Ford at Fox; The Wait is Almost Over… November 30, 2007
Posted by John Hodson in : DVD News & Info, About John Ford , 1 comment so farThe wait is almost over.
My most anticipated release of 2007 is only a few days from entering the maw of the U.S. postal system. From there - for reasons best known to the etailer - it will travel to Sweden, across Europe, and thence to Blightly, into the hands of The Royal Mail (shudder…). HMC&E may (well, almost surely) also nab it, but, Customs charge, and RM ransom, be damned - I will at last own the 24 films, the rather hefty looking book and the rest of the paraphernalia that comprises Ford at Fox.
I’m like a kid that cannot wait for Christmas. I can hardly stand these final few days before this humongous set is mine; until then I live vicariously on the reports and reviews of others.
You’ll find details of the set in this earlier post, but as the great day approaches more information is emerging. Dave Kehr has got at least some of his review discs, and I’m heartened by his comments, posted in response to that blog entry, on the condition of Drums Along The Mohawk…
“…the transfer of “Drums Along the Mohawk” in the Ford box is indeed from new Film Foundation restoration. I don’t know what laboratory magic they worked to get around the loss of the original elements, but it looks very, very good.”
‘Drums’ is a Ford film that rarely gets the plaudits of Pappy’s breath-taking Fox output that immediately preceded and succeeded it, yet I think it is something of a miracle, even catalogued as a minor one, with some standout (typically Fordian) scenes and superb three-strip colour (it was Ford’s first colour picture) cinematography. Yes, it is newly restored - huzzah!
Over at DVD Beaver, Gary Tooze has his set and has posted some mouth-watering pictures here. He has also undertaken what promises to be a marathon review process, starting by comparing the BFI and Fox iterations of The Iron Horse here. Purty ain’t it?
I’ve no idea how true this is, but I read somewhere on the ‘net that Fox turned up a suitable print of the lengthier U.S. version 
of the The Iron Horse at the eleventh hour, making the DVD of Ford’s silent epic into a two discer after the unique packaging for Ford at Fox had been designed (I’ve also read, it has to be said, it was late added extras that pushed it to two discs - take your pick). It is the U.S. version of The Iron Horse, goes the story, which has been included in the set at the expense of Allan Dwan’s Frontier Marshall. After seeing the Beaver’s ‘caps, the truth - or otherwise - of those web rumours notwidthstanding, it underlines the fact that Fox made the right choice.
A shame about Dwan’s film, but those in the know assure us that Fox has something up their sleeve for purchasers of Ford at Fox; if not, the only way to get at Frontier Marshall, the script for which also forms the basis of My Darling Clementine, is to buy one of the three subsets on offer from Fox, and that will surely leave a sour taste in the mouths of those who have made a hefty financial commitment by buying the (almost) full set. I know several purchasers of the set who did so, not simply because they are Ford fans, but because they admired Fox’s ambition, their chutzpah, in considering this set at all, and wished to demonstrate their support for this - and hopefully similar projects - in the most tangible way possible. This from the L.A. Times:
…Good supplementary features stand as works of film history and scholarship, and some of the most valuable extras are being produced for older movies. The year’s most ambitious DVD set, the mammoth Ford at Fox box (out Dec. 4), surveys the 32-year career of the director John Ford at Twentieth Century Fox. “It’s film school in a box,” said Richard Ashton, director of classics at Fox Home Entertainment, who commissioned a new documentary by historian Nick Redmond, focusing on Ford’s relationship with studio czar Darryl F. Zanuck.
… in the case of “Ford at Fox,” entire films are being made available to viewers for the first time. Of the 24 titles in the box, 18 are new to DVD. If the Ford set does well, it could inspire the studio to dig deeper into the vaults, Ashton said, citing such master filmmakers as Frank Borzage, F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang, all of whom had fruitful stints at Fox…
For those of you living in the U.S., to coincide with Ford at Fox, the TCM channel is celebrating the release of the set with three days of programming - called (what else?) Ford at Fox - on Dec. 9, 10 and 11; details here. There is, before you ask dear reader, no chance of the British version of TCM following suit.
