TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT DEBUTS Manufacture-On-Demand DVD SERIES (1 Viewer)

[Thomas T]

Lionel, I thought it looked just fine open matte but there is sufficient "head room" that masking it to 1.66 or even 1.78 wouldn't compromise it.

I must confess I've never had cause to use the "zoom" feature on my remote and when I tried it for the first time, I wasn't able to control the zoom It just jumped to zoom 1/2, zoom 1/4 etc.

 

[lionel59]

Thanks for the update. I hope THE GAMBLER FROM NATCHEZ is also an Open Matte transfer like PRINCESS.
Were you using the 'zoom' on your TV? You should have an 'Aspect' or 'Picture Size' button on your TV remote. I could be wrong but it sounds like you were using the 'zoom' button on your dvd remote. I leave my 16:9 LCD monitor on '16:9' or 'Full', but alter it to '4:3' or 'Normal' for Academy ratio movies (eg. CASABLANCA) and to 'Zoom' for non-anamorphic Letterbox transfers of Wide Screen films and Open Matte transfers of films shot to be projected in a wide ratio.

 

[classicmovieguy]

Pre-orders for the UK edition of "King of the Khyber Rifles" are now open on Amazon UK - lovely cover art -

 

[Doug Bull]

Hopefully the correct ratio for "The Gambler From Natchez" is shown in this 35mm Technicolor clip from the original trailer.

 

[Lromero1396]

DVD Savant rates the Fox MOD of the excellent SONS AND LOVERS "much better than acceptable" in quality. Glad one worthy title got decent treatment: http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s4198sons.html

I ordered that plus WELCOME HOME, SOLDIER BOYS, which I hear is another indifferent fullscreen transfer. Given its rarity I thought I'd give it a look, though.

SONS AND LOVERS won the Oscar for Best Cinematography: Black and White, and was nominated for Best Picture. It appears that Fox created a quality master for a DVD release, but never got around to releasing it.

 

[lionel59]

SONS AND LOVERS was released here in Australia in 2005 in anamorphic 2.35:1. I'm guessing Fox made up a region 1 master at about the same time. Possibly the few Fox MODs which have come out in 16:9 were also planned for release in the past and shelved.

 

[lionel59]

The Spanish release of THE ROAD TO GLORY is quite a good transfer. It opens with a logo for 'An NTA National Telefilms release". If the MOD has the same logo it will probably be the same master. For those who are multi-regional, the Spanish dvd is a little cheaper, including shipping charges (from Starscafe).
Classicflix.com has listed the next batch of Fox MODs. It cites Raoul Walsh's MARINES LET'S GO! as being in Widescreen.Screenarchives.com lists it as being 4:3 (P/S). It will be interesting to find out which one is correct.

 

[Douglas R]

Pre-orders for the UK edition of "King of the Khyber Rifles" are now open on Amazon UK - lovely cover art -

All I can find on Amazon UK is the Spanish DVD. Any link?

 

[lionel59]

If you search in the category of 'Film and TV' with the title "King of the Khyber Rifles", it comes up first, before the Spanish edition.

 

[Douglas R]

If you search in the category of 'Film and TV' with the title "King of the Khyber Rifles", it comes up first, before the Spanish edition.

Tried that. Strange - I've tried different combinations of search and it still only only comes up with the Spanish version.

 

[Justin Ray]

Tried that. Strange - I've tried different combinations of search and it still only only comes up with the Spanish version.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/King-Khyber-Rifles-DVD-Henry/dp/B00CWFY0PM/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1371423378&sr=1-1&keywords=king+of+the+khyber+rifles

Try this link

 

[Douglas R]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/King-Khyber-Rifles-DVD-Henry/dp/B00CWFY0PM/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1371423378&sr=1-1&keywords=king+of+the+khyber+rifles

Try this link

Thanks. I see that it's not coming from Fox but Pegasus Entertainment. A budget label to be cautious of. I suspect it's a pan and scan version.

 

[Robin9]

Thanks. I see that it's not coming from Fox but Pegasus Entertainment. A budget label to be cautious of. I suspect it's a pan and scan version.

In my experience, Pegasus is one of those companies, like Olive and Twilight Time, who work with what they're given and consequently the quality of their discs varies enormously. Some of their DVDs of Universal Westerns of the '50s are very good indeed. Some are not.

