Warner Archive Collection Blu-ray Discussion Thread

[EVOLVIST]

Originally Posted by captainsolo

If you’re looking for one color title above all others: Ivanhoe is one of the most breathtakingly gorgeous color films you’ll ever see...
Yes, Robert Taylor is a bit stiff and the script is a bit 50’s MGM but the film is the most anyone had tried to match Adventures of Robin Hood in color and a big budget since….Adventures of Robin Hood.

You forgot a big one, homie. The one that came out a year later. 1939, was it? That super colorful film with the girl and her dog in a strange land that wasn't Kansas. I forget the name of it.

Anyway, that film is awfully colorful and it had a big budget, too. Just about $500,000 more than The Adventures of Robin Hood.

[xochipilli]

Originally Posted by captainsolo

If only The Wild Bunch was WAC. The TCM Festival somehow has gotten a 70mm print from the 1990's reissue/restoration and I'm drooling. I've only seen the 35mm 90's print and it was the best I've ever seen in spite of being dirty.

Interesting you mention that. This recently released trailer for TCM's April all-Warner schedule includes a clip from The Wild Bunch which looks like a new remaster, a lot less dark and brown/yellow than the current disc, very similar to the upcoming Cool Hand Luke re-do. At 0:31:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTAuG537HXo

Unless I'm wrong, I'd wager a 4K UHD release is very likely in the cards, which would be great news, seeing as it suffers from a seriously outdated transfer and is one a few major WB titles still saddled with only lossy audio. Both Bonnie and Clyde and Bullitt, two other big studio films from the same era, have the same issues, but I couldn't gleam from the short clips(at 0:41) if they're newly redone. Might be a good idea to check them out next month to see what they look like.

[captainsolo]

Originally Posted by EVOLVIST

You forgot a big one, homie. The one that came out a year later. 1939, was it? That super colorful film with the girl and her dog in a strange land that wasn't Kansas. I forget the name of it.

Anyway, that film is awfully colorful and it had a big budget, too. Just about $500,000 more than The Adventures of Robin Hood.

I should've specified. I was thinking in terms of adventure films specifically. The few in between that do well are Three Musketeers and Flame and the Arrow but no one did as lavish a swashbuckler in color until Ivanhoe.

[captainsolo]

Originally Posted by xochipilli

Interesting you mention that. This recently released trailer for TCM's April all-Warner schedule includes a clip from The Wild Bunch which looks like a new remaster, a lot less dark and brown/yellow than the current disc, very similar to the upcoming Cool Hand Luke re-do. At 0:31:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTAuG537HXo

Unless I'm wrong, I'd wager a 4K UHD release is very likely in the cards, which would be great news, seeing as it suffers from a seriously outdated transfer and is one a few major WB titles still saddled with only lossy audio. Both Bonnie and Clyde and Bullitt, two other big studio films from the same era, have the same issues, but I couldn't gleam from the short clips(at 0:41) if they're newly redone. Might be a good idea to check them out next month to see what they look like.

That certainly would be nice. Most of those clips look like WAC BD masters and preexisting masters but a few certainly would be from new masters. I'm not fully sure in that brief shot if it's new or not but a 4K release has been rumored on and off possibly tying in with the proposed (please don't do it!) remake.

Poor Bullitt can't even get it's proper mono track on video though that too is rumored to finally be up for a new master. Probably to be timed up with the unfortunate Spielberg remake.

[KJones77]

Just placed my order and went with:

[Mose Harper]

^ Some of my absolute favorite WA releases in that batch. Congrats!

[BillyDuffyLove77]

Originally Posted by KJones77

Just placed my order and went with:

Great movie!

[EVOLVIST]

Originally Posted by captainsolo

I should've specified. I was thinking in terms of adventure films specifically. The few in between that do well are Three Musketeers and Flame and the Arrow but no one did as lavish a swashbuckler in color until Ivanhoe.

Let subjectivity reign, but man, I say The Three Musketeers (1948) is one of the best Three-strip Technicolor films ever photographed. Robert Planck was robbed of the Oscar for best Cinematography, as Joe Valentine took home the win with Joan of Arc (1948), which was excellent, but nowhere near as a stylized as Planck's work. I'd take Rope (1948) over Joan of Arc.

I'll also say that the color of pallette of The Three Musketeers is at least the equal of The Adventures of Robin Hood. One reason that Robin Hood pops so much is the predominance of green, which is the color that the eye naturally records the best, although that doesn't necessarily tell you what color pallettes the eye prefers to see. Natalie Kalmus knew this, so what we see in The Three Musketeers is a more balanced, refined, yet equally colorful pallette, as opposed to what Kalmus had done earlier in her role with films like The Adventures of Robin Hood and The Garden of Allah (1936). In fact, although she was a pro since the gained the role, I think The Wizard of Oz was her coming out party.

Of course, F. A. Young cannot be dissed on any level, but his work has a decidedly British twist to photographing in color, like several of his contemporaries, Jack Cardiff, Douglas Slocombe, and to lesser degree, Otto Heller.

