A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Man Who Knew Too Much -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Hope they hire you to do that....

Whether I do it, or someone else, it needs to be done. As long as its done properly.
One of the more frustrating things about discussing these topics on the web, is that people will view the Blu-ray, and declare it to be sharp and colorful, not understanding what it is that they're seeing, and that the image is in no way representative of the film.
I see things in a way that few people do, which is probably a good thing for others and their enjoyment of older films. Viewing something forensically, unable to follow the storyline is not necessarily a blessing.
No doubt about it. It's a unique perspective.
Mr. Koster received an earful of it over the weekend, and his ability to ever simply sit down and watch a classic film again from a perspective of divine innocence may have been destroyed forever. He'd make a great archivist, if he weren't doing more interesting things.
RAH

 

[OliverK]

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to talk with Bob O'Neil at Universal, but the way Universal arranged our visit there that day, it seem to me that they didn't want to answer too many questions, particularly, about this box set. 

This sentence alone gives me a strong impule not to buy this boxset, sad to see that these things are still handled the way one would expect it from Universal after looking over the majority of their back catalog releases.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by OliverK /t/324714/a-few-words-about-the-man-who-knew-too-much-in-blu-ray/60#post_3995089
This sentence alone gives me a strong impule not to buy this boxset, sad to see that these things are still handled the way one would expect it from Universal after looking over the majority of their back catalog releases.

In fairness to Universal, they did answer about five questions, but most of them were directed towards the Monster box set without any question from HTF members about the Hitchcock box set before they cutoff any further questions. However, it still gave us as a group an impression that they prefer not to answer many inquiries from us.






Crawdaddy

 

[OliverK]

Mr. Koster received an earful of it over the weekend, and his ability to ever simply sit down and watch a classic film again from a perspective of divine innocence may have been destroyed forever. He'd make a great archivist, if he weren't doing more interesting things.

OK, I am lacking the proper context here - who is Mr. Koster?
Thanks for your reviews of the recent boxsets, more so than the Bond boxset it seems like the Hitchcock box seems like a mix of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly which imo is not what such a boxset should be about. One should be able to get a quality product with every film in such a boxset not just with a few.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by OliverK /t/324714/a-few-words-about-the-man-who-knew-too-much-in-blu-ray/60#post_3995094
OK, I am lacking the proper context here - who is Mr. Koster?
Thanks for your reviews of the recent boxsets, more so than the Bond boxset it seems like the Hitchcock box seems like a mix of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly which imo is not what such a boxset should be about. One should be able to get a quality product with every film in such a boxset not just with a few.

He's Kevin EK, our reviewer of this box set, who has commented in various threads about these Hitchcock titles.

 

[OliverK]

In fairness to Universal, they did answer about five questions, but most of them were directed towards the Monster box set without any question from HTF members about the Hitchcock box set before they cutoff any further questions.  However, it still gave us as a group an impression that they prefer not to answer many inquiries from us.
Crawdaddy

When it is not possible to ask question about their most important boxset ever this is very telling imo. I think this forum and others have been more than fair to Universal waiting again and again and again for things to make a turn for the better but their overall reelase quality is still lacking compared to every other major studio. We are now at a point where often a mediocre release is almost greeted with enthusiam as the prevalent mindset is that this is about the most that one can expect from Universal - this surely is telling.

 

[OliverK]

He's Kevin EK, our reviewer of this box set, who has commented in various threads about these Hitchcock titles.

Thanks, his last name wasn't known to me.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by OliverK /t/324714/a-few-words-about-the-man-who-knew-too-much-in-blu-ray/60#post_3995101
Thanks, his last name wasn't known to me.

You do know his grandfather is Henry Koster?

 

[JohnMor]

I didn't know that. Thanks, Crawdaddy!

 

[WadeM]

You do know his grandfather is Henry Koster?

Whoa! Impressive!

 

[Moe Dickstein]

Henry Koster, director of the first film released in my favorite aspect ratio (The Robe / CinemaScope)
Very cool info, thanks Crawdaddy

 

[OliverK]

You do know his grandfather is Henry Koster?

No I did not know that, now I need to see if there are any reviews from Kevin about movies like Harvey or The Robe!
As Moe pointed out having a grandfather who directed the first Cinemascope release is rather cool

 

[Kevin EK]

I reviewed Harvey and Three Smart Girls here.

