Discs - Reviews by George Slv

Discs - Reviews by George Slv

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
George Slv 27th Mar 2023		DVD Le Avventure E Gli Amori Di Moll Flanders - Paramount (2021)	Review This is indeed the 2.35 widescreen for the first time, in a 16:9 frame. It is the cut US edition, bringing the length down from 2:06 to 1:47. The picture quality is not sharp at all. There are Italian and English language tracks. The Italian edition contains an original male vocal over the opening titles. No extras. It is all region, but PAL format. I don't think NTSC DVD players will display it, but your computer likely will. Dual layer. I think the movie is alright, with lovely sets and interesting characters. Some of the attempts at humor are just too lame though, especially with Jemmy's sidekick Squint. 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
George Slv 18th Aug 2020		VHS Unforgettable Performances Vol.1 1950-52 - Swingtime Video (1985)	Review It seems they intended this to be the first in a series titled Unforgettable Performances, but I see no sign of any further release. Their Vol. 101-120 were basically bands, while these are mainly vocals. Video quality is very good. These were musical shorts filmed for theaters or television in the 1930s to early 1950s. I don't see followup DVD releases but these films are available in many compilations. Nat King Cole sings Mona Lisa with makeup to make him look less black on some of these Snader films. He objected to the look and and the rest were filmed without that. Looking at the girls, we get a Connie, a Connee, a Bonnie, and a Ginny before we get to a Teresa. The Dinning Sisters had the brother named Mark Dinning who sang Teenangel in 1960. Connie Haines' song is Duke Ellington's It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing. Ada Leonard and Rio Rita were females leading all-girl bands. Far be it from them to just stand and swing a baton. Ada holds one but dances elegantly before the camera throughout. Rita (Dona Drake) gets vocalist Alan Ladd to hold the baton while she stands and flirts with him, and does some dancing too. She is a great looker, but not quite a pro dancer. This tape has been the only source for Teresa Brewer's 1951 Snader film of Music Music Music. The Snaders were all recorded live, while the earlier Soundies were often dubbed and lip-synced. 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
George Slv 8th Aug 2020		VHS 50 Classic Cartoons - Embury Communications (1990)	Rated 7/10 The video quality is reasonable. A wide variety of early color cartoons. 3 complete Superman. Many Warner Brothers Looney Tunes including A Corny Concerto (1943). One Casper The Ghost, one Mighty Mouse, one Woody Woodpecker, one Betty Boop, four Paramount singalong. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
George Slv 29th May 2020		DVD Une Parisienne - TF1 Vidéo (2015)	Review All previous releases were missing the video of the pre-title sequence. Here it is finally restored. The packaging is not clear about the video shape. It turns out that they have used the entire picture area of the original 35 mm film, without cropping to the theatrical 1.66 shape. That means AR 1.37, leaving surplus image on top and bottom. The picture has been restored in high definition. The nudity is still cut from the bathtub scene. As for the movie, I don't call it "one of her best". Face it, it is her best. 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
George Slv 7th Mar 2019		VHS Box Set Memories Of The 30s 40s 50s. The Big Band Years. The Great 48 Shows - Al Gannaway Collection (1990)	Review I now have a sample vol.19 tape. The "shows" are half-hour each so each tape is one hour. The base video material is excellent quality. The videotape recording is miserable. It was obviously done with high-speed duplication, and does not track perfectly anywhere on the tape. The DVD series would avoid this problem if you could find it. Tape speed is SP and audio is linear mono, and the tape is not bent. This volume includes Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Gale Storm singing Isn't It Romantic in a nice setting with a male. In each show there is a movie preview, like The Gang's All Here. I'm not sure but think these were half-hour short films shown in theaters in those days before TV, and in the 1950s were made into TV shows by Al Gannaway. My copy was a release that used the cover for his Great Country Legends series and pasted a label saying The Big Band Years. Found on ebay. 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
George Slv 26th Jun 2017		DVD The Very Best Of The Jimmy Dean Show, Vol 1 - Unknown (2013)	Review The episodes included are: Disc 1: S1 Ep.19 Jan.23, 1964 (Johnny Cash) S2 Ep.8 Nov 5, 1964 (Ernest Tubb) Disc 2: S1 Ep.15 Dec 26, 1963 (Patty Duke) S1 Ep.20 Jan 30, 1964 (Patti Page) S1 Ep.12 Dec 5, 1963 (Eddy Arnold) The third disc contains the 2013 PBS special on the show, and a documentary on the restoration process. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
George Slv 21st Jun 2017		DVD The Jimmy Dean Show - Season 1 Volume 1 (2016)	Review This includes 15 complete episodes from the entire first season of 31 episodes. For example Eddy Arnold, Johnny Cash, Eydie Gormé, Jane Morgan. Many episodes are not covered, including guests Teresa Brewer, The McGuire Sisters, Maureen O'Hara. This is a project of Donna Dean Stevens, his former wife, and is available now. A full-scale restoration was done on the original films, which is documented at YouTube. It is taken from kinescopes, which were movie film of a studio TV monitor. TV screens being curved, there are imperfections in the shaping of some faces. These kinescopes were made from 2-inch videotape. Otherwise the picture quality looks very good. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
