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International PAL AND OTHER-REGION DVD ANNOUNCEMENTS & REVIEWS (1 Viewer)

Robin9

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Stefan Andersson said:
The soundtrack seems to be in German (Deutsch) only.
If the soundtrack is in German only, I'll cancel my order.
Keith Cobby said:
I have recently bought the German release of Too Hot To Handle. It is in widescreen and in colour and the print is in excellent condition. The credits and soundtrack are in German so it is obviously a German print.
I don't like it when European DVDs of European films don't have either an English soundtrack or subtitles. When the original soundtrack is English, it makes it even more annoying. In this age of on-line shopping crossing international frontiers, what is the point of deliberately making your product unattractive to foreign markets?
 

Thomas T

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Robin9 said:
I don't like it when European DVDs of European films don't have either an English soundtrack or subtitles. When the original soundtrack is English, it makes it even more annoying. In this age of on-line shopping crossing international frontiers, what is the point of deliberately making your product unattractive to foreign markets?
To be fair Robin, using that way of thinking, then all U.S. DVDs should have Spanish, French, German, Italian, Swedish, Portuguese, Greek and Polish subtitles to make their product attractive to foreign markets.
 

Robin9

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Thomas, you are overlooking one crucial fact. The United Kingdom is in Europe and therefore English is a European language. It is also the international language. The UK should be considered as part of their home market. By excluding an English soundtrack these European DVDs lose not only customers in English speaking countries but also customers in European countries who speak English really well. A few years ago a German businessman told me that in Germany English is no longer regarded as a foreign language. When a job applicant says he/she speaks a foreign language, it is assumed they means French of Russian because of course they speak English!
 

Stefan Andersson

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Seth Holt´s thriller Nowhere to Go (1958) has been released by Studiocanal on DVD in the UK: http://www.cineoutsider.com/reviews/dvd/n/nowhere_to_go.html The film is restored to 100 mins. (15 mins. longer than the first US double-bill release by MGM).
 

moviepas

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I don't like it when European DVDs of European films don't have either an English soundtrack or subtitles. When the original soundtrack is English, it makes it even more annoying. In this age of on-line shopping crossing international frontiers, what is the point of deliberately making your product unattractive to foreign markets?
A few years ago I bought a number of DVDs from Serbia, in US dollars and pricey delivery costs which I believe have altered for the better since. However, the material had English subtitles. Their answer to my query about other European DVDs and no subtitles was that it was pure laziness on the part of those countries. Yours points have been used by me for a longtime. I have many Australian and British DVDs that have had multiple subtitles and audio options over the life of DVDs. The masters of many DVD issued in Australian seem to have been compiled in UK.
The have High Chapperal in German and English audio which defaults to German first. The first disc of the series was difficult to engage the English option. A new dub of the disc corrected the problem. But one US b&w western series(forget the title now) unique to German issue had only the German dubbed soundtrack. Weird.
There is a recent years German DVD label who has issued some late 1940s-1950s German films and they have included English subtitles. Not an normal event, though. I can understand a lot of the language but I would like to follow the English subtitles as well. I have many German films made from 1930-1945 and beyond and few subtitles to write home about.
 

Stefan Andersson

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Stefan Andersson said:
Seth Holt´s thriller Nowhere to Go (1958) has been released by Studiocanal on DVD in the UK: http://www.cineoutsider.com/reviews/dvd/n/nowhere_to_go.html The film is restored to 100 mins. (15 mins. longer than the first US double-bill release by MGM).
Update: according to a post on another forum, the shorter cut played on the UK first run also. So this may be the world premiere for the longer cut.
 

Bob Cashill

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NOWHERE TO GO's real draw is the film debut of Maggie Smith, who so loathed seeing herself on screen she wouldn't make another movie until THE VIPS five years later. Thanks as always, tipsters; I'll be getting this.
 

lionel59

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For anyone interested, after searching the amazon.it website I learned that the following are released or about to be released in Italy: THE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE/THE MAN WITH THE GREEN CARNATION (Peter Finch, 16:9) RAINTREE COUNTY (Montgomery Clift) BEAU BRUMMEL (Stewart Granger) THESE THREE (Merle Oberon) They have Italian titles so I advise searching under the names of the leading players. I do not know if RAINTREE is the restored , longer cut. It is being released on Feb 14th, so possibly closer to that date the running time may be given. (A different website listed the General Release Version running time. Warner Archive needs to releases the Roadshow cut. I prefer it to the shortened version) Excellent transfers of HOLD BACK THE DAWN and FROM HELL TO TEXAS (16:9) have been released in Italy. The subtitles are removable on these ones, so I'm guessing that is standard operaional procedure in Italy (unlike France, which even imposes subtitles on some Blu Ray releases eg FOREVER AMBER, though they can be removed on others, eg DADDY LONG LEGS)
 

lionel59

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I have DADDY LONG LEGS from France on blu ray. It's an excellent transfer and the subtitles are removable. The extras are all in French (inc. an interview with Leslie Caron), so if you can speak French that will help!
 

Keith Cobby

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lionel59. Many thanks for your response. I was just about to press the button when I noticed that Daddy Long Legs is to be released in Germany in early March. I will then decide, although I prefer the cover on the French release!
 

