Warner Feb. Releases including My Fair Lady, Mutiny on the Bounty, Mrs. Miniver & more (1 Viewer)

[DeeF]

I guess the real question about My Fair Lady is whether a new transfer will be made from a 70mm restored print, originally supervised by Robert Harris, or whether it will be made from a 35mm duplicate, or whether it will be new at all. Even though the release is a special edition with a disk of extras, presumably the movie itself will be on one disk, just as it is now, and they wouldn't necessarily need a new transfer.

West Side Story's special edition DVD and the original DVD used the same transferred picture, I believe, which was fine, but not exactly a terrific-looking video.

 

[Patrick McCart]

www.dvdfile.com

DVDFile has cover art up for My Fair Lady.

Original poster art too.

 

[John Hodson]

DVDTimes has cover art up for them all.

Nice.

---
So many films, so little time...

 

[DeeF]

I HATE those snappacks. Can't we talk Warners into doing something else?

 

[MatthewA]

I'm just happy to have all the extras from the laser disc set.

 

[Carlo_M]

Excellent coverart for My Fair Lady! I love the old-style (original theatrical poster? I don't know I wasn't alive back then) covers.

 

[Derek_McL]

With My Fair Lady it really depends on the transfer (new or not ?) I'm surprised Robert Harris hasn't mentioned this as he is heard on the commentary on the present DVD which I believe was based on a fairly expensive substantial restoration,having said that it was a good few years ago.

If its sourced from better(wider?)elements it might be worth a double dip. The Wouldn't It Be Loverly documentary is a good one but I think its at least a decade old. The commentary on the present DVD is replicated too and while its reasonably good it is if I remember correctly mostly concerned with that early 90s (?) restoration. It would have been great if Warner could have included another commentary from a prominent film historian about the background of the actors and the story of Pygmalion etc.

As for the other February releases I've got to confess to being a little disappointed. Not with the films, I love those ones and its great to see some Thirties' MGM titles getting released (more please!)but with the extras. I suppose we've just been wasted of late with the Warner Legends and Lon Chaney sets loaded down with extras still I thought Mutiny On The Bounty would merit more than a single short. One extra though has got me intrigued and thats the Ziegfeld On Film documentary on The Great Ziegfeld disc. I hope thats a substantial piece the subject certainly deserves one.

Warner appear to really doing classic film fans proud in January and February,hope it continues throughout the year. A couple of years ago you'd be lucky to get this amount of classic releases from Warner in a year never mind two months. I'm particularly looking forward to the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde double feature which I believe will have an audio commentary a pity nobody could have done one for Grand Hotel and Mutiny. Well at least the films are at last coming out !

 

[Carlo_M]

I always got the impression the current MFL disc was sourced from the restored print - I seem to remember the commentary where they said they had to recreate the flowers and text in the opening credit scenes.

However, DVD authoring has come a long way since the original MFL disc. If they did a hi-def telecine master from the restored print, and then used current state-of-the-art DVD mastering (i.e. no EE, high bit rate) I think that even if they were both sourced from the restored print the new DVD could look considerably better.

 

[Patrick McCart]

I HATE those snappacks. Can't we talk Warners into doing something else?

We have. They used them for Matrix Reloaded and Terminator 3.

 

[Jefferson]

WOW.
Great news about Warner's treatment of the old favorites.
I had high hopes, when Warner packaged
YANKEE DOODLE DANDY and ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD
so nicely.

These will be great to have.

I hope this "format" will continue
until we get MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, as well.

 

[Mark-W]

I'll be buying all of these.

And My Fair Lady is worth repurchase alone if they just

KILL

THE

LOUD

MAIN

MENU

from the first release.

Mark

 

[oscar_merkx]

Does this mean that Grand Hotel with Greta Garbo is her first film on dvd ?

 

[Patrick McCart]

Does this mean that Grand Hotel with Greta Garbo is her first film on dvd ?

Yes.

 

[oscar_merkx]

great stuff indeed.

