A few words about…™ Reap the Wild Wind – in Blu-ray

Given that this is from the reportedly troubled Universal Paramount library, how much improvement over this do you think would be possible with appropriate effort?

Robert Crawford said:

I take issue with your comments about the other two being forgettable. I actually enjoy those other two films more than this all-star cast film. I'm not saying it's a lesser movie, but I'm entertained by the other two more so. Again, who has the original film elements of this film, Paramount or Universal?

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Universal should have the studio holdings, whatever they are. What were Paramount's other two 1942 Technicolor productions?

Robert Crawford said:

I misunderstood RAH's post, but the other two movies were The Forest Rangers and Beyond the Horizon. The former film with Fred MacMurray I did see and remember liking, the latter film I have no memory of ever seeing it.

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I love THE FOREST RANGERS (anything with Goddard, really) but I've never seen the Dorothy Lamour movie.

I have REAP on DVD but will probably upgrade at some point. It's a shame it's not all it should be but, considering I NEVER expected this to ever see the blu light of day I hope it's worth taking a risk.

Some scenes do have a bit of dirt & sparkle, & some highlights have a touch of green in the highlights, a sign of registration issues, but overall I thought it looked pretty stunning, those thick rich colours, but then I am seeing it on a 42" plasma. I'm sure large screen projection shows up a lot of sins.

This is a thread about the purchase of the Paramount library by MCA. Someone says MCA scrapped all of the nitrate negatives.
https://www.hometheaterforum.com/co...unt-pre-1950-films-owned-by-universal.287455/

Oh I dunno, when you compare these Universal releases to the forties Fox colour releases, where they've thrown away the nitrate negatives & have to rely on dupes, the Universal releases look so much better. The Fox releases look dupey with almost no detail in the blacks. The Universal releases on the other hand look vibrant & sharp, not dupey at all, with lots of detail in the blacks, someone could be wearing a black coat with black buttons, & you'd see every bit of detail, buttons, pockets, the lot, the Fox release would just be a black blob. So I'm thinking that Universal does have good original elements (ha, that's a weasel word).

Mr. Harris, when you speak of “registration issues”, I have not been able to successfully ascertain what is meant by that. I am a layman when it comes to film terminology. My opaque awareness of the concept of registration in photochemical film processes is limited to the comment of a noted film preservationist that he once used the cleft in Kirk Douglas’ chin to perform this process, whatever it is. Would you be willing to enlighten me?

I think this is one of DeMille's better movies, but I won't buy it unless it has better picture quality.

Do we know if the three-strip Technicolor negative still exists? Even if it does, who would pay the major money that it would take for this one to look as it should. I've actually been hoping this one would come out on blu-ray for about a decade, but now hope has just gone out like a snuffed candle.

I have the French blu-ray (under the title "Les Naufrageurs des Mers du Sud") released by Elephant Films. The print is gorgeous (in my opinion); the French subtitles are removable. Highly recommended. (I think the blu-ray is region-free.)

benbess said:

I think this is one of DeMille's better movies, but I won't buy it unless it has better picture quality.

Do we know if the three-strip Technicolor negative still exists? Even if it does, who would pay the major money that it would take for this one to look as it should. I've actually been hoping this one would come out on blu-ray for about a decade, but now hope has just gone out like a snuffed candle.

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With us being in the declining days of discs its a safe bet that this will not get a better release than this. Robert listed it as a definite upgrade from the DVD which is good enough for me to purchase it as I really enjoy this film.

BornOfAJackal said:

Mr. Harris, when you speak of “registration issues”, I have not been able to successfully ascertain what is meant by that. I am a layman when it comes to film terminology. My opaque awareness of the concept of registration in photochemical film processes is limited to the comment of a noted film preservationist that he once used the cleft in Kirk Douglas’ chin to perform this process, whatever it is. Would you be willing to enlighten me?

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From a review of the French Elephant Films "Reap the Wild Wind" blu ray
https://translate.google.com/transl...eapthewildwind-cecilbdemille.html&prev=search

I would imagine my French copy is the same ransfer, but I thought it was beautiful.

Preordered my copy of this and the two other Waynes coming the same day. I don’t have copies of any of them in any form so it’ll certainly be an upgrade over staring at a blank screen

Robert Harris said:

Technicolor is not color. It’s three b/w negatives that must registered. Best to visit widescreenmuseum for a quick fix

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Enlightening summations of the color processes at widescreenmuseum.com. I'm assuming that registration is the overall process of aligning, flashing and printing the two-or-three color negatives? Or is it just one discreet step in that process? Lots of chemistry, optics and engineering involved. What a technological juggling act!

Trancas said:

From a review of the French Elephant Films "Reap the Wild Wind" blu ray
https://translate.google.com/transl...eapthewildwind-cecilbdemille.html&prev=search

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Having never seen the film, I appreciate getting a look at the intended "look". You've got to admire the amount of precision that goes into all this. Makes Lawrence of Arabia, Spartacus, 2001, et al. even more precious as one comes to appreciate all the pure "eye-work" it must take to get it right.