Universal Re-Mastering Frankenstein Sequels in 4K

I hope they remaster the trailers, too!

 

Maybe they will consider redoing "Colossus:The Fobin Project" since they have so much money to burn.

 

Maybe if they do that, they will let Eric Braeden use his real name.

 

Yes, hopefully the ORIGINAL ones, not the 1980s versions.

 

That boggles my mind. People have been asking for this to be released in letterbox for at least 20 years that I know of.

 

This is good news, but I didn't realize the original Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935) had been restored at 4k.

 

Let's hope so. It's one of the great sci-fi films of the period. But I doubt if Universal will restore it. They never even bothered to release a DVD in the correct aspect ratio. They sabotaged the home video just as they sabotaged the theatrical release. Colossus the Forbin Project lost money at the box-office.

 

They did release a widescreen DVD, but for some reason only in the UK. It's been a while since I watched it, but as I recall it looked pretty good. If you can play R2 DVDs it's still available and fairly cheap:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colossus-Forbin-Project-Eric-Braeden/dp/B00149XOVS/

 

Many years ago when I was reviewing Universal’s laserdiscs for Filmfax, I called their film archivist about the poor quality of the trailers compared to the then-newly-restored monster features. He said Universal did not have the original trailer elements for most—only dupes of the Realart re-release trailers that were made in the 1950’s, which they cleaned up as best they could. Unless something new has turned up, the Realart trailers will always look a tad softer than the features. Perhaps with modern digital tools, they can now be made to look a lot better than we've previously seen.

 

What they should have done would have been to have plugged in the non-titled shots from the actual movie. Although... then, the quality of the trailer would jump back and forth between grungy and pristine. Ya can't win.

 

Yeah, sometimes you just have to accept it for what it is...
For example at the beginning of Frankenstein, there is still footage missing from the graveyard scene which Universal once considered "restoring" using the flashback scene footage from The Bride of Frankenstein. Ultimately, they decided there wasn't enough there to work in a smooth edit, so they left well enough alone.

 

These appear to not be available in Australia.

This is what we get for wanting a pre-1985 movie on BD here (Kubrick and Beatles material not withstanding)

 

Nice, but not massively convinced that a bunch of films made in the 1930s and early 40s are going to be benefit most from this. A bit like getting Bessie Smith at 24/192.

 

Sorry Charlie, but you haven't seen 1931's Frankenstein. It never looked a good as it does now.
And...that was three years ago !!!!!
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The latest Blu-ray edition is a revelation.

 

Happy with the HD copy I have thanks.

 

In truth, I'm totally unconvinced there's anything close to even 2K resolution in 70-year-old safety prints made from nitrate. The detail wouldn't be there in the nitrates, either. 4K restorations have gotten cheap enough that the best excuse is, "eh, it couldn't hurt," so a lot of stuff that doesn't really need 4K is being done in 4K. I think nobody at the studios wants to be accused of doing a sloppy job. Never mind the fact that the quality of the restoration is independent of the resolution chosen. There are some hideous 4K transfers out there. (I say nothing...)

The Blu-ray HDs they did a few years ago on the classic Universal Horror films were spectacular. In particular, I think the sound was mind-blowingly clear. For variable-area optical sound, this is about as good as this stuff gets.

 

Our distributors are more to blame for that. We get screwed because our distributors are always slow to release films on BluRay, DVD even iTunes (that one I can't understand). And by the time they do release something (which normally is missing half the features), the fans have already spent their money overseas to the U.S. or U.K. - to which we (the consumers) are always scolded like naughty school children for not supporting the local industry.

It's always been the same in Australia and I don't expect it to change - even back in the 60's and 70's when people would have to import albums that actually would have the posters and inner selves and not be pressed paper thin.

 

"Son of Frankenstein" and "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man" were recently released on Blu-Ray in France and both discs are region free. Unfortunately, they are the old HD transfers from 2004.

I'm holding off until the recent 4K restorations get down-sized to Blu Ray. Hopefully they're in the pipeline for 2016!

 

I just received the Son of Frankenstein French Blu-Ray from Amazon. Have to say the film looks excellent, by far the best available version we have thus far. Judging from the inside of the booklet as well as other online sources, there will be more foreign Universal Monsters Blu-Rays in the pipeline for this year! Not all of the films will be available on Blu-Ray, though, but all of them will include a standard def DVD as well.

Speaking of the DVD included, I have to say it looks quite good. I don't have my older 2004 Frankenstein Legacy collection on me, but I swore this is a much better looking transfer (better contrast and black levels). Also, the added benefit of the standard DVDs included with these releases is that we don't have to worry about any compression issues, data squeezing, or even poor reliability of DVD-18s like we had on the old '04 Legacy sets or even the most recent 2014 Legacy DVDs, which featured too many movies crammed on a single-sided disc.

 

Region free or locked ?
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Blu-Ray is region free; the DVD is PAL.

Here are some of the additional releases over there. http://www.dvdfr.com/news/4392-cinema-monster-club.html

 

Thanks. Son Of... & Frankie Meets Larry Talbot would be $48.03 @ Amazon France.
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Not too bad.