MGM/Warner October Horror; Midnite Movies, Val Lewton, Demon Seed and more (1 Viewer)

[Jaime_Weinman]

Having watched some of the movies, I generally agree with Michael Elliott's comments above (Zombie certainly looks pretty beat-up).

Re the dark look: Nick Musuraca, the cinematographer for many of the Lewton films (and whose style was copied in the ones he didn't photograph), always believed in shooting very dark and very high-contrast. He never wanted to use more lights than necessary (which made him the perfect photographer for RKO, because his style helped to disguise the cheap or recycled sets they often had to use). Jane Greer recalled that the set of Out of the Past, probably Musuraca's most famous work, was so dark that the actors couldn't see each other.

 

[Dave Mack]

My thoughts exactly. I saw "zombie" at a revival house in NYC a few years back and was mesmerized by the image, especially the play between light and dark in the shadowy areas, (grey). VERY little of that survived this transfer. The print I saw looked MUCH better than the one used for this dvd and it really looks like they dnr'd it, pumped the blacks to conceal print inconsistancies and called it a day, at least on this title. Shame. The effect of the photography that I so vividly remember is lost IMHO.

d

 

[Joe Karlosi]

While doing a scene-by-scene comparison on two DVD players with different transfers, the new one certainly took some detail out of some of the darker items, like clothing. There is some detail on Henry Daniell's jacket, for instance, that's lost in the dark transfer.

 

[Michael Elliott]

No disrespect intended but I really don't think you understand the various levels of a transfer. Once again, take a look at the final scene between Lugosi and Karloff. The scene is lit by a single candle. How much light is a little candle going to give off? The VHS (and I'm guessing LD) makes it look as if the entire room is full of light. WIth the DVD, the light given off from this candle barely lights the room. This isn't due to a dark print. If it was a dark print then the whites wouldn't be as white as they are and the facial tones wouldn't keep the whiteness of the actor's faces. Once again, compare a really dark print (any budget release) and you'll see that a dark print will wipe off the whites in facial tones, clothing and anything else that is suppose to be light. None of the gray or white colors are effected by this so called dark print. An overly dark print would also leave a white, faded ghosting image in the black levels. Again, check this with any dark transfer. The blacks on this release are very strong without any white blurs or ghosting. The rich detail in the black is exactly that. Rich detail. A dark transfer would hurt all of these aspects here. The "dark and cold" nature is what this transfer is. Another scene to look at is when the assistant is talking to the mother and the little girl by the bridge. The backing of the sky is clearly a set but that backing is meant to be "cold". Gray, not white. The coldness of this film and various noirs is the gray. The gray is not effected by the "dark" transfer. If it were the grays would appear black (with the white effect).

This film looks exactly like many RKO productions of its time and especially the film noir titles from the studio released from 45-50. Check out OUT OF THE PAST for one example. GUN CRAZY is another. There isn't suppose to be as much light as some of these other films. If a scene is being lit by a single candle then there shouldn't be as much light.

As I mentioned at another board, adjust your TV settings and you'll see the black level come down and the contrast go up. It will look exactly like we've seen it in past years.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Mike, let's just agree to disagree on this. I guess the other people who've seen this and also feel it's too dark don't "understand levels", either? You don't even have copies of the Laserdisc transfer or the Hong Kong DVD to compare and make a comment, truthfully. You're going by some VHS which was apparently too light. You keep going on about the sky looking "white," but it never looked "white" on the transfers I've seen - it was gray. Just not dark.

Enjoy your new transfer. I say it's a botched job.

 

[Michael Elliott]

All I can say is watch the noir titles made in this same period.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Has ANYONE in Canada found the Val Lewton Collection in retail stores yet?


Can anyone please confirm if they've seen this set in Canada?


Apparently it hasn't gotten distribution here yet, and I fear another "Warner Comedy Classics" fiasco...



Please sound-off if you've come accross this set yet or if there are any Canadians on the forum who own this without having ordered online from US retailers.



I see it listed on Amazon.ca with an October 18 release date... strangely the box itself is not pictured, just the individual keepcases.

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

I pre-ordered my copy from DVD Import and it still hasn't shipped. I am considering cancelling the order.

 

[Bill McA]

I've seen the Val Lewton boxset in my local FutureShop store for $54, but most (if not all) Canadian online retailers still don't have any listed in stock.

FutureShop had it in stock on Oct 18th.

 

[DavidBC]

We finally got our stock at work just on Tuesday, and I've seen some at some Wal-Marts.

What I'm looking for is cover art for the two box-set exclusive discs.

 

[Deepak Shenoy]

Cat People which is the most well-known movie out of the 9 seems to have the cleanest transfer. Curse of the Cat People looks pretty good too, but it doesn't look like much effort has gone into digitally cleaning up the rest of the movies. That's a shame because some of the best movies in the set (IMHO) including I Walked With a Zombie, The Seventh Victim and Leopard Man are also the worst-looking ones. I understand that it is not worthwhile for Warner to invest in full-blown restorations of these movies, but I wish they had at least used the MTI software that Criterion uses to clean up the white specks, dirt, scratches, etc.

