Fox Cinema Archives MOD

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movieman
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Fox Cinema Archives MOD

Post by movieman »

Hi!

I've aquired and viewed these two Jean Peters films from the Fox MOD series:

It Happens Every Spring (1949) B & W, dir. Lloyd Bacon

Wait 'Til the Sun Shines, Nellie (1952) color, dir. Henry King

The 1949 movie seems to have been made from an older master, but it's a sharp picture. It's very good. I was very pleased.

The 1952 one is another matter. Though it's not as bad as I feared, it is clear that the transfer is way too dark. This one also, most probably, comes from a dated master.
One scene which was supposed to take place at night, I believe, is so dark you can't see the characters' faces.
I did some tweaking of the image on my player and it got a bit better, but not by much.
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pvitari
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Joined: January 30th, 2010, 8:26 am

Re: Fox Cinema Archives MOD

Post by pvitari »

The Fox Cinema Archive program has been for the most part a disaster. The film buffs are up in arms about the substandard product. Widescreen films -- including Cinemascope titles -- are being released in poor quality pan and scan, and in the rare case of an actual widescreen transfer, it's often non-anamorphic. The older Academy ratio films also frequently are in really bad shape, and sometimes the transfer itself is a mess. I bought the Tyrone Power film Diplomatic Courier and it's covered in digital noise mosquitoes. Whoever did this transfer should be fired. Another Tyrone Power title I bought, Suez, looks OK but definitely has not been remastered. The Fox Cinema Archive thread at Home Theater Forum is filled with comments from unhappy customers. I don't know why Fox is shooting itself in the foot with these poor quality releases when both the Warner Archive Collection and the Sony Pictures Choice Collection remaster everything and release one beautiful DVD after another.
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