What Movies Will You Never Watch Again Cafemom Forum

Plenty of films take withal to make the hi-res journey to Blu-ray, but there are hundreds that never fifty-fifty made information technology to DVD. Empire has been digging, and we've exhumed these 25 movies never officially pressed onto a small, silver disc... to date. If you experience inclined, suggest your own lost treasures in the comments.

The rules, then. Availability in some regions but not others doesn't count – these are films that, as far every bit we can ascertain, have never been released on DVD anywhere. Too, things that have been bachelor but are at present out of print exercise not make the cut. And we've kept it to films with either reasonably recognisable directors or cast. We didn't bother with Tales From the Quadead Zone, for example...

(Thank you to 20th Century Flicks in Bristol for the trawl through their VHS archive.)

The Go on (1983)

Director : Michael Isle of man

Starring : Scott Glenn, Jürgen Prochnow, Gabriel Byrne, Ian McKellen

What's the Story? In between Thief and Manhunter, Michael Mann directed this dreamlike historical-horror oddity. During World War II, German soldiers unearth a dangerously powerful entity in a castle in Romania (specifically pegged as a Golem in the picture simply not in F. Paul Wilson's original novel), who is understandably furious well-nigh the Nazis' treatment of the Jews. Mysterious, sorcerous stranger Glaeken Trismegestus (Scott Glenn) arrives to save the day with a low-cal show.

What'south the problem? Author F. Paul Wilson hates it, and Isle of man's 3-hr managing director's cut was chopped in half past studio Paramount. Isle of man is doubtful that much of the cutting footage notwithstanding exists, and didn't enjoy the experience anyway, so has been reluctant to revisit it - then there are the possible rights issues around Tangerine Dream'south score to consider. Released on VHS and LaserDisc and occasionally shown on TV, The Go along remains a mesmerisingly foreign cult oddity that'southward been difficult to see for the terminal couple of decades. Simply incredibly, having skipped an entire technology, it is currently available on Netflix. Hurry earlier it disappears once again, and don't hold your breath for any sort of restoration...

Grim Prairie Tales (1990)

Manager : Wayne Coe

Starring : Brad Dourif, James Earl Jones, William Atherton

What's the story? A gothic portmanteau Western in which ii strangers spin scary tales around a campfire. Like most anthology films, the private stories are striking-and-miss. But what makes Grim Prairie Tales such a lost gem are the wraparound segments in which Dourif'south uptight city clerk is forced to spend a long, night nighttime of the soul with Jones' grotesque bounty hunter (and the corpse he's got in tow).

What's the trouble? Unclear, just it barely got a VHS release, let lonely anything subsequent. Y'all may have defenseless information technology on Alex Cox's Moviedrome on BBC2 in the 1990s. Wayne Coe never directed again, only still works equally a professional story board artist.

The Wild Life (1984)

Manager : Fine art Linson

Starring : Chris Penn, Eric Stoltz, Lea Thompson, Rick Moranis, Sherilyn Fenn, Randy Quaid

What's the story? Teenage post-high-school hi-jinks in an apartment complex in the LA suburbs. Cameron Crowe wrote information technology earlier he made his directorial debut with Say Anything..., and it's frequently compared to the also Crowe-written Fast Times At Ridgemont Loftier. Some take even called information technology a pseudo-sequel, although it isn't officially that.

What's the problem? The music rights. A jukebox soundtrack that lines up Prince, Madonna, Piddling Richard, Van Halen, Billy Idol, Steppenwolf, Jimi Hendrix and many others simply seems to have made a digital-era release prohibitively expensive. Universal did offer a made-to-order disc in its Vault serial for a while, merely the version proffered chopped most of the choons.

The Last Picture show (1971)

Director : Dennis Hopper

Starring : Dennis Hopper, Julie Adams, Peter Fonda, Kris Kristofferson

What'due south the story? Hopper's berserk follow-upwardly to Easy Rider involves the making of a Western in Peru. When the director quits subsequently the death of a stuntman, the locals kickoff acting out the violent script for real and pretending to film themselves with fake cameras made of sticks. Legend has it that Hopper came up with a reasonably straightforward cut, only was persuaded by his peers to make it more 'out there', even handing information technology to Alejandro Jodorowsky to edit, earlier taking it back again.

