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

[Bob Furmanek]

Thanks Mark, I appreciate that!
I don't think anybody has more information on the making of their films than Ron and I. We spent years putting the book together, interviewing people that worked on the films, pouring through studio documents, etc. We even had access to Bud and Lou's personal files and scrapbooks.
I thought the quality of that transfer was quite good. I've seen that box set on sale for as low as $60.00.

 

[moviepas]

Also, Does a BD50 just allow for more data than a BD25? I did not know there were different types of disks.

BD50 is just the start. There are discs with many times this amount of space, with numerous layers glued together. Most would still be experimental at this time.

As for commentary tracks, my view would be that if they want the populous to go to Blu Ray they should include all the previous material & more. I do know there were problems with early DVDs, that had been on Laserdiscs, in that the contracts were for that medium and the DVD people could not get the use of them. This often happened when a title was leased to, say, Criterion, and someone else, maybe the original owner of the title did the DVD.

I like the extras and the commentary tracks and use them. Some people tell me that they don't want these extras and others tell me they do. As a person who gets a lot of discs from a city library service I see all the damage by others. What is funny that if a disc in a set is to be marked and unusable it is usually the Extras discs where such exists as a separate unit or the last disc in a multi set TV series(4 or 6 discs). I always wonder why.

Mention has been made of picture quality from older elements(be it film or video). Just today they did a piece on a popular social/fashion editor & panel guest in this country who died over the Easter weekend in my city. The old video black & white footage in the piece had perfect backgrounds like black & white photos I used to take. Not a piece of grain, drop out etc to be seen. Whilst I have seen other footage like this from old TV video recently, it does look rather odd and too clean. I don't think such footage looked like this in its day on our TV whether live or from a pre-recording.

I do have the A&C sets that Universal issued, all imported from USA. Now if Universal would do something with the other 40s light material they have there with others which includes the musicals with Donald & Peggy. I don't recall much, if any, on TV when I was a kid but MCA-owned Paramount were always on the screen along with Warners in those pioneer TV days. Good way to learn about the entertainment of my parents and their parents. Probably meant more films were saved and more pirates emerging!!!!

 

[lark144]

Hello Bob Furmanek! I'm another A&C fan who finally got around to watching BUCK PRIVATES for the first time last night because I was interested in hearing the commentary by you & Ron Palumbo. Although I bought the Universal box set a few years ago, I never got around to watching BUCK PRIVATES, as it was not a film I grew up with. WOW! That's all I can say. What an entertaining & truly engaging film. And I'm so glad I waited, because I was able to watch it with you & Mr. Palumbo, well, with your voices, in any case.
What most impressed me about the film was the way it was edited. It's not just that A&C did the routines differently each time, so these takes had to be carefully inserted into the scene in order to match the master, but also the way in which the rhythms brought out the humor, allowing the scene to build, and then cutting to especially funny bits that happened in what were later takes with somewhat different compositions and staging, because of the free-form manner in which A&C worked, which one might compare to visionary saxophonist Charlie Parker's manner of doing completely different improvisations for each take of a tune.
That was especially clear to me for I listened to the commentary first, then watched the scene again with the original dialogue. l' m sure purists out there would shake their heads at this fragmented way of watching a film, but for me it was both an illuminating as well as a wonderful experience. In fact, I would say that Philip Cahn's editing of BUCK PRIVATES is on the same, transcendent level as that of Peter Hunt in DR. NO, creating through carefully timed and sometime very surprising rhythms an almost musical counterpoint to the verbal inspirations of A&C.
I also was knocked out by the way many of the scenes were lit, especially the Apple Blossom Time number. Amazing that Universal didn't want to pay for the rights of the song and finally the Andrews Sisters bought the rights themselves! It's clearly one of the best scenes in the film, as well as being extremely evocative, as the song foreshadows the feeling of wives and girlfriends seeing their men enlist and go off to war. (Although BUCK PRIVATES was released in January of 1941, according to IMDB, I'm assuming it was still around in neighborhood theatres in December, after the attack on Pearl Harbor changed the entire mood of the country.)
Anyway, I'm glad you mentioned the commentary in one of your posts above, for it was great seeing this film for the first time, with you & Ron Palumbo as genial, not to mention informative, hosts, making the experience all the more enjoyable.
I also have a question about JACK & THE BEANSTALK. It was a film I loved as a child, particularly for its use of color. I know there are a lot of lousy PD copies about. Are any of them worth buying? Also, would you please write about the rights situation of JACK & THE BEANSTALK, and if there is any possibility of the film having an official release on disc ( or, if need be, restored) sometime in the near future?
Thanks,
Mark

