UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ - Torn Curtain -- in 4k UHD (1 Viewer)

[JSLasher]

I will never forgive Hitch for ‘sacking’ Bernard Herrmann. Later on, Herrmann’s score was recorded (by Elmer Bernstein & others). Herrmann’s score fits “Torn Curtain” like a hand-in-glove, whereas John Addison’s does not.

 

[gjn123]

I think this is one of the least interesting Hitchcock films. Both Paul Newman and Julie Andrews are totally miscast and have no onscreen chemistry together. Apparently they had none with their director either. Andrews is hardly the cool and sophisticated blonde with a barely concealed passion, she’s simply boring. The production is also cheap looking. The death of the communist lackey is brilliantly done but the escape in the bus is ruined by some of the lousiest rear projections ever seen. Still I’m glad to see any Hitchcock film get restored and I have bought every one of the three Universal 4K bundles.

 

[Robin9]

I think this is one of the least interesting Hitchcock films. Both Paul Newman and Julie Andrews are totally miscast and have no onscreen chemistry together. Apparently they had none with their director either. Andrews is hardly the cool and sophisticated blonde with a barely concealed passion, she’s simply boring. The production is also cheap looking. The death of the communist lackey is brilliantly done but the escape in the bus is ruined by some of the lousiest rear projections ever seen. Still I’m glad to see any Hitchcock film get restored and I have bought every one of the three Universal 4K bundles.

I disagree. I think Julie Andrews is excellent and she wasn't trying to be a cool and sophisticated blonde.

 

[Dick]

Name the titles you consider clunkers.

As always, one man's clunkers are someone else's gold nuggets. Personally, I dislike ROPE, but like TORN CURTAIN.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Torn Curtain • UK Classics Collection Ultra HD Blu-ray vs. UK The Masterpiece Collection Blu-ray

caps-a-holic.com

Torn Curtain • UK Classics Collection Ultra HD Blu-ray vs. UK The Masterpiece Collection Blu-ray

caps-a-holic.com

Torn Curtain • UK Classics Collection Ultra HD Blu-ray vs. UK The Masterpiece Collection Blu-ray

caps-a-holic.com

Torn Curtain • UK Classics Collection Ultra HD Blu-ray vs. UK The Masterpiece Collection Blu-ray

caps-a-holic.com

Torn Curtain • UK Classics Collection Ultra HD Blu-ray vs. UK The Masterpiece Collection Blu-ray

caps-a-holic.com

Far from a 4k image here but its definitely not suffering from the MPEG artifacts as the old disc.

 

[John Maher_289910]

As always, one man's clunkers are someone else's gold nuggets. Personally, I dislike ROPE, but like TORN CURTAIN.

Definitely! I don't comprehend the adoration of VERTIGO, at all. It's really such a stupid film, to me. Vera Miles might have saved it, but it wouldn't have been any less stupid. Also, as much as I adore lots of Herrmann's scores, his music for TORN CURTAIN is horrible in my opinion. I would have fired him, as well. Her certainly wrote some fine scores after it. I love John Addison's score. I like the chemistry between Newman and Andrews. I like the entire film. I do think they are both let down by a fairly mediocre script, but the overall product is extremely watchable, imo.

 

[roxy1927]

Did Andrews squeeze this between SOM and Hawaii? She really wanted to get away from her nanny image. At this point she might well have been Hollywood's hottest star and could have done anything she wanted to do. 750k was a nice jump up from the 200k she was getting from her first films. I guess if Wasserman wanted her and she agreed there was nothing Alfred could do. He might have known her as a childhood prodigy on the British music hall stage.

As a side note through a friend I knew an old British music hall performer years ago. I asked if he knew Andrews from back then. He said yes and that she was a lovely girl but her parents were horrible people.

 

[SteveB651]

Did Andrews squeeze this between SOM and Hawaii?

From the AFI site and old newspaper articles-- The Sound of Music wrapped in mid-August 1964. Hawaii went into production on 4/19/65 and finished in Oct. '65 after various delays. Julie Andrews flew back from Honolulu to California on Oct. 12. Torn Curtain was shot between 10/18/65 and 2/16/66.

 

[Worth]

...The death of the communist lackey is brilliantly done but the escape in the bus is ruined by some of the lousiest rear projections ever seen...

Nothing is as bad to me as the scene in the restaurant - why on earth would they use rear projection when they could have just made the set a little bit bigger?

 

[John Maher_289910]

From the AFI site and old newspaper articles-- The Sound of Music wrapped in mid-August 1964. Hawaii went into production on 4/19/65 and finished in Oct. '65 after various delays. Julie Andrews flew back from Honolulu to California on Oct. 12. Torn Curtain was shot between 10/18/65 and 2/16/66.

