A Few Words About A few words about...™ Harvey -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

Universal's new Blu-ray of Henry Koster's Harvey, is beautiful.

As one of the new restorations for the studio's centenary, Harvey has received the full quality job. No liquid wax used here.

Working substantially from the film's original nitrate negative, with some reels derived from a fine grain master, scans have been performed in 2k via wet-gate, and the resultant imagery is stunning and film-like.

Black levels, gray scale, shadow detail is all in place, with a pleasing grain structure. Audio is superb.

A great film. A wonderful tale about our favorite pooka, as brought to the screen by a quality filmmaker.

Harvey has never looked better, and actually looks taller than his 6' 8" height.

Image - 4.5

Audio - 5

A great deal of time, effort and love went into this one.

Highly Recommended.

RAH

Originally Posted by Robert Harris /t/323217/a-few-words-about-harvey-in-blu-ray#post_3965729

Audio - 5

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Audio...on Harvey...a "5?"

Wow.

Thanks, Robert. This sounds like a restoration in the true sense of the word.

Very, very happy to hear that Universal has done justice to this film. I've been holding off on re-visiting this wonderful film since I first heard of the forthcoming Blu-ray release and I am really looking forward to screening this during release week.
- Walter.

Lovely news! I'll be sure to grab this one up.

Robert Harris said:

Harvey has never looked better, and actually looks taller than his 6' 8" height.

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Got to be good looking
Cuz he's so hard to see!

Can't wait to read KevinEK's remarks when he reviews, which I presume will be over the weekend, after his 16 hour days.

RAH

One of my favorites, and probably Jimmy Stewart's all-time best performance. Glad to hear the presentation is worthy of the content.

Yes, this is great news.






Crawdaddy

Can't wait to revisit the misadventures of Elwood P. Dowd and his invisible rabbit...thanks for the highly favorable review, Robert!!!

Note that Amazon UK offers a Blu-ray only edition (region-free) for $13. PILLOW TALK can be had for $16.

Can't wait to get this!

Bob Cashill said:

Note that Amazon UK offers a Blu-ray only edition (region-free) for $13. PILLOW TALK can be had for $16.

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Cool. I'll order the UK version instead.

The definition of Pooka, as found in RAH's Encyclopaedia Brittanica (2005 edition):

"P-O-O-K-A, Pooka. From old Celtic mythology - a fairy spirit in animal form; always very large. The pooka appears here and there, now and then, to this one and that one, a benign but mischievous creature, very fond of rumpots, crackpots and how are you Mr. Harris?"

Kevin EK said:

The definition of Pooka, as found in RAH's Encyclopaedia Brittanica (2005 edition):
"P-O-O-K-A, Pooka.  From old Celtic mythology - a fairy spirit in animal form; always very large.  The pooka appears here and there, now and then, to this one and that one, a benign but mischievous creature, very fond of rumpots, crackpots and how are you Mr. Harris?"

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As you can see.
Can't wait for your review, and what I hope will be a slightly more personal perspective. Did you ever meet the pooka?

Are you kidding? He is one.

This is one of my favourite films.
Years (and years) ago my party-piece was being able to do Elwood's monologues and have people believe that the pooka was real.
During this time and in a work-related scenario, I had a disagreement with a female colleague. At the end of the disagreement she said, "thank you for being frank with me." I then replied, "I'm not Frank - Frank is the invisible rabbit sitting next to you."
She looked.
She then saw that I'd seen her look for the invisible rabbit.
The following year all my work colleagues were invited to this womans wedding - all except me.
I'd seen her look for the invisible rabbit.
The region 2 dvd of this movie is a very good transfer - the BD is released next week in the UK. What I've been pondering since the release was first announced is whether enough improvement can be wrung out of a 62 year old movie to justify buying it for the third time.
Not yet convinced.
.

I felt the same way. I've been looking at the preorder since it was announced wondering if it's worth the upgrade. It's one of my favourite oddball movies, and Elwood's philosophy about being pleasant is one I try to live by (but without the dipsomania). RAH's recommendation was the clincher, plus HMV & Amazon having it for a paltry £8 I thought I'd follow the philosophy of another great cinematic character and man of science. Like Doctor Emmett Lathrop Brown PhD, I thought "What the hell..."

It's over $24 on Amazon US. So is the US subsidizing foreign issue prices? Sheesh that pisses me off.

Well, in the US you also get a digital copy and a DVD. Hooray! AIRPORT can also be had more cheaply via Amazon UK, and it's already out. Bottom line: Always check Amazon UK to see if region-free discs that are or will be available here from Universal, WB, etc. are cheaper. You'd be surprised how often they are.

Mark Oates said:

I felt the same way. I've been looking at the preorder since it was announced wondering if it's worth the upgrade. It's one of my favourite oddball movies, and Elwood's philosophy about being pleasant is one I try to live by (but without the dipsomania). RAH's recommendation was the clincher, plus HMV & Amazon having it for a paltry £8 I thought I'd follow the philosophy of another great cinematic character and man of science. Like Doctor Emmett Lathrop Brown PhD, I thought "What the hell..."

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The studios are throwing a shedload of new BD's at us over the next few months - I wish I had the disposable income to buy everything I wanted when I wanted it, but I dont.
Harvey is one one my favourite movies, but so are Jaws and LoA - both released the 1st half of September in the UK.
Indiana Jones Trilogy, ET, Prometheus - the list goes on.
Something has to give.
Add to the issue a wife who can't/won't see the difference between DVD and BD, and gives me a stern lecture everytime I spend money on a movie I already have.
This may be bought for me as a Christmas present if I slam down enough unsubtle hints.