Twilight Time Discussion Thread

[Arkadin]

pre-orders just went live for Feb's bds--
In Like Flynt
Nicholas and Alexandra
Pony Soldier

[jstxanothrxstory]

Pony Soldier has no additional features, but here are the other two releases' special features in addition to the isolated scores.

In Like Flint:
Audio Commentary with Film Historians Lee Pfeiffer and Eddy Friedfeld
Derek Flint: The Secret Files
James Coburn: The Man Beyond the Spy
Designing Flint
Flint vs Zanuck: The Missing 3 Minutes
Take it Off
Puerto Rico Premiere
Future Perfect
Feminine Wiles
Spy School
Musician's Magician
Spy Vogue
Screen Test
Trailers

Nicholas and Alexandria:
Changing Faces
Royal Daughters
The Royal Touch
Original Theatrical Trailer

[Vw Driver]

So hard to catch up on all their releases, but during the year I shall have them all.

[KilloWertz]

Not surprising given the release for Our Man Flint, but it's still nice to see that In Like Flint has a good set of special features as well.

[jstxanothrxstory]

From what they've said, they licensed all of the bonus features from the DVD releases except for the pilot episode that was filmed.

[jrsl76]

Just placed a big order:

Rapture
Our Man Flint
In Like Flint
Experiment In Terror
Bite The Bullet

I searched the early sections of this thread. What did you guys think of Bite The Bullet?

I will immediately order the Christine/Fury double shot next month and and thinking that after this my most wanted remaining titles are:

Picnic
Pal Joey
Cover Girl
Pony Soldier

All of these 4 would be blind buys.

[SolidBlu]

is the blue lagoon still available? how many copies left? might get this when the pre-order date of christine is up

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by SolidBlu

is the blue lagoon still available? how many copies left? might get this when the pre-order date of christine is up

There should still be plenty of copies left by then. SAE is showing less than a third of the copies have been sold. Even if that is slightly off there would still be plenty of copies available four weeks from now.

[SolidBlu]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

There should still be plenty of copies left by then. SAE is showing less than a third of the copies have been sold. Even if that is slightly off there would still be plenty of copies available four weeks from now.

thanks buddy

[ROclockCK]

...unintentionally, just the way it all fell. On my way home from work, I picked up Wild River (shockingly, I wasn't even aware Fox had scheduled it for release), and then my SAE box with Experiment in Terror was waiting when I arrived.

BTW, Wild River is an Elia Kazan 'Scope film I'd never seen, graced by some fascinating performances, and Fox did a generally fine job with it on Blu-ray. For a point of comparison in terms of what to expect from its AQ and PQ, think High Time, which was released the same year (1960). What was funny about this Fox Blu-ray though, was how uncannily it resembled a typical TT Fox release...only in an ECO case with dullest cover art possible, minus the lucid backgound booklet/essay and always welcome IST. In all other respects, it was pretty much like popping in any Fox TT Blu-ray disc. Still, I missed the attention to detail in the packaging and presentation that we get with TT's more collector-friendly showcases.

Then it was on to Experiment in Terror, which was like greeting an old friend after too many years apart. I'm so grateful TT snapped up this one...Mancini's iconic score has never sounded better...clean as a whistle, and now I can appreciate it in its entirety as an IST. The picture was equally impressive - not a forehead-slapper like The Big Heat - but nothing shabby about it at all...any shots of questionable quality originating with the film itself (e.g. the helicopter cockpit POV process work). But when I think of how I first saw this film back in the 60s on a 2nd or 3rd run double-bill, it was very humbling to realize that I now own this cult fave and can watch it whenever I want in a form as close as possible to how it was originally meant to be seen. For some reason EIT never gets stale for me...there's just something about the level of writing, direction, performance, and especially the scoring that keeps it evergreen. How many detective thrillers can you say that about?

[malcy30]

Went for Experiment in Terror in addition to the two Flints.
It seems Experient in Terror is selling well with only 1,300 left after one month on sale and only just been released. So thought I better add now rather than wait.

[Blu Titan]

Originally Posted by jrsl76

Just placed a big order:

Rapture
Our Man Flint
In Like Flint
Experiment In Terror
Bite The Bullet

I searched the early sections of this thread. What did you guys think of Bite The Bullet?

I will immediately order the Christine/Fury double shot next month and and thinking that after this my most wanted remaining titles are:

Picnic
Pal Joey
Cover Girl
Pony Soldier

All of these 4 would be blind buys.

I likes Bite the bullet a lot. A very entertaining Western and the PQ is top notch.

[ROclockCK]

Originally Posted by Blu Titan

I likes Bite the bullet a lot. A very entertaining Western and the PQ is top notch.

Bite the Bullet is still one of the finest Blu-rays...from any label.

Actually, I'm a little surprised it hasn't shown up in more Best of '12 lists.

[DVD Phreak]

Some of the films from the Twilight Time are also sold at iTunes in 1080p at $15 to $18. The Song of Bernadette, Bonjour Tristesse, Nicholas and Alexandra, Night of the Living Dead (1990), Bye Bye Birdie, Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), and some others too.

iTunes only allows those who have an HDCP-compliant computer to download the 1080p versions. Those who have such a computer may want to consider this as an option, as opposed buying those high-priced, often barebone Blu-rays.

I haven't seen the above titles, but I did buy one 1080p title from iTunes, "The House of Seven Gables". There are some compression artifacts (file size is only 3 GB), but the 1080p picture does look pretty good. Screen captures here.

