What Blu-Ray did you watch last night?

[Graham Ritchie]

Its not often we watch the same movie two nights in a row, but tonight and last night "Alien Covenant" was it on blu-ray, using the Panasonic VP .

I remember going to the cinema to watch it, and was shocked at the time, to see that Ridley Scott had used a well known and popular tourist spot here in the South Island as a backdrop for there arrival on the alien and not so friendly planet. I fully expected to see a tourist boat cruising the fiord somewhere way in the background.

Alien Covenant as a movie grown on me and I am liking it more and more.

A poster from the internet

[Steve Klare]

Something a little different: not a movie but a concert, and not just a concert but a great one!

Back in 1964, Shea Stadium was opened in Queens County, New York for the new National League baseball team, the New York Mets. It became pretty historic, pretty quickly. In the Summer of 1965 the Beatles came to town and this was where they first played on North American soil.

Fast forward to 2008, Shea Stadium was destined for demolition for replacement by the new Citi-Field, and the very last event scheduled before the wrecking ball arrived was a Billy Joel concert, and one for the record books at that. The place was filled with a larger audience than ever, with a lot of big-time celebrity guests performing on stage, and very late in the show Sir Paul McCartney returned to Shea for the first time since 1965, and the closing number was "Let it Be" performed by Paul sitting at Billy Joel's piano.

Our son has become a pretty big Billy Joel fan, so we got him the Last Play at Shea Blu-Ray for Christmas. What's funny is we also had to get him an external drive or his laptop because people of HIS Generation stream everything and don't own media (...he also has a stash of 8mm film, but...).

He asked me to big screen it for him last night. It was an awesome show!

[Steve Lee]

Just before Christmas I treated myself to a very expensive Blu ray, I came to terms that this film will never find it's way onto any streaming platform in this totally politically correct world that we live in today. As I wanted to see it again, being the very last film I projected on 35mm as I and had such fond memories of it and hearing the laughter coming out of the cinema auditorium.
The film is the 2005 remake of the Producers. The story to this film is a peace of genius, so witty and clever that only Mel Brooks could come up with this one.
The two stand out performances are Nathan Lane and his amazing facial expressions, and sadly the late Gary Beach in his role of director Roger Debris, so funny.
This is probably the last time we will ever get to see a true MGM style musical on the screen, due to the cost of the lavesh sets and costumes, all done with no CGI in sight.
Seeing it again I noticed that there are so many technical references to Singin' in the rain, in the way that the film was shot, even using over oversaturated colour to make it look like its shot in Technicolor. A true gem.
I am still laughing at some of the lines.

[Steven J. Kirk]

ROMAN HOLIDAY introducing, yes, introducing Audrey Hepburn. This is an excellent Blu Ray transfer and is a double disc edition with the DVD. Great black and white photography and mono sound piped through my centre speaker this played great on the Panasonic VP on my exactly 4ft by 3ft image area 'academy' screen. Slight overprojection on the side as the BDV is 1.37:1. Going straight to some Tom and Jerry afterwards on the Elmo GS halogen I saw once more that the Elmo aperture is seemingly 1.37 as well. Has this been talked about before. Am I seeing things?

[Graham Ritchie]

The last two nights its been "Apollo 11" which includes newly discovered 65mm footage. This blu-ray is very impressive, and I would highly recommend getting it, projected using the Panasonic VP.

Screen shots are from last night.

[Graham Ritchie]

Tonight I started with two titles from the double DVD See Britain by Train Volume 2, they were "The Coasts Of Clyde" 1959 followed by "Glasgow Belongs To Me" 1966.

Then it was onto the excellent Digitally Restored Blu-ray from Ealing Studios called "The Maggie" 1954. I never tire projecting this one A couple of past screen shots are included below

[Ed Gordon]

...Then it was onto the excellent Digitally Restored Blu-ray from Ealing Studios called "The Maggie" 1954. I never tire projecting this one

I have never heard of this one Graham. The critics agree with you. I found the entire movie is available on Youtube for viewing free. I noticed that it was also released as "High and Dry". No explanation was given for the alternate name.

[Brian Fretwell]

I have never heard of this one Graham. The critics agree with you. I found the entire movie is available on Youtube for viewing free. I noticed that it was also released as "High and Dry". No explanation was given for the alternate name.

Maybe to cash in on the success of Whisky Galore.

