It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World - 7/5 (Another Wal-Mart Exclusive) (1 Viewer)

[GMpasqua]

Originally Posted by Danilo S.

I think that the 70mm print used in 2003 in LA at Cinerama Dome went from a 35mm print. If this is correct, to have the best quality, the bluray master must came from that 35mm print.

It didn't look like a 35Mm blow-up but a true 70MM image. I highly doubt the print used was from a 35Mm element

 

[Nelson Au]

I'm not familiar with these Walmart exclusives. Is it just a limited period where they are the only outlet to purchase these blu ray films? I don't have a Walmart near by either.


In researching this a little, the only thing I found was this entry at blu-ray.com and it doesn't add much about the specs of the disc:


http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Its-a-Mad-Mad-Mad-Mad-World-Blu-ray/25491/

 

[ahollis]

Originally Posted by Nelson Au

I'm not familiar with these Walmart exclusives. Is it just a limited period where they are the only outlet to purchase these blu ray films? I don't have a Walmart near by either.


In researching this a little, the only thing I found was this entry at blu-ray.com and it doesn't add much about the specs of the disc:


http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Its-a-Mad-Mad-Mad-Mad-World-Blu-ray/25491/

You can only get then either at the Wal-Mart store or purchase through their online store for pick-up at store or sent to your home. So far I have not heard how long the exclusives will last, but I would predict at least 6 months. They did not give out a lot of specs on THE BIG COUNTRY either and I did not know until I read the back of the case when I bought it.

 

[Professor Echo]

Those of you who get TCM-HD, whenever they show this it's the most complete cut in existence, the same one used for the laser disc set. With a DVD recorder you can get a very nice anamorphic copy that will be better than the Laser. It's not Blu Ray, but it looks fantastic either split between two single layer DVD-Rs or on a dual layer DVD-R.

 

[lukejosephchung]

I just preordered this and the rest of the original poster's listed titles at Walmart's website...the week after July 4th's going to be an expensive one!!!

 

[Professor Echo]

Originally Posted by GMpasqua

The Radio calls were found after the original DVD was released. The first time they were heard in LA since 1963 was at the Cinerama Dome in 2004 or 2005.

A number of years prior to that the Egyptain theater held a cast reunion screening and they said the radio calls were lost (Many of the cast were there and many have since passed on) It was a fun night but the print was 35mm.

This is not accurate.


In November, 1988, the CINERAMA DOME held a 25th Anniversary Screening of the film and the opening of the Dome in November, 1963. They screened a gorgeous IB Technicolor privately held 70mm print which included the Radio Calls Intermission. Many of the cast members were there in attendance as was director Stanley Kramer, who disappointed the audience by saying he didn't care if any of the remaining missing footage was ever found as he thought the movie already too long!


After that evening, the Dome played the film for a week, but that was a 35mm version and at first was an edited, pan and scan print! I think they cleared that up before the week was out, but on the Anniversary night, they had a beautiful private 70mm print and the Radio Calls were heard right before the second half of the feature started.


It was one of the most memorable nights I've ever spent at the movies.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Those of you who get TCM-HD, whenever they show this it's the most complete cut in existence, the same one used for the laser disc set

Woah...hold the fort! Stop the presses!

You are telling me that the version that is being shown on TCM-HD

is the same version that is on the laserdisc with all the cut scenes

restored?


Really?


I will have to set my Tivo to look for and record it the next time it is on.


I am meeting with the fine folks from Fox this week. I'd be happy to

talk about the restoration of IAMMMW, but something tells me that

it's not going to be a priority for them.

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by Professor Echo

This is not accurate.

In November, 1988, the CINERAMA DOME held a 25th Anniversary Screening of the film and the opening of the Dome in November, 1963. They screened a gorgeous IB Technicolor privately held 70mm print which included the Radiio Calls Intermission. Many of the cast members were there in attendance as was director Stanley Kramer, who disappointed the audience by saying he didn't care if any of the remaining missing footage was ever found as he thought the movie already too long!


After that evening, the Dome played the film for a week, but that was the 35mm version and at first was an edited, pan and scan print! I think they cleared that up before the week was out, but on the Anniversary night, they had a beautiful private 70mm print and the Radio Calls were heard right before the second half of the feature started.


It was one of the most memorable nights I've ever spent at the movies.

70mm dye transfer prints never existed. The print w/radio calls was a newly struck 70mm.


