Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1551 Post by FrauBlucher » Mon Apr 05, 2021 7:45 pm

ATHENA (1954) NEW 2021 1080p HD Remaster!
Run Time 96:00
Subtitles English SDH
Audio Specs STEREO - English, DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 - English
Aspect Ratio 16 X 9 Widescreen, 1.75:1
Product Color COLOR
Disc Configuration BD 50
SPECIAL FEATURES: 3 Outtake Musical Numbers: “Competition Dance,” “Imagine (Second Reprise)” with Vic Damone and Debbie Reynolds and “Love Can Change the Stars (Duet Reprise)” with Jane Powell and Edmund Purdum ; Theatrical Trailer

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Red Screamer
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1552 Post by Red Screamer » Mon Apr 05, 2021 11:10 pm

I liked the Athena DVDs inclusion of raw footage for the outtakes. Especially the Damone-Reynolds number, which presents three or so takes of the same blocking from different angles. It gives you a sense of the industrial nuts and bolts of musicals and seems to indicate some serious indecision (or hackwork) on the part of the director.

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Matt
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1553 Post by Matt » Tue Apr 06, 2021 12:38 am

Red Screamer wrote:
Mon Apr 05, 2021 11:10 pm
...seems to indicate some serious indecision (or hackwork) on the part of the director.
The very definition of hackwork. It would have been expected for a 1950s studio contract director to shoot coverage of just about any scene (not just musical numbers) from multiple angles to provide insurance of a good take and options for the editor. This is why you always hear tall tales of maverick directors like Orson Welles, John Ford, and John Huston shooting only one take or one angle on a scene to prevent the studio editors from chopping it up or inserting closeups. And directors would generally be forbidden from participating in the editing process unless they were also producers.

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HJackson
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1554 Post by HJackson » Tue Apr 06, 2021 5:52 am

FrauBlucher wrote:
Mon Apr 05, 2021 1:12 pm
THEY WON'T BELIEVE ME (1947)

NEW 2021 1080p HD Master Sourced from 4k scan of Nitrate Preservation Elements of Original 95 Minute Release Version!

Run Time 95:00
Subtitles English SDH
Audio Specs DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 - English, MONO - English
Aspect Ratio 1.37:1, 4x3 FULL FRAME
Product Color BLACK & WHITE
Disc Configuration BD 50

Special Feature: Introduction by Film Noir Historian/TCM Host Eddie Muller.

Robert Young stars in They Won’t Believe Me, an absorbing film noir melodrama. The original RKO publicity tells the story: “When a man goes to the devil he usually takes a woman with him...this man took THREE!” Young plays a dirty rotten scoundrel who sponges off his wealthy wife (Rita Johnson), seduces and abandons another woman (Jane Greer) and runs off with a third (Susan Hayward). Returning home, Young plots to murder his wife and get away with her money, but a series of ironic plot twists leaves him battling for his life. The role of faithless cad was a startling change of pace for Young, and he pulls it off brilliantly. Irving Pichel directed Jonathan Latimer’s uncompromising script.
Is this its first proper appearance? Watched a really crappy Italian DVD of this so glad to get a chance to see it properly - I recall it being intriguing but I really can't give a fair shake to a movie in such bad nick these days.

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domino harvey
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1555 Post by domino harvey » Tue Apr 06, 2021 10:13 am

It aired on TCM in the longer version, but I don’t believe that version received any physical release until now. I’ve never seen the shorter version but the problems inherent in the longer cut wouldn’t be mitigated with fifteen minutes less on screen

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L.A.
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1556 Post by L.A. » Tue Apr 06, 2021 3:21 pm


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Maltic
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1557 Post by Maltic » Tue Apr 06, 2021 7:24 pm

Image

I guess it's either SDH or poorly translated subtitles. You wonder, do they think the "authenticity" makes them desirable or is it simply to cut costs? Anyway, I can live with it.

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dwk
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1558 Post by dwk » Tue Apr 06, 2021 10:25 pm

Probably to cut costs. The batch of Hong Kong titles they released on DVD-R all had SDH dubtitles, and everyone complained about it. WAC clearly didn't listen.

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Saturnome
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1559 Post by Saturnome » Wed Apr 07, 2021 12:28 am

Stumbled upon a picture of a magazine that is featured in one of Blu-ray.com's screenshots of the new Doctor X release. An interesting occasion to see how 2-strip Technicolor goes with the color blue.
Image
Image

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Matt
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1560 Post by Matt » Wed Apr 07, 2021 10:09 am

Wong Kar-Wai is at it again!

