A Few Words About A few words about...™ Battle of Britain -- in Blu-Ray (1 Viewer)

[Alan Tully]

I've just read Robert's review of the film, & would agree that it's not by any means a classic, in fact it's a by-the-numbers B film with a large budget, but its heart is in the right place.

Nearly all my early filmgoing was is local cinemas & I don't think any of them were equipped for stereo sound. The first time I was aware of stereo in a cinema was in 1968, 2001: A Space Odyssey, in the posh Casino Cinerama, London. One of the delights of home cinema is seeing so many favourite films & epics with good stereo sound for the first time. Back in the 50s/60s all films were mono unless you could visit a really upmarket cinema in a town centre, & then no guarantees (that's the UK, I don't know if America was the same).

I fear that no book on stereo sound in British cinemas will ever be published (it would take a Philip Marlow with a time machine to research it).

 

[YANG]

classic in the sense of the year of production in record...

...not by any means that it's a "classic" status recognition achieving like Spartacus or Cleopatra.​

 

[Douglas R]

I've just read Robert's review of the film, & would agree that it's not by any means a classic, in fact it's a by-the-numbers B film with a large budget, but its heart is in the right place.

Nearly all my early filmgoing was is local cinemas & I don't think any of them were equipped for stereo sound. The first time I was aware of stereo in a cinema was in 1968, 2001: A Space Odyssey, in the posh Casino Cinerama, London. One of the delights of home cinema is seeing so many favourite films & epics with good stereo sound for the first time. Back in the 50s/60s all films were mono unless you could visit a really upmarket cinema in a town centre, & then no guarantees (that's the UK, I don't know if America was the same).

I fear that no book on stereo sound in British cinemas will ever be published (it would take a Philip Marlow with a time machine to research it).

Yes, very few local cinemas in London (or local cinemas elsewhere in the UK) were equipped for stereo in those days. One exception was the Granada chain. One of my local cinemas was the Granada in Harrow (wonderful cinema and a Grade II listed building), which was where I first noticed stereo sound in the 1950s.

 

[Stephen PI]

Yes, very few local cinemas in London (or local cinemas elsewhere in the UK) were equipped for stereo in those days. One exception was the Granada chain. One of my local cinemas was the Granada in Harrow (wonderful cinema and a Grade II listed building), which was where I first noticed stereo sound in the 1950s.

Granada and Essoldo were the supporters of stereo in the 50's when Fox was trying hard to persuade cinema chains to equip their theaters to run their 4-track stereo prints. Rank resisted. When I went to work for Rank cinemas in 1964 they had a perspecta sound decoder but only had one speaker.
I went to the Granada Harrow quite often in the seventies. The ABC up the road could run 70mm.

 

[Douglas R]

Granada and Essoldo were the supporters of stereo in the 50's when Fox was trying hard to persuade cinema chains to equip their theaters to run their 4-track stereo prints. Rank resisted. When I went to work for Rank cinemas in 1964 they had a perspecta sound decoder but only had one speaker.
I went to the Granada Harrow quite often in the seventies. The ABC up the road could run 70mm.

I had no idea the ABC Harrow, the Dominion in my day, had 70mm. Maybe that was after 1965 when I left the area. I saw The Ten Commandments there in a special local roadshow presentation which of course was 35mm. I also saw Porgy and Bess but don't think that was 70mm.

 

[Alan Tully]

Yes, very few local cinemas in London (or local cinemas elsewhere in the UK) were equipped for stereo in those days. One exception was the Granada chain. One of my local cinemas was the Granada in Harrow (wonderful cinema and a Grade II listed building), which was where I first noticed stereo sound in the 1950s.

Ha, Harrow was somewhere out in the country as far as I knew then. I live in Ruislip now, so not far away. When I moved out here in the seventies I did go to the Granada a few times, a huge cinema that had a gristly fate; they did a shonky job converting it to a multi-cinema (where the sound of the other screens bled through), & now it's a gym. There was a huge Essoldo (Westbourne Park) cinema near me, you climbed up these fantastic marble stairs, but it was so old & tatty by then, it only showed old films. When I read Kevin Brownlow's bio of David Lean, I noticed that he lived just around the corner from that cinema for a while, so he must have seen a few films there.

*Sorry for hijacking this thread for a trip down UK memory lane. Back to the movies

 

[84lion]

Any hope for BoB to be remastered and released in 4K? The flying sequences and vintage aircraft are spectacular. The opening credits with the "Aces High" march is one of my favorite movie scenes. I have always very much liked the film.

 

[PMF]

One could only wish that Battle of Britain and everything else ever lit by Freddie A. Young could find its way onto a 4K/UHD disc. Heck, even a BD on other unreleased F. A. Young titles would be welcomed at this point.

 

[pinknik]

My favorite bit is when I can go, “Hey! That’s the bit from Pink Floyd’s The Wall!”