TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

Done watching it. All I can say is How The West Was Won is still the King

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

It doesn't seem to have this extra as a bonus feature... It seems to have what I think is a moment of it in the CinemaScope mini-doc.

Maybe they can add the Sterophonic doc on How to Marry a Millionaire if they get it released. I want that one badly on blu ray.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

Just sat down and read the chat over my lunch break. Very interesting reading.

Looking forward to seeing this film for the first time. Should be a treat. Hope I can find the BD locally.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

Screen caps, anyone please?

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

I really wish FOX would do some better work on their cover art esp for the classics.. Does anyone remember the super cool Case/ Artwork they did for the CINEMA CLASSICS COLLECTION like All About Eve, Fantastic Voyage, Beyond the Valley of the DOlls etc... the covers were really cool and well done... now on BD THE ROBE and Day the Earth Stood Still and OMEN seem so blah... ROBE is bordering on generic looking the font saves it ... Day the Earth stood Still they tried to make it look like the new version of the film for the cover.. very odd... PLEASE DO better cooler classic Covers for these films in the future.

Looks like they are announcing Diary of Anne Frank for BD release this summer.. let's hope for some classy artwork.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

Both THE ROBE AND QUO VADIS came yesterday. Hmmmmmmmmmmm...... There are three problems at work here. (1) The TYPE of Tv one watches these things on, as well as the size, GREATLY affects the image. (2) They are getting to the point.....HAVE GOTTEN THERE.....where the inherent sharpness of 2 and 4k resolution and presentation on HD is just TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much. (3) VERY few of us are alive who remember how these things REALLY looked on first presentation at the VERY few REAL Cinemascope theaters (like the Fox in Philly) in which the first....and short lived....Cinemascope screens were (as he says in the Bits article) DEEPLY curved. Within a year or so Cinemascope screens were just flat wide screens.

I looked at VADIS on the big 73 inch DLP and then again this morning on the 720 30inch LCD......and it plays much as the DVD did...meaning that on the BIG DLP screen it looks "tired" and many of the scenes are just NOT sparkling Technicolor. On the LCD.....it is more "alive".....but just too damn sharp. NEITHER process shows the color to the great richness that the original prints were in. (And which Technicolor conveyed....in spades)

The problems with HD sharpness and 4K resolution is that we begin to see all the cheap tricks....be it cheap material in costumes or cheap backdrops or cheap matte shots. The magic of film disappears and we realize it is all cheap fakery at best.

I have not looked at THE ROBE on the 720 30inch bedroom set yet.....but on the 73 DLP it is rather ghastly.....at least what I saw. Even in turning down the sharpness controls on the TV it exposes EVERY cheap backdrop and matte they used. When a film is blurred through color seepage or (better word) flushness....we don't see the mattes as readily and can buy into the story. Last night almost EVERY scene's costumes looked as if they cost $.25 from the cheapest cotton reams of cloth and that every bad theatrical backdrop had been bought and placed on the Fox lot. All I could think was "WOW.....Broadway has learned to do INFINITELY better backdrops in shows today." It looks INCREDIBLY tacky and cheap. I have THE ROBE on laser and on DVD and it NEVER looked this bad. Is it sharp? Yup.....to a fault. Is it pretty? No. It looks like two-strip Technicolor in many shots near the beginning....that same garishly pale (an oxymoron) sickening blue. And kinda pinkish yellow cast on things. In the original the Robe and the Roman capes were RICH red....here just light red.

And that brings us to the third problem....no one apparently can advise them of the right colors. (Though....THAT is an oxymoron....there IS no such thing!) I actually did NOT like the original because it was presented in smudgy cartoonish colors.....but richly and darkly so. It took YEARS before they got back SOME of the look of Technicolor. The first prints of THE ROBE (and I saw it at the Fox in Philly AND at the Carolina in Durham) were garish and smudgy. It was NOT clear. (A blessing as it turns out from looking at this print) I remember being HORRIBLY upset that 3 strip Technicolor had been dumped for this AWFUL new color. It seemed like such a giant step backwards. Fox then began to use intense and unreal blues and yellows in subsequent films....such as THE KING AND I, RAINS OF RANCHIPUR, CAROUSEL, and MOST of the first couple of years of Cinemascope. I hated their lighting....it was sickening. And I think it was to oversaturate and cover up the cheapness of the staging. At least, after seeing this mess....that is my new impression.

