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A few words about…™ The Crusades – in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

Robert Harris

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If you look at Cecil B. DeMille's career, he never went small.

He went BIG.

The Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments
Samson and Delilah
Reap the Wild Wind
North West Mounted Police
Union Pacific
The Plainsman
The Sign of the Cross
Cleopatra

and in 1935, The Crusades.

Shot in early 1935, and with a running time of over two hours, it's almost the length of the actual Crusades.

Shot by Victor Milner, who worked on many of the DeMille productions, it's a beautiful photographed mini-epic.
While I'm thrilled that Kino has released it on Blu-ray, it's an older transfer, with problematic grain.

But it is what it is. OCNs on these film do not survive.

As to Mr. DeMille, the reality is that he really didn't direct that many films after the silent era.

The 1930s - 9 features credited
The 1940s - 5 features
The 1950s - 3 features

But what he did, was BIG!

Image – 2.75

Audio – 3.5

Pass / Fail – Pass

Works up-rezzed to 4k - No

Upgrade from DVD or import Blu-ray - Yes

Recommended

RAH


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benbess

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....Samson and Delilah
Reap the Wild Wind
North West Mounted Police
Union Pacific
The Plainsman
The Sign of the Cross
Cleopatra

....OCNs on these film do not survive.

The 1930s - 9 features credited
The 1940s - 5 features

So are the OCNs for all of the DeMille films before the last two from the 1950s lost? Even the Technicolor ones? Did Paramount or someone else put them in the trash, as Fox did with so many of their old films?

I have the recent blu-ray of the 1947 Gary Cooper Technicolor epic Unconquered, and the picture quality is mediocre from my pov. I thought they just hadn't remastered from the three-strip Technicolor negatives, as Warner Archive does with their Technicolor movies, but probably the ocn is just lost.
 

Capt D McMars

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As is often the case, if you want history, buy a book...this is movie. And like most movies of this era, De Mille included, they kept the action coming and the facts slim. I love the fact that De Mille's daughter got to play the evil temptress part in this one. And the first go for Loretta Young, still a teenager at the time.
Sad that it wasn't a newer strike, but still nice to have in any collection.
 

RobertMG

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So are the OCNs for all of the DeMille films before the last two from the 1950s lost? Even the Technicolor ones? Did Paramount or someone else put them in the trash, as Fox did with so many of their old films?

I have the recent blu-ray of the 1947 Gary Cooper Technicolor epic Unconquered, and the picture quality is mediocre from my pov. I thought they just hadn't remastered from the three-strip Technicolor negatives, as Warner Archive does with their Technicolor movies, but probably the ocn is just lost.
Samson would probably be the only one with the OCN because paramount still owns the film the others are of course with Universal and who knows what exists
 

Alan Tully

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Image – 2.75, harsh. I know you have to call 'em like you see 'em, but thought it looked okay (I have the French release), maybe as I don't project & only have a 47" TV I don't see the faults through my 72 year old eyeballs...& I can't agree with benbess, I think Unconquered looks very nice, not Warner Archive standard 3-strip, but then what is, & it's thousand times better looking than those dupey looking Technicolor films from Fox. I'm not happy with The Plainsman, too dark & contrasty.
 
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Robert Harris

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So are the OCNs for all of the DeMille films before the last two from the 1950s lost? Even the Technicolor ones? Did Paramount or someone else put them in the trash, as Fox did with so many of their old films?

I have the recent blu-ray of the 1947 Gary Cooper Technicolor epic Unconquered, and the picture quality is mediocre from my pov. I thought they just hadn't remastered from the three-strip Technicolor negatives, as Warner Archive does with their Technicolor movies, but probably the ocn is just lost.
I believe that the 3-strip negatives to all of the color films have survived. The b/w are all derived from dupes - some quite good, some less so.
 

RichMurphy

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Robert Harris's listing of The Ten Commandments twice in the initial post above got me to thinking: Is there any other director who made THREE different versions of the same story besides DeMille? ("The Squaw Man" 1914, 1918, and 1931)
 

Robert Harris

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Robert Harris's listing of The Ten Commandments twice in the initial post above got me to thinking: Is there any other director who made THREE different versions of the same story besides DeMille? ("The Squaw Man" 1914, 1918, and 1931)
Interesting question. How many others are there that did their open remakes?

Ford, Hitchcock…
 

RichMurphy

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Perhaps DeMille's own THE BUCCANEER qualifies, although he was billed as just "supervising executive producer" on the 1958 remake. He was ill at the time and died soon after the remake's release.
 

GerardoHP

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The Crusades was not a major success but won DeMille the sympathy of the Egyptian government because of his positive portrayal of Muslims in the film so the story goes that Egypt opened its doors to the director when he went there to film scenes for The Ten Commandments in 1954.
 

David_B_K

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Jean Negulesco directed Three Coins in the Fountain in 1954 and its remake The Pleasure Seekers in 1964.
 

Capt D McMars

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The Crusades was not a major success but won DeMille the sympathy of the Egyptian government because of his positive portrayal of Muslims in the film so the story goes that Egypt opened its doors to the director when he went there to film scenes for The Ten Commandments in 1954.
One thing that I found interesting was the total lack of Jews being present in Jerusalem, that would have been there in that time frame. Christians, Muslims...ok...and? Is it just me or...?
 

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