55 Days at Peking / Circus World - April 7th

[Yami]

Anchor Bay Entertainment will release two Samuel Bronston produced films, Nicholas Ray's 55 Days at Peking and Henry Hathaway's Circus World, on Blu-Ray on April 7th.

[#Darren]

Yes!

[CinemaScope]

I suppose this is an American release, do Anchor Bay region lock their releases? There's a Blu of Circus World out in France & I've read it looks really good, but it has the old French problem of un-removable subs. 55 Days At Peking is released in France on February 19th & it may or may not have the subs. problem.

[Yami]

Originally Posted by CinemaScope

I suppose this is an American release, do Anchor Bay region lock their releases?

They're UK releases. I should clarify that they are separate releases, I just thought it made sense to group them together.

[CinemaScope]

Originally Posted by Yami

They're UK releases. I should clarify that they are separate releases, I just thought it made sense to group them together.

Oh great! Count me in for 55 Days if it looks good.

[mr nostromo]

I just hope that they've been treated with more respect than the previous Bronston epics released in the UK.

El Cid was ok, but a pale imitation of what it should have been

Fall Of The Roman Empire (generally regarded as one of the finest looking of all Ultra Panavision 70 films) was a wreck; DNR'd to oblivion in many scenes. I was bitterly disappointed with this one.

Having seen them both in their 70mm splendour, I can positively state that both are p*ss-poor releases.

One can but hope we're not going to see a repeat performance with 55 and Circus. You only have to look at the US release of Bronston's King Of Kings to see what can be achieved with an old 70mm film.

[richarde007]

I've seen both transfers at my previous job. Both are very impressive 2k transfers with amazing clarity, done at pinewood.

I got bored watching them though but they looked great. If I remember rightly they were both stereo.

[Arkadin]

I have the original French bd of Circus World, and I had no idea it had been released again last summer. Looks like this newer release is significantly longer. Anyone know what the added minuted are about? Is a a Roadshow edition or is it some type of music interlude (Overture, etc. etc.)?

[cinerama]

Originally Posted by Arkadin

I have the original French bd of Circus World, and I had no idea it had been released again last summer. Looks like this newer release is significantly longer. Anyone know what the added minuted are about? Is a a Roadshow edition or is it some type of music interlude (Overture, etc. etc.)?

Amazon lists them both as 144 minutes.

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by mr nostromo

I just hope that they've been treated with more respect than the previous Bronston epics released in the UK.

El Cid was ok, but a pale imitation of what it should have been

Fall Of The Roman Empire (generally regarded as one of the finest looking of all Ultra Panavision 70 films) was a wreck; DNR'd to oblivion in many scenes. I was bitterly disappointed with this one.

Having seen them both in their 70mm splendour, I can positively state that both are p*ss-poor releases.

One can but hope we're not going to see a repeat performance with 55 and Circus. You only have to look at the US release of Bronston's King Of Kings to see what can be achieved with an old 70mm film.

As richarde007 has said 55 Days will look very nice.

Too bad that the European market is flooded with those really bad releases of El Cid - it could easily have looked like 55 Days and Circus World but I am sure that whoever is paying for these new masters is not too keen on spending money on El Cid when it has already been released in all big European markets with the subpar transfer.

Fall needs the royal treatment that accurately captures its stunning Ultra Panavision 70 photography and aspect ratio. Unfortunately this is going to be rather costly and with the negative residing in the UK I am not so sure where in the Uk it could be done.

[eChopper]

they can send it to fotokem and get Scorcese to cough up

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by eChopper

they can send it to fotokem and get Scorcese to cough up

Scorsese loves these movies and in fact has been involved in the Weinstein "restorations" I was shocked that he would lend his name to such a subpar product.

[eChopper]

I'm sure he was repulsed by the Weinstein releases as much as everyone else

[Oliver K]

A text intro from Scorsese came with the US DVD and it closes with:

I'm very happy to see El Cid finally appearing on DVD. It's truly one of the finest historical epics ever made.

He probably never saw the DVD and trusted Weinstein to do a good job with it...

[richarde007]

Originally Posted by Oliver K

A text intro from Scorsese came with the US DVD and it closes with:

I'm very happy to see El Cid finally appearing on DVD. It's truly one of the finest historical epics ever made.

He probably never saw the DVD and trusted Weinstein to do a good job with it...

If I remember correctly part of the reason they look pretty poor is that the weinsteins were only sent inter positives to work with as the licence holder didn't trust them with the negatives. Which actually was a good thing because these inter positives were never returned anyway...

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by richarde007

If I remember correctly part of the reason they look pretty poor is that the weinsteins were only sent inter positives to work with as the licence holder didn't trust them with the negatives. Which actually was a good thing because these inter positives were never returned anyway...

They were low contrast prints which would not have looked perfect anyway but the scrubbed look is entirely their fault. I can only guess that a more delicate cleanup procedure was not used for either reasons of cost-cutting and/or ignorance but the end result speaks for itself espdcially on Blu-ray and frankly the DVD of El Cid was also quite bad.

If the prints were not returned that is really bad but it also shows why sending precious negatives abroad is not something that happens everyday. I remember that Robert A Harris was surprised that the negative of Il Gattopardo was shipped to I believe Warners scanning facility for a 6k scan (or 4k from perf to perf) as obviously this is not the usual practice.

[Yami]

Artwork courtesy of Amazon:

[CinemaScope]

What an awful cover for 55 Days!

Some caps from the French Blu that was released today, I don't know if it's the same transfer.

http://www.dvdclassik.com/forum/view...p?f=32&t=35330

[richarde007]

Originally Posted by CinemaScope

What an awful cover for 55 Days!

Some caps from the French Blu that was released today, I don't know if it's the same transfer.

http://www.dvdclassik.com/forum/view...p?f=32&t=35330

Yeah that's the new pinewood 2K master. Lovely isn't it.

[Douglas R]

Ghastly covers!