What's the problem? Its full failure and burial by studio Universal led directly to Hopper's wilderness years. Hopper somewhen retrieved the rights, and planned his ain DVD release, only this never came to laissez passer before his too-early on death in 2010.

Dudes (1987)

Director : Penelope Spheeris

Starring : Jon Cryer, Daniel Roebuck, Flea

What's the story? A punk-rock road movie, in which 2 friends travelling across-land in a Volkswagen Protrude become into trouble with some rednecks over the murder of their buddy.

What'south the problem? Over again, very likely the music rights to the manyl '80s stone, metal and punk bands on the soundtrack. Spheeris' Pass up Of Western Civilization documentaries remain unavailable for the aforementioned reason.

Song Of The South (1946)

Directors : Wilfred Jackson, Harve Foster

Starring : Ruth Warwick, Bobby Driscoll, James Baskett

What's the story? Seven-twelvemonth-onetime Johnny goes to alive on a Georgia plantation with his mother and grandmother after the American Civil War, while his father's away working in Atlanta. There he befriends the kindly Uncle Remus, and his live-activity real life is interspersed with blithe sequences equally Remus recounts the diverse adventures of the trickster Br'er Rabbit.

What'southward the problem? Children of the '80s could reliably sentinel clips of the Br'er Rabbit stories on banking company vacation episodes of Disney Time. The whole motion picture was occasionally on TV also, but has dropped off the radar in recent years due to its contentious racial stereotyping. Uncle Remus isn't a slave, merely he is an Uncle Tom, and equally of 2010, Disney's line (via CEO Bob Iger) was that the film is "antiquated" and "fairly offensive". Any future release would need copious actress features engaging with its historical context. A set like that isn't on the cards notwithstanding, although it remains the subject of word within the Mouse Business firm.

Rad (1986)

Managing director : Hal Needham

Starring : Nib Allen, Lori Loughlin, Talia Shire

What's the story? BMX racing drama, with young Cru Jones (Allen) passing up college against his mother's wishes for a sponsorship deal and a shot at the Helltrack title. Needham was the stuntman-turned-director of Smokey And The Brigand and The Cannonball Run, just with this and Megaforce he didn't accept a neat mid-'80s.

What's the problem? Critically derided and a flop at the box part, Rad did actually gain some enthusiastic cult success on video – merely non to the extent that an official digital version e'er materialised. Like The Go along, it skipped disc completely and is now bachelor from iTunes.

The Godfather Saga (1977 / 1990)

Director : Francis Ford Coppola

Starring : Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, James Caan

What'south the story? The Godfather Parts I and Ii, chronologically edited (so the De Niro sequences from Godfather II are no longer flashbacks, but shown at the start earlier the events of The Godfather) into a Tv set mini-series incorporating copious scenes deleted from the theatrical versions. The Godfather Function III was included in the process in a later VHS box-fix release.

What's the problem? Evidently y'all tin get the Godfather Trilogy in a spiffy new Coppola-restored Blu-ray set with all the deleted scenes as extras. Merely the chronological edit remains a TV and VHS curio. Coppola only originally did the mini-series deal to raise the finance for Apocalypse At present, and it was manifestly never his preferred version. Godfather 2 in particular suffers structurally from having the rising of Vito and the autumn of Michael separated. Just it's a version many people still prefer and miss. AMC played it in 2012: the but time it's ever been shown in high-definition.

Inchon (1981)

Managing director : Terence Young

Starring : Laurence Olivier, Jacqueline Bisset, Toshirō Mifune, Richard Roundtree

What'south the story? A film about a famous boxing of the Korean War, from the director of Dr. No and Thunderball and starring Henry 5, Yojimbo and Shaft. It sounds like a nailed-on cult classic – which it is to some extent – but it's likewise one of the well-nigh notorious flops in movie theatre history.

