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post #151 of 280
1/10/08 at 2:56am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Very much appreciated

I see now that you live in Australia, so I could probably get it almost as soon as you but for me DVD Pacific is not the preferred transportation. Due to their constant mislabeling of packages I mostly have to pick up their packages from customs by myself and this is a 2 hour endeavour plus the delays that come with custom notifications by mail.
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post #152 of 280
1/10/08 at 3:02am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by OliverK
Very much appreciated

I see now that you live in Australia, so I could probably get it almost as soon as you but for me DVD Pacific is not the preferred transportation. Due to their constant mislabeling of packages I mostly have to pick up their packages from customs by myself and this is a 2 hour endeavour plus the delays that come with custom notifications by mail.
I'm lucky in that in Australia there are no customs duties or taxes on orders below AUD$250, so I just make sure my orders don't exceed AUD$200 when I make them, then everything gets delivered to my door within 7 - 10 days (but usually 7).

If the El Cid transfer is as good as the screen shot in this thread then I will be happy. But I do hope that the Technirama element is at some point used for a restoration, it will be sad if all we ever get is home video transfers made from a 4 perf 35mm reduction.
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post #153 of 280
1/10/08 at 4:33am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

No custom duties and taxes below 250 AUD$ is incredible !

We have to start paying and getting delayed shipments at less than 20% of that.

But I will not complain as it seems that many other European countries, like France and Norvay, are even worse off.
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post #154 of 280
1/10/08 at 4:37am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by OliverK
From what I know Circus World was the least commercially and critically successful movie of the 4 and it finally sealed the demise of the Bronston Empire so there you have 4 reasons for it coming last

Circus World was also the only one out of the four to be promoted as being "In Cinerama" for its roadshow presentations - Circus World . I'm surprised that The Fall of The Roman Empire wasn't also given the Cinerama promotion with it's Cinerama like (Cinerama was 2.6:1) aspect ratio of 2.76:1.
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post #155 of 280
1/10/08 at 4:53am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

I saw "Circus World" (aka The Magnificent Showman) at the Colisieum Cinerama in London. The one thing I do remember is that the trapeze acts just didn't look right on the Cinerama screen. I think by this time Cinerama were getting desperate for product to show as the era of the 26+ week roadshow runs were over.
As an aside, the oddest film I saw on the cionerama screen was Disney's "The Happiest Millionaire"; it looked lost on the big screen.
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post #156 of 280
1/10/08 at 5:00am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by OliverK
No custom duties and taxes below 250 AUD$ is incredible !
Yeah, and the exchange rate is currently really good AUD$250 = US$220.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RolandL
[Circus World was also the only one out of the four to be promoted as being "In Cinerama" for its roadshow presentations - Circus World . I'm surprised that The Fall of The Roman Empire wasn't also given the Cinerama promotion with it's Cinerama like (Cinerama was 2.6:1) aspect ratio of 2.76:1.
I'm pretty sure that a lot of How the West Was Won was shot in Ultra Panavision 70.

Eventually Cinerama became Super Cinerama, which was just single strip Ultra Panavision projected onto the Cinerama screen.
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post #157 of 280
1/10/08 at 5:05am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Sharp
I saw "Circus World" (aka The Magnificent Showman) at the Colisieum Cinerama in London. The one thing I do remember is that the trapeze acts just didn't look right on the Cinerama screen. I think by this time Cinerama were getting desperate for product to show as the era of the 26+ week roadshow runs were over.
As an aside, the oddest film I saw on the cionerama screen was Disney's "The Happiest Millionaire"; it looked lost on the big screen.

The 70mm version of "Gone With The Wind" that was released in 1968 must have looked strange when shown "On the Giant Cinerama Screen!" - as many of the late 1960's early 1970's films were promoted at Cinerama theatres - In CINERAMA?
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post #158 of 280
1/10/08 at 5:15am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by RolandL
Circus World was also the only one out of the four to be promoted as being "In Cinerama" for its roadshow presentations - Circus World . I'm surprised that The Fall of The Roman Empire wasn't also given the Cinerama promotion with it's Cinerama like (Cinerama was 2.6:1) aspect ratio of 2.76:1.

