Noir Archive Volume 1: 1944-1954 9 Movie Collection (1 Viewer)

[Paul Penna]

Thanks for relaying the info that these indeed are the Sony masters, as I suspected. Now I can put my pre-order through.

 

[OliverK]

I contacted Kit Parker by e-mail. I encouraged him strongly but politely not to use DNR or video processing on the Sony/Columbia noirs like what happened on The French Way.

Here is his response back to me.



So the masters from Sony won't be processed in any way.

Thanks for writing, that is very good news and the answer that I would have hoped for.
This could be older HD masters from Sony that still should look good enough to make a difference when released on Blu-ray, I guess we will see soon enough.

I see on his website that he is very easy to reach so it will probably not hurt if more of us write to him pointing out that we will be happy to buy if these turn out well and not smoothed over.

And while I think that a BD50 is just enough for three movies it also means that encoding has to be done with more care than if only two movies were put on each disc so it may help to point that out, too.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I contacted Kit Parker by e-mail. I encouraged him strongly but politely not to use DNR or video processing on the Sony/Columbia noirs like what happened on The French Way.

Here is his response back to me.



So the masters from Sony won't be processed in any way.

I'm encouraged, but I'm still waiting on reviews before I buy this boxset.

 

[TheSteig]

Sounds like a Twilight TIme kind of thing where they just distribute the films and the master comes from Sony. Ill wait for reviews but Ill probably get it anyway as the set would have to be really awful for me to pass on it

 

[Paul Penna]

Nine films for $5.55 each, eight of them new to my collection, from studio-licensed HD transfers... I haven't had a no-brainer like this for a month of Sundays.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I was only saying that three discs should be fine for these particular nine movies. I'm not buying this BD release until I see some reviews or read some comments from others on this forum. I've learned my lessons from dealing with companies like Film Detective.

I bought this from Amazon for $34.99 and used some bonus points to get the final shipped cost below $30 as the reviews seem pretty positive. None of them are pristine, but they appear to be much better than Film Detective releases.

I think my shipment should arrive by tomorrow as I plan on watching some of these titles next week.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

I bought this from Amazon for $34.99 and used some bonus points to get the final shipped cost below $30 as the reviews seem pretty positive. None of them are pristine, but they appear to be much better than Film Detective releases.

I think my shipment should arrive by tomorrow as I plan on watching some of these titles next week.

I did the same when it hit $34.99 last week. I've watched 3 of them so far (The Black Book is a terrific movie that I'd never seen) and am pleased with the quality. Not perfect, but certainly better than a DVD release and these aren't titles that are likely to ever get a 2K/4K restoration.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I did the same when it hit $34.99 last week. I've watched 3 of them so far (The Black Book is a terrific movie that I'd never seen) and am pleased with the quality. Not perfect, but certainly better than a DVD release and these aren't titles that are likely to ever get a 2K/4K restoration.

Yeah, I forgot to purchase it at that time and pricing bumped up to $39.99, but dropped back down to $34.99 yesterday so I jumped on it.

 

[Keith Cobby]

The Black Book is the standout film in the set, the French Revolution as film noir. This is John Alton at his best and it occurred to me whilst watching this excellent presentation that it would have worked well in 3-D.

 

[Timothy Bodzioney]

The Black Book is visually stunning. It kind of looks like it could have directed by Orson Welles.
I also think Address Unknown is great - a true undiscovered gem.

 

[bujaki]

I was lucky that I got to see The Black Book in 35mm before the film slipped into PD hell. I just could not believe my eyes: the light coming out of those deep black areas! A master of lighting, Mr. Alton.

 

[OliverK]

Looking forward to hear first impressions, I only hope that the Sony masters were ported to Blu-ray with as little tempering as possible and textures and detail fully retained.

And some excellent reading on Mann and Alton:
https://theoldhollywoodgarden.wordp...c-duos-blogathon-anthony-mann-and-john-alton/

 

[PatrickDA]

"The Black Book" has never looked better on home video. All other titles look very good except for "The Miami Story" which shows some age here and there.

 

[OliverK]

"The Black Book" has never looked better on home video. All other titles look very good except for "The Miami Story" which shows some age here and there.

Thanks, that is nice to hear.

For people who like to have a look at screencaps they also look pretty good over at DVDBeaver, even The Miami Story looks decent:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film4/dvd_reviews_59/the_miami_story.htm

For people who have had doubts about bitrate these movies are short enough to allow for an average bitrate that is well above 20 mbps so Kit Parker made good use of the available space and there is not exactly Lawrence of Arabia level of detail and color at work here so given the content one can see how they got the idea to put three movies on a single disc.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Thanks, that is nice to hear.

For people who like to have a look at screencaps they also look pretty good over at DVDBeaver, even The Miami Story looks decent:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film4/dvd_reviews_59/the_miami_story.htm

For people who have had doubts about bitrate these movies are short enough to allow for an average bitrate that is well above 20 mbps so Kit Parker made good use of the available space and ther eis not exactly Lawrence of Arabia level of detail and color at work here so given the content one can see how they got the idea to put three movies on a single disc.

I received my Blu-ray yesterday. I plan on watching some of these titles this week. I had 2 of those 9 titles on DVD which were "Ocean 711" and "The Killer that Stalked New York". Truth be told, I've only watched the former film on DVD so I'm looking forward to revisiting it along with some new titles that I've never seen.

 

[Keith Cobby]

Watched another three: Escape in the Fog, Johnny Allegro, Assignment Paris. Always been a fan of George Raft and Nina Foch. The image quality was very good, this is a great set!

 

[Robert Crawford]

Watched another three: Escape in the Fog, Johnny Allegro, Assignment Paris. Always been a fan of George Raft and Nina Foch. The image quality was very good, this is a great set!

Nina Foch. Hubba, hubba!

 

[OliverK]

I received my Blu-ray yesterday. I plan on watching some of these titles this week. I had 2 of those 9 titles on DVD which were "Ocean 711" and "The Killer that Stalked New York". Truth be told, I've only watched the former film on DVD so I'm looking forward to revisiting it along with some new titles that I've never seen.

I only had the Black Book on DVD, did not watch it so far and now I never will as I am getting the set

 

[RICK BOND]

They left out ..The Mob (1951) Columbia ???