The Official Odeon Entertainment Thread

[oddbox83]

I simply don't buy it. Lee's scream at the end of his segment is a very important part of the conclusion to it and has been there on other versions. It's not totally missing, it's just so muffled it might as well be. The US disc uses the raw, uncut 4k scan with unique grading choices. The UK and German disc is restored by Pinewood and both have the aforementioned missing. This is suggestive of mistakes introduced during restoration.

There are 3 identified issues. The scream, a music cue and missing footage at the end which IIRC was why there was an initial suggestion it might have just been a different cut.

[drterror666]

Originally Posted by OgamiittoMcJ

see above link

Oh, I should have tried that first. Whoops!

[BiffTannen50]

Not to familiar with the UK companies but Is Odeon releasing films under another label Screenbound I've noticed a few titles from the company I've never heard of before that seem pretty interesting:
1) Doomwatch
2) Black Orpheus

[Pizzamorg]

Doomwatch sounds awesome!

[Ste7en]

Originally Posted by BiffTannen50

Not to familiar with the UK companies but Is Odeon releasing films under another label Screenbound I've noticed a few titles from the company I've never heard of before that seem pretty interesting:
1) Doomwatch
2) Black Orpheus

They changed their name from Odeon to Screenbound Pictures on Facebook a while ago.

[ste71]

Is Doomwatch the one

[Show spoiler]with barrels of toxic stuff being dumped in the sea?

[oddbox83]

Originally Posted by ste71

Is Doomwatch the one

[Show spoiler]with barrels of toxic stuff being dumped in the sea?

They were already dumped there some time before the events of the film in the plot, but yes.

[OgamiittoMcJ]

Happy to say that we are just arranging to ship in the original neg of Norman Warren's Bloody New Year (1987) into Deluxe for an HD restoration.
Norman will no doubt be helping us with some extras

[Show spoiler]

[oddbox83]

Deluxe, not Pinewood?

[OgamiittoMcJ]

Not posted for a while but this film is going in for a HD restoration next week for a November Blu-ray release. Long live the 1980s!

[Wireduck1]

Lovely. Love more Jim Wynorski on Blu.

[rapta]

Just saw some clips of the upcoming Black Orpheus on the Screenbound YouTube channel, and wondered 2 things:

a) Does anyone have the Criterion disc to compare this to? Are they the same transfer?
b) Is the original Portuguese audio track available? The English dub is terrible...

I'd also be interested to know where the upcoming Wise Blood and La Ronde transfers came from, and again whether Repulsion will be the same transfer as Criterion?

[oddbox83]

Doomwatch is a good transfer of a slightly rougher print, very grainy but generally pleasing. The problem is, there's a bit of film damage at 48:06 that looks to have been fixed whenever it happened by splicing which causes a jump cut in both audio and video. It wipes out Jean Trend's line there. She starts and finishes talking but you've no idea what she just said.

I'm really disappointed. Why not use the DVD source for repair? A few frames of SD would be preferable. It'd still be noticeable but no frames would be missing.

[Indiana Jonezzz...]

I'm kinda tempted to order Paper Tiger after recently hearing about it but I've been trying to find out if it's in the correct aspect ratio of 2.35:1 (according IMDB) or not. The Odeon release of Shout at the Devil was cropped from 2.35:1 to 16:9, but I can't find any info about Paper Tiger or even a picture of the back cover to confirm. Any info on this Blu would be great, thanks .

[ParisTexan]

I just got done watching Black Orpheus. I loved the film, and it does have the original Portugese track. The transfer looks good to me, though not sure how it compares to any other versions. My only major gripe with the disc is the subtitling. I noticed a lot of grammatical mistakes (so many sentences start with lower case letters, not capitals), spelling mistakes, and the font isn't very big. Also, if two characters are talking on screen in conversation, it doesn't indicate or break the subtitles between the two.

That might be enough to put some people off which is fair, but I liked it overall.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by Indiana Jonezzz...

I'm kinda tempted to order Paper Tiger after recently hearing about it but I've been trying to find out if it's in the correct aspect ratio of 2.35:1 (according IMDB) or not. The Odeon release of Shout at the Devil was cropped from 2.35:1 to 16:9, but I can't find any info about Paper Tiger or even a picture of the back cover to confirm. Any info on this Blu would be great, thanks .

I'm pretty certain the IMDB is wrong and the film was never 2.35:1. Shalako is the only independent production Euan Llloyd made in Scope and all his other big pictures from the same era (Catlow, The Wild Geese, The Sea Wolves, Who Dares Wins, etc) were shot open matte and shown 1.85:1 with eventual TV screenings in mind, and there are absolutely none of the telltale signs of cropping on Odeon's disc (no Panavision logo on the poster either).

As for the disc itself:



Every now and then a perfectly inoffensive film gets such a kicking from the critics you can’t help wondering if they were all bitten by the producer as children. 1975’s Paper Tiger was such a film, widely reviled by the British critics when it first came out with such an excess of venom that even the misfortune of a royal premiere (traditionally the sign of a stinker for decades) couldn’t explain. It’s the kind of perfectly decent film that the Rank Organisation used to churn out in the 50s and 60s boasting a big local star (in this case David Niven in his last leading role) and a couple of international ones to boost the film’s overseas chances (Toshiro Mifune, dubbed by David De Keyser when speaking English, and Hardy Kruger) and shot on a colourful but affordable location (Malaysia, rather convincingly doubling as a corrupt former British colony) and which probably looked a bit old hat in the mid-70s but now serves as perfectly acceptable Sunday afternoon fare. Niven is basically reprising his Separate Tables character and doing a particularly good job of it as the former war-hero-cum-fraud hired as tutor for Japanese ambassador Mifune’s son who finds himself having to finally become the hero he’s always pretended to be or face the music about his unadventurous real life when he and the boy are kidnapped by local terrorists and the corrupt government doesn’t seem too bothered about getting them back alive.

