Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

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aox
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#76 Post by aox » Tue Jan 17, 2012 4:40 pm

Stunning.

I can't believe the level of detail in some of those frames.

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domino harvey
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#77 Post by domino harvey » Wed Jan 18, 2012 7:33 pm

Clueless, Hondo, Barbarella, and Clue Blus teased by the studio

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Murdoch
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#78 Post by Murdoch » Wed Jan 18, 2012 8:12 pm

Clue is fantastic news, childhood favorite of mine.

felipe
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#79 Post by felipe » Wed Jan 18, 2012 11:06 pm

I don't understand the reasoning behind these titles. Paramount has films such as Sunset Blvd, Stalag 17, Shane, A place in the sun, Paper moon, Hud, The man who shot Liberty Valance, and instead they celebrate their centennial with releases like Hondo, Clue and Barbarella? Really?

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CSM126
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#80 Post by CSM126 » Wed Jan 18, 2012 11:26 pm

Don't you talk about Clue. Clue is fucking great.

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Cold Bishop
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#81 Post by Cold Bishop » Thu Jan 19, 2012 12:04 am

You'll corner the Al Bundy market.

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knives
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#82 Post by knives » Thu Jan 19, 2012 1:08 am

CSM126 wrote:Don't you talk about Clue. Clue is fucking great.
Don't under exaggerate. It's the fucking greatest. Plus it fed into a great Duckman joke.

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colinr0380
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#83 Post by colinr0380 » Thu Jan 19, 2012 1:54 pm

It is excellent for a whole number of reasons, not least this one!

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SamLowry
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#84 Post by SamLowry » Thu Jan 19, 2012 2:05 pm

For those in the SF bay area, there will be several Paramount/Universal noirs at the upcoming Noir City festival. Only The Maltese Falcon has been released on dvd (and belongs to Warners).

Sunday January 29th is an all Dashiell Hammett day

Matinee:
Roadhouse Nights (1930)
The Maltese Falcon (1931)
City Streets (1932)
Mister Dynamite (1935)

Evening:
The Glass Key (1942)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)

This would make a great Criterion box.

The night before is also an interesting double bill not on dvd:

The Great Gatsby (1949, Paramount)
Three Strangers (1946, Warners)

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knives
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#85 Post by knives » Sat Feb 04, 2012 8:19 pm

For those who haven't pulled the trigger yet on Wings really needs to. On VHS it's a mediocre film, but the Blu really boosts it to show off material and is really great. The extras are skimpy, but very thorough and I'm not sure what else could be added on. I hope this does well enough for Paramount to consider putting out the other silents they still have the rights to.

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triodelover
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#86 Post by triodelover » Sat Feb 04, 2012 9:20 pm

knives wrote:For those who haven't pulled the trigger yet on Wings really needs to. On VHS it's a mediocre film, but the Blu really boosts it to show off material and is really great. The extras are skimpy, but very thorough and I'm not sure what else could be added on. I hope this does well enough for Paramount to consider putting out the other silents they still have the rights to.
My wife and I watched it this morning and I second your enthusiastic recommendation. I think the BD really brings home what a stunning technical achievement the film was. I'm not sure I realized before today what fine performances both Richard Arlen and Buddy Rogers turn in. I had not known until watching one of the extras that they both did their own flying in the film. (I also thought it was pretty cool the way they worked through all the Paramount logos in reverse chronological order.)
Last edited by triodelover on Sat Feb 04, 2012 9:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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knives
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#87 Post by knives » Sat Feb 04, 2012 9:23 pm

I was absolutely giddy about the logo thing too. It beautifully emphasizes what a history they have and I'm curious what they do with the other releases in that regard.

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triodelover
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#88 Post by triodelover » Sat Feb 04, 2012 9:43 pm

Which soundtrack did you listen to? We chose the orchestral version and I thought
SpoilerShow
the choice of Mendelssohn's Overture for A Midsummer Night's Dream was a bit of an odd choice for the dogfights leitmotif.
Aside from that, I thought the orchestral track was excellent, and the use of "My Buddy" inspired.

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knives
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#89 Post by knives » Sat Feb 04, 2012 9:45 pm

I did the other score which I thought worked very well. The sound effects especially were nice. Just the right amount to make them powerful when they were used.

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gcgiles1dollarbin
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#90 Post by gcgiles1dollarbin » Sun Feb 05, 2012 2:08 pm

knives wrote:I did the other score which I thought worked very well. The sound effects especially were nice. Just the right amount to make them powerful when they were used.
Knives, I'm glad to hear that the sound effects are unobtrusive, because that sort of thing typically annoys the bejesus out of me. There's a version of Eisenstein's October produced, I believe, by Mosfilm that uses whatever visual cue possible as an excuse to add sound effects (carriage wheels, feet tramping on snow, crowds exclaiming, etc., etc.). It totally diminishes the impact of the film. Are the effects in Wings continual, and what are some examples? And does only one soundtrack attempt this?

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triodelover
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#91 Post by triodelover » Sun Feb 05, 2012 2:19 pm

gcgiles1dollarbin wrote:Are the effects in Wings continual, and what are some examples? And does only one soundtrack attempt this?
The effects are on both soundtracks. They are judiciously applied and were part of the original release, at least in major outlets. It's mostly battlefield sounds and dogfights, although there are some others (e.g. the original Shooting Star at the film's beginning). I'm trying to remember other examples but the fact I saw it 24 hours ago and can't recall anything egregious probably means they were well chosen and properly blended.