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domino harvey
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1561 Post by domino harvey » Wed Apr 07, 2021 11:07 am

captveg wrote:
Fri Mar 13, 2020 5:21 pm
Rachel and the Stranger (1948) - "This new presentation restores nearly 15 minutes of footage cut from the film over 65 years ago. Also restored is the screen credit for its blacklisted writer Waldo Salt, which was removed from the film by RKO for its 1954 theatrical re-release."
I thought this film was a mess but had moments where it all worked and overall I enjoyed it. Certainly a grim reminder of how talentless William Holden was pre-Sunset Boulevard (whatever Wilder saw in him to know he could unlock it is prob proof of his genius as much as anything else he gets credit for)-- Robert Mitchum runs circles around him without even trying (of course-- not like Mitchum ever tried!). The sentimental junk with the petulant kid hating Loretta Young got old fast, but the heart of the story, another interesting variant on the role of women in the frontier landscape of the Western, is strong and the vacillation of Young's role as either bond servant (or slave, as she puts it) and wife is effective. There's a good serious movie in here somewhere, but Hollywood as per usual got way ahead of itself and put in lots of four-quadrant appeals that dilute what works.

Stefan Andersson
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1562 Post by Stefan Andersson » Mon Apr 12, 2021 12:39 pm

Re: Private Lives of Elizabeth & Essex -- interesting discussion about Technicolor color grading (differences between original release and reissue prints) here:
https://www.hometheaterforum.com/commun ... 666/page-2
Post 24 is a good place to start (HD clip). Further on, Robert A. Harris and others make interesting contributions.

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soundchaser
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1563 Post by soundchaser » Mon Apr 12, 2021 12:52 pm

Stefan Andersson wrote:
Mon Apr 12, 2021 12:39 pm
Re: Private Lives of Elizabeth & Essex -- interesting discussion about Technicolor color grading (differences between original release and reissue prints) here:
https://www.hometheaterforum.com/commun ... 666/page-2
Post 24 is a good place to start (HD clip). Further on, Robert A. Harris and others make interesting contributions.
Very interesting stuff...I'm inclined to agree with the poster who suggests the yellowing is not intended, but Harris is a formidable opponent. (I do wonder how much the lamp would have cooled these colors in projection...could this be a similar issue to the LUTs Ritrovata et al. apply on their restorations?) I'm looking at more of the Technicolor IV photographs on Flueckiger's (excellent) website, and I have to say that I've never seen a Blu-Ray of any of these films timed quite the way these prints look. Compare this image of The Red Shoes to this one of the restoration. It could just be me, but the print is notably more yellow. The Finnish print appears more green.

Nw_jahrles
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1564 Post by Nw_jahrles » Mon Apr 12, 2021 4:00 pm

It could be possible that there is a portion of people in film preservation (including Harris and Ritrovata) that believe the yellow tint is an authentic replication of seeing the film when it was released.

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soundchaser
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1565 Post by soundchaser » Mon Apr 12, 2021 4:17 pm

And they may very well be correct - I don't get many opportunities to see repertory prints in my neck of the woods, so I'm going off my home knowledge. But I can't imagine any but the dingiest theaters producing a cast as yellow as Harris is claiming to be correct here.

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senseabove
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1566 Post by senseabove » Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:22 pm

I have seen E&E projected from a print, but I assume it was from what Harris says are the circa-1970s rerelease prints, because it definitely did not look that yellow (with the caveat that it's obviously been a whole minute since I saw that). Other than having that fresh-OCN-scan sheen, the WAC HD trailer looks about right from what I recall , and I do recall being pleased and impressed by how beautiful the colors were, which I doubt I'd've thought if it had a yellow tint that I would have assumed was age-related, not intentional color-timing. Harris seems to be saying that the OCN is closer to the natural palette of the rerelease, so it's an interesting test case for all our principled wingeing in the WKW thread. (And I note with pleasure that Harris's best-of-all-possible-worlds release is a two-disc edition with both color timings a la Reflections in a Golden Eye, like a good preservationist...)

Stefan Andersson
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1567 Post by Stefan Andersson » Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:29 pm

This is a bit off-topic, since Gone With the Wind is not a WAC Blu (right?), but this thread about GWTW contains interesting comments by Mr. Harris about color timings on various GWTW releases; generally relevant to the E & E discussion, I think:
https://www.hometheaterforum.com/commun ... ay.288543/
Thread also has interesting facts about reframings and redubbings for various releases of GWTW.

