"Pal Joey" Feb 14th 5.1 with isolated music track (1 Viewer)

[GMpasqua]

Twilight Time is released a limited 3,000 blu-ray of "Pal Joey" 5.1 sound with an isolated music track.

This film has never been released on video in stereo (But in 1957 and with Frank Sinatra one would think a stereo print may have been released at some point in a few major cities?)

I remember reading (back in the 80's) they were looing for 4 track masters which may have existed for the soundtrack (Joe Caps do you know if this is true?)



I saw a beautiful new print of this film about 5 years ago at the Egyptain Theater in LA and was impressed. Prior Home video versions weren't as colorful and sharp. The film held up very welll and worked better on the big screen

 

[GMpasqua]

From the Twilight Time Web Page:



PAL JOEY (1957) (PRE-ORDER) (BLU-RAY)
Starring: Frank Sinatra, Kim Novak, Rita Hayworth
Directed By: George Sidney
Composed By: Lorenz Hart, Richard Rogers



PLEASE NOTE: This item has a planned release date of FEB. 14th and is only available for PRE-ORDER at this time.
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Special Features: Isolated Score Track / Backstage and at Home with Kim Novak / Original Theatrical Trailer
LANGUAGE: English
VIDEO: 1080p High Definition / 1.85:1
AUDIO: English 5.1 DTS-HD MA
SUBTITLES: English SDH
1957 / Color
111 MINUTES
Limited Edition of 3,000 Units
“Admirable gusto…a swiftly moving, cheerful, and adult musical.” —The New York Times

“A strong, funny entertainment, with colorful characters and solid story built around the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart songs.” —Variety

Frank Sinatra stars as John O’Hara’s caddish crooner in this 1957 film version of the O’Hara/Rodgers and Hart musical, Pal Joey. A fresh—very fresh—arrival on the San Francisco nightclub scene, the amoral and ambitious Joey soon finds himself entangled with two “mice”: the rapacious stripper-turned-society dame Vera (Rita Hayworth) and the good-girl chorine Linda (Kim Novak). Handsomely directed by George Sidney, the film features a double handful of Rodgers and Hart’s greatest tunes, including “Zip,” “My Funny Valentine,” “The Lady Is a Tramp,” and “I Could Write a Book.”


Enjoy the extensive Julie Kirgo liner notes and film art packaged with the Blu-ray disc.

 

[GMpasqua]

 

[Robin9]

I saw a beautiful new print of this film about 5 years ago at the Egyptain Theater in LA and was impressed. Prior Home video versions weren't as colorful and sharp. The film held up very welll and worked better on the big screen

Pal Joey on DVD is a puzzle. I've seen this movie several times in theaters and have always found it to be a very elegant looking movie with beautiful color. I once recorded the movie off TV and it looked good. The VHS cassette was one of the best I've seen. The original DVD which obviously I expected to be far better was a disappointment and did not reflect the visual quality of the movie. The new DVD in the Kim Novak box-set is also below potential.
I very much hope the BRD will at last present Pal Joey properly. I'm longing to hear The Lady Is A Tramp in hi-def sound!

 

[Joe Caps]

The film was never in stereo. It is not a scope movie and Columbia only occasionally did stereo for Cinemascope movies.
You could do a remix if Columbia kept sterep prerecords, but as AFAIK, they did not.
I';; but this is just fake stereo derived from the mono dialogue, music an d effects track.
doesn't matter much. this film stinks. A classic case of taking a great broadway show and making a piece of junk out of it.
It's miscast, most of the original score and story is gone, the whole thing has been cleaned up. tons of rodgers and Hart hits dragged in from other shows. What a disaster !!

 

[Matt Hough]

I only have the original DVD release, so I'm looking forward to a great advance to that with the Blu-ray. Fiingers crossed.

 

[David_B_K]

The film was never in stereo. It is not a scope movie and Columbia only occasionally did stereo for Cinemascope movies.
You could do a remix if Columbia kept sterep prerecords, but as AFAIK, they did not.
I';; but this is just fake stereo derived from the mono dialogue, music an d effects track.
doesn't matter much. this film stinks. A classic case of taking a great broadway show and making a piece of junk out of it.
It's miscast, most of the original score and story is gone, the whole thing has been cleaned up. tons of rodgers and Hart hits dragged in from other shows. What a disaster !!

I could say much the same about Camelot (songs cut, non-singers were cast, too many close-ups like a TV movie, etc), which you seem to really admire. I agree that Pal Joey was transformed from its Broadway original into little more than a vehicle for Sinatra. As a representation of the original, it is indeed a travesty. However, on its own terms, I would hardly say it stinks. I think that as far as Sinatra vehicles go, it's pretty good (but I am prejudiced as I am a huge Sinatra fan). It also showcases Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak quite well.
I, too would be surprised if it was ever in stereo. I'm pretty sure that all my Sinatra recordings of the songs from Pal Joey are in mono.

 

[Robin9]

I agree that Pal Joey was transformed from its Broadway original into little more than a vehicle for Sinatra. As a representation of the original, it is indeed a travesty. However, on its own terms, I would hardly say it stinks. I think that as far as Sinatra vehicles go, it's pretty good (but I am prejudiced as I am a huge Sinatra fan). It also showcases Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak quite well.

Seconded. The movie is not what it should have been but it does not stink.

