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THE DEVIL BAT restored! (1 Viewer)

Bob Furmanek

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I can't comment on issues with other transfers but I can state for a fact that this Blu-ray was taken from my 35mm preservation elements.

My preservation was done optically circa 1991 via wet-gate printing by John E. Allen laboratories, long recognized as one of the top labs for black and white nitrate preservation in the world. The late-1940's dupe nitrate picture negative had printed in issues as there was no wet-gate printing at the time.

I supplied my 35mm elements to Kino and they handled the transfer. Judicious use of various digital tools were utilized to clean-up the larger issues of dirt and damage on the nitrate element.

Reel three is taken from a circa 1955 16mm print as the 35mm picture element had decomposed by the time I found it.

THE DEVIL BAT will never receive a frame-by-frame 200K digital clean-up.

In short, this is the best that it will ever look.
 

Bob Furmanek

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Mark Edward Heuck said:
Bob, although your excellent restorations have indeed been bootlegged by others for a long time, I am guessing these are merely ports or clones from the laserdiscs. Since you own the actual masters, wouldn't you be able to make a deal for them as with DEVIL BAT, since they would be better looking and not down a generation? Or perhaps make some alteration that would allow you to recopyright it as a variant? I just hate to see all your hard work get so shortchanged, not to mention unreleased on Blu-Ray.
I would love to but sadly, I no longer have the 35mm elements on Africa Screams, Jack and the Beanstalk or Scared to Death.
 

Jari K

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Bob, is there a "list" of the recommended dvd/bd releases from the masters that you did? I'm sure that most of us want to support your work, even in the public domain sector.
 

Bob Furmanek

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Thanks, Jari,

Unfortunately, my restorations were done for laser disc back in the early 1990's. I'm sure that most of the DVD releases used my transfers but I don't profit from them.

Such is the curse of restoring public domain titles.
 

ahollis

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Bob Furmanek said:
Thanks, Jari,Unfortunately, my restorations were done for laser disc back in the early 1990's. I'm sure that most of the DVD releases used my transfers but I don't profit from them.Such is the curse of restoring public domain titles.
Unfortunate indeed. I still have the two Abbot and Costello flicks on Laser. The Jack and The Beanstalk was and is gorgeous. Unfortunately I just got a delay on the shipping date for The Devil Bat. Only a few days but I am looking forward to it.
 

TheSteig

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Seems like distribution for this has been slow...online retailers all say ships in 5-12 business days
 

Ruz-El

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Blind bought this one. It's already shipped to me from Amazon.ca, I should see it Monday. Though I probably wont watch until October for the horror challenge. :)
 

Reed Grele

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Watched it tonight. Has a lot of speckling. But as you said, short of an expensive frame by frame digital cleanup, this is the best version available.

Glad to add another Lugosi film on BD to my collection.

Thanks Bob.
 

Mark Cappelletty

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Bob! Thanks much for THE DEVIL BAT. Just got my copy today from Amazon. Looks great-- thanks again for all your hard work!
 

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