UNIVERSAL FRANCHISE COLLECTIONs???
 

I really love these but am concerned since I haven't seen any recent releases. To make sure my collection is complete, this is what I have...

MA & PA KETTLE Volumes 1 & 2
ABBOTT & COSTELLO Volumes 1, 2 & 3
DON KNOTTS
FRANCIS THE TALKING MULE
ON THE ROAD

I really hope for more in all the above series, but find it difficult to believe that there has only been one ROAD release considering there must be a lot of fans of BOB HOPE & BING CROSBY. Is it possible these have too small an audience?

2 new ones announced just this week...check it out below

Marlon Brado Box Set 5.31.05

Gary Cooper Box Set 5.31.05

also available
American Graffitti
Conan

Don't forget these ones:

Dragonheart
Smokey and the Bandit
Airport Terminal Pack
Flintstones

Deanna Durbin
Firestarter
Imitation of Life
K-9
Michael Flatley Collection
Problem Child
Tales From the Crypt Presents

Universal has released all of the ROAD pictures that it has the rights to in the BOB AND BING ON THE ROAD COLLECTION.

So they just owned the rights to 4 of them (which is the quantity on the one release)? Who owns the others and are they available?

Conan: The Complete Quest - The Franchise Collection (Universal Studios)
- Conan the Barbarian (International Version) (1982)
- Conan the Destroyer (1984)

These 4 came out a few weeks ago:
American Tail
Babe
Beethoven 1 & 2
Land Before Time 1 & 2

I'm still hoping for a collection of the 4 Psycho movies starring Anthony Perkins.
Has anyone heard of any news about a possible release?

Like Kimiakane I am a bit concerned about the lack of an announcement for Volume 4 of the A&C series. There is conflicting information all of the net about this release, but the only thing that is confirmed is that Universal has not announced it.

I would love to have the final 2 Kettle films and final 4 Francis films as well. Useless trivia: one of those Francis films has Clint Eastwood's first credited screen appearance (but not his first appearance overall).

And I was actually more interested in more historical (over 40+ years ago) material but thank you everyone for the information! :) It looks like "Deanna Durbin" is the only one I've missed yet (?) so I will have to seek it out. My local Target must have missed it on order.

I was highly amused to see ANTHONY CURTIS (better known as TONY CURTIS) as a minor soldier character in one of the FRANCIS films on the current DVD! I wonder if that was his first too?

The next two in the series, Road to Rio and Road to Bali, are in the public domain and have been released under several budget labels. The final one, Road to Hong Kong, has been released by MGM, I believe.

Road to Singapore (1940)
Road to Zanzibar (1941)
Road to Morocco (1942)
Road to Utopia (1946)
Road to Rio (1947)
Road to Bali (1952)
The Road to Hong Kong (1962)

That is good news. Anyone know which PD versions of RIO & BALI (and HONG KONG) are the best releases?

the only R1 version of Hong Kong is from MGM
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0...1.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

The Bob Hope collection version have descent transfers...you might as well just grab the version at the dollar store if you don't get these

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0...1.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0...1.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

The upcoming Shirley Temple: Little Darling Pack will be a Franchise Collection, but it includes only 2 movies + 1 short.

Has Universal already abandoned the Franchise line? Sucks they won't finish the Abbott and Costello ones.

No, it doesn't seem to be abandoned.

Shirley Temple: Little Darling Pack was just released

and 2 more are coming:
The Gary Cooper Collection
The Marlon Brando Collection

According to this thread, "Best of Abbott and Costello Volume 4" will be released in the later half of this year.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...light=costello

Good news, thanks.

*Bump* I just noticed that there's a John Wayne Franchise Collection set. Any other updates to the list?

Does anyone have a list of all the Universal 4-8 movie on double sided disc sets? I know in addition to these, there is the glamour collection, and Hammer Horror and the Spike Lee set. Seems like the sort of thing that would make for a good list, as there are a lot of solid titles for little money in these sets (though I still personally go with WB sets for bang/buck ratio, but thats OT.)

There's a Chucky collection coming out Sept. 19th with the 4 Universal Child's Play movies (MGM owns the first one, which they still need to do right.)

Currently there is also: Bela Lugosi, Jurassic Park, The Nutty Professor, Fast and the Furious, Chronicles of Riddick, Tremors franchise collections. I believe the upcoming Boris Karloff set is also under the Franchise Collection line.