Keep a watchful eye on DVD Beaver this weekend; more reviews, lots more screencaps, are on their way. I’ll certainly be devouring every last detail, the news no doubt stoking up the anticipation almost beyond the point that this mortal man can endure. *Sigh*.
Meanwhile, I’ll be drumming my fingers, clicking constantly on my order history over at Barnes & Noble, urging, by sheer will, my order page to be updated and for my copy of Ford at Fox to switch to ’shipped’. Come on dammit!
Did I mention that I can’t wait?
Showing Soon - Optimum in the New Year, Bonnie & Clyde SE and Smiles for Harry Langdon… November 23, 2007
Posted by John Hodson in : DVD News & Info, Showing Soon , add a commentShowing Soon in R2
Lots coming up on those little shiny discs for classic film fans in the U.K., so let’s dive straight in…
Optimum’s list of upcoming releases for the first quarter of ‘08 is quite extensive, but as usual with the Studio Canal owned outfit, their schedule is a movable feast, so be aware that these dates may not be set in stone.
The start of the New Year sees a plethora of releases, listed at various etailers, among them a handful of re-releases, Angela Lansbury in The Mirror Crack’d, Albert Finney, my favourite film Poirot, in Murder On The Orient Express and Ustinov’s incarnation of the Belgium detective in Evil Under The Sun and Death On The Nile. Optimum also intend to release Godard’s Alphaville and Made In U.S.A., plus Pierrot Le Fou (on the cards from Criterion in R1), Une Femme Est Une Femme, Renoir’s La Bête humaine, Losey’s superlative duo of The Servant and Accident, Woody Allen’s What’s Up Tiger Lily and the cult Turkey Shoot (aka Escape 2000).
The end of January sees a U.K. release for Robert ‘Phibes’ Fuerst’s Elstree shot chiller And Soon The Darkness, as per usual with Optimum, this looks to be sans extras. Freed from ITV DVD’s Diana Dors Collection is probably her finest screen performance, J. Lee Thompson’s reworking of the Ruth Ellis tragedy, Yield To The Night. Look out too for Lady Godiva Rides Again, also from the same set. The lone January box set release appears to be a Tommy Steele Quadruple with The Duke Wore Jeans (Dir. Gerald Thomas - 1958); It’s All Happening (Dir. Don Sharp - 1963); The Tommy Steele Story (Dir. Gerard Bryant - 1957) and Tommy The Toreador (Dir. John Paddy Carstairs - 1959). Optimum add that ‘as a bonus, restoration has also been completed by Studio Canal on these titles.’ The much promised Jack Hawkins thriller Mandy has been rescheduled for January 28.
Orson Welles completists will be delighted with the release of the 1952 version of the previously filmed Trent’s Last Case, with Welles in villainous mode opposite Michael Wilding’s Philip Trent and Margaret Lockwood as the eye candy; Optimum are trumpeting this release as ‘restored’. I’m looking forward enormously to Leslie Norman’s The Long And The Short And The Tall; great script, great cast. Incidentally, The Plague Dogs, bumped from December to the New Year, includes an ‘alternative extended version, unavailable before on UK DVD’.
February sees Optimum unleash Danny La Rue onto an unsuspecting public in Our Miss Fred, and a nice slice of Brit Noir in the shape of John Lemont’s The Frightened City with Sean Connery shining pre-Bond alongside a terrific Herbert Lom and John Gregson. February also should see the release of the previously bumped thrillers Payroll and The Long Arm, plus another addition to Optimum’s Boulting Collection with Happy Is The Bride. The 1953 Italian compendium, L’Amore in città, also gets a February release alongside the Tarantino hyped ‘78 war film Inglorious Bastards, Roberto Rosselini’s Era notte a Roma, Mario Monicelli’s Casanova ‘70, Kurasawa’s Rashamon, plus Richard Franklin’s Roadgames.
