Has Warner announced its' January releases yet? (1 Viewer)

[frank manrique]

I wonder if Ice Station Zebra will be HD mastered from 70mm film elements (Dimension 150)? Yeah, right...

In lieu of that then I just hope it winds up looking as good as the King of Kings DVD transfer does at the very least...

-THTS

"...hi, my name is Frank...and am an SVS bassaholic..."

 

[Douglas R]

Wow! dvdtimes.co.uk reports that THE LETTER also contains the long-unseen 1929 early-talkie version of THE LETTER featuring Jeanne Eagles and Herbert Marshall PLUS music only track (one of Max Steiner's best) and recently discovered alternative ending!!

Definately a must have!

 

[John Hodson]

Yup; full specs - and great pack shots - for the Warners/TCM vote movie poll winners at DVD Times here.

 

[Alejandro]

I'm SO waiting for the Letter

 

[Amy Mormino]

The specs for Random Harvest and The Letter look enticing, but I have to say the extras for the other three are an unimpressive lot. I think the winners of last year's Warners Decision got better extras. Isn't there at least one earlier version of King Solomon's Mines that could have been added as an extra?

Anyone know what the promised documentaries for Random Harvest might be? Has there ever been a TCM special on Greer Garson's career?

 

[Charles H]

An excellent earlier version of KING SOLOMON'S MINES (1937) with Paul Robeson is available now from MGM/UA. There is a pretty good but uncredited remake of THE LETTER called THE UNFAITHFUL with Ann Sheridan in the Bette Davis part. I doubt that they could fit all three on one disc, but it would make a great double-discer.

 

[Thomas T]

The 1937 King Solomon's Mines does not belong to Warners so they couldn't have included it on the DVD even if they wanted to.

 

[Ric Bagoly]

Any word on Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid??

 

[ScottR]

You'd be surprised how much you lose going from 1.37:1 to 1.33:1. Why does everybody assume just because the aspect ratio is correct, that you are seeing the correct picture information? Frames can be zoomed in too much, or cropped in an odd way, or in the case of widescreen films- they can be matted down to the correct ratio. So don't just assume that a 1.33:1 ratio is not losing much.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Scott, that's a horrible thought! The FF framing ratio may be much worse then! Maybe they should get a letter or two, protesting this. Thanks, I think.

Glenn

 

[Roger J]

Ice Station Zebra was shot in Super Panavision (65mm flat). As far as I know, there were only two shows shot in D-150, The Bible...In The Beginning and Patton.

While a hi-def transfer from large format elements might be a treat for this film, it is quite possible whatever surviving large format elements may be in poor condition. Back in those days it was common to dupe from the camera negative which resulted in some pretty beatup 65mm o-negs. It is also possible Warner has spent a little money on this film and has a nice looking 65mm IP to work with.

Regardless, I'm looking forward to a nice new DVD transfer of one of my all-time guilty pleasures.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Protest what, do you have any examples of this type of framing issues on movies filmed in the Academy Ratio that Warner has released on dvd? The reason I'm asking is because I can't remember any issues with Warner about such titles filmed in that aspect ratio.




Crawdaddy

 

[ScottR]

The version of Gone With the Wind currently available is a perfect example......check out the scene after the Bazaar when Rhett sends Melanie and Scarlett's wedding rings back in the mail......in the theatre, you could see where the letter was sent from in the top left hand corner, and the date it was sent on the top right, and the entire letter framed with room on the sides......on the dvd you are missing all of this. Just one little scene, from one of the greatest films of all time. Cropping on 1.33:1 films is worse than you think.

 

[Steve...O]

Some of this could be due to overscan. My DVD player has a zoom/shrink function and when I shrink the image I see things not seen when the image is "normal size".

Steve

 

[Patrick McCart]

The 1.33/1.37:1 problem, I think, is not a travesty...

Here's a frame from The Great Dictator, which has an Academy source (with the picture blocked out where the soundtrack would be):



Here's the image framed for 1.37:1 (theatrical):


and framed at 1.33:1

 

[Robert Crawford]

So based on this one example, one of which most of us have never seen in a movie theater to confirm, you're suggesting that cropping of movies filmed in the academy ratio is wide spread?






Crawdaddy

 

[Glenn Overholt]

For full frame. There is a difference between that and cropped. If the movie were just cropped, we wouldn't miss much, but with FF, there could be close-ups that would not be in the OAR or a cropped version.

Glenn

 

[Patrick McCart]

There's no way that a 1.33:1 or 1.37:1 source can be cropped for fullframe to create stuff like closeups and stuff.

 

[ScottR]

That's exactly what I'm saying. I'm not going to argue about it. Believe what you want to....that doesn't make it true.

p.s. Why wouldn't it be widespread? Isn't it a little naive to think that what you are seeing at home is exactly what was shown in theatres? Hardly.

 

[Robert Crawford]

That's my point, most of us haven't even seen these films in a theater setting to judge whether this cropping is widespread or not.





Crawdaddy