Magnificent Obsession (TV broadcast) - Cause of blue blotches? (See screen caps) (1 Viewer)

[Simon Howson]

Hi Mr Harris,

Recently I watched Magnificent Obsession from a digital TV broadcast. The image was generally very good, but unfortunately some scenes featured blue blotches of colour near the centre-left of the image.

Initially I thought this could be a strange lens flare artifact, but it seems to be damage to the element used for transfer, because when it occasionally appeared, it was always near the centre left side of the screen.

I am wondering, what you think could cause blemishes of this sort? Is it a sign that the negative itself has been damaged? And that this couldn't be fixed? Are there ways - either digital or photochemical - to correct these sorts of blemishes?

Note, I have no idea if this is the same transfer as used on the Criterion DVD. In fact I wonder if the Criterion transfer has these blemishes, or if they were fixed.

Thank you for your time,

Simon

Here are some examples. Click the images to see slightly bigger versions.


Look at the area just below Hudson's ear.


Look at the area just to the right of Wyman's forehead.


Near the slightly to the centre-left top of the image.


Just to the right of Wyman's shoulder


To the left of Hudson's left hand. (Almost perfect centre of the image)

 

[Robert Harris]

This appears to have been created from damaged three-strip negs or masters. Not unusual.

 

[Simon Howson]

Thank you for your reply. How can you tell something is from separations? Is it added graininess?

So could this be damage in the Yellow separation master? Or is it impossible to say?

Thanks for your time.

 

[Robert Harris]

Blue blotches. Problem with y master.

 

[Simon Howson]

Could this be corrected by using a process like Warner's Ultra Resolution, by scanning and recombining the image digitally at a high resolution like 4 or 6K?

Just one last question. In the broadcast there was ONE shot (about 87.5 minutes into the film) that looked different to the rest of the film.

It looked kind of out of focus, and lacked detail that all the other scenes had. Any idea why this shot (top image) looks so different (kind of soft and blurred) from the one before it (bottom image)?





Could this be related to how this film was preserved? Or is it more likely related to how the film was originally made? For example, is it possible that the top image was optically zoomed in, perhaps because they wanted a tighter composition? So now it sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the film?

I recall that there was one shot of James Stewart in your Vertigo restoration that was a much older (5th generation?) to the rest of the film. Could this be an example where the people at Universal had to revert to a higher generation element to replace that one shot?

 

[Jesse Skeen]

All the shots have something in the lower-right that shouldn't be there.

 

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