Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974) - May 19, 2020

[dml1988]

I have the Anolis standard blu ray release of this film. I wonder what different, for better or worse, Scream Factory will do with this release. The Anolis release already looks pretty darn good

[babybreese]

Originally Posted by Handman

The fact that this is out, but Curse isn't, is shocking.
Well, I understand the elements are bad,
but really, what's taking so long?

Careful eyeballing of the scale weighing restoration costs Vs potential profit?

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by dml1988

I have the Anolis standard blu ray release of this film. I wonder what different, for better or worse, Scream Factory will do with this release. The Anolis release already looks pretty darn good

I doubt they'll get a new transfer, since the existing releases already looked quite good. They'll probably just add a few special features. My guess is that there will be no real reason to upgrade if you have the German or UK versions unless you are a special features nut.

[ponytail]

Originally Posted by babybreese

Careful eyeballing of the scale weighing restoration costs Vs potential profit?

Profit-wise, I'd have to think Curse of Frankenstein is about as safe a bet as there is for a pre-1970 title.

[monwobbbo]

Originally Posted by ponytail

Profit-wise, I'd have to think Curse of Frankenstein is about as safe a bet as there is for a pre-1970 title.

that would depend on how much cost would be involved. sure to those of us on tis thread it seems like a slam dunk but honestly outside of Hammer fandom i don't think it all that well known.

[cakefactory]

My theory is that a lot of the people old enough to care about movies from the 50s are also too old to care about keeping up with "new" technology like blu-rays and are happy with the DVD. It always has sounded from sales figures that most anything that is older than about 1980 and not some huge towering mainstream pillar of cinema like Wizard of Oz or The Godfather or Jaws tends to sell like junk cause it's mainly middle aged people who are the videophiles. Weird nerds like me that grew up watching old monster movies yet also felt a need to move beyond DVD are a minority of the already small home video market.

Meaning, I'm sure that it would sell well by the standards of their Hammer discs, maybe even the best of them, but probably compared to something like My Bloody Valentine or the better-known John Carpenter movies I'm guessing it would be a drop in the bucket. If it costs as much or more to restore it as it did to get a new transfer for a financial slamdunk like The Thing I certainly would understand hesitance.

[happydood]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

My theory is that a lot of the people old enough to care about movies from the 50s are also too old to care about keeping up with "new" technology like blu-rays and are happy with the DVD. It always has sounded from sales figures that most anything that is older than about 1980 and not some huge towering mainstream pillar of cinema like Wizard of Oz or The Godfather or Jaws tends to sell like junk cause it's mainly middle aged people who are the videophiles. Weird nerds like me that grew up watching old monster movies yet also felt a need to move beyond DVD are a minority of the already small home video market.

Meaning, I'm sure that it would sell well by the standards of their Hammer discs, maybe even the best of them, but probably compared to something like My Bloody Valentine or the better-known John Carpenter movies I'm guessing it would be a drop in the bucket. If it costs as much or more to restore it as it did to get a new transfer for a financial slamdunk like The Thing I certainly would understand hesitance.

This makes total sense in the current market. I'm kinda reconciling myself to the fact that I'm gonna have to live with the region B release which has wonderful extras, but I'm actually considering going and picking up the old Warner dvd again...

[monwobbbo]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

My theory is that a lot of the people old enough to care about movies from the 50s are also too old to care about keeping up with "new" technology like blu-rays and are happy with the DVD. It always has sounded from sales figures that most anything that is older than about 1980 and not some huge towering mainstream pillar of cinema like Wizard of Oz or The Godfather or Jaws tends to sell like junk cause it's mainly middle aged people who are the videophiles. Weird nerds like me that grew up watching old monster movies yet also felt a need to move beyond DVD are a minority of the already small home video market.

Meaning, I'm sure that it would sell well by the standards of their Hammer discs, maybe even the best of them, but probably compared to something like My Bloody Valentine or the better-known John Carpenter movies I'm guessing it would be a drop in the bucket. If it costs as much or more to restore it as it did to get a new transfer for a financial slamdunk like The Thing I certainly would understand hesitance.

agree. i'm one of those older guys and would be the target market for films like COF which i grew up with. while the Universal Monsters stuff from the 30 -40s is still very iconic the Hammer stuff not so much. if it were in real demand then chances are that the titles wouldn't be getting farmed out to smaller labels. even if WB makes the disc it will be a MOD and not a retail version. sad but this is the most likely way it is coming out. i love the older films but even though i have blu-ray for many lesser titles i'm just not willing to sink in more money. i have a perfectly good DVD of say a title like PHANTOM FROM 10000 LEAGES and can't justify buying again as i'll watch that one maybe once every 3-4 years.

