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Felt like as good a time as any to start a thread as I'll be posting updates pertaining to the progress of this project (mods, there are other posts on this film scattered elsewhere if you want to move them here).

The reason for my post is to let everyone know that a Kickstarter has begun to fund the restoration and Blu-ray release of this film. Donations can be made here, with $50 being the minimum donation that ensures an included copy of the eventual Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy (your choice) slated for August of next year and your name in the restoration credits, but any amount can be donated.

I supported this project, and would hope that other fans of cult cinema would consider contributing as well.

Sounds like a worthy project but will all the hundreds of moths, candleflies and various West Texas night insects attracted by the 12k lamps be digitally removed (like the raindrops in Bernstein's office) or, in the interest of historical accurary, will they remain unmolested. I'm only being slightly sarcastic. Having seen this film in several venues from MSTK to an actual drive-in screening my overwhelming visual memory is that of a cast of non-professionals bravely attempting to speak lines without swallowing hoards of flying insects so pervasive that I'm surprised there was no effort to self reference them and thus co-opt their distraction. They even upstaged one of my all-time favorite indie horror "monsters" (great screen grab!), a shy well-meaning guy whose greatest offense seems to be swollen knee-caps and dressing in Confederate grey. (Maybe he's just a KA pledge!) Seriously, please keep us informed!

Why not, Merry Christmas to your avatar.

This is great, mfunk. I have the Alpha Video DVD of Manos; it looks terrible, but is that more or less the complete cut? I've always been confused by the title sequence on that disc as opposed to what we see in MST3K.

Props55 wrote:They even upstaged one of my all-time favorite indie horror "monsters" (great screen grab!), a shy well-meaning guy whose greatest offense seems to be swollen knee-caps and dressing in Confederate grey.

Oh, I dunno, his leering behavior toward Maggie kind of washes away any sympathy for him that might survive the first act, even if his "Forgive me, madam" does sound sincere enough.

No both dvds which are available are missing the full opening. The guy doing this restoration has a post on the website which shows how it should look.

The project has already well exceeded its $10,000 goal, but will continue to accept donations through January.

They've posted the first sample from the Scanity 2k scan and it's ridiculously amazing.

I've only ever seen it on a NTSC VHS tape in LP mode with MST3K silhouettes at the bottom, so to say this is an improvement is something of an understatement.

Not that the film's likely to be any better, but at least it's going to get a fair hearing.

CSM126 wrote:They've posted the first sample from the Scanity 2k scan and it's ridiculously amazing.

WOW. Who ever thought this film could look so beautiful?

I hope this project opens peoples' eyes to just how much poor and outdated telecine technology abstracts the look of a film.

It's ridiculous that we have to put up with old transfers of some films and Manos is getting re-scanned - on Scanity no less.

"Honey, you visit with Torgo a while!"

I'm glad The Haunting Torgo Theme will finally be heard in it's true glory.

David M. wrote:I hope this project opens peoples' eyes to just how much poor and outdated telecine technology abstracts the look of a film.

It's ridiculous that we have to put up with old transfers of some films and Manos is getting re-scanned - on Scanity no less.

I still remember seeing the BFI's unnervingly pristine Primitive London Blu-ray and thinking "that looks plain wrong - surely this film was intended from the outset to be viewed as an ultra-grainy 16mm dupe with printed-in damage and tramlines?"

Can't wait for this! "Manos" is a film which no discerning cineaste should fail to see.

Jesus! That looks absolutely flawless.

Not the biggest fan, but nice to see that finally this notorious heartfelt clunker will be getting the Plan 9 treatment.

Torgo's swaying was never more hypnotic.

David M. wrote:I hope this project opens peoples' eyes to just how much poor and outdated telecine technology abstracts the look of a film.

It's ridiculous that we have to put up with old transfers of some films and Manos is getting re-scanned - on Scanity no less.

It just goes to show what a little love and determination can do. By blasting past the $10k mark via a low-eent reaching out to the public, the authors of this resto-fundraiser have drawn a line around the needless inaction of preservationists and rightsholders actoss the globe posessed by a seeming inertia when it comes to other under the radar titles in urgent need of transfer or cleanup. . . ,

Munich, I'm looking at you vis a vis Sylvester!!

Then again, when the BFI launched a public fundraising campaign for their restoration of the nine surviving Hitchcock titles, the amount of bitching that this generated was quite astonishing.

This thread (in another forum) provides a useful microcosm - nearly two years on, I'm still shaking my head in wonderment at the sheer idiocy of some of the comments.

That's horrible. Though from reading that crap it's clear what the difference in situation is. Underdogs get all of the help in these situations.

Yeah, this is a pretty unique situation. No one knew that elements like this existed for Manos, and people were essentially just preordering the Blu-ray to ensure that it would become a reality.

Well, yeah. UNDER THE RADAR is key, as those are the kind of films which motivate the passions of those who've silently loved them so much over the years and championed them to freinds and family.

I dont think this is a uniqe situation any more than I think the Hitchcock situation was a lone disaster.It has to do I'd supposewith when and where and to whom you make your pitch, how you engage those you ask, and how much tchotchka factor is involved.

In the publics mind I'd imagine the perception exists, rightly or wrongly,t hat in terms of Hitch, the AFI, BFI, and other orgs like UCLA are no brainers for rescue and salvation.

What ultimately happened to the "Hitch 9"? I didnt read all the way thru. . .

HerrSchreck wrote:What ultimately happened to the "Hitch 9"? I didnt read all the way thru. . .

Enough money was raised (not least a six-figure donation from Scorsese's Film Foundation) to greenlight the project, which duly went ahead, and the first three restorations are due to premiere later this year with newly commissioned scores (a different composer for each film) with the others to follow in due course - I think that they're still raising funds, but the project has genuine momentum behind it now. I'm assuming the creation of 2K digital masters as a by-product of the restoration means that BD/DVD releases are a mere formality, although that's out of the BFI's hands as they don't own any of the rights (they're carved up between ITV and StudioCanal in the UK).

What offended me about that discussion was the widespread ignorance rather than the sentiment - especially the people who said "well, I've got them all on DVD and they look fine, so why do they need restoring?", as though a just about watchable 720x480 picture was a film restorer's ultimate aspiration.

It's a major problem, though - the Hitchcocks and Manos both benefit from name recognition, and in both cases the likely improvements make the projects worthwhile: I have it on good authority that The Farmer's Wife now looks damn near pristine. But most other films will never get that kind of treatment because it's neither economically nor culturally justifiable. The Manos project looks like it's already turned a profit, but the Hitchcock project almost certainly won't - the sad fact is that you can't recoup that kind of investment in the commercial marketplace. How many copies is something like The Farmer's Wife realistically going to sell? And what's the likely TV income?

So funny! I was going to put Scorcese after the AFI, BFI &UCLA but elected not to.