Now we're all back to subjectivity.

[captainsolo]

One could probably make the best Technicolor argument for a good number of films. Overall they're all great and unbelievably impressive. I do very much agree on the British photographers and labs always producing a more sedate but nuanced Technicolor look vs US Technicolor productions having a different sort of approach.

The '48 Three Musketeers is very underrated and definitely has more money put into it than Adventures of Don Juan as much as I love that film. (I think it was about a million more in budget than Don Juan.) But it still doesn't go as lavish as Ivanhoe because shooting the film in the UK meant the money could go incredibly further.

I ADORE the color photography in Rope. Joseph Valentine was a supremely underrated cameraman.

The reason why I go nuts so much over the photography in Ivanhoe isn't just that it's gorgeous in color but that Young really went for broke in his compositions, lighting and pushing the color depth to an extent that many closeups and medium shots look like masterly paintings that then suddenly have the subjects start to move. (This is even with the extremely dodgy opticals someone okayed that are laughably poor.) By this point the format had most if not all of the kinks worked out too and people were more used to working with three strip.
In the followup, Knight of the Round Table, Young was having to work in Scope for the first time and it was MGM's first released scope film. So the photography while handsomely mounted is nowhere near as eloquent as what he was able to do in Ivanhoe. It's sort of the same thing you see when comparing Quo Vadis in Academy vs The Robe and the other films that came slightly afterwards: Impressive scope and scale due to the widescreen processes but it isn't as intricate or nuanced as the nearly perfected methods of Academy ratio with Technicolor printing.

[CinemaScope]

Ivanhoe looks fantastic, but Scaramouche from the same year (1952) also looks great, & that's just looking at the the DVD. Hopefully that'll be coming from WAC on Blu-ray soon.

[Hammerlover]

Originally Posted by xochipilli

Interesting you mention that. This recently released trailer for TCM's April all-Warner schedule includes a clip from The Wild Bunch which looks like a new remaster, a lot less dark and brown/yellow than the current disc, very similar to the upcoming Cool Hand Luke re-do. At 0:31:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTAuG537HXo

Unless I'm wrong, I'd wager a 4K UHD release is very likely in the cards, which would be great news, seeing as it suffers from a seriously outdated transfer and is one a few major WB titles still saddled with only lossy audio. Both Bonnie and Clyde and Bullitt, two other big studio films from the same era, have the same issues, but I couldn't gleam from the short clips(at 0:41) if they're newly redone. Might be a good idea to check them out next month to see what they look like.

Give me a 4K of HORROR OF DRACULA, WHV!

[Areyakiddin]

Still no word on when tomorrow's podcast is premiering?

[Nori]

Anyone else ever had a problem with Moviezyng where when you forget your password and chose a new one, it never works? I changed multiple times and after changing I still can't log back in. I can't place an order anymore cause they say I have an account associated with my email and need to log in. It's frustrating lol.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by Nori

Anyone else ever had a problem with Moviezyng where when you forget your password and chose a new one, it never works? I changed multiple times and after changing I still can't log back in. I can't place an order anymore cause they say I have an account associated with my email and need to log in. It's frustrating lol.

Yep, had that happen once. Nothing would work so I ended up emailing them. Never heard back, but for what ever reason I was able to log back in again.

[Jobla]

Originally Posted by Nori

Anyone else ever had a problem with Moviezyng where when you forget your password and chose a new one, it never works? I changed multiple times and after changing I still can't log back in. I can't place an order anymore cause they say I have an account associated with my email and need to log in. It's frustrating lol.

I've had a similar issue with Bull Moose.

[david_blu]

I wish someone at WAC could go and fix all the blasted issues on the Superman and Rocky sets.

We can get pristine 1930s films that no one will watch but let's screw up two massive franchise releases without trying.

[filmlover22]

Originally Posted by david_blu

I wish someone at WAC could go and fix all the blasted issues on the Superman and Rocky sets.

We can get pristine 1930s films that no one will watch but let's screw up two massive franchise releases without trying.

Speak for yourself. There are many people who love and appreciate those films.

[Rafows]

Originally Posted by david_blu

I wish someone at WAC could go and fix all the blasted issues on the Superman and Rocky sets.

We can get pristine 1930s films that no one will watch but let's screw up two massive franchise releases without trying.

Well, So you can call me a "no one" that purchases every single pristine 1930s titles WA releases on Bluray.

[Rayjg]

Originally Posted by david_blu

I wish someone at WAC could go and fix all the blasted issues on the Superman and Rocky sets.

We can get pristine 1930s films that no one will watch but let's screw up two massive franchise releases without trying.

If only WAC was allowed to handle those films but it'll never happen. They did release that extended version of Superman at least.

[Dan_Shane]

Originally Posted by david_blu

We can get pristine 1930s films that no one will watch but let's screw up two massive franchise releases without trying.

Yeah, no human being would ever see any value in those old films. A lot of them aren't even in color!