How about BD or UHD Disc of The Last Valley (1971) (1 Viewer)

I would love to have a disc of this from the 65mm and the Audio from the 6 -Track for the wonderful John Barry soundtrack.
I sure it would be one of the best if the elements have been looked after.

Oh yes, a stunning restoration of The Last Valley please, & The Charge Of The Light Brigade '68. It could happen, the great looking 55 Days At Peking Blu-ray seemed to come out of nowhere ( but not in the US), just don't hold your breath.

Derek, you know I love The Last Valley, and it is one of Mr Caine's favorite roles. This was one of those ABC Pictures, so I'm thinking, and actually have read somewhere a while back, that the elements are in very bad shape. Probably another one of those $2 million restorations that no one is going to spring for. I'd love to hear Mr. Caine's thoughts on this. Someone with a Twitter account should ask him.

The film was a box office disappointment and I believe it's been established that the film elements are in poor shape. So who's going to spring the money to restore the film? It's not a high profile title so could the financier expect a profit or a tax write off? The latter I suspect.

Its a shame about the elements, I did see an extract at Bradford this year from an original 70mm print on the Cinerama screen the colour had mostly gone but the 6-Track stereo was wonderful.

Thanks Roland,
This film opened in London at the Leicester Square Theatre which has just been knocked down.

DP 70 said:

Thanks Roland,
This film opened in London at the Leicester Square Theatre which has just been knocked down.

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I saw it when I opened, I thought it was the Odeon Leicester Square, but it was a long time ago. I also saw it on its re-run at the Casino, such a stunning looking film. I have the oop John Barry soundtrack on CD (it was one of my favourite LP's for years).

DP 70 said:

Thanks Roland,
This film opened in London at the Leicester Square Theatre which has just been knocked down.

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Billy Batson said:

I saw it when I opened, I thought it was the Odeon Leicester Square, but it was a long time ago. I also saw it on its re-run at the Casino, such a stunning looking film. I have the oop John Barry soundtrack on CD (it was one of my favourite LP's for years).

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Is this a different theatre with the same name?

Hi Roland,
Yes the Odeon Leicester Square is a different cinema, its now screening The Hateful 8 in Ultra Panavision 70 , the last show is tonight.

As I mentioned in the DVD thread, I contacted Disney (who own the rights) about this title, which they initially denied owning, and they eventually told me that they found it interesting, and thanked me for calling attention to the film, but had no immediate plans to release it in any form. So considering they weren't aware they had the title, at least now they are and hopefully it will get another look.

It was definitely the Leicester Square Theatre not the Odeon. Sorry to hear it is now gone but wasn't much of a 70mm venue from memory. I avoided Star Wars when it opened there simultaneously with the Dominion . No contest as to where to see it!!
Couldn't believe how they had trashed the Square when I was last in London a few years ago.

I can tell you first hand that the 65mm original negative's in good shape.

Disney currently owns this title and there doesn't seem to be any interest to do anything with the ABC Features library, apart from preservation work. I do routinely keep reminding the folks there about these titles though!

It would be great if they'd license these titles to a vendor like Kino or Shout Factory, but they don't seem to want to do that anymore.

So don't get rid of your old 4x3 letterboxed Anchor Bay DVD!

Eastmancolor said:

I can tell you first hand that the 65mm original negative's in good shape.

Disney currently owns this title and there doesn't seem to be any interest to do anything with the ABC Features library, apart from preservation work. I do routinely keep reminding the folks there about these titles though!

It would be great if they'd license these titles to a vendor like Kino or Shout Factory, but they don't seem to want to do that anymore.

So don't get rid of your old 4x3 letterboxed Anchor Bay DVD!

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Wow, first hand knowledge! Great to hear! What would your estimation be for restoration, not much, moderate or very expensive to get to re-release condition?

john a hunter said:

It was definitely the Leicester Square Theatre not the Odeon. Sorry to hear it is now gone but wasn't much of a 70mm venue from memory. I avoided Star Wars when it opened there simultaneously with the Dominion . No contest as to where to see it!!
Couldn't believe how they had trashed the Square when I was last in London a few years ago.

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Yeah, well as I said, it was a long time ago. Leicester Square was a great place for film fans, Odeon Leicester Square (I saw The Hateful Eight in 70mm there a few weeks ago, the print had picked up a few scratches for that authentic film going experience), Leicester Square Theatre, Empire & Warner, I remember seeing The Wild Bunch, The Devils, A Clockwork Orange & Start The Revolution Without Me there, when they made it into a multi-plex I stopped going. I must have seen hundreds of films in the Square in the last 50 years.

Thats great news about the 65mm negative, I saw H8 twice at the Odeon on the first night and a week later as Billy says I counted 10 scratches coming down the centre at one time the second time I saw it , the print now goes to Scotland..
I did see 2001 at the Prince Charles Cinema last Saturday in 70mm/DTS and it looked great , but its not that big a screen.

Dr Griffin said:

Wow, first hand knowledge! Great to hear! What would your estimation be for restoration, not much, moderate or very expensive to get to re-release condition?

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Just scanning the OCN in 4k to get this ready to be released as a Blu-ray or even UHD discs would not have to be terribly expensive, a 5 digit sum could be enough. As Eastmancolor pointed out Disney has little interest doing work themselves and they are not thinking of licensing it to other companies so we can only hope that this will change at some point as it is of no use to let these movies sit in the vault when there is still some interest for them.

Yes, I would imagine that for a high 5 figure price, a very nice scan with scene to scene fixes could be done of THE LAST VALLEY. It wouldn't be perfect, but it would still be of good quality. Fortunately it's a title that doesn't need restoration work done to it. Just color timing as well as dirt and probably some minor tear fixes. 65mm definitely adds to the price though.

It would be ideal for an 8k scan to be done off of the original negative, but that would only add more $ to the final price tag. Also sound work would need to be done, so this would not be an inexpensive undertaking.

Still, the film holds up incredibly well. The studio would have a new master that could not only output Blu-rays, but could be used for streaming and broadcast as well. I would think over time they would make their money back. Sitting on a shelf it's certainly not generating any revenue.

At least it's being preserved though!

When I first saw it I was surprised that it is a really good movie. All the other late Cinerama productions that I saw were mediocre at best but this one was really good. Not successful at the box office though so Disney probably is reluctant to do much with it.

Glad to hear that it's being preserved - hopefully the same goes for The Big Fisherman which I understand was not quite as good as The Last Valley but also beautifully shot and with an excellent score.

The Last Valley was a Cinerama Inc. release but only promoted as "On the Giant Cinerama screen" like other titles in the UK.