A Few Words About A few words about…™ Footlight Parade – in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[AnthonyClarke]

The sound is super-important. How did it compare to the sound on the existing DVD?

 

[B-ROLL]

I just received my copy of Footlight Parade and must say I'm a little disappointed. Whilst the print quality is better than I've seen it before, it's a bit soft and a little grainy. Fortunately it has a nice grey scale. But it's not a patch on the quality of the Criterion Harold Lloyd releases of Speedy and Safety Last. Also, the sound is rather piercing due to a peak in the response at around 3KHz. I was lucky to be able to correct this by treble cut and a little bass boost which improved the quality no end.

Lloyd had the rights to his films and controlled the elements (if I remember correct in a vault on his estate). His films weren't re-released and the elements over-printed to near extinction.

In the 1950s, his (then future) sons-in-law encouraged him to make safety elements and I believe they took steps to preserve the Nitrate OCNs etc... Assuming the documentary on the DVD set and my memory are correct.

Footlight Parade was probably re-released and excerpted several times-so it would be a totally different can of peas ...

 

[OLDTIMER]

The sound is super-important. How did it compare to the sound on the existing DVD?

I just compared the Blu and the DVD alternating one to the other. Without the tonal correction that I mentioned, the sound on the Blu is quite peaky. But if you're able to cut the highs a bit (and perhaps a tiny bit of bass lift) the sound is almost identical. Picture-wise I found the difference between the 2 versions to be quite small. As I said, overall a little disappointing.

 

[Matt Hough]

Mine came today from Amazon (big surprise I didn't have to wait a month like I did for Glass Bottom Boat and Summer Stock). Sadly, because I am having some repairs going on in my house today and tomorrow morning, I didn't get to it tonight. Maybe tomorrow night,

 

[TJPC]

Amazon.com took it out of my basket, and said it is only being sold by 3rd party sellers and not them anymore!

 

[Jack Theakston]

I haven’t picked up the Blu yet, but I was quite disappointed with the DVD audio, which sounded rolled-off and compressed. The VHS edition sounded like it had very little processing work done on it and had a very wide frequency response.

 

[Matt Hough]

I watched this one tonight on Blu-ray and was suitably impressed with its visuals. I wasn't quite as bowled over as with 42nd Street, but it looked wonderful with nice grain structure, good black levels.

There is a moment when Ruby proves she could dance spontaneously and smoothly. When she takes off her glasses and is asked to show what she could do in an audition to get out of her secretarial job, she's wearing soft soled heels and does a marvelous "impromptu" dance that showed she could tap without the clunky hoofing and awkward arm movements. We only see her feet, so we don't watch her struggling to make her upper body look effortless (and never succeeding).

 

[Robert Harris]

I watched this one tonight on Blu-ray and was suitably impressed with its visuals. I wasn't quite as bowled over as with 42nd Street, but it looked wonderful with nice grain structure, good black levels.

There is a moment when Ruby proves she could dance spontaneously and smoothly. When she takes off her glasses and is asked to show what she could do in an audition to get out of her secretarial job, she's wearing soft soled heels and does a marvelous "impromptu" dance that showed she could tap without the clunky hoofing and awkward arm movements. We only see her feet, so we don't watch her struggling to make her upper body look effortless (and never succeeding).

Don’t recall the shot, offhand.

But if the frame is only on feet...

 

[Nick*Z]

Don’t recall the shot, offhand.

But if the frame is only on feet...

Yeah, I don't think that was Keeler's footwork either.

 

[Trancas]

Yeah, I don't think that was Keeler's footwork either.

Maybe, maybe not. The legs look identical and the closeup dancing seems like the same kind of slightly ungainly movement seen in the full body shot. I think maybe they broke up the shot to distract from the disconnect between her upper and lower body movement. She doesn't have the whole body grace of a professional dancer. They did the same thing on Ruby's bar top dancing in the Shanghai Lil number.

 

[JoshZ]

No complaints from the pixel peeping brigade about the aspect ratio being 1.33:1 rather than 1.37:1?