DVD Review HTF Review: The Marx Brothers - Silver Screen Collection (1 Viewer)

[Jonathan_Clarke]

Just finished three of the films (Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers and Monkey Business). They look good. Sure, I wish they looked as good as Citizen Kane or Casablanca but the picture and sound are clear.

If I made any comparison, I'd say the transfer equalled that of Dracula, another popular film made at the same time (and now released by the same studio).

The most important thing is now I have all five. And at the 38.99 price I found them, that's less than $8 a movie! I still need to pick up the Warners set. From what I heard, it's superior package but apart from Night at the Opera and Day at the Races, inferior films.

 

[Bob Graham]

I have the Image discs and am on the fence about purchasing the new set. How is the booklet that comes with the discs? Does it provide any new visuals or insights or does it repeat frequently seen stills and information.

(p.s. Really dissappointed that Universal didn't include "The Great Jewel Robbery" tv special featuring Harpo and Chico with a cameo by Groucho, because they actually own the rights to it.)

 

[Ronald Epstein]

That's pretty much right.

In my opinion, this Universal set pretty much
represents the "meat and potatoes" of the Marx
Brothers library.

 

[Peter Svensson]

Doesn´t anyone have the R2 Universal set and can do a comparison of Duck Soup with the new R1 Universal set? I´m not interested in the extras, just the picture quality. Gary hasn´t added the new edition at the beaver.

 

[Garysb]

When Warner releases Public Enemy and Little Ceasar in January we will have an idea of what can be done with films made in 1931, the same year as Monkey Business. These have never looked or sounded good on video.
I understand they found the uncut versions which restore things cut fom the 1940's reissue .
I think these will be the earliest films Warner has yet released. 42nd Street was released in 1932 or 1933.
I can't think of any other earlier 30's films available from Warners .

 

[Roger Rollins]

I was very disappointed by this release. It seemed that Universal was no longer having a fire sale mentality with its library (like with Abbott & Costello)and was going to lavish care on some of their crown jewels and charge a little extra in the process.

No such luck.

Instead we get transfers that are only marginally better than what was available before, and no extras, except a pitiful 15 minutes of news show excerpts that are a poor excuse for a bonus disc.

Seems like Universal was caught with their pants down when Warner Bros. made a killing with their smartly produced, and very impressive 7 film boxed set last year, and rushed out a poorly conceived release to capitalize on the success of their competitor.

If only they had waited and done it right.

Surely DUCK SOUP and HORSE FEATHERS (the only really good movies in the collection) deserve at least commentaries if not documentaries. But no. Nothin'. Zilch.

I'm sorry I bought these. My Image discs look virtually identical and there was no reason to re-buy.

Hey Universal, next time, try harder!

 

[Robert Hutchison]

I have just received this set. I haven't seen any comments about the packaging for these discs. I find it to be a bit cumbersome. The box (folder?) will not fold up intuitively and seems prone to easy damage. I don't like having the book bound in to the box and it appears that if I cut the book out the box (folder) will not close properly. Has anyone tried this? Was the individual who designed this box set someone that actually plays DVD's on a daily basis?

 

[Vincent L]

In answer to Peter I have the R2 and R1 boxsets and this week-end, I'll take a look but I don't think that there are many differences.

 

[Matt Stieg]

Wh-wh-wh-what???!!! Are you sure you're a Marx Brothers fan? I can't imagine any fan not liking Animal Crackers and Monkey Business, which are absolutely hilarious and far funnier than any of their MGM films.

My .02, I've watched both Animal Crackes and Monkey Business as they were two that I hadn't seen in a long while. Animal Crackers/I] looked pretty decent imo, especially for a film that has never looked good. Monkey Business, on the other hand, I thought looked beautiful. A nice sharp, clean picture with expected minor scratches throughout, but still very nice!

I've checked out a little bit of The Cocoanuts as well. This film has always looked horrible and I don't think there's anything Universal can do to make it look great, but they seem to have found some good 35mm footage. I've never seen the Image DVD and I haven't seen the VHS in years, but I think it looks acceptable for a 75-year-old film of which most likely the original negative is lost. C'mon guys, I admit I often trash Universal, but I think once in awhile we have to give them the benefit of the doubt. While there's no excuse for the lack of extras, I think picture and sound wise they've done the best they could with what they have.

 

[Peter Svensson]

Thank You! I´ll wait for your comparison before I order.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

I think one of the main reasons that the transfers of these films aren't as good as they could be because, while Universal owns the rights to the films, they don't have any of the original film elements, which still reside in Paramount's film vaults. The same problem has occured with transfers of horror films that Uni owns the rights to, such as ISLAND OF LOST SOULS. Since Paramount doesn't own the rights and won't make a buck off of these DVD's, they could care less about supplying Universal with the original negatives or elements that are closer to the original source material.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Are you sure that Paramount still has original film elements?







Crawdaddy

 

[Roger Rollins]

I don't believe this to be an accurate statement. I'm fairly certain that Paramount turned over all their film elements on the library sold to MCA in 1956.

I do believe that some impressive restorations have been done from original negatives on the pre-1949 Paramount films that are now owned by Universal. I recall reading articles about some of these restorations, and how the original negatives were preserved, restored, etc.

Someone else here may have more detailed information about this than I do which could confirm one way or another.

 

[Vincent L]

Well Peter, I don't think that there are many differences beetween the two but I'll send the screenshots to DVDBeaver so it'll be on their website soon.

 

[Peter Svensson]

Ok Vincent, thank you very much! I´ll be buying the R2 release then.

 

[Vincent L]

I took a look, for:
-Duck Soup, there aren't any major differences.
-Monkey Business, the R1 is a little better whit a sharper image.
-Horse feathers, the R2 isn't in black in white it has little of green sometime (so you need to turn your TV in black and white by setting the colours inn order to have a BW picture) but the R1 is in black and white. Here the R2 is sharper than the R1. So the R2 is better for being sharper and the colour problem can be set with your TV.
Note: there few moments were the image is cropped on the on the R2.

But with the screenshots you'll understand more.

 

[Peter Svensson]

Ok, I´m only interested in Duck Soup which seem to be about the same as the R1.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

Well, that's what I've been told by someone who has done some work for Universal in the past. Since his expertise isn't in film preservation, he might have been wrong. But it is interesting that films like ISLAND OF LOST SOULS and HORSE FEATHERS have more splices, jump cuts and missing bits of dialogue than most of the Universal films that originated with the studio(which can look pretty bad, but are usually much more intact).

Maybe Robert Harris could give us a definitive answer on this.

 

[Matt Fisher]

Mistaken post, sorry.

 

[james_jacques]

This looks like a great forum and I hope I can contribute to the discussion! First, a question.

A quick question for those who have the new DVDs-

in "Animal Crackers" is the line "I think I'd like to make her." still cut out? This line was cut in the rereleases of the movie after the Hayes code...

here's a link about what I mean.

w1.660.telia.com/~u66002771/animal.htm

If it's cut- it means they used the samed print as the DVDs before...