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#33821 | |
Blu-ray Guru
Feb 2018
Pembroke, Ontario, Canada
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https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...ostcount=29589 |
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#33822 |
Blu-ray Archduke
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When I came home from the hospital, I thought that I would have a couple of weeks of endless spare time on my hands just to recover from the surgery and watch Blu-rays. So far, though, I've spent most of my time trying to make sure that the people in the doctor's office are doing their jobs by getting medical leave forms to my workplace by the deadline established by my employer. I should be resting and recovering instead of staying on people's tails to get voicemails returned and such, but it is what it is.
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#33823 |
Banned
Aug 2016
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The 4K restoration for Dementia 13 had already been completed by Coppola himself, using MGM's elements.
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Thanks given by: | Dark Horse 77 (08-16-2019), Jobla (08-16-2019) |
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#33824 |
Blu-ray Ninja
Mar 2013
Boulevard of Broken Dreams
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#33825 | |
Senior Member
Jun 2011
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I'm pretty sure I've heard rumors of crackpot ideas that both men have had to make alterations/additions (which no one wants) to regain the rights. Coppola is now 80 and Corman 93, I think they may have waited too long to try and ring another nickel out these orphans. |
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#33826 | |
Blu-ray Baron
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[Show spoiler] Get well soon, but don't try to rush it. |
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Thanks given by: | The Great Owl (08-16-2019) |
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#33827 | |
Blu-ray Samurai
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Thanks given by: | bogeyfan1980 (08-16-2019), DavidRoylance (08-16-2019), dmabuse (08-16-2019), Doc Moonlight (08-16-2019), Jobla (08-16-2019), kvnbhovis (08-16-2019), TheHorrorNerd (08-16-2019) |
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#33828 |
Special Member
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#33829 |
Blu-ray Baron
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![]() “You wrote the dialogue, I was the scenery.” Foreign Intrigue is the kind of glossy color location hopping (from the South of France to Vienna to Stockholm) star vehicle that movies were going in for in a big way in the late 50s to combat television, though it was a sort of spinoff from writer-producer-director Sheldon Reynolds’ 1951-55 TV series. It’s a fantastic looking picture with vivid Eastmancolour photography courtesy of Bertil Palmgren and a good sense of place while avoiding the usual tourist trap travelog locations (though most prints, including the DVD and Bluray versions, are now missing the original black and white prologue setting up the wartime backstory), which is just as well because after a decent setup it doesn’t amount to anything nearly as interesting or important as it wants to think it does. Mitchum’s press agent struts through it with his usual magnificent brand of laidback confidence as he takes a voyage in the dark to discover who his late employer really was after everyone he meets asks if he said anything before he died only to find himself being followed by real-life man of many talents Frédéric O'Brady’s memorable mercenary informant and set up for murder by persons not exactly unknown, not because of what he knows but because of what he might come to know. Along the way he gets to cool off his relationship with the dead man’s trophy wife Genevieve Page, looking strikingly like Ingrid Bergman in her profile shots, and start a new one with the staggeringly unflatteringly photographed Ingrid Thulin’s daughter of one of the links in the chain despite her incredibly irritating habit of adding “umm” and “er” to every other sentence as part of her seduction technique. It’s the kind of film that’s all surface, particularly when the Maguffin is finally revealed by not one but four Irving the Explainers, but it’s a very good looking surface that’s no trial to look at for an hour and a half if you’re in an undemanding mood. Sadly the surface isn’t as good-looking on Kino’s Region A-locked Bluray as it probably was in 1956. Using the same old master that did service on MGM/UA’s DVD double-bill with the 1958 version of The Quiet American, there’s a fair bit of minor scratching on the print and the definition isn’t as sharp as it could be in some long shots (the original trailer included has much sharper definition but less convincing color), but does a decent but not outstanding job of recreating the original Eastman Color hues. The only other extras are trailers for Mitchum’s Man with the Gun and The Wonderful Country. All in all a decent but not outstanding release of a decent but not outstanding film - as long as you set your expectations accordingly on both counts. Last edited by Aclea; 08-16-2019 at 10:00 AM. |
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Thanks given by: | CRASHLANDING (08-19-2019), ilenewoodsfan99 (08-16-2019), oildude (08-17-2019), Professor Echo (08-16-2019), ravenus (08-16-2019), softunderbelly (08-17-2019), tallrichard (08-17-2019), The Great Owl (08-16-2019), whiteberry (08-16-2019) |
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#33830 | |||
Blu-ray Ninja
![]() Jun 2013
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Last edited by whiteberry; 08-16-2019 at 10:39 AM. |
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#33831 | |
Blu-ray Archduke
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We seem to be on the same page. Here was my take on Foreign Intrigue from a while back... Robert Mitchum (Out of the Past) is his good old tired and laconic self as a journalist who is tasked with investigations into his deceased employer's nefarious European dealings. His discoveries lead him into a secret World War II conspiracy and into the paths of memorable characters played by the likes of Geneviève Page and Ingrid Thulin (Wild Strawberries). From the first few moments on, the 1956 film, Foreign Intrigue, gives me the impression that I have stepped into the middle part of a much longer story, only to be left to piece everything together later. It's not that this movie is difficult to understand. It's just that the storyline and Mitchum's character are strangely lacking in any real tension or believability. Fortunately, Foreign Intrigue proves to be a rewarding experience during the final 15 minutes, when it suddenly explodes into action, as though all of the intensity were somewhat released like champagne from bottle after the popping of the cork. Above all, it is a fantastic-looking feature, with its picturesque views of various Europe settings. This movie, which was based on a television series of the same name that ran in the early 1950s, a television show that I myself have never seen, comes across as somewhat unwieldy in this day and age, but it's still a fun eye candy film with a couple of redeeming suspense moments in the final sequences. |
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#33833 |
Senior Member
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This is unfortunate. I remember reading the rights holder claim he personally spent $100k restoring this. If he thinks he's going to recoup all of that he's delusional.