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Thank you very much, Mark. I truly appreciate your kind words and I'm glad that you enjoyed our commentary!
Universal truly caught lightning-in-a-bottle with BUCK PRIVATES. The timing was perfect and it's one of those films that still holds up today. I've had the chance to see it in 35mm with up to 400 people in a theatrical screening and it's amazing how much the laughter builds throughout the comedy sequences.
The music works beautifully and I recall "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" getting applause from one particularly receptive audience in a 1928 movie palace.
So far as JACK AND THE BEANSTALK, I produced a Special Edition laser disc for Image Entertainment around 20 years ago. I had tracked down hundreds of production stills, documents, scripts, deleted scenes, etc. The feature was transferred from a near mint 35mm SuperCinecolor print from the vaults at Warner Bros.
The laser disc is long out of print, Shortly after it's release, my transfer was stolen and released by any number of bootleg companies selling films they believed to be in the public domain. I'm sure that my transfer can be found on some DVD's, but they would have been copied from a laser disc so the quality would be lacking.
I'm told some elements have surfaced on the film and that rights issues have been cleared. Hopefully, WB will release a new, restored version mastered in HD.
Bob

 

[Richard Gallagher]

Originally Posted by Bob Furmanek /t/319894/a-few-words-about-buck-privates-in-blu-ray#post_3915521
So far as JACK AND THE BEANSTALK, I produced a Special Edition laser disc for Image Entertainment around 20 years ago. I had tracked down hundreds of production stills, documents, scripts, deleted scenes, etc. The feature was transferred from a near mint 35mm SuperCinecolor print from the vaults at Warner Bros.
The laser disc is long out of print,

I'm happy to say that I have the JACK AND THE BEANSTALK laser disc. It's a beautiful gatefold edition with terrific extras and informative liner notes by Ron Palumbo.

I first became deeply involved in A&C films in the early seventies when WPIX-TV in New York aired their Universal films every Sunday morning. The downside was that the TV prints had some missing scenes which were cut to make room for commercials because the films were aired in 90-minute slots. It wasn't until the laser disc of BUCK PRIVATES came out that I had the opportunity to view it uncut. As I recall, the principal scene which was cut for television was the craps game on the train.

I'm very happy with the A&C box set. I'll probably pick up the BD when it goes on sale and I can get it for less than $20.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Here you go: http://www.ebay.com/itm/LD-laserdisc-JACK-AND-BEANSTALK-Abbott-Costello-/360389444336?pt=US_Laserdisc&hash=item53e8e282f0

 

[JoHud]

So, did Universal digitally enhance the stock footage so it looks indistinguishable from the rest of the studio shots?
Sorry to hear about the grain issues, though its not a dealbreaker as recent 2012 Universal releases still looks somewhat film-like and its not as noticeable as the worst offenders.
The high price tag of this one will probably keep it in my wish list for a while. I have the box set and I'm not in a rush to own the blu-ray.

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by JoHud /t/319894/a-few-words-about-buck-privates-in-blu-ray#post_3915576
So, did Universal digitally enhance the stock footage so it looks indistinguishable from the rest of the studio shots?
Sorry to hear about the grain issues, though its not a dealbreaker as recent 2012 Universal releases still looks somewhat film-like and its not as noticeable as the worst offenders.
The high price tag of this one will probably keep it in my wish list for a while. I have the box set and I'm not in a rush to own the blu-ray.

There is no reason why this should have a "high price tab." Everything doesn't need a book attached to it.

RAH

 

[Richard Gallagher]

I'm guessing that $40 was the original list price of the JACK IN THE BEANSTALK laser disc. Mine is in near-mint condition. Now I'm motivated to watch it again!

 

[John Morgan]

The cutting of ABBOTT AND COSTELLO films certainly was frustrating, but at the time, I didn't know better as these films were fresh and new to television. One things I remember about ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN is it seemed to play on various stations in Los Angeles...but in 90 minute time slots. Well, as it happened, the 3 stations cut different sections of the movie to make the timing. And after about 6 years, I could mentally put together the entire film. As I remember.
One version started right at the entrance to the HOUSE OF HORRORS museum.
Another version eliminated the entire Costello-Wolf Man hotel room sequence.
And the third one eliminated the cellar encounters with Dracula and the monster.
They finally started showing it complete in a 2 hour time slot.
Isn't this slated for Blu Ray?

