- Joined
- Feb 8, 1999
- Messages
- 18,316
- Real Name
- Robert Harris
John Llewellyn Moxey's The City of the Dead (1960), is an odd film, as it's set in Massachusetts, here in the Colonies, but it's very much a UK production, with British actors.
It was photographed by Desmond Dickinson, a quality British cinematographer, whose work goes back to the '20s, and includes classics such as the 1948 Hamlet, The Browning Version, and the Technicolor Importance of Being Ernest (1952).
Mr. Dickinson knew his way around cameras and photographic stocks.
And that's what makes VCI's Blu-ray release of City of the Dead, all the more disturbing.
We're reminded before the film that it has been "restored," and I had high hopes that were immediately dashed at the first frame.
To my eye, The City of the Dead is an attempted up-rez to Blu-ray of what appears to have been a very decent standard definition interlaced master. It might have produced a decent DVD, except for the fact that it's (what appears to be) 3/2 pull-down makes the entire process a jerky disaster. Add to that digital artifacts...
You get the idea.
Audio is also problematic as it gives us wonderful hiss and pops, probably carried over from the old SD video master.
Some will be reminded that I've referred to Blu-ray as a bucket. It looks like what you put into it. And it all began with "the look and sound of perfect..."
Unfortunate.
Image - 0.5
Audio - 2.5
4k Up-rez - Don't try it.
Pass / Fail - Fail
RAH
It was photographed by Desmond Dickinson, a quality British cinematographer, whose work goes back to the '20s, and includes classics such as the 1948 Hamlet, The Browning Version, and the Technicolor Importance of Being Ernest (1952).
Mr. Dickinson knew his way around cameras and photographic stocks.
And that's what makes VCI's Blu-ray release of City of the Dead, all the more disturbing.
We're reminded before the film that it has been "restored," and I had high hopes that were immediately dashed at the first frame.
To my eye, The City of the Dead is an attempted up-rez to Blu-ray of what appears to have been a very decent standard definition interlaced master. It might have produced a decent DVD, except for the fact that it's (what appears to be) 3/2 pull-down makes the entire process a jerky disaster. Add to that digital artifacts...
You get the idea.
Audio is also problematic as it gives us wonderful hiss and pops, probably carried over from the old SD video master.
Some will be reminded that I've referred to Blu-ray as a bucket. It looks like what you put into it. And it all began with "the look and sound of perfect..."
Unfortunate.
Image - 0.5
Audio - 2.5
4k Up-rez - Don't try it.
Pass / Fail - Fail
RAH
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