The Aluminum Falcon

Marnie (1964)- 6/10- Heavy-handed, melodramatic. Sean Connery was cast because of his popularity in the James Bond films; I'm not sure he was the best choice, as much as I like him. Bingowings is right about the contradictions, though to be honest I like Frenzy better (I say that lightly). Hitchcock's last good movie for me was Psycho (1960). The Birds (1963) is massively over-rated, IMHO.

Compare Marnie to Vertigo. Watching them back-to-back is just awful. Vertigo's a dramatic creepy love story done right.

Bingowings said:

(much the same can be said of Deckhard in Blade Runner) 

Alien's got a very saturated color palette, I think, much unlike either the BD or the D-Theater, which has the color palette of the 2003 Director's Cut reissue.

If you look on the original Halloween II BD, at the Terror in the Aisles documentary, there are clips from Alien which look very, very colorful. As the documentary was only made a few years after the original release of Alien and appears to use footage from a timed 35mm print, it could be an accuate color source. The most accurate release, to these clips, is the 1999 DVD. My two cents.

Chewtobacca said:

Ah, perhaps I did.  I was just trying to say that I agree with your assessment of the Italian BD's deficiencies but am nonetheless happy with it.  :-)

Oh gotcha.

Chewtobacca said:

I agree but am happy enough with the Italian BD.  The DE BD looks awful. 

I think you may have misunderstood my post. I agree, I'd rather go with the more film-like IT BD than the DE. I'll not lose any sleep over one second of Eastwood being beaten.

Synchronizing the English mono from the DE BD to the Italian BD is very difficult.  It's not like other films in which a few edits here are there are required.

Yeah, that seems to be the issue with most of the Dollars movies.

Interestingly, there is a scene in the Italian BD that lacks the night filter that was applied to the other releases.  It's the one in which Indio's gang break him out of prison.

Interesting... Wonder which one is right. Anyone here have a print? :)

captainsolo said:

Pretty sure the Leone films are wrong on MGM's transfers with FAFDM may be the closest to intended composition and color. Duck You Sucker is very green/brownish and washed out looking. GBU SE is a travesty all around and the 35mm looked washed out.

Keeping in mind that I just got into these movies recently, the MGM Transfers look pretty uniformly bland (dull color timing), processed (EE, DNR, or both), and old (definitely pre-2006, for all of them, I would say...). Though I admit that I've a) never seen a low-fade print of a Leone film and b) have not seen film cel scans, the color timing of the foreign BDs for The Dollars Trilogy seems more right to me-- it's saturated and doesn't look like it's been "normalized."

FAFDM is something I'm not 100% on. Neither the IT transfer or the US/DE transfer seems perfectly satisfactory for me. Though the US/DE transfer was taken from the neg, the scan is old and it shows. EE exacerbates the grain, while creating an illusion of higher detail, and color timing is dull. The IT is only trimmed by a second from the DE, and, though being DVNR'ed and lacking some ultra-fine detail from being VC1-encoded, it seems like a newer transfer and more film-like. I kind of look at it like the Jurassic Park 2D BD vs the 3D one...

The modern Bond transfers are all wrong for color. 

These need fixing, especially OHMSS.

I think Hammer has ruined Horror of Dracula by going this colder color route.

Actually, the BFI ruined Dracula :) Hammer just dealt with the master they were given. Just to be clear though, this wouldn't be an ideal candidate for a restoration project ala The Thing since no video source is quite accurate in its color timing. The Warner Bros DVD is probably even farther off.

The BD is too blue-shifted and saturated; there was a 35mm frame and the color timing was far more subtle. Flesh tones were not blue nor red; they were greenish/natural. The unrestored Japanese reels if red-shift corrected and boosted a bit in saturation look pretty dead on, I think, if dirty.

captainsolo said:

AF, GBU could be saved by adding the LD PCM to the Mondo transfer and then replacing the edits in the torture scene and the few other tiny bits to conform to the 161 minute US/International cut. The Italian exclusive scenes would remain Italian mono for the longer cut, with the MGM SE exclusive scene being the grotto which was never shown outside the premiere.

Would LOVE to see such a thing come to fruition. I've only watched the Italian cut, and it currently isn't my favorite movie in the Dollars trilogy. Hopefully, the INL/US cut gives a new perspective...

CSchmidlapp said:

Just had the above as a private message. WTF

As did I.

Downloading ASAP. Just great...

