MGM's The Quiet American, Beachhead, Ambush Bay etc. (1 Viewer)

[Brent Avery]

The upcoming April 19 release of these three titles plus Beach Red were in stock at my local video hangout and for anyone contemplating purchasing any or all of these reasonably priced films I should mention that with the exception of the 1954 Beach Head starring Tony Curtis presented Full Frame ( the OAR I assume ) the others - The Quiet American with Audie Murphy and Michael Redgrave ( 1:66 ); Ambush Bay with Hugh O'Brien, Mickey Rooney, & James Mitchum ( 1:85 ); and Beach Red with Cornel Wilde and Rip Torn ( 1:85 ) are all presented in the Letterbox format. I have yet to view them but it is too bad they were not Anamorphic - or should I say " Enhanced for 16x9 ". MGM, you are continuing to slip into an unfortunate situation of being too inconsistent. I will follow in a day or two on their overall quality and I suppose something is better than nothing in regard to at least being OAR. Still waiting for the Purple Plain and possibly Submarine X1.

 

[Brent Avery]

Found the time to watch Beach Head and having never seen it before thought it was above average overall. The picture itself looked pretty good with solid colors and quite sharp as well. The audio came across as well as any film from that era - which is to say nothing spectacular but still easy on the ears. If you like war films this one is certainly no Oscar winner but then again I did not find it a waste of time either.

 

[Brent Avery]

What is this? Nobody else is interested? I understand, after watching them I was not sure if I had wasted my money. Still, the image quaulity was pretty good overall except for the Quiet American which was the only B&W picture in the lot and suffers the most. Still decent though and I really didn't mind it. Quite a bit of sharp dialogue from Michael Redgrave. Next up will be The Purple Plain with Gregory Peck ( 1954 ) which looks to be the best of the bunch. Wouldn't you know it that this title and The Four Feathers are imports up here and cost twice as much as the others.

 

[Jason-D]

I've never actually seen any of these films before, but I am pretty interested in Beach Red. I think that there were a couple of mentions of it in the commentary to Leave Her To Heaven.

 

[JPCinema]

"The Purple Plain" color transfer is excellent!!! There is a disclaimer that the film has been "modified to fit your screen".
Yup, it is full frame, but the picture looks perfectly composed.

 

[walter o]

any word on the other title that came out at the same time ATTACK ON THE IRON COAST and SUBMARINE X-1? i am curious about those two.

 

[Jeff_HR]

"Ambush Bay" has been a minor favorite of mine for many years. I'm very happy to get it in a WS version. As it is I NEVER expected to see it on DVD, so it is just gravy to me.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I watched this on Saturday and the dvd has non-anamorphic widescreen on one side and pan and scan on the other.





Crawdaddy

 

[Bradley-E]

BEST BUY had most of these titles on the shelf over the weekend. I thought about SUBMARINE X-1 but it is not Anamorphic.

 

[Jeff_HR]

How was the quality of the transfer? Any problems? Thanks.