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A Few Words About A few words about...™ Duel in the Sun -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

Robert Harris

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As a huge David Selznick fan, I've been waiting for this one to arrive on Blu-ray.

The original elements were re-composited more than a decade ago at Disney, and this Blu-ray is representative of that analogue work.

Not digital.

Generally, Kino Lorber's new Blu-ray looks fine, although I question the first optical after the credits, as it appears that something odd may be occurring. Other than that, you're in for a great ride.

There are problems in the recombine, but that's not the fault of Kino, nor could they have easily done anything to solve them.

Most are caused by the lack of a properly seated registration pin, affecting the original negatives, during the production, in the Technicolor camera.

The anomalies appear on-screen, as major, twitching registration issues. These can seen early on in the first sequence with Joseph Cotten and Jennifer Jones. Hard to miss.

DitS is one of the most beautiful Technicolor films ever produced, and it was produced on a grand scale, as an intended follow-up to Gone with the Wind.

The only thing that kept it from being a great film, was the script.

In every other way, it's larger than life, beginning with the entrance to the saloon in the opening of the film.

Color, as reproduced here, is a bit cooler than I might have expected, as I'm used to the warmer Selznick look from the 1940s and even re-issue prints c. 1954, but it's still gorgeous.

Solid cast, incredible tech credits. The film was shot by Lee Garmes (Gone with the Wind, Portrait of Jennie), Ray Rennahan (Drums Along the Mohawk, For Whom the Bell Tolls), and Hal Rosson (Singin' in the Rain).

Know going in that there are some niggling tech problems that can really only be solved by going back to the original negatives, and doing a new 4k scan -- a huge investment.

Grab a copy of enjoy true cinema on a grand scale.

Image - 4.5

Audio - 5

4k Up-rez - 4.75

Pass / Fail - Pass

Highly Recommended

RAH
 

Angelo Colombus

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Great score by Dimitri Tiomkin and I believe director King Vidor quit during filming due to Selznick's rewrites and reshoots of certain scenes.
 

Mark-P

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So the "UltraResolution" process from WB would likely help, but is just too expensive for this movie....
Ultra Resolution process is even too expensive for Warner these days as they've abandoned it for cheaper alternatives.
 

Jim*Tod

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Mr. Harris, somewhere along the line you referenced seeing a print or a test run of a print from the Technicolor negative in Bejing (none of these details are probably correct) of DUEL IN THE SUN. Is this new blu ray in any way derived from that source? Also is the misalignment problems something that is visible throughout the whole disc or only in portions of it? Thanks.
 

Douglas R

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Great score by Dimitri Tiomkin and I believe director King Vidor quit during filming due to Selznick's rewrites and reshoots of certain scenes.

And a superb new recording of Tiomkin's score produced by Tadlow Music has just been released on the Prometheus Records label.
 

Michel_Hafner

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So the "UltraResolution" process from WB would likely help, but is just too expensive for this movie....
Well, the digital combining can be done on a workstation costing some thousand dollars. The preparation of the images before combining is expensive since it needs a lot of human intervention for highest quality clean up work.
 

Matt Hough

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Ultra Resolution process is even too expensive for Warner these days as they've abandoned it for cheaper alternatives.
I am SO grateful that a few classics like Singin' in the Rain, Easter Parade, The Band Wagon, and An American in Paris were mastered using the process because the results are gorgeous. I wish The Pirate and Show Boat could have undergone similar work.
 

Robert Harris

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Ultra Resolution process is even too expensive for Warner these days as they've abandoned it for cheaper alternatives.

UR is no longer used because better digital processes are available.

A new 4k digital element would be easily produced, as the original negatives, as I recall, with one tear aside, are in remarkably good condition.
 

usrunnr

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And a superb new recording of Tiomkin's score produced by Tadlow Music has just been released on the Prometheus Records label.


Available from Screen Archives Entertainment. $27.95. $6.46 shipping.

Also, does anyone have an opinion of the Anchor Bay DVD of "Duel in the Sun"? Thank you.
 

Andrew Budgell

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It certainly could use a real update.

I'm sure I've repeated this many times, but WB said during a chat here (over a decade ago now) that at that time National Velvet was a big seller for them, so I hope it happens. The current DVD is a reissue of one of MGM's first discs from 1997 so seeing it on Blu would be a revelation.
 

Angelo Colombus

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Available from Screen Archives Entertainment. $27.95. $6.46 shipping.

Also, does anyone have an opinion of the Anchor Bay DVD of "Duel in the Sun"? Thank you.
Have the MGM dvd from 2004 and it looks good and from what I have read it is the same source material that Anchor Bay used for their second dvd release.
 

nara

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I remember this film being nicknamed "Lust in The Dust", (prior to the spoof movie of the same name)

Were there not several cuts ordered by the censor back in 1946?
 

Robert Harris

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I remember this film being nicknamed "Lust in The Dust", (prior to the spoof movie of the same name)

Were there not several cuts ordered by the censor back in 1946?

There was one major deletion, which I attempted to locate at the time we performed the dye transfer tests in Beijing.
 

Bert Greene

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I was always amused by the reactions by family members to this movie, who all seemed to strongly recall it from its initial release. The women (mother, aunts, etc.) all seemed to love it... "oooh, it was so romantic" and the like. While all the menfolk seemed in agreement that it was one of the dumbest films they ever recall from that era, with a special emphasis on the 'idiotic' finale.

Me? I kinda lean on the side of the latter. I'm sure the restoration should serve up a lot of those eye-popping Technicolor visuals, though. If the darned film's script wasn't just so exasperating, so ridiculous!
 

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