Press Release Warner Archive Press Release: A Star is Born (1937) (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[Capt D McMars]

High praise is truly deserved! Results are so close to real Technicolor!
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Yep, there it is…nice memories thanks!!!

 

[Capt D McMars]

Some colorizer did that with Frank Sinatra's eyes in Suddenly: brown instead of blue.

If that happens you know that someone was definitely fired over something like that, if the company was halfway reputable. It’s sad but we’re all imperfect but in a case like that being released in that format where is the color is incorrect… and released is unforgivable, and rightly so. Prior to final sign off on any project like that, it’s past at least 4 to 6 pairs of eyes for final approval. But there there’s always someone that takes the fall!!!

 

[Capt D McMars]

Have you looked at the samples from the Kino/Selznick Star is Born? Bleary and smeary and peculiar colored? Many of the other examples Here look even worse. Is it that far removed from the much deplored, colorized My Man Godfrey? Keep in mind the Star shots are from blu ray and Godfrey is from DVD.
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I think the shots of Carol Lombard from the DVD look better than the Blu-ray does, but that’s just me. They both need some crisping up!!

 

[Capt D McMars]

I was never a fan of colorization. You have someone in the 80’s deciding what colors the director would have chosen. The worst I remember was the colorization of the Steve McQueen TV series, Wanted Dead or Alive. They colorized he’s eyes as brown and not the blue he was known for.

The nice thing about American Film Tech was that they took time and studied, almost like archaeologists to see the colors and the hues used in comparable time period films, in order to at least try to extrapolate what the colors and tones might be. I think that’s one of the things that separated AFT from other companies.

 

[Rodney]

No Hal Roach, allot of the early Disney b&w cartoons, many of the WW2 John Wayne titles like They Were Expendable and The Flying Leathernecks.

Do you by any chance mean Flying Tigers?

 

[RMajidi]

No Hal Roach, allot of the early Disney b&w cartoons, many of the WW2 John Wayne titles like They Were Expendable and The Flying Leathernecks.

Magnificent work on Flying Leathernecks!

Do you by any chance mean Flying Tigers?

Now don’t you worry none, Capt. Dotty archivists evidently get their kicks in all manner of peculiar ways.

 

[RobertMG]

Now don’t you worry none, Capt. Dotty archivists evidently get their kicks in all manner of peculiar ways.

Honest word play mistake - and for years The Flying Leathernecks looked so bad it could have been colorization, thankfully Warner's restored that film!

 

[RMajidi]

Honest word play mistake - and for years The Flying Leathernecks looked so bad it could have been colorization, thankfully Warner's restored that film!

I’ve got Flying Tigers on a UK Blu, but the above posts now have me interested in finding the colorised version the Capt was involved in producing.

I ‘liked’ your post Robert. Wanted to use a cheesy smile icon instead, but the nearest was the laughter emoji, which might have given the wrong idea.

Yes, the WAC Flying Leathernecks is a thing of beauty.

 

[RobertMG]

I’ve got Flying Tigers on a UK Blu, but the above posts now have me interested in finding the colorised version the Capt was involved in producing.

I ‘liked’ your post Robert. Wanted to use a cheesy smile icon instead, but the nearest was the laughter emoji, which might have given the wrong idea.

Yes, the WAC Flying Leathernecks is a thing of beauty.

Thanks to you and RAH and others I am going to grab The Flying Leathernecks, meanwhile I do see dvd copies of The Flying Tigers colorized out there but won't post links as do not know if they are legit releases

 

[RMajidi]

Thanks to you and RAH and others I am going to grab The Flying Leathernecks, meanwhile I do see dvd copies of The Flying Tigers colorized out there but won't post links as do not know if they are legit releases

Yes, I found a few too, some right here in Oz, but so far they all look suspicious.

I don’t dare ask anyone on this forum to point me to a colorised version of anything… ‘I choose life’.

 

[Capt D McMars]

Now don’t you worry none, Capt. Dotty archivists evidently get their kicks in all manner of peculiar ways.

