A Few Words About A few words about...™ It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[GMpasqua]

 

[GMpasqua]

 

[mercyflight]

Thanks you for sharing the cool newspaper clippings, Greg. I miss the roadshow days!
Could this be a lost sequence

 

[Douglas R]

Opened at the London Coliseum in December 1963 and still playing in July 1964 when it transferred to the Royalty:

 

[Ensign Eddie]

Yeah, I thought that was pretty funny too.
Crawdaddy

I was just trying to be a little cute. However, I want to say that I have an immense amount of respect for Mr. Harris' opinions and judgement. In fact, one of my first thoughts when I read about the sync issue was that it was my setup that was maladjusted (which is still a possibility). I did go back and watch more of the film before my original post to specifically search for sync problems and didn't find any (and usually when someone is looking for a problem with A/V they find it).If Mr. Harris would provide a more detailed explanation of what he is experiencing, I would like to take another look.

 

[Reagan]

Fail.

Recall.

RAH

The most disturbing thing about this review is that RAH is sounding a lot like my 11 year old son.
-R

 

[John Morgan]

I saw this film several times when it opened in San Diego. It played nearly a year in 70mm. By the time it got to San Diego, the film portion was already cut to 154 minutes, but it did retain the Overture, Entr'acte and Walk-out music, but no polie calls.
Although Mr. Harris claims this is the 35mm version, he states the film looks like it was made from 65mm materials. So, I am considering this release and basing my criticism on what I saw when I first saw it in 70mm in San Diego after the cuts were made.
As I remember, the DVD had the Entr'acte and Walk-out music, but not the Overture. Although I haven't received the Blu-Ray yet, I understand it has the Overture and Walk-out music, but not the Intermission music. So, if this BluRay was to duplicate what I saw about 12 times in 1963 in San Diego, it would be the 154 minute "film" version with about 9 added minutes of blank-screen music, making the total time around 163 minutes, which is what I wanted. In that regards, I am disappointed.

 

[Who's On First?]

Recall.

RAH

The most disturbing thing about this review is that RAH is sounding a lot like my 11 year old son.
-R

Well, this thread IS called "A Few Words About..."
(And as can be plainly seen by some of the overly-wordy responses in this forum, less is often more.)

 

[GMpasqua]

At first I thought someone was impersonating Mr. Harris on this site. Usually Mr. Harris gives reasons and is much clearer in his writings. Maybe he was just too tired or so (understandably )frustrated when he started this post

So many on the web have prasied the picture and sound and said nothing about sync issues. We all knew we were getting the cut version - so it's no surprise.

So does anyone really know if this was from 65mm or 35mm sources? - there is still so much debate on this matter

 

[John Morgan]

It's irrelevant whether the Blu-ray has come from a 35mm or 70mm print. It is still the same length version which was widely shown as a roadshow attraction with Overture, Entr'acte and Exit music, so those should all be included for completeness. I saw it in 70mm and also later on 35mm on general release. The 35mm version still had an intermission and may also have retained the Overture and Exit music (too long ago to be sure).

After the film left the San Diego "Cinerama" theater, over the years, I would often see it in 35mm when it played locally. Yes, the blank-screen music was all gone, but also the Intermission. In fact, the sing out to the Intermission was reworked ( even think composer Ernest Gold wrote another alternate version for non-intermission showing), where the music segued into the fuse music with no singing at all. That is the 35mm version I am most familiar with.

 

[Robert Harris]

To be clear, the 70mm version of the film, roadshow or not, had a credit after Stanely Kramer presents, which read "in Cinerama"

Elements created for 35mm printing from 65 original, did not.

RAH

 

[GMpasqua]

If the film element is 35mm how come the aspect ratio is so wide? - has the top and bottom been cropped? Were black bands added on the top and bottom of the 35mm image for theaterical screenings?

 

[John Morgan]

At first I thought someone was impersonating Mr. Harris on this site. Usually Mr. Harris gives reasons and is much clearer in his writings. Maybe he was just too tired or so (understandably )frustrated when he started this post

So many on the web have prasied the picture and sound and said nothing about sync issues. We all knew we were getting the cut version - so it's no surprise.

So does anyone really know if this was from 65mm or 35mm sources? - there is still so much debate on this matter

A friend of mine who is in film restoration told me several years ago he saw some footage from the scanned 65mm materials for MAD WORLD. It was one of those gatherings studios would show off what they were working on. He said it looked great, so I am betting the film itself is from 65mm material, but as Robert Harris mentioned, maybe the credit sequence was from 35mm. IT seems credit sequences are not always attached to the film itself....maybe because of language differences in different areas. But I don't know.

