Charade - Madacy Entertainment edition problems (1 Viewer)

[JoSAN]

.

 

[Jeffrey Nelson]

Ah, another Madacy sucker...

Yes, Madacy is a company not exactly renowned for quality on any level. Buyer beware. And welcome to the board!

 

[Greg_S_H]

Yeah, I'd have more sympathy for you if Madacy's version was the only game in town, but there's both the Criterion and the Universal versions. You can have the Universal version for less than the Madacy trash! It's $8.99 at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...v=glance&n=130

I'd hate to have the remake, but that's tempting. Right now, I only have the Criterion nonanamorphic version. Of course, I suspect the Criterion anamorphic edition is the best.

 

[JoSAN]

.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Here're a couple of comparisons for you:

Nonanamorphic Criterion Charade vs. Anamorphic Criterion Charade

Nonanamorphic Criterion Charade vs. Universal Charade

 

[Marc Fedderman]

The Universal double feature version looks pretty good for the price and it's anamorphic. I picked it up for $4.88 at Walmart a few months back, so it might be worth a check into the dreaded dump bin.

Online, DDD is even cheaper than Amazon and shipping is free, check it out:

http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=MCA022821

 

[JoSAN]

.

 

[Marc Fedderman]

I would avoid any versions other than the Criterions or Universal.

A few years ago I bought the Laserlight version for ~6 bucks and while it is't awful, it ain't pretty either. Actually, I got another version of Charade as part of a double feature with Penny Serenade at my local dollar store and the transfer was about as good (bad) as the Laserlight version.

And you have my sympathy.

 

[JoSAN]

.

 

[JoSAN]

.

 

[Marc Fedderman]

The Criterion version is on sale at DDD. It's the cheapest I've ever seen it.

http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=HVD001692

And no, I don't work for DDD.

 

[Marc Fedderman]

Yeah, the Universal version seems a little murky, but you can't beat the price. I guess it all depends on how much you want to spend.

I think it's just the non-anamorphic Criterion version that's OOP, but I'm not sure.

 

[JoSAN]

.

 

[Greg_S_H]

If you're willing to order online, that link to DDD that Mark posted has a very nice price.

BTW, I was kidding about not having sympathy. I sometimes forget that just because I was interested in Charade a few years back and read up on the different versions, not everyone knows exactly what's available.

 

[Guido Bibra]

The anamorphic Criterion rerelease actually has the same transfer as the Universal version on "The Truth about Charlie", but encoded at a much higher bitrate. I haven't seen the original Criterion disc, but the newer transfer looks very fine to me. The commentary track by Stanley Donen and Peter Stone is worth the price of the Criterion alone!

 

[BrettB]

I looked at the Criterion non-16x9/16x9 comparison (thanks for the link) and I'm happy with my oop non-16x9. Great movie.

 

[Jim Barg]

Ooh. I got the Criterion out of the library years ago and liked the movie... then it went OOP before I had the chance to buy it. But at that price, how can I pass it up?

Edit: I do have another question. How did the film end up having so many cheap reissues (looking at the listing on DVD Aficionado), if it's been owned by Universal all these years? Was it in the public domain at one point?

 

[Greg_S_H]

According to the IMDb:

 

[JoSAN]

.

 

[seanOhara]

As a general rule, when a public-domain DVD company (with the exception of Image and maybe a couple others) says they've remastered a movie, that usually translates to, "We found an old 35mm copy in the closet and mastered it from that instead of just slapping our old VHS edition onto disc."

The gods alone know what these companies mean when they say they've restored a film, because they're using a definition not found in my dictionary.