Info: James Bond - Laserdisc Preservations: 1962-1971 — Page 24

Where can I find these

captainsolo said:

SilverWook said:

Yeah, the LALD SE looks like a VCD at times. :(

The THX DVD of Dr. No has noticeably more compression artifacts seen in ocean waves.

Is it possible some of the earlier 5.1 mixes were derived from 70mm releases? (At least the Moore and Dalton entries.) I'm thinking some of these ought to be preserved. They could certainly co exist with a PCM track synched up to the Blu Rays. Maybe preserve the SE menus too? ;)

I've got the THX Moonraker DVD on the way, and more factory sealed Bond LD's in my future. There is no cure for Laserdisc fever!

DN also has heavy, heavy noise that is not grain.

The early 5.1 mixes should be derived from the original stems as you're indicating, but all are straightforward 4 channel single surround masters. Being always on the technological forefront was never the intent of Cubby Broccoli, and Spy was the first film to not be mono. It is a stereo surround mix, but nowhere is Dolby listed as being applied so I can't say for sure if it was a Dolby release. Moonraker is Dolby stereo, as is everything through TLD, with LTK being Dolby Stereo SR. 70mm was used for some of the films in this era, but not all and it wasn't a primary concern as far as I can tell, so the mixes should be identical to the 35mm.

SilverWook said:

captainsolo said:

These 5.1 mixes will almost certainly trump anything from later on simply due to better compression and greater detail. Better practices because they were made for LD 5.1 which avoids the typical down conversions built into DVD audio. But the UE is the only release of LTK that is fully uncut in Region 1. The others are a rumored PAL German LD and a NTSC Japanese LD but both are full screen.

Is it feasible to patch the missing scenes using the UE? There is a VCD on Yesasia.com, but it's probably full frame...

Yes it would be indeed. The best would be to use the UE video and PCM audio from one of these rumored uncut LDs to patch into the PCM from the US one. The cuts are very minor, but once you know them you notice if they're gone. Primarily it's some body hits and violence, Krest in the depressurization chamber, the cocaine shredder, and a few little dialogue tweaks on cursing IIRC. All in all it's only a minute or two total. The worst is how they re-cut the ending of the tanker scene in order to remove a few seconds of burning. It makes no logical or cinematic sense in the 1989 theatrical version as Bond magically jumps back and forth from the explosion and is very disconcerting as for a brief moment you can't even tell which way is which, which of course detracts from the major climactic moment of the entire film.

This is basically what we're looking at: http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=3129

http://www.melonfarmers.co.uk/bbfc_cuts_licence_to_kill.htm

 

The only releases I'm seeing on LDDB that show runtimes longer than 133 minutes are a U.S. edition at 135 and a Dutch edition at 139. Almost everything else, including the U.S. releases, shows a 133-min runtime. What am I not seeing here?

captainsolo said:

I have a few, let me know what you may need. Have you ever found any with those few errors corrected? I'm starting to think it was a myth. If not I think I'll fill in my SE collection as well. I had been holding out for cheap boxsets.

The box sets are pretty cheap on Amazon, aren't they? At any rate, I just happened to come into possession of a partially completed SE box, the gold one. Which films from that one had the errors and what were they? I can check to see if they were corrected.

The uncut release was by Warner Bros. in a pan n' scan master. This was utilized for the Dutch LD in PAL format and thus presumably for the Japanese Warner pan n' scan LD made at the same time likely from the same master in NTSC. I remember reading somewhere that this was the same identical uncut transfer but have been unable to find it again.

Awesome-can you check the TLD disc for the missing subtitle? Also, if you have a receiver capable of playing back Dolby 5.1 EX, the TWINE disc is still unknown if it has this theatrical track or not.

Again, here's the SE errors for reference:

These are the confirmed defects with the Bond titles, for which corrected repressings have been made. To get your replacement discs, call MGM Customer Service at 1-877-MGM-4YOU, and follow the directions for defective DVDs. You will be sent a prepaid UPS shipping label via e-mail which you can print out and use to send back your DVD(s). They will then send back the corrected DVD(s) to you (brand-new, shrinkwrapped copy like you would buy in the store). Corrected copies supposedly have **** around the title on the white sticker on top of the sealed DVDs (such as, **** Octopussy ****), but I have not always found that to be the case. My corrected NSNA did not have the stars.

The Man with the Golden Gun - In Chapter 21, at approximately 81:30, at the beginning of the car chase, the disc will pixelate and lock up on many DVD players due to a mastering error.

Octopussy - In Chapter 12, at approximately 37:00, Bond flips a bad guy onto a bed of nails. The owner of the bed says something and the English subtitle translation is missing ("Get off my bed!")

Never Say Never Again - In Chapter 19, at approximately 65:50. There are about 4 minutes of footage missing from this point, the beginning of the second layer of the disc. The missing footage starts right after Bond gives a cigarette case to a security guard in a closet and tells him it's a bomb. Scenes from this missing footage include Bond saying his line, "My name is Bond, James Bond." to Domino as she stands in front of an arcade game machine and Bond having a conversation with Largo as Largo stands behind a bar. Largo challenges Bond to play the game in this scene.

