The Amazing Mr. X (aka The Spiritualist) (1948) - October 5th, 2021

[MifuneFan]

The Film Detective will be releasing a special edition of The Amazing Mr. X (aka The Spiritualist) (1948) on October 5th!

From out of the surf it came...a familiar voice...a voice that belonged to the afterlife!

An atmospheric masterpiece, The Amazing Mr. X stars Turhan Bey as Alexis, a mystery man who claims to communicate with spirits. Appearing on the beach one night, Alexis easily charms a depressed widow and her sister (Lynn Bari and Cathy O'Donnell). The sly Alexis makes a living by separating gullible people from their money, but before this tale is over he will learn that the living are far more dangerous than the dead. Thanks to exceptional cinematography by John Alton, director Bernard Vorhaus delivers a film that oozes weird passion and sinister suspense. This is a movie that breathes right on your neck!

SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Commentary by Professor and Film Scholar, Jason A. Ney
• Full Color Booklet with essay, "The Amazing Mr. Bey," by Don Stradley
• An original Ballyhoo Motion Picture Production

Source

[WaverBoy]

I was just thinking yesterday that I needed to find a good DVD of this, and lo and behold, it’s hitting Blu! Crazy!

[silverlakephil]

Great news! I watched this on YouTube and thought it had great cinematography from John Alton. I hope Film Detective had access to the best film elements.

[Gunsnroses092789]

Originally Posted by silverlakephil

Great news! I watched this on YouTube and thought it had great cinematography from John Alton. I hope Film Detective had access to the best film elements.

I believe they have a deal with Wade Williams who owns the best elements to a lot of public domain titles.

[lemonski]

Originally Posted by Gunsnroses092789

I believe they have a deal with Wade Williams who owns the best elements to a lot of public domain titles.

I thought Sony owned the best elements for this and were the source of their MOD DVD release under “The Spiritualist” title. Hopefully Wade Williams has something as good or better.

Day one for me, I love The Amazing Mr. X.

[Gunsnroses092789]

Originally Posted by lemonski

I thought Sony owned the best elements for this and were the source of their MOD DVD release under “The Spiritualist” title. Hopefully Wade Williams has something as good or better.

Day one for me, I love The Amazing Mr. X.

Perhaps. I'm not really sure. I just know that Williams has a lot of the best elements for PD titles, and apparently has been difficult to strike a deal with. Looks like he has a good working relationship with The Film Detective, and hopefully we'll get a lot of long-neglected PD titles on nice Blu-ray editions.

[dnn1314]

WOW, this is a day one purchase for me also, love this movie. I did finaly buy the MOD dvd a few years ago. Had to make my own cover thou...lol...will this be pressed Blu Ray? I hope so. Never bought from a Film Detective release before. What are all your thoughts on them? Love to know anything about them...regardless...its a buy!!!

[Jobla]

It will almost certainly be a pressed Blu-ray. Film Detective has upped their game of late.

EEGAH, HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN, and GIANT FROM THE UNKNOWN were all pressed Blu-rays. I expect the same for FLIGHT TO MARS, FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER, and THE AMAZING MR. X.

[evilive]

I've own this flick on one of those 50 horror movie packs from Mill Creek for close to ten years and I just finally got around to watching it last night. I've been missing out the whole time!

This upcoming BD should look delicious.

[thisis2]

..any opinions here about the trailer picture quality supplied by Film Detective and what to expect from the final product..?

[latehong]

Originally Posted by thisis2

..any opinions here about the trailer picture quality supplied by Film Detective and what to expect from the final product..?

I guess general characteristics will be about the same, but better-encoded and more organic looking than the YouTube video, of course. See the label's latest release, A Life at Stake.



Site review

youtu.be/AzByKgR_Y2s

[thisis2]

..site review is out for The amazing mr x ...reviewer gave the video 3 stars...does anyone think it at least looks better than the 2011 DVD edition when it was issued as The Spiritualist...?..

