The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles) - Exchange Program in Place!

[Akijama]

To exchange your old Blu-ray Disc for the new version (higher bitrate and lossless audio):

Call the TCM Shop (888) 982-6746. Give them your order number and they will send you a prepaid label to send back the old blu-ray for the new one.

*Our thanks to member buck135 for providing the info listed above.

Available for purchase exclusively (at least for now) at the TCM site : Preorder Link. List price is $29.99 but currently for sale at $24.99.

"In partnership with The Film Foundation, Turner Classic Movies and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment proudly present this DVD/Blu-ray combo pack of The Lady from Shanghai (1947)—the first-ever Blu-ray release of the film, featuring a brand-new 4k digital restoration from the original negative."

Orson Welles (Citizen Kane, 1941) wrote, directed and starred in this treacherous tale of a sailor (Welles) hired to help a beautiful woman (Rita Hayworth) and her disabled lawyer husband (Everett Sloane) sail their private yacht from New York to San Francisco via the Panama Canal. On board, he is bribed to “fake” the murder of the lawyer’s partner (Glenn Anders), only to find himself trapped in a deadly game of cat and mouse. Welles created a scandal, and lots of publicity, by having his wife Hayworth’s trademark red locks cut short and bleached blonde for her role as a femme fatale, but the movie failed to score at the box office upon its release. Over time, critics have lavished praise on Welles’s uncommon vision, which culminates with the most elaborately staged of all film noir finales—the famous shootout in the hall of mirrors. "

Grover Crisp, the executive vice-president of film restoration at Sony, the rerelease is the result of more than two decades of work. The camera negative for The Lady from Shanghai was in such a poor state that it was only thanks to recent developments in digital technology that they could successfully restore it.

"Although we do have the original camera negative for the film, it has just about everything wrong with it," said Crisp. "Doing the work digitally means we have not had to compromise by using the substandard secondary film elements. We will be showing the restoration from a 4K digital cinema package, though we are planning to record out to a new negative for preservation purposes and a few prints. The film will also finally be released on Blu-ray shortly."

Read the whole article here

Awesome news!