Apparently a Cinerama/Roadshow presentation had been envisioned and therefore the film was shot in UP70 but by the time the movie was released it was not deemed to be the commercially viable thing to do a roadshow release in the US and therefore only a few flat 70mm prints were struck instead.

I think that Fall only made 2 Million $ in US cinemas (compared to 27 Million for El Cid and more than 50 Million for Ben Hur) and therefore we cannot really say the smaller scaled release was a mistake, at least for the US.
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post #159 of 280
1/10/08 at 7:00am
Thread Starter 

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Sharp
I saw "Circus World" (aka The Magnificent Showman) at the Colisieum Cinerama in London. The one thing I do remember is that the trapeze acts just didn't look right on the Cinerama screen. I think by this time Cinerama were getting desperate for product to show as the era of the 26+ week roadshow runs were over.
As an aside, the oddest film I saw on the cionerama screen was Disney's "The Happiest Millionaire"; it looked lost on the big screen.

Brian - I also saw The Magnificent Showman (as it was called) at the Coloseum as well as many other Cinerama presentations. What a great cinema that was.

I see that you and I are almost exactly the same age (I'm one day older). Our generation grew up with the big epic films and we still think they are the greatest!
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post #160 of 280
1/10/08 at 7:51am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

The Coliseum - now of course an opera house - opened I recall with Brothers Grimm, then Mad World, Mag Showman and The Bible. Plus some strange fillers, both of which I saw - Lafayette and The Flaming Years, a Commie war effort.
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post #161 of 280
1/10/08 at 10:30am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by AdrianTurner
The Coliseum - now of course an opera house - opened I recall with Brothers Grimm, then Mad World, Mag Showman and The Bible. Plus some strange fillers, both of which I saw - Lafayette and The Flaming Years, a Commie war effort.

La Fayette and Flaming Years were promoted as being 'In Cinerama' only in the UK.
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post #162 of 280
1/10/08 at 1:26pm

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

The screening is in HD, celebrating the release, so the dvd must be from a brand-new HD transfer as none of the others are HD-derived.

AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center

This would be amazing on blu-ray in PCM multi-channel!

M
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post #163 of 280
1/11/08 at 1:27am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

"El Cid" special features:

• Reproduction of Original 1961 Souvenir Program (Collector’s Edition Only)
• Reproduction of Original 1961 El Cid Comic Book (Collector’s Edition Only)
• Six Color Production Stills (Collector’s Edition Only)
• Written Introduction by Director Martin Scorsese
• Feature Commentary With Bill Bronston, son of producer Sam Bronston, and historian/author Neal M. Rosendorf, Ph.D., assistant professor of US International History at Long Island University
• 1961 Promotional Radio Interviews with Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren
• Introduction Interview with Charlton Heston
• Samuel Bronston: The Epic Journey of a Dreamer
• Behind The Camera: Anthony Mann and El Cid
• Hollywood Conquers Spain: The Making of An Epic
• Maestro of the Movies: Miklos Rozsa and El Cid
• The Importance of Film Preservation and Restoration: A Conversation With Gerry Byrne
• Trailer Gallery
• Filmographies
• Still Gallery
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post #164 of 280
1/11/08 at 2:55am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Thanks for the reminder about El Cid.

Awesome movie indeed
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post #165 of 280
1/11/08 at 4:07am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Anthony
The screening is in HD, celebrating the release, so the dvd must be from a brand-new HD transfer as none of the others are HD-derived.

AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center

This would be amazing on blu-ray in PCM multi-channel!

M
Quote:
Originally Posted by dfroystad
• The Importance of Film Preservation and Restoration: A Conversation With

You'd like to think that the HD screening, and the inclusion of a documentary on film restoration means this DVD will be a brand new HD transfer.

