Keep Watching the Skies! 1950s Sci-Fi and Horror on Blu-ray

[RalphoR]

What a catch 22. Warners want the best possible presentation but at the potential cost of us never seeing it on bd. I'd prefer the best possible scan using the elements they have right now.

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by dommie

That's not good. Does that mean we will never see a Blu-ray of The Thing From Another World? Or is there enough to work with for them to restore the film, provided they have the desire to do so? Guess time will tell....

Hard to say never. Warner's had somewhat the same issue with releasing King Kong due to the censored footage being in rough shape and they finally located a complete uncensored print in the UK, I believe. As things stand now, the DVD edition is pretty good with the reinserted cut sequences easy to spot with an obvious dip in pq and the usual stock footage mismatch which has always existed.

[dommie]

Originally Posted by hoytereden

Hard to say never. Warner's had somewhat the same issue with releasing King Kong due to the censored footage being in rough shape and they finally located a complete uncensored print in the UK, I believe. As things stand now, the DVD edition is pretty good with the reinserted cut sequences easy to spot with an obvious dip in pq and the usual stock footage mismatch which has always existed.

Yep. I have the DVD and it's not bad. An upgrade to Blu would be a plus if it ever happens.

[RalphoR]

Warners put out the dvd with the extended scenes in lower video quality and I was fine with that. I wish they'd do the same with a potential blu-ray. I'm sure most of us would be more than okay with it.

[NoirFan]

Next up from Anolis in their Revenge of the Gallery of Terror series (with only The Black Sleep, already available in the US from Kino, remaining), is The 27th Day, on 2/14:





No Amazon.de listing yet, but here is a bit more info on the release.

The 27th Day - Vintage Horror Movie Trailer - YouTube

[50sscifi]

Here's a really nice 50's sci-fi movie selection January 3 on TCM,
plus a few misc titles on different dates also worth a look...enjoy!

ALL times Pacific Standard Time (PST)

Sunday, December 31, 2017 PST
10:15 AM Time Machine, The (1960)

Wednesday, January 03, 2018 PST
3:00 AM Thing From Another World, The (1951)
4:30 AM Them! (1954)
6:15 AM Giant Behemoth, The (1959)
7:45 AM Godzilla (1954)
9:30 AM Rodan (1958)
11:00 AM Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958)
12:15 PM Queen of Outer Space (1958)
1:45 PM Invisible Boy, The (1957)
3:15 PM Forbidden Planet (1956)
5:00 PM Boy With Green Hair, The (1948)

Thursday, January 25, 2018 PST
3:15 PM Valley of Gwangi, The (1969)

Friday, January 26, 2018 PST
8:45 PM Panic in Year Zero (1962)

[noirjunkie]

Originally Posted by dommie

That's not good. Does that mean we will never see a Blu-ray of The Thing From Another World? Or is there enough to work with for them to restore the film, provided they have the desire to do so? Guess time will tell....

Never say never. We got a WAC blu-ray of Hell on Frisco Bay this year, and I never thought we'd see the day when that happened, given the lack of acceptable source material--until the OCN was found earlier in the year.

[Zodiac-Mindwarp]

Just re-watched the 1951 version The Thing From Another World recently and loved it as always. This is a must buy if a good Blu ever comes out.

[NoirFan]

Originally Posted by Kino Lorber Insider

4/24 is the tentative street date (not 3/13).

[NoirFan]

Site reviews of It Came from Beneath the Sea and 20 Million Miles to Earth

Still no Amazon.de listing for The 27th Day.

[RalphoR]

3 stars for ICFBtS and 2 for TMMtE? Seriously?

[SMOOT]

Originally Posted by RalphoR

3 stars for ICFBtS and 2 for TMMtE? Seriouly?

Rather shocking is it not ?
"20 Million Miles to Earth" is a really fun film. I would think 4 stars even for the odd non-Harryhausen fan
(or at least 3.5 for the Movie rating).

But, as with "It Came from Beneath the Sea," when it comes to the Image Quality rating,
I do agree that both films plus "Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers" definitely need new scans.

[NoirFan]

Both of those reviews focus entirely on the technical presentations (pointing the reader to the previous reviews for discussion of the films themselves), so I wouldn't get too worked up about the movie ratings. (Then again, I never do! I typically just scroll down to the a/v comments, and get my movie analysis from Savant, Adam Tyner, Cine Outsider, etc.)

