A Few Words About A few words about...™ Suddenly -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Lewis Allen's Suddenly (1954) is a low-budget affair, concerning an assassination attempt upon a U.S. President.

It wasn't a great film in 1954, and in the intervening decades, everything about it has begun to creak. It even has the appearance of an early '50s TV show.

Scanned from a decently clean 35mm fine grain master, the resultant Blu-ray is quite good looking, and sounds fine.

Problem here is one of aspect ratio. While the Blu-ray exhibits the entire 1.37 frame, spending a few minutes with it, leads me to believe that the proper AR would be 1.66:1 common bottom. Much of the film simply looks incorrect, with miles of head room in virtually every shot.

Image - 3

Audio - 4

RAH

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Filming commenced 4.12.54 and was composed for 1.75:1.
Bob

 

[Patrick McCart]

Is this for the Film Chest or Image edition? I'm curious about Image's release since it includes Francis Thompson's amazing short film N.Y., N.Y. as an extra.

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by Patrick McCart /t/325357/a-few-words-about-suddenly-in-blu-ray#post_4004118
Is this for the Film Chest or Image edition? I'm curious about Image's release since it includes Francis Thompson's amazing short film N.Y., N.Y. as an extra.

Image.

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by Bob Furmanek /t/325357/a-few-words-about-suddenly-in-blu-ray#post_4004090
Filming commenced 4.12.54 and was composed for 1.75:1.
Bob

1.75 may work. 1.85 would not, as it would crop too much of the frame bottom.

RAH

 

[Bob Furmanek]

It was specifically listed as a 1.75:1 film in the trades...

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by Bob Furmanek /t/325357/a-few-words-about-suddenly-in-blu-ray#post_4004136
It was specifically listed as a 1.75:1 film in the trades...

I tend to take the trades with a grain of salt.

RAH

 

[Patrick McCart]

Image.

In that case, is N.Y., N.Y. in 1080p or upscaled/480p? It's a short that should have turned up on one of the Treasures from American Film Archives sets.

 

[RolandL]

First time I have seen the complete frame with rounded corners on a DVD release.

 

[Angelo Colombus]

Seen it a few times when it was broadcast on TCM and the movie is ok with good performances by Frank Sinatra and Sterling Hayden but too much psychological chat.

 

[Todd J Moore]

I guess if we want it widescreen, we need the Roan DVD.

 

[Richard--W]

I wish Warner Brothers would release THE NAKED RUNNER (1967), Sinatra's third film about political assassination on blu-ray.

 

[John Hodson]

First time I have seen the complete frame with rounded corners on a DVD release.

There are a few out there; last one I bought (Suddenly aside) was Flicker Alley's The Most Dangerous Game.

 

[Stephen PI]

 While the Blu-ray exhibits the entire 1.37 frame, spending a few minutes with it, leads me to believe that the proper AR would be 1.66:1 common bottom.
RAH

Robert, doesn't 'common bottom' imply that you would only matte the top picture area down to 1.75, without cropping the bottom at all? I have experienced transfers that require this procedure, rather than centrally matting which to me doesn't always work.

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by Stephen PI /t/325357/a-few-words-about-suddenly-in-blu-ray#post_4005957
Robert, doesn't 'common bottom' imply that you would only matte the top picture area down to 1.75, without cropping the bottom at all? I have experienced transfers that require this procedure, rather than centrally matting which to me doesn't always work.

Can be set up in many ways. Common top, bottom, or center. Have no idea if prints were masked or open matte.

RAH

 

[theonemacduff]

Here's a quick Photoshop comparison of the two ARs, from a screencap chosen at random off the Beaver's page.
I'm not very good at drawing lines in Photoshop, so this is just a kludged together thing. I'm also assuming that the very bottom of the frame wouldn't be used by the projectionist (too close to the frame line) so I've moved the 1.66 bottom line up a little bit. For me the truly mind-boggling thing is that Image transferred it in open matte in the first place. If it's black and white, it must be square, seems to be thought, like, if it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium.