PAL AND OTHER-REGION DVD ANNOUNCEMENTS & REVIEWS - Page 11

Thanks Robin

Only 7.46 Euros at Starscafe, so I've just ordered.

Andrew

Thanks for your reply. I think I will pass on The Prize.

I've used www.ezydvd.com.au and www.chaos.com, both of which ship to the UK.

Simon

They also have A Song to Remember (1945). I noticed that this was released in the US last year by a smaller company so I have no idea of the quality.

 

I wouldn't call Sony/Columbia a small company in any language. They also have some of the best transfers on MOD out there.

Sorry if this has already been covered, but I'm trying to locate a reliable seller in Australia. A search for the uncut Blu-ray of The Duchess yields only Australian vendors who don't appear to deal outside that country.

 

The information is incorrect as there are two major Australian on-lines(one has chain of stores as well) who ship outside Australia and have their rates, not as good as an Amazon etc but if you can't get them it has to do. They are:

 

JBHifionline

Fishpond.com.au

 

Locally, because of competition, they ship every order free around Australia. Fishpond used to charge on orders up to A$49 before delivery. I don't get much at local shops anymore and much of what I get is from overseas.

 

It should be noted that Amazon UK ceased Free Shipping to Australia, NZ, Fiji, Sth Africa & India(when one bought over UK25 worth of goods) from Jan 19 2012 after nearly a year 'trial', as they called it. Along with the VAT of 20% removed this made it an good incentive to go 'silly' with stuff. Hopefully, they will bring it back or some other scheme. The low value of their pound against my currency helps too but it was much lower in 1980 when I had a shop and importing lots of records for my niche business. 

Thanks, Simon and Moviepas.

I got thrown by the Australian sites I visited listing areas within the continent that they shipped to. Probably areas entitled to free shipping, but I assumed that was the extent of their reach.

It's non-anamorphic as well. Definitely not recommended - I quickly got rid of mine.

Ten North Frederick will be released on DVD in Germany in March. It comes from a company I've never heard of, so it may be a very poor quality transfer from an old VHS tape! It may also be a brilliant transfer from materials supplied by Fox Entertainment!

I'll wait for the reviews to appear on Amazon Germany before I jump.

Both GOG and THE MAGNETIC MONSTER appear to be due from Italian label Sinister Cinema from April. I have a number of Sinister releases and they are very good - any movie with an original English language track has that (plus often an Italian dub), usually with Italian subs - which can be turned off.

Sinister appear to have got the licnses to a number of the movies appearing in various MOD programs and those subbed out to Olive - for example, Crack in the World, Collosus of New York, Diary of a Madman, Master of the World

Not only are these cheaper but they are, of course, not on DVD-R's. for those who wish to avoid such things. Theyare most easily obtained via Amazon Italy - although there's no English edition of that site and the movies appear under their Italian names (for example, Diary of a Madman is Horla - Diario Segreto Di Un Pazzo) you can also just enter "Sinister Film" as a search and it will find them (then just use the covers to identify)

Amazon account information is common across all their sites (except Japan) so if you are registered on .com or .co.uk it will know who and where you are. The ordering process is in Italian, but it's identical, so just click the usual buttons

These releases in Italy are espescially favourable to Europeans - they are cheaper base price, the shipping will be lower and - so long as your country is in the European Union - there are no Customs entanglements because it will be treated as domestic mail thanks to the customs union

This is probably not new news but Lili with Leslie Caron is available on DVD in Spain. I don't know what the quality of the disc is like and like subtitles are removable/forced but it is a much requested title. The Spanish version can be bought from daaveedee.

On AMAZ-DE, one reviewer states PQ is very bad

The Kidnappers (1953) (also known as The Little Kidnappers) directed by Philip Leacock will be released in the UK on 11 June 2012 by a company called Spirt. Never heard of them. I hope the print is a good one.

I have So Long At The Fair, a 1950 film with Dirk Bogarde and Jean Simmons, on a region 2 Spirit DVD. The transfer is more than adequate though on the soft side so I would imagine a similar decent if unimpressive transfer of The Kidnappers.

I received my copy from Germany today and just finished it. It's a pristine anamorphic transfer. Quite enjoyed it too though the second half (the Cooper/Parker May-December romance) is better than the first half.

I currently have Singapore (1947) with Fred MacMurray and Ava Gardner and Puzzle Of A Downfallen Child (1970) with Faye Dunaway winging their way to me from France.

Thomas, thank you for that. I'll place my order later today.

Please let us know about Singapore which I've never seen and have always wanted to. (Fred MacMurray and Ava Gardner are two of my favorite stars)

I did a piece on Singapore a few weeks back. The movie is mediocre but the French DVD is quite acceptable.

Thank you for that and for your review. Despite the shortcomings you have mentioned, I still want to see this movie at least once so I will at some stage place my order with Amazon France..

