3D The Mad Magician (1954) - Hoping for a 3-D Blu-Ray release. (1 Viewer)

[revgen]

I saw the 3-D version of French Line 3 years ago at the 3-D Film Expo, and it's definitely worthy of a 3-D Blu-Ray release. Better elements do exist.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Far from it. The left/right 35mm materials survive. You were seeing a very old transfer.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Just to put you guys out of your misery - yes, TT has licensed the 3D Blu-ray rights for the title, and Mill Creek are to be thanked for allowing the deal.

That's amazing! I saw the movie projected once via dual strip 35mm and I've been dying to see it again in 3D ever since. I'll happily preorder this the moment it's made available.

 

[Interdimensional]

Wow, what a terrific week for vintage 3-D!

 

[Interdimensional]

That's with Warner Bros.

Don't hold your breath.

TT should license the classic Columbia Raoul Walsh 3-D western GUN FURY. They have a restored master.

Fantastic, another possibility. I wasn't aware of that one.

Do you know if Sony have an ongoing commitment to digitising and restoring their classic 3-D titles, or were these completed a few years back when Sony were more actively promoting 3-D technology?

I'd be very interested in seeing The Stranger Wore a Gun, and I know they also have the William Castle 3-D titles.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Sony did alignment work and created new digital masters on less than half of their nine Golden Age features. When we asked about the remaining titles, they said "We've done the important ones."

They have left/right preservation elements on the rest but whether they will ever be combined to a digital 3-D master is unknown.

 

[LikeASir]

Just to put you guys out of your misery

only death can put us out of misery

 

[RolandL]

IMDB has it wrong on the release date. They have it in May but I'm seeing newspaper ads from the second week in April.

 

[RolandL]

TCM showed a 2D print of The French Line a few weeks ago, and it looked atrocious: blurry, terrible color, awful sound. I don't know if that's the best available material on the movie, but if it is, it's a long, LONG way from ever getting a commercial release.

Yes I saw that also. My old field-sequential 3D VHS tape looks better.

 

[JoeDoakes]

Just to put you guys out of your misery - yes, TT has licensed the 3D Blu-ray rights for the title, and Mill Creek are to be thanked for allowing the deal.

Great news! (I'll just have to purchase that one early)

 

[Todd J Moore]

Sony did alignment work and created new digital masters on less than half of their nine Golden Age features. When we asked about the remaining titles, they said "We've done the important ones."

They have left/right preservation elements on the rest but whether they will ever be combined to a digital 3-D master is unknown.

It is humorous that MAN IN THE DARK was considered more important than William Castle or Randolph Scott. I suppose because it was first.

There again, it's surprising they blew off THE STRANGER WORE A GUN. Along with GUN FURY and MISS SADIE THOMPSON, it's been one of their most consistent home video releases. In fact, it's had a better home video life than most Golden Age 3D titles with both VHS and DVD releases. Only roughly 20% or so of all Golden Age titles seem to have had both over the decades.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

I agree. The Castle films would do well as would the Randolph Scott.

I felt releasing MAN IN THE DARK before MAD MAGICIAN or SADIE on 3-D Blu-ray was an odd choice as well. It's not exactly putting your best foot forward!

 

[gjn123]

L

 

[RolandL]

So, by the end of this year, we will probably have the following 1950's 3D features and shorts released on Blu-ray in 3D:

Creature from the Black Lagoon
Dial M for Murder
Dragonfly Squardron
Gog
House of Wax
Inferno
It Came From Outer Space
Kiss Me Kate
Mad Magician
Man in the Dark
Miss Sadie Thompson

Shorts:
Around Is Around
Bolex Stereo
Boo Moon
Doom Town
I'll Sell My Shirt
Marciano-Walcott Fight
M.L. Gunzburg Presents Natural Vision Three-Dimension
Motor Rhythm aka New Dimensions
Now Is The Time
O Canada
Space Attack aka The Adventures of Sam Space
Stardust in Your Eyes
Twirligig
Working for Peanuts

 

[GregoryMesh]

If you count international releases, Inferno was released in UK by Panamint Cinema - all region in second pressing.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

There's more on 3-D RARITIES. http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/3-d-rarities

 

[RolandL]

Sorry, I missed some. Should be OK now.

 

[Interdimensional]

Sony did alignment work and created new digital masters on less than half of their nine Golden Age features. When we asked about the remaining titles, they said "We've done the important ones."

They have left/right preservation elements on the rest but whether they will ever be combined to a digital 3-D master is unknown.

Well that's great for starters, but why stop there. Certainly a lot better than Paramount.

Are you aware if Sony have digitised any later 3-D movies like Spacehunter?

