The Hallelujah Trail (1965)

[Robert Furmanek]

Olive's business is just like Kino's - encode and throw on a BD-50 while smoking weed

For the record, many films would not be appearing on Blu-ray were it not for Kino's proactive stance with securing elements and paying for new transfers.

For instance, these titles would have not been seen in 3-D again if Kino did not make it happen:

Gog
Those Redheads from Seattle
Cease Fire
The Maze
Sangaree

Plus many flat titles, including the Outer Limits.

[LeeFanatic007]

Any idea why this isn't up for pre-order on Amazon yet?

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by LeeFanatic007

Any idea why this isn't up for pre-order on Amazon yet?

https://www.amazon.com/The-Halleluja...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

[uncledougie]

Originally Posted by cinerama

From Olive Films web site (looks like it will be the same transfer as the R2 DVD):



BURT LANCASTER (From Here to Eternity, Elmer Gantry, Twilight’s Last Gleaming)
LEE REMICK (Days of Wine and Roses, Anatomy of a Murder, The Omen)
BRIAN KEITH (The Parent Trap, Nickelodeon, TV’s Family Affair)
MARTIN LANDAU (Ed Wood, North by Northwest, TV’s Mission: Impossible)
JIM HUTTON (Walk, Don’t Run; Major Dundee; Where the Boys Are)

Directed by JOHN STURGES (The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven, Bad Day at Black Rock)

Burt Lancaster (Elmer Gantry) and Lee Remick (Days of Wine and Roses) star in The Hallelujah Trail, the widescreen comic western extravaganza directed by John Sturges (The Magnificent Seven) from a screenplay by John Gay (The Courtship of Eddie’s Father) based on the novel by Bill Gulick.

Under the watchful eye of its owner Frank Wallingham (Brian Keith, The Parent Trap), the Wallingham Freighting Company is bound for Denver with forty wagons of whiskey to quench the town’s thirst. But there are others who have plans of their own for the load of libations including temperance leader Cora Templeton Massingale (Remick), who wants it destroyed, the Sioux Indians who want it for themselves, ditto the Denver citizens militia, as well as the Irish teamsters hired as wagon drivers. Fearing that the shipment may not reach its destination, Colonel Thaddeus Gearhart (Lancaster) assigns Captain Paul Slater (Jim Hutton; Walk, Don’t Run) to safeguard the cargo, unaware that Slater’s fiancée, Louise (Pamela Tiffin, Harper) – who also happens to be the Colonel’s daughter – has fallen under the powerful spell of Cora’s temperance message.

Rounding out the cast in this comic free-for-all are Donald Pleasence (Halloween), Martin Landau (Ed Wood), Dub Taylor (Bonnie and Clyde), John Anderson (Ride the High Country), Tom Stern (The Spy Who Came in from the Cold) and Val Avery (Black Caesar).

The Hallelujah Trail was photographed in the Ultra Panavision 70 format by three-time Academy Award® winner Robert Surtees (King Solomon’s Mines – 1951, The Bad and the Beautiful – 1953, Ben-Hur – 1960), costumed by eight-time Academy Award® winner Edith Head (The Sting – 1974), with a rousing score by Academy Award® winner Elmer Bernstein (Best Music, Original Music Score, Thoroughly Modern Millie – 1968).

DISCLAIMER: The Hallelujah Trail is presented using the best available elements.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles)
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 155 mins
VIDEO: 2.35:1 Aspect Ratio; COLOR

The Hallelujah Trail will be available on DVD and Blu-ray on February 27th.

Hold on: in addition to the aspect ratio issues, the laserdisc was at least the full length film clocking in at a stated 166 minutes approximately. The DVD at 155 minutes, in addition to looking horrible, must have had ten minutes or so of missing footage. Surely Olive Films would at least go back to a full length version even if they couldn't produce a new Ultra Panavision scan!
And yes, the Cinerama surround was glorious for all their films. If only mono stems remain, that would be a real shame, especially given Elmer Bernstein's wonderful score.

[cinerama]

Just called Olive at (630) 444-1757. The person answering the phone said Hallelujah Trail is stereo sound 2.0 and he thinks it does include Overture, Intermission and Exit music. Someone mentioned the 5.1 on the DVD was derived from a 2.0 track.

[T. Warren Scollan]

Originally Posted by cinerama

Just called Olive at (630) 444-1757. The person answering the phone said Hallelujah Trail is stereo sound 2.0 and he thinks it does include Overture, Intermission and Exit music. Someone mentioned the 5.1 on the DVD was derived from a 2.0 track.

