Marx Brothers' Duck Soup to be edited? (1 Viewer)

[george kaplan]

I guess I'm not a Marx fanatic. I already own Duck Soup on dvd. Why would I buy a new version if there's not a picture improvement? Just to have an extra copy? If that's what a Marx fanatic would do, then I'm certainly not one. I am, however, a fan of Duck Soup, and will be more than willing to double-dip on this title if it is indeed uncensored, and does have improved picture quality.

 

[ArthurMy]

"When will the studios learn they upset far more people when they cater to political correctness and edit stuff out than if they leave it in?"

"Looks like I'm going to have to search out the older Image DVD"

Those are statements that would seem to me are made by people who have pretty much decided something based on what is most likely erroneous information.

I used the word "significant" in regards to picture improvement. I have no doubt the Universal will look better because all those early Image discs look like crap.

As in all these threads, we shall see what we shall see. My only point, and I do hope I am not making it offensively (certainly Colin seemed to agree and not find it either incorrect or offensively put), is that people get het up over stuff rather than just wait (a whole two days - I think the Marx Bros. set comes out Tuesday) to see what the truth is. And even when presented with the truth (Mr. Salas' posts pretty much confirm there is nothing missing) they still fret. It's a free country, of course, but I just marvel at it.

 

[Paul Miller]

If Randy says he can't notice any cuts, I am going to go with his word over some gossip columnist.

Besides, I don't have a first born to sell in order to buy the OOP DVD copies of each of these movies which came out before I owned a DVD player.

Does anyone know where to find any reviews of this set?

Paul

 

[george kaplan]

I have a lot of respect for Randy and his opinion, and I don't want to put words into his mouth, but twice he indicates that he's not completely certain himself. Randy has shown that certain things haven't been edited (and I find it hard to believe they'd leave in the Headstrong/Armstrong bit if they were going to edit it), but has indicated that it's still possible something else somewhere might have been, since it's not clear what specific edit is being referred to in the article.

 

[Eric Peterson]

I appreciate Randy's comments as well, but as George pointed out, they are far from being definitive. If you want to base your purchase based on these comments then feel free, but don't accuse the rest of us of jumping to conclusions.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Come on guys, let's stop it! You all have made your point. From my vantage point, I'm debating whether to purchase this set since I already own the previous Image dvds. Chances are I'm going to roll the dice and hope the image quality is improved and will try to do some comparisons to see if any other edits took place.







Crawdaddy

 

[Terry H]

Wrong. I owned the Horse Feathers Image disc and dumped it because I considered it so bad as to be unwatchable. I never bought any more because I assumed they would all be in about the same condition. Frankly, if they haven't been restored to be as good as they can be, I still don't want them.

 

[Randy A Salas]

I agree that these kind of threads spread erroneous information like wildfire, but this is an important point. Beck claims that things have been edited on the new Duck Soup DVD, a disc that she hasn't viewed. I've checked the song she refers to (with no further elaboration from her, mind you) and another spot of the movie that would seem to be a flashpoint and haven't found any obvious deletions. She would seem to be mistaken, but until we know exactly what she was talking about, there's no way to know for sure what is or isn't on the new disc.

There is one surprising thing about this whole matter. I never realized Beck was this widely read.

 

[Paul Miller]

John Sinnott compared the running time of the movie on the new Universal DVD with the running time of the uncut Image DVD and they were identical.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=393560

Paul

 

[ArthurMy]

Here is the pertinent paragraph for everyone to see clearly:

"Okay, I can definitely state that there is no difference between the Image DVD of Duck Soup and the new release when it comes to the"We're Going to War" production number. I synched up the new disc and the old one on my DVD player and laptop respectively. I watched the scene with both running at the same time, an they are exactly identical."

Does this put the matter to rest?

 

[ArthurMy]

Although all the people who were so worried seem to have left the room I was lucky enough to find a copy in my travels today. I just finished watching Duck Soup and can say unequivically that not one frame has been tampered with - it is the movie we all know and love. As I said early on in this thread - no reason to get upset until the story is known.

The transfer is much better than the Image disc. The film is never going to look like Casablanca looks, but it's got really nice contrast (as opposed to the grayish hues of the earlier disc), and it's nice and sharp. Yes, there is grain (since that seems to be a mantra here) as there should be (there are a lot of opticals in this film), but I couldn't be happier with it. I'll check out the other DVDs in a bit. I did watch the bonus disc, which is only about fifteen minutes long and isn't much, although the Harpo segment is fun. The packaging, I must say, rates an A+ from me. If the other transfers are as good as Duck Soup, there is no reason that anyone who professes to be a fan of the brothers Marx should pass this up. Many congrats to Universal on a job well done.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Arthur - if you could let me know how the audio is on The Cocoanuts I'd greatly appreciate it. More than the other Image releases, this particular film was nearly inaudible due to the tinnyness of the audio, and I'm wondering if you can notice any improvement, as far as is reasonably possible to do with such an early sound film.

 

[ZackR]

Is the transfer really noticeably better? That is great! Any reason to hang onto the old Image disc then? Either way, I am thrilled these new Marx Brothers releases are coming out. I missed out on the first wave (found Duck Soup at a pawn shop) and cannot wait to pick these up!

 

[Eric Peterson]

This is all I was looking for. Just waiting for confirmation. Thank You!

I will be picking up this set, but I'm still gravely disappointed with it. As I said in an earlier post, these are some of the most highly regarded films in the entire Universal library, and we get virtually zero extras. There is a reason that Universal has such a horrible reputation, and this merely adds to their legacy.

 

[Peter Svensson]

Ok, so these boxsets are remastered



but this one isn´t?

 

[Eric Peterson]

Peter,

You're roughly correct.

The first set (New) and the last set (Old) contain the same films except that the top set also included "The Cocoanuts". According to early reviews at least some of the films in the new set have been cleaned up. These are the films from the first phase of the Marx's career. The middle set was released earlier this year and starts w/ "A Night at the Opera" and goes through "A Night in Casablanca". All of these films have been cleaned up substantially and contain plentiful extras.

 

[Peter Svensson]

So I´ll be buying the first and the second boxset then, if Duck Sup has been remastered, and it seems to be. But the last boxset has been remastered slightly compared to the Image editions.

 

[John Hodson]

Content issues aside (and the R1 does win out here), there has been no comparison so far between the R1 and R2 Universal releases so we have no idea if the R1s look any better; it could be they are of the same standard.

 

[Peter Svensson]

Well, according to Michaeldvd.com.au the old R2/R4 boxset has not been remastered.

"The source material has not been restored and the transfer reflects this."

But according to Dvdbeaver.com the R2/R4 boxset uses a different print that has better quality than the print used for the early R1 Image editions.

"The Image DVD does have a lot more speckles and print damage and the picture is a little more unsteady than the Universal - it must be 2 different prints that are used. The better print quality makes the Universal a winner, so no need to pay a lot for the out-of-print Image Entertainment DVD."

So the old R2/R4 boxset could be the same as the new R1 "Silverscreen Collection"? That´s bad, because the R2 boxset overall has a rather bad image quality.

 

[John Hodson]

Well, sometimes michaeldvd.com.au reviewers make the odd erroneous statement (it has been known)

I'm sure dvdbeaver.com will come up with come comparisons of the R1 and R2/4 sets and then we will know just where we stand.

Unitl then, I'm with Eric when he said:



I'll add another reason I'm wary; compare the Universal Noir Series movies with Warners outstanding noir box set...