The Official Network Thread

[thebrid]

Originally Posted by edmoney

I'm interested in ordering The Woman in Black but would like to add a couple additional titles to my order from Network. Seeing that I've never purchased any Network releases before and am unfamiliar with most of their titles, what are some people's blind buy recommendations of the best Blu-ray releases from Network in terms of both the movies/shows themselves and the picture/audio quality? I understand that many of Network's releases (especially the older ones) have lackluster video and audio, so I prefer to avoid those unless the content is really great. I'm open to anything in terms of genre, time period, etc. (I'm a big fan of Criterion, Kino, Arrow, etc.). Thanks.

Have you seen the Up Series? Network's blu rays of those are pretty good. They're all presented about as good as you can hope. The earlier ones, they scanned the original films so they're presented in HD for the first time. Some of the middle years were shot on SD video so they're presented in SD and the latest ones were shot in HD video so they're also in HD.

Just to give you a flavour of what to expect if you've not seen them before, here's Roger Ebert's review of 42 Up.

[edmoney]

Originally Posted by Aclea

What sort of movies - especially British movies - do you like?

Hell Drivers is a terrific tough thriller with a great cast, Rome Express and The Night Has Eyes good vintage thrillers, The Rebel and The Smallest Show on Earth good comedies, Oh Rosalinda a sporadically delightful Powell and Pressburgerstylised musical, Quatermass an intriguing scifi series and The League of Gentlemen, Perfect Friday, Robbery and Sweeney 2 worthwhile but all quite different heist movies.

I particularly like horror and sci-fi in terms of genres, but I'm really open to a very wide range of movies. For example, Black Narcissus, Things to Come, and The Lodger are all titles that I'd be interested in if there weren't already superior (arguably) releases from Criterion. Most of the other Network titles I'm unfamiliar with. I guess I wouldn't be making pure blind buys, as I'd read up on the titles first. But there appear to be relatively few Blu-ray reviews for most of the Network releases, so I'm trying to get an idea on some of Network's best all-around releases as a starting point. Thanks for some of your suggestions - I'll take a look.

[edmoney]

Originally Posted by thebrid

Have you seen the Up Series? Network's blu rays of those are pretty good. They're all presented about as good as you can hope. The earlier ones, they scanned the original films so they're presented in HD for the first time. Some of the middle years were shot on SD video so they're presented in SD and the latest ones were shot in HD video so they're also in HD.

Just to give you a flavour of what to expect if you've not seen them before, here's Roger Ebert's review of 42 Up.

Ah yes, I have heard of it and do remember Ebert's love for it. That was actually one of the Network titles I was very curious about, but that's another one where I didn't know how good the Blu-ray was (as mentioned before, Network seems to be somewhat dodgy in the video/audio department in the few reviews I could find). Thanks for the recommendation.

[Sifox211]

Originally Posted by Aclea

What sort of movies - especially British movies - do you like?

Hell Drivers is a terrific tough thriller with a great cast, Rome Express and The Night Has Eyes good vintage thrillers, The Rebel and The Smallest Show on Earth good comedies, Oh Rosalinda a sporadically delightful Powell and Pressburgerstylised musical, Quatermass an intriguing scifi series and The League of Gentlemen, Perfect Friday, Robbery and Sweeney 2 worthwhile but all quite different heist movies.

I can't recall if I knew about this film and had forgotten about it or whether you've told me about a P&P film of which I wasn't aware... but colour me amazed to find there is a Blu-ray of it! When did that come out and why don't I have it

[Vault of Horror]

Originally Posted by edmoney

I particularly like horror and sci-fi in terms of genres, but I'm really open to a very wide range of movies. For example, Black Narcissus, Things to Come, and The Lodger are all titles that I'd be interested in if there weren't already superior (arguably) releases from Criterion. Most of the other Network titles I'm unfamiliar with. I guess I wouldn't be making pure blind buys, as I'd read up on the titles first. But there appear to be relatively few Blu-ray reviews for most of the Network releases, so I'm trying to get an idea on some of Network's best all-around releases as a starting point. Thanks for some of your suggestions - I'll take a look.