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#33834 |
Blu-ray Knight
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I have a question about the BD of BLACKMAIL.
The silent version on Disc 1, which was restored by the BFI, looks absolutely fantastic. This is its first ever commercial release, and I'm thrilled. However the "talkie" version is presented in two different versions. Disc 1 has a 1.33 version. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears to simply be the 1.20 master stretched out wider. I'm not entirely clear why, since the film's OAR is supposedly 1.20. Disc 2 is labeled as containing the 1.20 version, but it in fact appears to be pinched on the sides, resulting in an aspect ratio that's more like 1.10. I haven't seen this discussed here yet, but on other forums people have brought it up. There are caps and such here: https://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?t=28489 http://www.criterionforum.org/forum/...16328&start=25 The Vudu streaming "talkie" version appears to be the normal 1.20, there are comparison caps between all three versions in the Nitrateville thread. |
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Thanks given by: | jaydot (08-16-2019), whiteberry (08-16-2019) |
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#33835 | |
Blu-ray Ninja
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Someone else brought this problem up earlier in the thread, but it didn't get much traction at the time. I imagine that will change as more people get their hands on the discs. For those who have seen the film already, which edition do you prefer: silent or talkie? (I'm asking about the film itself, not the transfer.) Last edited by noirjunkie; 08-16-2019 at 10:18 PM. |
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#33836 |
Blu-ray Ninja
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Definitely the silent version. The talkie version isn’t as much of an artifact as I thought it would be, but it’s still a talkie film from 1929, and the silent version just has more energy and is a far more confident work. Also, Anny Ondra’s performance suffered in the talkie version from having to awkwardly sync with Joan Barry’s line readings. She was wonderful in the silent version, and I wish she had a bigger career. The shot with her holding the knife after killing the man was absolutely chilling.
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Thanks given by: | noirjunkie (08-17-2019), Professor Echo (08-17-2019) |
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#33837 | |
Expert Member
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#33838 | |
Blu-ray Knight
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The talkie version, even in its proper 1.20 aspect ratio, wouldn't look as good. Still, both have their merits. |
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#33839 |
Blu-ray Baron
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This isn't the first commercial release of the silent version - it's been on DVD in Germany for years containing both sound and silent versions (the latter with original English intertitles), and they make for an interesting comparison piece. Of the two, the silent has more energy and more dramatic composition, although in many areas the differences are fairly minor. The performances seem better, with some interesting handplay in the glove scene that should have been held over for the talkie.
To the sound version's credit it has the "KNIFE!" scene and a much better, longer take of Ondra walking through the streets as ghostly transparent figures of indifferent passers by drift among the crowd, and there's much fun to be had in watching the cues she gives her offscreen voice double (usually every sentence is heralded by opening her mouth for a second's hesitation before starting to mime). Donald Calthrop steals the acting honors as the would-be blackmailer, even managing to convince when using an unlikely upper class accent in the talkie. |
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Thanks given by: | John_Drake (08-17-2019), noirjunkie (08-17-2019), Professor Echo (08-17-2019), Reddington (08-17-2019) |
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#33840 | |
Blu-ray Knight
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![]() Sadly their huge and expensive restoration program of the "Hitchcock 9" silent films was for theatrical release only. The titles are owned by different rights holders, so they have only slowly trickled out to home video over the years, individually. The long-hoped-for BD boxset was, as many of us feared at the time, an impossibility. Easy Virtue was the first to be released on BD, I believe, in France. It was followed by The Lodger in the UK. That film was later paired by Criterion in the US with Downhill. And now we have Blackmail. |
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