[Graham Ritchie]

Hi Ed

I first watched it on VHS long ago and thankfully, at long last "The Maggie" was released by Studiocanal UK onto blu-ray, which I just had to get. Its a pity they never made it in Technicolor to take advantage of the Scottish scenery. Puffers themselves were always a popular we boat on the West Coast of Scotland. Even where I came from in Dunoon, they had a coal pier where regular visits of puffers would transport coal, also they carried everything else to the islands, they were very important part of the West Coast of Scotland.

Years later there was a popular TV series called "The Vital Spark" the story of a puffer and crew. Also remember reading Para Handy tales, a book of many shorts stories, again about a puffer and crew

My VHS tape..



Now the blu-ray

[Ed Gordon]

...Its a pity they never made it in Technicolor to take advantage of the Scottish scenery. Puffers themselves were always a popular we boat on the West Coast of Scotland. Even where I came from in Dunoon, they had a coal pier where regular visits of puffers would transport coal, also they carried everything else to the islands, they were very important part of the West Coast of Scotland.

Graham, I had the same thought about the use of color instead of B&W would have been a great addition as I watched the film. Captain MacTaggart's amusing eccentricity got a little tiresome by the end of the film. My favorite character was "The Wee Boy". He seemed to be the only one with common sense who was aware of what was going on.

The Puffer was certainly the star of the show. I noticed your Bluray included a featurette on the Puffer. I searched Youtube for video on Puffer ships, but all I got was two hits on Puffer ships and dozens of videos on Puffer Fish. If you are aware of where to find more info on Puffers, a link would be appreciated.

In my area we a enamored with the last remaining wooden steam ship from the historic "Mosquito Fleet" that serviced the Puget Sound (AKA "Salish Sea") last century.

Virginia V-Last of the Mosquito Fleet

[Graham Ritchie]

Ed you need to watch this interview with Tommy Kearins

[Ed Gordon]

That was a challenge Graham! Interesting, but I really could have used subtitles to understand all of what Tommy was saying. Oddly enough the full two hour interview including outtakes does have CC available.

1,432 views May 14, 2020
Sadly Tommy passed away since I uploaded my original film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh_gP... about the "wee boy" from the wonderful Ealing film comedy "The Maggie". This prompted me to dig out the original tapes, now over 18 years old, digitize them complete with out-takes and bloopers and present them here. I just managed to salvage them before they deteriorated. Mostly filmed when Tommy and his wife Ena lived in Govan with some footage filmed at the 200th anniversary celebrations of the opening of the Crinan Canal in 2001.Tommy's family still live in the Glasgow area. I hope they and you enjoy. Philip Hatfield. May 2020.

[Graham Ritchie]

Glasgow accent mine is nowhere as strong as his, but you never really lose it fully. I remember training up a young kid, for hopefully part time projection work, to give me a break. I spent all day showing him how to thread the Bauer U4, the Simplex and the Kinoton. all he did was smile and said nothing. I began to think, that he was having me on, so when the 6pm sessions came up, I asked him to thread all three projectors. To my surprise it was perfect "wow" I thought, so he got the job, at the time he was 15 years old, and took to projecting like a duck to water Years later I did ask him?, why on the first day he said nothing but smiled all the time? his reply was, "I could not understand a word you were saying". He had picked things up by watching, amazing

Tonight it was a bit of a change to "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines" 1965, filmed in Todd AO the blu-ray ratio of 2.20:1 looks great, I like it a lot more than 2.35:1 of Scope. The picture quality on the Panasonic VP looked great, sound quality excellent. This was a German blu-ray release a lot cheaper than some prices I have seen for this particular title. The blu-ray player goes straight to English audio

This movie is a real blast from the past, great stuff.


Must not forget my Super 8 digest

[Ed Gordon]

That's a great story Graham. You must be a fantastic instructor if your student can pass the exam having failed to understand a single word you were saying!

I watched a bit of the subtitled version of the interview with Tommy Kearins and even the person transcribing the interview had problems understanding what was said. At one point Tommy is talking about Ealing and the subtitle changed Ealing to kneeling.

Your copy of Magnificent Men is how the movie was photographed. The bluray I have is from the 35mm scope version, which means it was cropped to fit 2.35 aspect ratio.



Notice that IMDB included 8mm specifications. It looks like the 8mm version was the full movie at 2,766 feet.

[Brian Fretwell]

And, of course the Derann release (5x600ft - I have a copy) was cropped again to 2.66:1 on Super 8. Some of the filming for it was in one of the Movietone 'scope releases from them, which strangely didn't mention the title of the film.