"Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" coming from MGM/UA to Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[RobertSiegel]

Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein

Yeah, not great artwork at all.


They could have done much better with the cover.


I'm just happy that this is coming out on Blu-ray.

Couldn't agree more. I was very surprised to hear about this release but very excited. The showings on cable recently in HD have been great but of course they are all compressed in picture and severely compressed sound. I noticed they did a remix on the soundtrack. The music seems much more separated and the levels balanced now. Previously, you could hardly hear the music during the opening credits during the car races, but now it is well balanced. Too bad UA masters and stems are mostly gone, or we could have a nice isolated score. The soundtrack CD is nice that Rhino released but it is from the album master, and they never sound as good as the stems.


Hopefully, MGM will continue this with Fiddler on the Roof and West Side Story!

 

[Stephen_J_H]

I would love to see Fiddler and West Side Story on BD. Fiddler's 35mm, but the location photography is amazing.

 

[Matt Hough]

Truth be told, I'd much rather they have released Blu-rays of West Side Story or Fiddler on the Roof rather than Chitty, but I'll take what I can get.

 

[GMpasqua]

I would love an isolated score for CCBB!

"Fiddler" is listed as coming at Blu-Ray.com but no date, and Amazon has a placeholder for "West Side Story" (which was announced over seas but then cancelled) so I would think both are in development and a release should occur next year

 

[MatthewA]

Originally Posted by GMpasqua

I would love an isolated score for CCBB!

"Fiddler" is listed as coming at Blu-Ray.com but no date, and Amazon has a placeholder for "West Side Story" (which was announced over seas but then cancelled) so I would think both are in development and a release should occur next year

I think that on a magicmusic.net board discussion when Varese Sarabande reissued the soundtrack CD, someone claimed to have contacted MGM about where the music recording sessions and the isolated score tracks went, and they said they couldn't find them. That doesn't necessarily mean they don't exist or that they even looked, though. They have found scores for other United Artists movies in various degrees of quality.


That would be a shame if they truly existed in no form anywhere on Earth. Irwin Kostal is one of my favorite arrangers for movie musicals, and I would like an isolated score, too. In fact, musicals are the one genre where isolated scores are a must (when they still exist).

 

[RobertSiegel]

Originally Posted by MatthewA




I think that on a magicmusic.net board discussion when Varese Sarabande reissued the soundtrack CD, someone claimed to have contacted MGM about where the music recording sessions and the isolated score tracks went, and they said they couldn't find them. That doesn't necessarily mean they don't exist or that they even looked, though. They have found scores for other United Artists movies in various degrees of quality.


That would be a shame if they truly existed in no form anywhere on Earth. Irwin Kostal is one of my favorite arrangers for movie musicals, and I would like an isolated score, too. In fact, musicals are the one genre where isolated scores are a must (when they still exist).

I was told by a rather well known home video expert from one of the studios that the stems and music tapes and most of the camera negatives for the UA library (pre-1970) are rare or destroyed. I can't remember which but when one company bought them, I was told they threw almost all of it away. This is a very reliable insider who told me this. He told me that when we see any pre-1970 UA film in stereo, it is pure luck that a print survived and was used for home video. If you look at the condition of some of the MGM releases of the UA films, that says it all. So we are lucky to have stereo for some of these films. Many of the 50's and 60's stereo tracks are simply gone unless collector's have them or a studio office in some other country. VERY sad indeed!

 

[GMpasqua]

Back when Rhino was releasing soundtracks on CD, they wanted to do CCBB but they couldn't get the right, they apparently had the materials available.


CCBB was filmed in Britain, so there is a chance the stems etc maybe exist somewhere over there. The US stuff is what has largely been lost

 

[John Skoda]

Sad, but it makes sense because United Artists was not a studio in the sense that MGM or Warner Bros. was. They were a distributor only. So I would imagine they didn't have much in the way of centralized archives. They probably left it to the original film producers to keep their materials--or not.

 

[OliverK]

From what I know at least the negatives of their big 70mm productions West Side Story, The Greatest Sory Ever Told, IAMMMMW, Khartoum and CCBB are available, don't know about their 35mm libary though.

Originally Posted by RobertSiegel




I was told by a rather well known home video expert from one of the studios that the stems and music tapes and most of the camera negatives for the UA library (pre-1970) are rare or destroyed. I can't remember which but when one company bought them, I was told they threw almost all of it away. This is a very reliable insider who told me this. He told me that when we see any pre-1970 UA film in stereo, it is pure luck that a print survived and was used for home video. If you look at the condition of some of the MGM releases of the UA films, that says it all. So we are lucky to have stereo for some of these films. Many of the 50's and 60's stereo tracks are simply gone unless collector's have them or a studio office in some other country. VERY sad indeed!