RAH

 

[Professor Echo]

Originally Posted by Robert Harris


70mm dye transfer prints never existed. The print w/radio calls was a newly struck 70mm.


RAH

I stand corrected on that part, thanks for clarification. However, they announced before the film screened that it was a "Technicolor" print from a private collection, not a newly struck 70mm print. If I remember right, they expected a 70mm print that night and at the last minute found it was in terrible condition, so they reached out to a private collector who loaned the Dome his print for that one evening only. If you know more than what was announced to the audience that evening, by all means share. Again, this was in 1988, I am not referring to more recent screenings at the Egyptian.


Yes, Ron, TCM and TCM-HD show the exact same print that is on the Laser Disc and it looks great!

 

[GMpasqua]

Originally Posted by Professor Echo




This is not accurate.


In November, 1988, the CINERAMA DOME held a 25th Anniversary Screening of the film and the opening of the Dome in November, 1963. They screened a gorgeous IB Technicolor privately held 70mm print which included the Radio Calls Intermission. Many of the cast members were there in attendance as was director Stanley Kramer, who disappointed the audience by saying he didn't care if any of the remaining missing footage was ever found as he thought the movie already too long!


After that evening, the Dome played the film for a week, but that was a 35mm version and at first was an edited, pan and scan print! I think they cleared that up before the week was out, but on the Anniversary night, they had a beautiful private 70mm print and the Radio Calls were heard right before the second half of the feature started.


It was one of the most memorable nights I've ever spent at the movies.

This is what was told to the audience during the 2003 screening - of course not everything the Dome employees say is always accurate


If the radio spots were around in 88 why weren't they included in the laserdisc box set?


The Laserdisc vox set cut is still my favorite cut of the film. But I would prefer the 70MM element be used if it will look like the print screened in 2003

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by GMpasqua


This is what was told to the audience during the 2003 screening - of course not everything the Dome employees say is always accurate

If the radio spots were around in 88 why weren't they included in the laserdisc box set?

I neglected to note the date 2003. That would have been a 35 dye transfer.


Only the 70 produced around '07 had the DTS track to pull up the calls.


RAH

 

[Professor Echo]

First of all, I was there in 1988. Were you there, Greg or you, Robert Harris? The Police Calls intermission was a part of the presentation. If it wasn't on the print itself, then it got there through other means.

I would say that what the management of the Pacific Theaters and the Cinerama Dome announced on that Anniversary night, an evening which had been planned a year in advance and included many of the cast and the director in attendance, was more accurate than what they said in 2003 or 2007 unless they were referring to what Robert Harris says about it being the first PRINT since 1963 to include the calls, not the first screening. What they said in 2003-2007 was flat out wrong because on November 1, 1988, the police calls played in the Dome during a 70mm screening.


Why they were not included on the Laser Disc or on any of the TCM screenings, I have no idea.

 

[GMpasqua]

I know I saw a 70MM print of the film at the Cinermam Dome sometimebetween the fall of 2003 and 2007. Wasn't that a 70MM print? or was it in 2007?

 

[darkrock17]

I hate Wal-Mart, but if Mad World is finally going to be on Blu, then I'll have to go.
My question about this release, is it going to be in all stores or just selected states?


The Wal-Mart near me has been recently remodeled and is basically a grocery store now, with very little Wal-Mart left.



Mad World needs to get a complete as close to the original 192 min. cut out soon.

What is current status on the restoration?


how much has been found?


how much is left?


Why isn't 182 min TCM cut on DVD?


Important questions that need answers.

 

[ScottHM]

Originally Posted by Rick Thompson
Are you going to never vote for a Kennedy again because several Kennedys have done immoral, illegal or otherwise objectionable acts? Plan to never attend a Roman Polansky or Woody Allen movie again?

Personally, I'll go to Wal-Mart 100 times (which will take me about 20 years at my current rate of visitation) before I'll do any of those things.


---------------

 

[Techman707]

Originally Posted by Sam Posten

Sure sucks that MGM cares so little for this classic to treat it like a throwaway to the creeps at Walmart.

Absolutely sad and sickening, and those of you rushing to scap it up just to have it on any form are reinforcing their beliefs. I'm guilty of it too, I bought it for $6 at Costco after swearing I wouldn't buy it, but no blu for me till they do it RIGHT

While the original roadshow would have been great, I wasn't aware that all the missing footage had (or has) been found. The only thing that stuck in my mind was Robert Harris saying it would cost an "additional one million dollars to complete" a roadshow version. And even if the footage WAS found, if the color looked like the additional (480p) roadshow footage did in "South Pacific", I can live without it.

