A Few Words About A few words about...™ Stormy Weather -- in Blu-ray (2 Viewers)

[AnthonyClarke]

Well, it doesn't look pristine to me.

In fact, it doesn't look like anything.

Every day I wait for its delivery and every day I return dejected. C'mon, 'Stormy Weather', where are you? All this praise being heaped upon you is making the wait even more agonising ....

 

[warnerbro]

You won't be disappointed. This print makes it look like it was filmed this morning. The detail is incredible and I never saw one spec of anything on any frame. And the sound and music only track are superb!

 

[ROclockCK]

Speaking of the "print", I have a question for RAH: "What exactly are we watching here?"


Wasn't Stormy Weather one of the many golden era Fox films with a long ago trashed nitrate negative? And yet this image didn't look at all distressed, like something farther down the food chain. In particular, its grayscale was uncommonly rich and subtle thoughout.


So if this could not have been harvested from a now non-existant original negative, then what would Schawn Belston and Fox have been working from? Whatever it was, they sure performed a minor miracle here.

 

[warnerbro]

You're right, the gray scale is unbelievable! I've never seen anything like it.

 

[bigshot]

Perfect double feature to go with Cohen Group's Syncopation.

 

[David Weicker]

My double feature viewing was this and Blues Brothers. Just a 35 year gap between Cab's performances

 

[AnthonyClarke]

'Stormy Weather' has finally arrived in Australia.

The wait has been worthwhile .. it's a terrific movie and the transfer is simply superb, for both video and audio.

BUT

The so-called expert commentary track is a total disgrace. It's by an uninformed academic who comes over as a mumbling, bumbling unprepared throwaway artist, peppering his inane utterances with non-stop 'uuuh's and 'you know'.

And he is infuriatingly dismissive of great musical contributions by people such as the great jazz artist Fats Waller. Because Fats was an unabashed entertainer who happily mugged for the camera, this commentator can't even hear past the persona to recognise that Fats was one of the great stride pianists of his time, up there with Art Tatum and Willie 'The Lion' Smith .. Fats dressed up a lot of his music with humour but that never diminished his perfect musicality.

The other flaw in an otherwise wonderful Twilight Time release is its sloppy chaptering. For a movie which is 90 per cent about its music, there is no guide in the accompanying booklet to the chapter-stops telling you where to find performers or musical numbers.

Nor, if you choose 'chapter selection' on the actual disc, is there any help. There's just a string of unnamed meaningless thumbnail images which relate to absolutely nothing. Bad. thoughtless, careless, slipshod .. it diminishes from an otherwise fine disc.

 

[Robin9]

. . . . as the great jazz artist Fats Waller. Because Fats was an unabashed entertainer who happily mugged for the camera, this commentator can't even hear past the persona to recognise that Fats was one of the great stride pianists of his time, up there with Art Tatum and Willie 'The Lion' Smith .. Fats dressed up a lot of his music with humour but that never diminished his perfect musicality.

He was also a great songwriter.

 

[warnerbro]

I agree about the commentary. It was a big disappointment. These artists are to be treasured for what they accomplished not diminished as stereotypes. Otherwise, this release is a miracle.

 

[verneaux]

The late great Mantan Moreland was distraught toward the end of his life about the supression of his film work due to modern sensibilities. These performers and artists deserve to be seen and appreciated.

 

[JoeDeM]

I don't think I've ever seen this film, but It looks like something I may be interested in, I may have to order it on my next TT order.

 

[warnerbro]

Grab it as fast as you can. It's limited to just a few copies and then will be super rare and fetching a high price on eBay and Amazon. This transfer is a miracle. It's unbelievable how sharp and clear the picture is. It also has a beautiful music only track that actually has the conductor's voice introducing some of the cues. These performers in this are at the top of their form. They have no equal and overcame great odds to be in this film. It is a time capsule that everyone should see.

 

[haineshisway]

If you love the music, we still have a few copies of our two CD limited edition soundtrack, which has a bunch of songs that were recorded and filmed but not used in the final edit, along with full versions of numbers that were truncated in the film.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

It would be interesting to know how many units Twilight Time has sold to date ... just to know how many people have so far been able to appreciate such a beautiful transfer of this gem.

 

[david hare]

Well I assume this is a 3000 print run, as per. So when they sell out we should know.

 

[Robin9]

It would be interesting to know how many units Twilight Time has sold to date ... just to know how many people have so far been able to appreciate such a beautiful transfer of this gem.

My uneducated guess is that Stormy Weather will set a lot in the first month and then will sell slowly. I'm in no panic to buy it for that reason. (I limit myself to a certain budget each month with the consolation that I have time to watch only about four or five films a week)

 

[Eric Vedowski]

Somebody on this board figured out how to determine how many are left by putting a certain number in a bogus order and updating their cart-or something like this. Anyone remember?

 

[David Weicker]

Somebody on this board figured out how to determine how many are left by putting a certain number in a bogus order and updating their cart-or something like this. Anyone remember?

I do remember. And I imagine that would still work for most titles.

However a few have built-in purchase limits (only three per customer, etc.), so for those we are reliant on TT telling us when they are low.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I am planning on eventually ordering this title.


But here's what I forget: does TT EVER have any sales? If not, I will just order it sooner--rather than later.

 

[Joel Arndt]

I am planning on eventually ordering this title.


But here's what I forget: does TT EVER have any sales? If not, I will just order it sooner--rather than later.

I remember only one sale for an anniversary event a while back and I believe there were only certain titles that were $5.00 or $10.00 off.