Hell’s Angels 4K UHD (1930)

[yoloswegmaster420]

Hell's Angels 4K Blu-ray


4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

New 4K digital restoration of the Magnascope road-show version, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
New interview with Robert Legato, the visual-effects supervisor for the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, on the groundbreaking aerial visuals of Hell’s Angels
New interview with critic Farran Smith Nehme about actor Jean Harlow
Outtakes and rushes from the film, with commentary by Harlow biographer David Stenn
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by author and journalist Fred Kaplan

[Darth Marcus]

Wish they had released this alongside a 4K of The Aviator.

[tonylopez]

I'm in LOVE with that cover.

[nicwood]

This will come in a standard case.

[latehong]

If only they could release this with The Aviator (2004)!

The Aviator Clouds in Oakland Clip - YouTube

[GeoffOliver]

About damn time. This never even got a Blu-ray. Wonder what the holdup was. Seems like too important of a film to be ignored.

[Doomhunter]

Awesome news! Not a fan of the cover though, looks like cut and paste floating heads type, but if you took Harlow off the cover it would look cool. Harlow’s role is not as big in this as the two main characters though.

Day one, will be replacing my 2019 blu-ray.

At any rate, what do they mean by “roadshow” version? Restoring the enter / exit music and intermission card?

[koberulz]

Originally Posted by GeoffOliver

This never even got a Blu-ray.

Originally Posted by Doomhunter

will be replacing my 2019 blu-ray.

[dwk]

Originally Posted by koberulz

There was a French Blu-ray in 2019.

[sfmarine]

Hell’s Angels will pair up nicely with this.

[Doomhunter]

Originally Posted by koberulz

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Les-A...lu-ray/256140/

I don’t recall if the French was cropped or opened up as it was 1:37 and the original was 1:2

[sherlockjr]

I wonder if this was at all timed to multiple Jean Harlow films that they're working on for release in the next year or so? The first one, BEAST OF THE CITY comes out at the end of September:



The fact that HELL'S ANGELS is going to the Magnascope roadshow version, with color, etc, would sell me even without Jean Harlow!

[Areyakiddin]

FYI,
This is the oldest all-talkie on the 4K UHD format. Albeit The Younger Generation in the Frank Capra collection is a part-talkie with a few dialogue scenes interspersed into what is otherwise a silent movie.

Also, this is the oldest movie on the format to have any sort of color photography, seven years older than Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

[BluPat]

Excellent announcement! More Jean Harlow! Day 1!

What is the 'magnascope version'? Wasn't this filmed with a 2-strip Technicolor sequence of Jean?

[sherlockjr]

Originally Posted by BluPat

Excellent announcement! More Jean Harlow! Day 1!

What is the 'magnascope version'? Wasn't this filmed with a 2-strip Technicolor sequence of Jean?

Magnascope wasn't a separate film process, but rather using a larger screen, a higher magnification lens, and cropping the film in the projector to show a larger image at certain key/spectacular moments.

This is effectively what was done to achieve non-anamorphic widescreen in the 1950s and thereafter: larger screen, shorter focal length lens, crop the image top and bottom to take the projected image from 1.37:1 to a larger and wider 1.85 (or 1.75 or 1.66).

I'm guessing what Criterion will do is enlarge the image on the screen at certain key moments (aerial dogfights?) and make it 1.66 or whatever seems appropriate. I've seen a re-created Magnascope screening of a nitrate print of PORTRAIT OF JENNIE (1948) where the final 10 minute or so reel of a massive storm was enhanced with tinting, toning, and enlarged in Magnascope style. It definitely had an impact after the preceding 80 minutes of smaller 1.37.

I've never seen Magnascope simulated on disk, though.

The process itself was relatively simple. For select scenes, the projectionist would use a short focal length ‘Magnascope’ lens to substantially enlarge the 1.33:1 image, cropping away some portion along the top and bottom of the frame. The Magnascope image would fill the theater’s proscenium, using an enlarged screen that was about four times bigger than the regular one. (Even in picture palaces that sat thousands, screens were typically no wider than 20 or 22 feet before Magnascope.) Magnascope had no fixed aspect ratio—a theater would have shown the Magnascope scenes as wide as its proscenium would permit, probably somewhere around 1.63:1 to judge by contemporary sketches. While the projector switched to Magnascope, stagehands would slowly open up the screen masking, which gave the illusion of a gradually enlarging image.

Lots of detailed historical and technical details here. (This sort of technical history really interests me!).

https://www.chicagofilmsociety.org/2...02/magnascope/

[MifuneFan]

Two AR's are listed for the film: 1.37:1, 1.54:1

[Doomhunter]

Right now the 4k is listing 1.2:1 on this site’s product page

[sherlockjr]

Originally Posted by Doomhunter

Right now the 4k is listing 1.2:1 on this site’s product page

Where do you see 1.2:1?

When I look at the HELL'S ANGELS page on the Criterion site

https://www.criterion.com/films/28987-hell-s-angels

I see "1.37:1, 1.54:1"

1.2:1 (or more often shown as 1.19:1) is the Fox Movietone ratio. They chopped off the left side of the silent film frame for the optical soundtrack, but they kept the narrower silent film frame lines, thus making the screen image narrower and taller than the silent 1.33:1. It wouldn't be unusual for a 1930 sound film to use the Movietone aspect ratio, but I don't see that on the Criterion page?

In 1932 the Academy codified the Academy Ratio that kept the soundtrack on the left side but also widened the black frame lines, putting the Academy sound film ratio to 1.37:1, back close to the silent 1.33:1. Academy Ratio films are still often referred to as 1.33 among those working in projection booths, film archives, etc. Everyone knows they mean 1.37 for non-widescreen sound films after 1932. But 1.37 were both being used earlier than 1932, depending on the studio and sound systems.

The ratio shown in the short film excerpt on the Criterion site are most definitely not 1.2:1!

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by Doomhunter

Right now the 4k is listing 1.2:1 on this site’s product page

Don’t fully trust this site. Someone when making the page just hit an aspect ratio. It doesn’t mean it’s official. Checking the page for this on the Criterion site is a better idea.

[Doomhunter]

Originally Posted by sherlockjr

Where do you see 1.2:1?

When I look at the HELL'S ANGELS page on the Criterion site

https://www.criterion.com/films/28987-hell-s-angels

I see "1.37:1, 1.54:1"

1.2:1 (or more often shown as 1.19:1) is the Fox Movietone ratio. They chopped off the left side of the silent film frame for the optical soundtrack, but they kept the narrower silent film frame lines, thus making the screen image narrower and taller than the silent 1.33:1. It wouldn't be unusual for a 1930 sound film to use the Movietone aspect ratio, but I don't see that on the Criterion page?

In 1932 the Academy codified the Academy Ratio that kept the soundtrack on the left side but also widened the black frame lines, putting the Academy sound film ratio to 1.37:1, back close to the silent 1.33:1. Academy Ratio films are still often referred to as 1.33 among those working in projection booths, film archives, etc. Everyone knows they mean 1.37 for non-widescreen sound films after 1932. But 1.37 were both being used earlier than 1932, depending on the studio and sound systems.

The ratio shown in the short film excerpt on the Criterion site are most definitely not 1.2:1!

So I am seeing it here, not saying it’s wrong or right, just that someone must have entered it that way for a reason

IMG_2779.jpg