What's the trouble? It died at the box function, losing $44m and establishing itself every bit the biggest disaster of 1982. It never got a VHS release, let alone anything subsequent. Adding to its limbo status is its unusual financial set-upward: it was bankrolled past Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church building, with MGM taking distribution rights for a much lower-than-usual cut of the profits – of which there were apparently none anyway. While the Unification Church endemic the Goodlife Goggle box Network, they occasionally played Inchon there. Since they sold the Network, notwithstanding, Inchon is back to not having an outlet of any description.

Allow Information technology Be (1970)

Director : Michael Lindsay-Hogg

Starring : The Beatles, Yoko Ono

What's the story? A documentary virtually The Beatles, which, as information technology turned out, chronicled more-or-less their last days – although a lot of the footage of the band falling out with each other was cut to make to make the film less abrasive. The terminal production follows the band recording at Apple tree Corps Headquarters and staging an impromptu gig on the studio roof.

What's the problem? Let It Exist had a VHS release, and work was underway for a digital restoration incorporating the cutting footage. But as the projection progressed, the scenes of George Harrison'due south temporary walk-out (the band considered replacing him with Eric Clapton) and the footage of John Lennon and Yoko Ono gave the surviving Beatles suspension. Unnamed inside sources claim that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have now blocked any re-release, fearing that footage of the Beatles abrasive one another would damage their global make.

Run into The Applegates (1989)

Director : Michael Lehmann

Starring : Ed Begley Jr., Stockard Channing, Dabney Coleman

What's the story? Lehmann directed this satirical black one-act horror in between Heathers and Hudson Hawk. It involves a family of giant praying mantises who have on human form and go and live a perfect family unit life in suburbia while Dad tries to wipe out the human being race by engineering the terminate of the world at the nuclear power plant he works at. One of a slew of tardily '80s and early '90s one-act horrors – Society, Parents, The 'Burbs etc. – picking the scabs of center class America.

What'southward the problem? Perhaps to do with the defalcation of studio New World, although that hasn't stopped other New World titles (Hellraiser, House, The Punisher) from reaching DVD. The NW catalogue was with Anchor Bay for years, but the Applegates rights are now at Lionsgate. It'due south probably safe to say it's just nobody's top priority and has fallen through the cracks, but it has been broadcast in HD on the Offset aqueduct.

Dead Solid Perfect (1988)

Director : Bobby Roth

Starring : Randy Quaid, Kathryn Harrold, Jack Warden

What's the story? The proverb goes that the all-time golfing movie always made is Caddyshack, and the worst is Caddyshack 2. And somewhere in the middle there'due south this: an HBO golf game dramedy with Randy Quaid, from around the same time as National Lampoon'south Christmas Holiday. It'south based on a bestselling novel by Dan Jenkins; Tangerine Dream did the soundtrack; and it'southward evidently i of PGA champion John Daly'south favourite films.

What's the problem? It has quite the following among golf enthusiasts, and collectors will pay pretty high prices on eBay for a tape. But without a Kevin Costner, an Adam Sandler or a Bill Murray, information technology's perhaps historically been considered past the moneymen just that scrap also niche to be worth reviving. Plus, of class, Quaid's contempo transformation into conspiracy-theorist sex-tape loon has probably kiboshed its chances of ever seeing the lite of solar day once again in the futurity.

Conan Doyle's Primary Detective Sherlock Holmes (1932)

Director : William K. Howard

Starring : Clive Brook, Reginald Owen, Miriam Jordan, Ernest Torrence

What's the story? Meaning as the earliest surviving Sherlock Holmes "talkie", bridging the gap between the silent era and Basil Rathbone's 14-film stint beginning in 1939. It's based on the 1899 stage play past William Gillette, which had already been filmed at to the lowest degree twice earlier. The story mashes up Arthur Conan Doyle's A Scandal In Bohemia and The Last Problem with some other weird embellishments and a Holmes who's nothing actually like Holmes. Afterwards defeating Moriarty, the famously asexual detective gets married at the end!

