Kino Lorber Studio Classics

[andyli]

It looks fine to my eyes. The Paramount 4k restorations for films from that era have always been soft with a slightly filtered look. I guess I must have grown used to it.

[ChunkyLover]

Didn’t it get a lot of criticism for having a sub-par transfer?

It’s decent for a 2020s Paramount-restoration. It looks much better in-motion than screen-caps imo.

[hearthesilence]

It's on the soft side, but I thought that was partly due to the elements they had to work with:

The 4K restoration of FORCE OF EVIL was completed using the 35mm nitrate fine grain, 35mm nitrate composite dupe negative, and 35mm nitrate track positive. Image scans and audio files were provided by Paramount and the digital restoration was completed by Roundabout Entertainment. The audio restoration was done at Audio Mechanics. Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

I ended up preferring the look of the Kino Blu-ray as the older transfer (as seen on the old Arrow Blu-ray) looked rougher in detail and texture.

[hearthesilence]

I'm still watching it but whatever master Kino used for There’s Always Tomorrow has some of the ugliest-looking grain management I've ever seen. The grain's "present," but it's very clumpy and looks incredibly strange the way it's moving around on-screen, like watching Alka-Seltzer bubbles breaking the surface.

I bring it up because there are times when it's hard to ignore. At one point during Stanwyck's first scene, when the film cuts back and forth between medium close-ups, it's like the skin on their faces has come alive as some kind of separate entity.

[ChunkyLover]

I'm still watching it but whatever master Kino used for There’s Always Tomorrow has some of the ugliest-looking grain management I've ever seen. The grain's "present," but it's very clumpy and looks incredibly strange the way it's moving around on-screen, like watching Alka-Seltzer bubbles breaking the surface.

Yeah, it’s definitely the worst type of an older Universal-supplied master. Even trying to watch the MoC DVD, which uses the same master, the “grain” is still distracting in-motion at lower rez.

[hearthesilence]

Lincoln Center just screened a 35mm print - really regret missing that because the movie was otherwise excellent.

[dwk]

Coming Soon on Blu-ray!
4K Restoration by StudioCanal!

MAIGRET SEES RED (1963)

Starring Jean Gabin, Francois Fabian, Michel Constantin, Marcel Bozzuffi & Paul Carpenter – Shot by Louis Page (Any Number Can Win) – Music by Michel Legrand (The Thomas Crown Affair) & Francis Lemarque (Playtime) – Based on a Novel by Georges Simenon (Panique) – Directed by Gilles Grangier (Rhine Virgin, Hi-Jack Highway, Speaking of Murder, The Night Affair).

[JSC]

I'll pick that up. The films themselves aren't particularly substantial, but Gabin makes a good world-weary Maigret.

[dwk]

Coming Soon on Blu-ray!

DEAD OF NIGHT (1977 TV-MOVIE)

Starring Patrick Macnee, Ed Begley Jr., Anjanette Comer, Joan Hackett, Horst Buchholz, Elisha Cook Jr., Lee Montgomery, Ann Doran and Narrated by John Dehner – Shot by Ric Waite (48 Hrs.) – Music by Bob Cobert (Dark Shadows) – Teleplay by Richard Matheson (The Incredible Shrinking Man, I am Legend) – Based on Published Stories by Jack Finney (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, House by Numbers) – Directed by Dan Curtis (The Night Strangler, The Norliss Tapes, Trilogy of Terror, Burnt Offerings, Trilogy of Terror II).

[domino harvey]

Interesting, I thought I'd heard of and/or seen all of the anthology horrors from this period, but don't know this one

[Ashirg]

It would be nice if they include a 1969 pilot episode of the Dead of Night TV series that was never picked up. It was on DVD from Dark Sky.

[dwk]

Coming Soon on Blu-ray!

HIT MAN (1972) Le Scoumoune
Jean-Paul Belmondo | Claudia Cardinale | Michel Constantin | Gérard Depardieu
Cinematography: Andréas Winding (Rider on the Rain)
Composer: François de Roubaix (Le Samouraï)
Writer/Director: José Giovanni (Le Trou | Classe Tous Risques | Birds of Prey | Boomerang)

[captveg]

More OOP based on previously being in the "While Supplies Last" sale and now no longer appearing on the website:

The Border (1982)
The Interpreter (2005)

[dwk]

Coming July 22nd on 4KUHD!
New HDR/DV Master by StudioCanal!

CONVOY (1978)
Starring Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, Ernest Borgnine, Seymour Cassel & Burt Young – Shot by Harry Stradling Jr. (Bite the Bullet) – Directed by Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch, The Getaway, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia).

[hearthesilence]

Coming July 22nd on 4KUHD!
New HDR/DV Master by StudioCanal!

