A few words about…™ Father Goose — in Blu-ray

Well that’s a damn shame, I was really looking forward to this

Jimbo64 said:

Well that’s a damn shame, I was really looking forward to this

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I appreciate RAH's reviews, but I find too many instances in which I enjoy the audio and video presentations more than he did. In short, I"m still looking forward to this release to see if that pattern continues or not.

Robert Harris said:

Fans of Cary Grant can finally own his penultimate film appearance on Blu-ray, courtesy of Olive Films via Paramount.

A delightful romp, with Mr. Grant and Leslie Caron, the 1964 production, comes across as a bit more than adequate on Blu-ray, with color not always tracking, and far too much dirt and damage for a 4k restoration.

I would have presumed much better quality coming from Paramount, but their work here is either slipshod, incomplete, or far to budget challenged.

Fun film. Poor restorative effort.

Extras place the release in Olive's Signature category, but I'm not certain that they're up to the quality of earlier releases.


Image - 3

Audio - 5

4k Up-rez - 2.75

Pass / Fail - Pass

Upgrade from DVD - No

RAH

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My question is: is this Signature release an upgrade vs the previous Olive BD release? If no, I need to cancel my preorder. Same for Operation Petticoat.

atfree said:

My question is: is this Signature release an upgrade vs the previous Olive BD release? If no, I need to cancel my preorder. Same for Operation Petticoat.

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Both Grant films appear to be the same transfers, with the new BD, at a higher bitrate. Final results seem to be very similar, although the new product may be slightly better.

Was Father Goose not a Universal release??? I have the previous Blu. Don't need this one with a new moniker.

Wait a minute, Olive has reissued Father Goose? I reread RAH post and I get it, it’s a Signature release. This is surprising so recently after the first release. I took a look at the Olive site and I see they have Operation Petticoat too coming, I just got the standard Olive releases of these two films and Olive’s That Touch of Mink earlier this year. Shoot!

Seems like the main draw to repurchase would be for the extras and very minimal image quality improvement. If this was Indicreet, Notorious ( i know, not an Olive title) I’d have no second thoughts and go for it. But these later Cary Grant titles are pretty good so i’ll consider them. I was lucky in that I waited a bit for High Noon and I bought it when it was reissued as a Signature release and it looks great to me, not having seen the original Olive release.

Seems like those Olive Signatures are now being penned with disappearing ink.

haineshisway said:

Was Father Goose not a Universal release??? I have the previous Blu. Don't need this one with a new moniker.

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Father Goose was released theatrically by Universal. But the Cary Grant estate owns the home video rights to Father Goose, Operation Petticoat, Indiscreet, That Touch Of Mink and The Grass Is Greener and apparently the Grant estate licensed or sold those films to Republic which in turn was absorbed by Paramount. To the best of my knowledge, none of those titles were released to home video by the studios that released them theatrically, Universal (Goose, Petticoat, Grass, Mink) and Warners (Indiscreet)

Hmmm. I already preordered and sold my old original Olive Blu-ray’s. Maybe I jumped the gun. I was real pleased with the Olive Signature High Noon

Robert Harris said:

Both Grant films appear to be the same transfers, with the new BD, at a higher bitrate. Final results seem to be very similar, although the new product may be slightly better.

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Thank you for saving me $50. Both pre-orders cancelled. A big disappointment. Not sure what Olive is thinking here.

skylark68 said:

Hmmm. I already preordered and sold my old original Olive Blu-ray’s. Maybe I jumped the gun. I was real pleased with the Olive Signature High Noon

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I never ever get rid of the old discs until I have the new disc in my hot little hands and have given it a look see! Precisely for the situation here but also anything can happen! Sometimes a disc is announced, people dump their DVDs or previous blu rays and then the disc is canceled. For instance, Kino Lorber announced a blu ray of Fathom with Raquel Welch but later canceled the blu. Had I gotten rid of the DVD, I'd just have to repurchase it.

Robert Harris said:

Both Grant films appear to be the same transfers, with the new BD, at a higher bitrate. Final results seem to be very similar, although the new product may be slightly better.

