Recent content by Ray Faiola

Max Steiner wrote a temporary score (main and end titles) for the picture with the understanding that RKO would get a "name" composer for the actual release. Well, that didn't happen and the film went out with Steiner's music and no credit.

I still have my complete set of Columbia editions from American Movie Classics on VHS. I've had the main and end titles printed to update my 16mm print of BLONDIE HAS SERVANT TROUBLES. Here are the titles:

I have 16mm prints of both THE SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK (original release - the one TCM showed) and MAD WEDNESDAY (1950 tightened reissue). I did a side-by-side comparison of the two and uploaded it to Vimeo. Note the new footage of the singing horse created for the finale of MAD WEDNESDAY.

Paramount owns THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK (due to remake) and EMKA/MCA Universal owns HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO. Universal also acquired the rights to MAD WEDNESDAY when they picked up the Howard Hughes library.

I have a nice 16 of DANGER WOMAN. It's pretty meh. I would much rather see THE CRIMSON CANARY released but there may be some music rights holding that one up.

Falk probably gave it the thumbs down with something like "it sounds like The Odd Couple!" I think the slow adoption of "This Old Man" as Columbo's motif was much more appropriate, but I'm glad it wasn't adapted into a main title theme. The Columbo's focus first on the criminal. In that way the...

I have to step in here as the sound restorationist on OUR TOWN. First, John, I did use iZotope tools in working on this track. The 35mm tracks we had to work with had myriad problems including significant noise-to-signal ratios (some reels worse than others) and varying levels of "whistle". I...

The SCARLET STREET 4K is definitely NOT an improvement. Kino's previous releases have been of the Library of Congress print which looks like it came from the camera negative. The new 4K appears to be from a dupe fine grain. The print itself is far too contrasty with hot spots galore. Also, the...

Thankfully the score to CAGED survived (in fine fidelity) in its entirety and it is the headline title in our 3-CD "DARK SIDE OF MAX STEINER" set.

While the films looked great I was very disappointed with the audio. Very heavy noise reduction was employed (there are a few moments where it was not and you can hear the radical difference) and nearly all the room tone was suppressed. I wish a more judicious approach to the clean up had been used.

For completists, here are, side by side, the original 1939 and 1947 reissue main titles (Universal, not Realart): Note the billing changes!

Correction - the sequence in (Thorndyke) Lansbury's office is about 57:45 into the picture.

Oh, no, the sequence after the main title on my video is almost four reels into the picture. The footage I posted is the sequence in the original release print and does NOT include the cut portion with the editors. If you go to that sequence on the DVD or Blu-ray you will see the sequence cut...

For those interested, here are the original MGM titles (I have a 16mm print). In addition to the titles, one major change was made for the reissue. The scene where Kay Thorndyke's editors resign en masse was NOT in the original release. I've included that section in the video so you can see what...