B. Mayer would probably get a big laugh out of the video, I think Jack Warner (and probably the other Warner brothers as well) would be furious. Honestly, I think Warner Bros. should create another video that truly acknowledges the studio's history. This one really doesn't.

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