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So Olive has basically lied about the following in bold:

• New Restoration from 4K Scan of Original Camera Negative
• Audio commentary by film historian David Del Valle
• “Unfinished Business: Cary Grant’s Search for Fatherhood and His Oscar” – with Marc Eliot, author of Cary Grant: A Biography
• “My Father” – internet pioneer Ted Nelson discusses director Ralph Nelson
• Universal Newsreel footage featuring Leslie Caron
• Essay by Village Voice critic Bilge Ebiri

Robert Crawford said:

So Olive has basically lied about the following in bold:

• New Restoration from 4K Scan of Original Camera Negative
• Audio commentary by film historian David Del Valle
• “Unfinished Business: Cary Grant’s Search for Fatherhood and His Oscar” – with Marc Eliot, author of Cary Grant: A Biography
• “My Father” – internet pioneer Ted Nelson discusses director Ralph Nelson
• Universal Newsreel footage featuring Leslie Caron
• Essay by Village Voice critic Bilge Ebiri

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That seems a bit harsh.

What I’m calling into question is the quality of said restoration, which has become more of a marketing tool, than reality.

One of the worst offenders is Criterion.

Question at hand.

What does the word “restoration” mean, and to whom?

Robert Harris said:

That seems a bit harsh.

What I’m calling into question is the quality of said restoration, which has become more of a marketing tool, than reality.

One of the worst offenders is Criterion.

Question at hand.

What does the word “restoration” mean, and to whom?

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I don't think I'm being harsh based on your comment that it appears to be the same transfer with a higher bitrate. What else would you call it, but a lie as it's certainly not a new restoration from 4K scan of Original Camera Negative? Let's call a spade, a spade, if they're misrepresenting what they said this new Blu-ray is derived from.

Robert Crawford said:

I don't think I'm being harsh based on your comment that it appears to be the same transfer with a higher bitrate. What else would you call it, but a lie as it's certainly not a new restoration from 4K scan of Original Camera Negative? Let's call a spade, a spade, if they're misrepresenting what they said this new Blu-ray is derived from.

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Or might Olive’s initial Blu have been from a 4k scan of the OCN?

Surely a 4K scan should include a thorough clean-up, or why bother to do it, it should be pristine. It must have been so disheartening for the people working on this to see the job not being done properly.

Robert Harris said:

[...]Question at hand.
What does the word “restoration” mean, and to whom?

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Well, in the case of Olive, the word "restoration" means an increase in price.
Currently, Amazon has both BD's of Father Goose priced at $17.97 and $26.71
Put the two side by side on a shelf at Barnes and Noble and the consumer who seeks a finer picture might hinge themselves to that very term; even though they may not fully understanding its truer definition.
So, yah, marketing-wise the misuse of terms begins with the distributor.

- Screener Encoding Errors -

It has come to our attention that our Blu-ray editions of Olive Signature Operation Petticoat and Olive Signature Father Goose, originally scheduled for release on November 7, were affected by encoding errors during replication. These digital glitches are present in Blu-ray screeners that you may have received already or will receive in the next few days. Because the final quality control does not meet our standards, we will be correcting these glitches before commercial release and resubmitting new discs for review. As a consequence of these fixes, please be advised we will also be postponing the street date for both titles. Stay tuned, and we will update you when a new street date has been determined. We thank you for your patience as we work to resolve these issues.


Thank you,
Olive Films

Robert Harris said:

- Screener Encoding Errors -

It has come to our attention that our Blu-ray editions of Olive Signature Operation Petticoat and Olive Signature Father Goose, originally scheduled for release on November 7, were affected by encoding errors during replication. These digital glitches are present in Blu-ray screeners that you may have received already or will receive in the next few days. Because the final quality control does not meet our standards, we will be correcting these glitches before commercial release and resubmitting new discs for review. As a consequence of these fixes, please be advised we will also be postponing the street date for both titles. Stay tuned, and we will update you when a new street date has been determined. We thank you for your patience as we work to resolve these issues.


Thank you,
Olive Films

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Thank you RAH! Your noted criticism of these upcoming releases just didn't match Olive's initial press release in which they promoted restoration efforts with these two titles. Very happy to see Olive stepping up to address this issue.

RAH knows Best.