A few words about…™ Murder on the Orient Express (1974) – in Blu-ray

A great cast of actors involved and i did noticed the fine cinematography by Geoffrey Unsworth.

Unfortunately Geoffrey got sucked in by the soft-focus filtering craze that blighted certain films from that era. Murder is definitely hazy but The Day of the Locust is probably the foggiest of the lot.
All of that thanks (?) to the popularity of the soft-focus, naked adolescent girl photos from the late 60’s-early 70’s by David Hamilton. The “Hamilton Blur" was imitated by Playboy and prominent film makers. Hamilton ended his life when he was sued by a number of those formerly adolescent models.

Watched this disc last night. Excellent film, as remembered from its original release. Finney never fails to amaze me. He was 38 in this, and I believe the false nose is the only prosthetic. The rest is, as they say, the physical part of the actor's art.

I actually like the diffused look that he used in films like Cabaret, Superman: The Movie and Murder on the Orient Express.

I presume that this is from the same source as the Studio Canal version released in Australia a few years ago. Apart from the intentional soft focus it looks quite nice. Certainly a worthwhile purchase.

OLDTIMER said:

I presume that this is from the same source as the Studio Canal version released in Australia a few years ago.

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It is not, Ken. It's discussed at length in this thread:


Discussion of the new transfer begins at post #64, FYI.

Thanks Will.

I always hated Geoffrey Unsworth's diffused look. It made the 70mm blow-ups of his movies pointless as I suspect it does to 4K now.

I watched this last night, and while I do not have the earlier blu-ray for comparison, I thought this looked great. The outdoor scenery was breathtaking in places.

What confuses me is that this, like Foul Play, Heaven Can Wait, Reds and others, is a Paramount release but is not part of the Paramount Presents series. I can't figure out what Paramount Presents is for, and what the criteria are for inclusion in that series.

Sam Favate said:

I watched this last night, and while I do not have the earlier blu-ray for comparison, I thought this looked great. The outdoor scenery was breathtaking in places.

What confuses me is that this, like Foul Play, Heaven Can Wait, Reds and others, is a Paramount release but is not part of the Paramount Presents series. I can't figure out what Paramount Presents is for, and what the criteria are for inclusion in that series.

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Which is really strange , since all the films you mention were massive commercial and critical successes.

For example, why was "Ragtime" a Paramount Presents title, yet "Reds" from the same year (1981), and which had more critical praise and commercial success, in addition to winning several Oscars, was just a regular old Paramount titl ?

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing. That's a political subject, and what we're discussing here is the cinematic artistry of ,as well as the critical and commercial reception to the film "Reds" (in addition to other films). Apples and oranges....

BTW- Have you ever actually SEEN "Reds" ?

No. I'm not a fan of Warren Beatty or Diane Keaton. But reading the basic premise doesn't sound like 4 hours of fun.
To me Warren Beatty has always had the narcissism and lackluster acting talent of Jerry Lewis - without the comedy.

SeanSKA said:

BTW- Have you ever actually SEEN "Reds" ?

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Yes, I saw it when it first came out and was an "Oscar" contender. I thought it was a bad movie, severely misjudged. All those elderly people commenting made it like a TV documentary. The only sequence I admired was the mob storming the building. I thought that scene was done really well.

I have no objection to the politics, if any, of the movie but I've never wanted to see it a second time.

SeanSKA said:

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing. That's a political subject, and what we're discussing here is the cinematic artistry of ,as well as the critical and commercial reception to the film "Reds" (in addition to other films). Apples and oranges....

BTW- Have you ever actually SEEN "Reds" ?

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Yup. Very good film that I’m glad to have on Blu-ray.

Trancas said:

No. I'm not a fan of Warren Beatty or Diane Keaton. But reading the basic premise doesn't sound like 4 hours of fun.
To me Warren Beatty has always had the narcissism and lackluster acting talent of Jerry Lewis - without the comedy.

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That's fine. But since you haven't seen it, then you can't really comment what you believe MIGHT be the message of the film, or it's political stance, much less it's artistic quality

...and it has certain advantages over the broadcast master recently used by TCM such as the absence of flash frames. (This appeared late in the film in an important flashback scene between Richard Widmark and Anthony Perkins). It was kind of cool that if they had to do it, they at least used the font from the poster.

Angelo Colombus said:

A great cast of actors involved and i did noticed the fine cinematography by Geoffrey Unsworth.

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UNSWORTH

Cinematography genius!!

Trancas said:

Unfortunately Geoffrey got sucked in by the soft-focus filtering craze that blighted certain films from that era. Murder is definitely hazy but The Day of the Locust is probably the foggiest of the lot.

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I prefer that to the dim, low-contrast, colourless style that so many of today’s cinematographers seem enamoured with. It may have been soft, but at least you could actually see the faces on the screen.