Restoration and Home Video Release
Four of the films are in the public domain:
- Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1943)
- The Woman in Green (1945)
- Terror by Night (1946)
- Dressed to Kill (1946)
These are available on innumerable DVDs, in poor quality, unrestored prints, by companies specializing in budget releases of public domain films.
In 2005, they were digitally restored and computer colorized by Legend Films. Along with their original black and white versions, they were then individually released on DVD in 2005 and 2008 (Dressed to Kill went under its working title, Prelude to Murder), and collected into a box set, Sherlock Holmes in Color, in 2010.
The 1939 Fox films have survived complete and in good condition, but those in the Universal series suffered badly over the years, as they passed through the hands of different copyright owners.
Eventually, all of the Universal films' original 35mm negatives, soundtracks and prints, owned at the time by King World Productions, were deposited with the UCLA Film and Television Archive, who made preservation prints of them between 1993-2001. Though not an extremely costly frame-by-frame digital restoration, all the films were reconstituted from the best surviving elements and had all their original logos and end titles restored.
The UCLA-restored films, along with the two 1939 films, have been licensed by Fox and King World Productions (and their successor, CBS Television Distribution) for release in quality DVD editions. These are by: MPI in the US, who have also released them on Blu-ray; Optimum in the UK; France Télévisions Distribution in France; Koch Media in Germany (also on Blu-ray); Track Media in Spain (Blu-ray only); Sinister Film in Italy and Umbrella Entertainment in Australia.
All other DVD editions of these films, such as the UK releases by Blackhorse Entertainment/Cornerstone/Orbit Media (all different incarnations of the same company), are sourced from earlier, unrestored prints.
Read more about this topic: Sherlock Holmes (1939 Film Series)
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