I really DO think that much of the problem is that very few advisors to the digital technicians were there when these films were first released. They don't seem to be able to balance the colors correctly. They use the standards of today where so often skin tones are yellowish in film. Thus, they are not being even vaguely true to the original at all.

The sharpness of HD is truly a double edged sword. Yes...isn't it nice to see individual threads in a costume....but sadly we then see they used CHEAP materials....and what look like hand-me-down backdrops from a 1906 touring version of the Broadway production of BEN-HUR!

I don't mind the extraordinary clarity of THE CHANGELING and modern films because that is what we are used to in home video. BUT seeing a classic slightly perverted into our being able to detect all the "magic" used is disconcerting. I could forgive almost ALL if the color balance was correct.....BUT.......as we know.....not even Technicolor was able to print the exact same color balanced print for every reel, much less every theater. In watching the GWTW packages' extra section on restoration again....they mention how Technicolor labs sent the lesser color prints of a film to smaller cities and towns. So....we get back to the basic fact.....that there IS no "correct" print.

The "extras" section on Cinemascope is interesting but not detailed enough or lengthy enough. But one very brief shot does show a GIANT screen, like the one they used at the FOX in Philly....that is QUIIIIITE curved.

Soooooooooooooo.......kinda disappointed in it all. I was so looking forward to this. I will take a peep at ROBE on the bedroom set and see how it looks there.....but the fake sets are still going to be an issue because of the clarity.

Sometimes "worse is better."

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

Working on it

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

[quote=mediagy]Cinemascope screens were (as he says in the Bits article) DEEPLY curved. Within a year or so Cinemascope screens were just flat wide screens.

I actually did NOT like the original because it was presented in smudgy cartoonish colors.....but richly and darkly so.

The "extras" section on Cinemascope is interesting but not detailed enough or lengthy enough. But one very brief shot does show a GIANT screen, like the one they used at the FOX in Philly....that is QUIIIIITE curved.

QUOTE]
I'm still waiting on my "Robe", so to speak but would comment on some of the above points raised by Mediagy.

I was too young to see the film in its original release but caught it at London's National Film Theatre in the 70's in what was an original Technicolor print(save one reel which was Deluxe and was so bad the whole audience groaned outloud). What I remenber was how good and clean looking the colours were, especially many pastel hues which were quite gorgeous to see. Also how sharp it was given all the stories I had read about Scope's initial problems with lenses, depth of field , etc. The colours were certainly not in any way cartoonish.

Fox always wanted a deep curve screen and would have tried them out but the 'Miracle Mirror " screen that was part of the Scope package was far too reflective to allow it. The curve was quite shallow. I have photos taken off the screen at what looks like the Fox screening room and it looks more warped than curved!!!

Thanks to the kind person who prepared the transcipt of Schawn's very interesting discussion.

Incidently,it was the first I have ever heard of a 70 mm release and not surprised that there was no record of it. There never was one. I always wondered why not and given Schawn's description of the neg, I now know the reason!

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

There was never a 70mm reissue of the Robe in the U.S. but there was at least in Spain.
I have the postere that says 70mm in big letters on it. I also have a spanish 70mm Quo Vadis reissue poster.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

Any idea, Joe, when oth films were released?

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

Did you read the transcript of the chat with Schawn from Fox? He said they checked their restoration against a dye transfer Technicolor print owned by Martin Scorsese.

I have only seen the restored DVD so far, but I think it is a massive improvement over the original DVD, which was dirty, and artificially boosted colour (especially reds), and unrealistic skin tones, and was significantly cropped on the sides and bottom, and slightly cropped along the top.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

I could pull a better cover for South Pacific out of my nether regions than the Photoshop horror show Fox slapped together for the BD (and all the 2005/2006 Rodgers and Hammerstein DVDs). Just use original poster art.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

I don't have the Blu-ray (yet), but I've put up some comparisons between a PAL version of the old DVD, and the new restored NTSC DVD here and here

I scaled down the PAL images to the same resolution as the NTSC captures.