[RiFiFi1955]

Originally Posted by DVD Phreak

Some of the films from the Twilight Time are also sold at iTunes in 1080p at $15 to $18. The Song of Bernadette, Bonjour Tristesse, Nicholas and Alexandra, Night of the Living Dead (1990), Bye Bye Birdie, Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), and some others too.

iTunes only allows those who have an HDCP-compliant computer to download the 1080p versions. Those who have such a computer may want to consider this as an option, as opposed buying those high-priced, often barebone Blu-rays.

I haven't seen the above titles, but I did buy one 1080p title from iTunes, "The House of Seven Gables". There are some compression artifacts (file size is only 3 GB), but the 1080p picture does look pretty good. Screen captures here.

iTunes also has several HD presentations of films that are not available on blu-ray...some that I want really bad on blu-ray. Some examples are His Girl Friday, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, To Have or Have Not, etc. I don't feel like spending 18 bucks on a digital copy though...I will wait for the blu-rays but it is nice to see these titles HD transfers out there.

[Blu-Velvet]

Originally Posted by jrsl76

my most wanted remaining titles are:

Picnic
Pal Joey
Cover Girl
Pony Soldier

All of these 4 would be blind buys.

PICNIC, along with RAPTURE and THE WAYWARD BUS, ranks among my favorite Twilight Time titles for all categories -- for the movie itself, for picture quality (all three in beautiful-looking scope), and for audio quality. I also enjoyed PAL JOEY quite a bit. COVER GIRL is pleasant and has pretty good PQ that's not quite up to some of the others, and okay audio. PONY SOLDIER, which I've never seen, will be on my next big order, along with the two Flint movies, EXPERIMENT IN TERROR, and NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA. I never got BITE THE BULLET, but it's sounding more tempting the more posts I read in this thread.

[spanky87]

Originally Posted by Blu-Velvet

PICNIC, along with RAPTURE and THE WAYWARD BUS, ranks among my favorite Twilight Time titles for all categories -- for the movie itself, for picture quality (all three in beautiful-looking scope), and for audio quality. I also enjoyed PAL JOEY quite a bit. COVER GIRL is pleasant and has pretty good PQ that's not quite up to some of the others, and okay audio. PONY SOLDIER, which I've never seen, will be on my next big order, along with the two Flint movies, EXPERIMENT IN TERROR, and NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA. I never got BITE THE BULLET, but it's sounding more tempting the more posts I read in this thread.

I think reviews for the COVER GIRL blu are a little harsh. I watched it this week and thought it looked pretty good, with a few not so great shots here and there. I have a copy of PAL JOEY on the way.

For the Rita Hayworth catalogue, it seems weird that they didn't release GILDA, or THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI before those. Unless Sony has plans to do wide releases for them. GILDA is a must.

[ROclockCK]

Originally Posted by Blu-Velvet

[Show spoiler]PICNIC, along with RAPTURE and THE WAYWARD BUS, ranks among my favorite Twilight Time titles for all categories -- for the movie itself, for picture quality (all three in beautiful-looking scope), and for audio quality. I also enjoyed PAL JOEY quite a bit. COVER GIRL is pleasant and has pretty good PQ that's not quite up to some of the others, and okay audio. PONY SOLDIER, which I've never seen, will be on my next big order, along with the two Flint movies, EXPERIMENT IN TERROR, and NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA.

I never got BITE THE BULLET, but it's sounding more tempting the more posts I read in this thread.

Blu Titan will probably disagree with this assessment, but to me Bite the Bullet was kind of lightweight...more of an entertaining period romp...kind of like It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World on horses. But it was very well done, with terrific performances, and damn, did it ever look and sound great. The whole package was just a class act all round...even more enjoyable because I'd never seen this movie. And since that first viewing I've listened to Alex North's rambunctious score isolated, so that feature kicked it up another notch or two in my playbook.

It's just another of those quietly great TT titles that hasn't provoked a lot of discussion or blitzkrieg sales, but is nevertheless worth discovering as folks work their way through the collection. Possibly the release of something like Major Dundee will reignite interest and sales Blu Velvet, but so far BTB seems to be a middling performer...no reflection on the quality of the movie or disc though.

[filmmusic]

I don't know about you, but I'd love some religious epics on May around the Easter time.

Films like:
- Barabbas
- The Story of Ruth

and of course we have talked about Esther and the King, and Sodoma and Gomorrah, and the bad elements or non-widescreen that USA has.

there are other very good films too, but those aren't from the companies that Twilight Time does.
(eg. The Prodigal, Samson and Delilah, Solomon and Sheba etc.)

[Dex Robinson]

Originally Posted by spanky87

I think reviews for the COVER GIRL blu are a little harsh. I watched it this week and thought it looked pretty good, with a few not so great shots here and there. I have a copy of PAL JOEY on the way.
...GILDA is a must.

I gave COVER GIRL a very good (though not "professional" ) review. I think a lot of the criticism was way off the mark. As is so often the case, people use the old DVD as the standard. Since the Blu-ray was not as bright as the DVD, people reported it as "dark". I contend that most previous home video has been over brightened and the Blu-ray is likely much closer to the way the movie should look.

PAL JOEY is a superb transfer. I don't recall any dissension over that. Most people agree it looks great.

GILDA? Yeah...SOMEBODY needs to get that out.