Unfortunately, this affects some extraordinary titles.
George Stevens’ A Place in the Sun is one of them.
Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters, in a production based upon Theodore Dreiser’s novel “An American Tragedy.”
Photographed by William C Mellor, who was also behind the camera on a number of Mr. Stevens’ other films; edited by William Hornbeck (ditto), and with a score by Franz Waxman.
A Place in the Sun exudes quality from the first frame to the last.
The problems begin with almost four minutes of printer function dupes, which which there is no cure once one is down a few generations.
After that, once we’re in what would have been production footage, things get a bit better, but the film element is still down enough to eat up virtually any shadow detail, while concurrently exacerbating grain structure, just a bit.
My take is that there’s nothing that Paramount could have done to solve the problems. So, I’ll accept this as the best that can be done, and be thrilled to have one of the finest films ever made on Blu-ray.
This isn’t Mr. Dreiser’s first film version of his novel. The initial was aptly entitled An American Tragedy, also from Paramount , with Josef von Sternberg at the helm. It’s available as a DVD from Universal.
Absolutely worth adding to any serious cinema library.
Image – 3.25
Audio – 4.5
Pass / Fail – Pass
Upgrade from DVD – Yes
Very Highly Recommended
RAH
Robert has been known in the film industry for his unmatched skill and passion in film preservation. Growing up around photography, his first home theater experience began at age ten with 16mm. Years later he was running 35 and 70mm at home.
His restoration projects have breathed new life into classic films like Lawrence of Arabia, Vertigo, My Fair Lady, Spartacus, and The Godfather series. Beyond his restoration work, he has also shared his expertise through publications, contributing to the academic discourse on film restoration. The Academy Film Archive houses the Robert A. Harris Collection, a testament to his significant contributions to film preservation.
Post Disclaimer
Some of our content may contain marketing links, which means we will receive a commission for purchases made via those links. In our editorial content, these affiliate links appear automatically, and our editorial teams are not influenced by our affiliate partnerships. We work with several providers (currently Skimlinks and Amazon) to manage our affiliate relationships. You can find out more about their services by visiting their sites.
Similar threads
- Robert Harris
- Blu-ray and UHD
2- Robert Harris
- Blu-ray and UHD
2