strange MY FAIR LADY on tcm (1 Viewer)

[Joe Caps]

TCM has been having a month long festival of musicals.
Tonight they ran My Fair Lady but it was not in the original letterbox, but a "family friendly" 1:75 version, - with the sound out of sync for the entire length. (sound was slightly behind the picture.)
why all this was done instead of tCMs normal full letterboxing is beyond me.- Mr. Harris - any word here?

 

[Jo_C]

Yea, I noticed that too. I too was shocked at the 1.77 ratio TCM aired. My observation is that the presentation may have been the fault of King World, the outfit that distributes most of CBS' recent material, that includes the recent restoration of "My Fair Lady". Yea, the MAR (modified aspect ratio) certainly is an insult to the hard work Bob Harris and Jim Katz did to bring the film back to its pristine state.

I can tell you this--without Harris' perserverence, we would certainly not see "Lady" today!!

King World certainly could have gone to the full 2.20:1 digital master stored at Warner Bros. (yes, all Warner owns of "Lady" now is the DVD rights). I guess WB said no, so King World had to improvise with what they had. They also could have, if they wanted to, use a previous CBS/Fox video master for the LaserDisc (pre-restoration), but...judging by the restoration credits at the end...

Oh, well. Can't blame TCM here...but then again, that same network used the VHS MAR-1.77:1 master for "...Mad World" until United Artists provided them with the full 2.55:1 video master (the source of all recent VHS editions).

 

[Jayson Wall]

Hmmm......reels 1 and 2 of "Holiday Inn" were a tad out of sync in the sound department as well on TCM a few nights ago. Strange. Strange.

Jayson Wall

 

[Patrick McCart]

Perhaps that's a downscaled version used for HDTV broadcasts.

TCM has also aired a 1.78:1 version of On the Waterfront, despite it being a 1.33:1 film (and the DVD correctly presents that ratio). I guess being cropped on the sides to 1.78:1 is better than 1.33:1...

Oddly enough, they've switched to the DVD versions of Dr. Strangelove (the upcoming 2-disc SE), Citizen Kane, The Adventures of Robin Hood, the Columbia Harryhousen films, Ben-Hur, The Cameraman (upcoming), Notorious (Criterion), Superman: The Movie (but with the original soundtrack and sans added scenes!), and all the Universal Hitchcock films.