 

[Todd J Moore]

So, by the end of this year, we will probably have the following 1950's 3D features and shorts released on Blu-ray in 3D:

Creature from the Black Lagoon
Dial M for Murder
Dragonfly Squardron
Gog
House of Wax
Inferno
It Came From Outer Space
Kiss Me Kate
Mad Magician
Man in the Dark
Miss Sadie Thompson

Shorts:
Around Is Around
Bolex Stereo
Boo Moon
Doom Town
I'll Sell My Shirt
Marciano-Walcott Fight
M.L. Gunzburg Presents Natural Vision Three-Dimension
Motor Rhythm aka New Dimensions
Now Is The Time
O Canada
Space Attack aka The Adventures of Sam Space
Stardust in Your Eyes
Twirligig
Working for Peanuts

Isn't it terrific? And I mean that sincerely. BTW, you forgot Nat King Cole and Russ Morgan's Orchestra, which will be on the It Came From Outer Space disc.

11 Golden Age features! 11 of them! With the promise of more to come! I mean, we know Fox is supposed to be working on Gorilla At Large. And if Bob's talks with Universal were as fruitful as he suggests, I would expect that we may well yet get Revenge of the Creature and/or Taza, Son of Cochise. It also seems someone is working on Money From Home if there's 15 minutes of restored 3-D DCP footage. And let's not blow off the possibility of Twilight Time doing Gun Fury, either. Bob himself has hinted at The Maze and Robot Monster as well. He has also stated that he's working on 8-10 vintage releases himself and, unless he really is going to go into the porn business, they can't all be 70s releases.

Maybe it's just my particular background, but I'm loving all this Golden Age stuff being available. More 50s titles are available to view in 3D now than any other time in the history of 3D TV. Seriously consider that for a moment. Back in the 80s, 3D Video Corporation made maybe half a dozen 50s titles available to view on broadcast TV and a handful more to SelecTV. Universal had the anaglyph tapes of Creature and ICFOS. Rhino eventually gave us Robot Monster and Cat Women of the Moon. All of which looked horrible, except if you were 12. Then they mighta looked cool (they did to me at that age). There's a whole Universe of difference between the 3D Video Corporation version of Inferno and the 3D Blu Ray.

If you were lucky back then, one of the few 16mm anaglyph titles might get shown at a college or a film collector's show. Swank had Creature, Revenge of the Creature, and ICFOS--and I will one day get the catalogs show House of Wax and Dial M again--while Kit Parker had The Maze, The Mad Magician and the two 3 Stooges shorts. If you got really, really lucky, some theater just might show House of Wax or Dial M in single strip polarized format and not screw it up. First time I saw House of Wax in 3D in the movies, I wasn't so lucky. First time I saw Dial M in 3D in the movies, they showed almost half of it in reverse 3D!

Field Sequential came along and looked pretty sweet, but most of what was available for that was mostly porn or homemade documentaries. The only two Golden Age titles to get legit releases were via VHD in Japan and that was House of Wax and Dial M For Murder. Michael Starks put out copies of The French Line, Cat Women of the Moon, and Hannah Lee, all of questionable legality. A few other bootlegs of 50s titles popped up from various dealers, but the largest collection of those--ones in true 3D not that goofy "SuperLiving 3-D" from a certain pirate from Down Under--totaled maybe 14? And some of those you really had to know where to look to get them. None of them legal, of course.

But now? Now we have clean, beautiful, LEGAL copies of a pretty fair number of these things in better 3D than we've ever seen them in. You have any idea just how nice it is to see House of Wax in beautiful color and not in a faded print with Japanese subtitles? Or to watch Gog the way I did two weeks ago? Add to that the fact that I have 3D Blu Rays of movies and shorts I never even thought I'd ever get to see--let alone in 3D. Wow! Just wow!

Would I like to have ALL of the Golden Age titles on 3D Blu Ray? Sure I would. Even the stinkers like Cat Women and The Nebraskan. But I am totally digging what I've gotten so far.

Okay, I'm probably preaching to the choir here but still. It's worth saying. These are wonderful times to be a 3D fan, especially a vintage 3D fan. Thank God for the boutique labels like Kino and Twilight Time for believing in this--especially Kino who right now has more vintage 3D titles available than any other label--but especially Thank God for Bob Furmanek, Jack Theakston, and Greg Kintz. Because of them, we are living in a Golden Age of Golden Age 3D releases.

 

[RolandL]

Those Field Sequential 3D titles that Starks sold were mostly Japanese VHD copied to VHS. I remember paying $90 for a VHS copy of the French Line (not from VHD). I think other titles sold for $50 to $60. So, those of you that think $30 is a lot to pay for a TT 3D Blu-ray, its a bargain.