He just restored The Ten Commandments, now Ron Smith wants to hear from you: What Paramount films yo (1 Viewer)

[dana martin]

oh my i cant belive i forgot this, WINGS

 

[Ed Lachmann]

The Region 2 blu-ray of "Fall of the Roman Empire" (German) is not bad at all. That is to say, it has nice grain and color, not the idiotic DNR soft-focus travesty that Universal released in its disappointing "Spartacus". The one I pray for from Paramount is the absent-in-any-form "Samson and Delilah". It would also make a nice blu-ray set with "The Greatest Show on Earth" and the DeMille produced "The Buccaneer" (also completely absent). Kudos to them for the beautiful work on "Ten Commandments". Just got mine yesterday and am simply amazed by it.

 

[OliverK]

FOTRE from Germany looks really really bad. A little bit better than Spartacus maybe but still very bad.

Which is not surprising as it was taken from 35mm low-con elements with subsequent heavy and apparently rather primitive filtering.


But I guess that this is not really the thread to discuss the FOTRE Blu-Ray so I will second The Greatest Show on Earth and Samson and Delilah with the beautiful Hedy Lamarr.

Originally Posted by Ed Lachmann

The Region 2 blu-ray of "Fall of the Roman Empire" (German) is not bad at all. That is to say, it has nice grain and color, not the idiotic DNR soft-focus travesty that Universal released in its disappointing "Spartacus". The one I pray for from Paramount is the absent-in-any-form "Samson and Delilah". It would also make a nice blu-ray set with "The Greatest Show on Earth" and the DeMille produced "The Buccaneer" (also completely absent). Kudos to them for the beautiful work on "Ten Commandments". Just got mine yesterday and am simply amazed by it.

 

[john a hunter]

Would have to disagree with Oliver over the German releases of TFOTRE and presumably El Cid. The dvd releases I find almost unwatchable. Their BD counterparts are much much better though hardly first rate. Parts of EL Cid from the siege of Valencia are actually very good. You also get lossless sound for those great scores.You can even store the BD's in the flash old dvd boxes!!

 

[OliverK]

John, I would never say that it does not look better than the DVD but it looks bad for a Blu-Ray and especially for the Blu-Ray of one of the sharpest 70mm movies I have witnessed on the big screen. Spartacus is the only large format movie on Blu-Ray that looks worse than these two and this is pretty bad in my book.


Just have a look at King of Kings which is another Super Technirama 70 Bronston production and compare it to El Cid - the difference in detail and colors is HUGE! So while El Cid and Fall are clearly the only watchable home versions imo that does not make them look good or even mediocre - they are actually very weak efforts to bring us movies on Blu-Ray that looked stunning in 70mm.


This is the last I will write about these two movies in this thread as I do not want to derail it, if you like we can continue this discussion in a separate thread or via pm.

Originally Posted by john a hunter

Would have to disagree with Oliver over the German releases of TFOTRE and presumably El Cid. The dvd releases I find almost unwatchable. Their BD counterparts are much much better though hardly first rate. Parts of EL Cid from the siege of Valencia are actually very good. You also get lossless sound for those great scores.You can even store the BD's in the flash old dvd boxes!!

 

[ahollis]

Originally Posted by OliverK

Quote:




Weinstein is far too removed from ownership of these movies to put any kind of serious money into them so I expect absolutely nothing from them when it comes to the necessary work with the large format elements.


I have no idea though what kind of rights Paramount still holds with Fall of the Roman Empire. They originally held the theatrical rights when the film was released in the US. They had hoped for a success similar to The Ten Commandments back then but of course history shows that this did not really work out.

Paramount has no rights at all to FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. Bronston retained all rights to his four last films. He sold limited distribution right by territory around the world. When those rights expired, they reverted back to Bronston which is why the elements have not been well preserved.

 

[ShowsOn]

Another film that deserves a good restoration is the epic western The Big Country.

 

[Paul Rossen]

The Big Country has had work done on it...and is being released on Blu-ray in a few months.

 

[Phoebus]

I saw a very pleasant restoration of To Catch a Thief on UK HD TV recently..


Of the Paramount VistaVision list I'd most like to see Vidor's War and Peace on blu-ray. Jack Cardiff was cameraman and was very proud of his achievements this movie.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by ShowsOn

Another film that deserves a good restoration is the epic western The Big Country.

That film isn't a Paramount title. That belongs to MGM/Fox.







Crawdaddy

 

[Robert Crawford]

My first choices from Paramount would be the following:


Shane

One-Eyed Jacks

To Catch a Thief

The Greatest Show on Earth

Roman Holiday

Sabrina








Crawdaddy

 

[benbess]

Originally Posted by ShowsOn



Universal.


Bummer.

 

[benbess]

Originally Posted by ahollis






Paramount has no rights at all to FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. Bronston retained all rights to his four last films. He sold limited distribution right by territory around the world. When those rights expired, they reverted back to Bronston which is why the elements have not been well preserved.

When I saw it many years ago on vhs I was not impressed with The Fall of the Roman Empire. It seemed almost as tediously long as the fall of the real empire. It seemed like the Fall of the Hollywood Ancient Epic to me. But maybe I was young, shallow, and just too critical. That was about two decades ago.

 

[Thomas T]

Not Paramount titles I know but I'd love to see a complete and restored "Roadshow" HAWAII and THE ALAMO on DVD.

 

[Matt Hough]

I mentioned this somewhere on the forum but a week or two ago, I stumbled across Chinatown on one of the HBO HD channels. For a change, it was being shown in its complete Panavision aspect ratio (instead of reformatted as HBO is so fond of doing) and looked better than I have ever seen it (including twice at the movies). I would LOVE to have that classic on Blu-ray.

 

[Scott D S]

This is probably not what Mr. Smith was looking for but my suggestion is Star Trek V - let Shatner finish the film.


I apologize for sounding cynical but, while there are a variety of reasons to restore older films, I can't help but feel that it's all for naught when the marketing department subscribes to the "Catalog titles don't sell so we're just gonna stop releasing them!" school of thought.

 

[Paul Rossen]

Paramount films I'd be interested in ...for blu-ray...


1. One-Eyed Jacks....

2. long 'delayed' Chinatown....

 

[OliverK]

One-Eyed Jacks seems like the winner so far [/url]

Paramount films I'd be interested in ...for blu-ray...


1. One-Eyed Jacks....

2. long 'delayed' Chinatown....




[/quote]

 

[charlesrees]

Above all "One-eyed Jacks" It is THE most visually sumptuous western of all. This film looked as good as or better than any film in VistaVision. Can it be revived from the VistaVision elements? Please do - it is worth any trouble!

"Shanghai Express" (Josef Von Sternberg IS visualness itself!)

"Shane" for its craft and the best editing of any film by Hornbeck.

"City Streets" Any film made in 1931 which is memorable arouses my interest.


submitted by Charles Rees

 

I like Grease to be revisited at some point. Please restore the original soundtrack. The stereo now includes elements not in the original (including a chorus of voices during "Hopelessly Devoted to You"). Also, the original logo fit perfectly with the film.