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

[Keith Cobby]

Interesting subject the grading of images, whether it is relative to the source or absolute. I am an absolutist (sorry) and the best I have seen is the IMAX scenes in The Dark Knight/Rises so it is downhill from there. Incidentally, one of the very best quality transfers I have seen is the blu-ray of Detective Dee: Mystery of the Phantom Flame (Cine Asia). Generally the very best images are obviously from the large format films.

Regarding Mel Brooks, he is a taste I have been unable to acquire!

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Interesting subject the grading of images, whether it is relative to the source or absolute. I am an absolutist (sorry) and the best I have seen is the IMAX scenes in The Dark Knight/Rises so it is downhill from there. Incidentally, one of the very best quality transfers I have seen is the blu-ray of Detective Dee: Mystery of the Phantom Flame (Cine Asia). Generally the very best images are obviously from the large format films.

Regarding Mel Brooks, he is a taste I have been unable to acquire!

It's a balancing act. I don't want to give something a really low grade if it's the best the movie can look, but I also don't feel comfortable giving something an "A" that looks ugly.

When I write my reviews, I just hope people read the discussion of the picture and sound and don't just look at the letter grades, as they don't tell the whole story...

 

[Oblivion138]

And here's an odd one.

Shout Factory, obviously in a fit of cinematic lust, has given us a reversible Blu-ray insert. Don't like the artwork? Flip it over, and you've got the original black & white poster art.

This has become fairly common practice with Shout's BD releases these days. Particularly with their Scream Factory releases, which tend to feature new art by Nathan Thomas Milliner on one side, and preserve the original poster art on the reverse. Very much appreciated.

 

[Oblivion138]

Regarding Mel Brooks, he is a taste I have been unable to acquire!

I love Brooks's early films, up to and including Silent Movie...with The Producers and Young Frankenstein being among the funniest films I've ever seen. High Anxiety and History of the World are moderately enjoyable. Spaceballs, insanely overrated. Life Stinks...well...stinks. Though not as much as Dracula: Dead and Loving It. Perfect opportunity to do a Young Frankenstein-style spoof, completely squandered. And sandwiched in between the latter two, Robin Hood: Men in Tights...eh, it's moderately enjoyable, if not to the extent of High Anxiety or History of the World.

So yeah, it's a lot of up and down. But for me, the gems are real knockouts.

 

[titch]

Not quite in love with this as much as Mr. Harris. Some of it does indeed look very nice coming off whatever internegative was used. Why they didn't remove the cue marks twenty minutes in is anyone's guess - obviously they were burned into the internegative but it's so easy to get rid of them if one wanted to. But what's accurate here is that it does resemble a release print. How much better it could look from the camera negative is anyone's guess given the film's low-budget. I enjoyed the film and, for me, the transfer is a little less than stellar.

The answer to how much better, is: not very much. StudioCanal have just released a region "B"-locked restored version of The Producers, using the OCN and a dupe positive. The cue marks are gone and scratches that were present on the Shout Factory disc are not present on this transfer (eg. when Leo is in Max office at the start and Max takes away his blanket). StudioCanal seem to have left the grain alone on this one, unlike on several of their recent restorations. However, I don't think the transfer is superior to Shout Factory's - I certainly don't like the new colour grading, which is yellower. The flesh tones on the Shout Factory transfer are more natural. The are a few supplements that weren't on the Shout Factory disc, chiefly, 91 year old Mel Brooks bouncing around on stage at the TCM festival earlier this year and a 25 minute feature on Zero Mostel, made while he was filming A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. I don't think it's worth double-dipping, if you have the Shout Factory (which, by the way, has a far better cover!).

 

[Alan Tully]

I haven't seen any of the Blu-rays, just the caps on caps-a-holic (& I'm afraid it's not a first offence your honour). There's a lot of panic over at Blu-ray.com about how yellow it looks, but I don't think it does. The Shout looks too blue to me, with magenta flesh tones, it also has the contrast racked right up & a fair bit of sharpening, giving the picture an electric look. The Studio Canal looks more natural to me, but that's just the caps, the proof of the pudding is how it looks at home.

https://www.caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=12304&d2=12299&s1=121995&s2=121937&i=0&l=0&a=1

 

[titch]

I haven't seen any of the Blu-rays, just the caps on caps-a-holic (& I'm afraid it's not a first offence your honour). There's a lot of panic over at Blu-ray.com about how yellow it looks, but I don't think it does. The Shout looks too blue to me, with magenta flesh tones, it also has the contrast racked right up & a fair bit of sharpening, giving the picture an electric look. The Studio Canal looks more natural to me, but that's just the caps, the proof of the pudding is how it looks at home.

https://www.caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=12304&d2=12299&s1=121995&s2=121937&i=0&l=0&a=1

I A/B'd both discs on both my Oppos and the yellow tone on the StudioCanal is worse than the screen caps above suggest. And the faces all look a bit as though they've had fake spray tans. Projected, I'd definitely chose the Shout Factory.

I love the first part of the film with Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel in the office. After that, I generally fast forward to the bits with Dick Shawn.