-D

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Well, today I finally rectified the problem with that incorrect "long box" I got when I purchased this set at Best Buy back on the 4th. They're now stocking only the normal-sized box set, and with my receipt the girl at the exchange counter had no trouble with me swapping my set for a new one.

 

[Richard M S]

The white dots/splotches which appear in Cat People do mar an otherwise clean transfer. The DVD of the film is still great and worth seeing, the audio commentary, of which I listened to about half last night, was especially interesting.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

I FINALLY managaed to pick this set up yesterday, after anticipating it's release for months but not being able to find a copy in retail due to delays with Canadian distributors.

I was just wondering what people thought were the gems of this set and where I should start?

I'm not familiar with any of these films so it will be my first time viewing them all.


I watched "I Walked With A Zombie" last night.

I decided to play that one first because I thought it had a cool name. :}

I thought it was enjoyable, but wasn't overly impressed. I was surprised by how short it was, I didn't check the running time but it seemed to be go by very fast. I don't really have any complaints other than the film ended too ubruptly. It seemed that just as the events began to flesh out and lead to something, the film wrapped up.

Anyways, I thought it worked in developing atmosphere but was sort of thin. I wouldn't consider it anything more than an enjoyable if not middle-of-the-road effort.

I'd like to get other people's opinions on where to go next. What do you guys think are the best films in this collection or your personal favorites?

Thanks!

 

[Ruz-El]

My favorite of the set was "Zombie", so I guess your in trouble. Loved the atmosphere and the ambiguouse way the occult was displayed (your never sure if it's real, or just superstition, even the characters get mixed up!)

"The Body Snatcher" would be my number 2, with "Curse of the Cat People" at 3. "Body" is a pretty decent almost Hammer style horror film, but Karlof was just fantastic in it. While I haven't seen a huge amount of Karloff titles, I thought that "Body" had the best performance I've seen him in. Agreat roll that is both charming, humorous and threatening, often in the same scene.

"Curse" wasn't much of a horror film, but a neat study of childhood.

The rest of the films are pretty damn good, "Cat People" was more technically interesting as a film, than ingrossing as a story for me, but still pretty fine. There isn't really a drop off after that, with the remaining films still holding my attention ("7th Victim" played almost like a "Rosemary's Baby" view of the occult). The only one that left me flat was "Bedlam", but that could of been the hour I watched it, as much as the films fault.

I loved the set, thought all the films look great (I hadn't seen any of them before but "Cat People", so I'm comparing them to other similar films I have seen from the period, I know that a few folks were upset with some of the films, I'm not wanting to open that debate up.) The doc was a good biography, nothing earth shattering, but still interesting. Would of been nice to have a few more features (little blurbs after the films like on the "Warner Gangsters" set, maybe some "horror" themed shorts, if they made horror themed shorts in that period.), but what you get is pretty great IMHO.

 

[Richard M S]

I have watched 5 of the films so far : the two Cat People films, The Leopard Man, Ghost Ship and The Seventh Victim. My suggestion would be to see Ghost Ship - a very cool film about a sadistic captain, this film literally was not shown for some 50 years because of a lawsuit.

The Leopard Man had some awesome sequences but somehow I would rank it the least of the films I have seen thus far.

The Seventh Victim is just so strange, but it is worth watching. I have to see the remaining films, with I Walked With A Zombie next on the list.

In regard to the transfers, I wonder what elements Warners had to work with, because at first I thought the transfer was not great on The Seventh Victim - and then I saw the trailer. It is barely watchable. I almost wondered if Warners included it in that condition to say this is what we started with...

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Thanks guys!

Ghost Ship sounds really interesting, I think I'll watch that one tonight!

 

[Mattias_ka]

I just watched the brilliant I Walked With a Zombie and was thinking that the new DVD should be better than a Laserdisc from 1989. I was very wrong!

DVD:
[url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/d/d7/htf_imgcache_1059.jpeg] [/url]

LD:
[url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/b/b3/htf_imgcache_1060.jpeg] [/url]


DVD:
[url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/3/3c/htf_imgcache_1061.jpeg] [/url]

LD:
[url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/2/27/htf_imgcache_1062.jpeg] [/url]

The DVD look like a joke compare to the LD. Where in the hell is the details? It look too dark also. Are the other movies in this set as bad as this one? Maybe should look out for the LD of them instead?

*The DVD images is from the dvdbeaver site.

 

[Craig Beam]

Those LD caps look a bit dupey, with a layer of electronic sharpening on top. The DVD caps, meanwhile, look more natural and filmlike. And darkness, especially in a Lewton film, does NOT indicative a flawed transfer... looks like the LD was brightened somewhat.

In all fairness, the transfer on the I Walked With A Zombie DVD is far from perfect, and suffers some fairly heavy damage in spots, but it's certainly the best I've ever seen the film look.

 

[Mattias_ka]

What?? I don't agree at ALL. Those LD caps do NOT have any electronic sharpening at all. They are more revealing and show more of image and it's noise. The DVD caps are crap, with soft HF filtered image and way to dark. No detail to talk about at all.