Rita Hayworth - Ultimate Collection from Mill Creek - 11/17/2020 (1 Viewer)

[Music lover10]

Now that I have an All Region blu ray player (modified my Oppo), been investigating slightly obscure (to me) labels. Kind of difficult to parse which different restorations are superior without definite guidance. Any thoughts on Indicator/Powerhouse "The Big Heat' over Twilight Time? 'The Chase' seemed to be available in several different versions and it was difficult to figure which was the one to get.

 

[Rob W]

There is no doubt an improved Cover Girl has been made available from Sony. It's currently available to purchase on iTunes, and if you click the trailer link on the iTunes page you get a two minute clip from the feature rather than a beat-up trailer to preview. It's a big improvement over the Twilight Time master.

 

[marcco00]

my go-to site is dvd beaver.com---- they do side by side comparisons of a particular title, like for

example when you look up dietrich's 'the devil is a woman' both the criterion and indicator review

& screen shots come up on the same page. a real good resource. scoll down & click on reviews to

find your titles

 

[AnthonyClarke]

DVDBeaver has its critics, especially over accuracy of its screenshots and some critical omissions, but it's a great instant reference for differences between different transfers etc. The site has done a really good job for years now.

 

[Music lover10]

Thanks for making me aware of the site.

 

[David Weicker]

The Eureka!/Masters of Cinema version of Cover Girl is light years better than the Twilight Time version. It's a dual disc release, and
I can confirm that the DVD is region 2 NTSC, and the Blu Ray is region B. I just re-tested it to be sure - the Blu Ray will not play when my player is set to region A.

Yet another reason to go all-region.

The DVD is Region 2 NTSC? Don’t you mean PAL?

 

[Music lover10]

Any thoughts on Indicator/Powerhouse 'The Big Heat" compared to Twilight Time?

 

[roxy1927]

So how does one company release a bluray that is so poor compared to another's? It's really terrible. You think that the elements haven't survived and then somebody puts out a version that is far superior. I have seen prints of films that just in terms of images were clear 5 out of 5s like Singin in the Rain, Swing Time and the Selznick Tom Sawyer. Then their releases get clearly less than that on bluray. Have the prints I've seen in the intervening decades been lost forever or is it simply people aren't bothering to search them out?

 

[Rob W]

So how does one company release a bluray that is so poor compared to another's? It's really terrible. You think that the elements haven't survived and then somebody puts out a version that is far superior. I have seen prints of films that just in terms of images were clear 5 out of 5s like Singin in the Rain, Swing Time and the Selznick Tom Sawyer. Then their releases get clearly less than that on bluray. Have the prints I've seen in the intervening decades been lost forever or is it simply people aren't bothering to search them out?

Twilight Time's release was back in 2012 - an eternity in the home video business. Obviously Sony has found better materials to work with since then, along with constantly improving digital technology that allows things to be done that were impossible a decade ago.

The important thing is that studios are constantly upgrading many of their classics, rather than creating a master and saying "That's good enough".

 

[roxy1927]

My concern is that of the 3 films I mentioned I already know that there are far better materials out there. Both Swing Time and Tom Sawyer are relatively recent releases so it will be a while before we see updates. These are titles that are not hard to find or to do research on. I'm afraid there are people doing this work who don't know any better. As I said the only possible explanation is that the people doing the work simply have not done their homework or the prints I saw are somehow lost. The 100th anniversary of Technicolor festival at the MOMA was a disaster. I have never seen a worse collection of prints in my life. I'm not sure if the curator had no idea what they were doing (I was told by an usher a number of people were complaining) or that its purpose was to show how Technicolor prints degrade over time. A huge disappointment.

 

[Harold Chasen]

The DVD is Region 2 NTSC? Don’t you mean PAL?

No - NTSC. That's why I was so specific - I know most people would assume PAL. But the run time is the same for the DVD and the Blu Ray. This means no PAL speed-up - particularly nice for music (I am somewhat aware of PAL speed up with dialogue, but more aware of it with music).

