A Few Words About A few words about... The High and the Mighty (1 Viewer)

[Will Ryan]

>>>>The restoration of every film does not necessary need to have major news attached to it.

 

[Robert Harris]

To Will Ryan...

Hardly...

This is factual, not personal. Along with every other archivist working in the field, I applaud every film restored and / or preserved, most of which are never recognized by the public.

There are dozens of major and minor newsworthy (and not so newsworthy) restorations annually, many of which are never discussed. I'm personally involved in one major restoration only every two or three years. There are others in which I'm involved, which I personally don't find newsworthy, and to which I either do not take credit or prefer to have go below the public's radar.

A short list of restorations from the recent past (with which I have had no
involvement) are...

Major Dundee (coming to DVD) - Columbia
Metropolis - Martin Koerber (Germany)
Dr. Strangelove - Columbia
Gone with the Wind -WB (for DVD)
The Adventures of Robin Hood - WB (for DVD)
Sunset Blvd. - Paramount
To Kill a Mockingbird (which has not yet hit DVD) - Universal
The King and I (not yet on DVD) - Fox
In a Lonely Place - Columbia
Sunrise - Fox / Academy / BFI
Carousel - Fox (not yet on DVD)
Roman Holiday - Paramount
Hell's Angels (from UCLA in 1989, recently to DVD)
Lord Jim - Columbia
The Man Who Knew Too Much - Universal
The Birds - Universal
To Hell and Back - Universal
Imitation of LIfe (not yet to DVD) - Universal

And since we're mentioning UCLA, there are the Dorothy Arzner films restored in recent years, among dozens of others:

The Wild Party
Sarah and Son
Anybody's Woman
Honour Among Lovers
Working Girls
Merrily We Go to Hell

Which have not, as yet, not been seen on DVD, and all of which are unheralded.

What I'm saying is NOT that the work on the Wayne film is in any way less than beautiful or fully professionally done. This is fine work from a fine laboratory.

But rather, that "restoration" demonstrations and documentaries are starting to get a bit out of hand, repetitious and sometimes relegated to the DVD space filler category, when they should not. Nor should documentaries be designed as promotional films for the facilities involved. Cinetech has done a fine job, but they are not the only entity offering these services. The most notable analogue "restoration" labs are YCM, Film Technology, Pacific Title and Triage, in no particular order. Pacific Title has been around since 1919. They all do superb work, and I would entrust rare, antique original negatives to any of them.

When there is something of imporance to communicate -- when the art or technique of film restoration is in some way being advanced -- it is at that point that we need a piece on a film's restoration and / or reconstruction, designed not only to educate and advance the audience's interest, but to move them to consider helping any of the various entities raising funds to save our film heritage.

RAH

 

[oscar_merkx]

Thanks RAH for continuing to update all of us

 

[Roger Rollins]

Echoing Mr. Merkx's comments, I applaud and am eternally grateful for Robert Harris and his generous and always illuminating contributions to the HTF.

Mr. Harris' gracious acknowledgment of restoration work done by others in his field reveals (although not surprisingly to me), that his dedication is to film, and film preservation and restoration itself, regardless of who does the work (...as long as it's REALLY restored and done properly).

Not to be redundant...but bravo to Mr. Harris.


....and yes, although I applaud the preservation and restoration and hard work that Gretchen Wayne put into THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY before she sold it to Paramount, I still think the movie is downright awful:wink:

 

[Will Ryan]

The Home Theater Forum, and us, are super lucky to have someone like yourself, Robert, sharing your knowledge and enlightening the masses when it comes to film preservation.
Best,

Will

 

[Steve...O]

Does this refer to the Warren William/Claudette Colbert version? If so, should I hold off on buying the current DVD double bill with the Lana Turner remake in anticipation of this getting an improved release.

Ditto to the other comments recognizing the efforts of Mr. Harris and his professional colleagues who keep these movies alive.

Steve

 

[Mark Anthony]

Mr Harris may I enquire what your next project is likely to be and do you have any knowledge on any progress, or lack of, on restorations of "The Alamo" and "....Mad World" following the Sony buy-out of MGM-UA?

Regards

M

 

[Eric Huffstutler]

quote:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While much of the film holds up well for the modern audience, if one can position oneself with a mindset of 1952, The HIgh and the Mighty still packs the whallop that it did over half a century ago.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And Crawdaddy said:

Crawdaddy, I can't agree with you more!