What'southward the problem? Information technology'south in the public domain, and so you lot tin can watch a ropey copy in YouTube, but it has neither the historical importance of the first silents or the "classic" cache of the Rathbone films. As such, nobody'south ever bothered to restore it properly.

Metropolis Of Hope (1991)

Director : John Sayles

Starring : Vincent Spano, Chris Cooper, Angela Bassett, Gina Gershon, John Sayles, David Stathairn, Lawrence Tierney

What'southward the story? Considered past many to exist Sayle's masterpiece (it's currently at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes), Urban center Of Hope is a series of interlocking stories set in New Jersey, taking in political abuse, racial tension, lilliputian crime, bent cops and personal dramas. It's oft compared to Paul Haggis' Crash, with the comparison almost always in Sayles' favour.

What's the problem? A tangle of rights issues. Sayles would like to get the flick dorsum and release information technology himself, only has and so far been unable to cut through the Gordian legal knots. Amazon Prime number offers a pan-and-scan version for streaming, only Sayles' widescreen original remains elusive.

I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957)

Director : Gene Fowler Jr.

Starring : Michael Landon, Yvonne Lime, Whit Bissell

What's the story? A drive-in B-movie classic, in which dysfunctional teen Landon starts attending hypnotherapy sessions to cure him of his hating tendencies. Sadly he ends upward with an unscrupulous therapist who uses regression therapy to send him on a lycanthropic rampage. Famous enough that its title lonely became an enduring part of pop civilisation. Teen Wolf, very patently, owes it a debt.

What's the problem? Rights tangles again: original studio American International Pictures merged with Filmways who were bought by Orion who later went bankrupt. Orion had distribution deals with Warner and MGM. Somewhere in all that, the Teenage Werewolf is howling for release. There's a remastered DVD listed on the German language Amazon (Der Tod Lid Schwarze Krallen – "Death Has Black Claws") but it seems never actually to have come out.

The Road Back (1937)

Managing director : James Whale

Starring : John 'Dusty' Rex, Slim Summerville, Andy Devine, Dwight Frye

What's the story? Whale was all-time known for his Universal horrors (Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Former Dark House), merely he intended this sequel to All Tranquility On The Western Front to exist the crowning glory of his career. Its story sees the soldiers of the second Company returning dwelling and struggling to readjust to civilian life later on the horrors of World War I. Just its anti-war and anti-German stance made Universal nervous, and it was drastically cut to wearisome its message. Whale later cited information technology as the worst task he ever had.

What's the trouble? All Quiet On The Western Front is these days lauded equally culturally and historically significant, but The Road Back remains a footnote to that story. Neutering the film to appease the Nazi regime (or "cultivate the good will of Germany" as it was worded) is not Universal'southward finest 60 minutes. Without the materials to reassemble Whale's director's cutting and put the mistake correct, it'south an episode they would likely prefer stays in the vaults.

So Red The Rose (1935)

Managing director : King Vidor

Starring : Randolph Scott, Margaret Sullavan, Walter Connolly

What'due south the story? A romance from the director of Duel In The Dominicus, set during the American Civil War. Sullavan plays a Southern plantation owner whose world gets turned upside down past the conflict between the Confederacy and the Union. But even in her darkest hours, she has her love for Randolph Scott to sustain her. Aww. Information technology wasn't a peachy success, to the extent that studios were wary of Civil State of war films for a few years later, until the juggernaut hit Gone With The Current of air cheered them up over again in 1939.

What's the trouble? Probably rights. It was fabricated by Paramount but sold to Universal in the '50s for television set distribution. DVD rights would presumably need a new negotiation between those two parties, and they've both got much higher priorities.

Freddy's Nightmares (1988-1990)

Director : Various (including Tobe Hooper and Mick Garris)

Starring : Robert Englund, Brad Pitt, Lori Lilliputian, Jeffrey Combs, George Lazenby

What's the story? Okay, this is a TV series, but given that it's a spin-off from a high-profile film franchise (A Nightmare On Elm Street, if you need telling) we're allowing information technology. An anthology horror show, it ran for 44 episodes, each introduced and wrapped up by Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger. Occasionally he was actually in the stories too, most notably Tobe Hooper'southward pilot, which gives united states the Krueger back-story and trial.

