What Blu-Ray did you watch last night?

[Ed Gordon]

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.

So your print was not scope (as mentioned in the IMDB Technical specs above)? I wonder how many different versions are out there.

[Brian Fretwell]

So your print was not scope (as mentioned in the IMDB Technical specs above)? I wonder how many different versions are out there.

Yes anamorphic and 'scope but not the proportionally reduced 2.35:1 o that Cineavision would have been, so a little more is lost from top and bottom of the frame.

[Graham Ritchie]

65mm Todd-AO is certainly an impressive film format, to do a blu-ray 2.20:1 transfer from 65mm film does give an outstanding image. One other Todd-AO blu-ray is "South Pacific". I took a couple of screen shots of it during a previous screening.


And now those screen shots using the Panasonic VP, note the Todd-AO Consultant.

[Barry Attwood]

We watched the other day the 4k Blu-Ray of "Blue Hawaii", well it was just amazing, the transfer was stunning, as they went back to the original camera neg for the 4k scan, although they have tidied up the sound, which has to be the best I've ever heard for an Elvis movie, there are no attempts at any surround effects,which is OK with me, it's the stunning vistas of Hawaii and the great music that's the star o fthis cracking musical with added comedic moments as well, well worth a look for all Elvis fans with a 4k set up.

[Brian Fretwell]

At a Dolby talk in what was then the MOMI Museum Cinema on Southbank we we shown an original Tod-AO demonstration short (70mm, 30fps). The Dolby sound people were still impressed by the sound quality on that.

[Graham Ritchie]

To my surprise I came across Prophecy blu-ray last week in a second hand shop, as such we both watched it the other night. I have to say its really pretty corny stuff The blu-ray picture quality was a lot better than I expected. Its the first time I have watched the full feature, before it was the 3/400ft Marketing version. To be honest, the Super 8 print I didn't think image wise was that great, compared to other Marketing films I have, squeezing that scope image onto 8mm film with black bars top and bottom just doesn't work for me. Marketing would have been better to issue it, either as a pan and scan, or better still in Scope.

Anyway for fans of this 1979 movie I would recommend this blu-ray release, also it does come with a lot of extras

[Mike Newell]

The Mad Magician Vincent Price. Good little thriller with believe it or not decent 8mm extras. 400ft sound cutdown in 3D which can be watched with glasses. Not perfect but watchable. The 200ft silent digest is also included.

[Douglas Meltzer]

Graham,

I remember being in San Fransisco and going to see Prophecy when it was first released. I felt so sorry for John Frankenheimer. The one bright spot was the sleeping bag scene!

Mike,

The Mad Magician is a great Blu-ray. I was quite fond of the Columbia 200 footer.

[Mike Newell]

Graham,

I remember being in San Fransisco and going to see Prophecy when it was first released. I felt so sorry for John Frankenheimer. The one bright spot was the sleeping bag scene!

Mike,

The Mad Magician is a great Blu-ray. I was quite fond of the Columbia 200 footer.

It was a follow up on the success of House of Wax but didn’t do as well at the box office as the 3D fad had already peaked by its release. It isn’t a bad movie much better than The Tingler vibrator seats and all.

[Brian Fretwell]

I suspect it didn't do as well as it was B&W rather than the colour "House of Wax". When I saw it in an NFT £D film season I was surprised it was a shown in two projector Polaroid rather than the red/green of the 8mm release.

[Ed Gordon]

Top Ten 3-D Myths

by Bob Furmanek

1. 3-D films of the 1950’s were viewed through red and green/cyan glasses.

Not true. Except for three Lippert shorts and a group of burlesque shorts presented in anaglyphic form in 1953/54, all of the 3-D features, shorts, and cartoons exhibited in commercial theaters from 1952 through 1955 were projected using polarized light. The glasses had colorless lenses exactly like today’s major 3-D films. When anaglyphic comics appeared in the last quarter of 1953, the colored 3-D glasses became commonplace. Colored lenses are much more memorable than the colorless polarized lenses used to view 3-D films...