They could call it stereo sound, but that doesn't mean they didn't just put the same mono track on each side. That's what's done with mono tracks these days!

Problem is, the 4 channel tracks on 35mm anamorphic prints are magnetic, as are the 6 channel tracks on 70mm prints. Those tracks are long gone with the ravages of time and use. The audio stems (magnetic) they were made from have mostly disappeared, are lost, or have similarly dissipated with age. The only thing left are the mono optical tracks on the release prints or negatives used to make them. It's a real miracle when we get an old original multi channel sound track like we did for "It Came From Outer Space". There are exceptions, of course, for films that were highly valued from the beginning like "2001", "Lawrence of Arabia", etc. Many films available on DVD or Blu-ray today wouldn't even exist at all if it weren't for optical sound tracks.

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by yellowcakeuf6

I totally agree. This is what we can now expect with the studios licensing out these type of titles. Kino's Custer of the West and Krakatoa: East of Java were similar 35mm sources, though they did look pretty good for what they are: compromises.

These are even more obscure titles and at least they were not significantly cropped compared to their original roadshow presentation so I am OK with that. I would have hoped for more with The Hallelujah Trail, something like the treatment they gave to Khartoum.

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by T. Warren Scollan

And don't be happy about Olive's FLAT presentation of Martin and Lewis' classic "Money From Home". They were too cheap to pay a small free to have a 3D master done. Just took the same scan used for Legend Film's DVD. Even if one doesn't care about 3D, what about the people who do? Like us who care about image quality.

Olive has a license to release this for a limited time in a limited area and sells a few thousand discs if all goes well. This means they have very little to gain financially from each individual release. It would be mainly the rights holders who are to blame for not providing a 3D master as they will be able to market a proper 3D master to any number of partners worldwide, not just Olive.

Again one could argue that Olive could show better judgement and not release Money from Home in its current form but that is for another thread.

[Paulo Elias]

Originally Posted by cinerama

Just called Olive at (630) 444-1757. The person answering the phone said Hallelujah Trail is stereo sound 2.0 and he thinks it does include Overture, Intermission and Exit music. Someone mentioned the 5.1 on the DVD was derived from a 2.0 track.

If they release it in 2.0 I am not going to order it.

Olive screwed up "Carmen" by releasing it in PCM 2.0, whereas the movie was released to theaters in Dolby Stereo for 35 mm prints and 6 track for 70 mm. Why they did this is beyond understanding, because an extra Dolby or DTS track would improve the user's expectations for the correct sound format.

[cinerama]

Originally Posted by Paulo Elias

If they release it in 2.0 I am not going to order it.

Olive screwed up "Carmen" by releasing it in PCM 2.0, whereas the movie was released to theaters in Dolby Stereo for 35 mm prints and 6 track for 70 mm. Why they did this is beyond understanding, because an extra Dolby or DTS track would improve the user's expectations for the correct sound format.

It's not Olive, it's whatever the studio gives them, take it or leave it. I think Twilight Time decided not to but Olive said OK. It's this or nothing.

[cinerama]

Originally Posted by yellowcakeuf6

I totally agree. This is what we can now expect with the studios licensing out these type of titles. Kino's Custer of the West and Krakatoa: East of Java were similar 35mm sources, though they did look pretty good for what they are: compromises.

Custer and Krakatoa do look pretty good but mono sound and no extras suck. If they had to compromise, I would have preferred at least 2.0 Dolby Surround over the picture quality.

[Paulo Elias]

It is inadmissible, from a collector's point of view, to be offered a subpar Blu-Ray release containing out of specs transfers off 70 mm prints.

Granted, there were lots of movies blown-up to 70 mm in the 1960's that we could swear were shot with a 65 mm negative. In some of these cases it is possible that the 35 mm OCN will still look quite good, if scanned correctly.

But soundtracks are in a different situation altogether. The moment a picture is released in 70 mm there is always a chance to recover the 6-track or at least the 4-track stereo sound. I have several DVDs in my collection that fall in this category, and at least in one release, namely the Universal DVD edition of Bob Fosse's Sweet Charity the disc features a Dolby Digital 4.0 track.

Sweet Charity is a blown-up 35 mm source and was presented at our local Cinerama 70 mm theater.

If Olive is not committed to a serious release of a 70 mm movie, they should clarify the reasons for potential consumers!

