Fox Classics, Westerns & Drama on May 22 (1 Viewer)

[Brent Avery]

Seems like a nice lineup for the 22nd and most of the titles were available at my favorite dvd source - unfortunately I had to pick and chose for lack of funds, but among the Cinema Classics series I picked up Can Can - had to leave So Proudly We Hail, On The Riviera, and Pigskin Parade. Fox also has some more Westerns - grabbed Broken Arrow, White Feather, and Fury At Furnace Creek as well as two Dramas - Hell And High Water with one of my favorite actors, Richard Widmark, as well as The Third Secret. Still might get Fort Courageous. Any comments on these releases? I have never viewed any of them except for Can Can. From what I have seen May 22 looks to be a busy week for those of us always adding older films to our collections! I have to correct myself - Can Can is among the upcoming releases under the " Marque Musicals " line from Fox - my mistake.

 

[Simon Howson]

I picked up all the dramas and westerns. They shipped out from DVDPacific yesterday! But they won't arrive for another week.

 

[Joe Caps]

several questions for one you guys look at these titles.

Can Can - is it the roadshow version with overture Intermission and Exit Music?

Pigskin Parade - is supposed to have raw recording sessions from the film - does it have the recording of Garlands cut nuber - Hld That Birddog

White feather - has been missing its true stereo track for years. Is it real stereo on this release or one of those bad Fox Video fake stereo jobs?

 

[Brent Avery]

Nice to hear from you Joe, and regarding White Feather, I have yet to watch it but on the back of the dvd there are two audio options listed: 4 channel surround and Mono. I would not have a clue myself but it seems as though they hopefully just expanded on the stereo track. I will give a listen between the two on my 2 channel receiver I use for the tv and try to come up with an answer. So far, Broken Arrow looked very nice upscaled through a Sony NS75H on a Toshiba 42HL196 1080 LCD. I could not find any real faults with this film and James Stewart was great as usual. Also on Hell And High Water Fox included the A&E Biography on Widmark. Cannot complain for the price! You will be glad to know after a quick look at Can Can it does have the opening Overture, Entr'acte and Exit music. They all play with a blank screen but at least the music is there. Hope this helps. Also glad they spread the film and special features over two discs.

 

[Simon Howson]

I think the 4.0 track on White Feather is original. It sounds pretty good, the music has great fidelity, and the dialogue is clear. I think this is a great film, the last 15 minutes or so is very intense and dramatic. It doesn't go for over the top action, rather it becomes a very direct drama. I really liked it!

I don't have a huge display, so others may disagree. But I thought the DVD quality was very good. The image is very sharp with few scratches or other blemishes. The colour is perhaps a bit pale, but it is possible that this was intentional. It certainly isn't an ultra saturated use of colour like some other Eastman color films of this period. This is a wonderful film that is far superior than what its currently very low IMDB rating would suggest.

I recommend this to fans of cavalry Westerns, and particularly those that liked the Robert Webb western "The Proud Ones" that was released on DVD by Fox last year. Some of the compositions of the cavalry near the end are just stunning. This film is just as good, or perhaps even better. It is another great example of early CinemaScope cinematography. As with The Proud Ones, it was photographed by Lucien Ballard, who in the late 60s and early 70s made a string of great films with Sam Peckinpah; most famously of course, The Wild Bunch (1969).

 

[Greg_M]

Picked up "Can-Can" today.

This is the best the film has ever looked on Home Video. The colors on the older laserdisc were grey and orange while the new DVD has greens, reds, magentas, purples and blues. Blacks are inky and the whites are clean. It seems to have been transfer from a 70MM source and not 35MM as the laserdiscs were. The colors are much richer and look more like 70MM than the 35MM prints I've seen.


The isolated score sounds great - music only no vocals or effect tracks (just an ocassional intro by the sound enigneers), this is good news since much of the original score was reduced to background music.

The film looks great though there is a light flicker through out and FOX does put a disclaimer before the film stating that these were the best materials available. This is the Roadshow version with the overture and intermission music.

The set also includes 4 lobby cards which I wasn't expecting.

The DVD I purchased was defective and wouldn't play about 50 minutes into the film. This hardly ever happens and I wonder if it is an isolated case or if the enitre pressing has this problem (The two Best Buys near me didn't have any copies for sale today)

 

[Thomas T]

Greg, for what it's worth, my copy of Can Can played just fine on my old Pioneer DV-343.

 

[Greg_M]

Thanks Thomas, that's good to hear. Unfortunately I purchased a second disc at anoter retailer (Broaders Books) and it had the same problem. I'm guess FOX is aware of it was had recalled the disc, especially since none of the retailers (Best Buy, Circut City) have any.

 

[William Miller]

The Can-Can good news:

Complete Todd-AO Roadshow with Overture, Intermission and Exit Music.

Eye-popping colors.

Great stereo sound.

Disc 2 has very nice extras.

The bad news:

As previously mentioned, the first thing you see on Disc 1 is a disclaimer that the best possible materials were used. This is not a good sign of things to come. I guess that all they could find for the Roadshow version was a not so hot print. And the problem is that the image is constantly shifting in color registration. Looks perfect and great and then not so great and then wow! and then ecchhh! and then socks fly off and then very dupey looking. But you can watch it and almost handle the big problem because you are finally seeing it correctly and complete. Oh well, that's the way it goes.

My copy played fine. Just because a certain retailer does not have it in stock does not mean it has been recalled. Best Buy does not stock many classic films and Circuit City hardly stocks any. Costco had many copies in stock along with On the Riviera and Pigskin Parade.

 

[Simon Howson]

I notice a heap of discolouration on both sides of my copy of White Feather. So perhaps the problem with Can Can is simply bad quality control on the pressing, rather than an actual mastering defect that is on every single copy?

My copy of White Feather plays fine (well, I only watched the widescreen side). But my player is very resilient, perhaps a cheaper player would have problems, because the disc doesn't look very good.

 

[Jefferson]

As I posted in another "can-can" thread, I work for a retailer that carries dvds, and I watched the quantities in our warehouse drop drastically overnight....far more than would be normal for a 'classic' release. it led me to believe that perhaps there had been something wrong with the discs...and I'm even more suspicious now that I read that people are having trouble playing them.
Still, looking forward to purchasing this.

 

[Rod J]

My "Pigskin Parade" went from pre-order to backorder. Did anyone get a copy?

 

[CineKarine]

About Pigskin Parade, that happened to a lot of people. Looks like Amazon had it listed under two different ASIN numbers, one of which was of course incorrect, so all the customers who had pre-ordered via this number, had to reorder via the other one on Tuesday. :frowning:

 

[CineKarine]

DVD news from Movies Unlimited posted today:
http://www.moviesunlimited.com/musit..._06_052707.asp

Good to hear about a likely Sonja Henie set :thumbs:, too bad the Michael Shayne set did not do well though...