Shirley Temple "Little Darling Pack"? (1 Viewer)

Does anyone have any comments on this release, which streeted (strat?, strut??) Tues.?

DG

I'd like to know how the quality stands up as well... but moreso, why isn't "The Little Princess" included?


Will we ever have a decent print of the film?!

Btw, the studio listed at Amazon is UMVD which I believe is a division of Universal am I right?


If so, I wouldn't be surprised if these were colorized versions...

I have this. They're not colorized. They look pretty good, compared to the other Shirley Temple discs I've seen. I had low expectations going in so that may have helped. Not Twilight Zone Def. Edition quality but still very watchable.

I've watched both films. I would say they look a lot better than "pretty good" for films of their age, especially Now and Forever, which is a superb transfer from excellent elements. Little Miss Marker also looks great, albeit a bit softer than Now and Forever. Whether you have "low expectations" or high expectations, if you like these two films you'll be very pleased. I think they're not up to the other Shirley films from Fox, but they're entertaining.

Thank you all, for comments.

May I steer this thread in a slightly different, but related direction? I currently have no Shirley Temple DVDs, but would be interested in adding her to my collection. It would sound like this current release is a good place to start.

Might someone place this release in a larger Shirley Temple context? For example, is this release the first DVD release of these films? I have the vague impression that previous DVD issues of Shirley Temple titles have not been well regarded due to colorization, poor quality transfers, etc. What is the current state of things regarding the availability and quality of ST titles?

Thanks for any continuing comments.

DG

I too would be interested in more info on Shirley Temple DVDs. There are a few titles that my grandmother used to show me all the time that I am particularly interested in:

The Littlest Rebel
Hedi
Rebecca of Sunny Brook Farm
The Little Princess

I would love to pick up those films for sure. Thanks in advance for any input.

I bought Hedi and it's awful. Really! Looks like a VHS dub on DVD???

More Temple films are coming in August from Fox, they'll be colorized, and they'll look like crap. Again. Titles include CURLY TOP and LITTLE MISS BROADWAY.

What does that mean? The previous Fox titles have BOTH colorized and black-and-white versions, so what would the problem be? Or do you not actually own any of the Fox Temple DVDs? Certainly you are making it sound like ONLY the colorized versions are on the DVD and that just isn't so. So, anyone reading this, please know that the subsequent Fox titles will indeed have the original black-and-white on them.

I'd give Bright Eyes a try (to the person who wanted recommendations), and Dimples, too. Adorable.

I do have them, and the DO look like crap, although the B&W versions look somewhat better than the colorized(the colorized versions, frankly, are unwatchable, even by colorization standards). Fox -- which has generally done a good job with its vintage film releases -- gave zero effort to poor Shirley.

The colorized versions shouldn't even be an issue with you, since you have the option of not watching them, yes?

I'll have to go back and watch again, but I remember the black-and-white image being fine.

I bought some of Shirley's Fox films a few years ago and they featured black and white and colorized versions. Obviously didn't even look at the colorized versions, but the black and whites were unwatchable- I am not sure if this is what people call edge enhancment, but everything looked like it had ghosting around it and that is on an average size screen of 32". I had never seen anything like it before and so bad and was surprised the titles had been released like that. Somebody must have thought, this doesn't look right!

Fox's previous Shirley Temple releases did indeed contain both colorized and B&W versions. The colorized ones were unwatchable, but the B&W weren't much better. It was a sad way to treat what was the studio's meal ticket in the 1930s and ranked as one of the poorest releases to come from a major studio. The anticipated August releases are currently being listed in some places as only colorized versions. This of course may be in error as such listings often are. One suspects, since Heidi is being revisited, that Fox may have given Legend Films access to the material. Legend is the outfit that has colorized several PD titles issued through Fox over the past couple of years (Reefer Madness, Beyond Tomorrrow, the upcoming Stooges release, etc). In such cases both colorized and B&W versions were included on the discs. Legend's colorized efforts are no better than any of the other colorized crap that has been issued.

Barrie

Nick is right.

The EE was/is so bad on some of these (the one's that I've seen anyway) that it looks almost like a camera double-exposure. I can't imagine anyone watching anything larger than a 27" tube not finding it objectionable. the images are visual profanity on a wide-angle projection screen. This is talking about the B&W versions.

I see a stand alone version of Heidi was released in the U.K. this week. According to Amazon U.K. it's only b&w. Anyone know if it's got an improved transfer? Any chance of it being released region 1? I had that awful Fox version but got rid of it. Fox DOES have new colorized versions coming out later this year.

Well, I have only ever seen these films in horrible, worn VHS tapes, so I'll tolerate a lot on these quality wise - as long as they are black and white!
Anyone have any R1 recommendations on the following films?

The Littlest Rebel
Hedi
Rebecca of Sunny Brook Farm
The Little Princess

What are the best releases of these films? The reaction thus far has been the ST has been poorly treated on DVD, but what would be the best way to get these films in Region 1? Thanks for any help!

Zack

I heard Fox was gonna use the same company and process that Columbia/Tristar used on their recent Three Stooges discs. Those look excellent IMHO. There is at least some hope they'll look good.

"Legend's colorized efforts are no better than any of the other colorized crap that has been issued."

Amen, Mr. Barrie. I actually saw a snippet of one of the new Stooges colorized shorts, too -- it was like watching corpses. Anybody who'd prefer this to the original has no taste.

I don't know how much these studios are spending colorizing these films, but in my opinion it's a terrible waste of money.

Why not use the money towards restoration efforts of films that need the work done? I'd hate to think what film is rotting away while "Malice in the Palace" is getting colorized.

The argument that colorization is needed to increase sales doesn't hold water either; Warners has proved that B&W films can sell. It's all about having savvy marketing people who know the product and how best to exploit it.

With all due respect, I also don't agree with the argument that the DVDs provide both B&W and Color versions. Aside from the increased cost of providing the color version, image quality could potentially suffer if too much space is allocated to the color version.

Steve

Steve