"The Robe" and "Demetrius and the Gladiators" are now a wow! (1 Viewer)

[Mark Anthony]

Putting aside your continual focus on things other than the point and insisting on retreading old arguments again and again what reviews are there of this new "restored" edition? None. That's the point. No meaningful comparison has been made yet by any of the sites you've mentioned. End of.

M

 

[RobertGr]

Look in the mirror, when you restore a dvd, work on a dvd etc or do anything of value than you will be worth the effort to respond. Joe Caps worked on finding footage etc I worked on one dvd and probably will be doing another soon when you have credentials then I will entertain you hiarious views. For me it back to watching dvd's and speaking with my contacts in the industry whom know film. When you realizwe you sincerely need help you will begin to get well. Your weekend pass is up back to the home for you!

 

[Simon Howson]

Maybe the 2005 version of The Robe uses the same late 90s photo-chemical restoration element, but then benefited from a digital clean up using tools that weren't available for the 2001 DVD release.

In contrast, it seems that Demetrius & The Gladiators underwent a phot-chemical restoration / preservation in 2005, and thus should look vastly superior to the 2001 DVD version.

If anyone has the 2005 DVDs please post screen caps. If these are improved I'll buy them, but I already have the 2001 (PAL) versions, so I don't want to rebuy exaclty the same thing.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Look in the mirror, when you restore a dvd, work on a dvd etc or do anything of value than you will be worth the effort to respond. Joe Caps worked on finding footage etc I worked on one dvd and probably will be doing another soon when you have credentials then I will entertain you hiarious views. For me it back to watching dvd's and speaking with my contacts in the industry whom know film. When you realizwe you sincerely need help you will begin to get well. Your weekend pass is up back to the home for you!

Let's stop the personal attacks right now! Any member that continues to cross the line in that regard will have their posting privileges revoked without any further warnings.
Robert Crawford
HTF Administrator

 

[soop.spoon]

What an utterly bizarre thread. I truly cannot make sense of what the heck is going on here.

 

[Todd Mattraw]

What an utterly bizarre thread. I truly cannot make sense of what the heck is going on here.

I second that. There's something just...wrong here, an air of (perhaps) propaganda and misinformation. Strange...
But if I fully understand what has gone before, Joe Caps is the one individual in this thread who has copies of both the old and new releases. If he could post screencaps from those discs, then it seems we would have an answer.

 

[RobertGr]

Check out this archives post from 2006!

Joe Caps02-12-2006, 12:10 AM

The DVD of The Robe that is in region one IS from Fox restoration.

The Demetrius dVD is excellent, so no need to restore that.

Maybe somewhere they could include the FLAT version of the Robe along wth the stereo track for this version that was found a few years ago. The could also include the half hour Making of the Robe that was on aMC.

Would love to see a box devoted to early cinemascope. There is a yearly behind the scenes at the studio, called the Big Show that is a half hour long talking about the studios upcoming projects. The one for 1958 was already released by Image entertainment along with the fox doc on the history of the studio. I would love to see all the others for the scope years.

bTW - king of the Khyber rifles ran on Fox movies last year in a new restored transfer.

Other scope films run in the past two years with restored transfers include WomansWorld, Soldier of Fortune, The Egyptian, The Virgin Queen.

I would KILL to get a widescreen stereo restored Untamed. This film has never run in region one in widescreen.

I hope someday that Fox will restore the color on Prince Valaint as the dvd color is faded and has lost all of its blue color.

 

[Simon Howson]

Check out this archives post from 2006!
Joe Caps02-12-2006, 12:10 AM
The DVD of The Robe that is in region one IS from Fox restoration.

I thought that this statement simply refered to the late 1990s photochemical restoration of The Robe, which was used for the 2001 DVD as well.
I can't see that they would do two restorations in the space of 7 odd years, unless the 2005 DVD features additional digital restoration AKA digital cleaning.
Fox often have restoration comparisons on the discs showing what was acheived photochemically, and what was performed digitally (usually getting rid of speckles and the odd scratch, and making colour more consistent from shot to shot).

