"My Fair Lady" Blu-ray November 15th (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by Chas in CT

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

Not only does that exhibition look incredible, the director herself speaks eloquently to what we're seeing and what has been lost.

The people working at AMPAS are the creme de la creme. I would expect no less from Ms. Harrington.


RAH

 

[Paul Rossen]

This ad showing the coupon for the Criterion Theatre certainly brings back memories. The Bob Peak designed poster work was tremendous. He along with Saul Bass were tops among a group of very gifted artists who worked in the movies during that era. Included in that group were Howard Terpning and Reynold Brown. Each one brought his own special flair to make(in my opinion) the artwork of the 50,s 60s and 70s truly exceptional.

 

[marsnkc]

Thanks Marc (and thanks for putting the Audrey Hepburn vocals on you-tube is you are the same marcnkc)


The artist is Bob Peak - who did the poster art for "My Fair Lady" (also "Camelot" The Spy Who Loved Me" "Apocalypse Now" "Excalibur" and many others


Those are some of his sketches for the poster art


I suppose I should thank you, Robert, but my just purchased copy of Bob Peak's book means beans (how about that for alliteration!) for the next month! I know Amsel and Struzan have dedicated followings, but Peak has got to be the best (though the original painting by Mitchell Hooks for Dr. No is the one I'm negotiating with Mephistopheles for!). Does anyone know who painted the original 'Dark Head' poster for Lawrence of Arabia? I have a 3-sheet but had it framed, so not sure if it was ever signed. (This is the one that was pulled because some morons got the wrong impression. Sad because it's the only one that conveys the enigma of Lawrence. The version used prior to the Oscars shows Lawrence leading a cavalry-like charge, with not so much as a handkerchief to protect his obviously blond hair from the blazing sun! The post-Oscar 'dark head' is a crude 'caucasionized' version of the magnificent original!)

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by marsnkc

I suppose I should thank you, Robert, but my just purchased copy of Bob Peak's book means beans (how about that for alliteration!) for the next month! I know Amsel and Struzan have dedicated followings, but Peak has got to be the best (though the original painting by Mitchell Hooks for Dr. No is the one I'm negotiating with Mephistopheles for!).

Does anyone know who painted the original 'Dark Head' poster for Lawrence of Arabia? I have a 3-sheet but had it framed, so not sure if it was ever signed. (This is the one that was pulled because some morons got the wrong impression. Sad because it's the only one that conveys the enigma of Lawrence. The version used prior to the Oscars shows Lawrence leading a cavalry-like charge, with not so much as a handkerchief to protect his obviously blond hair from the blazing sun! The post-Oscar 'dark head' is a crude 'caucasionized' version of the magnificent original!)

The original "Dark Head" is my favorite, although I enjoy the "charge" also. I had 1-sheets of both, had them linen-backed, and framed with UV glass. Seems the framer charged for, but eliminated the UV factor, as both faded, along with a few others. An expensive "error."


I donated a DH 6-sheet to AMPAS several years ago, and have one in spare, but not the wall space for it. Love the sheet.


My Peak MFL is linen-backed, and rolled in a tube. Should give that some wall space.


BTW, here's a link to Drew Struzan: http://www.drewstruzan.com/


RAH

 

[CULTMAN1]

Following the various posts, is it official that My Fair Lady is definately getting a blu ray release? Is it a WALMART exclusive or availablethrough all retailers ? Has any restoration work been done on it following RAH comments a number of months ago?

 

[Paul Rossen]

Thanks for that, Greg. FYI, I'm not the 'Marc' you refer to that posted vocals to YouTube. I suppose I should thank you, Robert, but my just purchased copy of Bob Peak's book means beans (how about that for alliteration!) for the next month! I know Amsel and Struzan have dedicated followings, but Peak has got to be the best (though the original painting by Mitchell Hooks for Dr. No is the one I'm negotiating with Mephistopheles for!). Does anyone know who painted the original 'Dark Head' poster for Lawrence of Arabia? I have a 3-sheet but had it framed, so not sure if it was ever signed. (This is the one that was pulled because some morons got the wrong impression. Sad because it's the only one that conveys the enigma of Lawrence. The version used prior to the Oscars shows Lawrence leading a cavalry-like charge, with not so much as a handkerchief to protect his obviously blond hair from the blazing sun! The post-Oscar 'dark head' is a crude 'caucasionized' version of the magnificent original!)

