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RAINTREE COUNTY on Blu? (1 Viewer)

Konstantinos

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Andrew Budgell said:
I really can't say anything more at this time, except that I have every reason to believe that this is true.
oh, so that means that he explained to you and this is a legitimate source?
That would be good enough for me..
 

SS NORMANDIE

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I'm VERY happy and excited about the prospect of finally being able to own a restored version of this long-neglected & important movie on Blu Ray! IMHO, Raintree County is a beautifully made film with a stellar cast, lush production design, and a phenomenol score. Could Elizabeth Taylor have been any more lovely than she was in this film? Walter Plunkett's costumes for Elizabeth Taylor and Eva Marie Saint are breathtaking and every dollar of the film's mammoth budget is right there on the screen. If this does indeed come to pass, Warner Brothers will have even more of my eternal gratitude and sincere thanks for once again being a studio that truly honors and respects this country's film & cultural heritage.
 

Andrew Budgell

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Konstantinos said:
oh, so that means that he explained to you and this is a legitimate source?
That would be good enough for me..
Right. I just don't feel comfortable sharing beyond what he posted on my Raintree County Facebook page.
 

Matt Hough

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You're right about the budget showing up on the screen. Those costumes are magnificent, and so are many of the other technical aspects of the production.

Keeping my fingers tightly crossed that this is indeed a possibility that inevitably pans out.
 

Konstantinos

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Andrew Budgell said:
Right. I just don't feel comfortable sharing beyond what he posted on my Raintree County Facebook page.
Of course! It's perfectly understandable..
I just wanted to make sure that it's a legitimate source and not just a rumour started by a fan or something..

If indeed it gets released it would be the happiest day for me concerning Blurays!
The film is my most wanted film on Bluray followed by the Star Wars original unaltered trilogy.
 

Mark-P

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OliverK said:
I find Raintree County fascinating as it holds quite a few distinctions:- the only big roadshow epic to have been shot in 65mm but then not released in 70mm- the only big movie shot in a new widescreen format that was not shown in the intended premium exhibition format of the process- the only big 65mm epic from a major studio that wasn't even released on DVDRegarding the Roadshow version The Alamo got its LD release and Raintree County did not- only the general release version is available on LD.Looks like the most neglected of the bigger large format epics to me.
Not to quibble, but wouldn't Carousel and The Fall of the Roman Empire qualify as the former was shot in CinemaScope 55 but only printed in 35mm and the latter shot in Ultra Panavision (2.76) but only printed as Panavision 70 (2.20)?
 

Paul Rossen

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OliverK said:
I find Raintree County fascinating as it holds quite a few distinctions:- the only big roadshow epic to have been shot in 65mm but then not released in 70mm- the only big movie shot in a new widescreen format that was not shown in the intended premium exhibition format of the process- the only big 65mm epic from a major studio that wasn't even released on DVDRegarding the Roadshow version The Alamo got its LD release and Raintree County did not - only the general release version is available on LD.Looks like the most neglected of the bigger large format epics to me.
Was THE LAST VALLEY ever shown in 70mm?
 

OliverK

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Mark-P said:
Not to quibble, but wouldn't Carousel and The Fall of the Roman Empire qualify as the former was shot in CinemaScope 55 but only printed in 35mm and the latter shot in Ultra Panavision (2.76) but only printed as Panavision 70 (2.20)?
Maybe Carousel did qualify to a degree but then the exhibition format was never really thought through to the end and Fox finally settled for 35mm exhibition and to my knowledge no public 55mm screening ever happened. This is quite different from Camera 65/UP70 movies that were and could be shown in the intended process but Raintree wasn't because of probably a combination of factors.Fall is interesting, too because it was only shown flat but it was not the first movie of a new process. Fall is also intersting in so far as the later UP70 movies were mostly shown on Cinerama screens but Fall apparntly wasn't - makes one wonder if it wasn't intended to be shown there and shot accordingly. Of course we now know that the movie was not an overall success because of a rather disappointing US box office and there never were any cinerama screenings and from what I know only a few flat prints in the US.
 

OliverK

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Paul Rossen said:
Was THE LAST VALLEY ever shown in 70mm?
Although I would not qualify it as one of the big epics anyway I can attest to the fact that it was shown in 70mm as I even saw a 70mm print of it myself. Fantastic detail and not too faded when I saw it about 5 years ago and a rather interesting story that however was not suited for a big budget movie imo.
 

OliverK

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Andrew Budgell said:
A collector of Raintree County memorabilia just wrote on my Raintree Facebook page that he's been informed that the film is currently being restored and will be released on Blu-ray in 2015 via the Warner Archive! Could it be true? Could we FINALLY be seeing this film on Blu-ray? If it is, three cheers for Warner Bros, you've made me and other Raintree fans very happy and 2015 can't come soon enough!
That would be fantastic, I can hardly believe it :)If that indeed is true then Warner is probably going the archive route because they only have 65mm elements for the general release version. If this release comes through then I hope that they will offer the chance to somehow see the extended cut in some kind of HD scan of that collectors print - just bring it to disc in some high resolution form, that would be really nice.And I will just mention that something like seamless branching of the roadshow print into the general release version would be even nicer, preferably with a common height and some information missing on the sides. I know that this may be difficult depending on the number of cuts made to the roadshow version but here's hoping.
 

