Background: Columbia Classics was a sub-label of Columbia TriStar Home Video/Entertainment for classic film releases on DVD by Columbia Pictures. It was also used for VHS tapes and LaserDiscs of archive Columbia releases in the 1980's and 1990's; sub banners included "Columbia Western Classics", "Columbia War Classics", "Columbia Pictures Award Winner" and "Columbia Pictures Heritage Collection".
(February 8, 2000-December 11, 2001)[]
Nicknames: "Classic Torch Lady", "Classic-Modern Torch Lady", "Morphing Torch Lady", "Torch Lady DVD"
Logo: We start off with the 1942 Columbia Pictures logo. A light starts flashing and we later see a code with a blue and black swirling effect that transforms the 1942 Columbia logo to the 1992 Columbia Pictures print logo and transforms into a DVD disk on a black background. "COLUMBIA CLASSICS" in Eurostile fades in at the top with a shining wipe effect and the DVD Video trademark logo fades in at the bottom of the DVD with a light flash effect from off the letter "D" on the right.
Variant: On Columbia Western Classics releases, the 1992 Columbia logo is used instead, which flashes to the print logo on a medal, placed against a wooden background. It spins around, and "WESTERN CLASSICS" shoots itself in letter-by-letter.
FX/SFX: The light flashing, the swirling, and the morphing.
Music/Sounds: The sounds of wind blowing, a thunderclap, and computer sounds.
Music/Sounds Variant: The Western Classics variant uses wind and gunshots instead.
Availability: Quite rare.
- The Columbia Classics variant only appeared on the following releases in the line: Anatomy of a Murder, Suddenly, Last Summer, The Lady from Shanghai, Damn the Defiant!, Gilda, His Girl Friday, All the King's Men, Queen Bee, and Sahara.
- The Columbia Western Classics variant is even rarer, and can be found on The Man from Laramie, Buck and the Preacher, and Mackenna's Gold.
Editor's Note: The thunderclap could cause a few scares, especially for those who don't like thunderclaps.