Question:
Being a huge fan of the Warner back-catalogue, and genuinely thrilled by their restoration work to date - most notably Citizen Kane and, an even better job IMHO, Now Voyager - I ordered two of their latest golden oldies on R1 with utter confidence; the new two-disk Singin' in th Rain and the Ernst Lubitsch classic The Shop Around the Corner.
The latter is a complete disappointment, with quite heavy dust specks and print damage, the transfer also jitters around the screen after being slapped on to DVD with barely a second glance; it is made all the worse by the fantastic job Warners had done previously, and, according to reviews, The Thin Man is almost as bad. Shame on you Warners - I only hope your New Year release of All About Eve puts you back on the right track.
Now the good news; as good as the restoration work Warners have been doing on their monochrome back-catalogue has been, it pales into insignificance compared with Singin' in The Rain which, from the opening to the closing credits, is an absolute joy and the very reason this digital medium was invented.
Colours are strong and vibrant; there's no discernable print damage or dust speckling that I can see and the new 5.1 DD sound track is beautifully presented. Seeing this movie, probably in better condition that audiences did half a century ago, brings me a warm glow - and almost makes up for The Shop Around the Corner, and the disappointment that was the R2 Brighton Rock.
Now Warners, you've promised to work miracles with Flynn's The Adventures of Robin Hood, let's hope you do, and then it's time to give some of Cagney's finer works the once over...
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'Moses supposes his toes's are roses, but Moses supposes erroneously...'
There's a good review of Singin' in the rain over at the Home Theater Forum (http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=94523) which shows some absolutely mouth watering screen shots... definately one for the list!
Awww man - how could they screw up 'The Thin Man' - its a classic!
The latter is a complete disappointment, with quite heavy dust specks and print damage, the transfer also jitters around the screen after being slapped on to DVD with barely a second glance; it is made all the worse by the fantastic job Warners had done previously, and, according to reviews, The Thin Man is almost as bad. Shame on you Warners - I only hope your New Year release of All About Eve puts you back on the right track.
Now the good news; as good as the restoration work Warners have been doing on their monochrome back-catalogue has been, it pales into insignificance compared with Singin' in The Rain which, from the opening to the closing credits, is an absolute joy and the very reason this digital medium was invented.
Colours are strong and vibrant; there's no discernable print damage or dust speckling that I can see and the new 5.1 DD sound track is beautifully presented. Seeing this movie, probably in better condition that audiences did half a century ago, brings me a warm glow - and almost makes up for The Shop Around the Corner, and the disappointment that was the R2 Brighton Rock.
Now Warners, you've promised to work miracles with Flynn's The Adventures of Robin Hood, let's hope you do, and then it's time to give some of Cagney's finer works the once over...
---
'Moses supposes his toes's are roses, but Moses supposes erroneously...'
Answers:
There's a good review of Singin' in the rain over at the Home Theater Forum (http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=94523) which shows some absolutely mouth watering screen shots... definately one for the list!
Answers:
Awww man - how could they screw up 'The Thin Man' - its a classic!
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