A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Long, Hot Summer -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Another very important release from Twilight Time, Martin Ritt's take on William Faulkner's The Long, Hot Summer, with a screenplay by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr., a married screenwriting team, that seems to be able to create magic in their words.

Ms Frank recently turned 100.

This is also, another production with extraordinary casting.

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodard in the leads (they married shortly thereafter), with great support from Anthony Franciosa, Orson Welles (in a wonderfully over-the-top performance, Lee Remick and Angela Lansbury.

With major location filming in Louisiana, the film veritably drips with summer heat and humidity.

The master supplied to Twilight Time by Fox, appears (at least to me) to come from an element with a bit of fade. Flesh tones appear a bit too yellow than the norm, and one will occasionally find blue highlights in darker areas. Note the furniture in the bedroom, early in the film.

The fade doesn't impede the overall image quality, and as "the play's the thing," the eye gets used to it. The audio seemed a bit odd at points, with the sound not quite tracking the position of the actors, but it may have always been like that.

If you've not experienced Long, Hot Summer, this is your chance to get one of the 3,000 examples, as issued.

Image - 4

Audio - 4.5

4k Up-rez - 4.75

Pass / Fail - Pass

Recommended

RAH

 

[PMF]

At the age of 100, Ms. Frank must be very pleased to know that the works of she and her are being kept alive and vital through our good friends at TT.
Here's to Irving and Harriet.

 

[Mark-P]

...The audio seemed a bit odd at points, with the sound not quite tracking the position of the actors, but it may have always been like that...

That's your typical 1950s directional dialog - sloppy as hell. We've all been so spoiled by the precision on modern mixing that old techniques really show their flaws. Even though I already bought the German Blu-ray, I will upgrade to this one just for the 5.1 discrete mix (the German Blu-ray only has a 2.0 stereo mixdown) but I will wait for a sale.

 

[PMF]

At the age of 100, Ms. Frank must be very pleased to know that the works of she and her are being kept alive and vital through our good friends at TT.
Here's to Irving and Harriet.

Erratum: The word "husband" was mistakenly omitted from my prior Post and was to read as...

At the age of 100, Ms. Frank must be very pleased to know that the works of she and her husband are being kept alive and vital through our good friends at TT.

So, once again, here's to Irving and Harriet.

 

[Angelo Colombus]

Orson's makeup in the film makes his face look like the summer heat and sweat and definitely a over the top performance but fun to watch.

 

[Richard Kaufman]

Oddly, Welles's makeup appears to follow the criteria for makeup used for the stage, not for a film.