In Glorious Technicolor

Discuss North American DVDs and Blu-rays or other DVD and Blu-ray-related topics.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
solaris72
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:03 pm
Location: Baltimore, MD

#1 Post by solaris72 » Mon Apr 10, 2006 12:08 pm

Yeah, this disc's a beaut, plus it's a damned awesome movie. It'd be nice to have a deluxe special edition for this one, a la WB's The Adventures of Robin Hood, but we're lucky enough that the transfer's this good I guess.

User avatar
htdm
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 3:46 am

#2 Post by htdm » Mon Apr 10, 2006 2:37 pm

I see that Network (UK) is bringing out quite a few of the older Korda's including Thief, The Man Who Could Work Miracles, Elephant Boy, and The Jungle Book. I'm curious to see what sort of quality they are.
I understand that a Korda collection was released in Australia some time back, have you seen it, David?

User avatar
tryavna
Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2005 4:38 pm
Location: North Carolina

#3 Post by tryavna » Mon Apr 10, 2006 10:42 pm

I'll be interested to see how Network fares with these Korda releases. As David points out, the R1 release of Thief is superb -- certainly among MGM's finest releases of a classic film. (Their release of Four Feathers is pretty decent, too. Unfortunately, the same can't be said of Korda's under-appreciated biopic of Rembrandt.) Network seem to be doing well with their British titles -- Black Narcissus especially -- and I've heard good things about their recent releases of The Ipcress File and The Arsenal Stadium Mystery. So they look like a company to watch throughout 2006 if you like British cinema.

BTW, here's the link to their "Forthcoming" page.

User avatar
Polybius
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 10:57 pm
Location: Rollin' down Highway 41

#4 Post by Polybius » Tue Apr 11, 2006 2:05 am

No caps of the Genie?

User avatar
htdm
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 3:46 am

#5 Post by htdm » Tue Apr 11, 2006 1:13 pm

davidhare wrote:I haven't bought the later Korda titles (someone correct me please - were they released here through MRA or Magna? I suppose I should at least get the Sabu titles.. But I don't have them.)
My understanding is that Magna released the Korda Collection in R4. The reason I ask is that I'm particularly interested in the quality of some of the titles: The Drum, Lydia, and The Lion Has Wings/Q Planes and wonder if they are worth ordering. Any idea as to the quality?

viciousliar
Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2004 6:12 am

#6 Post by viciousliar » Tue Apr 11, 2006 1:52 pm

davidhare wrote:This is perhaps out of line but in all the kerfuffle over rendtions of Technicolor movies absolutely NO-ONE has mentioned the gorgeous 2002 MGM R1 Thief of Bagdad. there had been an earlier R4 (and possibly R2) Pal version which looked quite good, but this is one of my five or six perfect demo discs for displaying IB Techni transferred to DVD.
I dunno, David, but I really felt Pioneer's laserdisc to be more "filmlike" - the same definitely applies to their LD of Wuthering Heights as compared to the DVD. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen a more gorgeous transfer of any B&W film in any format! If memory serves, Pioneer employed some fancy "tricks" (then) approximating high-resolution on this particular laserdisc, maybe some artifacts occurred inadvertently when HBO created the DVD transfer - due to the nature of the master's unique specifications?

User avatar
HerrSchreck
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2005 11:46 am

#7 Post by HerrSchreck » Mon Mar 05, 2007 6:16 am

Just recently acquired this and it is indeed one of the 2 or 3 most fantastic technicolor transfers I have ever seen.. all the more so considering it's age. This is one of the few discs that can stand alongside the masterfully produced Fantomas set of Langs remake of THE INDIAN TOMB... remarkable considering that this 95 minute film (BAGDAD) is spread over a single layer disc, whereas each of the Lang films run at almost constant 10 mb/sec levels across two dvd9's. Many of these MGM transfers are very solid.

User avatar
HerrSchreck
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2005 11:46 am

#8 Post by HerrSchreck » Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:25 am

I'm tempted to pick up 1942 ARABIAN NIGHTS from Uni just to dig that rich technicolor transfer. Despite gary's dissing it as campy brain poo, the film is supposed to be more fun than bubble-gum flavored ice cream with an all-crack center. And the transfer is supposed to be, (at least according to Galbraith on DVD Talk), damn near the equal of THIEF OF BAGDAD dvd (interesting as NIGHTS was meant to cash in on THIEF's success).

User avatar
alandau
Joined: Fri Nov 12, 2004 5:37 pm
Location: Melbourne, Australia

#9 Post by alandau » Wed Mar 07, 2007 7:40 am

Thanks for the post David. The R1 Thief of Bagdad is an excellent transfer, however, just received the Universal Maria Montez R1 camp romp ARABIAN NIGHTS 1942, and it is, in my opinion, superior to Thief. And would have to be, the best technicolor transfer to date.

User avatar
HerrSchreck
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2005 11:46 am

#10 Post by HerrSchreck » Wed Mar 07, 2007 7:50 am

Thats what Galbraith was virtually saying.