EDIT 1:
Interesting quote (abbreviated by me) from Mr. Harris, post 12 in the thread linked to above (my italics; I think that bit is relevant to the E & E / Giant / AMOLAD discussion and screen caps):
"Gone with the Wind has changed mightily over the decades. The original nitrates from 1939-41 were color timed much like titles such as Nothing Sacred and Little Princess. With the additional black & white record in place these early "four-strip" prints had a tendency toward dense, flat and heavily lowered color saturation. Unlike Oz, which was a fantasy film, or the later Fox musicals, which literally bounced off the screen with color, GWTW was relatively muted and tended toward an overall sepia tone reducing color. The last prints to look anything close to this, and which were still quite a distance away, were the 1954 safety re-issue prints. /.../

I've had several discussions over the years, probably the earliest with Turner's Dick May, who created the protection IP in the '80s, and they all center around what an audience recalls, and what a modern audience will accept. The bottom line is that while the color and density of an image can be gently pushed toward the original, it still must appeal to a modern audience. And what we're seeing in the Blu-ray of GWTW, as scanned and finalized at Warner's MPI via Ned Price, is not only a modern magnificent image in quality, but concurrently pays proper respect and tribute to Mr. Selznick and his team, who created the film. Mr. Price has access to all available color reference going back to 1939, has taken that information and molded it into something that I firmly believe David O. Selznick would not only recognize, but as a consummate showman, would approve for his audience of 2009."


EDIT 2:
Another GWTW link with relevant info and comments by Mr. Harris:
https://www.hometheaterforum.com/commun ... vd.208873/

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soundchaser
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1568 Post by soundchaser » Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:47 pm

I was going to bring up Gone with the Wind, because while Harris is notably complimentary of the Blu-Ray (timed, as noted in the thread, based on a 1939 Technicolor reference print and NOT a later safety print), it's far less yellow than the print images on the Timeline of Film Color! He also mentions the "correct look" that "would not be appreciated by modern audiences" again...is that the yellow seen here, or something closer to the sepia cast on the Blu-Ray? I also definitely don't think it compares in any way to Nothing Sacred, but that's based only on Kino's latest Blu-Ray.

(I should say that I have a lot of respect for both Harris and Flueckiger, but I'm struggling to reconcile some of the information here.)

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Fred Holywell
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1569 Post by Fred Holywell » Mon Apr 12, 2021 10:11 pm

soundchaser wrote:
Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:47 pm
I was going to bring up Gone with the Wind, because while Harris is notably complimentary of the Blu-Ray (timed, as noted in the thread, based on a 1939 Technicolor reference print and NOT a later safety print), it's far less yellow than the print images on the Timeline of Film Color! He also mentions the "correct look" that "would not be appreciated by modern audiences" again...is that the yellow seen here, or something closer to the sepia cast on the Blu-Ray?
I realize that late-'30s three-strip Technicolor was softer and more "burnished" than it was by the mid-'40s, but find it hard to believe it was ever supposed to be that close to "yellow." Selznick himself wrote, during filming of GWTW, "If we are not going to go in for lovely combinations of set and costume and really take advantage of the full variety of colors available to us, we might just as well have made the picture in black and white." And original cinematographer Lee Garmes was reportedly fired from the film because Selznick wanted a stronger, more vivid color scheme than Garmes was providing.

Stefan Andersson
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1570 Post by Stefan Andersson » Thu Apr 15, 2021 5:24 am

Richard P. May comments on E & E:

"In about 1986, just after Turner acquired the MGM/WB libraries, this was the first Technicolor feature that we commissioned for preservation. UA held the pre-1950 Warner films up to that time, and Eliz & Essex had never been transferred from 3-strip negative to recombined color film stock. The work was done at the now long-gone MetroColor laboratory.
It looked very good for its time, and I'm sure this new transfer, some 35 years later, must be splendid.
Dick May"

Source: https://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=31481

Mr. May formerly worked at WB. Now retired according to post 19 (2014) here, by David Strohmaier:
https://www.hometheaterforum.com/commun ... st-4173290

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agnamaracs
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1571 Post by agnamaracs » Thu Apr 15, 2021 9:51 am

In this brief piece about Pacific Theatres' closing of the Cinerama Dome and ownership of its namesake process, Variety mentions that David Strohmaier is "finishing up" his restoration of The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm.


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therewillbeblus
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1573 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:38 am

Well that confirms the fears, but so unfortunate. Hope they squeak out Air Force and The Moon is Blue upgrades before they fade away

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1574 Post by EddieLarkin » Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:46 am

Beck is clearly referring to the classic animation releases, not some plan to cease all WHV and WAC releases entirely by next year.

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ianthemovie
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Re: Warner Brothers Archive Collection Blu-rays

#1575 Post by ianthemovie » Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:55 am

The one classic-animation project that he says they still might release is probably Vol. 3 of Tex Avery, right? (Please?)

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