The King of Kings and M: Special Edition - Criterion Collection (specs!) (1 Viewer)

[PaulP]

But better.

 

[Eric Paddon]

I had no idea the 155 minute version of DeMille's "King Of Kings" still existed or had been found! The notes on the back of the old Criterion LD I have indicate the footage removed when it was cut to 112 minutes no longer existed. This will be a definite purchase for me.

 

[MichaelSloan]

Good to know the ORIGINAL King of Kings will be on DVD, but Donald Sosin is so bad at silent film scores(if his Nosferatu, Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Blind Husbands scores were any indication), they always sound so synthetic. Maybe they wouldn't be so bad if used real instruments instead of synthesizers. Every silent film dvd should have the music from its original release. They're always better then the new ones. King of Kings is an epic and it doesn't even get a commentary?

 

[Patrick McCart]

Heh, I just noticed that! I think Criterion needs to uncrop a layer in Photoshop.

 

[Matt Rexer]

I just watched the old Criterion M last night for the first time (as a part of Halloween-inspired serial killer marathon). Wow, that one's going on ebay in a hurry... the transfer was wretched. I wasn't keen on it before, but now I'm looking forward to that double-dip.

 

[Skoobooz]

I can't find the new M at Amazon yet, but it's available at DVD Empire...does anyone have a link to it at Amazon (if it's available there)? They have King of Kings up, but no new M.

 

[PaulP]

Just type in "criterion" in the Amazon search, then sort the results by Release date. As you can see, no M yet.

 

[Daniel P]

should be up this coming week at amazon shouldn't it?

 

[PaulP]

It already is.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00065GX64/

 

[Paul Hillenbrand]

Patrick McCart wrote:Yet the movie has the Production Year: 1927

Can we hear more?

The King Of Kings (1927) - and in Technicolor? (DVD Empire) Was this one of the first technicolor movies? The cost must have been mind boggling.

Even in 1939, MGM chose to use black and white for the first part of "The Wizard Of Oz" because of the prohibitive cost of technicolor.

Paul

 

[Patrick McCart]

The King of Kings was originally released in 1927, but the general release version was released in 1928. The sound version (which was simply the general release cut with a soundtrack by Huge Risenfield added) was released in 1931.

So, Criterion is probably just going with that date, even though it's a 1927 film.


Also, I don't think the "bookend" scenes were not shot in B&W for The Wizard of Oz for cost-cutting reasons. It was more of an artistic decision. Of course, I'm not saying Technicolor wasn't an expensive process to shoot in...

Technicolor was being used as early as 1917, although, the first film in the process (which used colored filters and prisms rather than dyes) is lost (The Gulf Between).

In 1922, Toll of the Sea was first released... it was also the first 2-strip Technicolor "cemented positive" film. Two half-thickness dyed filmstrips were bonded together. This film exists and is on the first Treasures of American Film Archives box set in restored form.

In 1927, the Technicolor Corporation switched to dye-transfer. In fact, some of the cemented positives films (or sequences) were reprinted in dye-transfer. The sole remaining Technicolor material from The Phantom of the Opera survives in a 35mm dye-transfer print, despite being cemented positive in the original 1925 release.

You can find more information at http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/oldcolor/index.htm

 

[Mark Zimmer]

It's kind of weird about the date, because the packaging all uses the 1927/1928 dates; it's only in the discussion of Riesenfeld's score that it mentions the 1931 soundtrack.

Only about ten minutes of the film is in Technicolor: the opening sequence with Mary Magdalene in her palace (!) and the resurrection.

This is a beautiful job of restoration and a marvelous transfer. It's among the best-looking silents on DVD, other than some minor decomposition of the green strip in the resurrection sequence.

My review is up at dOc:

http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/sho...w.php3?ID=6782