Billy Wilder on Blu-ray

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Dailyan

It's most likely something like a fine grain master. Certain films can have cigarette burns introduced during the pre-print process (most likely to test how reel changes will be in theaters). Almost no major studio is going to use a release print as a basis for a home video master unless it might be the absolute best surviving element (ironically, a lot of audio masters can be taken directly from a film print). The cigarette burns are present throughout the film. Surprisingly, there's very little in terms of something like white specks or scratches.

Ah, interesting, I didn't know that much about the process, I thought cigarette burns were only on release prints. At least they shouldn't be on KL's 4K remaster, which I presume is from the negative.