 

[mercyflight]

Here's something from the archives, John.

No Entr' Acte???
Paul

 

[Jacksmyname]

Hi all.
Picked this up this am.
I just spent a few minutes scanning though it to see what it looks like.
I, for one, am VERY pleased with it from the few minutes I watched.
No synch issues here.
Well worth the $10.
Jack

 

[RickER]

Mr Harris, could the audio synch be a HDMI issue? I am seeing nothing wrong with the audio in time with the video. Once I see this sort of thing, I can NOT see it. Like I said earlier I did see an issue on The Magnificent Seven, but not on this title.
I agree that the contrast is a minor issue. Really shocked you give this a fail. But as it is your favorite movie, and you know how a full-blown restoration would look...not sure if you are holding that against what we got. I am sure no expert on sound or video. I just carry 47 years of watching TV, and a mild case of OCD.
And yes, I would give it a fail if the audio was out of sync, but this is not the case, for me anyway.

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by GMpasqua
If the film element is 35mm how come the aspect ratio is so wide? - has the top and bottom been cropped? Were black bands added on the top and bottom of the 35mm image for theaterical screenings?

In referring to 35mm, I'm merely making note of the Main Title sequence, which was created on 65mm for 35mm printing. This is the element being used.

I believe the image was harvested from a 65mm element, and looks it.

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by John Morgan
A friend of mine who is in film restoration told me several years ago he saw some footage from the scanned 65mm materials for MAD WORLD. It was one of those gatherings studios would show off what they were working on. He said it looked great, so I am betting the film itself is from 65mm material, but as Robert Harris mentioned, maybe the credit sequence was from 35mm. IT seems credit sequences are not always attached to the film itself....maybe because of language differences in different areas. But I don't know.

Thank you. I've never seen a 65mm element that had the Main Title physically attached to reel 1A. This allowed for whatever was needed to be printed, ie. different languages, and also 35 vs. 70mm presentation.

RAH

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by RickER
Mr Harris, could the audio synch be a HDMI issue? I am seeing nothing wrong with the audio in time with the video. Once I see this sort of thing, I can NOT see it. Like I said earlier I did see an issue on The Magnificent Seven, but not on this title.
I agree that the contrast is a minor issue. Really shocked you give this a fail. But as it is your favorite movie, and you know how a full-blown restoration would look...not sure if you are holding that against what we got. I am sure no expert on sound or video. I just carry 47 years of watching TV, and a mild case of OCD.
And yes, I would give it a fail if the audio was out of sync, but this is not the case, for me anyway.

I've revamped the opening to this thread. I've now tried via both HDMI as well as optical with the same results, and am looking elsewhere for a potential cause.

As I do not permission to edit this thread, please ignore the mention of sync for the moment. The fail was for what I presumed was a sync issue. If that issue is not real -- and as I noted, I've been working on this -- then the disc is just fine. As to a "full-blown" restoration, and I've made this point before, there are very, very few problems with the element used for this Blu-ray, and any restoration work performed, would be very minor. The problems are with the long version of the film.

Apologies for confusion.

RAH

 

[Matt Stieg]

I've revamped the opening to this thread.  I've now tried via both HDMI as well as optical with the same results, and am looking elsewhere for a potential cause. As I do not permission to edit this thread, please ignore the mention of sync for the moment.  The fail was for what I presumed was a sync issue.  If that issue is not real -- and as I noted, I've been working on this -- then the disc is just fine.  As to a "full-blown" restoration, and I've made this point before, there are very, very few problems with the element used for this Blu-ray, and any restoration work performed, would be very minor.  The problems are with the long version of the film. Apologies for confusion. RAH

Well, there is most definitely a sync issue. I didn't watch the whole movie last night but I watched a little of the beginning and a little towards the end. The later scenes are definitely a little out of sync (audio slightly ahead of the video). BUT, this is most definitely NOT the first time I personally have noticed sync issues with blu-rays. I've noticed this on The Maltese Falcon, on The Searchers, on The Who's The Kids Are Alright, on the UK version of Psycho (the used car buying scene) and plenty more that I can't remember off the top of my head. Fortunately my Pioneer receiver has a great audio delay feature (the out-of-syncness is usually the audio slightly ahead of the video, though not in the case of The Searchers) so I can just add a little delay in the audio to sync it up; but it's rather annoying when I'm in the middle of watching a film and I suddenly notice that something just isn't right with the words coming out of an actor's mouth, and I have to take a few minutes to fiddle around with the delay to get it right.Why does this seem to be such a recurring issue with blu-rays? I've seen it on DVDs here and there in the past but not nearly to the same extent as blu-rays, and I own far more DVDs than blu-rays.