Recent content by James Phillips

The BBC technology programme Click had a report about film restoration last week, which featured Ned Price talking about the remastering of How The West Was Won, along with some before and after shots. Here's a link to it: BBC The film restoration segment is about ten minutes in.

Thanks for the clarification, Jack. I suppose we'll have to wait and see exactly what's been unearthed here. But, even if it's 'just' the 1930 picture element, it would still be an amazing discovery.

Ah, I missed the part about it being a composite print. That sounds a bit strange to me, if it's supposed to be from 1930. As I've always understood it, Dracula was originally only released with a Vitaphone soundtrack, and the optical soundtrack version was created later on, for the re-release...

Presumably, it's the original Vitaphone version, if it's from 1930. So, it should have the correct framing. It should have the original version of the title cards, too. :emoji_thumbsup:

Universal UK were going to release a Bob Hope set, with 'The Cat and the Canary' on it, earlier this year. But it was cancelled, for some reason.

My order from Play's processing, as well. :emoji_thumbsup:

Here are those screen grabs, then.

It looks like this edition's cropped on all four sides. Compare the above caps to these ones from the R2:

I imported the horror set from Creepy Classics. A bit expensive, at about £23, but what can you do?

The image comparisons, and bitrate information, on this site are a good indicator, Marco. http://www.shillpages.com/uscmc/index.htm

Here in the UK, it's showing on Sky Movies, in 1.85:1 anamorphic, at the moment. I'll try to post a few screen grabs the next time it's shown.

I think there's still a possibility that Warners will release the new edition of 'Dracula' later this year.

Yeah, I wouldn't condemn anyone for buying it. I'd pick it up myself, if I didn't already have off-air DVDRs of both films. As it stands, I'd rather put my money towards something like 'From Beyond the Grave' (assuming Warners haven't mucked that one up, as well). It's still annoying...

A list of the cuts here: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0071519/alternateversions

Essentially, any shot featuring graphic violence (such as a certain actor being hit on the head by a claw hammer), is lopped out, and replaced by a freeze frame. It's a total hatchet job.