If This Were Wall St., People Would Be Jailed

If This Were Wall St., People Would Be Jailed

by Armand Vaquer

Regular readers of this blog are aware of a controversy concerning the commentary extras on Sony's Icons of Sci-Fi: The Toho Collection. This collection includes Mothra, H-Man and Battle In Outer Space. (Go here to refresh yourself on the controversy.)

Sony's Michael Schlesinger, as you may recall, intended that prominent G-fans and historians from all sectors would be participating in the set. However, that did not come to pass as the person in charge of putting together the set selected Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski to provide the commentaries in this set. August Ragone and others, in good faith, relied upon Schlesinger's advice on participating.

But the cards were already stacked, pretty much from the start.

As far as anyone can tell, the set was announced in July 2008 in a blog by Ian Friedman when he interviewed Schlesinger:

MS: "The set is penciled in for ’09. It will contain those three plus REBIRTH OF MOTHRA 3 (1998), which somehow got overlooked for DVD. The intent is to have the uncut versions with Japanese tracks as well as the English dubs. MOTHRA and BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE are done; THE H-MAN is proving to be a bit trickier, but it should be completed in time."

This week, an interview of Ryfle and Godziszewski by Richard Pusateri was posted at Sci-Fi Japan. In it, Steve Ryfle is quoted as saying:

We lobbied for the job for nearly two years. Through our friend Oki Miyano, I was able to meet with Michael Friend, who supervised the restoration project, in April 2007.

This is interesting because as of March 13, 2009, Schlesinger was not even aware of any decisions concerning extras on this set and had invited people to submit their proposals. And people in general weren't aware of this set being planned until about June 2008. Yet Ryfle and Godziszewski now admit they were actively lobbying for the commentaries and other extras since April 2007.

This sounds very much like "illegal insider trading" in Wall Street (which is, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission,"Illegal insider trading refers generally to buying or selling a security, in breach of a fiduciary duty or other relationship of trust and confidence, while in possession of material, nonpublic information about the security. Insider trading violations may also include "tipping" such information, securities trading by the person "tipped," and securities trading by those who misappropriate such information"). Martha Stewart was sent to prison for illegal insider trading.

So, through Oki Miyano, Ryfle and Godziszewski were given "insider access" to Michael Friend. This was access that no one else was equally privileged to receive. At that point (April 2007) nobody knew that this set was even planned.

As the title of this article states, "If This Were Wall St., People Would Be Jailed." Fortunately for those involved, this wasn't Wall Street and, as far as I know, no laws were broken. But it certainly, at the very least, calls to question people's ethics.

A stacked deck is still a stacked deck.

Icons of Sci-Fi: Toho Collection

I perused through Sony's Icons of Sci-Fi: Toho Collection which includes Mothra, The H-Man and Battle In Outer Space and came away greatly impressed with the picture quality on all three movies.

Keeping in mind that the three are in the 50-year-old range, the producers of these discs did a bang-up job in restoring/correcting/cleaning the images. The vibrant colors of Mothra was very impressive in particular. Just gorgeous!

I've a copy of Battle In Outer Space already and this edition surpasses that by a good mile. With one exception...

The only drawback to the discs is that dub-titles were used (Sony should have learned their lesson from the experience of GMK of a few years ago) on Battle In Outer Space. Battle is clearly the weakest movie of the collection with basically uninteresting characters, except for Yoshio Tsuchiya's.

The packaging of the set leaves a whole lot to be desired. Stacking all three discs on one post is asking for scratches. What was Sony thinking? Talk about going the cheap route! Also, the cover art was horrible enough and it wasn't helped any by the way it was printed. It looks like someone just printed it on a poor inkjet printer in someone's basement.

There are no "extras" to the discs except for the commentaries (we're not going to go there) and there's no insert booklet with liner notes (August Ragone would have done some excellent liner notes for free, but we won't go there either). It would have been nice if trailers or some tidbits of historical interest were included (such as posters, lobby cards, production photos, etc.).

Still, the most important thing is (or is it 'are'?) the movies, and here Sony did a great job on two of three, with the one marred by the dub-titles.

My grade A-.