 

[Charles Smith]

I don't know the stage version of Pal Joey. Worse, I never even saw the film till just last year when it was beautifully presented at the Lafayette Theater. So, out of all context, viewing it just as a Sinatra film I was seeing for the first time, I really enjoyed the eye and ear candy. Fortunately, this isn't the first musical I've "learned" in reverse order -- film version, then stage -- and I look forward to getting to know the original book and score. As for now, I'm hoping for the best with this release.

 

[GMpasqua]

The story is basically the same except for a subplot to blackmail Joey by Gladys and some other guy.

The film lost a host of songs (basically they couldn't get by the censors) and much of the dialog was cleaned up for film.

The two biggest changes are that Joey is a singer and no longer a dancer (Gene Kelly played Joey on Broadway) and the location was moved from Chicago to San Francisco

To satifsy the censors Vera is no longer a married woman but a widow. Linda's character is also larger and I don't recall that she was a treat to Vera in the stage version.

Some great songs were cut ( though some were filmed: "What is a Man" by Vera when Joey first vists her on the patio and "You Mustn't Kick it Around" - as part of the dream sequence at the end)

some great songs Roger and Hart songs were added :The Lady is a Tramp" "Small Hotel" "I Didn't Know what Time it was" and "My Funny Valentine"

 

[Bob Cashill]

At this time it's hard to say what the "original" PAL JOEY is. The recent, middling Broadway revival (where Stockard Channing and Martha Plimpton, in support, crushed the leading man) used a revised book, which was indeed harsher, and raunchier, than the sanitized movie. But it was a 2008 sensibility applied to a period piece, not 1940 Broadway.

 

[John Skoda]

I'm pretty sure that all my Sinatra recordings of the songs from Pal Joey are in mono.

The "stereo" issue of the original Capitol soundtrack LP claimed to be part true stereo and the rest rechanneled mono. The only Sinatra tracks claimed to be stereo are "I Didn't Know What Time it Was" and "What Do I Care for a Dame?" The Sinatra session listings I've seen do show these two tracks having been the last he recorded for the film, and at a separate session from the rest. Here's the track listing from the "stereo" LP with the tracks claimed to be stereo marked with an asterisk:
Side One: MAIN TITLE
THAT TERRIFIC RAINBOW*
I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TIME IT WAS*
DO IT THE HARD WAY (Instrumental)
GREAT BIG TOWN*
THERE'S A SMALL HOTEL
ZIP*
I COULD WRITE A BOOK
BEWITCHED*
Side Two: THE LADY IS A TRAMP
PLANT YOU NOW, DIG YOU LATER (Instrumental)
MY FUNNY VALENTINE*
YOU MUSTN'T KICK IT AROUND (Instrumental)
BEWITCHED (Reprise)
STRIP NUMBER (Instrumental)
Dream Sequence and Finale:
WHAT DO I CARE FOR A DAME*
BEWITCHED
I COULD WRITE A BOOK*
The SINATRA IN HOLLYWOOD box presents all the PAL JOEY tracks in mono.

 

[Joe Caps]

I have the fake stereo Joey album right in front of me -- and NOWHERE does it claim that nay of it is true stereo.
the Joey tracks on the Sinatra in Hollywood, produced by didier Deutsch., were all mono, because a search through various vaults and archives turned up NO stereo tracks at all.

 

[GMpasqua]

I had read in (I believe) the "Perfect Vision" video quarterly back in the late 80's early 90s some one was searching somewhere in a Mid America land vault for 4 track masters for "Pal Joey" - Do not know why they thought these might exist

 

[Joe Caps]

As you know, I wrote many articles for the Perfect Vision, and I do not remember that information b eing passedon. At that time, columbia was not looking for anything in their vault, trust me.

 

[John Skoda]

I have the fake stereo Joey album right in front of me -- and NOWHERE does it claim that nay of it is true stereo.

Here's a scan of the track listing from the back cover of my copy, Joe (I added the red highlighting). Catalog number is Capitol DW-912. I'm thinking it's the first 'stereo' issue because it's got a big "NEW Duophonic" sticker pasted on the front.

 

[William Miller]

That LP is not true Stereo. It is "electronic" stereo. That is what "Duophonic" means. That was Capitol's name for fake stereo reprocessing of mono recordings. These type of alterations usually sounded horrible and serious LP collectors avoid these like the plague.

 

[Joe Caps]

Right. Duophonic was Capitols fake stereo. Horrid.
The lp was released in 1957, before stereo records. its hardly likely Capitol would go back to columbia Pictures a year latere and ask for true stereo tracks for a film, that was not particularly a hit.
However, they certainly went back to various studiss to get stereo tracks for Oklahoma, Carousel, and King and I.

 

[Matt Hough]

But wasn't Bells Are Ringing the first cast album released in both mono and stereo formats? It came out in late 1956.

 

[John Skoda]

The Columbia Bells are Ringing cast album was recorded stereo, but it was only later that the stereo LP was released. It odd to think of now, but it was a while before Columbia Records started releasing mono and stereo versions of LPs on the same day. The cast album of Bernstein's Candide was recorded in the same month as Bells, but the stereo LP didn't come out until 1963!
Bottom line, I don't think there are stereo Pal Joey tracks anywhere either. Was just showing an odd notation on the LP release. Listening to the record, the 'stereo' tracks sound similar to the duophonic ones. There might be some very narrow stereo going on in places, but it's not immediately noticeable.