Friday, April 13, 2012

TCM Shop questions

I was wondering what tonight's TCM theme is, and it turns out to be anniversaries: they're showing one movie from 1942, one from 1952, and one from 1962. However, what shocked me was the first film: Casablanca, at 8:00 PM. No, I wasn't shocked by this being the selection for a movie from 1942, but by the fact that the TCM schedule doesn't have the "Buy DVD" icon next to Casablanca. A quick look at Amazon shows a whole bunch of DVD and Blu-Ray releases, which shouldn't be surprising. It's one of the best known titles out there, and I'd think it's one of the movies that Warner Bros. would sell the most copies of. And there are a bunch of different ways to promote it. Indeed, one of the products avaliable at Amazon is a special 70th anniversary ediiton DVD/Blu-Ray combo pack. I could swear I've seen that advertised on TCM. (Yes, TCM has advertising; they promote the TCM shop a lot in between movies, and everything in the "TCM Classic Movie News" is advertising.)

So is this just a glitch, or has TCM temporarily run out of stock of Casablanca? I wouldn't be surprised if it were the latter. The second film, at 10:00 PM, is the French classic Forbidden Games, about a young refugee from Paris during World War II who with a young boy from the farm where she's staying, tries to build a cemetery for pets. Amazon lists a couple of DVD releases, although they're all several years old and appear to be almost leftover copies from a now out-of-print run. (Well, except for the way overpriced Criterion Collection.) That's the sort of release I could see TCM not having available for sale. So I suppose it's possible that Casablanca is out of stock, even if I find that hard to believe.

The last film, which is listed as being available for purchase via the TCM Shop, is 1962's Cape Fear, airing at midnight.

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