Torn Curtain 4K UHD (1966)

[MifuneFan]

Universal will be releasing Torn Curtain on 4K UHD on October 31st.

https://www.gruv.com/product/torn_cu...hd_blu_ray_uhd

Paul Newman and Julie Andrews star in Alfred Hitchcock's Cold War espionage thriller Torn Curtain. World-famous scientist Michael Armstrong (Newman) and his fiancée/assistant, Sarah Sherman (Andrews), travel to Copenhagen for physics conference. When Sarah mistakenly intercepts a message meant for Armstrong, she believes that he is secretly defecting to East Germany. As Armstrong goes undercover to learn top-secret information, the couple find themselves running for their lives from the enemy agents. Starring two of Hollywood's most beloved stars, this politically charged classic is packed with all the intrigue, danger, romance and deceit that define the style of the Master of Suspense.

[Winslow Leach]

Underrated Hitchcock. Great murder sequence and climax.

[Poya]

"I think Hitch and I could have really hit it off, but the script kept getting in the way." - Paul Newman

[BobSimms]

I actually enjoyed both this and Topaz way more than I expected to, given their reputations, when I finally watched my Blu-ray discs from the Masterpiece Collection. I may snag this one on 4k if it’s a substantial improvement.

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by Winslow Leach

Underrated Hitchcock. Great murder sequence and climax.

Yeah, I've always thought it received more hate than it deserved.

[roccog94]

Pre-order for this and the other releases in this Hitchcock wave are up at Gruv.

[Matt89]

I don't exactly hate this one like many do, but I still do consider it "lesser" Hitchcock. It's not as bad as Topaz, though.

[klauswhereareyou]

Originally Posted by Matt89

I don't exactly hate this one like many do, but I still do consider it "lesser" Hitchcock. It's not as bad as Topaz, though.

Perfectly average 1960's spy thriller with one truly excellent scene (the farmhouse). Probably would've been better if Bernard Herrmann's score wasn't rejected (at least it would've been a little more atmospheric anyway).

[Matt89]

Originally Posted by klauswhereareyou

Perfectly average 1960's spy thriller with one truly excellent scene (the farmhouse). Probably would've been better if Bernard Herrmann's score wasn't rejected (at least it would've been a little more atmospheric anyway).

Totally agree.

[jjhlh]

I’ve had issues with this 4K disc. The picture appears pixelated and broken up. It’s unwatchable. This happened on two separate discs that I bought from Amazon. I ended up returning both of them. I wondered if it might be my blu ray player but my other 4K discs play perfectly. I’ve played hundreds of discs but never encountered this problem before. I see at least one other customer on Amazon left a review saying the same thing happened to him on two separate 4K discs of this film, one bought from Amazon and the other from Best Buy. I know this isn’t suppose to happen but could it be a faulty pressing? Strange.



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[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by jjhlh

I’ve had issues with this 4K disc. The picture appears pixelated and broken up. It’s unwatchable. This happened on two separate discs that I bought from Amazon. I ended up returning both of them. I wondered if it might be my blu ray player but my other 4K discs play perfectly. I’ve played hundreds of discs but never encountered this problem before. I see at least one other customer on Amazon left a review saying the same thing happened to him on two separate 4K discs of this film, one bought from Amazon and the other from Best Buy. I know this isn’t suppose to happen but could it be a faulty pressing? Strange.

Same thing happened to me, after hundreds of titles playing fine, with three copies of The Last Duel, then three copies of Casino Royale, then three copies of West Side Story on UHD, then gradually with other titles, until I bought a new player, which played everything perfectly.

Sorry, but I suspect it's your player.

In my experience, certain faults on certain players find an unholy match with certain faults in certain discs. The UHD format seems to be inherently fragile - both discs and players - to a degree I never saw with BD or DVD.

That said, have you tried cleaning the discs? UHD players have such sensitive lasers that the tiniest, invisible smudges can cause the picture to break up. I've had it happen most recently on Frenzy, which played fine after I cleaned it.

[jjhlh]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Same thing happened to me, after hundreds of titles playing fine, with three copies of The Last Duel, then three copies of Casino Royale, then three copies of West Side Story on UHD, then gradually with other titles, until I bought a new player, which played everything perfectly.

Sorry, but I suspect it's your player.

In my experience, certain faults on certain players find an unholy match with certain faults in certain discs. The UHD format seems to be inherently fragile - both discs and players - to a degree I never saw with BD or DVD.

That said, have you tried cleaning the discs? UHD players have such sensitive lasers that the tiniest, invisible smudges can cause the picture to break up. I've had it happen most recently on Frenzy, which played fine after I cleaned it.

I cleaned the disc carefully but the problem persisted.

Oh well, at least it’s not one of the great Hitchcock films I’m missing out on.

[James Luckard]

After nearly 60 years, the full score by John Addison has finally been released, including all of the material Bernard Herrmann recorded before being fired:

https://lalalandrecords.com/torn-cur...mited-edition/

[Richard--W]

Originally Posted by jjhlh

I’ve had issues with this 4K disc. The picture appears pixelated and broken up. It’s unwatchable. This happened on two separate discs that I bought from Amazon. I ended up returning both of them. I wondered if it might be my blu ray player but my other 4K discs play perfectly. I’ve played hundreds of discs but never encountered this problem before. I see at least one other customer on Amazon left a review saying the same thing happened to him on two separate 4K discs of this film, one bought from Amazon and the other from Best Buy. I know this isn’t suppose to happen but could it be a faulty pressing? Strange.



upload png

That's a dirty disc. Not all dirt is visible on the disc itself.

