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Robert Harris

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Don Siegel, who directed Two Mules for Sister Sara, seems to have been a major force in orienting Clint Eastwood on a path toward directing.

Mr. Siegel began his career working on montage sequences in 1939, and is credited for his work on many of the major Warner films of the era - The Roaring Twenties, Brother Orchid, They Drive By Night, Meet John Doe, They Died with Their Boots On, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Now, Voyager, Casablanca, et al.

Ever consider how may films of that era had montage sequences?

He worked his way up through AD and until 1946, when he was given The Verdict as director.

He crossed genre lines with ease, even (it is rumored) doing a sci-fi picture, as well as directing Elvis Presley, which may have been similar.

In 1968, he directed Coogan's Bluff, which gave star billing to Clint Eastwood, an Italian actor of some note, who had arrived in the Colonies after making a name for himself in Spaghetti westerns, with his heavy accent being dubbed into English for American audiences.

Two years hence, came Two Mules for Sister Sara, with Mr. Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine, who strangely seemed to carry two large caterpillars around on her eye lids during the shoot.

This was followed with The Beguiled in 1970, after which Mr. Siegel and Mr. Eastwood switched positions for Play Misty for Me, in which the former director, took an acting role for his former actor.

That would reverse again for Dirty Harry, an intimate police drama, that arrived in 1971.

Before we leave the discussion of Mr. Siegel, I'd be remiss without noting that his 1976, The Shootist, is still MIA on Blu-ray.

As to Two Mules, it will be released by Kino, along with High Plains Drifter on November 10. The Beguiled will follow in November. I'll be reporting on that release shortly, but first let's get to Two Mules.

In a word, the new Blu arrives via a new master from Universal, in spectacular form.

I viewed the "International" cut, which runs 114 minutes to the domestic 105, and only noted a couple of very minor problems. A single shot was extremely dupey - who know why? - but not a big deal, and I found another single shot to be a tiny bit off in color. Again, no big deal, just reporting.

Audio is fine, and normal for the era.

As a film, it holds up nicely. It was never a great film, but always entertaining.

Some interesting asides.

Ennio Morricone, who had composed the scores for some Italian films and apparently some westerns, was along to do his magic for Two Mules.

Bud Boetticher, a filmmaker of some note, is credited for story along with Albert Maltz, who wrote the screenplay. Mr. Maltz, who had worked on may Warner productions, was persecuted by our government in 1947, and became known as a member of the "Hollywood 10."

I truly hope that members of HUAC are rotting in hell.

But I'll stop being nice.

Bottom line. Grab a copy of Two Mules, a wonderful addition to any cinephile's Eastwood collection.


Image – 5

Audio – 5

Pass / Fail - Pass

Upgrade from DVD & earlier Blu-ray - Absolutely

Recommended

RAH

Support HTF when you purchase this on Amazon
 
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Mark Booth

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I own the older Blu which came with an iTunes copy. T’will be interesting to see if the digital gets upgraded to 4K for free.

Mark
 

B-ROLL

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"... even (it is rumored) doing a sci-fi picture"?
A little known picture that was latter remade ,,,
1602375019827.png


Starring Professor Jennings from The Animal House and a guy who had played an alien crew member of a cult TV show that was cancelled twice during it's original network run ... ;)
 
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B-ROLL

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I own the older Blu which came with an iTunes copy. T’will be interesting to see if the digital gets upgraded to 4K for free.

Mark
AFIK KINO doesn't have anything to do with whether Universal updates the film to 4K ...
This film was previously released on blu-ray as part of an Eastwood set ...
1602375548479.png


released by Universal itself (it appears to currently "street" for about $28.00 USD) ...
 

JPCinema

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Don Siegel, who directed Two Mules for Sister Sara, seems to have been a major force in orienting Clint Eastwood on a path toward directing.

Mr. Siegel began his career working on montage sequences in 1939, and is credited for his work on many of the major Warner films of the era - The Roaring Twenties, Brother Orchid, They Drive By Night, Meet John Doe, They Died with Their Boots On, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Now, Voyager, Casablanca, et al.

Ever consider how may films of that era had montage sequences?

He worked his way up through AD and until 1946, when he was given The Verdict as director.

He crossed genre lines with ease, even (it is rumored) doing a sci-fi picture, as well as directing Elvis Presley, which may have been similar.

In 1968, he directed Coogan's Bluff, which gave star billing to Clint Eastwood, an Italian actor of some note, who had arrived in the Colonies after making a name for himself in Spaghetti westerns, with his heavy accent being dubbed into English for American audiences.

Two years hence, came Two Mules for Sister Sara, with Mr. Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine, who strangely seemed to carry two large caterpillars around on her eye lids during the shoot.

This was followed with The Beguiled in 1970, after which Mr. Siegel and Mr. Eastwood switched positions for Play Misty for Me, in which the former director, took an acting role for his former actor.

