Shirley Temple "Little Darling Pack"? (1 Viewer)

[Richard M S]

Well tomorrow is the release date for the Shirley Temple Collection, Vol. 1: Curly Top / Heidi / Little Miss Broadway . It appears the films will be offered in black and white and colorized versions.

Does anyone have any details about how the films look? I personally loathe colorization, but if the black and white copies are in excellent shape they might be worth looking into.

 

[Mark_Wilson]

I've got this set. Hard to compare not having seen any of the previous releases. Only watched Heidi so far. I thought it looked pretty good, but I had low expectations.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

I had purchased the single-disc release of Heidi a while back and it was AWFUL...so much EE that it looked like a double-exposure...like ghosting on a bad TV antenna reception!!!

I'd love to know if the new version is a new film-tape transfer or just rehashes the old (horrible) master...

 

[DeeF]

I bought the recent set of Heidi, Little Miss Broadway, and Curly Top. The transfers are amazing, and so is the colorization! The best I ever saw.

 

[Richard M S]

Thanks, that's good news.

Were there any extras (outtakes, trailers, etc.) or just the 2 film versions?

 

[David Grove]

Suggestion:

Perhaps this thread should be retitled to something like, "Shirley Temple PQ issues", to avoid giving the impression that only the "Little Darling Pack" is under discussion.

DG

 

[Mark_Wilson]

I've only seen Heidi so far and that only had a Trailer.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Is there any decent print of The Little Princess available yet?

 

[DaViD Boulet]

So...they are NEW transfers? Does anyone have both to compare/confirm?

 

[DeeF]

Yes, I believe they are new transfers, made for the "new" colorization process. Also, these disks are actually produced by Fox, as opposed to some of the other public domain disks.

Anyway, I think they look amazing. I've never owned any other Temple movie, though I have copied quite a few from TCM.

I think these new ones look a lot better than TCM. And I ended up watching them all in color -- how about that?

 

[Brian W.]

Surprised there's not a separate thread about the new Shirley Temple Collection remasters, but I hate to start a new thread.

Anyway, I just picked up Vol. 3, containing The Little Colonel (my favorite), The Littlest Rebel, and Dimples, with each film having both the colorized and black-and-white versions.

I was a bit disappointed in Little Colonel... extremely grainy throughout, though you do stop noticing it so much as the film wears on. I'm sure they used the best existing print of the film

But The Littlest Rebel looks AMAZING. They had to have had the camera negative for that. I can't believe how good it looks.

Dimples lies somewhere between the two as far as the film elements used. It looks quite good.

I enjoyed the newsreel extras on the set... MovieTone news blurbs about Shirley's 6th and 7th birthdays, and her trip to Hawaii.

I'm looking forward to buying the first two sets... my local Costco has them all for about $18.99 each.

 

[RafaelPires]

I have the first two sets and I'm very pleased with the transfers. the image looks better on Volume 1, but are very good also on volume 2.
Just bought volume 3, but I haven't received it yet.
Wondering about the choices for volume 4.

 

[Brian W.]

Let's just hope Fox does a full restoration of The Little Princess. I'd like to see The Bluebird as well.

 

[Eric Vedowski]

Does The Little Colonel have the final scene in Technicolor? It was restored in the 80's but with Fox you never know.

 

[DeeF]

The Technicolor scene is there, and I have now seen the most bizarre extra I have ever experienced on a DVD.

These movies have all been colorized, and one may choose to watch them in color, or the original black and white.

But what to do when you've got a Technicolor scene, but only one, at the end of the black and white feature?

In the movie, there's a shot of pink roses which begins in black and white, but fades to color. This exact shot can be seen in the black and white version on the disk.

But then I switched to the colorized version. It's actually fun -- in the menu, the picture of Shirley and Lionel suddenly changes to color.

The shot with the roses is there, all right, but it starts in color, and then the scene plays out in color. Except...

It seems that they first made the Technicolor scene black and white, and then colorized it! The color looks completely fake. I've never seen anything like it, like taking a scene shot in English, and dubbing it with new actors, but in English.

One can really see the inferiority of colorization vs. real Technicolor here.

