Twilight Time Discussion Thread

[benbess]

I would agree that the simple design of the TT spine works for me...

[SpartanIre]

Originally Posted by benbess

I would agree that the simple design of the TT spine works for me...

Seconded.

[octagon]

The Black Album | This Is Spinal Tap | Classic Clips - YouTube

[HyperRealist]

Robert Siegel's in depth article.

The Cinemascope Sequel: Demetrius and the Gladiators
https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=8290

[benbess]

Possible future TT titles....

I looked over TT's facebook page. As you know, people make suggestions there sometimes. At this point they've had so many suggestions that they've pretty much said stop--they won't live long enough to get to all of the films on their lists. But...they have over the last several weeks "liked" some of the suggestions. We can take that to mean that TT is perhaps interested in these titles. Whether they continue to be interested, and whether the studio involved has an HD master they are willing to license out, is obviously another matter.

And so big "ifs" all around. The list below is not of things that are going to come out through TT at all. It's just a list of possibilities. If anyone knows of other films that the people at TT have expressed interest in, please add them to the list...

Forever Amber (1948)
Five Fingers (1952)
Daddy Long Legs (1955)
The Long Grey Line (1955)
Autumn Leaves (1956)
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)
The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
1776 (1972)
The China Syndrome (1979)
Little Women (1994)
Sense and Sensibility (1995)

[benbess]

And added just in the last hour or so...

High Time (1960) starring Bing Crosby

[Mr.Dig]

Originally Posted by benbess

Possible future TT titles....

I looked over TT's facebook page. As you know, people make suggestions there sometimes. At this point they've had so many suggestions that they've pretty much said stop--they won't live long enough to get to all of the films on their lists. But...they have over the last several weeks "liked" some of the suggestions. We can take that to mean that TT is perhaps interested in these titles. Whether they continue to be interested, and whether the studio involved has an HD master they are willing to license out, is obviously another matter.

And so big "ifs" all around. The list below is not of things that are going to come out through TT at all. It's just a list of possibilities. If anyone knows of other films that the people at TT have expressed interest in, please add them to the list...

Forever Amber (1948)
Five Fingers (1952)
Daddy Long Legs (1955)
The Long Grey Line (1955)
Autumn Leaves (1956)
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)
The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
1776 (1972)
The China Syndrome (1979)
Little Women (1994)
Sense and Sensibility (1995)

Nothing from the 80s! That's too bad..

[arcadeforest]

Originally Posted by benbess

Possible future TT titles....

I looked over TT's facebook page. As you know, people make suggestions there sometimes. At this point they've had so many suggestions that they've pretty much said stop--they won't live long enough to get to all of the films on their lists. But...they have over the last several weeks "liked" some of the suggestions. We can take that to mean that TT is perhaps interested in these titles. Whether they continue to be interested, and whether the studio involved has an HD master they are willing to license out, is obviously another matter.

And so big "ifs" all around. The list below is not of things that are going to come out through TT at all. It's just a list of possibilities. If anyone knows of other films that the people at TT have expressed interest in, please add them to the list...

Forever Amber (1948)
Five Fingers (1952)
Daddy Long Legs (1955)
The Long Grey Line (1955)
Autumn Leaves (1956)
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)
The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
1776 (1972)
The China Syndrome (1979)
Little Women (1994)
Sense and Sensibility (1995)

Out of that list I would love to see:

Sense and Sensibility (1995)
Little Women (1994)

Have not seen any of the others though.

[benbess]

Originally Posted by Mr.Dig

Nothing from the 80s! That's too bad..

This is not at all a complete list! And it's only possibilities anyway. None of them are confirmed *at all.* It's possible most of these *won't* show up.

My bet is that there will be stuff from the 80s. Perhaps they've mentioned a few titles that I don't know about...

[ROclockCK]

Originally Posted by benbess

Possible future TT titles....