During that time she rehearsed and hosted an NBC television special with guests Gene Kelly and The New Christy Minstrels. Shown during Thanksgiving weekend of 1965. It was such an enormous ratings success NBC aired it, again, in March of 1966.

 

[Matt Hough]

During that time she rehearsed and hosted an NBC television special with guests Gene Kelly and The New Christy Minstrels. Shown during Thanksgiving weekend of 1965. It was such an enormous ratings success NBC aired it, again, in March of 1966.

And it won an Emmy for Outstanding Direction. Sadly, as the star of the special, Julie didn't win an Emmy that year since the winner in the Variety special category was the Bob Hope Christmas special of that year. I was very disappointed with that award. Julie wouldn't get her first Emmy until she starred in her own variety series in the early 1970s which won Best Variety Show beating out her good friend Carol Burnett for the award that year.

 

[garyrc]

When Hitch was offered Cleopatra in 70mm Todd-AO by Walter Wanger, he said, "Not my cup of tea."

 

[garyrc]

I would have been curious to see, for instance, Hitchcock shooting in scope, or doing a 70mm extravaganza.

When Hitch was offered Cleopatra in 70mm Todd-AO by Walter Wanger, he said, "Not my cup of tea."

Since other directors of smaller films did an O.K. to brilliant job temporarily stepping outside their oeuvre and into the great wide world of 70mm, i.e., Wyler in Ben-Hur (1959), Kubrick in 2001 (although he had Spartacus in his background), Zinneman in Oklahoma!, Anderson in Around the World in 80 Days (1956), etc., I would have been eager to see what Hitch could have brought to Cleopatra. It certainly needed some adrenaline, given that it would almost be certain to lack what Leonard Maltin said of Ben-Hur (1959), "... redeemed by the strength of its convictions."

 

[roxy1927]

Hitchcock directing Cleopatra would be like Kubrick directing Hello Dolly.

 

[Robert Harris]

Did Andrews squeeze this between SOM and Hawaii? She really wanted to get away from her nanny image. At this point she might well have been Hollywood's hottest star and could have done anything she wanted to do. 750k was a nice jump up from the 200k she was getting from her first films. I guess if Wasserman wanted her and she agreed there was nothing Alfred could do. He might have known her as a childhood prodigy on the British music hall stage.

As a side note through a friend I knew an old British music hall performer years ago. I asked if he knew Andrews from back then. He said yes and that she was a lovely girl but her parents were horrible people.

One of her later acts - Miss Memory - seems to have been archived to film and is due to be run by the BFI.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

One of her later acts - Miss Memory - seems to have been archived to film and is due to be run by the BFI.

Did she reveal what the 39 Steps are?

 

[roxy1927]

Isn't revealing what the 39 steps are very risky?

 

[haineshisway]

I've been streaming these new UHD transfers and tonight it was Torn Curtain. I've been hugely impressed with everything I've seen, but either this thing I'm watching is NOT the new transfer, despite clearly saying UHD or, for me, it's a fail. It looks ugly and brown to my eyes (which is why I think it might be the Blu-ray transfer) - this is the only Hitchcock movie in his entire canon that looks the way it does - the photography is nothing like his other films and in the dye transfer prints, one of which I owned, it looked nothing like what I'm viewing. It's just plain weird. Can someone clarify or chime in if it's possible I'm seeing the older transfer or is this what the new transfer looks like. I hate caps, as you all know, but looking at the ones above, the new transfer is merely darker with less compression issues.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I've been streaming these new UHD transfers and tonight it was Torn Curtain. I've been hugely impressed with everything I've seen, but either this thing I'm watching is NOT the new transfer, despite clearly saying UHD or, for me, it's a fail. It looks ugly and brown to my eyes (which is why I think it might be the Blu-ray transfer) - this is the only Hitchcock movie in his entire canon that looks the way it does - the photography is nothing like his other films and in the dye transfer prints, one of which I owned, it looked nothing like what I'm viewing. It's just plain weird. Can someone clarify or chime in if it's possible I'm seeing the older transfer or is this what the new transfer looks like. I hate caps, as you all know, but looking at the ones above, the new transfer is merely darker with less compression issues.

Which streaming service are you using?

 

[haineshisway]

Which streaming service are you using?

I'm on Prime and have Max, so I guess it's one of those two. All I know is, three days ago they didn't have the UHD and yesterday they did. They still don't have the others in the set in UHD so I'm wondering if they jumped the gun in listing it that way but still using the older transfer. I'll finish watching tonight.