 

[Joe Caps]

I had said in my old post taht Robe was already from a Fox restoration because Fox had already tried to restores this film around 1998. to that end, There was a festival of Scope stereo films run summer of 1998 at L.a. County museum.

Films shows included River of No return, Garden of evil (from a BritishTechnicolor print), The Robe Which I did NOT see but I heard was terrible, Prince Valiant, Brigadoon, King and I, love is a Many Splendored Thing, etc.

the Prince Valiant was an original Technicolor print.

I have to point out a distinction here.

There are films shot in the three strip technicolor system.

Then there are films processed by technicolor using the Tech dye transfer process. they look great.

However, even though prints of The Robe, Prince Valian, King of Khyber Rifles etc all say Technicolor in the credits, NONE of them were shot intrue technicolor. Ony SOME early prints wer cye transfer, most were just eastman color (color by deluxe).

 

[RobertGr]

The studios have a track record of constantly upgrading their films, think about how many times MGM/Turner/Warners restored Gone With The WInd and OZ etc. You have seen many times here on this site that Mr. Feltenstein has said they re-do their restorations because technology improves.

 

[RobertGr]

I was recently told the original neg on THE ROBE does exist, There is also a site that details a showing of clips of THE ROBE off the o-neg and a screening at the Academy Theater and the audience was very impressed with the quality of the print.

 

[Arnie G]

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...ight=demetrius
Here's a link stating the new discs are the same as the old ones with new packaging.

 

[baracine]

One thing I like about the "old" transfer (the one I own) is the very grainy image of Victor Mature in the rain cursing his master and all Romans (Victor Mature's big scene). It's in colour but it registers in my memory as very gritty black and white. I hope they never improve on that scene.

I also liked the "primitive" 4.0 sound mix. I don't know if that has been tampered with, modified or enhanced in the more recent edition.

 

[RobertGr]

Hey Joe

From the book "Glorius Technicolor" "Early widescreen releases featuring COLOR BY TECHNICOLOR were Twentieh Century Fox's THE ROBE"

"Color by Technicolor a term that was commonly used in movie ads of the 1950's meant that Technicolor handled all stages of the labratory work"

 

[RobertGr]

Restored prints on dvd's as of 2005.

 

[Will Krupp]

Fox used Technicolor to make a few dye transfer prints of THE ROBE and HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE to justify the credit (since the name meant so much at the time) but dye transfer prints made from Eastman negatives prior to 1955 were far less sharp than color positive prints. Fox used their own DeLuxe labs to process the majority of the release prints, but since their own lab name didn't mean much yet, they kept "Color by Technicolor", which they could justify.

I'm getting my information from the invaluable Ronald Haver book about the making of A STAR IS BORN (which every film historian/lover should own.)

 

[RobertGr]

Herb Kalmus was on record as saying he was unhappy with the kinks in Technicolors first widescreen films. The result that by 1955 the fourth incarnation of the color proccess was fast tracked to be perfected and Kalmus later said he thought that the process was near perfect.

So evidently TECHNICOLOR worked extensivley on THE ROBE

 

[Richard N]

I do not yet own either The Robe, or Demitrius yet, and I was wondering if any of the online vendors are selling the versions with the new covers? I checked Amazon and DVDempire and they are showing the old cover art still, has anyone been able to purchase the versions with the new cover art online?

Thanks

 

[RobertGr]

I got mine with the new covers from Deep Discount. No tax and no shipping the two cost a bit over $17.00!!!!!

 

[Will Krupp]

So evidently TECHNICOLOR worked extensivley on THE ROBE

Only insofar as using it (and MILLIONAIRE) as a Cinemascope testing ground. The 3-strip Technicolor camera was immediately judged incompatible with the Cinemascope process and an Eastman color negative was used for all anamorphic filming. Technicolor made a FEW (very few) prints using the dye transfer printing process but the majority of the print run was done in-house using the sharper color positive process.
As a result of Technicolor missing out on a lot of business, they worked with Kodak to improve the matrix stock used in Technicolor Process #5 (not 4) which are the improved prints Kalmus was referring to in mid 1955.