[filmlover22]

they are still using MPEG-2 encoding? Yikes!

[Gunsnroses092789]

This release is a huge mess!

I do applaud TFD's restoration efforts. The picture is pretty darn clean, the grain hasn't been scrubbed, and it just looks like a lot of work was put in.

However, the MPEG-2 encode causes lots of problems. Grain gets smeary and poorly resolved, and the contrast leaves a lot to be desired. It's pretty grey looking; I'm not sure if this was a product of the lousy encode, the restoration, or a weakness in the elements they used. There's really no excuse for an MPEG-2 encode at around 24MBPS. Look at Kino's single-layered releases for similar length B&W 4:3 films; there's no reason that this couldn't have fit on a BD-25 with an MPEG-4 AVC encode at 30+MBPS. Whether it was TFD's choice to make it encoded this way, or the authoring houses' blunders and/or incompetance, TFD should have insisted it be re-done properly. It's their reputation on the line and so far, they're really not doing much well to get themselves a strong following. Their release of Nora Moran looks DNRed and pale, and A Life At Stake is also an underwhelming MPEG-2 encode with mediocre contrast and clumpy grain.

On top of this, there are restoration mistakes. A lot of the shot-reverse-shot close-ups, instead of being a straight cut like other releases, start to dissolve into the following close-up before abruptly cutting. Not sure what's up with this, if they were trying to smooth things out or what, but it looks terrible and is pretty distracting. I just checked a couple online versions and they are hard cuts, not semi-dissolves. It's most notable during the seance scene between Lynn Bari and Cathy O'Donnell.

Also, your menus on this and A Life At Stake are kind of wonky. They seem like slightly smoother DVD menus, not BD menus, in the way they transition from one menu to another.

Come on, TDF, get your act together! It looks like you're putting lots of money and effort into your releases, and it's very much appreciated. Especially since they're films no other label is willing to touch. But please, please, please, use a different authoring house, and check the contrast on the test discs. I want to keep buying your releases, but this current quality level is going to make me second guess pre-ordering them like I have with the last 3 I got.

All in all, to my knowledge, it's the only 1080p master around for this film, and it does look just as good if not better than the next release. I'm not saying it's horrible. It's pretty decent, but with a few minor-to-moderate tweaks, this could've been a real stand-out edition up there with some of the best boutique labels.

[thisis2]

...any opinions about how this compares to the sony dvd..is it still worth the upgrade , also considering that its unlikely to get another HD treatment..

[Gunsnroses092789]

Originally Posted by thisis2

...any opinions about how this compares to the sony dvd..is it still worth the upgrade , also considering that its unlikely to get another HD treatment..

Check the post above yours— they included a link to the DVDBeaver review that has comparisons.

[thisis2]

..it seems reviewers on the amazon.com website have given this blu-ray a 5 star rating in stark contradiction to the reviewer..will have to decide for myself when i receive it..

[Gunsnroses092789]

Originally Posted by thisis2

..it seems reviewers on the amazon.com website have given this blu-ray a 5 star rating in stark contradiction to the reviewer..will have to decide for myself when i receive it..

I just looked up the review. The person seems very enthusiastic and not too picky. Trust me, it's an imperfect release with plenty of flaws/issues. Don't get me wrong, it's not a straight up bad release. It's fine and decent. And like the Amazon reviewer said, the image is pretty much void of specks and scratches. But they also seem to be a someone who seems to be happy with a "clear and clean" picture, not taking into account contrast, noise reduction, compression and other such issues.

For around $15 give or take, it's not a terrible release. Or at least, then you can decide for yourself

It's on Deep Discount for $13.59 with code WALLY: https://www.deepdiscount.com/amazing...t/760137652588

[ClassicCraig]

DVD Beaver says of TFD release, "Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video"

[Gunsnroses092789]

Originally Posted by ClassicCraig

DVD Beaver says of TFD release, "Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video"

It's wrong. Gary Tooze probably just assumes every release going forward were MPEG-4 (like it should be) and puts it there by default.