RolandL

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OliverK said:
Fall is interesting, too because it was only shown flat but it was not the first movie of a new process. Fall is also intersting in so far as the later UP70 movies were mostly shown on Cinerama screens but Fall apparntly wasn't - makes one wonder if it wasn't intended to be shown there and shot accordingly. Of course we now know that the movie was not an overall success because of a rather disappointing US box office and there never were any cinerama screenings and from what I know only a few flat prints in the US.
Please read this memo from MGM in 1955 on the various (Todd-AO, CinemaScope, CinemaScope 55, VistaVision, Cinerama, etc.) release prints that could be from the 65mm MGM Camera 65/Ultra Panavision negative.

Raintree County, Ben-Hur, Fall of the Roman Empire and Mutiny on the Bounty were never intended to be Cinerama roadshow releases.
 

RolandL

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OliverK said:
That would be fantastic, I can hardly believe it :)And I will just mention that something like seamless branching of the roadshow print into the general release version would be even nicer, preferably with a common height and some information missing on the sides. I know that this may be difficult depending on the number of cuts made to the roadshow version but here's hoping.
If they are using the general release 65mm negative, that should be 2.76:1 on the blu-ray. The roadshow 35mm print would be 2.55:1.

Scenes in roadshow version only (total 14 minutes, 48 seconds):

-Nell and Garwood after graduation - 40 seconds-Swamp ­ 58 seconds-Professor and John in cornfield ­ 71 seconds-John and Father illegitimacy discussion­ 1 minute, 53 seconds-John, Bobby Drake and slave ­ 2 minutes, 16 seconds-John , Niles ­ unfulfilled ambition ­ 1 minute, 46 seconds [key scene]-John going to homestead and Susanna in labor ­ 55 seconds [the lead in uses an alternate take as well]-John's Search in Indianapolis, visit to Garwood, photographer and Decision to enlist ­ 4 minutes, 34 seconds-Susanna's Decision and Search for the doll­ 35 seconds
 

OliverK

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RolandL said:
Please read this memo from MGM in 1955 on the various (Todd-AO, CinemaScope, CinemaScope 55, VistaVision, Cinerama, etc.) release prints that could be from the 65mm MGM Camera 65/Ultra Panavision negative. Raintree County, Ben-Hur, Fall of the Roman Empire and Mutiny on the Bounty were never intended to be Cinerama roadshow releases.
I know the memo very well and never claimed that Raintree County, Ben Hur or Fall or Mutiny on the Bounty were intended as Cinerama Roadshows. But as you certainly know all UP70 movies after Mutiny on the Bounty were shown in Cinerama, except one: Fall of the Roman Empire. Hence the speculation that it MAY have been intended at some point for Cinerama screenings like the next Bronston production that was distributed by Paramount in the same year (Circus World).Looking at the production history of Fall I would however think that it has mainly been shot in the ultrawide format because of Ben Hur, after all they also got Boyd and a chariot race and they originally also wanted Heston.
 

RolandL

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OliverK said:
I know the memo very well and never claimed that Raintree County, Ben Hur or Fall or Mutiny on the Bounty were intended as Cinerama Roadshows. But as you certainly know all UP70 movies after Mutiny on the Bounty were shown in Cinerama, except one: Fall of the Roman Empire. Hence the speculation that it MAY have been intended at some point for Cinerama screenings like the next Bronston production that was distributed by Paramount in the same year (Circus World).Looking at the production history of Fall I would however think that it has mainly been shot in the ultrawide format because of Ben Hur, after all they also got Boyd and a chariot race and they originally also wanted Heston.
I only listed those titles in case others might think they could have been intended for a Cinerama release.

I have trade journals (Boxoffice, Motion Picture Herald, etc.) from the 1950's through the 1960's that I used for articles, reviews, announcements, etc. on Cinerama on my web site http://incinerama,com . Fall was never mentioned as intended to be in Cinerama. There were a few other titles that were intended but never filmed or filmed in another film process.
 

OliverK

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RolandL said:
I only listed those titles in case others might think they could have been intended for a Cinerama release.

I have trade journals (Boxoffice, Motion Picture Herald, etc.) from the 1950's through the 1960's that I used for articles, reviews, announcements, etc. on Cinerama on my web site http://incinerama,com . Fall was never mentioned as intended to be in Cinerama. There were a few other titles that were intended but never filmed or filmed in another film process.
You are right, people could have gotten the impression.

Somebody once told me that considering it was such a big production Fall was not mentioned that often supposedly because it was shot away from Hollywood and with a European production company. Can you confirm that and also if there was anything mentioned about it being shot in Ultra Panavision?

So I take it that Circus World was announced as being intended for Cinerama from early on in the production?
 

RolandL

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OliverK said:
You are right, people could have gotten the impression.

Somebody once told me that considering it was such a big production Fall was not mentioned that often supposedly because it was shot away from Hollywood and with a European production company. Can you confirm that and also if there was anything mentioned about it being shot in Ultra Panavision?

So I take it that Circus World was announced as being intended for Cinerama from early on in the production?
The earliest annoucement I can find on Circus World was from the 2/26/64 issue of Motion Picture Herald (see below). Note that the first two film titles were mentioned as being in Cinerama but were never made. The article mentions "an earlier disclosure" on Circus World being released in Cinerama so, I don't know what that date was.

mpe022664.jpg
 

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