Rinse it off under warm water and then dry it with a clean
white cotton cloth. Then play it again.

No kidding. A Tech Support guy at Disney told me to do
that once while he held the phone. It actually worked.

[Richard--W]

This restoration is a revelation.

I've always liked TORN CURTAIN, but I never saw it
so resolved and textured and present as it is here.

Hitchcock is working with a different set of emotional
dynamics than he usually does, and I like the feeling
of it very much, especially Julie Andrews earnest love
and lack of comprehension.

Wonderful spy film.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Richard--W

That's a dirty disc. Not all dirt is visible on the disc itself.

Rinse it off under warm water and then dry it with a clean
white cotton cloth. Then play it again.

No kidding. A Tech Support guy at Disney told me to do
that once while he held the phone. It actually worked.

Hopefully it's a dirty disc, but I encountered the exact same thing, with my image breaking up the same way, on multiple discs, and it was a misaligned laser, which couldn't be repaired.

Hopefully cleaning the disc works for the other user, but there's a chance it won't and they should be prepared for that, as unpleasant as it is.

My fingers are crossed for them that it's fixed with soap and water.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Richard--W

This restoration is a revelation.

I've always liked TORN CURTAIN, but I never saw it
so resolved and textured and present as it is here.

Hitchcock is working with a different set of emotional
dynamics than he usually does, and I like the feeling
of it very much, especially Julie Andrews earnest love
and lack of comprehension.

Wonderful spy film.

I like a lot of this underappreciated film, but I do think the sequence on the bus goes on way, way too long, and the endless use of the main theme over and over and over each time the bus starts up again makes the sequence seem 10x as long.

That portion of the album is a real slog too. I suspect Bernard Herrmann wouldn't have scored it in such a repetitive way. I need to get one of the recordings of his full score to see what his intentions were, since he never recorded that portion before he was fired, and the new CD only includes what he actually recorded.

It's such a shame Hitchcock gave into his own fears and fired Herrmann, he never found an equal to him, except for John Williams on Family Plot.

[johnm_001]

I much prefer John Addison's score to what Herrmann (whose work I, mostly, love) wrote for this film. At least as it is presented in the scenes from the film where they insert Herrmann's score. I love this film. It was very popular during its release. In fact, it is Hitchcock's most successful film with Universal. In fact, because the two stars got a cut of the box-office, in addition to their salaries, Hitchcock vowed to never have major stars in a film, again, because his cut was so greatly diminished. I also love TOPAZ, and don't understand why people don't like it. There are some excellent edge of your seat scenes in the film, and everyone in it is excellent.

[HeavyHitter]

This one and Topaz are two of the Hitchcock films in the boxset I had a very hard time getting into and didn't get anywhere near finishing them. But I am going to try again at some point perhaps in a different mindset to them.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by johnm_001

I also love TOPAZ, and don't understand why people don't like it. There are some excellent edge of your seat scenes in the film, and everyone in it is excellent.

There are certain elements that I LOVE in Topaz. The middle portion in Cuba is especially strong and Karin Dor is fantastic in that chunk of the film. There are brilliant scenes and sequences throughout. That said, I don't think the movie works overall.

Some of my issues with Topaz are:

- too much of it was obviously shot on backlots or in LA, much like Torn Curtain. This is amplified in Topaz by the fact that the opening sequence in Copenhagen is actually shot largely on location. Unfortunately, the remainder of the film is mostly sets and backlot, with just second unit establishing shots of exotic locations.

- I find the lead performance by Frederick Stafford extremely wooden, lacking energy or charisma. To me, he's blown off the screen even by John Forsythe in his secondary role. To my mind, the lead role needed a sexy, charming movie star with greater depth as an actor, like Sean Connery, who was said to have been offered the role.

- I also find Dany Robin's performance fatally undermined by her tremendous awkwardness with the English dialogue. She sounds to me like she probably learned her lines phonetically. She has some complex English dialogue to speak, but it often sounds like she doesn't understand what the individual words mean. This flat delivery of her dialogue makes her character feel far colder than I think she's meant to be in the script. If they wanted a French actress, Catherine Deneuve, rumored to have been considered for the role, would have been a lot better, because she'd have brought warmth and vulnerability, but could also have played the strength the character has.

- The score is uneven, to me. The love theme for Karin Dor is gorgeous, and other portions of the score also work beautifully, but I find the main thematic material for the spying portions odd and unintentionally funny. It's light and jaunty and playful and undercuts the tension every time it appears, making those portions feel more like a James Bond parody, to me.

- the plot isn't as clear as it could be. I actually prefer the shorter theatrical version, because it streamlines the plot and makes it more coherent

- the ending is anti-climactic, because

[Show spoiler]the protagonist isn't even involved, it's a minor tertiary character, the protagonist's daughter's fiancee, who actually gets the big final suspense scene with the villain.