The Court Jester?

#1

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12/26/04 at 8:46pm

John Madia
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I'm interested in picking up The Court Jester and was wondering what the quality of the DVD is like. Also, would this movie make a good double feature with The Adventures of Robin Hood?

#2

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12/26/04 at 9:32pm

Roger Rollins
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Paramount's COURT JESTER is acceptable on DVD, but one wishes it would get the kind of VistaVision restoration that WB gave NORTH BY NORTHWEST and HIGH SOCIETY.

Still, it's a TERRIFIC movie, and at least the film is presented in anamorphic with proper aspect ratio. At the reasonable price you'd pay, it's certainly worth it. The merely adequate picture & sound quality is certainly compensated by the brilliance of the wit of the film itself.

#3

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12/26/04 at 11:50pm

Patrick McCart
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Let's see... the pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle and the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true...

It's VERY worth owning, however...

Paramount's DVD is mediocre. The image is blurry and lacks any sort of real details. It's dirty and the source used to make the print used for the transfer must have been photographed through a very dirty optical printer. It looks like someone sneezed on a lens and there's snot in the upper right corner throughout the movie. The color seems to be great, though. The old pan & scan transfer didn't suffer too much from the blurriness, but the colors shifted from shot to shot (often to a brownish tint).

This is one film that absolutely needs a full restoration to make the VistaVision logo mean something.

Despite the ugly look of the film probably caused by using a poorly made dupe, I feel it's worth a purchase. One of the funniest movies ever made.

If Paramount did a full-scale restoration and remaster, I'd buy the SE just like that! *snap*

Tell The Weinstein Company to release Richard Williams' animated masterpiece The Thief and the Cobbler on DVD in Panavision widescreen and uncut! See and hear what you're missing from their Bitsy Award winner of Worst Standard Edition DVD of 2006 on YouTube!

#4

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12/27/04 at 2:20am

John Hodson
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If Paramount did a full-scale restoration and remaster, I'd buy the SE just like that! *snap*

Seconded; the cable transmissions in the UK are far superior to the current DVD release. To be fair, Paramounts more recent output has been so much better than this.

So many films, so little time...
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Emily Collingwood: I can't see him. All I can see is the flags...

#5

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12/27/04 at 5:46am

Scott Kimball
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Quote:

Let's see... the pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle and the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true...

But, they broke the chalice from the palace... The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon. The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true.

I love this film. I've been waiting for it to be done up right on DVD... but I may cave and get the current disc at a bargain price.

-Scott

#6

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12/27/04 at 6:15am

Robert Harris
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Mr. McCart is (again) correctly describing the situation.

The Vista Oneg is faded.

The separation masters were comped together to a dupe negative in 4 perf, which means that the final element ( a dupe negative) is overly contrasty, do to three optical steps, and is of the pre-wetgate era, which means that all damage is printed in.

Wonderful film.

Paramount's prices are always reasonable. A buy.

"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did." T.E. Lawrence

#7

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12/27/04 at 6:27am

John Hodson
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It looks like someone sneezed on a lens and there's snot in the upper right corner throughout the movie.

Hmmm; very puzzling that isn't it? Is that the 'damage printed in' you speak of Robert?

So many films, so little time...
Film Journal Blog
Emily Collingwood: I can't see him. All I can see is the flags...

#8

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12/27/04 at 11:13am

ArthurMy
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To be fair, this was an early Paramount DVD - the fact that it's anamorphic is reason for happiness. I think it would look better, even using the current elements, if they did it anew, with wetgate and all. The color, after all, is perfect, Oneg not withstanding. And let's face it, they were not going to be transfering from the VistaVision negative anyway.

#9

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12/28/04 at 12:40pm

Patrick McCart
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http://www.loc.gov/film/nfr2004.html

The Court Jester was chosen (along with 24 other great features and shorts) to be on the Library of Congress' 2004 National Film Registry list. This list was just released today.

According to Paramount's Film Preservation page (http://www.paramountpictures.com/fil.../projects.html), the studio holds the following elements:

# Original camera negative (VistaVision)
# IN
# IP
# YCM separation masters (VisaVision)
# YCM separation masters (4 perf)
# Magnetic mono composite audio master
# Music and effects magnetic masters
# High Definition tape master

So, this honor would be a nice opportunity to create a brand new restoration. It would be neat if the film could get a big 50th anniversary re-release in 2006.

Paramount must be able to do something better. Their To Catch a Thief DVD came from 8 perf separations (according to the website) and it looks much better.

Tell The Weinstein Company to release Richard Williams' animated masterpiece The Thief and the Cobbler on DVD in Panavision widescreen and uncut! See and hear what you're missing from their Bitsy Award winner of Worst Standard Edition DVD of 2006 on YouTube!

#10

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12/28/04 at 3:38pm

Robert Harris
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All Vista productions "come from" 8 perf elements at some point in the food chain.

As I understand it, Court Jester came from a 4 perf duplicate negative, optically derived via reduction from the 8 perf separation masters.

Paramount is a studio extremely sensitive to the quality of their film elements and has upgraded the way that many of these elements are now handled.

RAH

"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did." T.E. Lawrence

#11

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12/29/04 at 6:15am

Bob Furmanek
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"Paramount is a studio extremely sensitive to the quality of their film elements and has upgraded the way that many of these elements are now handled."

