best versions of T-Men and Raw Deal? (1 Viewer)

I've got this DVD of Anthony Mann's T-Men from some company called Sony Wonder. I have no idea what Sony Wonder is or how they're affiliated with Sony. Anyway, watched it last night; great, great movie, rather lousy DVD (blurry and smeary image). Just wondering if anyone out there can shed some light on how this disc (and Sony Wonder's version of Raw Deal) compare to the versions released by VCI and Roan?

It's been a while since I sat down with it, but the Mann box Roan put out in 1999, with T-MEN, HE WALKED BY NIGHT, and RAW DEAL, was decent value, with good (circa 1999) transfers. More could probably be done with them--they may have been LD ports for all I know--but given your experience it looks as if these titles may be trending downwards in quality.

do you have a upc for that box set

I think the VCI versions look pretty nice.

I don't have the box set handy, but it looks like it's OOP--copies are available on Amazon Marketplace from $45. One reviewer complained about the sound quality.

7-85604-20022-2
The Film Noir of Anthony Mann: T-Men, Raw Deal, He Walked By Night
2-disc set

This is an excellent, barebones release, especially since all three films were made for small production companies and distributed by Eagle-Lion Films rather than one of the major studios.

Are these versions reasonable quality? They are by Sony Home Video, which I guess means public domain? This is very dissapointing, because MGMs version of He Walked By Night is very good.

I've been trying to find that box set for months... but for some reason, I can only find the inidividual titles everywhere I look.

I might just go ahead and take a chance ordering online. The Amazon reviews haven't been very strong in terms of quality. But I'd bet these are the best versions of these films we'll see until anything official surfaces, as unlikely as that is..

Yeah it is annoying there aren't any official versions. The cinematography of these films is such an important part of how the films work, that really they need the absolute best quality transfers to do the films justice.

Anthony Mann's REIGN OF TERROR (1949) was an astonishing film noir set during the French Revolution and also shot by John Alton ("Every shot is a painting!" according to Maltin and rightfully so). Sony via MGM via UA via Eagle Lion owns the film and it is available on a tawdry pd print that TCM uses and which Alpha has released. The deliberate (for budgetary reasons) claustrophobic staging perfectly encapsulates both historical and Cold War paranoia. This would be a great film to restore, but the MGM releases of THE NOOSE HANGS HIGH and HE WALKED BY NIGHT may be flukes. I'd love to see Ulmer's RUTHLESS also released on dvd in a restoration.

I wonder if He Walked by Night looks so good because the original elements were just in a vault untouched, while various companies released public domain copies from release prints? You know the fact official versions hadn't been released meant that element was still in really good condition because it hadn't been reused since the original release?

According to DVDBeaver, the Sony version of Raw Deal is inferior to the VCI version.

I believe the Roan version is OOP.

Sony Wonder is indeed affiliated with Sony: it's a brand of Sony BGM (also known as Sony "rootkit" BGM).


Cees

I bought the Sony releases of T-Men & Raw Deal thinking they were the "official" releases. The packaging states Raw Deal is copyright 1948 (programming), renewed 1986 by Classic Media--which is the by-name on these DVDs (manufactured & distributed by Sony), although I know they're treated as public domain?? And T-Men programming Copyright renewed 1976 by Classic Media.

Classic Media is the same people who own Rocky & Bullwinkle and many others (http://www.classicmedia.tv) and released the "official" versions of those shows via Sony, just like these movies.

Anyway, I thought this "Gangsters, Guns & Floozies Crime Collection" was Sony's/Classic Media's attempt at a crime collection/series from the catalog they own, with T-Men, Raw Deal, Pretty Boy Floyd, Let 'Em Have It, and I, Mobster. Even if they weren't treated with complete respect-- like I, Mobster is shown Pan & Scan even though it was filmed in Cinemascope.

Anyways, I'm still ok with my copies. Now, if someone would re-release a good copy of the Big Combo....