It’s aimed at a family audience but with a bit more violence than that implies: while it’s not exactly a penetrating political thriller the terrorists/rebels aren’t demonised (especially unusual for producer Euan Lloyd) and the corrupt regime isn’t glossed over – during one thwarted assassination attempt at a party a government minister’s bodyguards start indiscriminately shooting the guests before they even pick out who is shooting at them and then go on to execute one disarmed man on the dance floor. Similarly, though not entirely played straight, the flashbacks to his tall tales of wartime derring-do thankfully aren’t too overdone, framed more as childlike bravado than childish sendup. It’s all solidly crafted by veteran comedy screenwriter Jack Davies and his Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines director Ken Annakin, and while it’s certainly no classic it’s the kind of film that’s better than it needs to be.

Odeon’s new Blu-ay release offers a for the most part very good transfer, though the difficult conditions on location occasionally make themselves known in fluctuating picture quality that looks like some scenes needed a bit of lab work to salvage the negative from heat damage, and offers both the original mono soundtrack and a restored mix. Although it doesn’t include the interviews with Irene Tsu and Euan Lloyd from the US DVD release, it does include two trailers and (in rather rough standard definition) an entertaining 49-minute compilation of various interviews with David Niven that was compiled for UK TV after his death: as presenter Chris Kelly notes, the stories may not always be the whole truth, but they’re well-honed and entertaining anecdotes from a master raconteur.

[Indiana Jonezzz...]

Originally Posted by Aclea

I'm pretty certain the IMDB is wrong and the film was never 2.35:1. Shalako is the only independent production Euan Llloyd made in Scope and all his other big pictures from the same era (Catlow, The Wild Geese, The Sea Wolves, Who Dares Wins, etc) were shot open matte and shown 1.85:1 with eventual TV screenings in mind, and there are absolutely none of the telltale signs of cropping on Odeon's disc (no Panavision logo on the poster either).

As for the disc itself:



Every now and then a perfectly inoffensive film gets such a kicking from the critics you can’t help wondering if they were all bitten by the producer as children. 1975’s Paper Tiger was such a film, widely reviled by the British critics when it first came out with such an excess of venom that even the misfortune of a royal premiere (traditionally the sign of a stinker for decades) couldn’t explain. It’s the kind of perfectly decent film that the Rank Organisation used to churn out in the 50s and 60s boasting a big local star (in this case David Niven in his last leading role) and a couple of international ones to boost the film’s overseas chances (Toshiro Mifune, dubbed by David De Keyser when speaking English, and Hardy Kruger) and shot on a colourful but affordable location (Malaysia, rather convincingly doubling as a corrupt former British colony) and which probably looked a bit old hat in the mid-70s but now serves as perfectly acceptable Sunday afternoon fare. Niven is basically reprising his Separate Tables character and doing a particularly good job of it as the former war-hero-cum-fraud hired as tutor for Japanese ambassador Mifune’s son who finds himself having to finally become the hero he’s always pretended to be or face the music about his unadventurous real life when he and the boy are kidnapped by local terrorists and the corrupt government doesn’t seem too bothered about getting them back alive.

It’s aimed at a family audience but with a bit more violence than that implies: while it’s not exactly a penetrating political thriller the terrorists/rebels aren’t demonised (especially unusual for producer Euan Lloyd) and the corrupt regime isn’t glossed over – during one thwarted assassination attempt at a party a government minister’s bodyguards start indiscriminately shooting the guests before they even pick out who is shooting at them and then go on to execute one disarmed man on the dance floor. Similarly, though not entirely played straight, the flashbacks to his tall tales of wartime derring-do thankfully aren’t too overdone, framed more as childlike bravado than childish sendup. It’s all solidly crafted by veteran comedy screenwriter Jack Davies and his Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines director Ken Annakin, and while it’s certainly no classic it’s the kind of film that’s better than it needs to be.

Odeon’s new Blu-ay release offers a for the most part very good transfer, though the difficult conditions on location occasionally make themselves known in fluctuating picture quality that looks like some scenes needed a bit of lab work to salvage the negative from heat damage, and offers both the original mono soundtrack and a restored mix. Although it doesn’t include the interviews with Irene Tsu and Euan Lloyd from the US DVD release, it does include two trailers and (in rather rough standard definition) an entertaining 49-minute compilation of various interviews with David Niven that was compiled for UK TV after his death: as presenter Chris Kelly notes, the stories may not always be the whole truth, but they’re well-honed and entertaining anecdotes from a master raconteur.

Thanks for your reply, I actually ended up ordering it and it arrived yesterday. After having a look at the opening, I didn't think it looked cropped at all going by the opening titles and general framing, and your info would seem to back that up .

Really looking forward to watching it sometime soon, I'd only heard about it for the first time after reading about Euan Lloyd's death last week. The cover art is terrible though, why on earth didn't they use the original poster art?

[Dan8700]

Anyone got La Ronde, by any chance?

[ParisTexan]

Originally Posted by Dan8700

Anyone got La Ronde, by any chance?

Not I, but I would also like to hear what the disc is like. I keep seeing it in HMV but am scared to pull the trigger on it!

[rapta]

It's only £9.99, right? Why do Odeon discs never get reviewed? I wanna know what Wise Blood, Black Orpheus and the upcoming Polanski set will look like too.