Here are some highlights of the recent releases to the Warner Archive Collection. DVD’s and Blu-rays are manufactured on demand. They also have a streaming service. Before you visit Warner Archive to check out their selection, check out the selections below an a few of my thoughts.

Oscar Nominees & Winners

Our primary reason for highlighting each week’s selections is to showcase new and reprints of Oscar nominees and winners. Below are the Archives most recent releases in this class.

Nothing this week.

Other Films

Here are other notable film releases coming to Warner Archive Collection
Broad Minded (1931)
The writers of Duck Soup send Joe E. Brown and William Collier, Jr. out on a cross-country, skirt chasing jaunt that bakes up a prime slice of sly and salacious pre-Code comedy pie. Collier plays feckless playboy Jack Hackett who promptly dumps his fiancée (Margaret Livingston) and takes off in a jalopy accompanied by his quarter-wit cousin (Brown). After a crack-up with a very angry motorist (Bela Lugosi!) the pair lose their wheels, but pick up a couple of cuties (Ona Munson of Gone with the Wind fame and the lovely Marjorie White). But when’s Hackett’s ex comes calling, all the amour threatens to go awry. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy.

Local Boy Makes Good (1931)
Joe. E. Brown sets the template for a legion of movie comedy characters to come in this quintessential combination of high-caliber clowning and all-star athletics. While in real life, Brown turned down the Yankees to pursue entertainment, here he plays a proto-nerd botany student who accidentally sends a letter full of invented braggadocio to a local beauty queen played by Wheeler and Woolsey’s favorite gal pal, Dorothy Lee. But when she comes to the campus looking for her Lothario, the timid botanist finds himself faking it on the track and field – and he¹s not half bad! As sparks start to fly with girl-next-door Marjorie (Ruth Hall), our accidental athlete must save the field for Alma Mater and Alumnae. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy.

You Said a Mouthful (1932)
Insipid inventor Joe Holt (Joe E. Brown) thinks he’s come up with the gizmo that will put to paid all the catcalls of his less-than-inspired co-workers – an unsinkable swimsuit! There’s one hitch to proving the efficacy of his aquatic livery – Holt can’t swim! As a series of circumstances and coincidences pile up on the hapless Holt, he finds himself confused for a swimming champ (Guinn “Big Boy” Williams), courting a debutante (Ginger Rogers), and entered into a Catalina swimming marathon. It’s a good thing Allan “Farina” Hoskins is on hand to give Holt some “dry” swim lessons. Directed by Lloyd Bacon.

Elmer, the Great (1933)
Joe. E. Brown plays rookie ballplayer Elmer Kane, a country mouse naïf whose ego may prove his undoing thanks to his city mouse teammates. Young Elmer only has eyes for his local sweetie Nellie (Patricia Ellis), so Chicago Cubs management keeps her love letters from their future MVP, lest he bolt the big city and head for home. When Nellie comes a callin¹ she finds Elmer in a seeming clinch with glam queen Evelyn (the luminous Claire Dodd) which sends Elmer off on a tailspin of gambling and gangsters. Down behind the eight-ball and nearly shoeless, the mob starts pressuring Elmer to throw the big game or else. What’s a boy to do? Directed by Mervyn LeRoy and co-starring Frank McHugh. Based on a play by Ring Lardner and George M. Cohan.

A Very Honorable Guy (1934)
Hapless man of honor Feet Samuels falls prey to gambling gangster The Brain (Alan Dinehart) thanks to a case of accidental arrest. Indebted to the gangster, Feet tries to gamble his way out with the expected results. With a girl interested only in moolah (Alice White) and a mob man due to come collecting, Feet sell his body to science, albeit pre-maturely. With his end a contracted done deal, Feet’s luck turns around and he¹s suddenly flush with cash. But the mad quack with the lien on his life (Robert Barrat) is not open to re-negotiation. At least Feet still has his honor… Directed by Lloyd Bacon.

Television

The occasional television program or series is released in Warner Archive Collection. Here are this week’s offerings.
Almost Human: The Complete Series (2013-14)
In the cyber-dystopian future we’ve all been promised (2048 to be precise), a worse-for-wear cop (genre superstar Karl Urban) teams up with a soon-to-be-decommissioned second-hand synthetic to fight a strain of urban crime that¹s evolved faster than the forces of law-and order. Detective John Kennex (Karl Urban) survives a catastrophic attack on the city¹s police, leaving him with an artificial limb and a hole in his memory. The transition back to active police work is made doubly difficult thanks to a new department policy that requires every cop be paired with a ‘bot. Due to his rather radical partner evaluation methods, Kennex ends up teamed with an outdated “Dorian” android ‹ outfitted with a dysfunctional ³Synthetic Soul² program that allows it to have emotional responses. It¹s this flawed humanity, however, that connects Dorian and John. And together, they set out to keep the city safe, uncover the criminal conspiracy that threatens to destroy their world and find their common humanity. Also stars Minka Kelly, Mackenzie Crook and Lili Taylor. From creator J.H. Wyman (Fringe) and J. J. Abrams’ Bad Robot. 3-disc, 13-episode collection. Special Features: Gag Reel; Unaired Scenes; 2013 Comic-Con panel. 16×9 Widescreen

Golden Boy: The Complete Series (2013)
In this gritty character-driven drama from Greg Berlanti (Arrow) and Nicholas Wootton (Chuck), the audience bears witness to a hero-cop’s coronation as the youngest police commissioner in NYC history seven years in the future as the show asks the question, “What dark paths did this golden boy tread to get there?”

