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Does StudioCanal now control Lester's THREE/FOUR MUSKETEERS? (1 Viewer)

Dick

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If so....why haven't we decent Blu-rays? These were popular movies in 1974-5, and so far we've had only truly crappy Fox Lorber DVDs, and badly cropped Region B transfers that are anything but acceptable. The Optimum UK Blu-ray releases might have been decent, but for the fact that the image for both was DNR'red all to hell...not a spec of film grain to be seen. These are extraordinary adventure films, fairly faithful to the Dumas novel, full of great action, stunts, hilarious slapstick, and ultimately, moments of great tragedy, plus an extraordinary cast.

What is taking the U.S. so damn long to license these films from StudioCanal?

Just wondering. :mellow:
 

Alan Tully

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I think they do, & I'm hoping for a great looking release next year. The Blu-rays that were released are just rubbish. I gave mine away, I couldn't bare to look at them.
 

Neil S. Bulk

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I'd love new masters on these. The day-for-night footage in the first film is not timed properly at all. The Duke of Buckingham even comments on it being dark, except it's as bright as can be.

The US prints of The Four Musketeers opened with alternate narration by Richard Chamberlain and I've never seen a video release with that. There's lot to do with these films.
 

Alan Tully

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I've only seen it with the opening narration by Frank Finlay, & very good it is too. I just can't imagine Richard Chamberlain being as good. The more good looking Blu-rays of the work of DOP David Watkin, the better.
 

Neil S. Bulk

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I've only seen it with the opening narration by Frank Finlay, & very good it is too. I just can't imagine Richard Chamberlain being as good
He had narration written for his character, so he wasn't saying verbatim Finlay's narration. There were some portions that were common to both narrations. I saw 35mm US prints a few years ago at the New Beverly. Both film also opened with the 20th Century Fox logo.
 

B-ROLL

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Lets not forget it features the talents of Raquel Welch ... :P

ea410b55a41593b8671a38bd01c52023.jpg
 

Worth

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Not to mention Faye Dunaway...

faye.jpg


And Sybil Danning, too.
 

Peter Apruzzese

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If so....why haven't we decent Blu-rays? These were popular movies in 1974-5, and so far we've had only truly crappy Fox Lorber DVDs, and badly cropped Region B transfers that are anything but acceptable. The Optimum UK Blu-ray releases might have been decent, but for the fact that the image for both was DNR'red all to hell...not a spec of film grain to be seen. These are extraordinary adventure films, fairly faithful to the Dumas novel, full of great action, stunts, hilarious slapstick, and ultimately, moments of great tragedy, plus an extraordinary cast.

What is taking the U.S. so damn long to license these films from StudioCanal?

Just wondering. :mellow:

I thought the Anchor Bay Double Feature DVD set looked pretty good (for a DVD).

I watched them again recently and was struck by how much post-dubbing there was in The Four Musketeers, to the point of distraction.
 

JoeDoakes

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I'd have to agree there, sticking in little one-liners in post that were never said during filming, it looks clumsy today, but I think we're stuck with them.
Except for the King, the dubbing is generally not done to visible mouth movements and I think its great, as a lot of the little comments add depth and much of the humor to the film. There's a similar use of dubbing in some of Altman's films.
 

Worth

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I'd have to agree there, sticking in little one-liners in post that were never said during filming, it looks clumsy today, but I think we're stuck with them.
It's still done all the time today, but they're a little better at it now.
 

deepscan

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StudioCanal does have the underlying rights to these films. The home video license is currently with Lionsgate. The television rights, however, are with WB. The Criterion Channel’s version does have a StudioCanal logo at the beginning, though.
 

Alan Tully

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It's still done all the time today, but they're a little better at it now.

Years ago I worked with someone who'd worked with the dubbing editors on the sixties Bonds, & I asked him why the lip-sync was a bit off sometimes, & he said that some of the dialogue was changed after filming (just a quip or a few words), & on post production looping, the actor had to try & match his lips while saying something completely different to what he'd said.
 

Worth

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Years ago I worked with someone who'd worked with the dubbing editors on the sixties Bonds, & I asked him why the lip-sync was a bit off sometimes, & he said that some of the dialogue was changed after filming (just a quip or a few words), & on post production looping, the actor had to try & match his lips while saying something completely different to what he'd said.
The most flawless example of this is in Apocalypse Now, in the scene with Harrison Ford where Martin Sheen is given his orders. Brando originally wanted his character's name changed to Leighley, so that's how they shot it, then changed it to Kurtz and re-dubbed the whole thing. You have to look really closely to see that the lip movements don't match the audio.
 

Randy Korstick

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I agree the Anchor Bay DVD's looked very good much better than the Fox Lorber DVD's which were nearly unwatchable. But there is still room for improvement on Blu Ray for sure with new 2k or 4k scans.
 

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