I went ahead and ordered a copy of Leo McCarey’s Once Upon a Honeymoon from the new Warner Archive collection. The good news is that I like the movie as much as the last time I saw it on TCM. It’s pretty uneven with scenes that just feel padded or unnecessary (like Ginger Rogers’ embarrassingly long first conversation with Albert Dekker’s counterspy character), but it’s very effective in being one of the few films of the era that shows the real crimes committed by the Nazis in Europe while managing to retain moments of high comedy. It’s part of the same group (but certainly not in the same league) as The Great Dictator and To Be or Not To Be. (You sure as hell wouldn’t see this kind of stuff in a picture from Walt Disney!)
The bad news is: this mail order copy sucks. It’s a DVD-R, unrestored, interlaced, and with no special menus or chapter stops. In summation, I could have just recorded this off TCM (on VHS even) and I could have had just as good a copy. I’m hearing that the other older black-and-white movies fit the same bill. I have no idea if later movies from Warner Archive are preserved in anamorphic widescreen (better than a TCM recording) or just letterboxed (same as a TCM recording). My advice is to just wait until one of these non-widescreen titles shows up on TCM and get your copy from there.
Come to think of it, Warners is the last studio that I’d like to see do this, because they at least have a 24 hour classic movie channel. Universal (and pre-49 Paramount), Fox, and Republic on the other hand, I’d jump at even in the same lackluster presentation, given the reams of unavailable titles.