I just hope it has come off the Technirama element, Warner's King of Kings DVD shows how good that can look.
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post #166 of 280
1/11/08 at 4:50am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Howson
You'd like to think that the HD screening, and the inclusion of a documentary on film restoration means this DVD will be a brand new HD transfer.

I just hope it has come off the Technirama element, Warner's King of Kings DVD shows how good that can look.

Let us hope for the best for El Cid, but unfortunately it seems that King of Kings did not get a master with HD resolution.

The DVD of King of Kings is very good so I expected a lot only to be disappointed when I watched its HDnet version that was aired some time ago. There is practically no difference in luma resolution between the HD and the SD version but there is increased chroma resolution. I have read somewhere that Warner for some time only did 480p masters for some movies like Ben Hur as that was considered good enough for DVD releases and maybe they did something similar for King of Kings. That master would probably have 4:4:4 bit colors instead of the 4-2-0 of DVD, explaining the higher chroma resolution I saw from the HDnet airing.

If this is the case we can look forward to a brand new master with resolution at or above 4k similar to or better than the work done on the Searchers - after all both movies were shot in horizontal 35mm.
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post #167 of 280
1/11/08 at 4:54am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Do you mean the ORIGINAL Ben Hur DVD was only mastered at 480p?

Surely the master for the 4 disc version was 1080p?
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post #168 of 280
1/11/08 at 5:38am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Howson
Do you mean the ORIGINAL Ben Hur DVD was only mastered at 480p?

Yes, that's the one.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Howson
Surely the master for the 4 disc version was 1080p?

Yes, 1080p. The difference is visible in a little splitscreen montage I did with the version that airs in HD from time to time:

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post #169 of 280
1/11/08 at 6:15am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by dfroystad
"El Cid" special features:

• Reproduction of Original 1961 Souvenir Program (Collector’s Edition Only)
• Reproduction of Original 1961 El Cid Comic Book (Collector’s Edition Only)
• Six Color Production Stills (Collector’s Edition Only)
• Written Introduction by Director Martin Scorsese
• Feature Commentary With Bill Bronston, son of producer Sam Bronston, and historian/author Neal M. Rosendorf, Ph.D., assistant professor of US International History at Long Island University
• 1961 Promotional Radio Interviews with Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren
• Introduction Interview with Charlton Heston
• Samuel Bronston: The Epic Journey of a Dreamer
• Behind The Camera: Anthony Mann and El Cid
• Hollywood Conquers Spain: The Making of An Epic
• Maestro of the Movies: Miklos Rozsa and El Cid
• The Importance of Film Preservation and Restoration: A Conversation With Gerry Byrne
• Trailer Gallery
• Filmographies
• Still Gallery

I'm pleased to say I still have my original souvenir programmes from El Cid, Ben-Hur, King of Kings, and Fall of The Roman Empire. Wonder what they're worth? Anyone got any idea?
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post #170 of 280
1/11/08 at 6:27am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by ptb2007
I'm pleased to say I still have my original souvenir programmes from El Cid, Ben-Hur, King of Kings, and Fall of The Roman Empire. Wonder what they're worth? Anyone got any idea?

Please scan them so we can get an idea about the condition they are in and their value Ok, I think we all would be thankful if you could share them with us so if you find the time and a scanner...

And you saw all of these in the theater in the 60ies when they were released ? I have to admit that I am a tiny little bit envious now or should I rather say made aware that I will never be able to see those movies in comparable splendor ?
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post #171 of 280
1/11/08 at 8:33am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by ptb2007
I'm pleased to say I still have my original souvenir programmes from El Cid, Ben-Hur, King of Kings, and Fall of The Roman Empire. Wonder what they're worth? Anyone got any idea?

