UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ - Torn Curtain -- in 4k UHD (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

I'm on Prime and have Max, so I guess it's one of those two. All I know is, three days ago they didn't have the UHD and yesterday they did. They still don't have the others in the set in UHD so I'm wondering if they jumped the gun in listing it that way but still using the older transfer. I'll finish watching tonight.

Well, it isn't Max because they don't have those Universal Hitchcock movies. In my personal experiences, Amazon Prime is by far the worst streaming service. Furthermore, Amazon has been known to mislabel movies in regard to the 4K format. I rarely stream anything from Amazon. For the most part, it's either iTunes or Vudu.

 

[Wayne Klein]

Hitch seemed a bit lost in the 60’s after “The Birds”. Even “Marnie” pretty flawed IMHO (though Robin Wood did make a strong case for the film in his book), demonstrated that, for once, Hitch wasn’t at the top of his game. The problem with “Torn Curtain” was multifaceted; rejecting it Herrmann’s superb score, losing Robert Burks, a strained working relationship with method actor Paul Newman, feeling like Andrew’s was forced on him…all of these along a strained working relationship with Brian Moore. Moore was a fine writer but the wrong choice for Hitch. It all took its toll and the decision to shoot on the backlot robbed the film of a sense of authenticity that might have injected some energy into the film. Still, it has its moments including the famed oven scene which remains brilliant and chilling. The next film would find Hitch uncertain about the right way forward and remains among his most turgid thrillers.

 

[Robert Harris]

I've been streaming these new UHD transfers and tonight it was Torn Curtain. I've been hugely impressed with everything I've seen, but either this thing I'm watching is NOT the new transfer, despite clearly saying UHD or, for me, it's a fail. It looks ugly and brown to my eyes (which is why I think it might be the Blu-ray transfer) - this is the only Hitchcock movie in his entire canon that looks the way it does - the photography is nothing like his other films and in the dye transfer prints, one of which I owned, it looked nothing like what I'm viewing. It's just plain weird. Can someone clarify or chime in if it's possible I'm seeing the older transfer or is this what the new transfer looks like. I hate caps, as you all know, but looking at the ones above, the new transfer is merely darker with less compression issues.

The disc is fine.

 

[haineshisway]

The disc is fine.

Someone suggested that despite saying UHD they hadn't updated yet - and I think that's probably accurate.

 

[mskaye]

Hitch seemed a bit lost in the 60’s after “The Birds”. Even “Marnie” pretty flawed IMHO (though Robin Wood did make a strong case for the film in his book), demonstrated that, for once, Hitch wasn’t at the top of his game. The problem with “Torn Curtain” was multifaceted; rejecting it Herrmann’s superb score, losing Robert Burks, a strained working relationship with method actor Paul Newman, feeling like Andrew’s was forced on him…all of these along a strained working relationship with Brian Moore. Moore was a fine writer but the wrong choice for Hitch. It all took its toll and the decision to shoot on the backlot robbed the film of a sense of authenticity that might have injected some energy into the film. Still, it has its moments including the famed oven scene which remains brilliant and chilling. The next film would find Hitch uncertain about the right way forward and remains among his most turgid thrillers.

What I find fascinating about Torn Curtain (and Marnie in its casting of Connery) was that Hitchcock, like Kubrick with Ryan O'Neal, Jack Nicholson and Cruise/Kidman, was drawn to use the "BIGGEST" stars of the time - Paul Newman and Julie Andrews in this film. I think Kubrick, like Hitchcock wanted to make popular successful movies. Their genius was in how much "art" they were able to cram into popular successes. Yes there were conflicts with method actors but all directors had to deal with that at a certain point until the vast pool of actors were almost ALL method actors (no tears from me as I love method actors.)

 

[mskaye]

I've been streaming these new UHD transfers and tonight it was Torn Curtain. I've been hugely impressed with everything I've seen, but either this thing I'm watching is NOT the new transfer, despite clearly saying UHD or, for me, it's a fail. It looks ugly and brown to my eyes (which is why I think it might be the Blu-ray transfer) - this is the only Hitchcock movie in his entire canon that looks the way it does - the photography is nothing like his other films and in the dye transfer prints, one of which I owned, it looked nothing like what I'm viewing. It's just plain weird. Can someone clarify or chime in if it's possible I'm seeing the older transfer or is this what the new transfer looks like. I hate caps, as you all know, but looking at the ones above, the new transfer is merely darker with less compression issues.

It was never a very nice looking film, especially following the amazing saturated color schemes/touches in his prior films (apart from Psycho of course.)

 

[Wayne Klein]

It was never a very nice looking film, especially following the amazing saturated color schemes touches in his prior films (apart from Psycho of course.)

I think that was Hitch’s choice due to the themes of the film but I also think it hurt not having Robert Burks.

 

[Wayne Klein]

What I find fascinating about Torn Curtain (and Marnie in its casting of Connery) was that Hitchcock, like Kubrick with Ryan O'Neal, Jack Nicholson and Cruise/Kidman, was drawn to use the "BIGGEST" stars of the time - Paul Newman and Julie Andrews in this film. I think Kubrick, like Hitchcock wanted to make popular successful movies. Their genius was in how much "art" they were able to cram into popular successes. Yes there were conflicts with method actors but all directors had to deal with that at a certain point until the vast pool of actors were almost ALL method actors (no tears from me as I love method actors.)

Agreed. Interesting that with his next two films he eschewed big name actors (though Michael Caine was the actor Hitch wanted for Rusk) almost like a reaction to his experience on “Torn Curtain”.