RoyM
Stunt Coordinator
- Joined
- May 2, 2005
- Messages
- 204
I'm not sure if anyone here is familiar with this movie, but it's a superior live action version of the Kipling story (liberally adapted as most versions are) starring Sabu, well directed by Alexander Korda, and featuring a terrific Miklos Rosza score. Sadly, it has passed into public domain over the years and hence will probably never get a proper restoration. A pity, considering that it is such a fine family-oriented action film, and would make a great double feature with Korda's "The Thief of Bagdad."
I picked up the Alpha version of this PD title sometime back and finally got around to watching it recently. Much to my chagrin, this has to be literally the worst transfer of a film to DVD ever. It's not just that Alpha simply transferred a PD VHS print, but that they apparently drove a truck over the VHS and passed it under a high powered magnet before they transferred it. The image was beyond muddy and the entire color tone randomly shifted from yellow/green to orange/red throughout the film. I own a few other PD titles (several from Alpha even) and none of them are anywhere as hideous as this one.
I did used to own a public domain VHS print of this film from Goodtimes, which as I recall wasn't too bad at all. I am wondering if anyone here is aware if there are any good (or even just halfway tolerable) versions of this film out there on DVD. I don't want to purchase another PD version only to discover that it is just as bad or worse than the Alpha version I have now.
I picked up the Alpha version of this PD title sometime back and finally got around to watching it recently. Much to my chagrin, this has to be literally the worst transfer of a film to DVD ever. It's not just that Alpha simply transferred a PD VHS print, but that they apparently drove a truck over the VHS and passed it under a high powered magnet before they transferred it. The image was beyond muddy and the entire color tone randomly shifted from yellow/green to orange/red throughout the film. I own a few other PD titles (several from Alpha even) and none of them are anywhere as hideous as this one.
I did used to own a public domain VHS print of this film from Goodtimes, which as I recall wasn't too bad at all. I am wondering if anyone here is aware if there are any good (or even just halfway tolerable) versions of this film out there on DVD. I don't want to purchase another PD version only to discover that it is just as bad or worse than the Alpha version I have now.