[SMOOT]

Originally Posted by NoirFan

Both of those reviews focus entirely on the technical presentations (pointing the reader to the previous reviews for discussion of the films themselves), so I wouldn't get too worked up about the movie ratings. (Then again, I never do! I typically just scroll down to the a/v comments, and get my movie analysis from Savant, Adam Tyner, Cine Outsider, etc.)

I think the issue with the movie rating is that those who are not familiar with the film might take it seriously.

Sometimes reviewers take on films that are out of their oeuvre, and they would be better simply commenting on the technical presentation and leave off any notation as to the film itself.

The reviewer was spot-on with his technical review and comments of the Video Quality.

[RalphoR]

I agree with the technical aspects of the review but I still think it's somewhat harsh. They could have just compared the technical merits vs the respective dvds instead of "compared to every other bd". I hope Sony does release a nice uhd set of their Harryhausens or allow someone else to.

[HanaBi]

Originally Posted by Zodiac-Mindwarp

Just re-watched the 1951 version The Thing From Another World recently and loved it as always. This is a must buy if a good Blu ever comes out.

I recorded it from TCM and was surprised to see it formatted to 16x9; TCM is usually OAR. It actually looked pretty good (though the opening titles were stretched, and the final shot/credits pillarboxed).

It's one of my favorites, and I keep hoping WB will eventually find a way to release it on BD (in OAR of course).

[Robert Furmanek]

4K scans off the original 35mm left/right camera negatives!

Stereoscopic image restoration by 3-D expert Greg Kintz!

Dirt and damage clean-up by digital artist Thad Komorowski!

Three-channel stereophonic sound restoration by audio engineer Eckhard Büttner!

Our first collaboration with The Film Foundation and The Paramount Archive
will be released on 3-D Blu-ray April 24, 2018 by Kino Lorber Studio Classics!

http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/the-maze

[RalphoR]

Nice! Thanks for the heads up!

[SMOOT]

Originally Posted by RalphoR

I agree with the technical aspects of the review but I still think it's somewhat harsh. They could have just compared the technical merits vs the respective dvds instead of "compared to every other bd". I hope Sony does release a nice uhd set of their Harryhausens or allow someone else to.

I think the Movie review (of "20 Million Miles to Earth") was harsh and it pains me to see those 2 stars --
I suppose that I just have to accept that it is one person's opinion and hope that it does not turn off anyone unfamiliar with the film.

We all have our own feelings about a film and I'm sure that I have unfairly criticized someone for liking or disliking a film:
I now make more of an effort to not be unkind to those with different
(and, sometimes, better) tastes than mine.

On the other hand, I totally agree with the Video (Image Quality) part of the review:

Other than "The Animal World" (which is likely only 1/7 or 1/8 Ray Harryhausen & Willis O'Brien),
all of the color Harryhausen's now have great transfers*
(some people question 1981 "Clash of the Titans"*, and I don't want to get into that argument as it looks far better on Blu-ray than it ever looked before).
But,
the 3 Sony/Columbia Black & White films are really behind the times, and I don't think Powerhouse/Indicator should have accepted or used the 2 that they recently released. The transfers really show their age.

I have the USA DVDs & USA Blu-rays of "It Came from Beneath the Sea", "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers", and "20 Million Miles to Earth" --
I think I could do a double-blind test and most people could not tell which was DVD and which was the Blu-ray -- All 3 need new scans.

I was hoping that the Powerhouse/Indicator releases of "It Came from Beneath the Sea" and "20 Million Miles to Earth" would be more modern work, but I should have known from the promotion of the "colorized versions" that these would be the long outdated transfers.

Again, I'm thrilled with the way Ray Harryhausen's color films look today --
Some (maybe all) of them look better than I remember from the theatrical
presentations. And Warner's Blu-ray releases of "Mighty Joe Young" and "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" are also of reference quality.

It's past the time that Sony should be re-using these older black & white masters when one considers how excellent all of the other Harryhausen films are presented.

[SMOOT]

Originally Posted by HanaBi

I recorded it from TCM and was surprised to see it formatted to 16x9; TCM is usually OAR. It actually looked pretty good (though the opening titles were stretched, and the final shot/credits pillarboxed).

It's one of my favorites, and I keep hoping WB will eventually find a way to release it on BD (in OAR of course).

This surprised me as well, and last year I discovered something that I never knew about this excellent film --
Apparently, in 1954 (I believe), the 1951 "The Thing from Another World" was re-released in a fake Widescreen version. I believe this was when the 9 minutes or so was cut from the original release version.

Yes, it looks weak and does not do the film justice.

I really hope that Warner Brothers finds great elements to make a proper Blu-ray release in the original aspect ratio and not the "widescreen" re-release.