It's a German semi-boot, I believe; I've got the DVD equivalent for #1, and was wondering if this was worthwhile at all.

That full chopping scene would be nice to see.

The only deleted scenes that exist in full (as in not BTS footage) are the ones from the TV cut: including Ash eating cereal, a corny flashback sequence, and some other extensions. They may have been shot later on though. The only thing is that we only have them in Spanish.

By the way, color timing discussion going on in the other thread.

TServo2049 said:

This one really intrigues me - Evil Dead II. I just saw a screening of an original 35mm print 

Castro, right? That's where I learned that AOD should look as blue as the Director's Cut BD. That being said, I don't think there's anything wrong with their set-up. What you see was probably quite accurate.

Is that yellow-green-cyan-blue palette how ED2 originally looked?

Maybe.

The 25th Anniversary just looks like a mess to me color-wise despite the all right amount of detail. Flesh tones are far too red, which makes me wonder if it really is just some old transfer (as many of them used to have that issue). No prior release made the characters look like that.

I'm not sure any release has been perfectly accurate though.

I made a fairly thorough ED II color-timing comparison of all the releases from TV cut (likely a very old 1980's analog telecine) to the 25th anniversary BD for See No Evil's site. Link below:

https://picasaweb.google.com/110542745565217940611/EVILDEADIICOLORTIMINGCOMPARISON

Hope it's useful.

Maybe if we find the right one, a project ala Andrea's The Thing could be done.

Anyone seen that Evil Dead II extended Blu-Ray? I'm curious to see if it's at all worthwhile. EDII always felt edited to me, especially in the scene where Ash chops up Evil Ed off-screen.

Very excited to see this project come to fruition. I haven't watched "The Thing" in a long time, so I'm quite eager. Good luck on it Andrea!

As for your upcoming projects, I'd like to see your Matrix.

Might I also humbly recommend doing color correction projects of:

The Road Warrior (desert scenes too desaturated)

The Evil Dead (frightening blue color timing though you may have some issues since this LD has subtitles)

Pinnichio (no more technicolor look in the BD)

Nice! Would any of the material be handy for Despecialized 2.0?

PM Sent :).

I assumed there would be a lot of work to do. Shoot me a PM if you do do it eventually though. And good luck if you do.

Does anyone have an English mono mix of the Good, Bad, and Ugly synced to the Mondo BD? I was considering burning myself a copy with the synced English surround audio, but, naturally, mono PCM would be of course preferable.

Sorry for the bump. Just eager for this release. The cover art looks great and the specs sound fantastic.

Also, looking forward to what Team Blu plans for the '68 NOTLD. Would you make it the correct OAR: 1:85 widescreen?

yes, it's the French one.

*Though only the International and Director's cut are unscathed.

Space Kaijuu said:

This is just a small project I decided to do.  I remastered the original theatrical trailer and 5 TV spots for Army Of Darkness in 1080p HD using the R3 DVD and the Director's Cut on the French Blu-Ray.

Theatrical Trailer:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/givhhm

TV Spots:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/tf1wn0

Thanks!

*insert Army of Darkness quote here*

Thanks a billion for this! Sounds magnificent.

Bingowings said:

Arrogant Alien Antiestablishment Authoritarian, Doctor 1, Doctor 3,Doctor 6. Doctor 4, Doctor 9.

Clown Mask Hiding The Puppet Master, Doctor 2, Doctor 7. Doctor 11, Doctor 4

Zany Extravert Bohemian, Doctor 10, Doctor 11,Doctor 6, Doctor 4

Old Man Trapped In A Young Body, Doctor 5, Doctor 11, Doctor 4.

Seeing as how 11's in 3 of those categories, maybe 12 will be in the one it's not?

Sixth or third, I would guess. Those are the times the Doctor has regenerated to an older looking version.

If I were a betting man, I'd say that the 12th would be of the same ilk as the 6th, who was the same ilk of the 1st.

Note: 11th seems to be of the same ilk as the 2nd, and 8th seems to be the same ilk as the 4th.

I think I'll hold out for the HD. Haven't seen KOTCS in awhile so hope to see it with "fresh" eyes. Will keep an eye on this thread.

Dropped off the forum for a bit and I come back to find this! :D

My god, the results look fantastic. I watched that clip and its shocking how much the color fluctuates. Glad that we're finally getting the version closest to what was shown in theaters color-wise. The original audio should be good too!

BD-mastering companies need to learn that color timing actually does make a difference in movies...

PM sent!