Eureka also did dual discs, with an NTSC region 2 DVD and a region B Blu Ray, for other movies. Two that I own are Paper Moon and Pickup On South Street.

 

[BobO'Link]

I absolutely love her films - this is a must buy for my collection! And it has a quite reasonable $45.99 MSRP.

And the price dropped today to $24.99! Even better!

 

[Mark-P]

Just got my set. I’ve sampled all the movies and they look great! The 4 Technicolor titles look pretty darn good to my eyes. I didn’t see any alignment errors just skipping through the chapters. Only caveats: Sadie Thompson is of course 2D, and Pal Joey doesn’t have the 5.1 soundtrack (or mono for that matter) that Twilight Time had, just a 2.0 stereo mixdown.

 

[AlanP]

 

[Robert Harris]

My concern is that of the 3 films I mentioned I already know that there are far better materials out there. Both Swing Time and Tom Sawyer are relatively recent releases so it will be a while before we see updates. These are titles that are not hard to find or to do research on. I'm afraid there are people doing this work who don't know any better. As I said the only possible explanation is that the people doing the work simply have not done their homework or the prints I saw are somehow lost. The 100th anniversary of Technicolor festival at the MOMA was a disaster. I have never seen a worse collection of prints in my life. I'm not sure if the curator had no idea what they were doing (I was told by an usher a number of people were complaining) or that its purpose was to show how Technicolor prints degrade over time. A huge disappointment.

Tech prints do not degrade over time. They simply wear out via use, misuse and physical damage.

 

[roxy1927]

Tech prints do not degrade over time. They simply wear out via use, misuse and physical damage.

I thought it was age that causes colors to fade and bleed. The colors in Snow White looked muddy. It was announced the print was from the 50s. And yes prints were dirty and scratched as well.

 

[Paul Penna]

I spot-checked each film and noted only one minor boo-boo. Starting at around 41:00 the subtitles in You'll Never Get Rich get out of sync, coming in about three seconds late, enough that they frequently show dialog that different characters are speaking. Didn't notice it in quick samples of the rest of the films.

 

[Robin9]

I spot-checked each film and noted only one minor boo-boo. Starting at around 41:00 the subtitles in You'll Never Get Rich get out of sync, coming in about three seconds late, enough that they frequently show dialog that different characters are speaking. Didn't notice it in quick samples of the rest of the films.

If I get time tonight, I'll check if Twilight Time's disc has the same problem.

 

[marcco00]

regarding the color films in this set-

to my eye, Down to Earth and They Came to Cordura are the same masters they used

on the dvds. they are slightly faded and there's dirt on the prints.

Tonight and Every Night, The Loves of Carmen, Salome, Fire Down Below, and Pal Joey

are brilliant transfers with the images clean as a whistle and really, really glowing

vibrant colors! Sony i will buy any Hayworth title, keep them coming!

i'm sooooo pleased that Sony is doing such good work with their catalog titles and i'm

confident they will get to DTE and TCTC eventually!

i will look into those new Kim Novak releases after the holidays my plate is quite full

with this and the upcoming WB releases!

 

[Robin9]

regarding the color films in this set-

to my eye, Down to Earth and They Came to Cordura are the same masters they used

on the dvds. they are slightly faded and there's dirt on the prints.

Tonight and Every Night, The Loves of Carmen, Salome, Fire Down Below, and Pal Joey

are brilliant transfers with the images clean as a whistle and really, really glowing

vibrant colors! Sony i will buy any Hayworth title, keep them coming!

i'm sooooo pleased that Sony is doing such good work with their catalog titles and i'm

confident they will get to DTE and TCTC eventually!

i will look into those new Kim Novak releases after the holidays my plate is quite full

with this and the upcoming WB releases!

I've only just placed my order so my set hasn't arrived yet but I'll be interested to see if the Pal Joey transfer is the same as the one Twilight Time used.