Mr. Topaze (1961) - October 13, 2020

[MifuneFan]

Peter Sellers' directorial debut, Mr. Topaze (1961) is officially dated for an October 13th Blu-ray release from Film Movement.

SYNOPSIS
Unwilling to sacrifice his principles, Albert Topaze (Peter Sellers), a poor but proud French schoolmaster, loses his job after he refuses to alter the failing grades of one of students. Seizing the opportunity to exploit his well-known honesty, actress Suzy Courtois (Nadia Gray) convinces her lover, the corrupt city council member Castel Benac (Herbert Lom), to hire Topaze as a managing director for one of his shady businesses. But when Topaze learns he is being used, he cunningly turns the tables on Benac and makes off with all the money.

Seller’s first and only credited directorial feature, MR. TOPAZE displays the British comic genius at the peak of his powers alongside his future Pink Panther nemesis Herbert Lom and a stellar supporting cast that includes Nadia Gray, Leo McKern, Billie Whitelaw and Michael Gough. Long considered a “lost” classic, MR. TOPAZE was digitally restored at the request of the British public from the last known surviving 35mm prints held in the BFI National Archive.

I Like Money (Mr. Topaze) (1961) | Trailer | Peter Sellers | Nadia Gray | Herbert Lom - YouTube

[BluBonnet]

Already imported this from the UK a few years ago, perhaps not his best film Fri the 60s but an interesting outing to be sure.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

Already imported this from the UK a few years ago

It only came out in the UK last year

[SpaceBlackKnight]

This was a Fox produced title, released in the US as I Like Money. Fox apparently didn't not renew their copyright on it in the 80s and it ended up in some legal battle for years, until Peter Sellers estate claimed the copyright in recent times.

The OCN is reportedly lost/missing and Fox supposedly had a dupe neg in their archives. But due to Fox's policy of handling transfers of elements within their archives themselves, no one was allowed access or to even commission them do a new scan since Fox doesn't own it anymore.

Apparently, they had to go to the BFI and use their film elements, consisting of a faded 35mm release print with the UK Mr. Topaze title. I suspect Film Movement got this from BFI and Peter Sellers estate.

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

It only came out in the UK last year

2019 seems like an eternity ago.

But I did spend years tracking it down because prior to the blu-ray release, it used to be available via the BFI app or something, that can't be easily accessed by people outside the UK.

[gates70]

Never seen this one.

[All Darc]

Color faddinmg it's not getting the attention it should in film preservation. I know m0oney it's a problem.
Public react about lost films, but they need to be aware of color fadding destroying films photography.

I wonder, or I can even bet, there are video transfers from 34 years ago when the source wasn't faded like that.

Who knows, maybe there are some print, of the few left in existance, that have more surviving color information for the cyen and yellows layers, and the color (saturation and hue) could be overlayed with the restoration, like combining the fine image details of a source with better co9lor information from other.