I broke in my DMR-ES25 comb filter with the CAV Criterion Dr. No.

As many say sometimes just going by screencaps alone cannot fully articulate in motion differences. The color is more saturated, all reel change marks are present, but what is most striking is how well the color pops throughout and how much it appears the MGM was either brightened or from an IP. I now see why Terrence Young signed off on this. It looks really damn good.

The Criterion is far darker, and the color is far richer. Interiors have much deeper tones to all the walls and sets, skin tones are far more natural looking than the slightly whitish we're used to, but in the exteriors things really take off. Any of the outdoor scenes, especially Bond getting out of the taxi to meet Quarrel are striking.

The soundtrack appears to be slightly different as well, in terms of the levels of the effects. I noted that some of my favorite effects were a bit different, for example the engine noise during close shot of Leiter-Quarrel's car when tailing Bond booms out to a distorted cutoff on all versions I've ever heard but here instead it does not and you can actually hear more of the car engine. The overall noise floor is quite good for what is apparently sourced from optical....but there is one glaring difference. In the closing credits the James Bond theme is reprised, but instead of fading out early and having the horn note go completely out of pitch as on all other versions, there is a slight jump and the theme starts back a bit and then carries onto a black screen for a few seconds. Perhaps this was Criterion's attempt to fix the original error?

In any case the track is so good it should be preserved with the cleaner MGM mono.

I messaged Jon Mulvaney @ Criterion about transfer info if any exists. Hopefully someone knows somewhere, as there are no printed materials with the discs.