 

[GMpasqua]

That's good to hear - what's your source?


The 70MM Negatives are better quality both picture and sound.

 

[OliverK]

I have been interested in large format films for quite some time now, so it is not that difficult to know that.


IAMMMMW, West Side Story, The Greatest Story Ever Told and Khartoum for example all got new prints or IP's since the 90ies so this shows the negatives are still there and the CCBB negative was used for an LD transfer in the early 90ies.

Originally Posted by GMpasqua

That's good to hear - what's your source?


The 70MM Negatives are better quality both picture and sound.

 

[RobertSiegel]

I remember when CBS Fox had the rights to Chitty and released that first pan and scan laserdisc in MONO. I remember calling the home video department and asked why it was not in stereo, and the manager of the laserdisc edition of CBS/Fox at the time told me "We can find no existing stereo soundtrack for that movie, if you know where one is we would re-issue it."...as if I would know. Just a funny story I remember.


Judging from the clarity of the latest HD showings on cable, this should be a great Blu-ray. I still think there was something wrong with HDnet Movies showing, it was somewhat blurry, while Cinemax showing was crystal clear.


I have always wondered why these studios when they do new HD transfers sell them to cable channels to show before they are released on Blu-ray. One might say it makes a fan want to buy the movie, the other thought would be that if people can tape it to a DVR, maybe they don't feel the need to buy one. I am not talking about the average HTF reader or home theater buff who knows about lossless and 1080p, but the average consumer who is not a video buff might say, well, I have it recorded in high-def who needs to spend money on a disc?

 

[OliverK]

I completely agree. Airing these in HD before the Blu-Ray is released is a mistake.

I doubt that the picture quality will be equal to the Blu-Ray release but this is a moot point for those who are only after having a movie in HD, no matter what the bitrate or even the resolution is.


Imo the studios would be smarter to put the titles on moratorium for a while before the Blu-Ray release, but I am not so sure that the departments that handle TV rights do really correspond that much with those that handle Blu-Rays.

Originally Posted by RobertSiegel
I have always wondered why these studios when they do new HD transfers sell them to cable channels to show before they are released on Blu-ray. One might say it makes a fan want to buy the movie, the other thought would be that if people can tape it to a DVR, maybe they don't feel the need to buy one. I am not talking about the average HTF reader or home theater buff who knows about lossless and 1080p, but the average consumer who is not a video buff might say, well, I have it recorded in high-def who needs to spend money on a disc?

 

[GMpasqua]

If HD tv helps to cover the cost of the transfer then, by all means they should go ahead.


Putting a title on moratorium for a while before the Blu-Ray release wouild not make a difference, many people still by DVDs and many don't have a blu-ray player

 

[OliverK]

I was talking about a moratorium at least for HD and of course I have no knowledge of the sums involved. The question is if it would have been less money earned if the rights were only given for airings starting in 6 months after the release of the Blu-Ray.

Originally Posted by GMpasqua

If HD tv helps to cover the cost of the transfer then, by all means they should go ahead.


Putting a title on moratorium for a while before the Blu-Ray release wouild not make a difference, many people still by DVDs and many don't have a blu-ray player

 

[Radioman970]

Another one I'm glad I put off getting in every form from VHS to FS DVD to WS DVD.... Saw it on Disney Channel (well, may have been regular cable) years ago and it didn't thrill me like when I was a kid. But I'd like to get it another go. I'll be buying this blu ray.


These classic kid friendly musicals are a joy to watch in my older age. I watched Oliver! months back and it's still a favorite. I wish someone would do Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972 British version) for Blu Ray. I was hoping the recent Disney film would get my old favorite out PD hell. It's among my most watched films since I"m such a nostalgia buff.

 

[Icaro]

Nothing new about the master used for this new HD transfer ?

has taken a new scan negatives at 2k 4k, digital restore ?

or has used the master DVD or LD ?

 

someone talking of a hand of Lowry Digital,

but I found nothing about it

 

 

Sorry for my bad English

 

[trajan]

I hope it is mastered from 65mm sources.

 

[OliverK]

edit: Work on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has not been done by Fotokem despite them having handled a lot of other large format MGM properties.

Sorry for the misinformation.

 

[trajan]

OliverK- I read somewhere that Fotokem did 65mm scans of Cleopatra. Does this mean we might expect a bluray release from Fox sometime in the near future?