[jacksparrow900]

Originally Posted by Handman

The fact that this is out, but Curse isn't, is shocking. Well, I understand the elements are bad, but really, what's taking so long?

TCM last October showed Curse and it was a new HD master

[Richard--W]

Originally Posted by jacksparrow900

TCM last October showed Curse and it was a new HD master

Good news. Did you record it? How did it look?

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by jacksparrow900

TCM last October showed Curse and it was a new HD master

Are you sure about that? That it wasn't just them airing the DVD master in HD, or airing the UK blu-ray's master? That's the first I ever heard anyone mention this and I"m not finding any corroboration on google.

[SMOOT]

Originally Posted by jacksparrow900

TCM last October showed Curse and it was a new HD master

Really? If it was a new master, then I think there would have been lots of Hammer fans talking about it. It has always looked bad on TCM.
I hope that The Curse of Frankenstein can and will be restored to its former glory. Really sad that it looks so poor right now.

[Partyslammer]

Originally Posted by SMOOT

Really? If it was a new master, then I think there would have been lots of Hammer fans talking about it. It has always looked bad on TCM.
I hope that The Curse of Frankenstein can and will be restored to its former glory. Really sad that it looks so poor right now.

I record all the Hammer films TMCHD broadcasts around every Halloween hoping for newer HD upgrades and the 2019 broadcast of Curse Of Frankenstein looked the same w/same framing as it has every year for almost the past decade. The only movie I can think of that has changed just in the past 2 years (and not for the better) was Horror Of Dracula which got a new brickwalled audio remaster over the same (US - HoD titled) video source.

[cannon1]

I hesitate to pre-order this, since I've found at least 3 different running times out there. This one at 93 mins. matches the one given for the old 1974 USA Paramount theatrical cut used for the old DVD. At this point, an HD release of that version wouldn't be fit for the 3.00 dump bin, Region A or not...

[Vixen of the Night]

Originally Posted by cannon1

I hesitate to pre-order this, since I've found at least 3 different running times out there. This one at 93 mins. matches the one given for the old 1974 USA Paramount theatrical cut used for the old DVD. At this point, an HD release of that version wouldn't be fit for the 3.00 dump bin, Region A or not...

It'll probably be uncut, or maybe bother versions are included? The difference is only so many seconds, so 93 minutes doesn't give us much to go by. So, I wouldn't worry, especially since an uncut HD master exists. So chill out until further details are revealed.

[cannon1]

Originally Posted by Vixen of the Night

It'll probably be uncut, or maybe bother versions are included? The difference is only so many seconds, so 93 minutes doesn't give us much to go by. So, I wouldn't worry, especially since an uncut HD master exists. So chill out until further details are revealed.

I'm chilled, thanks, just believe it doesn't hurt to 'air' such considerations when so few details are made available and a release is right around the corner. The running times vary in minutes, not seconds. I expect it is the recent transfer too.

[SMOOT]

Originally Posted by cannon1

I'm chilled, thanks, just believe it doesn't hurt to 'air' such considerations when so few details are made available and a release is right around the corner. The running times vary in minutes, not seconds. I expect it is the recent transfer too.

Looks like right-around-the-corner is now moved to August 18.

Maybe Shout Factory heard the noise here and will be using much better source than was used on the old Paramount DVD.

I have high hopes!

[Partyslammer]

Originally Posted by SMOOT

Looks like right-around-the-corner is now moved to August 18.

Maybe Shout Factory heard the noise here and will be using much better source than was used on the old Paramount DVD.

I have high hopes!

I would bet heavily that either SF is holding off due to manufacturing delays or more likely feel it will initially sell faster and get more attention when Covid-19 issues hopefully subside to some degree late this Summer. Especially in regards to whatever stores may sell it and Amazon which has been extremely unreliable getting non-essential items like Blu-rays to customers in any sort of reliable time frame.

[SMOOT]

Originally Posted by Partyslammer

I would bet heavily that either SF is holding off due to manufacturing delays or more likely feel it will initially sell faster and get more attention when Covid-19 issues hopefully subside to some degree late this Summer. Especially in regards to whatever stores may sell it and Amazon which has been extremely unreliable getting non-essential items like Blu-rays to customers in any sort of reliable time frame.

Possibly you are correct, but Shout’s use of the old Paramount transfer for their “Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter” Blu-ray gave me some (hopefully, wrong) thought that they may have originally been using the old Paramount transfer for “Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell.”

As this is the second (and now longer) delay of this release, I think that we may now be far more assured that this (now August) release will be a happy occassion.

[dodgysteve]

Why are you guys excited for some censored 93 minute version when the UK BD runs 94m 35s and the German runs 94m 49s (the extra 14s are German voice credits tacked on the end)?