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International Hudson / Sirk: Captain Lightfoot (1955, Cinemascope); Masterpieces of Cinema / Universal (1 Viewer)

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Hi everybody,


today, my "Captain Lightfoot" ("Wenn die Ketten brechen") Blu Ray arrived from amazon.de.

The disc is housed in a very nice digibook and is part of Koch Media's "Masterpieces of Cinema" Collection.


Please keep in mind that I am not an expert when it comes to evaluating video quality (especially when compared to many others on this forum) but let me offer my humble opinion. This transfer (courtesy of Universal) looks wonderful on the big screen via my JVC-DLA X30. When keeping the limitation of the early cinemascope lenses in mind, I have to say that it looks pretty sharp most of the time, colours do pop nicely and the soundtrack is rather bombastic (it is offered here in DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo).

Extras include Trailers, photo galleries and an introduction to the movie by Robert Osbourne from TCM.

I believe that Ireland has never looked better on film (with the exception of maybe "The Quiet Man"): great location work, beautiful cinematography and a rousing score, involving many traditional Irish songs.


Sure, some vintage Universal films have the usual Universal problems (DNR etc.), but in my opinion, this is not one of them. The disc is a keeper!


Great entertainment - great Blu Ray!


Next up is John Carpenter's "Village of the Damned".


Greetings from Germany!



Andreas
 

Robin9

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Thanks very much. I didn't know about this one even though I receive emails from Amazon Germany every two weeks notifying me of new releases. I'm a sucker for mid-50s Cinemascope films so I'll probably buy this disc.
 

Mark-P

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Thanks for the report. I don't suppose you would be able to comfirm if the disc is actually region locked (regardless of what is printed on the label)?
 
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Mark-P said:
Thanks for the report. I don't suppose you would be able to comfirm if the disc is actually region locked (regardless of what is printed on the label)?
Mark, I've just checked for you on my US Playstation 3.


I am sorry to report that the disc is indeed "Region B" locked.


What a pity!
 

Keith Cobby

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Good news for fans of Hudson/Sirk. I hope other films starring Rock Hudson and directed by Douglas Sirk are also released by Koch. I am thinking of Has Anybody Seen My Gal and Written on the Wind.
 

AshJW

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Funny, I just discoverd this BD a few days ago.


I'm not sure I know this one. Anyway, it would be just another blind buy (maybe the 1.324th ... )
 

Robin9

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Keith Cobby said:
Good news for fans of Hudson/Sirk. I hope other films starring Rock Hudson and directed by Douglas Sirk are also released by Koch. I am thinking of Has Anybody Seen My Gal and Written on the Wind.

Has anyone watched the Blu-ray disc of Imitation Of Life?
 

John Hermes

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Robin9 said:
Has anyone watched the Blu-ray disc of Imitation Of Life?
I have that one. German title: Solange Es Menschen Gibt, Region B. It looks only okay to me. It has a fine grain to it that doesn't look like film grain to this viewer. Quite a bit of specks and light scratches. Looks kind of "dupey" as if it's not too close to the original elements. Contrast is decent, color okay if somewhat muted at times. It's at a pretty cheap price on Amazon Germany though.
 

david hare

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Thanks to Andreas Wagner for the thread.


I agree with pretty well most everything he says about quality. Imitation of Life is - well - a bit problematic as John says above. Allowing for the fact the original photography included a lot of soft focus MCUs for Lana Turner, these are reproduced on the BD with what looks very much to me like electronically generated grain or plain old high frequency noise. It's as though these (and some other) shots have been overly scrubbed to begin with or were less than razor sharp on the master, so the authoring has gone into a bit too much "faux grain" to regain sharpness.


Apart from that a lot of it looks good, but it really could use a new, neutral 2k (at least) scan from a fine grain positive and some lighter fingered application, if any of digital tools. The color and gray scale is all good.
 

david hare

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I had better cross ref post this elsewhere I think:
Universal has done a brand new 4k of Sirk's Imitation of Life which is now playing at Film Forum. Elephant France is supposed to be releasing the title sometime this year but given past performance there's no guarantee it will be the new 4k. more likely the image compromised edition released in Germany.


A 4k of this should be a perfect fit for Criterion but no word on that nor indeed MoC in the UK (I think Craig Keller would be happy to do it but Universal/Canal seems to bypass MoC these days.).
 

AshJW

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Universal has done a brand new 4k of Sirk's Imitation of Life
I hope they use it also for the Blu-ray.


And I doubt that the German BD has this as the reports about its PQ are not, well, good :D
 

Robin9

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david hare said:
A 4k of this should be a perfect fit for Criterion but no word on that nor indeed MoC in the UK (I think Craig Keller would be happy to do it but Universal/Canal seems to bypass MoC these days.).

I know nothing about the internal politics of the film business. Even if Universal do "bypass MOC" presumably they will want someone to do a Blu-ray disc of this new 4K scan?
 

david hare

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I know nothing about the internal politics of the film business. Even if Universal do "bypass MOC" presumably they will want someone to do a Blu-ray disc of this new 4K scan?
We are now hopefully catching up with this situation, if you read the Imitation thread on the main US Blu Ray forum.
 

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