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Bond | Casino Royale (1954) preservation (Released)

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I think the shorter version did get released as a special feature on one of the spoof casino royale's dvd's.   The full uncut version has never been on DVD.  A number of years ago there was a bootleg floating around the internet but now impossible to find probably.  Since it was simply a cap of the vhs and not a very high quality one at that.  I think it was released as an Xvid.

Whomever now owns the copyright to MGM after bankruptcy has no reason to track down a tv print and waste time and money to transfer it considering it was never an ION production.  Much like the spoof, and Never say never again.

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

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skyjedi2005 said:

The full uncut version has never been on DVD.  A number of years ago there was a bootleg floating around the internet but now impossible to find probably.  Since it was simply a cap of the vhs and not a very high quality one at that.  I think it was released as an Xvid.

I have this Xvid, if it can be of any help. It's 51:54. Here's some screenshots from VLC:

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I actually have this version of Casino Royale in its entirety as I managed to purchase a copy of the Collector's Edition VHS. The only part missing is the last few seconds of the credits, which to my knowledge was never recovered.

I even copied it to my PC as well. I just haven't done anything with it since then (it's just sitting as an AVI file on my hard drive). I was going to make a DVD version of it but I kind of lost interest. If you guys are after it though, I can pick the job up again :P

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Cool, I'm certainly interested. It'd be even nicer to have a non-compressed/avi rip...

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STENDEC your rip looks great i'd love to see a DVD of that if you could

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Just took one for the team - I bought one, so I'll let everybody know what quality it is and post some screenshots. :)

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ww12345 said:

Just took one for the team - I bought one, so I'll let everybody know what quality it is and post some screenshots. :)

Great. Look forward to your observations.

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OK, the Bluray arrived in the mail a few days ago (kind of a long time for shipping, but that's beside the point). It came in a decent case, with some screenshots and such on the back cover.

Looking at the disc content itself, it is pretty good. It is a telecine of a print (done the wrong way - you can see the tell-tale pulses in the brighter spots throughout the film) but overall the picture quality is better than the VHS preservation by a mile.

Here are some captures:

Casino Royale Captures

Does anybody know what the copyright status of this is? I'd be happy to share it if it is in public domain.

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Looks better than I was expecting. The "pulses" could be burned into the original kinescope?

Whoever did this transfer has put a tiny "bug" in the corner of the film, probably to catch bootlegs of their version.

Is the soundtrack lossless?

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Where were you in '77?

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I didn't check on the soundtrack. How would be a good way of testing that?

I saw the "bug" - could that be removed?

Also, I hadn't thought about the pulses being burned into the kinescope. It looked like projector flicker, but I suppose it could have been kine-flicker. :) 

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Your player ought to be able to tell you the sound codec being used if not your receiver.

The bug could probably be obscured on static shots, but the legal status of CR is kind of hazy at best. Is there any copyright info on the back of the case?

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Where were you in '77?

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I'll check the audio codec later...

The copyright says 2012 Sky Chrome Media Inc. All Rights Reserved, but that means nothing. I could put that on copies of Harmy's DE, but that wouldn't give me copyright. What do you mean when you say it is hazy?

(sorry if that comes off snarky - it wasn't meant to be.) 

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Sky Chrome Media might be able to claim a copyright on their transfer, not the show itself. (Restored video transfers of PD films have been bootlegged by unscrupulous companies before.) If EON Productions really wanted to, they could claim copyright on the character of Bond in a effort to discourage sales.

The VHS cover in the first post used the 007 gun logo, which I'm pretty sure is copyrighted.

Either EON or MGM requested the Neil Connery spoof "Operation Double 007" be retitled for the recent MST3K episode release. The title card as seen on the show wasn't changed, but the DVD packaging reflects the original film's title "Operation Kid Brother". The title card had apparently been altered by whoever owned the movie in the 90's when MST got their hands on it.

A legal claim might not hold water, but to fight it out in court is expensive.

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Where were you in '77?

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Does that Blu-ray have the complete ending?  To my knowledge the complete ending was extremely scratched up and it hasn't been seen on DVD or beyond.  If it does have the complete ending, I'd be interested in purchasing a copy.

I think you can find the full ending on youtube and see what I mean.

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Yes, it has the full ending (to my knowledge.) The quality drops a bit, but not too much (as it is a kinoscope), so the quality is more or less consistent throughout.

What is the consensus on releasing this via tehparadox and the 'Spleen?

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Should work. The copyright status is unknown, as firstly it was thought lost until discovered in the 80's on the kinescope copy. The rights to CR were kicked around until they finally fell into Sony/Columbia's hands who stuck a deal with EON/MGM which gave them rights to the first novel for the first time. but that's all in regard to the novel and the '67 film.

The only official releases of the '54 version are the uncut Spyguise VHS, and the copy on the initial DVD release of the '67 film which does miss the ending bit. this is what I have and what I have seen save for watching the ending on youtube.

Those caps don't look too bad, how in the heck did they obtain a copy to scan in the first place?

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All right, I'll rip it and try to get a copy up at the 'Spleen later...

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Is there an update on this? I recently discovered this and can't find a decent rip anywhere!