I have collected many of his movies on disc:

On Laserdisc:
Three Smart Girls, Three Smart Girls Grow Up, 100 Men and a Girl, It Started With Eve

On DVD:
Deanna Durbin Sweetheart Collection (incl. Three Smart Girls)
Three Smart Girls (Uni 100th - reviewed for HTF)
The Inspector General (Shout! Factory release)
My Cousin Rachel (Twilight Time)
Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell (MOD)
D-Day The 6th of June
The Bishop's Wife

On Blu:
Harvey - (Uni 100th - reviewed for HTF)
Desiree (Twilight Time)
The Robe
Stars and Stripes Forever

 

[Kevin EK]

But back to TMWKTM, I have finally posted my pre-review of the set, which fully concurs with RAH's assessment of this title.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by Kevin EK /t/324714/a-few-words-about-the-man-who-knew-too-much-in-blu-ray/90#post_3995162
But back to TMWKTM, I have finally posted my pre-review of the set, which fully concurs with RAH's assessment of this title.

It will be interesting to see how many of us agree with you guys. Of course, many of us aren't looking at this title with the same perspective as you or RAH. It might be frustrating to say the least for you guys as some will likely dismiss certain deficiancies that are obvious and thus, unacceptable to you.






Crawdaddy

 

[Robert Harris]

It will be interesting to see how many of us agree with you guys.  Of course, many of us aren't looking at this title with the same perspective as you or RAH.  It might be frustrating to say the least for you guys as some will likely dismiss certain deficiancies that are obvious and thus, unacceptable to you. 
Crawdaddy

Robert,
That would be the 800 pound gorilla.
If one wishes to discuss frustrations, that long list could begin with our knowledge that;
The film in question is not being presented accurately in terms of:
Color
Density
Production and costume design
Makeup
Lighting,etc
As it comes from a heavily flawed element.
This element, which is presented at HD resolution, has heavy dye fade helped along by uneven oxidation.
It has almost continuous -- mostly visible, some more difficult for the casual viewer to detect -- pumping of color, as the above problems, which are a continuum to the actual film, but appear as a sort of color breathing as frames flicker before our eyes.
Some may not see any of this, but those who are unaware will be taking away a quite different reaction to this beautifully designed and photographed film.
And that is frustrating.
The fact that the digital arm of Universal appears to have been so financially restrained toward the creation of many of the masters for this set is also frustrating, and I surmise even to some at Universal, which for decades has shown superior respect and knowledge through their use of analogue technologies in supporting their library.
Viewing this film on Blu-ray will come down to the eye of the beholder, and those less cognizant of the true facts will be those with the most to lose, as with a belief that all is well, and that what they're seeing is precisely what so many peerless professionals at Paramount intended them to see, will be registering a lie.
And changing the history of the cinema and the careers of Alfred Hitckcock and so many others.
Those are the frustrations.
The pity is that the fix is relatively easy to apply.
What should be one of the more embarrassing functions of this set to Universal, is their decision to include North by Northwest. An M-G-M production, now from WB.
Although, there are some very nice Blu-rays in this set, but not one reaches that level of perfection.
That film had the same problematic attributes as TMWKTM.
But WB desired to fix them.
RAH

 

[Robert Crawford]

RAH,

I couldn't agree with you more based on what I observed last week in LA. There is no way certain Universal executives in charge of actual restoration of elements have to be happy that they released a product not up to their individual standards. The life in a corporate world forces you to make compromises even if you don't one to, as survival is everybody's first order of business.







Crawdaddy

 

[JoshZ]

One of the more frustrating things about discussing these topics on the web, is that people will view the Blu-ray, and declare it to be sharp and colorful, not understanding what it is that they're seeing, and that the image is in no way representative of the film.
I see things in a way that few people do, which is probably a good thing for others and their enjoyment of older films. Viewing something forensically, unable to follow the storyline is not necessarily a blessing.

I haven't seen the disc yet. I have absolutely no reason to doubt your conclusions about it.
Is the issue for you that the colors are inconsistent within the movie, or that they're different than they used to be? In some other threads, you haven't seemed to mind so much the teal-ification of some older movies (like Alien, Aliens or The Ring), which is something that absolutely drives me up a wall.

 

[Robert Harris]

I haven't seen the disc yet. I have absolutely no reason to doubt your conclusions about it.
Is the issue for you that the colors are inconsistent within the movie, or that they're different than they used to be? In some other threads, you haven't seemed to mind so much the teal-ification of some older movies (like Alien, Aliens or The Ring), which is something that absolutely drives me up a wall.

The.problem is that the Blu-ray is based upon a dupe of a very heavily faded and damaged original.

 

[Moe Dickstein]

So would the proper path for restoring this to go back to the seps and do a digital alignment (which I believe is what was done with N by NW)?
Once that's done then do whatever regular digital cleanup for dirt and any scratches and you're set in terms of just getting to Disc, though ideally you'd do a film out of the result to preserve it, but even without that, it couldn't be that incredibly expensive, certainly nothing like what was spent to do Rear Window or Vertigo.
Or would something else be required with this title?