Note, in the first link the restored DVD images are on the RIGHT, in the second link they are on the LEFT.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

I done some research and " in 70mm" shows a release reported for Spain in 1970, but no actual release dates. I find it strange that there is no record of this "blow up "in the Fox archives as Schawn notes.I would have thought it would have to have been prepared in the U.S. or U.K given laboratory facilities in Europe at that time. Is there anyone from Spain who visits this site who saw it way back then?

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

DVDBeaver now has Blu-ray captures up:
The Robe Blu-ray -Richard Burton Jean Simmons

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

The Robe on Blu-ray is ranked 70th on Amazon.com and 9th on DVD Empire.

Pretty good going for a 56 year old film!

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

It would be higher if it was about $5 cheaper.





Crawdaddy

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

True, I'm not surprised a lot of people would just settle for the DVD which is $10 cheaper.

They should split the difference and make them both $20, then let the consumer have a choice between SD and HD without there being another factor influencing their decision.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

I ordered the Blu-rays of THE ROBE and QUO VADIS at the same time from Amazon, and I was rather irked that THE ROBE, a movie from the same era as QUO VADIS, was $5 more expensive than QUO VADIS. I just don't understand how Warners and Fox can have different price points for such catalog material.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

I just got my new dvds of The Robe and The Silver Chalice yesterday and got Quo Vadis a few weeks ago.


Quo Vadis is ok but transferred way too dark and the colors are not a thrill.

Silver Chalice looks and sounds very good, but BOO to no extras, not even a trailer. Boo also to not providing the 143 min version as mentioned in the press release. Its the standard 135 minute short version.


The Robe looks like it was shot yesterday morning.
I had assumed the making of would be the one from AMC from a few years ago, as these usually show up on Fox dvds, but this is a brand new one.

They mention about restoring the Albert Matz screenwriting credit (already on the old DVD) but still no credit for choral director Ken Darby.
And never a credit for Emile Santiago who won an Academy Award for the Costumes for The Robe !!!

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

I really think it's sad that Fox keeps insisting on region locking their discs, as the region locking isn't mandatory for discs, only the players. I'd really like to get this one, but getting yet another player just to play Region A locked discs is not an option. So it's either region free discs or the DVD edition.

They do miss out on sales...

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

Wow, I had no idea about this. And I totally agree, if they don't have to region encode the discs, then it is stupid to do so, it just reduces the number of available buyers for the release.

We live in a globalised world, the studios should get over themselves.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

Warners also don't region lock their discs and even include scandinavian subtitles... So naturally, I've ordered the Blu version of the QUO VADIS!

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

Well, I haven't had definitive proof it's region locked, so I'm still having my fingers crossed. Fox did release the odd region free disc.
But if they did release it here, they probably would leave off the 4.0 track, to fit several dubs on the disc. They did the same thing to the mono track on The Day The Earth Stood Still. I don't want to buy that in region B, because they added sound effects on the DTS track.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

Quo Vadis is a good Blu-Ray but not a great one. For The Robe no expense has been spared and it shows - imo 5$ is a more than acceptable difference in price given the effort put into this release.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

But didn't QUO VADIS go through the Warner Ultra-Resolution process in its remastering and restoration, because if it did, that's not an inexpensive proposition either.

I'm guessing both films required massive amounts of work to get them ready for Blu-ray.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

Matt, I'm thinking the audio restoration may have added significant costs to make restoration of "The Robe" a bit more expensive. I wouldn't so foar as to suggest that this would account for the price difference, because Fox BDs are is usually higher in cost than others.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

Do your comments relate to SD for Quo and Robe,Joe, or have you seen the light and gone Blu ?

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

In order to keep costs low the Ultra-Resolution process was not used, therefore some color fringing can be seen from time to time.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

Yes, I have seen the light. In a bad financial situation, I have NOT gone blu. I just can't afford it.