I looked over TT's facebook page. As you know, people make suggestions there sometimes. At this point they've had so many suggestions that they've pretty much said stop--they won't live long enough to get to all of the films on their lists. But...they have over the last several weeks "liked" some of the suggestions. We can take that to mean that TT is perhaps interested in these titles. Whether they continue to be interested, and whether the studio involved has an HD master they are willing to license out, is obviously another matter.

And so big "ifs" all around. The list below is not of things that are going to come out through TT at all. It's just a list of possibilities. If anyone knows of other films that the people at TT have expressed interest in, please add them to the list...

Forever Amber (1948)
Five Fingers (1952)
Daddy Long Legs (1955)
The Long Grey Line (1955)
Autumn Leaves (1956)
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)
The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
1776 (1972)
The China Syndrome (1979)
Little Women (1994)
Sense and Sensibility (1995)

Light Green for the ones of higher than average interest. Dark Green for my highest interest day one pre-orders. The unhighlighted titles are just good, more recent movies that are still widely available on DVD. With so many older catalogue gems yet to be mined, I would be disappointed if we get more than a smattering of post-90s titles, some of which seem more suited to Criterion anyway.

My top choices from that list would be Five Fingers (Mankiewicz)*, Forever Amber (Preminger), and The Flight of the Phoenix (Aldrich).

* I thought they mentioned somewhere that this title (MIA on DVD) is already in TT's queue.

[benbess]

There are several of these I haven't seen, including:

Forever Amber
Five Fingers
Long Grey Line
Autumn Leaves
and
1776

But buying things blind has worked for me before. In fact sometimes a blu-ray seems more worth it that way.

Forever Amber was a huge and expensive epic. I know that Fox threw out most of their three-strip Technicolor negatives, including presumably the neg for this one--which is too bad. How is it as a movie ROclockCK?

[ROclockCK]

Originally Posted by benbess

But buying things blind has worked for me before. In fact sometimes a blu-ray seems more worth it that way.

If I trust the quality and collector taste of a label, then I have no problem with blind-buys. So far, out of the 12 TT Blu-rays released (or available for pre-order by the end of this week) I've sprung for 5 of them totally "blind": Rapture, Roots of Heaven, Swamp Water, Bite the Bullet, and Bell, Book and Candle. Not a regret over any of them either...only that Renoir's Swamp Water (see comments on its dedicated board), and Huston's Roots of Heaven (ditto for its board) have not generated more interest here. On the other hand, Rapture seems to be attracting considerable attention as a 'lost masterpiece' outside of the 'core TT community (I've seen it mentioned several times on the Criterion board, plus other 'Net blogs), so awareness of more obscure titles like this sometimes takes a while to proliferate.

The point is, had I not been willing to take a fly on these TT Blu's sight unseen, I could have missed some real gems in this collection. Unlike others, I don't prescreen previously unseen movies via YouTube or Netflix - except for the trailers - because I don't want my first experience with a movie sullied by crappy delivery. That's just me tough. I suppose someday there will be a "blind" TT title that seemed like a great idea at the time, something I would enjoy, which ends up boring the wizz out of me. But so far, they're batting 1000...

Originally Posted by benbess

Forever Amber was a huge and expensive epic. I know that Fox threw out most of their three-strip Technicolor negatives, including presumably the neg for this one--which is too bad. How is it as a movie ROclockCK?

Beats me...never seen it...but have always been curious. In '47 it was a $6,000,000 picture, so I'm sure it has epic quality production values. I don't know anything about the fate of its 3-strip Technicolor negs, but I can't imagine Fox threw out everything (including the B&W protection masters) on such an expensive, high-profile, golden era movie. Here's a YouTube of the credit sequence:

Forvever Amber credits

Despite the streaming rez, it looked pretty clean to me, so something must still exist worthy of restoration/reconstruction, even if only an archival Technicolor print.