My suggestions:-

Dream Home
Hell Drivers
Jack The Ripper
The Naked Civil Servant
The Night Has Eyes
Quatermass
The Rebel
Séance On a Wet Afternoon
The Woman in Black

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by Sifox211

I can't recall if I knew about this film and had forgotten about it or whether you've told me about a P&P film of which I wasn't aware... but colour me amazed to find there is a Blu-ray of it! When did that come out and why don't I have it

It came out just under a year ago and is a decent but not perfect restoration:



For decades the hardest of the Archers’ films to see, and then usually only in poorly panned and scanned versions, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1955 musical Oh… Rosalinda!! isn’t a triumph, but it’s the kind of film that offers too much fun along the way to not quite hitting the target to be called a failure. A lavish Technicolor CinemaScope version of Die Fledermaus updated to post-World War Two Vienna still occupied – just - by the Four Powers (the UK, USA, France and Russia), it makes imaginative use of the wide, wide screen, its stylised sets and character interaction consciously designed for the frame. Dennis Arundell’s updated lyrics are often witty, as is some of the choreography, and at times you get the odd hint of the Lubitsch touch (indeed, P&P originally tried to enlist regular Lubitsch collaborator Maurice Chevalier, one of many – Bing Crosby and Orson Welles among them – to turn them down) while it’s set in a not too dissimilar world to Billy Wilder’s Irma La Douce and One, Two, Three if they had been designed in expressionistic style by Tales of Hoffman’s Hein Heckroth instead of Alexander Trauner.

The problems are certainly noticeable but not insurmountable when it comes to enjoying the proceedings. Anton Walbrook, always at his best with anger and frustration, isn’t entirely successful at pulling off his charmingly manipulative fixer Dr Falke, not quite managing the ingratiating charm his opening direct to camera address to the audience before all that music starts really needs but acing other scenes. The dubbing of many of the singing voices, such as Mel Ferrer, never feels a convincing match, which allows those who can sing their parts to steal scenes – not least Michael Redgrave, whose high kicking French Colonel is quite a delight, the actor’s obvious enjoyment of cutting loose quite infectious (the usually reliable Anthony Quayle’s Russian is sadly not so successful). The casting is hit-and-miss too: while famed soprano Anneliese Rothenberger gets the chance to do what she did best there’s a certain wilful playful perversity to hiring ballerina Ludmilla Tchérina and barely having her dance and giving her a singing part that has to be dubbed (by Sheri Barabas), while the prolific Oskar Sima (despised by the gay Jewish refugee Walbrook for his reputed links to the Nazi Party) is pure dead weight as comic relief. There are also bit parts from a few future notables of varying degrees, some easy to spot like Jill Ireland when she was still a featured dancer and Arthur Mullard, others, like John Schlesinger or Roy Kinnear (the latter’s presence in the film the subject of some doubt), less so.

We’re never really invested in or rooting for any of the characters, but there’s still amusement to be had from watching their plans go awry and, being Powell and Pressburger, there are the odd flights of visual fancy, such as Dennis Price’s drunk scene being shown through a wildly misaligned and distorted Scope lens (

[Show spoiler]

), as well as slyly staged throwaways jokes like the Russian soldiers hiding bottles behind their backs. Like most parties, perhaps it goes on a little too long but even when it doesn’t fly as high as it clearly wants to, it never drags you down, and at its best it’s absolutely delightful.



As with some of Network’s other film restorations there’s not much in the way of noticeable grain and it’s clear DNR has been applied in some scenes (Quayle’s in particular), but it’s a sharp and clean transfer and Christopher Challis’ vivid use of colour comes through a treat. Extras are limited to original trailer, stills and poster gallery and a tiny reprint of the pressbook that is absolutely impossible to read.

[Sifox211]

Many thanks! Duly ordered

[Aclea]

I'm sure you'll enjoy it despite its problems.

[CV19]

I remember many years ago seeing Michael Powell's film Honeymoon (no Pressburger on this particular movie) on the BBC, late 80's I would say, which also starred Ludmilla Tcherina and Anthony Steele. A decent blu-ray from Network would be nice - and uncut too. There is a Spanish blu-ray, but it doesn't contain the English soundtrack, although it's a more complete version of the film than the one broadcast here on TV.