More collections from Optimum in February; a four-disc Gracie Fields Collection featuring Love, Life and Laughter (Dir. Maurice Elvey - 1934); Sing As We Go (Dir. Basil Dean - 1934); Sally In Our Alley (Dir. Maurice Elvey - 1931); Looking on The Bright Side (Dir. Graham Cutts / Basil Dean - 1932); Queen of Hearts (Dir. Monty Banks - 1936); Look Up And Laugh (Dir. Basil Dean - 1935) and The Show Goes On (Dir. Basil Dean - 1937). After the disaster that was the initial flawed release of the first George Formby Collection (which apparently hit sales and lead to plans for a second set being scrapped), here’s hoping for better luck with this collection honouring the Rochdale lass who was, as you well know gentle reader, one of the biggest stars on the planet.
The five disc Tommy Trinder Collection contains four previously unreleased titles - Save a Little Sunshine (Dir. Norman Lee - 1938); Sailors Three (Dir. Walter Forde - 1940); The Foreman Went To France (Dir. Charles Frend - 1942); Fiddlers Three (Dir. Harry Watt - 1944); Bitter Springs (Dir. Ralph Smart - 1950) - and two that have already seen the light of day - The Bells Go Down (Dir. Basil Dearden -1943) and Champagne Charlie (Dir. Alberto Cavalcanti - 1944), nevertheless, it’s an interesting compilation, you lucky people…
March from Optimum promises Zoltan Korda’s 1951 film Cry, The Beloved Country, plus, in one set, a double header of delightful documentaries The London Nobody Knows / The Bicyclettes de Belsize from the late ’60s. There are also a five films from Bertrand Tavernier - Le Juge et l’assassin, Horloger De Saint Paul, Coup de Torchon, Ça commence aujourd’hui and L.627 - and Bresson’s Diary of a Country Priest.
Network are release some much sought after classic TV in January in the shape of a couple of ‘Armchair Thrillers’, A Dog’s Ransom and Rachel in Danger; their success will, it is hoped, promote a box set?
Eureka / MoC continue their F.W Murnau releases - the recent Nosferatu is an absolute peach - in January with Der Letzte Mann (aka: The Last Laugh), extras include a 41 minute documentary by Murnau expert Luciano Berriatúa plus a ‘lavishly illustrated 36-page booklet’
with writing by film scholars R. Dixon Smith, Tony Rayns and Lotte H. Eisner. As previously stated, a Murnau boxset will ultimately emerge, but not for some while. Eureka will also release Fritz Lang’s Frau Im Mond (aka: Woman In The Moon) the same month, which is a ‘brand new film restoration by F. W. Murnau-Stiftung’ boasting the original German intertitles with newly-translated optional English subtitles and a 36-page booklet which includes a newly revised analysis by Michael E. Grost on the film, and on Fritz Lang’s body of work as a whole’. February also see the release of the previously scheduled The Phantom Carriage - KTL Edition / The Image Makers from Tartan.
Warners release Pacino’s Cruising in the UK in February, the following month sees the newly spruced up but somewhat abbreviated Stanley Kubrick Collection arrive in the U.K., plus individual releases for 2001: A Space Odyssey - Special Edition, A Clockwork Orange - Special Edition, Eyes Wide Shut - Special Edition, Full Metal Jacket - Special Edition and The Shining - Special Edition. But the biggest, and most long-awaited news, for film fans is that Warners have scheduled Arthur Penn’s Bonnie & Clyde for a Special Edition release (some show it as 40th Anniversary Edition, betraying this disc’s delay) at the end of March (or the beginning, depending on which etailer listing you look at) - a U.S. R1 will probably arrive around the same time. And about time.
Not much news on the Paramount front, save for the release in February of Robert Altman’s Short Cuts and The Player, no hints on extras, if any.
Fox continue down the re-release line with a ‘budget’ release of the six-disc version of their Rodgers and Hammerstein Collection in February, the same month we get Call Northside 777, and Drums Along The Mohawk, the former previously available in the U.K. from Second Sight, the latter from Optimum - maybe we’ll get that newly restored version of the Ford classic that’s coming in R1?
