International PAL AND OTHER-REGION DVD ANNOUNCEMENTS & REVIEWS (1 Viewer)

[Thomas T]

I have high hopes for the Bandido and Tennessee's Partner transfers as I have a handsome 16x9 transfer of Gunman's Walk (1958) from the same company A&R productions. If they are as good as that disc, I'll be very happy. I doubt that they are boots as there is a 1958 copyright date for the film and has the Dolby logo. If it were a boot, I would assume it would be R0 rather than R2.

Bikini Beach (yes, it's part of the Beach Party series) is from MGM, the same distributor as in the U.S. I'll definitely report as soon as they arrive.

I've only had one bad experience ordering from Amazon.It, Desert Legion (1954) with Alan Ladd was a boot. A very shoddy transfer apparently off a TV dub as the channel's logo appeared every so often on the film.

 

[classicmovieguy]

"Bikini Beach" is the one where Frankie Avalon has a fun second role, skewering 'Beatle-mania' with his own mop-haired Brit chart-topper, "Potato Bug". All of the Beach Party films are great, but my fave has been and always will be "Beach Blanket Bingo".

 

[John Hermes]

"Bikini Beach" is the one where Frankie Avalon has a fun second role, skewering 'Beatle-mania' with his own mop-haired Brit chart-topper, "Potato Bug". All of the Beach Party films are great, but my fave has been and always will be "Beach Blanket Bingo".

LInda Evans in Beach Blanket Bingo looks like a Barbie doll come to life.

 

[Colin McGuigan]

I have high hopes for the Bandido and Tennessee's Partner transfers as I have a handsome 16x9 transfer of Gunman's Walk (1958) from the same company A&R productions.

Yes, I have a number of releases by this company too and I'm generally happy with them. I'm another who's keen to hear how Bandido looks.

 

[Thomas T]

Got my DVD of Duel In The Jungle (1954) with Jeanne Crain and Dana Andrews from Great Britain today and I'm quite pleased. They've provided both an anamorphic 1.66 and a full frame transfer. The film elements seem in good shape, vivid colors and a reasonably sharp transfer.

 

[classicmovieguy]

They also provided 'scope and fullscreen versions on their release of "Josephine and Men". Very nice. I'm looking forward to getting "Duel in the Jungle" soon - and happy Network has seen fit to once again offer a film in 2 screen formats.

 

[cwilli]

"Bikini Beach" is the one where Frankie Avalon has a fun second role, skewering 'Beatle-mania' with his own mop-haired Brit chart-topper, "Potato Bug". All of the Beach Party films are great, but my fave has been and always will be "Beach Blanket Bingo".

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Beach Blanket Bingo. Beach Blanket Bingo. Beach Blanket Bingo. That's the name of the game.

 

[Thomas T]

They also provided 'scope and fullscreen versions on their release of "Josephine and Men". Very nice.

I'm a big Glynis Johns fan so I'll be getting Josephine but I was disappointed in Network's transfer of Loser Takes All with Glynis and Rossano Brazzi. It's in the proper 16x9 CinemaScope ratio but the transfer is really soft looking.

 

[classicmovieguy]

Yes the transfer of "Loser Takes All" was a bit 'off', maybe the elements aren't in the best shape. "Josephine and Men" is very good.

 

[Thomas T]

I received my DVDs of Bandido, Bikini Beach and Tennessee's Partner in today's mail. The news is good all the way around.

All three are 16x9 anamorphic and Bandido and Bikini Beach look great. Tennessee's Partner isn't in as good a shape but it's much better than the current VCI full frame version available here in R1. It's a 2.00:1 transfer as befits the SuperScope format it was released in.

So rest assured if you buy any of the titles, they are just fine.

 

[Colin McGuigan]

Thanks, Thomas - that's welcome news on Bandido.

 

[Robin9]

Thanks, Thomas - that's welcome news on Bandido.

More than welcome! I'm placing my order immediately.

 

[John Hermes]

I received my DVDs of Bandido, Bikini Beach and Tennessee's Partner in today's mail. The news is good all the way around.

All three are 16x9 anamorphic and Bandido and Bikini Beach look great. Tennessee's Partner isn't in as good a shape but it's much better than the current VCI full frame version available here in R1. It's a 2.00:1 transfer as befits the SuperScope format it was released in.