Classic movies do take a certain mindset. Not to stereotype anyone but usually those in the 18-25 age bracket (or so) do not relate to classics. It is kind of like watching movies such as "THEM!" (about atomic mutant ants) or "Clash By Night". Each had its audiance in the 1950s and each was impressive for that era but may come off dated or cheesy because viewers have become jaded by high tech movies of today. Too bad because these people are missing out on a LOT!

Eric

 

[DeeF]

I've just watched this DVD, and I certainly applaud its restored splendor, particularly the audio (and Tiomkin's score for "Giant" should sound like this one).

I do have a few complaints. Why can't the intros and features share "anamorphic" status? My player is a few years old, and it doesn't have an "auto" feature, so I must change it accordingly, which is annoying to me.

I noted a few big cracks in the movie -- couldn't these have been digitally fixed for the DVD?

And I guess I concur with Roger Rollins and others -- the movie itself is pretty hokey, melodramatic, and not very good. It may have been a trendsetter, but for all the hokeyness of Airport, that movie is much, much better, and more exciting. Even the score of The High and Mighty is hokey.

 

[Thomas T]

Roger and Deef,

I'll take The High And The Mighty over junk like, oh, excuse me "classics" like It's A Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Giant, Grapes Of Wrath, Shadow Of A Doubt or Dr. Strangelove. All of which are near impossible for me to sit through without hitting the fast forward button.

Do I have a point? Yes, though I find the above films lousy despite the "esteem" in which they're held, just because I don't like them doesn't make them so to anyone but me. I think you'll get my drift.

 

[DeeF]

Yes, everyone's entitled to their opinion, you to yours, and me to mine.

 

[Eric Huffstutler]

Thomas T.

Your comments bring up another point I believe in. Even though these older "classic" movies may not be everyone's cup of tea, the same can be said for award winning movies. Just because it won 'Best Picture' for a particular year doesn't mean I will like it. We are all individuals with different viewpoints and tastes. One person's classic is another person's trash.

For instance, I am 48 years old and can remember many of these classics from the 50s and 60s as I was brought up on them and half of the titles you mention in your post hating, I happen to also like.

One movie, "Dr. Strangelove" came out at the same tile as "Fail Safe", both just after the height of the Cold War. Nuclear threat was very much on everyone's mind and movies like these could be related to and were scarry for their day. May be korny now but wasn't in 1964.

 

[TheLongshot]

DVD Savant has his review up:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s1496high.html

Looks like those of you who don't like non-skippable openings are going to be disappointed...

Jason

 

[Robert Harris]

Savant's comments re: the ability to get the film to start is quite correct.

One can highlight the Maltin intro, and then go to start...

but the intro will begin again anyway, leaving no alternative but to move on to the chapter stops to get the film rolling -- apparently an encoding issue.

RAH

 

[obscurelabel]

Can anyone confirm the aspect ratio of the DVD? DVDSavant's review mentions 2.35:1 and that the frame occasionally appears crowded at the edges. The screenshots on DVDBeaver here:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDRev...dvd_review.htm

are about 2.5:1 according to my rough measurement (and certainly look wider than 2.35:1), so I'm guessing that they are the original 2.55:1. The product specs on Amazon list 2.35:1 also.

 

[TonyD]

apparently "island" will be 7.99 on release at a b&m store located in or near most major Cities

 

[Scott Kimball]

It looks like 2.55:1 to me.

I'm putting the finishing touches on my review. I'll post tomorrow.

-Scott

 

[Eric Peterson]

There have been radio ads on Air America during the past week for these releases. I was kind of surprised.

 

[PaulEB]

Has anyone noticed background sound dropping out, specifically the propeller noise heard from within the plane. At about 33 minutes into the movie, when the pilot is talking to the woman who wants to exit from the front of the plane, the prop sounds is heard from one camera angle and not from another. I believe this happens later on as well.

I was wondering if this is a DVD problem or just the way the movie was made.

Okay, got to finish the movie tonight and noticed more sound problems. At 2:19:45 the sound drops almost entirely except for the effects channel. I switched to the 2nd audio track, Digital 2/0 (dvd player lists it this way) and the sound was fine. I went back to the earlier part (0:33) of the movie where I noticed the problem and switched to the 2nd Audio track and the sound seemed good. So it appears that the Digital 3/2.1 (dvd player lists it this way) audio track has some problems.

The DVD package lists Dolby Digtal 5.1 and 2.0 tracks, so it appears this first one has the issues.