[arcadeforest]

Originally Posted by ROclockCK

If I trust the quality and collector taste of a label, then I have no problem with blind-buys. So far, out of the 12 TT Blu-rays released (or available for pre-order by the end of this week) I've sprung for 5 of them totally "blind": Rapture, Roots of Heaven, Swamp Water, Bite the Bullet, and Bell, Book and Candle. Not a regret over any of them either...only that Renoir's Swamp Water (see comments on its dedicated board), and Huston's Roots of Heaven (ditto for its board) have not generated more interest here. On the other hand, Rapture seems to be attracting considerable attention as a 'lost masterpiece' outside of the 'core TT community (I've seen it mentioned several times on the Criterion board, plus other 'Net blogs), so awareness of more obscure titles like this sometimes take awhile proliferate.

The point is, had I not been willing to take a fly on these TT Blu's sight unseen, I could have missed some real gems in this collection. Unlike others, I don't prescreen previously unseen movies via YouTube or Netflix - except for the trailers - because I don't want my first experience with a movie sullied by crappy delivery. That's just me tough. I suppose someday there will be a "blind" TT title that seemed like a great idea at the time, something I would enjoy, which ends up boring the wizz out of me. But so far, they're batting 1000...


Beats me...never seen it...but have always been curious. In '47 it was a $6,000,000 picture, so I'm sure it has epic quality production values. I don't know anything about the fate of its 3-strip Technicolor negs, but I can't imagine Fox threw out everything (including the B&W protection masters) on such an expensive, high-profile, golden era movie. Here's a YouTube of the credit sequence:

Forvever Amber credits

Despite the streaming rez, it looked pretty clean to me, so something must still exist worthy of restoration/reconstruction, even if only an archival Technicolor print.

Just looked up Forever Amber on Youtube and watched a few minutes of it, looks like my kind of film. Hope this comes to TT.

Being born in 1970 many of these films (pre 1960) have escaped me. I've never really given these classic films a chance outside of the most well known titles (Casablanca, African Queen, Citizen Kane, North by Northwest, Adventures of Robin Hood, etc.). I took a chance with The Egyptian last summer and really liked it. I have a feeling there are many gems out there that I still do not have a clue about (like Forever Amber).

[octagon]

Originally Posted by arcadeforest

Just looked up Forever Amber on Youtube and watched a few minutes of it, looks like my kind of film. Hope this comes to TT.

Being born in 1970 many of these films (pre 1960) have escaped me. I've never really given these classic films a chance outside of the most well known titles (Casablanca, African Queen, Citizen Kane, Noth by Northwest, Adventures of Robin Hood, etc.). I took a chance with The Egyptian last summer and really liked it. I have a feeling there are many gems out there that I still do not have a clue about (like Forever Amber).

Three words: Turner Classic Movies.

I've been a big TCM fan since the start but they've gotten really good over the past couple years. It's a great mix of higher profile classics, under the radar classics and whacky b-reel stuff.

Their HD quality (obviously where available) is generally very solid too. Even the obvious upconverts can look pretty good.

[/tangent]

[arcadeforest]

Originally Posted by octagon

Three words: Turner Classic Movies.

I've been a big TCM fan since the start but they've gotten really good over the past couple years. It's a great mix of higher profile classics, under the radar classics and whacky b-reel stuff.

Their HD quality (obviously where available) is generally very solid too. Even the obvious upconverts can look pretty good.

[/tangent]

No doubt, my wife has been a fan of TCM for many years. She is a teacher and once summer vacation rolls around she stays up half the night watching films on TCM. I'll keep an eye out and set the TIVO.

[benbess]

ROclockCK: Thanks for posting the credit sequence of Forever Amber. Hard to tell from youtube, but as you say it looks pretty good from what we can see.

The news about Fox throwing out its 3 strip Technicolor negatives comes from RAH in the HTF. He mentioned it in a post a month or so ago. It was that old bugaboo--"let's save on warehouse costs."

Hope to comment on Roots in a while when I get it....Haven't decided about Swamp Water. I have so many blu-rays I've bought but haven't watched yet that I think I'll wait till I catch up a bit with my back log. I think I'm pretty safe on that one not selling out for 6 months or so...

