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VistaVision--film by film chat and vote (1 Viewer)

benbess

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Um... North by Northwest?
The Searchers?
The Geisha Boy?

I'll leave it to you to decide whether they need remastering or not.

Thanks. Forgot about those even though I own them. I think NNW and The Searchers look very good. The skin tones on the Searchers doesn't seem quite right to me, but I don't want to start an argument about that one.

Haven't seen The Geisha Boy. How does that one look? And is it funny?
 

Kyrsten Brad

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SOme of us know thus stuff without resorting to Google: My Friend Irma.

I can tell you the first Martin and Lewis picture I saw at the theater: Scared Stiff, and it scared me stiff. I was like 4.
Give the man a cigar, preferably Cuban.

The funny thing about My Friend Irma (1949) is that it was supposed to highlight blonde bombshell Marie Wilson but instead Lewis and Martin pretty much stole the show.

Also this film (and My Friend Irma Goes West) was a offshoot of the successful classic radio series of the same name.

The DVD release seems quite decent but sure wish for a nice Blu.
 
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Dr Griffin

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Finally, what VistaVision titles would you most like to see on blu-ray in high quality and restored transfers?

Um ... Just in time for 07/04 ... Williamsburg—The Story of a Patriot as restored by RAH :)
https://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/Summer04/patriot.cfm

You hear bits and pieces of these intensive projects talked about on the forum, but this article gave me a huge appreciation of the depth of the work (and digital capacity!) required to save a large format film. It's easy to sit at your computer and complain about why a large format film is not available for you to watch on Blu-ray, and why don't they restore it(?) etc. If you want a humbling perspective of all that, read it.
 

OliverK

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You hear bits and pieces of these intensive projects talked about on the forum, but this article gave me a huge appreciation of the depth of the work (and digital capacity!) required to save a large format film. It's easy to sit at your computer and complain about why a large format film is not available for you to watch on Blu-ray, and why don't they restore it(?) etc. If you want a humbling perspective of all that, read it.

I have heard a number regarding how much Universal spent on Spartacus and let's just say that everybody who expects an effort like this for anything but the absolute crown jewel of the studio in question is in for a rude awakening. This kind of effort can only ever be made for very very few special movies. The others will have to do with much less or may be lucky not to need as much attention or find a sponsor that pays for most or all of the work.
 

benbess

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Reviving this thread from the dead, if that's ok, because we've had a few more releases of VistaVision titles in the last few months.

What are your top 4 favorite films that are on blu-ray that were filmed in VistaVision? This takes into account both the quality of the movie itself, as well as the quality of the restoration and transfer. Here are mine:
1. North by Northwest
2. The Ten Commandments
3. White Christmas
4. One-Eyed Jacks

What are your top 4 VistaVision films where you feel they botched the transfer. In other words, remaster these classic VistaVision films, for gosh sakes:
1. The Man Who Knew Too Much
2. War and Peace
3. The Searchers
4. Funny Face

Finally, what are your top 4 films made in VistaVision that have not yet been on blu-ray that you would like to buy a blu-ray of? Here are mine:
1. The Court Jester
2. The Tin Star
3. St. Louis Blues
4. Lucy Gallant
 
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skylark68

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I can only really reply to your first top four as it's been awhile since I looked at what vista vision films are out there. The one I was waiting on for so long finally came out, so:

1. Strategic Air Command
2. Vertigo
3. White Christmas
4. The Ten Commandments
5. The Jayhawkers (honorable mention)

I would like to see Houseboat released.
 

GlennF

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To me, WHITE CHRISTMAS is the winner. Some of it is just startlingly sharp, with beautiful colour. Maybe it is just all those years of my youth when it played on television at Christmas and that was what I had to compare it with and the DVD was not great.

To me the biggest botch job is WAR AND PEACE. No matter how I play around with the controls (colour, contrast, resolution, etc.) it still looks worse than most blu-rays from regular sources.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS almost looks TOO good as now you can see every matte painting, optical shot, switch from exterior to interior, much more vividly than you ever did before and I have seen it in a movie theatre a couple of times.
 

OliverK

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Reviving this thread from the dead, if that's ok, because we've had a few more releases of VistaVision titles in the last few months.

What are your top 4 favorite films that are on blu-ray that were filmed in VistaVision? This takes into account both the quality of the movie itself, as well as the quality of the restoration and transfer. Here are mine:
1. North by Northwest
2. The Ten Commandments
3. White Christmas
4. One-Eyed Jacks

What are your top 4 VistaVision films where you feel they botched the transfer. In other words, remaster these classic VistaVision films, for gosh sakes:
1. The Man Who Knew Too Much
2. War and Peace
3. The Searchers
4. Funny Face

Finally, what are your top 4 films made in VistaVision that have not yet been on blu-ray that you would like to buy a blu-ray of? Here are mine:
1. The Court Jester
2. The Tin Star
3. St. Louis Blues
4. Lucy Gallant


OK, I'll play:

I like these a lot:
1. Vertigo
2. To Catch a Thief
3. The Ten Commandments
4. White Christmas

I also like North By Northwest of course and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and a few others but I haven't seen them all so I cannot put some others up there.


very very bad:
1. Funny Face
2. War and Peace

Others have issues, like The Searchers or The Jayhawkers or The Man Who Knew Too much but they are not as devoid of detail and/or oldish looking as these too.


The last one is difficult, but I'll try, in no particular order:

The Rainmaker
The Tin Star
Last Train from Gun Hill
Houseboat


I would also like to alert members to the fact that Sophia Loren must probably be Mrs. 8 perf as with a rough count I saw no less than 6 VistaVision, 1 Technirama and 2 Super Technirama 70 movies in her filmography which has got to be a record for a lead actress!
 

Matt Hough

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Definitely the ones I want not yet released:

The Desperate Hours
The Leather Saint
Li'l Abner
The Court Jester

The ones I think look best thus far:

The Ten Commandments
North by Northwest
White Christmas
To Catch a Thief
 

OliverK

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Was it considered a big issue back then among moviegoers that VistaVision musicals did not have stereophonic sound?
I cannot imagine that Perspecta sound was of much help with musicals.
 

john a hunter

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Was it considered a big issue back then among moviegoers that VistaVision musicals did not have stereophonic sound?
I cannot imagine that Perspecta sound was of much help with musicals.
To be frank, I can't see Perspecta as much help to anything compared to "the wonder of 4 track magnetic stereophonic sound",
We should remember that the first time most people heard hi fi sound let alone stereo was in a theatre showing a CinemaScope film.
Records were still 78's with microgrove lp's just coming out and stereo lps still on the horizon. Radio was mono AM.
A stereo track was a big advantage in the widescreen wars.
VV never reached its full potential until Technirama which could unlock its picture quality and add a full stereo track.
 

cinemiracle

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The trouble with Vista-Vision was that it was seen in very few countries. I know it was seen in parts of the USA and in London. I am not sure where else it was seen.
 

cinemiracle

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