The first polarized 3-D film from the 1950's converted to red/cyan anaglyphic was the 3 Stooges short, SPOOKS. Columbia released two sixty foot 8mm Headline editions in August 1965.

Some features (Creature from the Black Lagoon, It Came from Outer Space, The Maze, Robot Monster, The Mad Magician) were converted to anaglyphic 3-D in the 1970's for re-issue. Others (Miss Sadie Thompson, Bwana Devil, Gorilla at Large, Revenge of the Creature, Hondo) were converted in the 1980's for television broadcast. All were originally shown theatrically in polarized 3-D.

Source: http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/home/top-10-3-d-myths

Anaglyphic 3D is fine for comic books, but not much more than that. You really need two sources to achieve an excellent 3D effect.

[Brian Fretwell]

I had seen a double bill of Creature from the Black Lagoon and It Came from outer space at a Piccadilly Circus cinema before seeing The Mad Magician at the NFT. (And yes it was the one used in An American Werewolf in London, at least for the exterior shots)

[Ed Gordon]

I have the Three Stooges short, Spooks on Super 8. The Anaglyphic 3D is fair to middling. I have the 3D Bluray version of Creature from the Black Lagoon which has the two images interlaced. The 3D is fantastic. The Epson VP I have supports Active Shutter 3D glasses. I am looking forward to getting the 3D version of Avatar 2.

Other 3D Bluray movies I have include:

Avatar 3D
Black Panther 3D (2018)
Blade Runner 2049 3D
Dial M for Murder - 3D
Gravity 3D
House of Wax 3D
Independence Day Resurgence - 3D
Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008) - 3D
Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle (2017) - 3D
Minions 3D
Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Men Tell No Tales 3D
Polar Express 3D
Skyscraper (2018)
Star Trek Beyond 3D
Star Wars Episode VIII The Last Jedi - 3D
Star Wars The Force Awakens 3D
The Wizard of Oz
Those Redheads From Seattle
Up - 3D
War for the Planet of the Apes - 3D

[Ed Gordon]

The other day I came across an old movie on TV and based on the short description, I recorded it for viewing later. The movie was The Foreign Correspondent from 1940. When I watched the recording I was amazed by the pristine quality of the B&W print and only then remembered this was an early Alfred Hitchcock film.

The review below from a user on IMDB says it all:

Hitch was firing on all cylinders

This film is a true gem, that had all of the touches we have come to associate with films of the master. While "Rebecca" (from the same year) may have garnered more recognition, it was an extremely brooding film that lacked the trademark Hitchcock sense of humor.

"Foreign Correspondent" however, had it all. The suspense is unrelenting, building to a spectacular climax. It had many of those dazzling Hitchcock sequences: the assassination in Amsterdam, the scene in the cathedral tower and, especially, the sequence in the windmill, which is pure magic!

Of course, it also had that classic sense of humor and a slew of terrific character roles, including Edmund Gwenn as the most cherubic and cheerful hit man you've ever seen! The final scene was strictly American propaganda, but that can probably be forgiven considering the subject matter of the film and the time of it's release.

All in all, a wonderful example of the master at his best, that deserves to be dusted off and enjoyed alongside some of it's more celebrated cousins!

I found the video below of an interview with Hitch on Youtube. Among other things, Hitch describes how he shot the final climatic scenes:

Alfred Hitchcock talks about FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

The remastered film is available on bluray from Criterion. I also found a full 2k version on Youtube. You can see the plane crash Hitch talks about at the 1:45 mark.

[Graham Ritchie]

Excellent line up of 3D movies Ed

"True Grit" the other night I bought the Marketing 3/400footer new when it was first released and thought it was one of the best from them. Filmed in a national park the colors looked great, I sold it long ago and regretted it however the blu-ray is very good with both picture and sound and of course the film itself.