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Casino Royale (1967) on BD (UK) (1 Viewer)

Mark Oates

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A strangely disappointing experience. I'd hoped for a radical improvement on the 2008 Collectors' Edition DVD, but unfortunately Fox/MGM has only done lip service to putting the picture on Blu-ray. I know Casino Royale is the red-headed child of the Bond franchise, but personally I regard it as one of the most iconic psychedelic movies of the 1960s. Sure, it's a sprawling mess of a movie but it has its own bonkers charm and I'd have liked to have seen it given some care and attention in its hike to HD.
I haven't tried it out on my PS3, but the disc had some stuttering issues on my Sony BDP-S185 around the half-way point (the Berlin spy school sequence).
 

Walter Kittel

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I've always liked this film, and would agree that it is one of those films that is firmly grounded in the '60s. I own the US release of the Blu-ray and have watched the film at least 3 or 4 times with no playback issues. I think the Blu-ray is an improvement over the DVD and is generally pleasing but there is room for improvement.
- Walter.
 

Mark Oates

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I don't think enormous care was applied to transferring the movie in 2008 - I've not heard anything about the film being transferred subsequently so whatever scan was produced in 2008 was the one used for the Blu-ray. The titles suffer particularly from fading on the right hand side, with the colouring of lettering losing saturation and darkening. The opening sequence (the VIPs in the limousine) suffers from what looks like diff shrinkage - William Holden's white shirt has a green leading edge and a red trailing edge. There are odd problems throughout the disc, but they were also present on the CE DVD from 2008.
It's annoying, but I'm sufficiently fond of Casino Royale to overlook the problems in a glad-to-have-it-at-all spirit. I suspect if it were a high profile title with plenty of vociferous supporters things might be different, not every movie is a Lawrence of Arabia.
 

brioni

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Can someone help? I’m desperately trying to find out in the UK version is identical to the US, ie. Does it have the original mono track?
 

brioni

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Cheers Mark. I’ve now added the US version to my Bond 50 order. I usually use dvdcompare for this sort of thing but the UK one isn’t listed.
Bluray.com were quite complementary about the 5.1 mix but I just like to have the original as a precaution.
In fact they also mention about the playback issues but it seemed fine on 1 of his 3 players!
 

Kyrsten Brad

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Brad here. Well I found this thread and thought I'd dig it up instead of creating another one for this gawd-awful mess of a spy spoof.


For those who haven't researched the James Bond spoof Casino Royale (1967) Blu-ray recently, about two months ago, the title went out of print. Which of course resulted in massive price jumps on Amazon and eBay (save for one, the one I just snagged for $14.99. The seller didn't know yet it was out of print).


One other copy is available on eBay, price $119.99 (unless you want to buy the Italian versions). Amazon price is currently $59.99 and only one copy is available.


Don't know if this will every come back into print. Maybe for the release of Spectre but I wouldn't hold my breath.


CasinoRoyale1967_Blu.jpg
 

Alan Tully

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I remember when this opened in London, it was a big deal, & when on release it ran for two weeks instead of one. I suppose that was Columbia throwing good money after bad in a gamble to make a profit. It has some good scenes, a really great soundtrack, & good main titles, but it is a real, real mess. I was reading a bio of Peter Sellers, & it seems he walked out on the film early, so the idea of any sensible plot went out of the window. For all that, I'd buy a great looking Blu-ray (for old times sake), the currant Blu doesn't cut it. It's not deleted in the UK, it's on Amazon for £4.65 (but it doesn't say collectors edition on the cover).
 

titch

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Kevin Oppegaard
There is a new UK release coming out on November 15th by Final Cut Entertainment. No details on the extras yet or will they use the same master as the 2011 MGM release?


The few releases that I've purchased from Final Cut (Mask, Coal Miner's Daughter, Death Becomes Her) have all had old masters and no subtitles. This is not a company that pays for and organises new scans. Similar to other UK publishers such as Fabulous Films and Mr. Bongo Films - they just release what master is available, as cheaply as possible, with no frills. You get what you pay for.
 
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