twenty gaps on DVD: the ongoing updated list

Last updated January 31, 2008 with info on Midnight, Easy Living, and The Major and the Minor.
Awhile back, I wrote an essay about 20 gaps in the DVD market. It’s in three parts starting here if you want to reread it. I was frustrated that so many of the movies I wanted to see were not available to me on DVD.
I thought it would be useful to track all the movies listed in that essay to see which ones have been released on DVD since that time. Some of the news is encouraging—I frankly did not think I would be seeing Harold Lloyd movies on DVD anytime soon—and some gaps are still frustrating, like the status of The African Queen.
This information applies to US (Region 1) DVDs only. Some of these movies are available on DVD in other countries/regions, but you would need a multi-region DVD player (with PAL capability for UK movies) to watch them.
I will update this page regularly as I receive new information about upcoming releases. If you learn anything about these movies being released on DVD, please email me with the information, citing your source, and I will post that information here.
Remember, the best way to help get more of these movies released on DVD is to buy or even rent similar movies that are already available on DVD. If lots of people are buying the Marlene Dietrich Glamour Collection, maybe Universal will release A Foreign Affair, and so forth. The Amazon links below are affiliate links for this site, so buying the DVDs by clicking these links helps support my Web site.

Now available on DVD:

Animal Crackers (1930)—Nov. 9, 2004 as part of The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection (Amazon)
Astaire & Rogers Collection, Vol. 1—August 16, 2005 (Amazon)
Astaire & Rogers Collection, Volume 2—October 17, 2006 (Amazon)
Ball of Fire (1941)—May 22, 2007 (Amazon)
Blonde Venus (1932)—April 4, 2006 only as part of the Marlene Dietrich: The Glamour Collection (Amazon)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)—March 1, 2005 (Amazon)
Christmas in July (1940)—November 21, 2006 only as part of the Preston Sturges – The Filmmaker Collection boxed set (Amazon)
The Cocoanuts (1929)—Nov. 9, 2004 as part of The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection (Amazon)
Delicatessen (1991)—May 2, 2006 (Amazon)
Design for Living (1933)—May 31, 2005 only as part of The Gary Cooper Collection (Amazon)
Dinner at Eight (1933)—March 1, 2005 (Amazon)
Double Indemnity (1944)—August 22, 2006 (Amazon).
Duck Soup (1933)—Nov. 9, 2004 as part of The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection (Amazon)
Ed Wood (1996)—Oct. 19, 2004 (Amazon)
The Great McGinty (1940)—November 21, 2006 only as part of the Preston Sturges – The Filmmaker Collection boxed set (Amazon)
Gunga Din (1939)—Dec. 7, 2004 (Amazon)
Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)&—November 21, 2006 only as part of the Preston Sturges – The Filmmaker Collection boxed set (Amazon)
Hands Across the Table (1935)—April 4, 2006 only as part of Carole Lombard: The Glamour Collection (Amazon)
The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection, Vols. 1-3—Nov. 15, 2005 (Amazon)
Heaven Can Wait (1943)—June 14, 2005 (Amazon)
Holiday (1938)—December 5, 2006 (Amazon)
Horse Feathers (1932)—Nov. 9, 2004 as part of The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection (Amazon)
I’m No Angel (1933)—April 4, 2006 only as part of Mae West: The Glamour Collection (Amazon)
Laura (1944)—March 15, 2005 (Amazon)
Liquid Sky (1982)—Release date on Amazon is from 2000, which makes no sense, but you can buy it new in the U.S. (Amazon)
Matilda (1996)—June 7, 2005: Full-screen version only (Amazon). Widescreen available in UK/Region 2.
The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944)—Sept. 6, 2005 (Amazon)
Monkey Business (1931)—Nov. 9, 2004 as part of The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection (Amazon)
Morning Glory (1933)—May 12, 2007 as part of the Katharine Hepburn Collection (Amazon)
Morocco (1930)—April 4, 2006 as part of the Marlene Dietrich: The Glamour Collection (Amazon)
My Little Chickadee (1940)—Nov. 9, 2004 as part of the W.C. Fields Comedy Collection (Amazon)
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941)—March 20, 2007 as part of the W.C. Fields Comedy Collection, Part 2 (Amazon)
Ninotchka (1939)—Sept. 6, 2005 (Amazon)
The Palm Beach Story (1942)—Feb. 1, 2005 (Amazon)
Sergeant York (1941)—November 7, 2006 (Amazon)
Stage Door (1937)—March 1, 2005 (Amazon)
Sylvia Scarlett (1936)—May 12, 2007 as part of the Katharine Hepburn Collection (Amazon)
To Be or Not to Be (1942)—March 1, 2005 (Amazon)
Twentieth Century (1934)—Feb. 22, 2005 (Amazon)
Unfaithfully Yours (1948)—July 12, 2005 (Amazon)

Upcoming DVD release date set:

Easy Living (1937)—April 22, 2008 (Amazon)
The Major and the Minor (1942)—April 22, 2008 (Amazon)
Midnight (1939)—April 22, 2008 (Amazon)
She Done Him Wrong (1933)—April 22, 2008 (Amazon)

No confirmed DVD release date:

The African Queen (1951)—Available in the UK and other non-US countries — Amazon sells a Region 1/NTSC version with Chinese subtitles, imported from another country (Amazon)
Arise, My Love (1940)
Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1938)
Five Graves to Cairo (1943)
A Foreign Affair (1948)—Available in the UK/Region 2 as part of a two-movie set with Destry Rides Again. There’s also a French (Region 2) DVD available under the title La scandaleuse de Berlin. April 2007: A dispute between Universal and the Dietrich estate may be preventing more of her films from DVD release.
A Girl in Every Port (1928)
Holiday (1930)
Remember the Night (1940)
Shanghai Express (1932)
Soak the Rich (1936)
Swimming to Cambodia (1987)—Still not available in the US; I got a copy from Amazon in Canada but it took a couple of months.
Take a Letter, Darling (1942)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)—Available in UK/Region 2. Fox scheduled a DVD release in the U.S. that never happened.
The Whole Town’s Talking (1935)

Comments are closed on this entry, because I would like to verify any news I receive before posting it. However, I hope you’ll email me if you see anything that is incorrect or have more up-to-date news on a DVD release than I do.