- Joined
- Feb 8, 1999
- Messages
- 18,396
- Real Name
- Robert Harris
King Vidor's final film, Solomon and Sheba, was a problem-plagued 1959 production, with Yul Brynner as Solomon (he replaced Tyrone Power) and Gina Lollobrigida as Sheba. This has been a good month for Ms Lollobridiga on Blu-ray, as this is her third appearance. The other two, Woman of Straw and Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell, led me to hypothesize that she had a contractual clause causing her to appear in lingerie at least once in each production.
S & S was photographed in Technirama (8-perf 35mm) by the great Freddie Young, and while Twilight Time's new Blu-ray does give the concept that the film was shot large format, it could have been so much better. I presume that MGM has given TT a master taken from a 35mm reduction element, as printer functions pop as they go by.
There are occasional mis-alignments of the frames, possibly going back to the optical work from TLA to 35mm scope, and while these are few, they give some concept of how the imagery has been handled by MGM.
Color and densities are fine, aside from a bit of dupey functions in the main title sequence. Occasional sharpening noted.
The problem with S & S, as well as some other biblical epics of the era, are horrific scripting, and dialogue, that to be kind, has not met the test of time.
Audio is fine, albeit 2-track as opposed to discreet stereo.
Image - 3.75
Audio - 3.25
Pass / Fail - Pass
RAH
S & S was photographed in Technirama (8-perf 35mm) by the great Freddie Young, and while Twilight Time's new Blu-ray does give the concept that the film was shot large format, it could have been so much better. I presume that MGM has given TT a master taken from a 35mm reduction element, as printer functions pop as they go by.
There are occasional mis-alignments of the frames, possibly going back to the optical work from TLA to 35mm scope, and while these are few, they give some concept of how the imagery has been handled by MGM.
Color and densities are fine, aside from a bit of dupey functions in the main title sequence. Occasional sharpening noted.
The problem with S & S, as well as some other biblical epics of the era, are horrific scripting, and dialogue, that to be kind, has not met the test of time.
Audio is fine, albeit 2-track as opposed to discreet stereo.
Image - 3.75
Audio - 3.25
Pass / Fail - Pass
RAH