I'm of the opinion that a lot of "political correctness gone mad" stuff is actually more "terrified someone might sue". But I've never heard of anyone suing Warners over Tom and Jerry cartoons.
UK disc is 1.85:1 (or 1.66:1, I forget which!) and looks fine. I wish Criterion has respected the ratio of Grip Of The Strangler the way they respected On The Waterfront...
Even Goddard had gone widescreen by the late 60s. Les Diaboliques and Mon Oncle are two 50s French films that are meant to be widescreen - all that dead space is a giveaway!
Given the box set seems to be 50 % good transfers and 50 % lousy transfers, I'm hoping they get re-released on their own. The UK set is a lot cheaper but Vertigo doesn't have the mono track grrr!
Although I was lucky to get Christine when I did, I wouldn't have been disapointed if I missed out as the DVD is avaliable. Hence I'm not too bothered I missed out on Fright Night. But I do think Twilight Time needs to grown a backbone or stop being smug - whichever one they're at. And I resent...
At least one transfer, Part 4 I think, has been criticised for being far too dark. A shame the uncut versions of Part 1 and 5 are still unavaliable on digital media.
The old Warner dvd was rubbish - over blown contrast and horribly framed. It's also the cause of many ignorant or confused folk screaming CROPPED!!! everytime a Hammer film get's released in 1.85:1.
I seem to recall the Rohauer BIRTH OF A NATION released by Thames on vhs being longer (ie. more footage) then the version released on Blu-ray by Kino - and it had a version of the original score, whilst Kino has a new one from Mont Alto. So there it'd be interesting to see another version.
I enjoy the Chaney Phantom and a lot of modern horrors. Heck, if Christine wasn't limited edition, it'd take 3000 years for me to get round to buying it!
That's only 3 movies out of what, 30? It's like Criterion releasing Armageddon, or, to quote David Sheperd "Phantom of the Opera pays for a million sins."
Yeah I got miffed when I went to order Christine at that. Plus they were limiting Christine to 10 per customer!!! Some of TT's stuff can be had though Amazon.uk from screen archives so at least there they would have to respect amazon.marketplace customer service.
I think the new transfer looks nice in its own way, even if it's not accurate. It certainly looks better then the horrid 2002 dvd. Could such a transfer be corrected with the warm setting on one's monitor? Please don't yell at me, anyone!
One change that was made very early into the film's original run was the title. It premiered as The Clansman. Some contempoary reviews suggest there was an ending where the blacks go home to Libyia - I have no idea if this was inferred, shot or just an intertitle. According to Kevin Brownlow...
True, but I do have a stubborn rule of refusing to have 5.1 only when the film was mono. Weird I know. Warners REALLY needs to get the theatrical version of Enter The Dragon out there. The added scene for the special edition is a terrible re-dub and some of the music cues are missing. It DOES...