As for the extra features, I already have 2 DVD versions and the Laser disc version with the extra non-roadshow footage added. I'm sure glad none of that footage WAS left in the final release. Stanley Kramer sure knew what he was doing when he DIDN'T use THOSE scenes. They actually change the whole mood and timing of the picture....and not in a good way, or funnier either.


I know it;s too much to ask, but I would have hoped they corrected some of the opening title and end title colors, which appear to be nearly 180 degrees out of phase. But hey, for $10 plus tax & shipping from Walmart, I don't think anyone should complain. The worst complaint is that we'll now have to sit through a 20th Century Fox logo and an MGM logo on a UA release that never even had a UA logo on the opening when it ran in theatres. On "Hair" they also put a Fox, MGM and the WRONG UA logo at the beginning. It originally just had "UA- A TRANSAMERICA COMPANY" at the beginning, not the one they've used. I wonder if it's too much to ask them to leave the original logos and just tag their junk before it....if they MUST DO IT. But all in all, I'm sure MOST people, including myself, will be very happy with IAMMMMW based on the MGM-HD version I saw.


I think you're making a BIG mistake if you pass on this $10 version from Walmart, unless you possibly know something nobody else does about a future version. Someone also mentioned "The Hallelujah Trail". Unless there's a big surprise about it being restored, the DVD version looks like it was taken from the silver reclaimer's garbage bin. I just wish Fox would get on with their own (or Magna's) musicals in the VERY near future.

 

[Douglas R]

Originally Posted by Techman707




The worst complaint is that we'll now have to sit through a 20th Century Fox logo and an MGM logo on a UA release that never even had a UA logo on the opening when it ran in theatres. On "Hair" they also put a Fox, MGM and the WRONG UA logo at the beginning. It originally just had "UA- A TRANSAMERICA COMPANY" at the beginning, not the one they've used. I wonder if it's too much to ask them to leave the original logos and just tag their junk before it....if they MUST DO IT.

Yes I really dislike the way that MGM have done all they can to delete UA from history. Annoyingly, they even do it on music soundtrack CDs. MAD WORLD has been issued several times on CD with the words "Original MGM Motion Picture Score". They seem to want to give the impresion that they actually made MAD WORLD and all the other UA films when of course they didn't. It's the revisionism that I dislike - the attempt to rewrite film history and ignore the achievements of a world famous studio founded by Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D W Griffith.

 

[Robert Harris]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Techman707

While the original roadshow would have been great, I wasn't aware that all the missing footage had (or has) been found. The only thing that stuck in my mind was Robert Harris saying it would cost an "additional one million dollars to complete" a roadshow version. And even if the footage WAS found, if the color looked like the additional (480p) roadshow footage did in "South Pacific", I can live without it.

Why would one suppose that?


RAH

 

[ahollis]

Originally Posted by Techman707




As for the extra features, I already have 2 DVD versions and the Laser disc version with the extra non-roadshow footage added. I'm sure glad none of that footage WAS left in the final release. Stanley Kramer sure knew what he was doing when he DIDN'T use THOSE scenes. They actually change the whole mood and timing of the picture....and not in a good way, or funnier either.

I guess I miss read all the news blurbs and interviews that Stanley Kramer did when the Laserdic came out, but I understood him to say that with these cuts that were added back into the film there was only about 2 minutes missing. This led me to believe that these cuts were part of the original Roadshow. What gives you the thought that these cuts were not in the Roadshow? And if these were not part of the Roadshow release, what footage was cut?

 

[ahollis]

Originally Posted by Douglas R





Yes I really dislike the way that MGM have done all they can to delete UA from history. Annoyingly, they even do it on music soundtrack CDs. MAD WORLD has been issued several times on CD with the words "Original MGM Motion Picture Score". They seem to want to give the impresion that they actually made MAD WORLD and all the other UA films when of course they didn't. It's the revisionism that I dislike - the attempt to rewrite film history and ignore the achievements of a world famous studio founded by Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D W Griffith.

This has gone much further can anyone can think. About six years ago when MGM went back to distributing their films after being sold to Comcast, Sony and investors, they re-introduced themselves to the a group of exhibitors at Showest in Vegas that year. Calling themselves the great MGM with a great history and then proceeded to to show clips from Orion and UA films, from Dances With Wolves, to Goldfinger, to The Great Escape, to Silence With Lambs, to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Not one instance did we hear the words United Artists.