 

[David Weicker]

There is no reason why this should have a "high price tab."  Everything doesn't need a book attached to it.
RAH

I'm curious, why is this film different than a Twilight Time release, which also has a similar "high price tab", but is acceptable.
David

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Maybe because BUCK PRIVATES was previously released on Betamax, VHS, laser disc and twice on DVD?

 

[John Sparks]

What I really want is "Meet Frankenstein!" I had the LD and have the two SDs, and all are of different quality. "Beanstalk and Kidd" would be great too!

 

[John Hodson]

Maybe because BUCK PRIVATES was previously released on Betamax, VHS, laser disc and twice on DVD?

 

[JoeDoakes]

What I really want is "Meet Frankenstein!" I had the LD and have the two SDs, and all are of different quality. "Beanstalk and Kidd" would be great too!

Warner archive released the restored Meet Captain Kidd as well as Rio Rita. Warner's decision to put those titles in the archive angered me as I thought it epitomized the Archive's cannibalization of what could be retail releases. At the very least, the Warner Archive should do a limited pressing of titles like that as TCM does. My recollection is that, at one time, Warner said it had no plans for Beanstalk because it could not locate the elements necessary to use its Technicolor restoration process. If the proper elements have been found, perhaps we will see it.

 

[John Sparks]

There have been two issues of "Meet Frankenstein" and the standalone, to my eyes, was the best print. A few nights ago, TCM played "Meet Frankenstein" on their HD channel and the print was quite excellent! About 10 minutes into it, the audio went of of sync, so I turned it off. I didn't fell like watching a Chinese dubbed movie, it was that bad. I put on my SD, which gets upscaled to 1080p, and let me tell you that it was as bad as a VHS copy.
If TCM has a copy that good, I'm really crossing my fingers that Universal puts theirs out and it'll be much better...I hope.

 

[Nelson Au]

I never got around to getting the A&C film box set. I was thinking about doing it and then I heard about the Buck Privates blu ray . I grew up watching their films on TV.
So I was thinking of starting with this new blu ray today. I see it includes the DVD. I can't tell from the specs, but I was hoping after reading earlier posts that it would include the audio commentary. I hope so! I'd like to hear Bob's efforts. If there's no commentary on the DVD disc, I may get the box set anyway. But I can't help but wonder if an eventual blu ray box set could come.
And Meets Frankenstein is one of my favorites! I do have that DVD.

 

[JoeDoakes]

I never got around to getting the A&C film box set. I was thinking about doing it and then I heard about the Buck Privates blu ray . I grew up watching their films on TV.
So I was thinking of starting with this new blu ray today. I see it includes the DVD. I can't tell from the specs, but I was hoping after reading earlier posts that it would include the audio commentary. I hope so! I'd like to hear Bob's efforts. If there's no commentary on the DVD disc, I may get the box set anyway. But I can't help but wonder if an eventual blu ray box set could come.
And Meets Frankenstein is one of my favorites! I do have that DVD.

A Blu boxset of over 20 A&C films? That seems very unlikely baring a technoligical advance that greatly decreases the cost of blu ray releases of classic material.

 

[Nelson Au]

Well, I was just thinking since there is a A&C Complete Universal Pictures Collection set out already on DVD, maybe eventually it will hit blu ray.

 

[John Morgan]

I had every incarnation of every release of Abbott and Costello’s on tape, laser and DVD. I remember the first BUCK PRIVATES was in pretty lousy condition, but improved with subsequent releases. I think they must have remastered that film 4 or 5 times.
I got rid of the first box set with all those lousy flippers, and got the final set in the suitcase that had many of the films remastered and improved from the previous box set, not to mention the first official release of IT AIN’T HAY. The only one that really still looks pretty horrible is IN THE NAVY. I can’t figure why that looks so bad. To me, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEETS FRANKENSTEIN looks and sounds the best of several video releases in this set, although they mistakenly used the reissue Realart credit cards after the logo and I think the END title.
And doesn't some of the mid 50s films have open matte instead of OAR?
I heard Universal did many retransfers of these films in Hi Def, but probably just Hi Def transfers and not scanning negatives. I am told the real expense for Blu Ray is the authoring and compression costs.
I think there are 28 Universal Abbott and Costello features, so couldn’t they fit (four films per disc) on 7 Blu Ray discs, or is four films per too much. Maybe 7 into 28 would be 13 films per disc.