Flashing back to the present, we witness the start of Walter William Clark Jr.’s (Divergent’s Theo James) rise, as he barters himself a place on one of the city’s premier homicide task forces. A product of the streets, Clark will do anything to keep from going back, just as he¹ll take any risk to crack a case – even if it¹s against the law. His off-the-cuff methods make his partner Detective Owen (Boston Public’s Chi McBride) nervous, and they don¹t sit well with Detective Arroyo (True Blood’s Kevin Alejandro), whose bald ambition is hard to ignore. Both compelling character portrait and street-savvy police procedural, the cases faced by this once and future Golden Boy create some of TV’s most compelling drama. 3-disc, 13-episode collection. 16×9 Widescreen

Streaming

And finally some new streaming options.
Nichols: The Complete Series (1971-72)
James Garner stars as Nichols, an Army lifer who cashes out after he observes the advent of the machine gun at the dawn of 20th Century, and then swears off gunplay. When he returns to his old town, its unofficial mayor, the hardscrabble and semi-larcenous ³Ma² Ketcham (Neva Patterson), quickly drafts him and his motorcycle to become sheriff. Instead of his guns, Nichols tries to lead the town by his wits, charm and absolute aversion to violence in a town still clinging to the ways of the Wild West. Often cited as a favorite among the TV classics Garner worked on, Nichols is a true TV rarity, seldom seen in its time and highly praised today. And now you can see it like never before – in 1080p HD!

Springfield Rifle (1952)
This western classic features Gary Cooper as seemingly disgraced Union officer Major Lex Kearny, accused of cowardice and court-martialed for losing a shipment of horses to Confederate raiders. But it’s all a cover so Keany can go undercover and root out a treasonous cancer lurking in the Union ranks. Kearny’s mission remains so secret that even his wife (Phyllis Thaxter) believes he has gone renegade, going as far as surrendering evidence that implicates him as a Southern spy. A sweeping spectacle that combines the Western action with noir character conflict, Springfield Rifle hits the target square in 1080p HD.

Employee’s Entrance (1933)
Pre-Code King Warren William plays hard driving store manager Kurt Anderson who finds no sense in sentiment as he pursues sex and cents with cynical ease in this department store expose from Roy Del Ruth that’s packed to the rafters with multi-floor mature merriment. Loretta Young plays the desperate damsel willing to pay the price of employment, while Wallace Ford plays the up and comer caught between ambition and desire. Interested in other tales from the forbidden side of Hollywood in eye-stounding 1080p HD? Be sure to also check out the shocking and steamy revenge saga Kongo and the Prohibition paean The Wet Parade. Tell ’em Joe sent ya.

Swing Shift Maisie (1943)
Ann Sothern¹s signature role ‹ the unstoppable showgirl, Maisie Ravier ‹ is a jaw-dropping showstopper in crisp and curvy 1080p HD. This installment sees Maisie trade-in her floral chapeaus for a Rosie the Riveter head-kerchief while she settles down to do her part for the war effort landing a job on the swing shift in an airplane factory. After taking in a seemingly suicidal co-worker, Iris (Jean Rogers), Maisie can only watch as the girl tries to steal her beau, handsome pilot James McLaughlin (James Craig), and then accuse Maisie of spying for the Nazis. And’s there’s more Maisie waiting for you with Congo Maisie, Gold Rush Maisie and Maisie was a Lady.

Blues Busters (1950)
From 1946 to 1958 the comedy ensemble known as the Bowery Boys starred in more than 40 feature films. Led by “Slip” Mahoney (Leo Gorcey) and “Sach” Jones (Huntz Hall), the New York City natives solve mysteries, go on globe-trotting adventures, and scheme to get rich. This series highlight sees a tonsillectomy turn Sach into a crooner–and so the boys turn Louie’s Sweet Shop into the Bowery Palace. However, a rival night club owner has other, more dangerous plans. See the boy’s bust out in scintillating 1080p HD – as Slip might say, “It’s inscrutable!”

The Beasts Are on the Streets (1978)
Hanna-Barbera makes an all-too-rare foray into primetime live-action for this fur and feather-flying disaster flick. After a calamitous series of events fueled by the inexhaustible fire of human venality, a live safari tourist park¹s fence comes down and the beasts come out ‹ and they attack! As the park rangers try to re-corral their wayward charges, their efforts are hindered by public and police. This TV action romp rises above the norm thanks to its unwavering sympathy for the animal antagonists. See the fur fly as never before in 1080p HD! And get set for more HD TV with mini-series like The Deliberate Stranger with Mark Harmon and the The Awakening Land with Elizabeth Montgomery.

Sex Kittens Go to College (1960)
Sentient robots. Collegiate chimpanzees. Sleepwalking sportstars. Bungling gangsters. Sex kittens and strippers. All from the mind of legendary B-smith Albert Zugsmith (Confessions of an Opium Eater). When Collins College¹s digital supercomputer, Thinko, picks Dr. Mathilda West (Mamie van Doren) to head their science department, nobody expects the polymath savant to pack more curves than a rack of test-tubes. Meanwhile a crew of gangstersŠ You know what? Don’t ask – just watch it! Presented in its full, unexpurgated glory, featuring some very blue electric dreams from Thinko that were not part of the original American release. Also stars Tuesday Weld, Mijanou Bardot (Brigitte¹s sister) John Carradine, Martin Milner, Jackie Coogan, Conway Twitty, Woo Woo Grabowski, Abraham Q. Voltaire (the chimp) and Vampira. 16×9 Widescreen and streaming in 1080p HD – as it was never meant to be seen!