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gcgiles1dollarbin
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#92 Post by gcgiles1dollarbin » Sun Feb 05, 2012 2:25 pm

Quick response! Much obliged. I'm definitely sold on this.

Jonathan S
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#93 Post by Jonathan S » Sun Feb 05, 2012 3:04 pm

I used to own some commercially pressed Brunswick 12 inch records that were used for the alternative method of presenting Wings with a live score (whether orchestral or just a piano/organ) and a "cued disc" system using two or more turntables. When I mentioned this on Nitrateville, my impression was that nobody else had even heard about these and that other sound effects discs were supplied to the restorers. I remember the "Gotha Bomber" was especially impressive for a late 1920s recording! From: "Very Nearly To Talkies Without the Costs" by Simon Murphy, p.25-7:
Simon Murphy wrote: Donald Crafton mentions that Paramount’s head of special effects, Roy Pomeroy, had devised two sound systems for Wings, and that one used what he calls ‘cued discs’. Emphasising the use of RCA speakers in the set-up, he fails to mention that this system employed a unit comprising four Brunswick Panatrope turntables with individual amplifiers and volume controls.

These details were recalled in a paper presented at the Audio Engineering Society’s 1971 convention, by Robert J Callen. As a young disc recording engineer at Brunswick, Callen was called in by Pomeroy to make adjustments to a trial installation of the equipment at New York’s Rivoli Theatre, using discs of aeroplane, machine gun and bombing sounds, recorded especially by Brunswick for the film. After the necessary adjustments the rig was moved to the Criterion, where it reportedly remained for the duration of Wings’ one year run. With the four turntables, he recalls, ‘a clever operator (in this instance Roy Deshart* of Paramount) could follow with sound the flight of a plane across the screen’ - an early attempt at stereo (or even surround-sound) presentation, giving an impression of movement through the manipulation of the turntable faders.

In London, at the Carlton Theatre in April 1928, copies of the same records were used to accompany the film’s live music setting. Although there is no mention of anything other than a standard dual turntable Panatrope in use in London, the effects were still impressive and novel, drawing particular praise from Edwin Evans, a Bioscope writer nominally reviewing the musical setting for the film, composed by J S Zamecnik. Evans concluded that whilst the score was ‘admirable ... I confess it was the Panatrope effects that most conveyed dramatic conviction.’Their dramatic impact was heightened by pauses in the music at key points, allowing the ‘whirr of the engines, the rattle of machine guns and the noise of falling planes’ to be heard alone, prompting another Bioscope man to comment: ‘It is difficult to believe that all this roar and noise is being produced from a small gramophone record.’

Milking the novelty value for all it was worth, The Carlton arranged for the effects for one screening in May to be broadcast live from the Criterion in New York as a further publicity stunt. The Brunswick effects records for Wings were subsequently offered to any cinema in the country with a reproducer: ‘For the first time it is possible for the smallest hall in the country to present its pictures with the identical effects used at the London and New York presentations.'
* Albert W Desart, according to Jack Theakston on Nitrateville.

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knives
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#94 Post by knives » Sun Feb 05, 2012 3:09 pm

triodelover wrote:
gcgiles1dollarbin wrote:Are the effects in Wings continual, and what are some examples? And does only one soundtrack attempt this?
The effects are on both soundtracks. They are judiciously applied and were part of the original release, at least in major outlets. It's mostly battlefield sounds and dogfights, although there are some others (e.g. the original Shooting Star at the film's beginning). I'm trying to remember other examples but the fact I saw it 24 hours ago and can't recall anything egregious probably means they were well chosen and properly blended.
There was also the occasional punch sound effect. If something like Sunrise is as noisy as silents get this is a far way away from that.

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kinjitsu
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#95 Post by kinjitsu » Wed Feb 22, 2012 3:01 pm

DVD Beaver on To Catch a Thief

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Feego
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#96 Post by Feego » Wed Feb 22, 2012 5:50 pm

kinjitsu wrote:DVD Beaver on To Catch a Thief
Why does Gary say, "Unfortunately, it is still in the 1.78:1 frame"? Is this the wrong aspect ratio?

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domino harvey
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#97 Post by domino harvey » Wed Feb 22, 2012 8:09 pm

kinjitsu wrote:DVD Beaver on To Catch a Thief
Looks amazing, can't wait for this to arrive \:D/

Between this and the Olive Tashlins, thank God for VistaVision's ultra-crisp resolution lending itself to super stellar Blu transfers

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The Fanciful Norwegian
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#98 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Thu Feb 23, 2012 1:17 am

domino harvey wrote:Between this and the Olive Tashlins, thank God for VistaVision's ultra-crisp resolution lending itself to super stellar Blu transfers
Apparently the Olive Tashlins weren't actually transferred from VV elements, though.

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knives
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#99 Post by knives » Thu Feb 23, 2012 1:18 am

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:
domino harvey wrote:Between this and the Olive Tashlins, thank God for VistaVision's ultra-crisp resolution lending itself to super stellar Blu transfers
Apparently the Olive Tashlins weren't actually transferred from VV elements, though.
They look good all the same though. Damn those blues and pinks bounce.

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kinjitsu
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#100 Post by kinjitsu » Sun Feb 26, 2012 12:11 pm

Blu-ray.com on To Catch a Thief

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