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

[jim_falconer]

The Conqueror is my all time favorite Victor Young film score, and that’s saying something, seeing as to how many wonderful scores he composed.
Another reason why it’s just so disappointing to hear Kino put the Blu-ray out with a mono soundtrack

 

[Robert Harris]

Was this movie even in stereo originally? The vhs tapes from the 80s and 90s are all mono.

4-track, which was the norm for 2.55

 

[Thomas T]

Is The Conqueror that bad? Well, yes and no. If the movie had starred, say, Anthony Quinn and Gina Lollobrigida (or Irene Papas) in the leads rather than Wayne and Hayward, it would have been a decent action/adventure movie. But the casting of John Wayne as an Asian and the red haired Susan Hayward as a Tatar woman is so ridiculous that it defies description. So it's not the film so much as the casting that demonizes it.

As for it being a major flop (assuming you mean financially and not artistically), it still outgrossed Elvis Presley's film debut and the trio of Crosby, Kelly and Sinatra.

 

[Lord Dalek]

4-track, which was the norm for 2.55

That's not guaranteed though. Bigger Than Life is in mono and that's 2.55:1.

 

[RolandL]

Where did this come from? Who the hell regards Love Me Tender as a musical but does not categorize The King And I and High Society as musicals?

The Numbers - Top-Grossing Movies of 1956

Top-Grossing Movies of 1956

www.the-numbers.com

 

[RolandL]

The Conqueror is my all time favorite Victor Young film score, and that’s saying something, seeing as to how many wonderful scores he composed.
Another reason why it’s just so disappointing to hear Kino put the Blu-ray out with a mono soundtrack

I'll pass if it doesn't have the 4.0 tracks.

 

[Douglas R]

That's not guaranteed though. Bigger Than Life is in mono and that's 2.55:1.

I believe Bigger Than Life was originally shown in 4 track stereo even if the Blu-ray is not (as often happens).

 

[RolandL]

It's quite good DVD quality.

Streaming from 2022 - probably came from a DVD.

Blu-ray

 

[RolandL]

Yes it sounds exactly like a 1950s stereo track on my Spanish Blu-ray. Fairly common in 1956 for a CinemaScope film to have stereo sound.

Is this the one you have?

 

[jim_falconer]

The audio situation reminds me of long ago, when I first purchased the Goodtimes DVD. It was widescreen (non anamorphic), and in stereo. For a cheaply priced DVD, I was overjoyed with the presentation at the time. Then Universal released an official DVD, which I quickly snapped up, only to find the stereo track was replaced with a mono track. This same situation appears to be repeating itself here.

 

[Douglas R]

Is this the one you have?

View attachment 246185

No, that is an official Scandinavian release but I don't know about the audio. I see there are also official Blu-rays from France and Germany which both have mono sound. It's crazy that an unauthorised Spanish release has a surround track but official releases don't. This is the one I have but not such good artwork - I'd sooner have Susan Hayward on the cover instead of the hawk!

 

[RolandL]

I'd sooner have Susan Hayward on the cover instead of the hawk!

Me too!

This is similar to Spanish Circus World Blu-ray. Excellent PQ and 5.1 sound.

 

[Craig999]

I totally agree with Mr. Harris (as I usually do) on this one. Normally I LOVE this kind of movie, and normally I LOVE John Wayne in ANY movie. Just watched this tonight, and I had to hang it up after 30 minutes. Just a "pretty good DVD" as far as picture quality. Dim, grainy, muted colors. NOT what I expect from a new blu-ray. As far as the plot goes, a boring mess with Ms. Hayward phoning it in, and John Wayne totally miscast, just like the reviews that I didn't believe said. Oh well, back to my Solomon and Sheba blu-ray

 

[Nick*Z]

Although released via RKO in March of 1956, this Dick Powell directed / Howard Hughes produced epic was shot in the early days of CinemaScope, beginning in the spring of 1954.

There are numerous unusual aspects to the film, beginning with the RKO log in CinemaScope. But a superb cast, composer, cinematographer(s) could not make this anything more than an interesting artifact of the era, and possibly one of the worst film ever created by a studio on a big budget.

Offered by Kino in its original (early) 2.55:1 aspect ratio. I'd like to tell you that that it looks superb, with great color, density and black levels.

But I'm unable to do that.

What I saw didn't really trouble me, as the film itself almost deserves the image as offered.

Not sure what occurred, but presuming that the OCN is extant, it should have yielded a quality image. What we have is something derived from the original 5216 sep masters, which appears overly grainy in many shots, but with decent color.

It's quite good DVD quality.

One might presume that this is for Wayne or Hayward completists.

I wish them well.

Image

Forensic - 2
NSD - 5

Audio – DTS-HD MA

Pass / Fail – Fail

Plays nicely with projectors - Not really

Upgrade from DVD - I'd probably not

Worth your attention - 1

Slipcover rating - 3 (actually pretty, and a different image from disc case)

RAH



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So, one of the worst movies of all time gets one of the worst 1080p upgrades ever? Well, at least they're being consistent.

 

[SwatDB]

Streaming from 2022 - probably came from a DVD.
View attachment 246172

Blu-ray
View attachment 246173

How about the 2015 Koch Media BD?

* 8 Images to look at between two Masters.

 

[Douglas R]

I don’t know what people are complaining about. The Kino has a really nice, collectible slipcover.

 

[ajabrams]

"So, one of the worst movies of all time gets one of the worst 1080p upgrades ever? Well, at least they're being consistent."

This comment reminds me of the story of the customer who complained about a restaurant:
"The food here is terrible..and such small portions!"

 

[mskaye]

"So, one of the worst movies of all time gets one of the worst 1080p upgrades ever? Well, at least they're being consistent."

This comment reminds me of the story of the customer who complained about a restaurant:
"The food here is terrible..and such small portions!"

This film’s karma ain’t good.

 

[Patrick McCart]

There's plenty of worse HD masters out there. I feel like most of the problems here are because of the internegative (?) Universal used, which should have never been touched in the first place other than for leader.

 

[B-ROLL]

This film’s karma ain’t good.

Perhaps the radiation affected the fillum elements ...