Marx Bros on Blu-Ray

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Hard Panner, Jul 14, 2015.

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  1. GuildX700

    GuildX700 Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Cocoanuts was so bad I can't imagine even if it's 20% better it has to be night and day over what we have now.
     
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  2. antoniod

    antoniod Forum Resident

    Maybe I'm wrong because I haven't seen it, but I read that the parts that already looked OK look better now, but the parts that looked like they were duped from an 8mm print still look that way.
     
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  3. There's only so much you can do with the source material i suppose. The nitrate negatives are long gone.
     
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  4. antoniod

    antoniod Forum Resident

    What I'd read was that they found a reel(or two)of a 1939 reissue print of COCOANUTS, but I guess they didn't have the scenes that really look bad in what we have now.
     
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  5. The fact that we have prints as good as we do is ami or miracle as the studios saw little value in keeping pristine copies and Umiversal sank a lot of their nitrate negatives in the ocean.
     
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  6. davenav

    davenav High Plains Grifter

    Location:
    Louisville, KY USA
    Yeah. My first reaction, when I heard about this set was, "Can't wait to see a restored Horsefeathers!"

    Finding that it has not been upgraded has really thrown cold water on my enthusiasm.
     
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  7. antoniod

    antoniod Forum Resident

    Universal sank the SILENT films, but tried to keep most of the Talkies. MCA bought the Paramount pre-48s expressly for sale to TV, and I assume the prints had to at least be good enough to register on TV screens. They weren't about to junk what they'd just bought. The fuzzy portions of COCOANUTS look worse than just about any other MCA print of a '29 film I've seen.
     
  8. Xx
    i had forgotten that this was original Paramount so you are right. Paramount to the best of my knowledge didn't do something similar but time also hasn't always been kind to older films and often neither was the studio that owned it.
     
  9. antoniod

    antoniod Forum Resident

    I think a lot of people must have been confused over the Universal-owning-pre-48-Paramounts thing. In 1972 I was a little kid at a screening of BIG BROADCAST OF 1936, and I heard the projectionist say that Universal had produced the film(the projectionist was film collector Ira Schprintzen). I corrected him, saying "Paramount"(this was in a Hotel). He replied "Universal, my friend. We got it from a company called Universal 16! Paramount made some Big Broadcast films" So the film started rolling, and they saw the Paramount mountain! They were FREAKED OUT! How did this little kid know who made the film? Because I'd sensed that there was a Universal/Paramount connection(didn't know what, though)looking at film rental catalogs, was an Asperger's type, and knew darn well that only Paramount would make a BIG BROADCAST film. Did Warner Bros. ever make a BROADWAY MELODY FILM?
     
  10. Peter_R

    Peter_R Maple Syrple Gort Staff

    Location:
    Montreal, Canada
    Watching the Marx Brothers on Blu-Ray for me means:

    Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo... and Oppo!
     
  11. jtiner

    jtiner Forum Resident

    Location:
    Maine
    I know several have commented on the quality of the restored features from seeing them at the theater a while back, but has anyone found a review of the actual BD set yet? I would think some advance copies would have been sent out by now. BTW, the pre-order for the set is ~$40 at B&N and Bull Moose.
    If anyone has seen a review of the set, or HAS the set for review, please post...
     
  12. Myke

    Myke Trying Not To Spook The Horse

    Too soon, should be in about a week.
     
  13. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    Hooray for Captain Spaulding!
     
  14. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    People are complaining about getting 5 films for $40? Why am I not surprised?

    Watch whatever crap version you can find on youtube for free if that floats your boat, but 9 hours of my time to watch them each once more is worth a lot more than $40 to me, so if I am going to watch them again, I will do it this way.

    Of course I have to complete my Chaplin Film By Film analysis (currently working on film #49, A Night At the Show - a very Marx like title) before I start rewatching other classic comedies again.
     
    Benno123 likes this.
  15. EddieMann

    EddieMann I used to be a king...

    Location:
    Geneva, IL. USA.
    What's that you say? You're gong to start a Marx Brothers film by film thread? :agree::edthumbs::D:-popcorn::pineapple::pineapple::pineapple::tiphat::p
     
  16. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    Well I have a long way to go on Chaplin, so maybe someone else can beat me to thst once this set comes out.
     
  17. jtiner

    jtiner Forum Resident

    Location:
    Maine
    Agreed the price is very reasonable for this set...
     
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  18. jtiner

    jtiner Forum Resident

    Location:
    Maine
    Does anyone have any more detailed info on The Cocoanuts restoration? From this thread it appears that new sound elements for the entire film were available, but I'm a bit fuzzy on the really poor looking sections of the film. Apparently, an incomplete nitrate studio print from the UCLA archives was used for the restoration, but I haven't been able to figure out how much (if any) of the really poor sections of the film were able to be replaced using the UCLA prints.
     
  19. GuildX700

    GuildX700 Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    OK, I caved, 34% off is not too bad, $39.97 free shipping, no sales tax, from Bull Moose. Best price out there right now.
     
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  20. PNeski@aol.com

    [email protected] Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    Did you see the last DVD? There willl always be a small part that Looks dreadful but the rest is suppose to look great on the new Blue Ray
     
  21. GreggF

    GreggF Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
  22. Fixing / upgrading the sound for Coconuts is a huge deal for me. The old prints had hard to hear dialog and the musical numbers were less than great -a real shame as this movie has the best score of all their movies imo.
     
  23. GuildX700

    GuildX700 Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    I'm hoping they ship a bit early, I'm getting antsy to see these!
     
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  24. jtiner

    jtiner Forum Resident

    Location:
    Maine
    There were indications upthread that new sound elements had been found, but I haven't found any info on how/how much of the film was restored using better sound elements and a UCLA print.
     
  25. Myke

    Myke Trying Not To Spook The Horse

    Shipping !!!!! :bdance:
     
    GreggF likes this.
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