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December Releases - Five Pennies etc. (1 Viewer)

Brent Avery

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Trying to keep track of every potential release each month. For December I noticed Five Pennies ('59) starring Danny Kaye as well as two Westerns from Sony, those being The Land Raiders ('69) starring Telly Savalas and the other is Ride Beyond Vengeance ('66) starring Chuck Conners. I know Five Pennies will be good but anyone know whether the Sony titles are worthwhile?

And for those who have been waiting for Operation Crossbow ('65) with George Peppard to come out on dvd I see some outfit called Trinity Entertainment has it for release on Jan. 10/06. I have it in on a widescreen laserdisc but since this one lists for approx. $8.00 I'd be surprised if it went beyond mediocre.
 

Brent Avery

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I'm wondering about it as well, but it is listed on Amazon although I actually got wind of it on the website of an online dvd store. I'll try to find out more - whether it has been liscensed - or perhaps public domain?
 

walter o

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probably another "grey" outfit release, like the HICKEY AND BOGGS DVD release. Or they re-titled a film trying to confuse the public?
 

John Hodson

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Just finished watching The Five Pennies; I don't care if you don't like Danny Kaye, or care much for jazz, or sanitised biopics, do your eyes a favour and buy this DVD.

I'm not exaggerating when I say this is one of the best transfers of a colour classic that I've seen this year - it's nigh on perfect, a thing of immense beauty and Paramount, who have pushed this out as a 'bargain basement' title deserve all the plaudits possible for putting what little they budgeted for this film (they certainly didn't spend anything on artwork or menu design and there are no extras) and spending every last cent - every last penny - on the most important aspect, the transfer.

The sound, comes in two flavours - a 5.1 mix or an excellent mono track. Buy it!
 

TedD

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Re: The Five Pennies

I second John's comment: BUY IT!!!!

Great transfer, except (seems like there is always an except :frowning: ), for the fact that the main titles look like they came from a pan and scan dupe rather than the original master. They are pillarboxed. Interestingly enough, the Paramount and VistaVision logos are full width, but as soon as the main titles begin, image quality goes down and there are black bars on the sides of the image. Fortunately, at the end of the main titles, we go back to the entire image, gloriously sharp with absolutely NO EE and NO IB Tech registration issues for the entire film.

A very entertaining story loaded with great performers and performances. And with a scene stealing Susan Gordon.
http://www.childstarlets.com/lobby/b...n_gordon2.html

Tuesday Weld wasn't bad either....

Ted
 

John Hodson

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I must admit I didn't notice that, but after reading your post Ted I went back for another peek. On my widescreen CRT I still didn't see any noticeable degredation in quality (if there is, it's because the rest of the transfer is so eye-popping), but there are very slight (slight due to overscan obviously) black bars visible, mostly on the right, but - during the transitions - sometimes on both sides. Not a huge issue though? :)

After all the doom and gloom surrounding Paramount and their classic back catalogue, I think they deserve this to be a big seller. And BTW, kudos to them for another superb Batjac release - Seven Men From Now is also excellent.
 

Mark B

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Great news about FIVE PENNIES. Just placed my order. My old "Dot" label LP soundtrack has gotten a lot of spins over the years, and I haven't watched the film in some time. Louis and Danny are great together and create a genuine classic moment on "Saints."
 

TedD

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Not a huge issue, but not OAR, either. It also exists into the first shot when Red is walking through the lobby and gradually expands to fill the complete frame. I just don't understand what some companies have against preserving the complete original theatrical experience. :frowning:

I'd say your TV has quite a bit of overscan and the image is not quite centered either.

On a front projector in my setup the main title was at least a foot or more narrower than the rest of the movie. I was viewing it at 2.0:1 so the width is roughly 10' except for the titles which were slightly less than 9' wide, although they were centered in the frame.

The titles have a fair amount of EE, not present in the rest of the film, so I guess it's possible that the original film elements were not available and these were stolen from a 35mm reduction print.

If you check Paramount's "Li'l Abner", you'll see that they put red bars on the sides of the main title on that film. I suppose it might have something to do with existing opticals not having the same width as the VV camera negative frame or some such esoteric reason.

On another note, this may be the first time most people have actually heard the 4 channel mag track for this film. When I saw it in 1959, it was mono optical.

Ted
 

Mark B

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DVD Beaver is reporting the audio as "fake 5.1"

Is it definite that this is an authentic stereo mix? The VHS release was stereo and sure sounded true and not "fake" to me...
 

TedD

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It seems to have true separation of orchestra between left and right, not just a wide fake sound stage. Even singing voices are directional. Where Danny Kaye and Barbara Bel Geddes are singing a duet, Danny's voice is left-center, Barbara's voice is right-center, both solidly anchored in place.

No way tou can do that with re-processing.

I would think this might be a remix made from the original stems, or that Paramount had a mag print hidden away somewhere, although Paramount wasn't into mag release prints for VistaVision titles.

Ted
 

John Hodson

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Paramount seems to really care about sound, but I'd put money on you being correct Ted. I intially dismissed the 5.1 without even listening to it, but it gives me another excuse (as if I needed one) to watch it again. Thanks for the heads up chaps!
 

Brent Avery

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Have to admit that the 5.1 mix sounded quite nice. Anytime you can raise the volume to a substantial level and still enjoy the music says something. Danny Kaye was great as usual but the entire cast made the film work so well. It is a film that certainly should not be overlooked - unfortunate there are no extras.
 

John Skoda

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The old laserdisc of this had the true stereo track too, so it wasn't created for this DVD. That's odd, isn't it? There weren't many VV films with true stereo tracks.

The Dot Records soundtrack album was available in stereo. Although it's very STRANGE stereo with extreme separation. The recent CD reissue is mono.
 

John Skoda

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I'm a stereo freak myself, but, as I said, the stereo on the original LP was so strange that the mono CD comes across as pleasing, full sound.

The ideal solution would have been to include both versions, which would have fit on the CD.

The sound on the new DVD beats both versions. Really nice.
 

Mark B

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Got my copy of The Five Pennies today, and it is everything stated above, transfer-wise. Here's hoping we get a few more VistaVision films looking this great - like Funny Face which looks awful on the current DVD. Pennies has gorgeous reds and blacks. Bravo, Paramount!
 

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