[arcadeforest]

Originally Posted by benbess

ROclockCK: Thanks for posting the credit sequence of Forever Amber. Hard to tell from youtube, but as you say it looks pretty good from what we can see.

The news about Fox throwing out its 3 strip Technicolor negatives comes from RAH in the HTF. He mentioned it in a post a month or so ago. It was that old bugaboo--"let's save on warehouse costs."

Hope to comment on Roots in a while when I get it....Haven't decided about Swamp Water. I have so many blu-rays I've bought but haven't watched yet that I think I'll wait till I catch up a bit with my back log. I think I'm pretty safe on that one not selling out for 6 months or so...

If you go to youtube the whole movie is on there. I only watched a minute or so as I agree with ROclockCK that I do not want to give a first watch to youtube when at the very least I can give it a go on DVD or Bluray at some point in the future. It looked good for what I saw. I'm a sucker for any type of period film / costume drama.

[ROclockCK]

Originally Posted by arcadeforest

Just looked up Forever Amber on Youtube and watched a few minutes of it, looks like my kind of film. Hope this comes to TT.

Being born in 1970 many of these films (pre 1960) have escaped me. I've never really given these classic films a chance outside of the most well known titles (Casablanca, African Queen, Citizen Kane, North by Northwest, Adventures of Robin Hood, etc.). I took a chance with The Egyptian last summer and really liked it. I have a feeling there are many gems out there that I still do not have a clue about (like Forever Amber).

Welcome to the club arcadeforest. Although I'm a child of the 50s, when I was younger, like you I had very little interest in older movies, except for the classics. So lately, I've been discovering a lot of this second tier stuff from the 30s right through the 60s. In most cases, I'd heard of the titles, and might even have known who starred in or directed them, but had just never bothered watching them, or couldn't find the title when the mood struck.

I still see new movies of course, and enjoy many of them. But in general they just don't seem to have quite the same character, charm, or charisma as many of these pictures made while the medium itself was younger and still finding its way. Often those movies just transport me more.

[oildude]

Originally Posted by arcadeforest

I only watched a minute or so as I agree with ROclockCK that I do not want to give a first watch to youtube when at the very least I can give it a go on DVD or Bluray at some point in the future.

This is what I frequently do. I will look for clips online and sample them first if they are available. I did this with Rapture. The whole film is on youtube. I watched the first 9 minute clip and was intrigued enough to stop watching. I decided to order it from Twilight Time and have had no regrets, it is one of the best new discoveries of an older "lost" film I have ever made.

I have thought about signing up for hulu plus after I used their one week free trial to sample some Criterion and non-mainstream current films back in November, but have not done it yet. I just have too big a backlog of blu-rays (including the entire Twilight Zone collection) to keep me busy. But for only a few dollars a month, it would make a pretty inexpensive way to sample unfamiliar movies I might want to check out first before buying.

I have slowed my buying considerably the past year, focusing instead on catalog titles, select current films, and foreign releases. I love blind buying a good catalog release I may have heard of but never seen. I have come to realize I much prefer films such as the ones released by Twilight Time when it comes to adding to my blu-ray collection. As much as I appreciate a modern superhero, summer blockbuster, or "blow em up real good" action flick, I am now a lot more selective.

[ROclockCK]

Originally Posted by octagon

Three words: Turner Classic Movies.

I've been a big TCM fan since the start but they've gotten really good over the past couple years. It's a great mix of higher profile classics, under the radar classics and whacky b-reel stuff.

Their HD quality (obviously where available) is generally very solid too. Even the obvious upconverts can look pretty good.

[/tangent]

Believe it or not octagon, I haven't had cable service since 1993. At that time, TCM wasn't available via our Canuck provider, even with the premium packages. Then I just got used to life without TV, and after that, barely had enough time for DVDs.

But when I do get stuck in a hotel room stateside, I always tune in. TCM runs some wonderful old stuff, generally very well presented.