What's the problem? Not plenty people want it: Elm Street dice-hards alone exercise not have the numbers to make a remastered disc release worthwhile, which seems unfair when y'all can get the entire Friday The 13th evidence. Eight VHS tapes were released (containing 16 episodes between them), and Warner Bros. released the first DVD in an intended set in 2003. But nobody bought it, so the vast majority of Freddy's nightmares remain in the basement, which is probably a relief to Brad Pitt and all the others who made early-career appearances. You tin see a couple of episodes equally extras on the Elm Street Blu-ray box prepare.

The Slap-up Gatsby (1949)

Managing director : Elliott Nugent

Starring : Alan Ladd, Betty Field, Ruth Hussey, Shelley Winters

What'due south the story? The second film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, and the first sound version (sadly the silent one is lost). Ladd is Gatsby, and had planned to direct until he fell out with studio Paramount over the residue of the casting. Richard Maibaum, who went on to pen loads of the James Bond films, wrote the screenplay.

What's the problem? The 1974 Robert Redford version got a flake of a revival in the wake of Baz Luhrmann'southward recent moving picture, only nobody much talked about this 1. It plays pretty fast and loose with the book, which has irked some viewers, and Paramount actually withdrew it when the Redford version happened. It occasionally surfaces on YouTube, with some presuming it might at present be in the public domain. A spiffy new "preservation impress" was created for a Film Noir festival in 2012, and so at that place is a decent new re-create out there, just there are all the same no plans to release information technology widely.

Nothing Lasts Forever (1984)

Manager : Tom Schiller

Starring : Zach Galligan, Lauren Tom, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd

What'southward the story? A prolific director of shorts for Saturday Night Live, Tom Schiller moved into features here, bringing several SNL alumni with him. It has still never been released and Schiller never directed a characteristic again. It revolves around Galligan living in a dystopian New York controlled by the Port Dominance. He stumbles upon an underground network of tramps who secretly rule the world, and gets sent on a mission to the Moon in a passenger vehicle with Bill Murray. John Belushi would also have been a part of the madness, simply tragically died merely a few weeks before filming started.

What's the problem? Perhaps nervous about potentially having some other 1941 on their easily (the notorious Spielberg misfire starring many of the same people), Warner Bros. pulled Cipher Lasts Forever from its release slot and never showed information technology anywhere. These days it has "cult classic" written all over it, but it remains unavailable, Warners claim, due to unspecified rights problems. It was finally shown on TCM at the commencement of this year, and Murray and Aykroyd have both said they're upwardly for making some DVD extras. But the studio line remains that it'due south a long way down their priority list.

SubUrbia (1996)

Director : Richard Linklater

Starring : Jayce Bartok, Giovanni Ribisi, Parker Posey, Steve Zahn

What's the story? Linklater's fifth moving-picture show, made the year later Earlier Sunrise, is based on the play by Eric Bogosian; Bogosian also wrote the script. A kind of slacker reworking of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, information technology revolves a round a Gen-10 gang of friends who hang out at their local convenience shop and occasionally hassle the clerk. One of their quondam number who's since gone off and become a rock star, comes back to visit. Souls are searched.

What'south the problem? Warner Bros. had this on their DVD schedule back in 2007, but it never materialised. The soundtrack is the likely culprit: a DVD or a Blu-ray would involve making costly new payments to the likes of Sonic Youth, Brook, Ministry building, The Flaming Lips, Skinny Puppy and Meat Puppets. Then you lot can't get a disc, only the flick does sporadically show up on streaming platforms.

