Biblical-Roman-Egyptian epics not yet on Blu-ray (4 Viewers)

[uncledougie]

Pithy and succinct

 

[OliverK]

I have another interesting book titled "Epic Films" by Gary Allen Smith publish by McFarland and chock full of great photos and extensive alphabetical reviews of epics, peplum and other spectacle movies. Will look for Derek Elley volume as I love these scores and have a vast collection of them.

I think you will love that Derek Elley book - I got it for a ridiculously low price on Amazon a long time ago when it was recommended by Adrian Turner who used to be a member here. I also have "Epic Films" and second your praise - well worth having!

 

[Robin9]

I think you will love that Derek Elley book - I got it for a ridiculously low price on Amazon a long time ago when it was recommended by Alan Turner who used to be a member here. I also have "Epic Films" and second your praise - well worth having!

Adrian Turner who got banned! I'd love to know what he did wrong.

I have the book by Derek Elley and I cherish it because, as Mr. Elley wryly points out, most modern film critics who pride themselves on their extensive movie education, are woefully ignorant of ancient history and are not equipped to write about it and consequently disregard films set in Biblical times or the Roman period.

 

[OliverK]

Adrian Turner who got banned! I'd love to know what he did wrong.

Edited now. I wanted to write Adrian but it came out as Alan - no idea why...
Yes I have wondered about his ban, lots of interesting posts from him.

I have the book by Derek Elley and I cherish it because, as Mr. Elley wryly points out, most modern film critics who pride themselves on their extensive movie education, are woefully ignorant of ancient history and are not equipped to write about it and consequently disregard films set in Biblical times or the Roman period.

Yes he is very much correct about that ignorance which I think it also one of the reasons many critics disparage these movies - gives them an excuse not to know about them.

 

[Beckford]

The books were famous for their one line plot summaries, I'm sure you can guess this 1939 film, "An egotistic Southern girl survives the Civil War but finally loses the only man she cares for".

That Halliwell. Only seventeen words and he still managed to include a major spoiler. Does he explain Rosebud in his blurb for "Citizen Kane"?

 

[Dan McW]

Halliwell gives away the ending of one or two movies where the whole plot is revealed at the end to be a dream. And in the rundown of films of the actor who played the murderer in The Blue Dahlia, he indicates that in that film he played the killer.

 

[OliverK]

While we are talking about books another one that I think hasn't been mentioned before is The Ancient World in the Cinema by Jon Solomon, I found it to be a very good read:

The Ancient World in the Cinema

This entertaining and useful book provides a comprehensive survey of films about the ancient world, from The Last Days of Pompeii to Gladiator. Jon Solomon c...

yalebooks.yale.edu

 

[Alan Tully]

While we are talking about books another one that I think hasn't been mentioned before is The Ancient World in the Cinema by Jon Solomon, I found it to be a very good read:

The Ancient World in the Cinema

This entertaining and useful book provides a comprehensive survey of films about the ancient world, from The Last Days of Pompeii to Gladiator. Jon Solomon c...

yalebooks.yale.edu

Halliwell gives away the ending of one or two movies where the whole plot is revealed at the end to be a dream. And in the rundown of films of the actor who played the murderer in The Blue Dahlia, he indicates that in that film he played the killer.

Getting away from Epics for a minute, scriptwriter Raymond Chandler originally wrote the William Bendix character as the killer, not that he was a bad guy, it was his war injuries & the metal plate in his head, & he was shown losing it throughout the film, but...the Naval War Office forced him to change the ending of the script in order to avoid disparaging an American serviceman (IMDB). So Chandler was forced to choose the obvious baddie.

 

[Alan Tully]

I had The Ancient World in the Cinema by Jon Solomon, quite a serious tome as I remember, but it didn't survive my various book culls. Happily I see I still have Epic Films by Gary A. Smith. Those McFarland film books are brilliant.

 

[Ed Lachmann]

The Solomon book uniquely paid tribute to the Greek productions of classic plays and myths. His writing had me picking up Medea, Electra, Antigone, Oedipus and The Trojan Women. Now an enthusiastic Irene Papas fan,.