Man Without A Star is now available on DVD in the U. K. along with Rough Night In Jericho. The buyers reviews on Amazon UK indicate that picture quality is good. Those who did not buy the Australian disc may be interested.

I also notice that an early Stanley Baker movie Sea Fury will be available in the U. K. very soon. I might buy that one.

One of the rarer Bogart titles Deadline - USA is due out in Italy on April 10. I've no idea how product from the company (A&R Productions) fares though.

ROUGH NIGHT IN JERICHO is available domestically as a Universal Vault Series MOD.

I've just watched Ten North Frederick. I agree entirely that it's a "pristine anamorphic transfer." I loved the movie, the whole of it and more than I expected. It's the first time I've ever seen Suzy Parker give a really good performance. In films like The Best Of Everything and Kiss Them For Me she was OK but nothing more. Here she was excellent. I'll have to hunt down her other movies.

On the way in June from Koch Germany are two excellent adventure/historical epics.

RAIDERS OF THE SEVEN SEAS (Sidney Salkow 1954)
John Payne,Donna Reed,Lon Chaney,Anthony Caruso,Gerald Mohr,Henry Brandon.
A first rate Pirate romp with not one but three nasty villians (Caruso,Mohr and Brandon)
Lon Chaney (with wooden leg) is a good guy for a change.
This is already out on a MGM/UA MOD but I know a lot of people do not like these.
The MGM MOD is a fine looking transfer but the Koch version should be even better.
One of the very best Fifties Pirate films.

LANCELOT AND GUINEVERE
AT LAST! what looks like being a remastered version of Cornel Wildes top-notch historical epic.
I understand the other versions out there are crap.
The lovely widescreen screengrabs on the Koch website look great!

Raiders of the Seven Seas will only be distributed by Koch Media. The disc is made by Black Hill Pictures. Koch does the distribution for two or three other companies but these discs are easy to identify, because the logos are printed on the front cover.

The Universal France DVD of Singapore looks quite nice. The film itself is Casablanca lite with MacMurray/Gardner/Roland Culver standing in for Bogart/Bergman/Henreid. Not a memorable film by any means but it should please fans of MacMurray and Gardner.

I'm assuming it has removable subs?

This is something to watch with French releases. Protecting French language is a big thing in France and one of the consequences is that French DVD releases have a distressingly high tendancy to feature forced French subs on anything that was originally in anything other than French.

It's certainly more common than it is on the various Spanish, Italian and German releases I've got which whilst they commonly feature domestic language subs and dubs on English language movies, they are nearly always optional.

Singapore indeed has optional subtitles.

Three of George Raft's finest - NOCTURNE, A DANGEROUS PROFESSION and JOHNNY ANGEL due out on R2 Spain.
Uncertain whether or not to preorder. Many Spanish vintage releases have been fairly abject. TENSION AT TABLE ROCK and THE LONE GUN were both recent aquisitions that were filed straight in the trash. The Manga RKO releases have been fairly undistinguished as well.
The distributor is Vertice Cine. Does anybody have any knowledge of their product?

I've never heard of Vertice Cine until now.

As Amazon now have a Spanish operation, presumably sooner or later customer reviews of these DVDs will appear on the Amazon website. Those of us who have learned the hard way that Europe produces as many lousy DVDs as the USA may choose to wait and watch before placing an order..

I only have one Vertice Cine DVD in my collection. Dangerous Mission a 1954 thriller with Victor Mature, Vincent Price and Piper Laurie. I stand to be corrected but I believe the film is in the public domain (though RKO may have a pristine transfer somewhere). The DVD comes with a handsome, glossy booklet on the film ... in Spanish, of course. As for the quality of the transfer, it's a childhood favorite so perhaps I'm more tolerant so even though the colors were somewhat faded and the picture lacked sharpness, I found it quite watchable ..... though obviously the film appears to need serious restoration/remastering.

I thought Vertice Cine were connected in some way to Manga, though I may be mistaken. I don't believe any of the RKO titles are PD but the rights worldwide are difficult to determine.

Does Dangerous Mission have forced subs? I thought I heard somewhere that it had.

 

I swear the first time I watched Dangerous Mission I figured out some way to trick the DVD into disabling the Spanish subtitles. Unfortunately, I should have written it down because when I just tested it, I was unable to eliminate the Spanish subtitles. The "idiomas" section has "sin subtitulos" which doesn't eliminate the Spanish subs when you click on it!

I have a Swedish DVD of The Sweet Body Of Deborah with Carroll Baker that has no option for disabling the automatic subtitles. But when I hit the off button and hit the chaper 1 button, it will play without any subitles. Same thing with the Spanish DVD of Revolt Of Mamie Stover. Go figure! I tried some variations of that the first time with Dangerous Mission the first time and it worked but not this time.