Mentioning Second Sight, and they release Joe Losey’s 1979 screen version of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, on three discs - no detail of extras as yet - in February, ‘…following a painstaking restoration including a newly remastered DTS 5.1 soundtrack, this deluxe edition presents the film as never before.’
Sony have February releases of Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner: Anniversary Edition, Midnight Express: Anniversary Edition and Tootsie: Anniversary Edition scheduled, and have inched forward that Jean Simmons Screen Legends set into January. Will we ever see it?
Some etailers are, by the way, carrying several of those Columbia titles that were scheduled by DD Home Entertainment before they went bust and were taken over, for release in the New Year. I reckon that’s just a tad optimistic. There’s no sign of them over at the reborn DDHE website, now Simply HE, and rumour has it that they will appear in the spring of ‘08. We’ll see.
Recent passes at the BBFC include a short extra - a four minute Mike Leigh interview - for a new release of Secrets & Lies, a pass for a Universal release of the RKO John Wayne film Allegheny Uprising, the passing of extras for the recently released superlative 2-disc SE of Zulu, which includes the snippet that there is an easter egg (in the shape of a teaser trailer) on there somewhere, a pass for a Second Sight release of Peter Weir’s Picnic At Hanging Rock, three for Odeon, the 1953 Tom Conway vehicle Park Plaza 605 (aka Norman Conquest) plus Not Wanted On Voyage (1957) and Home and Away (1956), and several passes which would indicate the possibility of a boxed set of Helen Mirren’s TV work…
In France, Wild Side are to release a new disc of Argento’s Suspiria early next month which will include interviews with the director and various members of the crew, documentaries and a CD of The Goblins soundtrack.
Showing Soon in R1
I’m grateful to Derek of the forum The Golden Age of Hollywood for pointing me at his excellent board and telling me of a new release that will surely send fans of, well, the Golden Age of Comedy into paroxysms of delight. Coming Boxing Day (Dec. 26) is Lost and Found: The Harry Langdon Collection a four disc set from Facets in the U.S. The blurb:
Discovered in 1923 by slapstick pioneer Mack Sennett, Harry Langdon quickly rose to the ranks of the other silent comedians, rivaling Chaplin, Lloyd, and Keaton in popularity. Langdon’s comic persona of the wide-eyed innocent bewildered by the world around him was developed in such classic shorts as Picking Peaches and His New Mamma, which have been restored and included in this four-disc set.
LOST AND FOUND contains most of Langdon’s seminal work for Sennett’s studio, including Smile Please,
The First 100 Years, and The Hansom Cabman. Digitally re-mastered from original negatives and archival preservation material, this essential collection also features restorations of several lost films. Each film is accompanied by an original musical score. The set includes audio commentaries by silent-film historians, rare clips, and Lost and Found, a documentary covering Langdon’s career. Sennett considered Harry Langdon the best comedian he’d ever seen, and this remarkable four-disc set shows us why.
DISC 1
Picking Peaches Feb 3, 1924 • 21:30
Source material from Richard M. Roberts. Music by Andrew Simpson. Commentary by Richard M. Roberts.Smile Please March 2, 1924 • 18:32
Source material from Lobster Films and Film Preservation Associates. Music by Maurice Saylor. Commentary by Ben Model, Steve Massa, Bruce Lawton, and Robert Arkus.His New Mamma June 22, 1924 • 15:15
Partial restoration using source material from Getty Images, Lobster Films, and David Kalat. Music by Andrew Simpson. Commentary by Ben Model, Steve Massa, Bruce Lawton, Robert Arkus, and David Kalat.The First 100 Years Aug 17, 1924 • 13:19
Partial restoration using source material from Lobster Films. Music by Andrew Simpson. Commentary by Wayne Powers and David Kalat.Luck o’ the Foolish Sept 14, 1924 • 21:13
Source material from Lobster Films and Jack Roth, special thanks to Ulrich Ruedel. Music by Maurice Saylor. Commentary by Wayne Powers and David Kalat.The Hansom Cabman Oct 12, 1924 • 19:25
Source material from Lobster Films. Music by Andrew Simpson. Commentary by David Kalat.BONUS FEATURES:
Horace Greely, Jr. June 9, 1925 • 1:42
Filmed in 1923 for Principal Pictures, presented here as a fragment. Music by Andrew Simpson. Audio commentary by Jules White (archival recording)
The Funny Manns episode 4 • 9:28
This 1961 syndicated TV series adapts HIS NEW MAMMA for a new audience.