CONVOY (1978)
Starring Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, Ernest Borgnine, Seymour Cassel & Burt Young – Shot by Harry Stradling Jr. (Bite the Bullet) – Directed by Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch, The Getaway, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia).

Looked this up and had no idea it was inspired by the song, which I've never heard outside of this.

[TechnicolorAcid]

Which judging off this video was apparently inspired by a series of adverts for bread.

[Roger Ryan]

Coming July 22nd on 4KUHD!
New HDR/DV Master by StudioCanal!

CONVOY (1978)
Starring Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, Ernest Borgnine, Seymour Cassel & Burt Young – Shot by Harry Stradling Jr. (Bite the Bullet) – Directed by Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch, The Getaway, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia).

Looked this up and had no idea it was inspired by the song, which I've never heard outside of this.

If you were on the planet in the mid-70s, you definitely heard the "C.W. McCall" recording - it somehow made it to number one on the Billboard charts. The 70s may have been the last decade where novelty tracks consistently made it into the top ten ("Mr. Jaws" and "Disco Duck" were two other chart toppers I recall off the top of my head).

[beamish14]

Looked this up and had no idea it was inspired by the song, which I've never heard outside of this.

If you were on the planet in the mid-70s, you definitely heard the "C.W. McCall" recording - it somehow made it to number one on the Billboard charts. The 70s may have been the last decade where novelty tracks consistently made it into the top ten ("Mr. Jaws" and "Disco Duck" were two other chart toppers I recall off the top of my head).

Don’t forget “A Fifth of Beethoven” from future Family Guy composer Walter Murphy

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Looked this up and had no idea it was inspired by the song, which I've never heard outside of this.

If you were on the planet in the mid-70s, you definitely heard the "C.W. McCall" recording - it somehow made it to number one on the Billboard charts. The 70s may have been the last decade where novelty tracks consistently made it into the top ten ("Mr. Jaws" and "Disco Duck" were two other chart toppers I recall off the top of my head).

You're not giving respect to recent novelty hits like "Gangnam Style", "Party Rock Anthem", and "Old Town Road". The novelty song never dies, they just take new forms!

[hearthesilence]

You know how in the CD era's heyday, labels like Rhino Records would compile those multi-volume collections of big hits from a specific decade (usually the '70s or '80s)? It's weird going through those things because it's usually one chart-topping hit after another that sounds like complete shit. Like if you had no personal connection to that era, it's hard to imagine why you'd ever want to put them on, much less call into a radio station and request it. It's another reason why mass popularity is a worthless gauge of actual quality, not that we needed further proof.

EDIT: And to be clear, it's not like any particular era is the sweet spot for that sort of thing. You go back to the pre-rock era, as far back as the '20s when records really began to take off, and there's no shortage of atrocious songs making it big, but they're usually forgotten. Sometimes you pick up a reference from a vintage film - "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?" gets mentioned a lot - but otherwise no one really puts on those records. Without any worth beyond nostalgia, as soon as the audience that made those records enormously popular died out, they basically receded into obscurity.

[therewillbeblus]

Shane 4K preorders are up on retail sites, so I guess that's finally happening

[dwk]

Originally Posted by Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Coming Soon on Blu-ray!
Brand New HD Master – From a 2K Scan of InterPositive!

AMERICA 3000 (1986)

Starring Lauren Landon, Chuck Wagner, Victoria Barrett, Camila Sparv, Sue Giosa, Karen Sheperd & William Wallace – Shot by David Gurfinkel (The Delta Force) – Produced by Menahem Golan/Yoram Globus (Missing in Action, Runaway Train) – Written & Directed by David Engelbach (Death Wish II, Over the Top).

[TVC15]

Coming Soon on 4KUHD!
Brand New HDR/DV Master!

THE PHANTOM (1996) Starring Billy Zane, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Kristy Swanson, Treat Williams, James Remar, Samantha Eggar, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Casey Siemaszko, David Proval, Jon Tenney & Patrick McGoohan – Produced by Alan Ladd Jr. (Blade Runner) – Written by Jeffrey Boam (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) – Based on Characters by Lee Falk (Mandrake, the Magician) – Directed by Simon Wincer (Lonesome Dove, Quigley Down Under, Free Willy, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man).

[dwk]

on the Kino Shelf Space youtube series, Frank Tarzi revealed they're working on PTA's Hard Eight, but the restoration hasn't been started yet

The Kino Insider posted at the Blu-ray.com forum that they might drop this.

[eerik]

on the Kino Shelf Space youtube series, Frank Tarzi revealed they're working on PTA's Hard Eight, but the restoration hasn't been started yet

The Kino Insider posted at the Blu-ray.com forum that they might drop this.

Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, too, apparently