User avatar
HerrSchreck
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2005 11:46 am

#11 Post by HerrSchreck » Mon Mar 12, 2007 4:59 am

Dave I just picked up ARABIAN NIGHTS and have thrown it up on a JVC tube as well as a sony LCD and they sure aint kidding, the transfer of this film is absolutely glorious-- interestingly the dp was Milton Krasner whose exp to date by 42 was Uni's b&w programmers, mostly unmemorable to date, (not to subtract from the guy's enormous talent, he went on to lens masterpieces like other Wanger-produced, Uni-distrib'd SCARLET STREET) films like GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN & THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS, with little if any color experience.

The restoration, the print, and the trasnfer are as good as it gets for a sd dvd. This is a must-buy for you dave... the uses of ochres, oranges, browns, and blues & secondary greens of an olive hue will fascinate, and the transfer couldn't be better. You can smell the dye radiating off the screen.

User avatar
alandau
Joined: Fri Nov 12, 2004 5:37 pm
Location: Melbourne, Australia

#12 Post by alandau » Mon Mar 12, 2007 7:37 am

Looks like ARABIAN NIGHTS will be the standard by which all Technicolor transfers wil be judged.
Have a look at DVD Verdict's review, and just laugh. Shame on you Verdict.
I have found you guilty and will sentence you shortly.

User avatar
Gordon
Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2004 8:03 am

#13 Post by Gordon » Mon Mar 12, 2007 9:58 am

DVD Beaver review of The Arabian Nights

As for The Thief of Bagdad, is the 2004 German edition from Anolis from the same element?

User avatar
HerrSchreck
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2005 11:46 am

#14 Post by HerrSchreck » Mon Mar 12, 2007 11:28 pm

He chose relatively colorless caps (comparatively, though the caps display an excellent transfer in relatively tepid-- colorwise-- scenes). The harmless good fun (read-- entertainment) of the disc obviously didn't endear itself to Gary much. But I could choose far more illustrative caps.

User avatar
foggy eyes
Joined: Fri Sep 01, 2006 9:58 am
Location: UK

#15 Post by foggy eyes » Wed Mar 14, 2007 1:26 pm

davidhare wrote:The killer sequence is from Easter Parade in the extras and the 27 minutes of dailies of Judy doing Mr Monotony. This is sublime IB Technicolor.
It's amazing how compelling this footage is. Given that it consists of take after take after take it should be grindingly repetitive, but watching the intensity of Garland's performance fluctuate and evolve to the rhythm of Berlin's refrain is a joy. And, of course, there's that glorious technicolor!

User avatar
HerrSchreck
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2005 11:46 am

Re: In Glorious Technicolor

#16 Post by HerrSchreck » Wed Apr 22, 2009 4:50 pm

You find little surprises in the most unexpected places. My love for grotty 1930's - 60's sci-horror films obviously needs no going over here.

Anyhow I'd been keeping my eyes open for the past couple of years for a copy a film called Unknown Island, made in 1948 by Jack Bernhard... I'd kept my eyes open for it owing to the fact that the film has the most absolutely laughable dinosaurs ever rendered in a film:

Image

These are guys in some kind of stiff paper mache outfits mincing around in little waddling steps looking ready to fall over at any moment.

Actually much of the film is not bad at all, and basically hums along fulfilling the public's appetite for both monster movies and exotic-jungle films that were very much the rage in B-filmville at the time.

The revelation here is 1) the quality of the print, and it's color pedigree, and 2) the quality of the transfer on this Image disc. This film was shot in the early two-color process called CineColor (see the color-conversion chart on the hyperlinked page in the widescreenmuseum site, to get an idea how much planning had to go into offsetting the transformation on-set colors would undergo when output to a cinecolor print... fascinating stuff).

A wonderful source was used for this telecine, which holds at soaring bitrates. The early scenes which set in motion the journey to Unknown Island are set in a sailor's bar in Singapore, scenes filled with the deep vibrant hues that Cinecolor excelled at: reds, browns, tans, flesh hues, etc-- this is the reason apparently that much of cinecolor's feature output were westerns: the deserts topography was bathed in the natural hues which reproduced well when output to cinecolor prints.

Expecting to find an hour of mindless schlock, I started the film and was subject to an unexpected, bursting phantasmagoria of early color, via a print very faithful (I'd hesitate to claim they ran telecine on a vintage print, with all of it's 2-sided peculiarities) to the original theatrical experience. Those who crave the psilocybin-like experience of vintage candy colored early color tones, should buy this little hidden treasure pronto. You'll get the added bonus of pissing your pants for Really Funny Prehistoric Animals. (Carnivorous sloths too!)

User avatar
DeprongMori
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2014 1:59 am
Location: San Francisco

Re: In Glorious Technicolor

#17 Post by DeprongMori » Mon Sep 21, 2020 12:15 pm

A wartime film produced by the Crown Film Unit in 1944, Western Approaches was the first Technicolor film produced by the Unit, and the first from cinematographer Jack Cardiff.

The Imperial War Museum had issued the film on a now-OOP DVD. Inquiring about the status of the film, since it is not currently available for streaming on their IWM Film Collection website, they stated that the film is currently being restored. I don’t have information on schedule.

Post Reply