The Funny Manns episode 68 • 9:19
This 1961 syndicated TV series adapts LUCK O’ THE FOOLISH.
Catalina, Here I Come April 17, 1927 • 17:21
One of a series of faux-Langdon comedies starring Eddie Quillan made after Langdon left the studio. Source material from Film Preservation Associates. Music by Denis Malloy.DISC 2
All Night Long Nov 9, 1924 • 19:29
Source material from Film Preservation Associates. Music by Phil Carluzzo. Commentary by Richard M. Roberts.Feet of Mud Dec 7, 1924 • 17:34
Source material from Film Preservation Associates. Music by Phil Carluzzo. Commentary by Ben Model, Steve Massa, Bruce Lawton, and Robert Arkus.The Sea Squawk Jan 4, 1925 • 18:42
Source material from Lobster Films. Piano score in 1920s style. Commentary by Ben Model, Steve Massa, Bruce Lawton, and Robert Arkus.Boobs in the Wood Feb 1, 1925 • 19:52
Source material from Film Preservation Associates and Wayne Powers. Music by Maurice Saylor. Commentary by Richard M. Roberts.His Marriage Wow Mar 1, 1925 • 20:39
Source material from David Kalat. Music by Ben Redwine. Commentary by Ben Model, Steve Massa, Bruce Lawton, and Robert Arkus.Plain Clothes March 29, 1925 • 15:47
Source material from Ed Watz. Music by Andrew Simpson. Commentary by Ed Watz.Remember When April 26, 1925 • 19:04
Source material from Film Preservation Associates and David Kalat. Music by Maurice Saylor. Commentary by David Kalat.BONUS FEATURES:
Lost and Found 12:12
A one-reel Comedy Capers digest version of REMEMBER WHEN
Photo GalleryDISC 3
Lucky Stars Aug 16, 1925 • 21:24
Source material from Film Preservation Associates. Music by Andrew Simpson. Commentary by Ken Gordon.Saturday Afternoon Jan 31, 1926 • 27:12
Source material from Film Preservation Associates and David Kalat. Music by Maurice Saylor. Commentary by Ken Gordon.Fiddlesticks April 1, 1926 • 19:55
Source material from Film Preservation Associates. Music by Maurice Saylor. Commentary by Ben Model, Steve Massa, Bruce Lawton, Robert Arkus and David Kalat.Soldier Man May 1, 1926 • 31:13
Originally filmed as a 4-reel feature, eventually released after Langdon left Sennett in the 3 reel version shown here. Source material from Film Preservation Associates. Music by Andrew Simpson. Commentary by Ken Gordon.His First Flame May 3, 1927 • 44:36
The first feature Harry Langdon made, but not released until after LONG PANTS. New restored version by Harold Casselton and David Kalat from source material provided by the Larson-Casselton Collection. Music by Franklin Stover. Commentary by David Kalat.BONUS FEATURES:
Saturday Afternoon
One reel Pathegrams condensation of Langdon’s best known short Heart Trouble
PDF reprint of original presskit, for viewing in a DVD-ROM driveDISC 4
Knight Duty May 7, 1933 • 21:03
Source material from Lobster Films and David Kalat. Commentary by Ben Model, Steve Massa, Bruce Lawton, and Robert Arkus.Hooks and Jabs Aug 25, 1933 • 18:31
Source material from David Kalat. Commentary by Hooman Mehran and David Kalat, with archival audio of Mrs. Eunice Dent and Nell O’Day provided by Ed Watz.Love, Honor and Obey (the Law) 1935 • 21:31
Harry Langdon and Monte Collins in a 1935 industrial film intended to promote Goodrich Tires. Source material from Ralph Celentano and David Kalat. Commentary by Ben Model, Steve Massa, Bruce Lawton and Robert Arkus.Lost and Found
An original feature length documentary on the life and films of Harry Langdon featuring various rare clips, photographs, and interviews with film historians.BONUS FEATURES:
Hal Roach Announcement June 1929 • 7:12
Never screened for the public, this rare short introduces Langdon as the newest “All-Star” on the Lot of Fun. Source material provided by Alan BoydVoice of Hollywood 1930 • 9:00
Harry Langdon speaks on screen for the first time publicly.Hollywood on Parade episode 4 • 7:57
Langdon contributes a brief cameo in this star-studded short.Home Movies circa 1936 • 6:14
Harry relaxes at home with wife Mable and son Harry Jr. Source material provided by Paul E. GieruckiFashions of 1942 1942 • 2:39
Harry Langdon sings!
