Hello. I have a couple of questions about Volume 5. First, is anyone else missing the first 28 seconds of audio on the "Charlie Chan At The Wax Museum" trailer? Second, can we really call the snippets of "Castle In The Desert" a trailer? Where is the outrageous lettering, the teasers, etc.? It looks like something someone just slapped together. As far as comments: I read a comment criticizing the 2 movies per disc format. I totally agree. I had this format on some Sherlock Holmes discs, and they didn't hold up too long. Also, with the tremendous job they did on the prints, you would think that they could have cleaned up the trailers some more. "Wax Museum"s trailer at times looks like a slice of swiss cheese.
Now the good stuff: The prints are incredible, especially "Dead Men Tell." What used to be murky backgrounds are now clear and sharp. Also, despite the quality of the trailers, I'm happy they were found. I've always loved the sharp cuts, the gigantic lettering, the crazy teasers. Last comment, the first two behind-the-scenes pics from "Wax Museum" - whoever did the reproduction of Sidney's/Chan's head did an incredible job. Very spooky!
Regarding the maker of the Charlie Chan wax figure from the film, "Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum, here is the information that is posted elsewhere at this Web site:
According to David Robert Cellitti, the wax figure of Charlie Chan (and, perhaps we may assume that the rest of the wax figures used in the film) was made by a studio in Los Angeles called The Stubergh's, which was run by Katherine Stubergh. "The late Katherine Stubergh was my mentor. She supplied wax figures for such films as House of Wax, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, The Frozen Ghost and many other films...including Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum."
It is believed that Sidney Toler purchased this figure and sent it to Honolulu for the premier of the film there. However, no proof of this has yet been uncovered.
Regarding the trailers, preservation and actual availability of trailers for classic films has always been hit and miss since there never was a perceived need for them after the intitial run of these in the theaters. In one sense, we're lucky to have any of these at all since studios could have easily junked all of these after the film completed their first runs across America.
If memory serves, the trailers for the Sherlock Holmes films are sourced primarily from reissues of the films and are in much rougher shape than the Chans.
The ones included for WAX and CASTLE are likely all that Fox has in their library. From a cost/benefit standpoint the cost to restore a trailer would be too much for something the average purchaser is not going to watch more than a few times. Fortunately the films themselves look immaculate.
Yes, the wax Toler head looks eerily real. Maybe someday one of the few remaining movie oriented wax museums will see fit to recreate same.