It is extremely hard to say which artist is the best. I believe that the 'dark head' poster was designed by Howard Terpning as I know he did work on LOA. Much of his work is iconic...Cleopatra, Dr. Zhivago, The Sand Pebbles among many others.

 

[marsnkc]

It is extremely hard to say which artist is the best. I believe that the 'dark head' poster was designed by Howard Terpning as I know he did work on LOA. Much of his work is iconic...Cleopatra, Dr. Zhivago, The Sand Pebbles among many others.

http://in70mm.com/news/2008/lawrence/ Paul, how can I ever thank you for this lead. A google query brought up various sites showing Howard Terpning's beyond-gorgeous Western art, then....this article about Mr. Harris's gift to us of his restoration of Lawrence. And what's the first thing we see? - the dark head poster attributed to Mr. Terpning! (And thanks again to those who gave us the internet!) Your post mentioning Bass,Terpning and Brown was in the pipeline while I was writing mine about the Peak book, and it made me realize how ignorant I was about other artists out there who just don't happen to be as 'famous' as your Peaks, Struzans, and Amsels. Like great cinematographers, production designers etc. whose work gets overlooked simply because a movie gets overlooked (or is a bomb - think, 'Yes Giorgio'), the general public (like me) only learns the names of artists/poster artists when they become atttached to a monstrous hit. I did a google on Mitchell Hooks last night and a piece he did for a 1966 story called 'The Assassin' for Saturday Evening Post is as good as it gets, but who knows about him? If it wasn't for the ongoing success of the Bond films and the attendant attention on everyone with even the slightest connection them, I wouldn't have known that he had painted Dr. No. Back to My Fair Lady. Another prestige movie to enjoy the fanfare it deserves is Ben Hur. No under the radar releasing here!

 

[Paul Rossen]

http://in70mm.com/news/2008/lawrence/ Paul, how can I ever thank you for this lead. A google query brought up various sites showing Howard Terpning's beyond-gorgeous Western art, then....this article about Mr. Harris's gift to us of his restoration of Lawrence. And what's the first thing we see? - the dark head poster attributed to Mr. Terpning! (And thanks again to those who gave us the internet!) Your post mentioning Bass,Terpning and Brown was in the pipeline while I was writing mine about the Peak book, and it made me realize how ignorant I was about other artists out there who just don't happen to be as 'famous' as your Peaks, Struzans, and Amsels. Like great cinematographers, production designers etc. whose work gets overlooked simply because a movie gets overlooked (or is a bomb - think, 'Yes Giorgio'), the general public (like me) only learns the names of artists/poster artists when they become atttached to a monstrous hit. I did a google on Mitchell Hooks last night and a piece he did for a 1966 story called 'The Assassin' for Saturday Evening Post is as good as it gets, but who knows about him? If it wasn't for the ongoing success of the Bond films and the attendant attention on everyone with even the slightest connection them, I wouldn't have known that he had painted Dr. No. Back to My Fair Lady. Another prestige movie to enjoy the fanfare it deserves is Ben Hur. No under the radar releasing here!

There is finally a new book coming out on the work of Saul Bass that clearly shows his genius not only in film but in designing logos for Corporate America. His work for SPARTACUS was largely unused besides the great main title as Universal ultimately went with the coin design of Reynold Brown(who by the way did the iconic Ben-Hur poster work). Go to http://www.thesandpebbles.com to view Terpning's numerous movie posters. The site also mentions all the other artists that worked on TSP including the aforementioned Michael Hooks.

 

[marsnkc]

The original "Dark Head" is my favorite, although I enjoy the "charge" also.  I had 1-sheets of both, had them linen-backed, and framed with UV glass.  Seems the framer charged for, but eliminated the UV factor, as both faded, along with a few others.  An expensive "error."

 

I donated a DH 6-sheet to AMPAS several years ago, and have one in spare, but not the wall space for it.  Love the sheet.

 

My Peak MFL is linen-backed, and rolled in a tube.  Should give that some wall space.