Pleased to see so much source material coming from Lobster Films in France, which is usually a guarantee of quality; Facets certainly have not skimped on extras. Excellent.
Trick Or Treat… November 1, 2007
Posted by John Hodson in : Film General, Horror, British Film , 10 commentsThirty years on from the introduction of the Compact Disc as a medium for playing recorded music, the debate over whether digital or that old analogue war horse, the vinyl record, is best still rages. And, as we see more and more films, particularly cinema classics, screened in a digital format, just as surely will a parallel debate divide movie buffs.
The naysayers claim that movies presented in cinemas digitally will never actually look like film. A digital presentation lacks the warmth, the vibrancy, the depth and the black levels of film. Certainly it lacks film’s ‘organic’ attributes; any nicks and marks - or lack of - seen in any given digital transfer are embedded there forever. There’s no going back, year after year to your favourite festival to see that new print take on the patina of age. A digital presentation is locked, caught in time; age shall not wither it. Only advancing technology.
There’s also the issue of the projectionist; watching How The West Was Won at Bradford a while back I was mindful that it takes no little skill or experience to fire up multi-panel ’Cinerama’ screenings, and the projectors themselves are hulking, complex things of some beauty, a glimpse of which brought a strange desire, deeply embedded in the psyche of most male adults, to go tinker with (preferably armed with a small tool kit). I strongly suspect the difference between a film and digital projectionist, equates to the gulf between a Chef de Cuisine and your average burger flipper.
My own reservations about digital were largely swept aside, however, during this year’s Summer of British Film Festival when I took in as many screenings as I could, all of them digitally projected and every one a blissful encounter. It wasn’t just that I viewed several films that I had never seen in a cinema before, but the fact that I was enjoying the communal experience in the company of people who were seeing the films for the first time; a vicarious pleasure.
I’ve read that other screenings had their own problems - out of synch sound seems to be a digital bugbear - but only once did I become fully aware that I was watching a movie, not as a combination of celluloid, emulsion and light, but via binary and laser, a short video glitch marring an otherwise impeccable showing of a stunning transfer of Goldfinger.
People young enough to be Billy Fisher’s grandchildren laughed in all the right places during Billy Liar, those to whom WWII is just a few musty old pages in history books became misty eyed during The Dam Busters as the camera silently panned through the empty quarters of the airmen who would never return. You could have heard a pin drop.
So, a hit, a palpable hit for digital, one which will encourage more showings of classic films on the big screen. Fired up by all this ‘digitation’, the BFI restoration of Hammer’s 1958 classic Dracula, began a limited U.K. theatrical showing last night, fittingly on Hallowe’en.
There has been much controversy over the BFI’s involvement in restoring Dracula since it was showcased at Cannes last May. Back then, the BFI National Archive, Senior Preservation Manager Andrea Kalas was quoted as saying:
“The restoration of what many fans call the best Hammer horror film required extensive research into reported censored scenes. Rumour and fact, not unlike the Dracula story itself, are intermingled.