Sorry to say not much. They are pretty common on EBAY.
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post #172 of 280
1/11/08 at 8:46am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

I actually have on a wall of my home office two of the original title paintings by Piotrowski from The Fall of the Roman Empire. Both are oils and in the Ultra Panavision ratio. I have the title card shared by Yakima Canutt and Robert Lawrence and the card for Michael Waszynski. They are framed and under non-reflecting glass and I'm rather proud of them, as you can imagine. I also have a rather moody pen-and-ink drawing by Colasanti and Moore for one of Fall's sets, though which one is hard to determine.
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post #173 of 280
1/11/08 at 9:00am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by OliverK
Yes, that's the one.



Yes, 1080p. The difference is visible in a little splitscreen montage I did with the version that airs in HD from time to time:

What HD channel shows Ben-Hur? Do you have more comparisons?
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post #174 of 280
1/11/08 at 10:56am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

I do not have any more comparisons as it is always a bit of a hassle but rest assured the difference between HD and SD version is pretty obvious.

Unfortunately Ben Hur in HD also has some color fringing issues. I assume that is because the current master originates from separates.

I think you can't get it anywhere as of now but it was aired on StarzHD in 2006 I believe. Unfortunately these movies are not aired very often, for example HDnet also showed Greatest Story Ever Told in OAR once or twice in 2006 but since then it has never been aired again afaik.

Here is another screenshot form Ben Hur, this shows the color fringing issues.
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post #175 of 280
1/11/08 at 6:24pm

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by AdrianTurner
I actually have on a wall of my home office two of the original title paintings by Piotrowski from The Fall of the Roman Empire. Both are oils and in the Ultra Panavision ratio. I have the title card shared by Yakima Canutt and Robert Lawrence and the card for Michael Waszynski. They are framed and under non-reflecting glass and I'm rather proud of them, as you can imagine. I also have a rather moody pen-and-ink drawing by Colasanti and Moore for one of Fall's sets, though which one is hard to determine.

I'd like to see these if you can photograph them.
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post #176 of 280
1/12/08 at 4:31am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by OliverK
Please scan them so we can get an idea about the condition they are in and their value Ok, I think we all would be thankful if you could share them with us so if you find the time and a scanner...

And you saw all of these in the theater in the 60ies when they were released ? I have to admit that I am a tiny little bit envious now or should I rather say made aware that I will never be able to see those movies in comparable splendor ?


Yes, I did see them all on giant screens back in the 60s. I was 11 when I saw Ben-Hur for the first time and 12 when Spartacus arrived.
The programmes would take a long time to scan in and are in fact full sized versions of the ones they put in with the likes of the 4 disc Ben-Hur. Some are too big for my scanner. Sorry. El Cid was quite a small one in comparison to say Cleopatra's.
Pity so many are available to buy on e-bay.
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post #177 of 280
1/12/08 at 7:11am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Over at DVD savant.com, they say they just got a review copy of El Cid and will quickly be doing a review !!
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post #178 of 280
1/12/08 at 8:01am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Caps
Over at DVD savant.com, they say they just got a review copy of El Cid and will quickly be doing a review !!

Did you see the disaster that Land of the Pharaohs is ?
There are screenshots in this thread in case you did not.

But on DVD savant.com the video quality is called excellent
So thanks but I'll pass on this review and I also suggest for others to wait for other more meaningful reviews.
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post #179 of 280
1/12/08 at 9:57am
Thread Starter 

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

Quote:
Originally Posted by OliverK
Did you see the disaster that Land of the Pharaohs is ?
There are screenshots in this thread in case you did not.

But on DVD savant.com the video quality is called excellent
So thanks but I'll pass on this review and I also suggest for others to wait for other more meaningful reviews.

I don't find DVD Savant's reviews of much value either. His reviews tend to consist mainly of discussions about the film with not enough information about the technical aspects of discs.
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post #180 of 280
1/12/08 at 10:00am

Re: Bronston epics and Land of the Pharaohs coming at last!

I see no reason to trust this thread.
There are screen caps of laser Land of Pharoahs vs new dvd yet some here say they use the same master as the master, even thought they look completely different.
While the dvd is not thrilling, it looks better than the old laser.
But WHY are we again, getting from a major company a 2.0 mixdown instead of the original 4.0 ????
tHERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THIS.
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