The Cardinal (1 Viewer)

[Stephen PI]

www.lasersedge.com lists this new release, available 2-25, as mono. I hope this is an error because this is definately a stereo title. It should be 4.0.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Have it in my hand.

It is listed as Dolby Surround Stereo.

May do a review of this. I can't post it
until 2 weeks prior to release date.

 

[Stephen PI]

Thanks Ron. Pity it isn't 4.0, makes a big difference.

 

[Doug Bull]

I read that the Stereo tracks had been thankfully remastered for the DVD and were 2.O.

The Sound quality on the old Image Laserdisc, while Stereo, is very poor. There is hardly any seperation and it sounds awfully muffled.
Let's hope that Warners have managed to clean it up somewhat.

Ron can you tell us if the Overture, Intermission and Exit music are on the DVD?

Jerome Moross ( The Big Country) wrote a truly beautiful score for "The Cardinal" it would have been fabulous to have it isolated on the DVD.

The Movie itself tends to be very slow and is a tad too long.
Tom Tryon in the lead is one of the most wooden actors you are ever likely to see and was a casting mistake of historic proportions.
I'm not convinced that Otto Premlinger was a good choice for Director also. (What would it have been like if somebody with feeling, such as William Wyler or Fred Zinnermann had Directed it)

But the movie does have it's pluses and they include the beautiful and charming Romy Schneider, good acting performances from John Huston, Cecil Kellaway and Burgess Meredith, a really nice feel for the period with some gorgeous Photography, a good insight into the workings of the Catholic Church, a brief song and dance number from Robert Morse( billed Bobby) and of course a most memorable Music Score from Jerome Moross.

I believe that the DVD also includes a marvelous extensive Documentary on the work of Otto Premlinger.

My order is in for it.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Doug,

I am at odds at to whether I should review
The Cardinal or not. Warner Bros. sent
me a large handful of titles over the past two
weeks, and one of them was destined to be
sacrificed due to the fact that I have other
studio titles to review as well.

Actually, it comes down to The Cardinal or
King of Kings. I am leaning towards the
epic story of Jesus Christ.

If I have the time later today I'll open up the
disc and see if the overture music is in there.

 

[Douglas R]

Ron

PLEASE review King of Kings!!

 

[Joe Caps]

websties have been listing King of Kings as MONO - whatw the story here?

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Joe:

Warner's business website lists it as 5.1.

 

[Robert Harris]

King of Kings is a beautiful transfer with audio in 5.1 stereo, replicating the original tracks.

The presentation is inclusive of the original overture, intermission, entr'acte, although I still have a problem with home video placing a title which sits on the screen reading "Overture" or "Entr'acte." One would think that once out of the VHS world that viewers would understand that they don't have a loose cable as the cause of a black image.

The credits list it as being photographed in Technirama 70mm, which is a misnomer. Technirama was an 8 perf horizontal format (basically anamorphic VistaVision), via which prints could either be optically enlarged to 70mm or reduced to a standard Panavision 35mm format.

Regardless, the presentation is well done.

The Cardinal, which was photographed in 35mm Panavision, was one of the first films to be optically enlarged to 70mm for presentation. My immediate reaction is that this title would have had a six track mix to go along with the availability of magnetic area.

It is presented on DVD in 2.0, which leads me to believe that the original tracks may have gone missing; unless the blow-ups were a last minute decision and a mono track was spread. This would seem unlikely, however.

I don't remember this film well enough to recall whether it originally had an overture. Many road show engagements did not. It does however have the Intermission and Entr'acte.

These are both DVDs worth owning.

 

[oscar_merkx]

looks like I might get both then

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

King Of Kings gets my vote for reviewing! I still love that story of the inside trade name gag for the film: I Was A Teenage Jesus!! Many people thought that Jeff Hunter looked very young as Jesus. RAH's views on the disc are reassuring. I think that KOK is one of the great widescreen epics ever made.