Sony's Toho Collection

The final artwork for the Sony's Toho Collection DVD set has been announced.

To quote former President Lyndon B. Johnson on a portrait of himself he didn't like: "That's the ugliest thing I ever saw!" Here it is without text:



It appears the actors on the cover aren't impressed with it either. They seem to be looking at something more interesting.

The synopsis for the DVD's features has also been revealed on Sony's website. Here it is:

Synopsis

Mothra: Members of a Japanese expedition to a heavily-radiated island find two tiny, beautiful girls and take them home for observation. When the girls are taken off the island, a mysterious egg hatches, producing a gargantuan moth which destroys everything in its path as it searches for the girls. H-Man: The Tokyo sewer system is an oozing mess after a radioactive liquid turns people into slimy blobs that float down the drains following a rainstorm. To add to the havoc, the gelatinous masses then begin to reproduce. The blobs are ultimately destroyed in a fire that lights up the city. Battle in Outer Space: A series of mysterious catastrophes sweep the globe, causing world's scientists to conclude that beings from another planet are attacking earth. Two earth space ships damage attackers, giving the world time to prepare for gigantic battle in outer space.

DVD Features
Commentary with Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski
DVD Details
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi
CC: English (US)
Sub: English (US)
Color/B&W: Color

Who the hell wrote those? The "two tiny girls" weren't "taken home for observation," they were kidnapped by the villain so he could exploit them in his Tokyo nightclub! Yeesh!

Danny Tokarz on the Monster Zero message board said it best about the synopsis:

Jeez, a kid at G-Fest could have written a better synopsis for these films than what Sony just did.

And Sony could've had the services of August Ragone for virtually nothing! Mind-boggling!

Greed and The Sony Toho DVD Set

Last July, Ian Friedman posted on his blog an interview with Sony's Michael Schlesinger in which he announced that a Toho box set containing Mothra, H-Man and Battle In Outer Space would be released in 2009.

This was immediately picked up by Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters author and "living kaiju encyclopedia" August Ragone on his blog. As you can see from reading his blog, August was very enthusiastic over this set.

On several message boards, August posted information and suggestions which would prove to be useful to Sony in producing the final product such as coordinating running times, rearranged scenes, music changes, etc.

Schlesinger indicated that it was his intention to include several Japanese movie historians from all sectors of kaiju fandom. August expressed it this way on March 2 at the Classic Horror Film Board: "Commentaries are expensive to produce (and you have to walk the fine line of being informative while keeping it interesting and lively); but with that being said, I'd like to take a crack at it. Or at the very least, I would be happy to write extensive liner notes."

At that point, nothing was announced but several fans indicated their willingness to chip in on making this project a memorable one to Schesinger. I also offered materials on Tokyo Tower. He indicated that nothing was finalized but would look into incorporating submissions, etc. into the set.

But storm clouds soon started to make their appearance.

On March 12, at the CHFB forum, Stuart Galbraith posted, "Good news - these DVDs will indeed feature audio commentaries! More info to follow over the next few days, I'm sure, as it becomes official."

This prompted a terse response from Schlesinger, "Stuart, where did you learn this? I've not heard any word yet on extras." No public response was made by Galbraith. (Oh-oh!)

No news on the Toho set was forthcoming after this exchange at the CHFB except for this from Schlesinger on April 11: "Expect an announcement soon." (Hmmm.)

Then, over at the Monster Zero message board, this was posted by Ryan Clark on May 2: "I'm not sure if this was known at all yet, but Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski have recorded commentaries for Mothra and BIOS. Apparently other extras could be possible, but highly unlikely." This was apparently mentioned at a Godzilla event in Topeka, Kansas that week that they appeared at.

This message was responded to May 3 by Keith Aiken: "That was being kept hush-hush until everything was recorded, which just happened last week."

As I knew August was seeking a commentary spot on this set, I asked him if he knew of this and if it was true. He replied that he checked with Schlesinger and he was told that "someone" handling the set at Sony made the decision to have Ryfle and Godziszewski do the commentaries and that he (Schlesinger) "didn't know anything" about it. [Both had done several of the commentaries on the recent Classic Media Godzilla sets.]

