Elvis Presley DVD sound mixes

The Paramount Elvis movie DVDs purport to be in 5.1. The 20th Century Fox DVDs purport to be in stereo, Dolby Surround and 4.0 surround. Since these movies were originally mono, what's the real story about the purported surround mixes?

 

Joel,

There's already a lengthy thread on this topic in the music forum (for some reason):

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=34390

Jay

 

No, I'm actually referring to the Elvis movies of the 1950s and 1960s, not the TV specials.

 

Very sorry for the oversight, Joel!

 

No problem.

 

Well, the Elvis movies were all done on multitrack, first of all. 3 and 4 track.

Most Elvis movies had a soundtrack Lp released, those were all released in stereo.

However, it is true that around 1977 RCA simply threw out a bunch of the Multitracks for his movies. A storage issue, supposedly.

But, given a good full stereo mix, with Elivis in the middle, and the instruments spread wide across the stereo field, a very good 5.1 mix CAN be made...excellent in fact.

So, I dont think this is really an issue.

 

One potential complicating issue about releasing the Elvis movies in stereo is that the songs in the movies were sometimes different versions than what was released on albums, sometimes with other vocalists involved and sound effects from the movies, IIRC.