The Way Ahead (1944) UPDATED

[Brent_Reid]

The French BD has also been issued in the 2-BD/4-DVD "Coffret Carol Reed" set, ASIN B00M262IU0.

There's also a US BD from VCI (ASIN B00IXMF0YS) but I can't find reliable specs.

UK Carlton DVD ASIN: B00004WIAO
UK DD HE DVD ASIN: B001H4GPNY - similar sleeve to above but distributor credits altered on rear
UK Optimum 12-DVD set ASIN: B000JJRAAA - the note that Volume 4 is unavailable separately is correct

The UK ITV DVD listing is some sort of copy/paste error: as it says, the box set contains three films, none of which is The Way Ahead!

Also issued in:
Australia by Magna Pacific (3-DVD "Silver Screen Collection 6")
France by Elephant Films
US by VCI
Netherlands by ? (listing, #2)

All DVDs with The Immortal Battalion title, including the currently listed US and Oz discs, are bootlegs. The film is copyrighted worldwide by ITV Global. They should be removed and the following footnote added:

There are also many poor quality bootlegs of the edited, 87-minute US version, retitled The Immortal Battalion.

[James-Masaki_Ryan]

Updated the IDs. Possible the rights to the shorter US version are in the public domain?

[Brent_Reid]

Hi James, the ITV DVD listing, which needs removing, now repeats the Carlton DVD's ad!

Copyright in any creative work automatically subsists in any derivative works. To put it simply, if you make a film based on my novel, I effectively 'own' part of your film, unless I've signed a contract giving up all future claim on it for, say, a one-off fee. Likewise, any derivatives of a film or other creative work, such as the US cut of The Way Ahead, also belong to the original owners. Otherwise, anyone could snip a few minutes from a Marvel or Disney film and legitimately sell it as a 'new', separate work.

FWIW, I own around a dozen Mill Creek box sets and while undeniably useful, the overwhelming majority of the films in them are 100% bootlegs. If you didn't know, Mill Creek very regularly withdraw and reissue the sets, substituting films on which the rights holders have served notice. Mill Creek are happy to leave the rest on for as long as they can get away with it, which in the overwhelming majority of cases, is indefinitely. I've yet to come across a 'public domain' company that doesn't operate this way, which is why the only real distinction between PD companies and bootleggers is the latter tend to only steal copyrighted works, and the better known, more profitable ones at that.

I have several articles pending on this subject!

[James-Masaki_Ryan]

Hi James, the ITV DVD listing, which needs removing, now repeats the Carlton DVD's ad!

So Amazon is wrong listing this as from ITV?

[Brent_Reid]

Amazon listings are often incorrect; in this case they've listed it under the later name of the company but at the time of the DVD's release (and on the DVD itself) it was still Carlton. There's a company timeline here, in the first indented paragraph.

[James-Masaki_Ryan]

Updated

[Brent_Reid]