“Our research into missing scenes led us to every conceivable resource from the vaults of Warner Bros to an archive in Japan. Scenes censored by the BBFC for the release of the UK version, but included in the US version, have been recovered. In addition, the US title, Horror of Dracula, had been attached to most theatrical and video releases. We have restored the original British release title with its distinctive illuminated “D.”
“Ben Thompson of the BFI National Archive film lab oversaw the restoration and it is due to his diligence and perfectionism that the film is restored. We owe special thanks to Richard Dayton and Eric Aijala of YCM Laboratories and Tim Everett, Ned Price and Bill Rush at Warner Bros.”
The BFI went on to add:
The film was restored from the original negative, except for the original British title and the censored scenes, which were from dupe negatives found in Warner Bros’ vaults. The original prints were released on IB-Technicolor prints, and Richard Dayton at YCM Laboratories in Burbank worked with Ben to achieve this particular look.
However the Custodes Lucis Group, who claim to be ‘members of staff of the British Film Institute and people who work with the Institute in a variety of ways’ have a different tale to tell. Back in June their site reported:
Highlight of the BFI’s Cannes presence this year was a presentation of a new version of Dracula (1958) which the BFI claimed had been restored by the Archive. This raised some eyebrows when it was first announced, as the 50th anniversary of the film’s release is not until 2008, and the first Hammer film was produced in 1935. Moreover, because of the vagaries of distribution and donation, the NFTVA had never actually been able to acquire any material on this title in the past, and, of course, colour feature films are extremely costly items to restore. Considering the vast number of NFTVA-held titles in urgent need of preservation, restoration, rediscovery, and so on, to pick a film not in the collection, one which would eat up most, if not all, of the preservation budget for the year, and one not due for any kind of commemorative release, seemed a little peculiar.
However, on May 15th, a press release was posted on the BFI website, headed “Dracula in Cannes” [part of which is reproduced above]…
We all know that Dracula is a fantasy but surely no-one ever expected the British Film Institute to dream up such a fantastical press release. There is not a shred of truth in these assertions. The BFI did not restore the 1958 Hammer Dracula. This was done by Warner Bros. (the copyright owners) about six years ago, and was, by all accounts a very straightforward procedure, requiring no research, as the negative they worked from (of the American release version) was complete and in good condition. All the “BFI National Archive” did, in reality, was to have a laboratory in California add the British main titles to the American release picture, thus producing a hybrid that was never, ever in distribution. So much for the BFI’s policy of enhanced curatorial control. Such a decision – to create, in effect, a new work without clearly documenting the modification – would be anathema to any right-thinking archivist elsewhere in the world. In the BFI’s new fantasy land, though, it seems that anything goes.
In an interview published in The Independent on Sunday…Anthony Minghella, Chair of the BFI’s Board of Governors, talking about the high cost of archival duplication, noted that “… we are restoring the Hammer film starring Christopher Lee as Dracula…” The question is: who lied to whom? Did Mr Minghella genuinely believe that the BFI/NFTVA was carrying out a full restoration of this classic? If so, he must have had the information from Amanda Nevill. Did Ms Nevill genuinely believe that the Archive was carrying out such a restoration? If so, she must have had the information from Andrea Kalas. Where does this extraordinary chain of deception begin and end?
It’s perhaps worth pointing out that such a restoration (had it really taken place) would have run entirely counter to the BFI’s stated policy that the studios should look after their own, and that the Archive should work only on films which have no rights’ owners and are therefore exploitable commercially. And what would the Film Council have said had the BFI spent its money on this restoration?
Pretty strong language, and quite shocking stuff*. However, none of that detracts from what was a superb digital showing of Dracula last night; from the moment the pristine BBFC certification hit the screen, up came the Universal Internationallogo and there it was - virtually unmarked, beautifully framed (unlike the current DVD releases on both sides of the Atlantic), just enough film grain to stop it looking unnatural, and shown in the original 1.66:1 ratio. The colours, particularly the vivid, bloody reds, were strong and vibrant; it whets the appetite for the home video re-release that Warners have promised, and that will no doubt come in the film’s 50th anniversary year, 2008.