So rest assured if you buy any of the titles, they are just fine.

I received Bandido today but don't care much for the quality, frankly. While the color and contrast are fine, it has a very harsh appearance with aliasing- type artifacts. Had I known it looked like this, I would have passed on it.

 

[Thomas T]

I received Bandido today but don't care much for the quality, frankly. While the color and contrast are fine, it has a very harsh appearance with aliasing- type artifacts. Had I known it looked like this, I would have passed on it.

It looked just fine upconverted by my Samsung blu on my 40" HDTV. I've heard the larger the monitor, the more flaws are visible so I'm assuming you've got a large monitor.

 

[John Hermes]

It looked just fine upconverted by my Samsung blu on my 40" HDTV. I've heard the larger the monitor, the more flaws are visible so I'm assuming you've got a large monitor.

I watched it on a 42" LG. I have a projector with a 120" screen for scope, so I guess I'll skip using that for sure on this title.

 

[Robin9]

I watched it on a 42" LG. I have a projector with a 120" screen for scope, so I guess I'll skip using that for sure on this title.

You'll be very wise to restrict this DVD to your 42" screen. More than any other disc in my collection, this Bandido DVD confirms that the bigger the screen the worse a flawed disc will look. I watched this disc two nights ago via a projector, achieving a ten feet wide image. The picture quality was very poor. The following day I watched it on my 50" plasma . . . and it looked quite good! Not perfect, not jaw-droppingly fabulous but certainly acceptable.

As I like Bandido a lot, I'm glad I bought this far-from-perfect disc. It's a lot better than my off-air VHS recording of a pan-and-scan presentation!

 

[Thomas T]

Just received more R2 discs from Italy and England in today's mail.

From Great Britain, not available in R1 the Dutch thriller Amsterdamned with options to watch it in the original Dutch with subtitles or an English dub. It's a nice anamorphic wide screen transfer (looks to be 1.78).

From Italy, an anamorphic transfer of Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days which is only 4x3 letterbox in R1, it looks good. A handsome anamorphic wide screen The Moonspinners which is available only as a full frame transfer in R1. An anamorphic Seventh Cavalry with Randolph Scott only available as part of a TCM set. The Italian transfer is decent but the transfer varies, often soft on long shots while sharp on close ups but on the whole satisfying.

From comments on Bandido, it's clear viewing experiences will be different depending on your equipment. I watched on a 40" HDTV with the discs played on an upconverting Samsung blu ray player.

 

[Thomas T]

Three DVDs from Italy in today's mail.

An anamorphic Six Days Seven Nights (1998) to replace the non anamorphic 4x3 letterbox R1 DVD.

An anamorphic The Black Knight (1954) with Alan Ladd which has a slightly better transfer than the blurry Spanish DVD though the film need some serious restoration work.

The Day Of The Triffids (1963) which is a faded soft transfer but still highly watchable. I got it not only because it's not available in R1 but the back of the jacket said 16x9 1.85 even though it's a CinemaScope film. Well, when I played it, it wouldn't play as 16x9 on my monitor and the picture was a squeezed transfer with black bars on all four sides. It was a scope transfer rather than 1.85 though. By hitting the "wide" aspect button on my remote, the picture unsqueezed and played in its full CinemaScope ratio with no black bars on the sides, just the normal top and bottom bars.

 

[youworkmen]

The Day Of The Triffids (1963) which is a faded soft transfer but still highly watchable. I got it not only because it's not available in R1 but the back of the jacket said 16x9 1.85 even though it's a CinemaScope film. Well, when I played it, it wouldn't play as 16x9 on my monitor and the picture was a squeezed transfer with black bars on all four sides. It was a scope transfer rather than 1.85 though. By hitting the "wide" aspect button on my remote, the picture unsqueezed and played in its full CinemaScope ratio with no black bars on the sides, just the normal top and bottom bars.

Sounds like a simple but annoying case of the 16:9 flag being missing .
At least if it was squeezed then it's an anamorphic transfer and not a letterboxed one

 

[Bob Cashill]

Triffids was available in R1. This may be a port of that blah transfer.