Robin9

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lionel59 said:
For anyone interested, after searching the amazon.it website I learned that the following are released or about to be released in Italy: THE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE/THE MAN WITH THE GREEN CARNATION (Peter Finch, 16:9) RAINTREE COUNTY (Montgomery Clift) BEAU BRUMMEL (Stewart Granger) THESE THREE (Merle Oberon) They have Italian titles so I advise searching under the names of the leading players. I do not know if RAINTREE is the restored , longer cut. It is being released on Feb 14th, so possibly closer to that date the running time may be given. (A different website listed the General Release Version running time. Warner Archive needs to releases the Roadshow cut. I prefer it to the shortened version)
Many thanks. I am interested. The Italian DVD of Raintree County has the title L' Albero Della Vita. According to Amazon Italy it comes from a company called A & R Productions of whom I have never heard. Does anyone have any experience of their DVDs? Amazon describes the DVDs as being 16:9, 160 minutes and with an English soundtrack. Buying this DVD without knowing what it is like would normally be risky, but coincidence has provided me with an escape route if the DVD turns out to be garbage. A work colleague has told me his wife desperately wants Raintree County. I advised that it was unavailable on disc and that I had an old VHS tape recorded off TV. He has asked me to copy this to a DVD-R even though I have explained that my copy is of poor quality and is pan and scan. As he/his wife is unconcerned about quality, I can unload the disc onto them if I don't find it good enough. I'll buy this disc and report back. I wonder if Andrew Budgell will be interested.
 

lionel59

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The running time for The Italian release of RAINTREE COUNTY would indicate that it is the General Release Version, NOT the recently restored Roadshow Cut. I have decided to wait and see if Warner Archive release the latter at some point. I would tend to think that they would do so as they are catering for film-lovers and 'buffs'. I have received the Italian dvd of THE MAN WITH THE GREEN CARNATION. I regret to have to say that-although it is 16:9- it is a poor quality print/transfer. Very soft and lacking in detail. Akin to a Letterboxed VHS tape in fact. As the movie was restored and re-released in the early '80's there must be better prints somewhere. Not sure who has the rights these days. In the same order I purchased IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS, released in pan-and-scan in the US and most other countries, but the Italian release is 16:9, 1.85:1. Great transfer. If anyone grabs BEAU BRUMMEL or RAINTREE, please let us know. Other European Blu Ray releases I came across include OLIVER TWIST (1948, Alec Guiness, France), QUANTEZ (1957, Fred MacMurray, Germany), A FOREIGN AFFAIR (1948, Jean Arthur, Germany), DESK SET (1957, Hepburn,Tracy, Germany) and DOCTOR DOLITTLE (1967, Rex Harrison, Germany)
 

Thomas T

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I was excited to see that Universal released two early Tony Curtis films in France not available in the U.S. The swashbuckler The Purple Mask with Angela Lansbury and the racing car drama Johnny Dark with Piper Laurie. Alas, according to the amazon.fr reviews, the CinemaScope Purple Mask and the 1.85 Johnny Dark are both P&S transfers! And here I thought the French were much more discerning about adhering to original aspect ratios.
 

Robin9

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Thomas T said:
I was excited to see that Universal released two early Tony Curtis films in France not available in the U.S. The swashbuckler The Purple Mask with Angela Lansbury and the racing car drama Johnny Dark with Piper Laurie. Alas, according to the amazon.fr reviews, the CinemaScope Purple Mask and the 1.85 Johnny Dark are both P&S transfers! And here I thought the French were much more discerning about adhering to original aspect ratios.
I'm very surprised that these films are in a wrong aspect ratio. In recent years in various European countries, Universal catalogue titles have been released in very high quality transfers. This is a major step backwards. I'm disappointed.
 

lionel59

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For those curious to learn about the restored scenes in the Roadshow version of RAINTREE COUNTY, I suggest going to www.raintreecounty.com and clicking on 'Youtube and Roadshow Cuts' (or just scroll down to it). It lists the cut and recently restored sequences. I believe the film suffers for their loss, thus I will only buy a dvd of the Reconstructed Roads Show version of this movie. This version was released on VHS and has been shown on Turner. I believe a campaign for Warner Archive to release this (with an isolated score track) on Blu Ray should be mounted. The quality of the image is different in the restored sequences, so sharp eyes should pick them when viewing this edition of the movie. It is a shame that Italy is releasing the General Release Version.( BTW, Johnny Green was robbed of his Oscar for Best Original Score that year, as Franz Waxman was of a richly warranted nomination for his equally superb score for PEYTON PLACE. His resignation from the Academy over the non-nomination of Alfred Newman's score for THE ROBE in 1954 probably had a lot to do with this)
 

benbrigade

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Just released by Renown in the UK: DOUBLE CONFESSION This was cited by the British Film Institute as a "lost" film. Then recently it turned up as a bootleg. The Renown edition is far superior to anything that we have had before and is well recommended. A must for "Brit Noir" freaks. Also from Renown a double bill of poverty row Brit B pictures: THE HAND/AMBUSH IN LEOPARD STREET Again THE HAND is far superior to anything that has shown up on various P.D. imprints. Renown continue to do great work releasing these obscure lost films.
 

Robin9

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In April a little known early Sean Connery film will be released on DVD in the U. K.
a5f9788f_OnTheFiddle.jpeg
Amazon U. K. describes this DVD as follows: On the cusp of international fame, Sean Connery took a lead role in this star-studded film adaptation of R.F. Delderfield's story of a couple of lovable service dodgers who become accidental heroes. On the Fiddle is featured here in a brand-new transfer from original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. If that description is correct, I'll buy this DVD.
 

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