 

BTW, here's a link to Drew Struzan:  http://www.drewstruzan.com/

 

RAH

 

I just discovered through the Sand Pebbles link (Paul Rossen #48) that Howard Terpning also painted the Lawrence 'Charge' poster. That's really bad news about the fading on the LOA 1-sheets, since the dark head 1-sheet is the holy grail of Lawrence posters, while the charge seems to command as much - or even more - at auction. The 6-sheet dark head must be stunning. What a gift! As far as I know, AMPAS rotate their poster art, so I must give them a call to find out if or when it's viewable (most likely kept in storage for exhibitions only). The Peak MFL must be a sight for sore eyes. On the UV glass issue, the man who framed my 3-sheet (he also referred me to the great Igor Edelman for it's restoration - AMPAS used him a lot) got a lot of work thrown his way by a woman archivist I knew. As a favor to her, he charged me about half the going rate for a museum-quality job. I stipulated UV glass, which I saw him take note of in the shop, but when I got the breakdown later there was no mention of the glass being UV, 'though that's the one thing I paid full price for. Because of the massive discount on the frame, I wasn't about to question him, so to be on the safe side I keep it shaded as much as possible. The cynical side of me has always wondered whether the bargain was as great as it appeared to be. Thanks a million for the link to Drew Struzan. That and the one from Paul puts paid to any notion of a 'best' artist.

 

[marsnkc]

There is finally a new book coming out on the work of Saul Bass that clearly shows his genius not only in film but in designing logos for Corporate America. His work for SPARTACUS was largely unused besides the great main title as Universal ultimately went with the coin design of Reynold Brown(who by the way did the iconic Ben-Hur poster work). Go to http://www.thesandpebbles.com to view Terpning's numerous movie posters. The site also mentions all the other artists that worked on TSP including the aforementioned Michael Hooks.

It gets better and better! While Ben-Hur isn't my favorite movie, Reynold Brown's poster is the greatest ever, and probably what compels me to collect every video edition, with the BD on pre-order. Another master I'd never heard of 'til now! (I'd also never heard of Joe MacDonald until I checked out IMDB to see who photographed the beautiful Sand Pebbles. Other standouts are his gorgeous black and whites of My Darling Clementine, Viva Zapata and The Young Lions). I have to say that Terpning's version of The Sand Pebbles outdoes Hooks' - delighted to see Fox using it on the BD. (Apparently a lot of posters are amalgamations. The wonderful image of the Chinese Junk towering over the San Pablo was the brainchild of one person and executed by another).

 

[GMpasqua]

Bob Peak's illustration, Saul Bass' logo

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Originally Posted by CULTMAN1

Following the various posts, is it official that My Fair Lady is definately getting a blu ray release?

Is it a WALMART exclusive or availablethrough all retailers ?

Has any restoration work been done on it following RAH comments a number of months ago?

Unofficially yes it is coming later this year, regardless of the lack of pre-order.

 

[marsnkc]

Taking a cue from Greg's wonderful newspaper ads, here's one that underscores MFL's popularity at the time. Broadway's Criterion is not accepting mail orders for October and November, with a limited number of seats for those months being available at the box-office only. Must have been very gratifying for L&L to witness this following the endless lines for the Broadway production. http://in70mm.com/newsletter/1995/38/lady/index.htm Another article from 'in70mm.com'. This one about the Harris/Katz restoration of MFL. Another close call a la 'Lawrence' Whew! .

 

[GMpasqua]

Fall 1963

 

[Paul Rossen]

Wow...love these original ads. I had forgotten that I was an early subscriber to the WB newsletter for MFL...Thanks for sharing....

 

[GMpasqua]

 

[GMpasqua]

 

[Craig S]

Very cool! A precursor to today's film PR web sites, but without all the annoying Flash crap. How many issues of this did they publish?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

This was a Super Panavision 70 production, yes? Any idea if they'll be using a 65mm print as the source? Normally I'd assume that's the case, but if turns out to be a retailer exclusive, I can't see Paramount putting in the money for a fresh 8K scan nor take advantage of modern technology to iron out any kinks from the 1994 restoration.

 

[Alan Tully]

This was a Super Panavision 70 production, yes? Any idea if they'll be using a 65mm print as the source? Normally I'd assume that's the case, but if turns out to be a retailer exclusive, I can't see Paramount putting in the money for a fresh 8K scan nor take advantage of modern technology to iron out any kinks from the 1994 restoration.

These days they never use a print for this stuff. It'll be a negative; the original neg, an interpos, interneg, or god forbid, CRI. All the DVD catalogue releases I have from Paramount look really good, so I've no worries about this.