Let's hope that this will not be the last

 

[Bill Burns]

Carlo,

The current DVD is mastered from 35mm reduction. My Fair Lady was shot large format (Super Panavision 70mm) and, I believe, restored to large format (if it wasn't restored to large format, that would change this argument completely, but I'll assume it was). The many wonderful large format-sourced masters from the days of laserdisc (Oklahoma!, Vertigo, and others), and right through to DVD (Lawrence of Arabia, Criterion's Spartacus, and others), demonstrate the exceptional fidelity possible in large format mastering. Reduction-sourced transfers (the disappointing laser of Branagh's Hamlet, the current DVDs of My Fair Lady, Ben-Hur, and other titles) do not accomplish that large-format "look" achievable with careful large format mastering, and as such remove us further still from an experience of the original film materials (or restored materials, as the case may be) than is already necessarily the case in creating a video product such as DVD.

The arguments are more involved than this cursory recap, but after something like thirteen years and counting of first laserdisc, and now DVD, experience, I've decided many things as personal buying criteria, one of them this: if I know a transfer to be taken from reduction, and I know useable large format elements to survive, I'll wait until a transfer is made from large format. My eye sees the difference, and I'd generally characterize it as significant. For one, a reduction element moves you one generation further away from original elements. But the changes are more profound than what one would expect to see in the loss of a single generation, because optical reduction substantially reduces available definition, etc.. "A copy of a copy is never as good as a copy of an original," sure, but imagine a copy of a reduction in relation to a copy of an original. That's the basic idea, but the results speak for themselves, whatever the science behind it.

There have been a few debates about this here in the past , and there are some, I know, who would disagree with what I've said, but I can only stand by what I've seen with my own eyes, and I've yet to see a transfer from a reduction master that looks like a large format element; I have, however, seen transfers from large format masters, both on laser and on DVD, that suggest the unique beauty of the few large format prints I've had the pleasure of seeing in theatres. So I trust this new DVD will be a HiDef downconversion from 65mm picture elements, assuming, again, that the restoration was made to large format, as I believe it was. However perfectly they capture a 35mm reduction, it's still a 35mm reduction -- I already bought that once! In ignorance, actually -- I wasn't aware at the time that the film originated as 70mm (I hadn't researched it). But that edition will remain sufficient for my viewing purposes if a new transfer has been made, again, from 35mm.

If, however, it was made from large format, and thereby restores both the OAR/original dimensions of Super Panavision (the current DVD is a bit cropped, I believe, but as Robert Harris explained a few months ago, the current transfer was able to expose additional picture area found beneath the soundtrack, so less image was lost at the top and bottom than is usually the case in reducing 2.2:1 Super Panavision to 2.39:1 'Scope Panavision) and the clarity/fidelity associated with a proper large format master, then the upcoming DVD will be an enthusiastic (and priority) upgrade for me; but otherwise ... no sale. I make the point here in the hopes it will also be heard for WB's upcoming edition of Branagh's magnificent Hamlet, which was so poorly served by 35mm reduction on laserdisc. Both Hamlet and My Fair Lady deserve nothing less than true large format masters. Hopefully definite word about this matter will be forthcoming.

I'm still on cloud nine with WB's January and February line-up, by the way. Let me say, again -- very well done indeed, WB. I consider them the studio of the year for 2003, and this is a wonderful indication of great things to come throughout 2004, and for classical fans in particular (Universal and Fox are close behind with stellar product in the same timeframe). Viva la digital disc!

 

[David Von Pein]

Up for Pre-Order ..........

MRS. MINIVER

MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY

MY FAIR LADY

GRAND HOTEL

GASLIGHT

 

[george kaplan]

I hope that the fact that you haven't posted a cover for Goodbye Mr. Chips isn't a sign of trouble with that disc (my most wanted of the six).

 

[EdwardKarlinski]

Now if only we could get the Peter O'Toole version released all would be well.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Agreed. The Peter version is my favorite.

Another classic I NEED (not sure what studio) is "To Each His Own" with Olivia De Havilland (1946)

 

[EdwardKarlinski]

I am a Petula Clark fan, and I thought that she was remarkably good in the film. Both movies are excellent. This is surprising as most remakes are terrible.