Showing Soon; ‘Scope for Improvement from Eureka! Classics… September 18, 2008
Posted by John Hodson in : DVD News & Info, Showing Soon , 13 commentsApologies for the lack of activity recently, and this is merely a flying visit by way of a warning; U.K. outfit Eureka!, famed for their superb Masters of Cinema series, is also set to release a number of titles in their ‘Eureka! Classics’ line-up come November, among them Universal-International’s first Cinemascope picture, Rudolph Mate’s hugely enjoyable medieval romp The Black Shield of Falworth (which has entered movie lore for the line delivered, in a Bronx accent, by Tony Curtis: “Yondda lies da castle of my fadder.” Curtis swears it was in fact: “Yonder lies the valley of the sun, and beyond, the castle of my father…”).
Yesterday, I was astounded to read this review which reveals the transfer to be 1.78:1, cropped from the original 2.55:1. A peek at the Eureka! website listing showed the film as coming in 2.35:1, so a quick email was fired off to see what the position is. Sadly Eureka! has confirmed that the film is indeed coming butchered to 1.78:1, as you’ll see from that link, they have now amended their listing to show the film as a somewhat nebulous ‘16:9′…and references to it being Universal’s first ’scope feature have been removed.
Oh dear.
Other titles upcoming in the same range are (October) Night of The Living Dead, Jess Franco’s Eugine De Sade, Claude Pierson’s Justine de Sade, The Naked: A Psychological Film, Manina – The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter, Krzysztof Zanussi’s Leben für Leben, Jess Franco’s X312 – Flight to Hell, 56 Rue Pigalle, The Benny Goodman Story, Henry Hathaway’s Souls at Sea (with Gary Cooper), Ronald Neame’s The Horse’s Mouth, Ralph Thomas’s The Clouded Yellow. In November, the offerings include Jeroen Krabbe’s The Discovery of Heaven, and The Stranglers – On Stage/On Screen. Some have extras, some don’t, check out the website for details, but following the ‘Black Shield’ debacle, I’m afraid it has to be caveat emptor.
By the way, also coming November* from Eureka! is Douglas Sirk’s A Time To Love & A Time To Die in their Masters of Cinema line, thus a little more optimism for that one.
*EDIT; now postponed ‘for a few months’ while Eureka! upgrade the title from a single to a two-disc set.