High Society 4K UHD (1956) from Warner Archive

[Areyakiddin]

High Society 4K Blu-ray

COMING TO 4K FROM THE WARNER ARCHIVE COLLECTION ON MAY 27th!
New 4K UHD HDR Dolby Vision Master from 13.5k scans of the Original VistaVision Negative!
HIGH SOCIETY (1956)
4K UHD/Blu-ray Combo
4K Disc-BD 100
Blu-ray Disc-BD 50
HDR Dolby Vision 4K disc
Disc authoring and compression by Fidelity in Motion
NOT RATED
COLOR
Aspect Ratio: 16x9 1.85:1
Audio Specs: New Dolby Atmos soundtrack mixed from original magnetic stereo sources, and Original 1956 Theatrical Mono Optical soundtrack
Subtitles: English SDH
Cast: Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong
Directed by Charles Walters
Special Features: Featurette “Cole Porter in Hollywood: True Love” (HD), 1956 Premiere Newsreel (HD), M-G-M CinemaScope cartoon MILLIONAIRE DROOPY (HD), Audio-only promo spots featuring Bing Crosby with Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra, Original Theatrical Trailers (HD)
Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra romp elegantly through the scenic, moneyed grounds and waters of outwardly elitist Newport, Rhode Island, in this hip, witty musical version of Philip Barry’s The Philadelphia Story. Legendary Louis Armstrong as himself, plays his trumpet and narrates in prose and song the peccadillos of his songwriter friend C.K. Dexter Haven (Crosby), his beautiful perfectionist ex-wife Tracy Samantha Lord (Kelly, in her final film role), and her stuffy fiancée George Kittredge (John Lund). Sinatra and wise-cracking Celeste Holm are a scandal sheet reporter and photographer who arrive to cover the wedding and complicate the tangled romances. Armstrong and his composer buddy conspire musically and by other devious means to stop Tracy’s marriage. Dexter wants her back, but she takes off with the magazine writer – all of which gives everybody wonderful excuses to break into the incomparable songs of Cole Porter. M-G-M pulled out all the stops to make High Society a must-see screen event back in 1956, even arranging to license Paramount’s magnificent widescreen process VistaVision, to ensure the film would be something special. Now meticulously restored and remastered from its original VistaVision negative, and accompanied by a thrilling new Dolby Atmos remixed soundtrack (as well as the film’s original theatrical mono optical soundtrack), this long-awaited release is sure to be most welcomed by fans of this box-office smash.

[Brian81]

What is the benefit of 13.5K scans? I thought people said there wasn't much point in scanning beyond 8K? Are we going to have a 12K streaming format at some point?

[Darth Marcus]

Interesting choice for Warner Archive's second UHD. Figured they'd go for Ben-Hur or Gone with the Wind. Never seen this, but I'm sure the disc will be lovely!

[drush9999]

Finally it never got a BD, so this is great news

[bondfooll]

Well, did you evah?

[MifuneFan]

Amazing news. I would not have put High Society (1956) getting a Dolby Atmos track on my Bingo list ..Also great to see confirmation of it being encoded by Fidelity, just like The Searchers. I guess we can expect that for all of their 4K releases then

[dukiejosh54]

Great news! I'm guessing the fact that it was filmed in VistaVision is a big reason it has been chosen for a 4K release.

[The Mad Kiwi]

FREAKING FINALLY! This is the Warner title I've wanted most on Blu-ray for a good long while now, and I was hoping that they'd skip the BD stage at this point and go straight to UHD. I'm thrilled that's what ended up happening! The current HD master honestly looks very good apart from the opening scene, so this thing should absolutely sparkle in 4K.

[lilboyblu]

Remember reading that available elements weren't in great shape, so ecstatic to see that it's getting a new scan.
Will purchase on principle.

[Matt89]

Omg yes.

[sherlockjr]

Originally Posted by Brian81

What is the benefit of 13.5K scans? I thought people said there wasn't much point in scanning beyond 8K? Are we going to have a 12K streaming format at some point?

HIGH SOCIETY was shot in VistaVision, which is a 35mm horizontal 8 perf format. Normal vertical 35mm is only 4 perf so digital scanners are designed for standard 35mm 4 perf imaging. To capture a a full VistaVision frame they need to do two halves of each frame and knit them together, most likely on a 6.5K scanner.

This is what they did with the VistaVision images for THE SEARCHERS for example.

There's not much point in scanning above 6 or 8K for a standard 35mm frame. But a much larger wide format film like VistaVision, 65/70mm, iMAX, etc needs a much higher resolution scan to capture the much larger, higher resolution image on the film.

[sherlockjr]

I can brag that I guessed correctly on HIGH SOCIETY for the next WAC 4K release: We were told it was likely to be a film with a large format negative that had a very old BD release or hadn't been released on BD at all.

That would be a harder guess for Paramount--they did most of the VistaVision films since they invented the format. . 70mm was a little more spread among the different studios for 50-60s roadshow productions.

[ilenewoodsfan99]

Great news! Been meaning to finally see this again! Now I'll have a good excuse!

[Maggot]

Yes! Day one. Amazing news for sure. Thanks WB!

[JudgeJuryExecutioner]

13.5K Scans? Wow.

Warner has quite the Archive/Collection, so them releasing movies on the 4K format under this Warner Archive Collection banner is exciting.

[Flapperdame16]

Yes. Please. Thank you.

[stvn1974]

Grace Kelly in 4K.

[PowellPressburger]

If you want more background on 13.5 K scans a recent Episode of The Extras podcast they go into the restoration of The Searchers and break it all down.

[Areyakiddin]

Originally Posted by Darth Marcus

Interesting choice for Warner Archive's second UHD. Figured they'd go for Ben-Hur or Gone with the Wind. Never seen this, but I'm sure the disc will be lovely!

Ben-Hur is almost certainly coming from mainline WHE by next Easter if not sooner. The new restoration is already done.

[Maggot]

Like "The Searchers 4K", this looks to be another knock out of the park for WB. I can't even begin to imagine how good this will look. Drooling though with anticipation none-the-less.