I'm looking forward to reviews of The Cardinal too. I have never seen it and may buy if the quality is high. There's a second disc that contains a documentary on Otto Preminger.

Any word on The Fall Of The Roman Empire? Who is the distributor now? Am I tripping when I say that I heard it was Miramax or something?! :b


Gordy

 

[Jeff_HR]

Mr. Epstein if you thought that "Predator 2" was worth a review, then I submit that "The Cardinal" is worthy of your time & a review. Thanks.

 

[Stephen PI]

To Robert Harris, have you checked the supplements on "King of Kings" for any behind the scenes or stills of Jeffrey Hunter off set. I have read in old articles that there was a limit of behind the scenes publicity material of Jeffrey Hunter in his make-up.

The other Samuel Bronston productions, "El Cid", "Fall of the Roman Empire", "Fifty Five Days at Peking" and "Circus World" are in the hands of Miramax. On laserdisc I thought, with the exception of "El Cid", they looked very good. At the time of the laser releases "El Cid" was the only Bronston title handled by Miramax and was not impressed with the picture quality. I am hoping that the other releases don't meet the same fate. Apparently the masters that Image Entertainment used for the Bronston laserdisc releases came from London.

 

[Derek M Germano]

THE CARDINAL is a great flick- once upon a time I had the widescreen Laserdisc.

As for the Bronston's, I love those movies. KING OF KINGS is really a fine movie... Gordy, nice to hear someone other than myself refer to it as I Was A Teenage Jesus. Can't wait for FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE- one of my favorite movies of all time. Hopefully Miramax/Disney does it right and releases the DVD sometime soon.

 

[Doug Bull]

Here in Australia ( in Melbourne at least) "The Cardinal" in it's exclusive City engagement was run minus Overture, but from my fading memory, I'm not too sure if it had any Intermission and Exit music.

The Image Laserdisc does in fact feature an Overture, Intermission fade out, Entr'acte and Exit playout.

I have just this moment had a quick look and listen to the Laserdisc and to my amazement there might be something in what Robert Harris said about a mono track spread.

The added Music segments on the laserdisc are most definitily true widespread Stereo, albeit poor quality, but once the titles and the movie starts, the soundtrack could well be a bass and treble seperated artificial Stereo Mix, as small bells were the only real seperation I detected. The music otherwise seemed to remain very central orientated.

I was always curious, as the Robert Morse musical sequence is Mono on the Laserdisc, but Stereo on all other Audio presentations.

The old 7" reel to reel Stereo tape I have of the Soundtrack still sounds magnificent.
It is in true Hi Fidelity Stereo.

 

[Reed Grele]

My "Cardinal" W/S LD has the overture. If the DVD does not, then someone has dropped tha ball. I was always happy with the stereo sound of the LD.

Strange thing about the LD is the aspect ratio is 2.35 for the titles, then is zoomed in to 1.85 for the rest of the movie.

Reed

 

[Stephen Pickard]

I had a careful listen to all four sides of the laserdisc and I am convinced that the source this came from was a discrete three or four track stereo mix (mixed at Shepperton by Red Law). The 2/0 track was poorly mixed and encoded. Only side two of the disc can you really get any real indication of how the track should sound. On side one there is no separation in the score. When you play the track in Dolby pro-logic muting the center and surround you can really hear the problems, and it does give the illusion of being a mono spread mix. I have no idea if this film had an overture. The track labeled as 'overture' on the laserdisc is actually a track off the CD release of the LP. It looks like this is the track which is on the DVD, because if Warner had the original discrete magnetic mix master I am sure they would have transferred it that way to the DVD.

 

[Doug Bull]

Thanks for that info Stephen, I'm glad you agreed that side 1 of the Laserdisc sounded Mono.

I will now go back and listen to side2.

If no overture existed, then this could explain the wider spread on the disc's overture, as it must have originated from a different source.

I will most eagerly wait and see what Warner's have to offer with the upcoming DVD, it certainly couldn't possibly be any worse than the disappointing Laserdisc.