That would reverse again for Dirty Harry, an intimate police drama, that arrived in 1971.

Before we leave the discussion of Mr. Siegel, I'd be remiss without noting that his 1976, The Shootist, is still MIA on Blu-ray.

As to Two Mules, it will be released by Kino, along with High Plains Drifter on November 10. The Beguiled will follow in November. I'll be reporting on that release shortly, but first let's get to Two Mules.

In a word, the new Blu arrives via a new master from Universal, in spectacular form.

I viewed the "International" cut, which runs 114 minutes to the domestic 105, and only noted a couple of very minor problems. A single shot was extremely dupey - who know why? - but not a big deal, and I found another single shot to be a tiny bit off in color. Again, no big deal, just reporting.

Audio is fine, and normal for the era.

As a film, it holds up nicely. It was never a great film, but always entertaining.

Some interesting asides.

Ennio Morricone, who had composed the scores for some Italian films and apparently some westerns, was along to do his magic for Two Mules.

Bud Boetticher, a filmmaker of some note, is credited for story along with Albert Maltz, who wrote the screenplay. Mr. Maltz, who had worked on may Warner productions, was persecuted by our government in 1947, and became known as a member of the "Hollywood 10."

I truly hope that members of HUAC are rotting in hell.

But I'll stop being nice.

Bottom line. Grab a copy of Two Mules, a wonderful addition to any cinephile's Eastwood collection.


Image – 5

Audio – 5

Pass / Fail - Pass

Upgrade from DVD & earlier Blu-ray - Absolutely

Recommended

RAH

Support HTF when you purchase this on Amazon
I got to know Don while making a rather bad film, JINXED!. We became quite close along with his wife Carol . I'll always remember Don's remark about Shirley MacLaine and that her complexion was so fair and she burned so easily, she had to be in the shade as much as possible. The umbrella was added to keep Maclaine from direct sunlight.
Rip Torn was in JINXED! and Don would always tell Rip that the best actor he had ever worked with was Gerry in THE BEGUILED.
 

Jordan Krug

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Can anybody briefly describe the differences between the two cuts? Does the international cut have a lot of material we haven't seen here in North America? Or is the U.S. cut a newly discovered shorter version and we've had the international cut on home video all along?
 

Worth

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Can anybody briefly describe the differences between the two cuts? Does the international cut have a lot of material we haven't seen here in North America? Or is the U.S. cut a newly discovered shorter version and we've had the international cut on home video all along?
I don't know exactly what the differences are, but the existing DVD and blu-ray featured the international cut.
 

Johnny Angell

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Can anybody briefly describe the differences between the two cuts? Does the international cut have a lot of material we haven't seen here in North America? Or is the U.S. cut a newly discovered shorter version and we've had the international cut on home video all along?
There’s a site that shows differences in cuts. It’s named something movie censorship, but I can’t remember the exact name.
 

samkydd

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I read the shorter version is just a version released on video by CIC. If so not sure why it's included on the Kino release.
From imdb...
To receive an 'A' (PG) certificate the UK cinema version was cut by the BBFC to remove shots of burning men and a soldier's face being slashed during the climax. The 1987 CIC video was 15-rated but featured a shorter print which missed around 8 minutes of footage. The 1993 widescreen video and all later DVD releases include the full uncut version.
 

cannon1

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A question for Mr. Harris. Wondering with a 'later' era film such as this one or 'High Plains Drifter' in receiving a new scan/restoration, since they were originally released in IB Tech, is there any typical effort to use such a print for color reference? I get the impression with later era IB Tech (approx. last 10 years, 64-74) the original dye transfer color is not considered particularly important (excepting extensive works like 'The Godfather' where you spoke of using the IB references), even though those original prints often had a stand apart beauty (Chinatown, True Grit, etc.). Some films released in IB tech from the later Eastman era come to blu ray having a relatively flat color look compared to their original, where it appears no effort was made to replicate that original.
 
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Robert Harris

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Robert Harris
A question for Mr. Harris. Wondering with a 'later' era film such as this one or 'High Plains Drifter' in receiving a new scan/restoration, since they were originally released in IB Tech, is there any typical effort to use such a print for color reference? I get the impression with later era IB Tech (approx. last 10 years, 64-74) the original dye transfer color is not considered particularly important (excepting extensive works like 'The Godfather' where you spoke of using the IB references), even though those original prints often had a stand apart beauty (Chinatown, True Grit, etc.). Some films released in IB tech from the later Eastman era come to blu ray having a relatively flat color look compared to their original, where it appears no effort was made to replicate that original.
Depends totally upon who is overseeing the transfer. Dye transfer reference is always important, presuming one can access a properly produced and approved print. Most prints are neither. They're simply prints.
 

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