Val Lewton Collection Redux

[Steve R]

Robert, Spine Tingler - The William Castle doc?
Where did you see it? Is it out on DVD yet.

Tell me about it. I've heard a lot, read Step Right Up and always enjoyed his style.

[Robert Wilkins]

Originally Posted by Steve R

Robert, Spine Tingler - The William Castle doc?
Where did you see it? Is it out on DVD yet.

Tell me about it. I've heard a lot, read Step Right Up and always enjoyed his style.

It played at a local indpendent film festival earlier this year. The director and film's composer were in attendence as well.

The house was packed with hardcore Castle fans who gave it a BIG round of applause when the credits rolled.

If Castle were alive today and saw it I think he'd be truly touched, as it's a very moving and heartfelt film and a fitting tribute to a great man.

[Wayne Schmidt]

Originally Posted by cworkman

I don't know how anyone could think the transfers on these films couldn't be improved. Having seen what Warner can (and has) done, there's something shameful about their Val Lewton Collection. The speckles and dirt could MOST DEFINITELY be removed, and that's the biggest problem with these releases. They just don't look clean. I too had the laserdisc box set, and the transfers back then don't look all that much worse than what we've got here. I expected something better with these. They are among my favorite films, and I'm glad I got this box set, but I would upgrade if Warner ever decided to re-release them with better transfers.

Without knowing what they started with it's a bit unfair to say the end result is "shameful". It is fairly well known these titles are in very rough condition. I've never seen them look better than this since my exposure to them many years back; they just weren't taken care of. If they spent a fortune they could remove all the dirt, but it's a fact of life in home video that potential sales are going to affect the amount of dirt cleanup or other tweaking done. The Lewtons are not going to get the attention of an Eastwood title or Lethal Weapon or something, and they're in significantly worse shape to start with. Maybe the technology has radically improved since I last worked with it but automated dirt cleanup has serious drawbacks if applied too heavily and manually painting it out is very man hours intensive, therefore expensive. I'm sure a fair amount was done, but no, they're not cleaned up to perfection. For me the issue is more the coarseness of image and weak contrasts, both are symptoms of multi-generational elements. That can't be improved unless much unless better source materials are found. And as we've seen several times in the last few years that does happen (VAMPYR). Hopefully some archive somewhere has them stashed and hasn't been tapped yet.

[Jonathan Douglas]

The docu is very good, it's fun to see 'little' Ann Carter again as an adult, I never would've recognised her hadn't it said her name.

[Troy Howarth]

I still want to see that documentary - I was more excited when I thought Scorsese actually directed it, but I'm still glad it has his imprint in any form.

[cworkman]

I saw it when it debuted on TCM and didn't think it as interesting as the documentary that was in the original box set. As a result, I didn't purchase the DVD release.

[Barry M.]

LIFE magazine has some behind-the-scenes pics from GHOST SHIP: I don't recall her at all, but imdb credits her as "Shirley O'Hara: Silhouette Girl" so it must be for real.







http://images.google.com/images?q=Gh...%20source:life

[Derek Steckler]

Very cool.

[Steve R]

Ghost Ship is my favorite Lewton.

Gives me an excuse to watch it again and spot the Silhouette Girl.

That middle picture with her shadow against the ship is fantastic.
Fuck CGI, bow to the shadows! Her hand is right on the damn railing. Perfect.
Nich Musuraca, the dp, is the best. John Alton right beside him.

Thanks