Auntie Mame, everybody’s favorite relative, was based on novelist Patrick Dennis’ real-life eccentric aunt who first came to the world’s attention in his 1955 bestselling novel, quickly followed by the 1956 Broadway smash hit starring Rosalind Russell and then the Oscar-nominated 1958 film that became the biggest box-office hit of 1959. Filmed in Technirama, a process in which the frame is twice as large as the frame in CinemaScope, the eye-popping colors were some of the loveliest ever put on film. Muted in past home video formats and TV broadcasts, the film has been restored to its original rich palate on Blu-ray with crystal clear sound picking up every nuance of the non-stop comedy.

The character would be revisited again with the incomparable Angela Lansbury taking over as a singing Mame on Broadway in 1966. Alas, Lansbury’s full-of-life performance was not transferred to the screen in the flop 1974 film version that starred a barely moving 62-year-old Lucille Ball. But, we still have the original with the fabulous Rosalind Russell at her peak, supported by a gallery of top-notch supporting players including Coral Browne as Vera Charles, Peggy Cass as Agnes Gooch, Jan Handzlik as the young Patrick, Roger Moore as the older Patrick, Forrest Tucker as Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside, Patric Knowles as Lindsay, Fred Clark as Babcock, Henry Brandon as Acacius Page, Robin Hughes as O’Banion, Joanna Barnes as Gloria, Pippa Scott as Pegeen, Willard Waterman and Lee Patrick as the Upsons, Connie Gilchrist as Norah Muldoon, and Yuki Shimoda as Ito. They’re all marvelous no matter how many times you see them.

Despite the Blu-ray release of Auntie Mame, Warner Bros., the custodian of the world’s greatest film library still has many films from MGM, Warner Bros., RKO, and a few smaller companies awaiting long-overdue upgrades to the most pristine home video format. Here then, are ten Warner Bros. owned films I would like to see released in the format sooner, rather than later.

Show Boat – the definitive 1936 version which can be released either as a stand-alone release or as part of a package that includes the 1929 part-talkie and the 1951 version, which would also make a great stand-alone release. The 1936 version, one of the few non-horror films directed by James Whale, with Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Helen Morgan, Paul Robeson, Hattie McDaniel, and Charles Winninger reprising roles they played in various stage versions, though, is the one that cries out for the higher profile that Blu-ray affords.

Goodbye, Mr. Chips – James Hilton’s beloved novel brought to life by Sam Wood as one of the great films of Hollywood’s greatest year – 1939 – and one of the last of the year’s major releases to get a Blu-ray upgrade despite that it starred Robert Donat who won the Oscar over James Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind and introduced Greer Garson as the equally beloved Mrs. Chipping.

The Shop Around the Corner – Ernst Lubitsch’s perennial Christmas favorite from 1940 has been remade as a Hollywood musical, changing the season from winter to summer in In the Good Old Summertime, as the Broadway musical, She Loves Me, and even as an updated romantic comedy called You’ve Got Mail, which was released on Blu-ray with a standard DVD of the original included as a bonus. What a missed opportunity that was! As charming as Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan were in that version, they were not James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, and their forgettable supporting cast were not in the same league as Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut, Sara Haden, and William Tracy.

Now, Voyager – Bette Davis arguably had her greatest role prior to All About Eve in Irving Rapper’s 1942 weepie. She is sensational as a timid ugly duckling who blossoms into a beautiful swan when out from under the thumb of her domineering mother, played by the equally brilliant Gladys Cooper for whom Somerset Maugham wrote The Letter, the second film version of which provided Davis with another of her great screen roles two years earlier.

Random Harvest – Another Hilton novel, another great role for Greer Garson as the Scottish dancehall girl who loves and loses amnesiac Ronald Colman when he regains his old memory and forgets his new one. Not one to give up easily, Garson pursues him in a most unusual way in Mervyn LeRoy’s film, the second of her 1942 hits that broke box office records wherever it played. She is as memorable here as she was in the year’s earlier Mrs. Miniver for which she won her Oscar.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers – Stanley Donen’s 1954 musical-comedy gem has lost none of its risqué charm despite changing mores over the more than 60 years since it wowed audiences with its exuberance. Jane Powell is the young bride who not only captivates husband Howard Keel but unwittingly inspires his brothers, Jeff Richards, Russ Tamblyn, Tommy Rall, Marc Platt, Matt Mattox, and Jacques d’Amboise to kidnap brides of their own leading to a most hilarious conclusion. Its fantastic choreography alone cries out for Blu-ray release.

Tea and Sympathy – Vincente Minnelli’s craftsmanship with CinemaScope cameras reached its zenith in this 1956 adaptation of Robert Anderson’s Broadway play starring Deborah Kerr as the housemother who offers student John Kerr (no relation) more than tea in resolving his conflicted sexuality. Although few changes have been made to the play aside from its censor-imposed epilogue, the film never seems like a filmed theatrical presentation thanks to Minnelli’s brilliant use of the medium.

The Nun’s Story – Fred Zinnemann’s 1959 film was prophetic in many ways as it was the first dramatization of discord within the modern Catholic Church as exemplified by the dissatisfaction of a nun with her calling. Beautifully photographed in and outside the walls of a convent and in the Belgian Congo where Sister Luke finds the most satisfaction, it provided Audrey Hepburn with the signature dramatic role of her career, supported by a distinguished cast that included Peter Finch, Edith Evans, Peggy Ashcroft, Dean Jagger, Mildred Dunnock, Beatrice Straight, Patricia Collinge, Ruth White, Barbara O’Neil, and Colleen Dewhurst as an unholy terror of a mental patient.

Home from the Hill – This 1960 film was another eye-pleasing dramatic work from Vincente Minnelli featuring powerhouse performances from Robert Mitchum, Eleanor Parker, George Peppard, George Hamilton, Luana Patten, and Everett Sloane set in Texas in the 1950s. It compares favorably to the better known and now better remembered later scenes in Giant. Many scenes are memorable with the first confrontation scene between Mitchum and Hamilton and the final meeting between Parker and Peppard once seen, never forgotten.

Ryan’s Daughter – Critics unfairly lambasted this 1970 visual masterpiece from David Lean for having at its core a slight story about a cuckolded middle-aged Irish schoolteacher whose young wife cheats on him with a British soldier and is tarred and feathered out of town. The cinematography, the score, and the fine acting by Robert Mitchum playing against type as the schoolteacher, Sarah Miles as his wife, Trevor Howard as the village priest, and John Mills as the village idiot lift it far above mediocracy.

This week’s new releases include Detroit and Kingsman 2: The Golden Circle.