Back-catalog titles that could do with remastering

[Carlson2005]

Going through my collection to see what can be pruned at the next movie convention I go to, I've been noticing that some of the titles finding their way into the 'dump' pile are actually films I like but which have such lousy DVD transfers that I'd rather just stick with a video copy taped off air until they remaster. I'm not just talking non-anamorphic transfers or vanilla editions, but plain bad picture or sound quality. MGM/UA seem a particularly consistent offender. Among them -


The First Great Train Robbery - edge enhancement problems turn any shot where rails aren't exactly horizontal or vertical into a series of jagged staircases.

The Front Page - only available as a Public Domain title, the 1931 version really deserves remastering. None of the current versions are even audible!

Hans Christian Andersen - did they master this off a video cassette?

The Hindenburg - a lot of edge enhancement problems make any scenes with struts or rigging look like hundreds of flights of tiny steps. And there are a lot of scenes with struts and rigging...

Horse Feathers - would it be too much to hope that one day Universal will source some of the TV prints out there to fill in the many gaps in dialogue in their last two DVD issues? Probably...

Lawman - proof that even if there is such a thing as a script and a cast so good not even Michael Winner can ruin it that that still doesn't mean MGM/UA won't screw up the transfer. The R1 disc looks like it was shot through a dirty window.

The Muppet Christmas Carol - two issues already and still they can't do it uncut in widescreen

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes - not a patch on the DVD transfer

Reign of Terror/The Black Book - one of Anthony Mann's best, a gothic film noir set during the French Revolution, but the DVD is trulyly disgustingly bad quality that completely wrecks John Alton's great b&w cinematography.

The Royal Hunt of the Sun - the curse of Public Domain strikes again

Star Wars Trilogy - Original Versions - naturally

Tunes of Glory - in the liner notes Criterion talk about tiny imperfections but make no mention of the fact that for more than ten minutes of the film there is a huge colour bar running along the side of the image.

The Watchmaker of Saint-Paul/The Clockmaker - this one I'll keep, but like many Kino transfers of French films it's a bad standards conversion

Zulu Dawn - neither 2.35:1 or stero

Feel free to add your own disappointments...

[Eric Paddon]

A lot of movies languishing in PD junk releases would fall into this category for me.

1-Beneath The 12 Mile Reef. I was lucky to find lousy PD release that at least had it letterboxed!

2-Gamera The Invincible. There was a great widescreen, remastered version of *both* the original Japanese language cut, and the surprisingly superior American cut with Brian Donlevy, Albert Dekker and Dick O'Neill in added scenes on VHS and Laser Disc. Alas all DVD releases have been the old panned and scanned crap.

3-Tarzan's Revenge. Much maligned Glenn Morris entry produced by Sol Lesser actually is no better or worse than the later RKO Weismuller/Lex Barker films, and Olympic swim champ Eleanor Holm did okay in her only film.

4-Esther And The King. This Joan Collins Biblical film (boy is that a contradiction in itself!) had a decent panned/scan VHS release from Fox but its DVD is an awful PD one in worse shape.

Too often PD films like these never get a chance to look great again. A nice exception was all of the Universal Sherlock Holmes which got great new editions from UCLA Film Archive to replace an infinite number of garbage PD versions that had circulated for years.

[AndyDursin]

POLTERGEIST -- 16:9 enhanced but this was one of those early DVD transfers and it's completely out of date.

LIFEFORCE -- The "International" version needs some remastering asap!

1941 -- UniversalHD has been showing a high-def version of the theatrical version...but we need the 146 min. cut in 16:9 or HD-DVD. An ancient old transfer.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS -- I picked up the "Superbit" Japanese DVD but it looks identical to the regular DVD edition, despite having a higher bit rate. The HDNet HD transfer was stunning at times and a huge upgrade on the regular DVD release.

BLADE RUNNER -- Coming soon, we know...but I still have to mention it!!

[Eric Paddon]

Oops, almost forgot!

One Million Years B.C.-Fox screwed this one up and released the shorter US cut rather than the longer European cut that had been released on DVD. The Warner R2 release was the longer cut.

1776-The Peter H. Hunt vanity cut is a disgrace of the first order. The Laser Disc cut is the one that deserves to be on DVD.

The Alamo-Longer LD cut please!

It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World-Ditto!

[John Johnson]

The Alamo-Longer LD cut please!

I was under the impression that the longer roadshow print was in need of restoration. Any truth in this?

[Carlson2005]

Not especially, though a brush-up wouldn't hurt. I was drafted in to do some damage limitation PR when they released the cut version, and the only reason they released that was because at that time it was standard policy to release 'universal versions' - the same cut in multiple languages worldwide - to save on mastering costs. Since the film never played uncut in most countries, there were no foreign soundtracks available for the uncut version, so they went for the shorter cut because they had foreign language tracks for it. Ditto for It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

Yep, as simple a bean-counting move as that.

Good call on Lifeforce - I thought it was just the UK edition that was slightly ropey. But a film of that quality deserves a true 2-disc special edition!

[AndyDursin]

I even imported the Japanese R2 of LIFEFORCE and they're all derived from the exact same transfer.

Dammit!!

[Monterey Jack]

I would have said The Secret Of NIMH, but we're finally getting a long-overdue remastered SE in June.