Ben (1972)

Managing director : Phil Karlson

Starring : Lee Montgomery, Joseph Campanella, Arthur O'Connell

What's the story? Yous know the Michael Jackson song most the boy and his rat? Information technology comes from this, the sequel to 1971 horror hit Willard. Having had enough of his former master by the end of the terminal film, giant rat Ben and his swarm befriend young Danny Garrison. And information technology'due south all fun and games until people beginning getting gnawed in the confront.

What's the trouble? Rights issues around production company Bing Crosby Productions (no, actually: Bing Crosby financed a rat horror). Very few BCP films are widely available anymore: even the original Willard seems simply to exist for sale in Spain. The fantabulous remake with Crispin Glover, however, is easy to get concur of (Glover even sings Ben over the stop credits). The producers of the new version got around the rights issue by making clear it was a completely new adaptation of Stephen Gilbert's novel Ratman'due south Notebooks. Calling it Willard over again wasn't a problem because it's just the name of the main character.

Dream Demon (1988)

Director : Harley Cokliss

Starring : Jemma Redgrave, Kathleen Wilhoite, Timothy Spall, Jimmy Boom

What'south the story? A British horror roughly contemporary with the likes of Hellraiser and Paperhouse. On VHS, this sat in the Palace Horror series alongside The Hills Have Eyes, Basket Case and The Evil Dead, but it hasn't had the afterlife of whatever of those things. Upper course English rose Redgrave and spikey American goth Wilhoite discover themselves linked by a house: Wilhoite through a pre-adoption childhood she tin can't think, and Redgrave by the nightmares the house is giving her. Spall and Boom are muckraking tabloid journalists who get sucked into the layers of surreal dreams that the women boxing through. It'south like Inception, if Inception had a zombie Spall getting punched right through the head.

What'south the problem? Likely due to the bankruptcy of Palace Pictures. Palace only had distribution rights to a lot of their hit titles (like the same Evil Dead and Hills Have Eyes) which is why they're notwithstanding available with no trouble, having been picked up again by others. But Dream Demon was actually produced by Palace and iii other companies that no longer exist either. This explains the probably baffling ownership tangle.

Naked Tango (1991)

Manager : Leonard Schrader

Starring : Vincent D'Onofrio, Mathilda May, Esai Morales, Fernando Rey

What's the story? Schrader (Paul's older brother) wrote the screenplay for Kiss Of The Spider Adult female, based on the novel past Manuel Puig. Vi years later, he was "inspired" by Puig to write and directly this steamy melodrama. May plays a French trophy wife in 1920s Argentina. She runs abroad, simply gets dragged into an obsessive human relationship with gangster/pimp Cholo (D'Onofrio), centred mostly on dancing, with an occasional bit of violence for that actress frisson. Sometimes they dance with knives. 1 fourth dimension they dance in an abattoir. In one case she's naked – hence the name. There's a sex scene where May is lying on 50 shades of broken glass. Information technology's intense.

What's the problem? Probably rights again. New Line picked up the distribution in the US, and Warners did the VHS. Just there were at to the lowest degree half dozen production companies involved in the film's creation, about of which never made anything again.

A Fistful of Fingers (1995)

Manager : Edgar Wright

Starring : Graham Low, Oli van der Vijver, Nicola Stapleton, Jeremy Beadle

What's the story? Five years before Spaced and a decade before Shaun Of The Expressionless, Edgar Wright made a comedy Western. In fact he made it twice, but this was the version that got released. We gave it 1 star (pitiful Edgar!) but the joke everybody likes and remembers is the shoot-out with pointed fingers instead of guns. That schtick would resurface in Wright'due south oeuvre…

What's the trouble? After Shaun, Wright was approached by Fistful's distributors about a DVD, but nothing e'er came of the discussions. Wright seems simultaneously embarrassed past his amateur cult classic, and upwardly for doing some sort of release with a lot of "pretty darn dizzy extras" and "very daft commentaries". Extras cost coin, so maybe that's the sticking point. Wright wants whatsoever disc release to have explanatory context. Who'due south going to pay for that?

Every bit a side note, Wright's fifty-fifty before Rolf Harris Saves The Globe was never released past anybody. And y'all'd have to say it still looks unlikely.

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