 

[PaulRossen]

There's a posting today in "Friends of 70mm" on Facebook saying "There's a new, remastered Blu-ray edition of EL CID making the rounds. Yesterday I received the Japanese release, which streeted yesterday"....."The Japanese packaging claims this is a remaster from 'the original negative' but I'm wondering if they're fudging that statement a bit and that maybe by "original negative" perhaps they mean a 35mm reduction negative rather than the Technirama camera negative."

Whatever this version is, I'd be surprised if it looks any different to what has already been released.

Edit: I see that CDJapan has it listed. "El Cid remastered Ver. Special w/ Japanese dubbing" Release date: March 3, 2023.
I'm not going to be the one to take the plunge!

There’s a review of the new El Cid blu ray from Japan in today’s TheDigitalBits that sounds promising. Wonder how it compares to the Remini version.

 

[OliverK]

There’s a review of the new El Cid blu ray from Japan in today’s TheDigitalBits that sounds promising. Wonder how it compares to the Remini version.

I would wait for some screen caps or more reviews as this review points out that it is significantly worse than 55 Days. Hard to imagine that this would be true even if a new scan was only from intermediate elements:

The image is sharper, some, with better and more consistent color and contrast (not completely gone, but less intrusive), but still a far cry from the eye-popping splendor of, say, the restored 55 Days at Peking.

There is also a small chance that they managed to get the pre-DNR Miramax 2K/HD files and worked from those but it is very unlikely that these have survived after so many years.

So I won't give it a try, as I already have two disappointing El Cid Blu-rays from the UK and Germany. If I did not already have those I might be tempted against my better judgement so at least the ones I got were cheaper than an import from Japan.

 

[Jobla]

I'm currently watching the Plaion Pictures release of HANNIBAL (1959). There are two discs, but both are restricted to Region B. The primary version runs 104 minutes, which is four minutes longer than the old VCI DVD. There seems to be a bit more gore in this version. Visual quality is generally very good, although one sequence might be from a different, somewhat lesser print source. The audio options are English and German, and the only subtitle option is German.

The second disc is a 95-minute version that has Italian and German audio, and German subtitles, but no English audio or subtitles.

Plaion Pictures is the renamed Koch Media. I'm surprised that these discs are Region B only, since last year's Koch Media peplum releases of ROMULUS UND REMUS (aka DUEL OF THE TITANS) and SODOM UND GOMORRAH were Region A-friendly IIRC.

 

[Konstantinos]

The audio options are English and German, and the only subtitle option is German

I assume the English is a dub, but Victor Mature does his own voice?

 

[Jobla]

I believe you're correct.

 

[aptiana]

Cinesavant had some interesting things to say about remasters of Helen of Troy and Land of the Pharoahs for a film event and that he expects them to be released on disc by Warner Archive

 

[richardburton84]

Cinesavant had some interesting things to say about remasters of Helen of Troy and Land of the Pharoahs for a film event and that he expects them to be released on disc by Warner Archive

Yep, the new masters are being aired on TCM as part of their celebration of Warner’s centennial (April 3rd for Helen, April 14th for Pharaohs).

 

[OliverK]

Yep, the new masters are being aired on TCM as part of their celebration of Warner’s centennial (April 3rd for Helen, April 14th for Pharaohs).

WOW! I did not expect to get both of them this year but now it looks like this is exactly what is going to happen!

 

[Jobla]

This is huge news. I owned a specialty video store in Seattle throughout the 80s and 90s. In 1996, HELEN OF TROY was finally released on home video, full-frame on VHS and widescreen on laserdisc. It was a huge hit at my store. The later DVD and MOD releases were struck from the same master.

I was delighted to have HELEN in widescreen, but the film element was lacking good-quality reds. Perhaps the WarnerColor process was to blame. Anyway, that transfer was done nearly 30 years ago, so I have high hopes that this new remaster will be a significant improvement.

 

[RichMurphy]

And for those who cannot wait until TCM's showing on the 14th, HBO Max will be featuring LAND OF THE PHARAOHS starting this Saturday (April 1). And that's NOT an April's Fool joke.

HBO Max April 2023 additions