Blu-ray Review The Trouble With Angels Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[John Hermes]

I watched it last night. Safe to order for those wondering if it's OAR. It's almost 16:9, not sure of the exact ratio. Had about an inch of black on bottom and top on my 42 inch screen. Good colors. Good cinematography for what was I'm sure a budget film for Columbia. Sound is good.

Sounds like 1.85.

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

I got a message that amazon sent it out today and I should get it by Saturday! Yay!

My latest missive from Amazon stated July 10th delivery date.

Drat Drat And it’s Double Drat. I have to be back at the office July 9th.

 

[Will Krupp]

I got mine from amazon today as scheduled, so they at least have SOME.

 

[JPCinema]

The same transfer is now showing on the Criterion Channel. Looked great...wonderful film.

 

[Michael Duffy]

Agree the video quality is much improved on the DVD. That said, I'm not sure it's the full aspect ratio. Compared to the DVD the top and bottom of the picture is missing.

 

[David Norman]

Agree the video quality is much improved on the DVD. That said, I'm not sure it's the full aspect ratio. Compared to the DVD the top and bottom of the picture is missing.

May not be full exposed film frame, but it's very likely the original intended Aspect ratio.
OAR is usually preferred to just removing the mattes to see more information that was never intended to be projected

 

[LeoA]

I believe I've read that the DVD was open matte, so it makes sense we're losing a little bit here with the widescreen presentation on Blu-Ray.

I can't personally go check since I was under the impression it was pan & scan for many years and avoided buying it. And when I read that it actually was open matte which is much less objectionable to me, it was about six months ago and the DVD was out of print. I remember one copy on Amazon for something crazy like $150 when I went looking around, which no sane person would pay.

Incidentally, it's again available at a reasonable price on DVD on Amazon. I assume it was reprinted in conjunction with the Blu-Ray release and knowing how these companies work, probably is unchanged from the original release despite there being room for improvement.

 

[Michael Duffy]

May not be full exposed film frame, but it's very likely the original intended Aspect ratio.
OAR is usually preferred to just removing the mattes to see more information that was never intended to be projected

Thanks for your reply - that's interesting.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Looking forward to receiving this as I have never seen the film.

Well Ron, what did you think of it? I hope you enjoyed it. I need to watch my copy now.

 

[MarkA]

I'm really enjoying watching the Blu-ray of The Trouble with Angels as I am a huge Hayley Mills fan. Picture is great and I love all of the "Gypsy" references: Rosalind Russell and Gypsy Rose Lee in the cast and Sister Prudence's dog Jocko (Uncle Jocko in Gypsy)! How clever!!
PS: I'm literally in tears again at the end of this movie!!

 

[Harry-N]

I got my Amazon order today but it was defective due to mishandling in delivery. Bludgeoned to death! Menu won't load. Amazon is supposedly replacing it by Saturday.

 

[LeoA]

Mined arrived yesterday from Amazon safe and sound. Watched it tonight and am very pleased. Other than 4 or 5 very brief spots that were a bit grainy looking, the picture was pristine.

Do made on demand Blu-Ray's not usually have a disc identifier? Not sure if that's the right term for what I'm talking about, but other Blu-Ray's have a custom picture pop up on my Playstation 4's dashboard and will show the movie title for the disc that's inserted. This one didn't do all that.

I do wish the isolated soundtrack was included on the disc as an extra, but I only noticed the trailer.

Edit: This is a long shot, but does anyone know where the Santa Fe train depot was/is located that's in the movie? Wish I could get a better look at the lead locomotive at the end (I think it's a General Motors F unit), but the trailing one is a clearly a beautiful Alco PA1 passenger locomotive in Santa Fe's passenger warbonnet paint scheme.

 

[Will Krupp]

Edit: This is a long shot, but does anyone know where the Santa Fe train depot was/is located that's in the movie? Wish I could get a better look at the lead locomotive at the end (I think it's a General Motors F unit), but the trailing one is a clearly a beautiful Alco PA1 passenger locomotive in Santa Fe's passenger warbonnet paint scheme.

Not such a longshot!!

The train depot that was used was the Monrovia Station in Southern California.

General info about the station can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monrovia_station

Here is a picture of unknown vintage . You can see the red VW van parked in almost the same spot in which Mary Wickes parks her yellow bus, the area (toward the left in the picture where the windows jut out) in which Mary lines up the girls when they first get to St. Francisville, ('It's as out as it'll go!") and the entire side of the building, mostly all of which can be seen in detail during the final (graduation day) scene.

Here's a modern picture taken from a different angle. It looks pretty much the same (the depot was built in 1926 and has recently been restored) but it looks like parking is no longer allowed in the same spot!

And one more from the back side. It's unseen in the movie, no doubt to hide the Spanish architecture of the depot which would have been common to see in southern CA but VERY out of place in a Pennsylvania setting.

The opening shot of the bus pulling in to the back of the depot looks to have been an insert that was shot somewhere else (if you look closely, you'll notice that the two locations don't match at all.) I have no idea where it is but, if I had to guess, I would place it with other location work done in southeastern PA while they were shooting exteriors such as Lindenwold Castle (for St. Francis Academy) a few miles outside of Philly.

 

[Rodney]

Great stuff, Will! Thanks for sharing.

I also found this site that discusses the movie and this station, stating that the opening shot was the Merion, Pennsylvania depot: http://www.iamnotastalker.com/2014/10/20/santa-fe-depot-from-the-trouble-with-angels/

Interesting to see the pictures of the Monrovia station from 2014 before restoration.

 

[Will Krupp]

What a great site!! ^^

Thanks for that (and thanks for solving the mystery of the opening shot!!)

 

[Harry-N]

We watched the new Blu-ray today. Picture looked pretty good for a lightweight movie this old. The sound was clear, but the level was a little lower than most Blu-rays on my system. We had to crank it up farther than usual.

Definitely a movie I never thought to see on Blu-ray.

 

[Todd Erwin]

Currently only $6.99 on Vudu, and it's MA-elligible!

Unfortunately, the disc is NOT disc-to-digital elligible.