[mkaroly]

I just saw It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World on TCM- there were a few moments where it seemed like the film "bowed"....as if it had been filmed in Cinemascope and then knocked back to a 2.35:1 picture and the image bowed to get everything on the screen (Sid Caesar in the airplane hangar, for instance)....was that film filmed in a special way that had to be adjusted for release on video and DVD? I'm just curious....

I agree with Andy on the Spielberg stuff (especially 1941) and POLTERGEIST. Still waiting for that definitive edition to come out....

[Jedbu]

MAD, MAD WORLD-the Arclight in Hollywood showed a 70mm restoration of the roadshow version a few years back, which included all the cut scenes and even the intermission radio broadcasts (evidently from the Kramer estate). I think the shots that looked weird were from either a 16mm print or a flat 35mm print-the color was off, too (I think TCM showed this one.

By the way, if you want to hear some good dirt on how the Cinerama Dome screwed up the 25th anniversary of this film some years ago, write to me and I will dish very nicely.

Also-THE ALAMO-the last hour on the LD was directly from the roadshow print. It looked gorgeous and sounded the same, so what happened? Where is it?

Speaking of the Duke, Fox should be ashamed of the DVD of THE BIG TRAIL. Fox and MOMA went to all the trouble to restore this 65mm Grandeur film and even showed it on AMC (when they used to actually show [i]classic[/i] films) and they release the film in 1:33?

Warners should remaster ROSEWOOD onto one side of a disc, Sony should make Peter Hyams/Van Damme's best film TIMECOP in 16:9, and why is the Goldwyn WUTHERING HEIGHTS still out of print?

[Eric Paddon]

TCM only shows the LD cut, which does not have the police call intermission audio. I know I'd like to see a cut that has those restored.

[esteban miranda]

Didn't mean for it to but looks like the ones I could think of turned out to all be PD. I guess that's not the point of the thread...

The Jungle Book (1942)
My Favorite Brunette (1947)
Life With Father (1947)
Beat the Devil (1953)

As far as "legitimate" releases, none that I've seen stand out as being particularly bad. However, 73% of the movies I have on DVD were produced before 1960 and frankly I wouldn't expect a movie of that vintage to be flawless anyway.

[Eric Paddon]

PD titles do count as "legitimate" releases. You just have to hold out hope that there's an outfit willign to spend money for a quality remastering job on something that will still have a gaggle of bad PD releases at the same time (like the Rathbone-Bruce Sherlock Holmes films)

[Jedbu]

I know that WHV did bring out a nice DVD of 'TIL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY (too bad the film isn't that special), and that TCM does have nice copies of LIFE WITH FATHER and ROYAL WEDDING, so maybe if they do a William Powell or Astaire box they will be included.

A few more that I'd like to see redone:

ONE EYED JACKS-this must have an interesting story of its financing to already be a PD title. It's a helluva film and I would so love to see it in the VistaVision aspect ratio. Can someone recommend any good version currently available?

THE SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK-same question-any good source for this one?

I do know that Kino did release the LobsterFilm restoration of L&H's FLYING DEUCES-very nice print, by the way, and the Criterion copies of MY MAN GODFREY (curiously, not from the UCLA restoration) and PANDORA'S BOX are definitely worth getting.

For those who would like the MAD, MAD WORLD story, here it is. When the Cinerama Dome was celebrating its 25th back in '88, the opening film of the series was to be MAD, MAD WORLD, since that was the film that opened the theater back in 1963. One problem-MGM/UA had no 70mm prints and no complete 'Scope 35mm prints-only flat ones! So Pacific Theaters had to put the call out for a 'Scope print from wherever, and fortunately UCLA's archive had one, so the arrangement was made to borrow the print for a gala re-premiere with whoever was still alive from the cast and then show it a few times for the unwashed masses.

Well, the print is taken over there and put on the platter system the Dome was using, and while the film is unspooling for the audience, the person from UCLA who was watching over the print had a cow because the film had been spliced onto the platter, and seeing as this was an archival print and meant to be shown on two projectors with changeovers, this was a big no-no. Consequently when the showing was over the archive guy demanded the print be returned to him and now there is a mad (sorry, it slipped out) scramble to find another copy for the next three days which are already heavily sold in advance.

Pacific gets a flat 35mm from MGM/UA for the showings but fails to inform the public that the print will basically be like watching a huge TV screen. I should know, because I was there for the first showing and when the credits began you could hear this low rumble throughout the auditorium. So, myself and maybe about 100 people walk out of the theater and storm the box office demanding an explanation and/or refunds. The poor manager (who was this little wimpy guy) was not expecting this teeming mass of film mavens (and if you have ever met a MAD, MAD WORLD maven, trust me, they are passionate and a bit scary) and amidst the shouting contacts the honchos at Pacific and explains what is happening. Consequently, we were all given passes for future showings at the Dome and a sign was posted at the box office. I returned to my seat and thought I would try to watch but it was just impossible.

A friend introduced me to Rennie Johnson, who was one of the leading restoration people at MGM (he later did the video work on this film and THE ALAMO before getting fired over some shady dealings) and he told me about the ongoing work on MMW and how difficult it was because of using three different sources to piece the film back together, in some cases using a few frames here and there to complete a scene, a shot or even a sequence. He showed me the longer version of the scene where Tracy accidentally roughed up Ethel Merman just before he runs into the condemned building. They had to do a blow-up from 16mm twice in the scene alone, that's how fragmented it was.

Please, MGM/Sony/Fox-do right by this film for once and for all!

[Eric Paddon]

Fascinating story. Thanks for sharing!