George Slv 28th May 2017		Blu-ray Those Redheads From Seattle - Kino Lorber (2017)	Review Originally meant to be released May 9, it was delayed to do more touchup of the video master. Some orders were fulfilled on May 9, but somehow these were already corrected. 3-channel audio was created electronically by 3D Film Archive from mono source to recreate the original 3D release. Listening in stereo it seems that the vocals are mainly centered while the orchestra is mainly on your left. I find the center channel volume is much lower than the left. In 1953 the attempts to project 3D were not very successful. Now the testimony is that this has some of the best effects of all movies. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
George Slv 25th May 2017		DVD Those Redheads From Seattle - Kino Lorber (2017)	Review A parallel issue with the Bluray, the film is newly restored. Video and audio quality are good. The Preview (trailer) is a little misshapen, too wide. The DVD description has errors about the story. Only Teresa Brewer as Pat Edmonds worked in the saloon, not all four daughters. It says it is "anamorphic", but the movie was not filmed anamorphic, so I don't understand that. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
George Slv 24th Nov 2016		DVD A Promise Kept - The Oksana Baiul Story (2013)	Review The story takes you from her infancy to her Olympic win in 1994. This filming seems very suited for females, being extremely sentimental. Monica Keena does a fine job representing Oksana, and at the end she morphs into the real Oksana who skates The Swan as a finale. Curiously Monica's name is not featured as a lead actor in promotional credits. The TV movie and the 1990s cassette release did not get much attention, seemingly because of western bias. I see the DVD with limited availability at Amazon. The top and bottom of the picture has been cropped to create the widescreen TV ratio. I suppose casual viewers will not notice a problem, but us videophiles might object to losing some of Oksana's legs during skates. The technical specifications embedded in the DVD are confused and state that the shape is 4:3, and some computer players might not render it correctly. Video and audio are fine. Length is 1:32. We are waiting for this site to make accomodations for TV movies. 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
George Slv 13th Sep 2016		VHS Invaders From Mars [1953] - UAV Entertainment (1996)	Rated 5/10 I would guess that after Wade Williams obtained the copyright to the movie, he took control of this pre-existing videotape release. The back cover declares "Guaranteed Superior Quality". Isn't it funny how the most inferior products like to use declarations like this. First this is from 16mm film rather that 35mm. That would not be bad in itself. There are no scratches in the film. But the tape is made at SLP speed. Low resolution, shaky image, and bad hifi tracking which can't be corrected. They want you to feel that it's your own fault, by instructing "For best results adjust VCR tracking". You could create a fuss by taking it back, but then you wouldn't have a copy. Add to this that they used a full roll of VHS tape for it, so there would have been room for SP speed. There are previews at the end for two other science fiction movies. Of course this is the US edition. Movie length turns out ~1:17. Of historical archival interest. My rating of 5 is for the tape release, not the movie. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
George Slv 20th Jun 2016		DVD Sueño Profundo - Noche De Lobos (2005)	Review The only DVD anyone has issued of this 1990 made-for-cable Canadian movie starring Megan Follows. Spain was interested because Damon D'Oliveira is a Portuguese Canadian. It includes Castellano and English audio. The copy I got was not technically top quality and was hard or impossible to play except on my computer drive. Once played the quality is okay, but closer to VHS than to DVD quality. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
George Slv 11th Jun 2016		VHS The Lady Vanishes [1979] - Marquis Video (1988)	Review From the days when fans were hungry for videos of old uncommon material, this issue of Hammer's last production of that era was of interest. A 4:3 format, it actually was not even panned and scanned, of all things dey jis pointeded the scanner to the middle of da widescreen picture. So dat in the restaurant scene with Cybill and Angela Lansbury in opposite chairs, ve don't even see their heads on the sides. In a widescreen composition of Gould climbing out the train window as it approaches a tunnel, we don't see Gould or the train at the right side. There was a different US 4:3 videotape at the time which was panned. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
George Slv 9th Jun 2016		DVD Invaders From Mars [1953] - Image Entertainment (2002)	Review Wade Williams, a US theater owner, searched for a print of the movie in the 1970s and found only one at a Los Angeles TV station, and bought it. The original negative had had the ending cut off in order to make a different UK ending, and then that end strip was lost. This 35mm film has some scratches, and it was not processed and restored for this release. It is now stored in controlled vaults with other classic films. Williams went on to refilm the story in 1986 with Toby Hooper. In 2002 he released this 50th Anniversary DVD of his 1953 film. There are mixed feelings about it because the film imperfections can spoil the enjoyment. There are many 16mm films of it around America and some have been used to issue a couple of tape releases without imperfections. I've read that the film is public domain, but I'd like confirmation. Oh, you ask about the movie. Yes it was damn good. Yes color. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
George Slv 27th May 2016		DVD Man At The Top - Network (2013)	Review It's a 1973 Hammer Film collector item. Previously a 4:3 VHS had been available. That edition is included here as a bonus, in addition to the theatrical edition, which really just trims the bottom and top. The box states that the film shape was 1.75, which is unusual. My calculations on the DVD are 1.72 within 1.77. Nude scenes are intact. To stomach this movie you need to be able to accept Kenneth Haigh's personality here, which comes across slobbish. He must have changed since starting the TV series. Most people can't take it, but some appreciate the film. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?