THE THING (1951) Streaming Tragedy (1 Viewer)

[J. Casey]

Was just watching THE THING (purchased from Amazon in HD. Surprised to find it there in HD and further surprised that they have framed it in 16x9 widescreen! Surely WB knows that it's a academy ratio film!

Hope if it ever makes it to blu-ray, it will be presented at 4x3, the format it was originally seen in. Jeez, this is not rocket science.....1951=no widescreen!!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

It may be possible that your streaming application / box / display device is cropping it to widescreen. That came up in another thread recently, where DaveF was wondering why the original Star Trek series was playing in widescreen when he streamed it. It turned out that it was actually streaming at its proper OAR and that his streaming box was cropping it unbeknownst to him.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

The old Monsters in HD scan was also widescreen.

 

[Tino]

It may be possible that your streaming application / box / display device is cropping it to widescreen. That came up in another thread recently, where DaveF was wondering why the original Star Trek series was playing in widescreen when he streamed it. It turned out that it was actually streaming at its proper OAR and that his streaming box was cropping it unbeknownst to him.

Just checked. It is indeed 16X9 on Amazon Prime video.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Oh well. Thought it was worth throwing out there just in case.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

This great film deserves better. What a shame.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Was just watching THE THING (purchased from Amazon in HD. Surprised to find it there in HD and further surprised that they have framed it in 16x9 widescreen! Surely WB knows that it's a academy ratio film!

Hope if it ever makes it to blu-ray, it will be presented at 4x3, the format it was originally seen in. Jeez, this is not rocket science.....1951=no widescreen!!

If it comes out on Blu-ray, it will be from Warner Archive and it will be in its OAR.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Oh well. Thought it was worth throwing out there just in case.

It does, but the thing that bothers me more than this streaming Amazon Prime snafu is that this film was chopped up for television showings with the missing footage being of less quality than the rest of the film that remained intact. That's the whole issue holding up a Blu-ray release from Warner Archive. I wish they would release it any way with those scenes being below par in comparison with the rest of the film.

 

[Eastmancolor]

WB, who owns the film, on streaming sites will often blow up CinemaScope/Panavision films from 2.35 to 1.78 aspect ratio. Wasn't aware they were now doing the same to 1.37 titles too.

I hope they get around to getting this out on Blu-ray. Good film elements is likely the issue. I worked at the nitrate film vaults of the Library of Congress 30 years ago and at that time only around half of the original negative for THE THING survived. A victim of nitrate decomposition.

 

[Cranston37+]

It plays correctly on iTunes and Vudu, so it looks like just an Amazon problem.

The great thing about MA is that even if you bought it on one service, you can watch it on another if the need arises...

 

[Robert Crawford]

It plays correctly on iTunes and Vudu, so it looks like just an Amazon problem.

The great thing about MA is that even if you bought it on one service, you can watch it on another if the need arises...

Another difference is that iTunes and Vudu have it in SD only while Amazon Prime has it in HD with the wrong OAR.

 

[Todd Mattraw]

"The Thing from Another World" has aired on TCM at 16x9, and if memory serves, I read elsewhere in HTF that it was from a reformatted mid 50's reissue print. Obviously, not what I'd want on a blu-ray, at least not as the main presentation.

 

[RobertR]

Started to watch The Seven Year Itch on KCET in Los Angeles last night. Noticed right away that there was something wrong. They had cropped the 2.55 picture to 1.78. Hate it when that happens. I shut it off.