From It Happened To Jane to Bitter Victory - Feb.22 Releases (1 Viewer)

[Brent Avery]

I did some looking around at my favorite source for dvds and came out poorer( with less money ) but richer( with more additions to my collection! ). I purchased the following:

On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (2.35)
Hello Down There
All In A Night's Work ( All Paramount )

It Happened To Jane (1.85)
Bitter Victory (2.35) B&W ( Columbia Tri Star )

The Agony And The Ecstasy (2.20)
Satan Never Sleeps (2.35) ( 20th Century Fox )

I had to stop there as I only had so much to spend until the end of the month when I hope to pick up the following:

A Letter To Three Wives
Leave Her To Heaven
Return To Peyton Place
Strangers When We Meet
My Sister Eileen
We Were Strangers
Behold A Pale Horse


Some of these I really wanted to buy today but its painful having to decide which ones to get. If Columbia Tri Star would lower their prices to those of Paramont and Fox I could have bought one or two more. Oh well, its only another week or so! If anyone wants to have an idea of the video and sound quality of the titles I bought let me know. At least Columbia and Fox list the aspect ratio but with the Paramount titles I will have to view them as there is no information and I certainly do not know off hand.

 

[Joe Caps]

Sound - On a Clear day - for th enew stereo track - did they use the soundtrack album - you can telll because there will be some reverb around the voices - i.e. does the singing voices have reverb on them or not?

 

[Brent Avery]

Joe

I watched approximately half of On A Clear Day last night on a 107" 2.35 screen and the colors are certainly very vibrant and well saturated - perhaps a bit too much but I thought it looked pretty good overall with a somewhat overall softness - nothing serious and perhaps it may have been intentional. So if it comes across as well as it does on a large screen anyone with a smaller display should be very satisfied. As for the soundtrack, well, I did not notice any reverb effect but since it has been remastered into 5.1 - with english Mono as an option - with the surrounds being used more or less for ambience it may not have been as pronounced. Since you have mentioned this I will listen for it and will try the Mono track as well. As it stands the 5.1 mix was quite pleasing. Very clear with a nice "full" sound. I enjoyed it very much! The fact that I actually turned up the volume during the musical numbers must say something about it! I never realised that Yves Montand could actually sing - at least he sounded quite good to my ears. I really liked the opening number by Streisand as well as the following theme song, in fact all of them were much better than I expected.

 

[Brent Avery]

I thought perhaps that a short overview of any of the films viewed before the official release date on the 22nd would give anyone interested an idea of what to expect. First one to get the once over is Satan Never Sleeps starring William Holden and Clifton Webb, both take up the role as Catholic priests in 1949 China on the eve of the Communist takeover.
As far as the video is concerned it was average at best. On the soft side - especially the background scenes.Color was good and to be fair most closeups were much better in rendering detail and at times various parts of the film appeared much sharper but still it was difficult to give it more than say 6 out of 10 on a quality scale.(Remember - this is with a front projector) And as for the stereo track - it left a bit to be desired - this was more in regard to the soundtrack itself as it sounded somewhat strained but the dialog was easy to follow and more than acceptable. If you like William Holden in particular or films from this era (1962) than this effort from Fox is money well spent - and as is the usual practise Fox makes it very affordable - liner included.

 

[Brent Avery]

I had to laugh at the Canadian version of On A Clear Day You Can See Forever - the French translation was presented in small letters under the main title in English as ( Melinda) on the front cover. I doubt that is the literal equivilent but somehow it got a chuckle out of me!

 

[ArthurMy]

Yves Montand is a singer - shouldn't be hard to understand. He has spent most of his life doing concerts the world over. He's terrific.

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Yves Montand lived a great life and was a wonderful actor and singer. I love his movies.

 

[Brent Avery]

Arthur and Gordon - thankyou for the background on Yves Montand - amazing that after all these years I never knew about his singing career - there is always something to learn.
And for the inquiry Joe Caps made regarding the reverb - I watched the entire movie earlier and did notice it on one or two of the songs so it appears more pronounced on some than on others, although I did not listen to the alternate mono track yet.