What's new

A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Vikings -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

Robert Harris

Archivist
Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 8, 1999
Messages
18,271
Real Name
Robert Harris
The Vikings, directed by Richard Fleischer, and starring Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Ernest Borgnine and Janet Leigh, is a 1958 production, shot early in the Technirama era.

With MGM's reputation for "good enough" transfers, it was with a bit of trepidation, that I popped this one into my Oppo. While I presumed that it would be derived from a 35/4 element and not from 8-perf, the image that hit my screen had the requisite quality to uprez nicely to 4k.

A nice surprise.

As I recall, the film was never blown up to 70mm, so the 2.35 aspect ratio, offered by MGM via Kino, is fine. Color, densities, grain structure, shadow detail are all within pleasant bounds. The image is stable enough for government work. The audio, which was always monaural, is represented as left and right mono.

As a film, The Vikings is a big, brawling Norse western, with lots of beer (or it is grog?) drinking, fighting and presumably beard envy. At times, Janet Leigh appears to have wandered onto the wrong set, but in the end, The Vikings is a fun way to spend a couple of hours.

Image - 4.25

Audio - 5

4k Up-rez - 4.25

Pass / Fail - Pass

Recommended


RAH
 

Alan Tully

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2008
Messages
4,615
Location
London
Real Name
Alan
Well I'll take a 4.25 score from Mr. Harris. But I won't be buying this as I'm not multi-region, but some company is bound to license it in Europe...I hope!
 

Dick

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 22, 1999
Messages
9,906
Real Name
Rick
The stock footage used in Spartacus was from Sinbad, the Sailor, an RKO production.
What footage, Robert? SINBAD THE SAILOR was a 1947 film shot in 1.33:1, so it'd have to have been cropped and blown up to fit into SPARTACUS, and the difference in PQ would almost certain have been noticeable. I can't even think of what footage from that film would have worked as stock for the latter.
 

Reed Grele

Supporter
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 30, 1997
Messages
2,187
Location
Beacon Falls, CT
Real Name
Reed Grele
What footage, Robert? SINBAD THE SAILOR was a 1947 film shot in 1.33:1, so it'd have to have been cropped and blown up to fit into SPARTACUS, and the difference in PQ would almost certain have been noticeable. I can't even think of what footage from that film would have worked as stock for the latter.

At about 12 1/2 minutes into the film, this:

Ship.jpg

It could have been worse though:

20160211_015406.jpg

But then, a Viking funeral for a football wouldn't have been believable as a slave transport ship.
 
Last edited:

Robert Harris

Archivist
Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 8, 1999
Messages
18,271
Real Name
Robert Harris
What footage, Robert? SINBAD THE SAILOR was a 1947 film shot in 1.33:1, so it'd have to have been cropped and blown up to fit into SPARTACUS, and the difference in PQ would almost certain have been noticeable. I can't even think of what footage from that film would have worked as stock for the latter.

We were able to go back a generation, as Universal had an earlier element, which picked up a bit of quality. The shot is not in Sindad. It's an alternate or trim.

And yes, it's 1.37 with a field enlargement to 2.21.

RAH
 

Dick

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 22, 1999
Messages
9,906
Real Name
Rick
We were able to go back a generation, as Universal had an earlier element, which picked up a bit of quality. The shot is not in Sindad. It's an alternate or trim.

And yes, it's 1.37 with a field enlargement to 2.21.

RAH
Have you a filmography available? I'm sure you're not in this for the fame, but it would be a shame for you to remain an unsung, little known (outside of our forum) and underappreciated hero of film restoration!
 

Robert Harris

Archivist
Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 8, 1999
Messages
18,271
Real Name
Robert Harris
Have you a filmography available? I'm sure you're not in this for the fame, but it would be a shame for you to remain an unsung, little known (outside of our forum) and underappreciated hero of film restoration!
At one time, there was one at IMDb, but they deleted, as what I do is apparently not a verifiable career path.
 

notmicro

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
May 2, 2014
Messages
61
Real Name
Mark M
We were able to go back a generation, as Universal had an earlier element, which picked up a bit of quality. The shot is not in Sindad. It's an alternate or trim.

And yes, it's 1.37 with a field enlargement to 2.21.

RAH


Sinbad, the Sailor (1947 RKO) is on my long, long Technicolor-restored-on-Blu dream wish-list... the PAL DVD I've seen looks promising. Difficult to go wrong with Maureen O'Hara and Jane Greer (!) slinking around...
 

Joe Caps

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2000
Messages
2,169
Two things - my local Elmira new York double feature house always had the Vikings in stereo prints.

Two - that stock footage from Sinbad the Sailor is also used in The Robe
 

Race Bannon

Supporting Actor
Joined
Oct 21, 2015
Messages
674
Real Name
Jay
I viewed my copy last night. Had never really heard much about this movie until the KL release -- what a pleasant surprise. Not only was the story enjoyable, but some of the views of ships in the water, and the storming of the castle, were beautiful in this transfer.

By the way, for those of you that care about this kind of thing -- this is a title where Amazon's policy of "lowest price before release" came into play. I pre-ordered when this was announced, and the price dipped lower than the release day price. Got a discount/refund of over $1.50.
 

OliverK

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2000
Messages
5,713
It was on MGMHD yesterday. Looked like HD to me.
It has been aired quite a bit on MGM HD and the the Blu-ray certainly comes from the same source.

I guess this is another job from somewhere between 2005 and 2008. It shows its age but one has to be realistic and be happy that anything got released at all, at least they did not try to boost its colors or smooth it over.

If I haven't lost count then this was the last unreleased MGM large format movie where they had a usable transfer that was aired on and off for years. The others have already been released at some poiint including Legend of the Lost that got only released in Germany to my knowledge.
 

RolandL

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Messages
6,619
Location
Florida
Real Name
Roland Lataille
It has been aired quite a bit on MGM HD and the the Blu-ray certainly comes from the same source.

I guess this is another job from somewhere between 2005 and 2008. It shows its age but one has to be realistic and be happy that anything got released at all, at least they did not try to boost its colors or smooth it over.

If I haven't lost count then this was the last unreleased MGM large format movie where they had a usable transfer that was aired on and off for years. The others have already been released at some poiint including Legend of the Lost that got only released in Germany to my knowledge.

Then maybe The Alamo might be released on Blu-ray since it is shown on MGMHD (looks better than the DVD).
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,710
Messages
5,121,082
Members
144,145
Latest member
treed99
Recent bookmarks
0
Top