Now don’t you worry none, Capt. Dotty archivists evidently get their kicks in all manner of peculiar ways.

No, AFT may have worked the Flying Tigers. It was also in the Ted Turner cataloge. But I just mentioned 3 of the films I remember working on during my tenuer with the company. And after all it's been almost 40 years sice I worked there...so there you go!!

 

[Capt D McMars]

Do you by any chance mean Flying Tigers?

No, AFT may have worked the Flying Tigers. It was also in the Ted Turner cataloge. But I just mentioned 3 of the films I remember working on during my tenuer with the company. And after all it's been almost 40 years sice I worked there...so there you go!!

 

[Capt D McMars]

Just to clarify, AFT also did restoration work as well for both Turner and Disney film assets... This could have been the issue in the confusion of the work that I did as part of the team @ AFT.

I worked in capture/rendering Dept. The "Cleaning Crew", taking all the scractes and dirt and other issues out of the film frame by frame!! I learned to get hyper focused and do my best to pass on the cleanest sequences as possible. I got in trouble from time to time as being too slow, LOL!!! But no one ever had any issues with my sequences...superclean!!!

 

[Capt D McMars]

Honest word play mistake - and for years The Flying Leathernecks looked so bad it could have been colorization, thankfully Warner's restored that film!

40 years ago many of the studios, Warner included, would "farm out" various titles under their studios license. All the contracter companies, like AFI did, went back to the studios name or the current coptright owners. So no listings are seen on the final product. That happened sometimes as well.

 

[jayembee]

I was never a fan of colorization. You have someone in the 80’s deciding what colors the director would have chosen. The worst I remember was the colorization of the Steve McQueen TV series, Wanted Dead or Alive. They colorized he’s eyes as brown and not the blue he was known for.

I remember that, unfortunately.

The best colorization I've ever seen was Disney's colorization of the first season of Zorro, which they'd done in the late 90s or thereabouts for a run on The Disney Channel. I also have a French DVD release of that colorized Season 1. While I'm normally very anti-colorization, I was impressed by how this ended up looking. Perhaps because they had access to production stills and such, the colors seemed quite accurate (the Spanish army uniforms looked perfect). As usual, it was flesh tones that were the weak link, but still...

As far as I know, they never colorized Season 2. Perhaps they decided there weren't enough gains to justify the expense.

 

[Mark B]

This is the release of the year! One of the finest films of the 1930s about to be seen like never before. This was the first PD VHS tape I purchased in 1985. $9.99. Awful quality. But a great film. To finally have this from original negatives, well, this is an event! And it has devolved into colorization babble because of a black and white photo. Pull it together, folks.

 

[Capt D McMars]

Yes, I found a few too, some right here in Oz, but so far they all look suspicious.

I don’t dare ask anyone on this forum to point me to a colorised version of anything… ‘I choose life’.

any colorised version are always done in cooperation with the studio that owns the title. I believe it was Legacy Films for example, on the colorised version of 20 Million Miles to Earth, they worked not only with Sony/Columbia pictures, but Ray Harryhausen to deliver the colors that he wanted to see!!

 

[RobertMG]

any colorised version are always done in cooperation with the studio that owns the title. I believe it was Legacy Films for example, on the colorised version of 20 Million Miles to Earth, they worked not only with Sony/Columbia pictures, but Ray Harryhausen to deliver the colors that he wanted to see!!

Hey my friend problem is the stock is long gone so we think the stuff out there is questionable not the official releases

 

[Capt D McMars]

Hey my friend problem is the stock is long gone so we think the stuff out there is questionable not the official releases

it never hurts to search it out....you know if it has Korean or Chinese writing buyer beware...it smells like "Stinkfoot" LOL!!

 

[Noel Aguirre]

I have the Selznick boxed set I bought at discount when Kim’s here in NY went bye bye. It wasn’t the color that bothered me on that exclusive print but the sharpness/detail that RAH says we will most likely gain this go around. Really looking forward to this as Fredric March is the greatest actor ever IMHO. Janet is cute.