[atfree]

I cancelled my pre-order.

[yellowcakeuf6]

Originally Posted by cinerama

Custer and Krakatoa do look pretty good but mono sound and no extras suck. If they had to compromise, I would have preferred at least 2.0 Dolby Surround over the picture quality.

Yeah, at this late stage in the Blu-ray era it seems we are going backwards. I'm not too sure it's 100% the studios' fault as far as the soundtracks are concerned. Twilight Time has asked for and gotten the original tracks from the studio, and one such case was Exodus, which included 3 versions! Then again Nick Redman is a sound and music guy. Kino seems to be the worse with the soundtracks being 2.0 mono on some of the 4 and 6 track films.

[cinerama]

Originally Posted by Paulo Elias

If Olive is not committed to a serious release of a 70 mm movie, they should clarify the reasons for potential consumers!

They said:

DISCLAIMER: The Hallelujah Trail is presented using the best available elements.

[yellowcakeuf6]

Originally Posted by Paulo Elias

It is inadmissible, from a collector's point of view, to be offered a subpar Blu-Ray release containing out of specs transfers off 70 mm prints.

Granted, there were lots of movies blown-up to 70 mm in the 1960's that we could swear were shot with a 65 mm negative. In some of these cases it is possible that the 35 mm OCN will still look quite good, if scanned correctly.

But soundtracks are in a different situation altogether. The moment a picture is released in 70 mm there is always a chance to recover the 6-track or at least the 4-track stereo sound. I have several DVDs in my collection that fall in this category, and at least in one release, namely the Universal DVD edition of Bob Fosse's Sweet Charity the disc features a Dolby Digital 4.0 track.

Sweet Charity is a blown-up 35 mm source and was presented at our local Cinerama 70 mm theater.

If Olive is not committed to a serious release of a 70 mm movie, they should clarify the reasons for potential consumers!

I was also hoping Olive was going to include a 3-track Perspecta stereo simulation for Strategic Air Command like Criterion did for Sanjuro and Yojimbo (which sound great), but the video on that release looks fantastic.

[T. Warren Scollan]

Once again, I believe these sound deficiencies are neither the fault of the original studio or the current distributor. Multi channel tracks either on film or on the original stems are always magnetic. Go back some years, and they just don't exist any more, or if they do, they're useless by now. Optical (usually mono) are all that's left. The few mags left are for those older films of major importance the movie makers felt at the time were worth the extra time and extra expense to preserve.

For example, in the early and mid '50's, one of the major features of Cinemascope was a 4 channel magnetic sound track in most all of the "scope" films. Today Blu-rays and 4k's of "scope" films from that era rarely have anything more than a mono sound track. Or something enhanced that's been extracted from a mono track.

"Warnerphonic" was the surround sound of its era and its combination with a 3D film, say, as in "House of Wax" just added to the encompassing dimensionality of the film. Sadly today ---------- Lost! 3dFA and some others are doing a lot of audio engineering to try and recreate those multi channel tracks and while some of it's pretty darn good, it's not quite the same.

[ArnoldLayne56]

Off topic, but Cinerama news!

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/com...-whiff.356276/

[Paulo Elias]

Originally Posted by cinerama

They said:

DISCLAIMER: The Hallelujah Trail is presented using the best available elements.

Thanks for the heads-up, but what would those best available elements be?

Sadly, there is no mention of magnetic tape sources, and let's not forget the recent excellent job that was done for My Fair Lady, whose first Blu-Ray release had an awful sound quality and sub-par video. This new restoration is a strong evidence that if the studios are truly interested in providing a good transfer the restoration software is all they need to use, provided of course that original sound and video elements are available. My Fair Lady had several problems with the OCN but still the new digital restoration proved flawlessly!

[cinerama]

Originally Posted by uncledougie

Hold on: in addition to the aspect ratio issues, the laserdisc was at least the full length film clocking in at a stated 166 minutes approximately. The DVD at 155 minutes, in addition to looking horrible, must have had ten minutes or so of missing footage. Surely Olive Films would at least go back to a full length version even if they couldn't produce a new Ultra Panavision scan!
And yes, the Cinerama surround was glorious for all their films. If only mono stems remain, that would be a real shame, especially given Elmer Bernstein's wonderful score.

Three running times listed:

155 minutes - Olive
165 minutes - Amazon
166 minutes - BestBuy

Maybe 155 minutes for the movie and 9/10 minutes of Overture, Intermission and Exit Music?