[Aclea]

Peeping Tom and his episodes of Espionage (released on DVD by Network) aside, Powell's post-Pressburger work is perhaps his hardest of all to see -The Queen's Guards, Bluebeard's Castle and They're a Weird Mob (which did at least get a good Australian DVD) and his producing work on Sebastian (originally intended as his big directorial comeback) and Pavlova have all become real rarities.

[Benoit Blanc]

Originally Posted by Darby1985

I thought they'd be hyping The Woman In Black left, right and centre given it's out in 5 days.

Someone said a while back that someone made comments recently that suggest The New Avengers will be released soon. I'm really looking forward to that.

[Sifox211]

Originally Posted by Aclea

Peeping Tom and his episodes of Espionage (released on DVD by Network) aside, Powell's post-Pressburger work is perhaps his hardest of all to see -The Queen's Guards, Bluebeard's Castle and They're a Weird Mob (which did at least get a good Auistralian DVD) and his producing work on Sebastian (originally intended as his big comeback) and Pavlova have all become real rarities.

Oddly enough, considering it didn't seem to get any other UK release, They're a Weird Mob appeared on the white version of the UK P&P DVD collection:

[Aclea]

The Australian DVD had a 54-minute making of documentary and trailer. Was the UK disc barebones or did it carry them over?

[Sifox211]

Sadly it's barebones. Non-anamorphic too.

[nitin]

Originally Posted by kidc

For your consideration...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkm2cHkIFe4

*Tips hat*

[Hintermann]

Originally Posted by Aclea

It came out just under a year ago and is a decent but not perfect restoration:



Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1955 musical Oh… Rosalinda!! isn’t a triumph, but it’s the kind of film that offers too much fun along the way to not quite hitting the target to be called a failure. A lavish Technicolor CinemaScope version of Die Fledermaus updated to post-World War Two Vienna still occupied – just - by the Four Powers (the UK, USA, France and Russia), it makes imaginative use of the wide, wide screen, its stylised sets and character interaction consciously designed for the frame. Dennis Arundell’s updated lyrics are often witty, as is some of the choreography, and at times you get the odd hint of the Lubitsch touch (indeed, P&P originally tried to enlist regular Lubitsch collaborator Maurice Chevalier, one of many – Bing Crosby and Orson Welles among them – to turn them down) while it’s set in a not too dissimilar world to Billy Wilder’s Irma La Douce and One, Two, Three if they had been designed in expressionistic style by Tales of Hoffman’s Hein Heckroth instead of Alexander Trauner.

Had never heard of this film but I've never gone wrong with MP & EP; that and Aclea's review clinched it for me and I placed a blind buy order.

[BarnDoor]

I see Network are offering Konga and Catacombs in HD on Prime, so two titles for October perhaps? The former already has a US release, but Catacombs would be a world premiere.

Slayground may be another possibility.

[OceanBlue]

Originally Posted by BarnDoor

I see Network are offering Konga and Catacombs in HD on Prime, so two titles for October perhaps? The latter already has a US release, but Catacombs would be a world premiere.

Slayground may be another possibility.

Have got Network's DVD release of Slayground. I know since then its had a release in the States, but if Network were going to do their own release, hopefully it gets a new scan and master. Had hoped Handgun would get an upgrade to Blu-ray.

Was hoping a label in the States would do a release of Assault, as apparently the version on Network's Blu-ray release is cut by four minutes.

Likely going to get Station Six-Sahara, unless a States release is announced with exclusive extras (giving me a good dilemna), and the upcoming release of Who Done It?

[Scottishguy]

Far superior to that very much forced effort with the Potter guy. What with the camera in that adaption hard focusing on anything someone might find a modicum of creepy in. Bollocks.

No the 1989 TV version has real atmosphere, tension and psychology. One of those flicks that uses it's limitation to bring out innovation. It's similar I'd say to The Wicker Man where on the surface everything seems prosaic, staid, an unnerving normality, that slowly unravels.

Definitely an experience. A fine hidden gem.

[Witchfinger Generous]

Originally Posted by OceanBlue

Had hoped Handgun would get an upgrade to Blu-ray.

That's a title I would love to see on Blu-ray. I only saw it for the first time a short while ago on TalkingPicturesTV and immediately searched online to see if there was an HD release of it. Make it happen, Network.