"Now" being the key word. Let's not forget their "Asset Protection Program" of the early 90's, when they did some irreversible damage to the master 35mm elements of their 3-D features...

RCF

#12

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12/31/04 at 5:36pm

Ken_McAlinden
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Quote:

"Now" being the key word. Let's not forget their "Asset Protection Program" of the early 90's, when they did some irreversible damage to the master 35mm elements of their 3-D features...

That's the rub as always. It's futile to shake one's fist at the Paramount logo since the leadership (as with many media companies) has churned almost beyond recognition in the last dozen years. At least they seem to be doing things the right way now.

Regards,

Ken McAlinden
Livonia, MI USA

#13

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5/6/05 at 10:11pm

David Grove
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Was recently reading This thread, which referenced this current thread.

I, too, would welcome a new edition of "The Court Jester".

The Robin Hood parody is superb.

I wonder if anyone knows of any plans(?)

DG

\"I think not,\" said Descartes, and disappeared.

#14

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5/7/05 at 8:08pm

GlennH
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How timely for you to resurrect this discussion of THE COURT JESTER, since the longshot winner of today's Kentucky Derby was Giacomo.

#15

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5/7/05 at 10:38pm

PatH
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When I heard who won the Derby today, my immediate reaction said to my brother without thought was "King of Jesters and Jester of Kings". He understood, too.

PatH

#16

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5/8/05 at 11:19am

Patrick McCart
Patrick J. McCart
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I repeat one of my earlier posts, but Paramount should seriously consider a 50th anniversary remastered edition for next year.

Tell The Weinstein Company to release Richard Williams' animated masterpiece The Thief and the Cobbler on DVD in Panavision widescreen and uncut! See and hear what you're missing from their Bitsy Award winner of Worst Standard Edition DVD of 2006 on YouTube!

#17

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5/8/05 at 2:11pm

David Grove
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Or, perhaps, a Danny Kaye box set. I'm ready to buy.

DG

\"I think not,\" said Descartes, and disappeared.

#18

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5/8/05 at 2:44pm

george kaplan
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I'd gladly rebuy an improved Court Jester, but what I really want is the never released Up in Arms.

"Movies should be like amusement parks. People should go to them to have fun." - Billy Wilder

"Subtitles good. Hollywood bad." - Tarzan, Sight & Sound 2012 voter.

"My films are not slices of life, they are pieces of cake." - Alfred Hitchcock"My great humility is just one of the many reasons that I...

#19

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5/9/05 at 10:03am

Clay_E
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I'd gladly rebuy an improved Court Jester, but what I really want is the never released Up in Arms.

Seconded!

"Half of the time we're gone and we don't know where."

#20

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5/9/05 at 12:46pm

Ken_McAlinden
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Yeah, there are a number of films I would like them to get to before re-doing "Court Jester", including "Up in Arms" and "Knock on Wood", but if it's not an either-or proposition, I'd be happy to see a new SE.

Regards,

Ken McAlinden
Livonia, MI USA

#21

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5/10/05 at 1:27am

John Kilduff
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I was just watching my copy of "AFI's 100 Years, 100 Laughs" (which came out in 2000...Shit, the tape's 5 years old!).

Anyway, as I'm always looking to expand my filmic knowledge beyond the 80s movies I love, I would gladly invest in a Special Edition of "The Court Jester". In the clips I saw of it on the special, I noticed that Danny Kaye had a unique expression to his work. Maybe it was the voice or possibly the face, but he definitely had good comedic talent...That's based on the clips, though. The movie itself came out 26 years before I was born and I haven't seen it on TCM yet, if they even are able to air it (most of the basic cable rights to the Paramount titles seem to have landed with AMC, it seems).

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

A jester? A jester? A funny idea, a jester!

Forget the Rewind. If you want real retro action, go to http://www.retrojunk.com.

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#22

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5/10/05 at 3:00am

ChrisPearson
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I'd love to see all of Danny's Goldwyn films on DVD: Up In Arms, Wonder Man, Walter Mitty, A Song is Born, The Kid from Brooklyn, Hans Christian Anderson. What a great boxed set that would make! Perhaps MGM/Sony could add them to their list of projected Goldwyn releases.

#23

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5/10/05 at 3:10am

george kaplan
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I'd love to see all of Danny's Goldwyn films on DVD: Up In Arms, Wonder Man, Walter Mitty, A Song is Born, The Kid from Brooklyn, Hans Christian Anderson. What a great boxed set that would make! Perhaps MGM/Sony could add them to their list of projected Goldwyn releases.

I agree that would be great. They may be out of print, but certainly Wonder Man, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and Hans Christian Andersen have been released on dvd - all three sit on my shelves. But I do miss the others you mention.

"Movies should be like amusement parks. People should go to them to have fun." - Billy Wilder

"Subtitles good. Hollywood bad." - Tarzan, Sight & Sound 2012 voter.

"My films are not slices of life, they are pieces of cake." - Alfred Hitchcock"My great humility is just one of the many reasons that I...

#24

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5/10/05 at 6:33am

GlennH
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Sign me up for that box set as well. I sold my DVD of Mitty because I got nearly $100 for it and I figured it would be re-released again before long, probably with an even better transfer. But it hasn't happened yet.

Meanwhile, I recorded it on my DVR off of TCM a couple weeks back.

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