Everything depends on whatever transfer is provided by Fox: a pan and scan mockery; a faded, non-anamorphic widescreen version or a dazzling anamorphic transfer with full stereo sound! I do notice that Amazon UK are very coy about the aspect ratio. Proceed with caution is my advice.

 

[RLane777]

Does anyone know if Battle at Bloody Beach 2.35:1 or is it Pan&Scan?

 

[John Morgan]

One of my favorite Fox films, and a real tearjerker, is REMEMBER THE DAY from 1941. It stars Claudette Colbert and John Payne, with a great performance from child actor Douglas Croft. I DVDr'd it several years ago from the Fox Movie Channel. I was surprised and delighted how great it looked and sounded knowing the Fox materials from that era. It also has a nice Alfred Newman score. I really hoped it would make it to DVD, but that never happened.......

It was recently released on their MOD line, so I waited until there was a sale. Deep Discount had one, and the DVD arrived today. I put it on and was shocked at how dark and how it had a lot of video noise in some scenes. Luckily I still had my DVDr from the broadcast and put it on and it was much better both in picture and sound clarity. It didn't even look like the same transfer. It's bad enough how this Fox series is handled, but to have several masters of the same film laying around in various degrees of quality is astounding to me. Don't they mark updated transfers on the video master box?
Good-bye MOD and hello my old DVDr.

 

[Professor Echo]

John, while dismayed by the continuing bad tidings over this studio's MOD program, your post makes me at least happy that I've been recording from FMC onto DVD-Rs for many years now. It's certainly saving me a lot of money and disappointment.

 

[Doug Bull]

i just checked an old off-air VHS-Pal recording I did many years ago of Betty Grable's "That Lady In Ermine" and was shocked to find (allowing for the poorer VHS resolution) that the print broadcasted had far superior color/skintones, no crushed blacks and featured a much better Grayscale than the recent Fox mod.

Certainly the recent Fox DVD-mod is sharper, but that's understandable when compared to VHS.


I had begrudgingly blamed the mostly over-saturated orange colored skintones on the DVD to the lamps in the castle, but now looking at my VHS copy, there are no overbearing orange skintones to be seen, just beautifully rich technicolored ones all the way through.

(To be fair, I should add that there are the few odd moments on the Fox Mod where the color is as it should be, but these are rare occurrences)

Another inferior master randomly chosen by the Archives?

 

[classicmovieguy]

In my experience, Pegasus is one of those companies, like Olive and Twilight Time, who work with what they're given and consequently the quality of their discs varies enormously. Some of their DVDs of Universal Westerns of the '50s are very good indeed. Some are not.

Everything depends on whatever transfer is provided by Fox: a pan and scan mockery; a faded, non-anamorphic widescreen version or a dazzling anamorphic transfer with full stereo sound! I do notice that Amazon UK are very coy about the aspect ratio. Proceed with caution is my advice.

"King of the Khyber Rifles" is licensed through Fox by a company called 'Hollywood Classics', which distributes the masters used in home video, etc. It's safe to say it'll be the exact same print seen in DVD editions from Spain and Australia (which was also licensed by Hollywood Classics).

Here is a link to the Hollywood Classics website, which has a database of all the titles they control... http://hollywoodclassics.com/

 

[lionel59]

The KHYBER RIFLES transfers in Australia+ Spain were different. The Oz version was in mono, the Spanish version is in stereo. There was a flaw in some of the Aussie pressings too, though my copy seemed OK. I have opted to get the Spanish dvd as I love the Bernard Herrmann score and also like the way Fox was recording dialogue in stereo in the early days of CinemaScope (ie. traveling sound when characters moved across the screen). When I receive it, I will leave a post if I think the image on the Spanish dvd is superior. Both- like the upcoming Fox MOD- are letterboxed, so I'd be surprised if the UK version is in 16:9.
I haven't seen the MOD of THAT LADY IN ERMINE, but my German copy (a double feature with CLUNY BROWN) looks very good, especially considering it's taken from Eastman color protection negatives (or Inter-positives, forgive my ignorance, all I know is the 3-strip Technicolor negatives are no more).
For those who may not know, FANNY (Caron), OLIVER! and GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER have been released on Blu-Ray in Germany.

 

[classicmovieguy]

What was the flaw on the Aussie release, Michael? I purchased the Bounty edition of "Prince Valiant" but the picture was awfully jerky - I contacted the label who said they hadn't had any complaints before but sent me a replacement which was exactly the same. Made me very reluctant to purchase any more from the Bounty label.