I then sent Schlesinger my own query on this and he confirmed to me that he was not aware of the decision (he found out from "a second-hand source") until it was a "done deal." He reiterated that it was his intent to involve everyone. He expressed his frustration with Sony's Home Video department and said he had some tense discussions over their decisions.

I responded to him in this way, in part:

Unfortunately, fans can be pretty hard-headed and once wronged they don't easily forget. The experience with Classic Media left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths and it also caused the parting of several people who were close associates of many years. That's what happens when business intrudes in one's passions.

The thing is, this is not the first time that a situation such as this reared its ugly head and it involves the same clique and it involved the same sneaky, secretive deals. This was the same tactic employed in the Classic Media episode. Things were kept hidden until everything was "in the can."

The excuse then was, "August was too busy writing his book." August would have made time to participate, but he wasn't even given the chance to turn it down. As if that excuse had any kind of merit.

To give background to Schlesinger as to why there may be a problem, I also recounted that during the Classic Media episode that I received several messages from people who were angry over some of the people selected for commentaries (for varying reasons) over others and that they would boycott those releases. (This was mentioned on a message board back then, and someone connected with the Godzilla DVD project blew it out-of-proportion and claimed to Classic Media that a boycott was being organized at G-FEST, which wasn't true. These persons went so far as to spread more rumors that ultimately led to the sabotage of Robert Conte's session at G-FEST by Classic Media. It was claimed that Conte was going to use his session to badmouth Classic Media. A prominent kaiju historian ended up permanently banned from G-FEST for his role in the sabotage. All Classic Media had to do was to just ask Conte or J. D. Lees, but they didn't and relied on the rumors instead.) I didn't boycott the Classic Media releases as I bought several of them and stated such on numerous occasions (much to the annoyance of some who did boycott them).

I ended the message with the expressed hope that an accomodation could be made. (Perhaps August could still be tapped to do the liner notes.) To date, I have not received a response.

Besides August, there are several others who should be given a shot at doing a commentary such as Peter H. Brothers, Mike Bogue, J.D. Lees and others. I would not be interested to do one as I really don't feel I have the voice for it (but that's just me) and the others have far more knowledge than I do. As I've said, August Ragone is practically a "living encyclopedia" on Japanese science-fiction. His inclusion should've been a no-brainer! Plus, he authored the most-successful book on Japanese science-fiction to hit the bookstores!

Before things get out of hand in this, I am not advocating any boycott or anything else of the kind on this set. I am just reporting on what transpired here as may fans posted on the Internet in many message boards that they'd like to see August do a commentary in this set. They deserve to know why he isn't.

Why would something like this need to be kept "hush-hush"? We're not talking "national security" issues here. There could only be one reason: greed. As I pointed out to Schlesinger, "actions have consequences." Some people feel the need to "own" or "control" fandom and exclude those who may not be part of the "in-crowd." Very high-schoolish. I guess in the Era of Obama's "spread the wealth", "spreading the wealth" doesn't seem to apply to Godzilla fandom.

Contrast that to the way things are handled by G-FAN and G-FEST. When the Godzilla 2006 plaque dedication ceremony was being organized, Steve Ryfle, Guy Tucker and others, not normally associated with either G-FAN or G-FEST, were invited to participate. Richard Pusateri, who did a Classic Media Godzilla commentary, was asked to do a tribute to Akira Ifukube at the ceremony. August Ragone, who had not been involved in G-FAN or G-FEST since the near-debacle of G-FEST 2000, was welcomed to G-FEST XV last year and was one of the interviewers of Haruo Nakajima and gave his own presentation on Eiji Tsuburaya. He also penned an excellent tribute to Jerry Ito for G-FAN. It is always a better policy to be inclusive, not exclusionary. Everyone benefits.

How will this all eventually play out re: the Sony Toho set? That's anyone's guess. The patterns at play here should tell you something so it won't take much for a good, educated guess.

UPDATE: I received an email with this link to a message board (It Came From Planet X) thread on the subject.

UPDATE (5/11/09): The Rodan's Roost message board picked up on the story.