The Stranger (1946): Feb 15th

[Arkadin]

the seminal Orson Welles film noir classic is getting a blu-ray release, possibly as a public domain title.
The distributor is listed at Arts Alliance of America.
crossing fingers for a decent release of a film much more suited to be released by MGM who has issued the best quality dvd.


The Stranger Blu-ray

The Stranger Blu-ray Review

[adamhopelies]

Wow, this is a surprise. Here's hoping some work goes into it, its a great film that has never really seen a decent release. Fingers crossed!

[Clark Kent]

This company is planning to issue several older movies via the public domain on Blu-ray. I am not sure how good of a print or source they can really acquire for a public domain release.

[Arkadin]

well the public domain blu-ray release of "Night of the Living Dead" looks incredible so it is possible to have a good public domain release on blu-ray.
now these aren't from that company, and they may turn out to be poor, but hopefully if they are going through the effort to put this out on blu-ray maybe they have a very nice print to work from.
guess we'll find out come February.

[Crimson King]

Originally Posted by Clark Kent

This company is planning to issue several older movies via the public domain on Blu-ray. I am not sure how good of a print or source they can really acquire for a public domain release.

at least more public domain classics are maiking to blu. I'm trying to think positive on the transfers. There are actully some good prints of public domain films on DVD, let's hope the trend also happens for blu! Does anybody remeber that hack company called Madacy?

[BluPat]

Madacy....yes.....all of their DVD transfers were crap.

The Stranger......I haven't seen that film before. I love classic movies and film noir as well. I'll be getting this.

[octagon]

I don't know how noir it is but it's definitely a very good movie. It will be interesting to see what kind of work they can do with it.

[BluPat]

I like the cover art. Looks beautiful.

[AaronSCH]

As much as I enjoy this film, I wouldn't buy until a few good reviews surface. The last public domain title I purchased on Blu-ray was Max and Dave Fleischer's "Gullivers Travels." It was an abomination and I swiftly traded it.

[Banned User]

really interested in this title, but having never seen a release from this company I'm hesitant to preorder.

The Press Release says:

Digitally restored in high definition from original 35 mm film assets, The Stranger is presented in full screen with an aspect ratio of 4 x 3 and original sound, as well as a new 5.1 surround sound mix. Enclosed is a collectible postcard reproduction of the original movie poster and special features include Spanish subtitles, before-and-after film restoration demo and trailer.

So it sounds like some work has gone into this release. The amount of titles this company has is staggering. http://www.filmchest.com/

The film is being distributed by Virgil Films.

I'm hoping this title gets some attention and sales so the company will release some more of their titles. I'd love to see a lot of the Hammer films get a Bluray release.

[larry47591]

For 11.99 i think its worth the chance

[bigshot]

I preordered. If it's a bad transfer, I'll make Amazon take it back.

[Banned User]

Originally Posted by bigshot

I preordered. If it's a bad transfer, I'll make Amazon take it back.

I may preorder as well. The price scares me though. Is this like the DVD days when someone makes a horrible transfer hopign to lure a few suckers.

[blufellas]

Ill pick this up for sure.

[jonmayo15]

In addition to this, they are also putting out "Kansas City Confidential" and this release "Carnival Magic". https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Carni...Blu-ray/18800/

The prices are good, I hope the transfers are decent.

[rezpekt]

Originally Posted by Banned User

The Press Release says:

It sounds nice but I won't be pre-ordering any public domain titles until I've seen some reviews and screenshots. Koch said similar thing about "Gulliver's Travels" and we all know how that turned out.

[bboisvert]

Originally Posted by rezpekt

It sounds nice but I won't be pre-ordering any public domain titles until I've seen some reviews and screenshots. Koch said similar thing about "Gulliver's Travels" and we all know how that turned out.

Agreed. Anyone can use the terms "remastered" or "restored" or whatever and put out absolute crap. The words themselves are meaningless.

I got burned on way too many shitty PD releases in the early days of DVD. I'm not doing that again at $12 a pop on BD. I'll survive if I have to wait 7 extra days or so before owning The Stranger. I'm not buying without reviews that provide detailed screenshots or directly compare to the better DVD editions (like MGM's).

[rezpekt]

Originally Posted by Banned User

So it sounds like some work has gone into this release. The amount of titles this company has is staggering. http://www.filmchest.com/

Wow, it looks like even more titles are coming from them.
The Terror
Dementia 13
Poor Pretty Eddie
Carnival Magic

Carnival Magic is released next week and should be an indication of what we can expect from other releases.

[MartinL]

I have MGM DVD releases of both "The Stranger" and "Kansas City Confidential" and I'll hold on to them until at least reviews are completed on their blu ray releases. Has anyone ever heard of Arts Alliance of America?

I hope we have not moved into that phase of blu ray production (as with public domain DVDs) where some studios will dredge up anything and pass it off to an unsuspecting public.

Lets face it---some flim noir or "B" pictures will never (or can't, because of missing source elements) see a real restoration. So without a restoration--why dump a DVD version that's just as good.

Some of us (me included) have been jumping on blu ray releases of older films asuming that the blu ray would always be an improvement. Ain't necessarily so!

[Arkadin]

well out of 100's of classic films that have been released on bd so far one could count on one hand the number of releases that have been actually worse than the dvd release.
I personally can't think of more than about 3 if that.
the "Gulliver's Travels" debacle is the main one that comes to mind.
some people would certainly argue that "Spartacus" is another.
care to tell us what the others are?