Printed on demand: Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze

0

By Chris Meadows

The idea of print-on-demand has long been associated with books. But now it is beginning to rub off on other media.

From the Warner Archive

Last week, Warner announced its new “Warner Archive” program, in which classic Warner movies that were not yet getting a full commercial DVD release could be ordered for $14.95 as a DRM-encumbered digital download, or $19.95 as a DVD.

Upon order, a disc would be created featuring the movie in its original aspect ratio and its trailer if available, then shipped out to the consumer, The disc would be fairly bare-bones, with no customization or “extras” of the sort found on most commercial releases.

Just as publishers do with print-on-demand for books, Warner is using the print-on-demand method to offer copies of movies for which there might not be enough demand to merit the expense of producing a full-fledged commercial DVD. In this uncertain economy, this is definitely a smart move.

Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze

As it happened, one of the available titles was the 1975 George Pál film Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, a highly campy adaptation of the first novel of the classic pulp series. Although $20 was kind of a high price to pay for such a film, I had been given $25 by my grandmother as a birthday present, and felt I might as well spend it on this as anything. So I placed my order, and a week later Doc Savage showed up at my door.

The DVD case was slick and professional-looking; it even had a UPC code on the back. (Also on the back was the somewhat ominous notice “This disc is expected to play back in DVD video ‘play only’ devices, and may not play back in other DVD devices including recorders and PC drives.” Given that a computer is ordinarily my only means of watching DVDs, you could have told me that before I ordered, guys! However, I had no problems playing the movie back on my own computer.)

There was no insert in the case; just a DVD—again, with a professional-looking (if somewhat nondescript) label. When I played it, after the (unskippable) FBI warning was a (skippable) trailer for the Warner Archive film collection.

The Disc

The print-on-demand nature of the disc was most evident in its menu screen, which did not give the name or logo of the movie at all (so the same screen could be used for any of their titles), had no “chapters” screen, and indicated that the movie could be “track skipped” in 10-minute chunks using the remote.

Although the feature film was in 1.85:1 aspect ratio, trimmed very slightly to fit the 1.78:1 ratio of anamorphic display, the trailer was in 4:3 full-screen. The quality of the film picture was slightly grainy, as one might expect for a print of that age, but it held up well for an old film that had undergone no obvious restoration.

The Movie

As for the quality of the movie itself? I had seen it once before, a long time ago. I went into it expecting some good campy pulp adventure, and I was not disappointed. One element that stood out was that Savage (Ron Ely) had a full head of hair instead of the bronze buzz cut with which Savage is usually depicted—I expect Ely did not want to shave his head for the making of this film.

Also noteworthy was the score, which was redolent with Sousa marches (especially “The Thunderer,” to which verses about Doc Savage were fitted). The campiness was overwhelming in some places, though there were a number of good fights and other action scenes.

$19.95 might be a little much to ask people to pay for a campy film like Doc Savage. However, the Warner catalog offers a number of other interesting and intriguing titles, with more being added every month. The program could be an excellent way for film buffs impatient with Warner’s slow DVD release schedule to obtain older movies that are still unavailable anywhere else.

0

 Print Friendly