Even more pleasing for this viewer was the fact that my 15-years-old son was held spellbound by Terence Fisher’s half century old film, and confessed, without shame later that it scared him, something, I must admit, I didn’t quite expect of a dyed in the wool denizen of the 21st century whose only previous encounter with the Prince of Darkness was a showing of the meeting between Mr Lugosi, Mr Abbott and Mr Costello. Oh, and he didn’t ask once what our corpuscle hungry Count wanted with a librarian (come to think of it, what did he want with a librarian? Are they tastier? Bite a librarian today, and report back to me post haste. On the other hand, best not. I digress…)
I thought I’d overplayed my hand when I described the final encounter between Dracula and Van Helsing as one of the greatest scenes in horror film history. But no, not only does it still raise the hairs on the back of my neck (even thinking about it now, James Bernard’s score literally racing, galloping along…), it also did it for the boy. How very satisfying.
Three showings last night, we plumped for the early screening at 6pm, so I decided to round off Hallowe’en with a midnight showing chez Hodson of Brides of Dracula on DVD, the beautiful R1 transfer from Universal. I doubt my admiration for Peter Cushing could increase further, but while in Dracula, Christopher Lee has the plumb role that dominates while he’s off screen, it’s Cushing’s considerable craft and ability that is the glue that holds both films together and which left a big daft smile on my face.
A consummate professional, Cushing inhabits the character of Van Helsing, making sure that he’s the very embodiment of a 19th century physician by perfecting bits of ‘business’, whether it’s handling antique equipment - needles, swabs, the wonderful Phonograph (listen how he enunciates on the recording) - with an easy familiarity or alighting from a moving carriage with the athletic grace of someone who does so daily. When Universal revived the character recently, they trumpeted that they had reinvented Van Helsing as a ‘kick ass action hero’. Surely some mistake? Mr Cushing got there first. Picture his Professor Van Helsing - a snarling, feral, Dracula closing in for the kill - leaping to the table top, springboarding to rip down the curtains and bathe his foe in deadly sunlight, or jumping to catch the sails of the windmill, thus forming the shadow of an enormous vampire culling crucifix - nobody does it better.
You can find out more on when and where Dracula is being shown here. Go now, my children of the night, and book your tickets…
So, while film in our living rooms have been steadily moving towards a digital future for the past decade, it seems more of us will be watching movies in similar fashion theatrically. Vue will open Europe’s first all-digital cinema in Hull in December - it’s coming whether we like it or not.
Cost must be a factor, as must ease of operation. Yet if digital means that new life is breathed into classic films so that they can be enjoyed, where they belong, on the big screen by new generations, can that ever be seen as a bad thing? Obviously film must come first, but providing preservation of the original elements is paramount, providing that digital technology can give the viewer the most filmlike experience possible, I’m finding it hard to come up with a downside.
Will digital ultimately ‘kill’ traditional film? I don’t think so. Perhaps we should note that while CD signalled the end for the turntable more than three decades ago, vinyl records are still very much with us.
*Nov. 8 update; when these allegations were first made, it appears a poster at the British Film Forums had this to say, which I’ll leave for you to read without comment from me:
As Senior Curator (Fiction) at the BFI National Archive, I’d like [to] answer the points raised over our work on DRACULA. The work undertaken by Warner Bros in the mid-1990s was not a restoration as such but simply the preparation of digital materials for a DVD release. The BFI has prepared new preservation materials on film from the original negative. The new version, incorporating the original UK title sequence, benefits from additional technical work that has been carried out on both picture and sound. Furthermore, we have reinstated a brief sequence which was cut from the UK release version by the BBFC. None of this is a secret and we are pleased to offer the film to UK audiences in as complete a form as is currently possible.
Can I also add a small caveat as regards Dracula, which raises more issues. The BFI has been showing their restored print - not in digital form - at the National Film Theatre in London and there are several reports around the ‘net from very disappointed viewers that all is not as it should be; it’s marked, murky and with poor sound. Why should the digital version be so much better? Good question isn’t it…