 

[Nick Eden]

Just looking at Shirley Temple's list of films from her classic era (about 1934 to 1940), there are I think 10 more Fox titles to release and hopefully they will all come.
The titles are:-
Now I'll Tell You
Our Little Girl
Captain January
Poor Little Rich Girl
Stowaway
Wee Willie Winkie
Just Around The Corner
The Little Princess
Susannah of the Mounties
The Blue Bird

I believe the The Blue Bird and The Little Princess may have fallen into public domain (???) but hopefully that won't deter Fox from releasing these 2 titles. I'd much rather buy the proper versions from Fox.
Anyone know what is in box 4 (assuming there is a box 4)?

 

[David Grove]

Perhaps a mod should retitle the thread something like, "Shirley Temple Collections", and move the specific reference in the current thread title into the first post.

DG

 

[Barry Sandrew]

I'm obviously not in friendly territory here but I do want to put my two cents in. Fox spent a fortune restoring each and every Shirley Temple classic in the new releases. They then transferred the 35mms to 1920x1080 24P at 16bits (64,000 levels of gray though the actual telecine was not quite that high).

Legend Films has colorized all the new high definition transfers so far and will complete the rest in the future. The old colorized versions indeed look like VHS on DVDs and for the most part they were the equivalent because they were off of 1" analog tape masters. Those releases are remnants from the late 80s and early 90s and were colorized using very early colorization technology. The technology was analog for the most part but AFT did a few films when they came out with their all digital process (the first in the industry). However all of the films back then were colorized at standard definition and the digital colorization was only at 8 bits. You can see the difference between the new colorized version and the old colorized version of "Heidi" - side by side on the Legend Films website (http://www.legendfilms.net).

FYI: I brought a workstation to Shirley's home and showed her the old colorization on DVD. I then showed her the new black and white "Heidi" and the new colorization of "Heidi" - both in High Def. She thought the new black and white was great but when she saw the colorization in high definition she loved the color and the way the design was handled.

I certainly understand complaints about "All About Eve", "Casablanca" and most definitely "Citizen Kane" as well as many other Oscar winning classics but in my opinion the Shirley Temple films cry for color. They are such great movies and there are whole new generations of children that will appreciate the new colorized versions.

Another FYI: Ray Harryhausen is so impressed with the new Legend Films technology that he has personally designed several of his favorite films. The design process with Ray was video taped so you'll be able to hear and see him discuss how the color should be applied to achieve his desired effect. In addition he has done a commentary on each film which includes discussion of his color design.

When Ray Harryhausen produced his original stop motion classics he was constrained by budget and the color stock used back then. The color stock did not allow him to composite his creatures effectively without artifact. Consequently he was forced to shoot them in black and white. However, his vision of those films was always in color. Ray is convinced that the technology and creative talent that Legend Films achieved has reached the level of sophistication that he has been waiting for and he feels very comfortable in re-releasing his classics in the manner he originally intended... in color.

Again, I respect your opinions both positive and negative but please check out the new Shirley Temple films before making a judgement. The new films were a labor of love for both Fox and Legend Films. FOX understands the value of those assets and I commend them for going to the trouble and expense to restore them and offer both the black and white version along with the colorized version.

Thanks,
Barry

 

[John Hodson]

I'll just say this; if this is the only way to get these films restored, I couldn't give a hoot about any 'crayoning in' technique, as long as it results in a properly restored black and white version being made available.

Sorry; I'll not say more for fear of giving offense (and kudos to you for coming in here to have your say) - safe to say, this is an issue this film enthusiast feels strongly about.

 

[Steve...O]

Barry is certainly entitled to his opinion and he should feel he's in "friendly" territory because, even when HTF members disagree, it's usually done respectfully and with the realization that we all have appreciation for these fine films. I applaud him for expressing his views and encourage him to continue to do so.

I have many, many beefs with colorization but I'll address one related to John's post. Colorization costs money; a fair amount of it. Rather than Fox (or anyone else) spending $25k or whatever it costs to colorize a film I'd rather they spend it on restoring or preserving another film that could use it. Fox has unreleased Bogarts, Powers, etc. in their vaults. Why not spend some money sprucing them up rather than letting them
deteriorate even more while colorizations are done needlessly?

I don't disagree that the current colorization techniques are vastly improved over the old. However that's irrelevant. It's changing the original work. Just as bad as editing scenes out, changing the aspect ratio, or overdubbing new dialogue.