White Zombie (1932) - Cary Roan Special Signature Edition (VCI Entertainment) (1 Viewer)

revgen · Jun 15, 2013

Release date is September 10, 2013.

VCI Entertainment - http://www.vcientertainment.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=822&path=59

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00D49EB0E

I hope this one is better than the Kino Version.

JSul · Jun 15, 2013

Agree. Will wait for some reviews before making the purchase. I have the Roan DVD, and have not shelled out $ for the Kino bluray, due to the reviews.Have learned that just because it is a bluray, does not mean it is far better than the dvd.

TheSteig · Jun 15, 2013

I have the Kino Blu Ray and the Roan DVD...I really hope this new edition has the extras of the Roan DVD...Im not keen on owning 3 copies of the same film..especially when its not that good...I mean it is good in some parts ( and boring in others) but it is an important film to the genre..and Bela is great in his role..but to own multiple versions like Wizard of Oz, Godzilla or Frankenstein even ...oy !

revgen · Jun 15, 2013

Well, I didn't buy the Kino version because of the reviews, so I'm willing to see if the PQ and SQ is better on this one.

Ruz-El · Jun 15, 2013

I never did buy this one, maybe this release will do the trick

Charles Smith · Jun 15, 2013

Russell G said:
I never did buy this one, maybe this release will do the trick

I was just going to say the same thing! Never even got the Roan Group laserdisc back in the day, in spite of best intentions. I can't even remember when I saw the movie last, on TV. It's been years.

JoHud · Jun 15, 2013

I'm glad this one is coming out and that I didn't buy the Kino version. I was going to buy it figuring nothing better would come along for a while given that the Kino release came out roughly 10 years after the Roan DVD. Hopefully Cary Roan can do this film justice on home video.

Also, does this mean Cary Roan is now working with VCI for more high quality public domain titles? There was a Cary Roan Signature Edition of Deadly Companions in May as well. I hope so because the old Roan company was pretty dependable on those fronts.

Professor Echo · Jun 15, 2013

I was recently in a used record store and saw the KINO version new for $12. Almost bit, but remembered the reviews weren't great, which turned out to be an understatement. I looked up some on my iPhone and couldn't believe how bad they were. I couldn't pass it up fast enough. Hoping the Roan version will be like their SD edition, which is still definitive.

ROclockCK · Jun 15, 2013

Yoiks! So we now have two versions of a mid-rank PD title like White Zombie, and yet still no George Pal? Only 1 from Jacques Tourneur (an import at that)? 2 from Frank Capra? 3 from Vincente Minnelli? 4 from Orson Welles and Blake Edwards? Plus mere smatterings of Billy Wilder?

Something seriously wrong with this picture...

bigshot · Jun 15, 2013

This isn't mid rank PD. It's top rank Lugosi.

ROclockCK · Jun 15, 2013

Okay, fair enough. Scratch the mid rank.

Richard--W · Jun 16, 2013

You never know with VCI. Sometimes they get access to clean sharp hi-def transfers and then waste them on badly authored discs. Case in point: THE DEADLY COMPANIONS. At other times they advertise digitally restored / digitally remastered transfers and then they deliver a mudpie that looks an analog VHS several generations removed from a Betamax master. Case in point: JANE EYRE (1970). At other times their discs are competitive with the major studios. Case in point: the director's cuts of THE SHOOTING and THE WHIRLWIND (both 1965), now out of print. Their menus are always clunky and slow. I would not be surprised if VCI's transfer of WHITE ZOMBIE is better than the Kino but, like their previous Cary Roan disc, hastily and badly authored at the plant.

ROclockCK · Jun 16, 2013

I only know VCI from their vintage Rank Collection Blu-rays such as Flame Over India, Genevieve, Campbell's Kingdom, and Agent 8 1/2, plus recently, King Features' Gorgo. None of those discs were without PQ and AQ issues, but all were good to very good movies in more or less clean and watchable condition (though you wouldn't want to go too big with them). Overall, they echoed those less-than-pristine 3rd run/last chance double-bill matinees of my youth. Price was right. No foul.

So I don't expect state-of-the-art harvests or miraculous restorations from VCI to begin with, which is why my hopes for White Zombie remain modest at best...with or without that Roan endorsement above the title.

JoHud · Jun 16, 2013

Richard--W said:
You never know with VCI. Sometimes they get access to clean sharp hi-def transfers and then waste them on badly authored discs. Case in point: THE DEADLY COMPANIONS. At other times they advertise digitally restored / digitally remastered transfers and then they deliver a mudpie that looks an analog VHS several generations removed from a Betamax master. Case in point: JANE EYRE (1970). At other times their discs are competitive with the major studios. Case in point: the director's cuts of THE SHOOTING and THE WHIRLWIND (both 1965), now out of print. Their menus are always clunky and slow. I would not be surprised if VCI's transfer of WHITE ZOMBIE is better than the Kino but, like their previous Cary Roan disc, hastily and badly authored at the plant.

Yeah, as usual, I'll wait for reviews on this one. Some of their more obscure DVDs I usually end up blind buying. However, like their upcoming blu-ray of And Then There Were None, I'm pretty sure we'll get some early reviews on this one.

Could you please describe how Deadly companions was badly authored? I haven't bought the disc and would like to know how the authoring affects the transfer. Or are we talking about defective discs?

JSul · Jun 16, 2013

Am hoping someday to find definitive versions of LugosiPhantom Creeps serial and Human Monster.Agree that VCI can also be hit or miss, but that can be said of the major studios too, unfortunately

Bob Furmanek · Jun 16, 2013

I know someone with a beautiful 35mm safety print of THE HUMAN MONSTER made in the early 1950's from the camera negative.

But after all the people that copied my self-financed restorations (including the Roan Group) of AFRICA SCREAMS, JACK AND THE BEANSTALK, THE DEVIL BAT and SCARED TO DEATH, I'm not putting any more money into restoring/preserving public domain films.

Professor Echo · Jun 16, 2013

I wonder how the German SD release of THE HUMAN MONSTER is? They usually do right by Edgar Wallace titles. I picked up the Wallace based MYSTERY LINER on a recent trip to Germany, but passed on HUMAN MONSTER. Now I'm wishing I had gotten it just to see if it beats the lowly Alpha version.

JoeDoakes · Jun 16, 2013

Roan reportedly has a very good condition 35mm print of White Zombie, so it might all be in the transfer. Hopefully, VCI does something with it.

Bob Furmanek · Jun 16, 2013

I sure hope so!

Richard Gallagher · Jun 16, 2013

Bob Furmanek said:
I know someone with a beautiful 35mm safety print of THE HUMAN MONSTER made in the early 1950's from the camera negative.

But after all the people that copied my self-financed restorations (including the Roan Group) of AFRICA SCREAMS, JACK AND THE BEANSTALK, THE DEVIL BAT and SCARED TO DEATH, I'm not putting any more money into restoring/preserving public domain films.

It's too bad that there isn't some mechanism for granting at least a limited copyright for people who undertake real restorations of public domain films. Anybody can publish a nice copy of a public domain book, but restoring a film requires both talent and a significant financial investment. As you say, there is no incentive to do it if anyone can steal your work.

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