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

[Robert Harris]

Yes, I did say DVDs. I'm very much aware of the excellent WAC blu-ray quality, having been buying them since they first came out. (In fact I did a mini review of the Blu-ray of Jezebel on this thread.) My question referred to the DVDs, especially those from the 1920s and early 30s which, as I said, are often quite poor quality. I would like to know what format these movies were stored in and how they were sourced. Presumably they are existing video recordings, but many are too poor to be even from reasonable 35mm prints.

One might surmise that many of the old DVDs were sourced from extant, archaic 20-25 year-old telecine masters, derived from well-used 35mm duplicate printing negatives. Built-in positive/negative dirt, damaged frames.

worts and all releases.

 

[Robert Crawford]

One might surmise that many of the old DVDs were sourced from extant, archaic 20-25 year-old telecine masters, derived from well-used 35mm duplicate printing negatives. Built-in positive/negative dirt, damaged frames.

worts and all releases.

Yep, I'm pretty sure George Feltenstein has clearly stated beforehand, when they first started the Warner Archive Collection that these DVD releases will not be pristine and will fall short quality-wise from their usual DVD releases. IMO, the early WAC releases circa 2009 were worse quality-wise than many of their current DVD releases as they have improved their processes over the years for getting these film titles ready for WAC release. There were even some film titles from 2009, that were released again on DVD in which you can see some distinguishable improvement from it's prior DVD release. One of those titles that comes to mind is "Four Daughters".

 

[Conrad_SSS]

There were many several Warner Archives DVD releases which were later upgraded with better quality. Robert is right about "Four Daughters", and "The Adventures of Mark Twain" is another example where there was a reissue. Same thing goes for "The BIg House", which they remastered very impressively, and their reissue included 2 foreign language versions. I think they upped their game in DVD quality about a year after they launched. Going back and listening to their older podcasts on iTunes, you can find interesting information. I can recall them talking about remastering the Forbidden Hollywood films, and things like "What Price Hollywood". I must have several hundred of their DVDs, and 9 times out of ten the picture and sound quality is remarkably good.

 

[Robert Crawford]

There were many several Warner Archives DVD releases which were later upgraded with better quality. Robert is right about "Four Daughters", and "The Adventures of Mark Twain" is another example where there was a reissue. Same thing goes for "The BIg House", which they remastered very impressively, and their reissue included 2 foreign language versions. I think they upped their game in DVD quality about a year after they launched. Going back and listening to their older podcasts on iTunes, you can find interesting information. I can recall them talking about remastering the Forbidden Hollywood films, and things like "What Price Hollywood". I must have several hundred of their DVDs, and 9 times out of ten the picture and sound quality is remarkably good.

Yep, the reissue for "Four Daughters" came out 05-17-11 while the first WAC release of it was 05-05-09. "The Big House" first edition was 03-23-09 and the remastered version came out on 03-11-14.

 

[Robert Crawford]

By the way, my purchases of Warner Archive DVDs has slowed down over the last 2-3 years, but I still have over 500 titles in my disc library. Ever since Warner farmed out the distribution of their discs, I don't buy many of them directly from that site. Furthermore, the TCM app and being retired has allowed me to watch more of their films without buying their discs.

 

[Will Krupp]

Yep, the reissue for "Four Daughters" came out 05-17-11 while the first WAC release of it was 05-05-09. "The Big House" first edition was 03-23-09 and the remastered version came out on 03-11-14.

That was (is?) a nice thing about their MOD program. They were far more likely to be able to update the digital file to use toward new replications than if they had been regular releases. WHO'S KILLING THE GREAT CHEFS OF EUROPE? is another one that got a widescreen remaster at some point.

 

[OLDTIMER]

What I am thankful for is that I can often watch clean, sharp prints that have been off the cinema circuit for 80 years. I was not grumbling about poor quality prints but merely wondering why some are very soft.

 

[Mark-P]

By the way, my purchases of Warner Archive DVDs has slowed down over the last 2-3 years, but I still have over 500 titles in my disc library. Ever since Warner farmed out the distribution of their discs, I don't buy many of them directly from that site. Furthermore, the Warner Archive app and being retired has allowed me to watch more of their films without buying their discs.

What Warner Archive app are you talking about? Warner Archive Instant shut down a while back. Do you mean Filmstruck or the Watch TCM app?

 

[Robert Crawford]

What Warner Archive app are you talking about? Warner Archive Instant shut down a while back. Do you mean Filmstruck or the Watch TCM app?

Yeah, I misspoke, I'm talking about the TCM app as it gives me more time to watch stuff.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I review lots of WAC Blu-rays, but I can't recall the last time I reviewed one of their DVDs.

I've been consistently impressed by the high quality of WAC BDs but the last few WAC DVDs I saw were meh at best.

The 2016 "Doc Hollywood" finally got the movie a widescreen presentation, and it upgraded one of the worst DVDs I ever saw. I almost never give "F" grades for picture, but the original "DH" was awful enough to earn that.

Though the 2016 DVD was an improvement, it still had plenty of issues and I gave it a "C".

The 2017 BD became an obvious upgrade. Dunno why they didn't just go Blu a year earlier!

 

[PMF]

I have little doubt that WAC is fully aware that "Jezebel" has not been available on the Best Buy website for many a week.
Yes, there's Amazon and the Warner's store on-line, but with Best Buy offering the bulk of other WAC titles;
including "The Letter", "The Thin Man", "Footlight Parade", "The Sea Hawk" and "Summer Stock";
would it not behoove the cause of showing our support for their restorations were they to have "Jezebel" on hand, as well?

 

[MovieFan85]

The Warner Archive Collection Blu-ray edition of JEZEBEL was reviewed by Randy Miller III on Blu-ray.com on December 7, 2019, and in the review, this is what he said:

"Although Jezebel's original nitrate negative was long thought to be unusable in recent decades (partially due to studio-mandated cuts made during the 1940s), this Blu-ray is advertised as being sourced from a 4K scan of that original source element."

Is it true that the Warner Archiver Blu-ray of JEZEBEL was sourced from a 4K restoration? If it's true, then that's fantastic.

 

[ahollis]

As a New Orleanian, I find it fascinating that the the back story is of yellow fever gripping the city. Much like the virus is at this moment. History does repeat itself.