The Living Daylights - In Chapter 7, at approximately 19:30. After the plant worker pushes her supervisor off of her bosom, there are missing English subtitles which translate her words ("What kind of girl do you think I am!)

---

These following Bond titles also have errors. Corrected versions have not yet been made, but in a HTF Post by MGM officials on April 30, 2001, they had this to say: "License To Kill and On Her Majesty's Secret Service - Corrected versions of these titles will be made available when MGM re-releases these DVD's sometime in 2002. If you are unhappy with your current DVD, you will be able to exchange it with MGM customer service at that time." It is unknown which problems exactly they are correcting, and if they will correct all the ones listed below.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service - In Chapter 18, at approximately 75:05. Weird "humming" audio over a scene of a rock climber actually belongs to 3 seconds of missing video which occurs right before this scene. Also, some missing lines (quoted from someone else's report): On the DVD, right after Telly Savalas delivers the line, "Tracy, don't be so proud. Your father's own business is not entirely within the law", it cuts to Bond and Draco in the helicopter, completely cutting the line "His brotherhood also have exotic ways of keeping it a closed shop" which is on the laserdisc and VHS tape. The stock car race scene has completely different editing and appears to be about 20 seconds shorter than the versions on my laserdisc and tape (I didn't time it so I can't be exact). Finally, after the stock car race, when Tracy says "We didn't even stop for the prize", Bond's line "I told you that crowd would discourage them" has also been cut.

Licence to Kill - In Chapter 44, at approximately 98:00. When the guy explodes in the chamber, there is apparently a popping sound and the blood actually splattering against the window which is missing. There may also be additional gore and violence in other parts of the movie missing (unconfirmed).

The missing subs were player generated anyhow so the UE utilizing the theatrical hardcoded subs would be preferable for those shots, even in TND-TWINE-DAD.

captainsolo said:

The uncut release was by Warner Bros. in a pan n' scan master. This was utilized for the Dutch LD in PAL format and thus presumably for the Japanese Warner pan n' scan LD made at the same time likely from the same master in NTSC. I remember reading somewhere that this was the same identical uncut transfer but have been unable to find it again.

LDDB doesn't agree. I'm seeing a Japanese P&S release which coincides with the street date on the Dutch release (1990), but LDDB thinks its runtime is 133 minutes, compared to 139 on the Dutch release. That sucks if it's true, because I've always heard that PAL LD players are kind of crappy.

captainsolo said:

Awesome-can you check the TLD disc for the missing subtitle? Also if you have a receiver capable of playing back Dolby 5.1 EX, the TWINE disc is still unknown if it has this theatrical track or not.

Would you believe me if I told you that, to my great chagrin, the TLD disc is missing? I bought the box for literally a couple bucks off a friend who's not much of a collector (as evidenced by the fact that Moonraker and YOLT were missing altogether, cases and all), so I can check with him and see if he might have misplaced it.

In re: TWINE, the case claims that it's in "Dolby 5.1 Surround." In the setup menu, there are no alternate English soundtracks available. I can't actually confirm the 5.1 right now, but I should be able to somewhat soon. I'm not smart enough w/r/t sound stuff to know if 5.1 is different from 5.1 EX, but if it is, then no, TWINE doesn't even claim to have it. If not, then TWINE does claim to have it but I can't confirm it right now.

It's ok, the SE errors really aren't that big save for the cuts in OHMSS. The Dolby EX is the same track but the receiver has to either auto-decode the flag or be manually set to decode the matrixed rear sixth channel. (5.1 EX has a sixth channel matrixed into the rear channels that is decoded out into a single extra rear channel)

The boxes do nothing for SE corrections. Nothing.

OP is still missing the player generated subtitle, TLD has it's missing one.

TMWTGG works fine on my players, but who knows.

OHMSS is still missing the dialogue and has the different edit of the stock car rally.

LTK isn't missing anything and appears to be the original US PG-13 cut.

Finally getting to scan through all these is wonderful because I am now fully convinced these are the MGM LD masters. Many have the exact same opening logos as are on the LD counterparts, exact damage corresponds between releases, color timing is the same etc.

GF and TB follow their CAV box versions, and all of these may stem from the aborted 1998 THX LD repressing series that the studio canceled. The low bitrate and size was from the aborted THX DVD plan early in the format that would have both widescreen and fullscreen separate transfers on the same disc. The SE discs merely took the widescreen version and added fancy menus and special features.

I'm seriously thinking that the most immediate way to address the original films is to do a GOUT V3 styled project designed to get the most out of the flawed DVD image, overcome the transfer issues and add LD PCM audio.

You'd need quite a bit of magic to fix Goldeneye, though @_@

Goldfinger is on 35mm on ebay at the moment.

cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=161103921633