Releases like this are preserving history. I hope to see more of them. We already have Metropolis, but The Alamo is in dire condition, as is the 30 FPS version of Around The World In Eighty Days. You always hear about silent films disappearing, but some colour films actually degrade faster.
Now THAT’S horror!
]]>First off, all of the scanned film elements were faded beyond repair, warped, and sticky. The colour had to be the taken from the standard-def Laserdisc master and realigned.
Plus, some of the trims were “rectified” (stretched for a curved screen), which was not easy to correct. Finally, the proper editing had to be recontructed, which was tricky because the extra footage came from several difference sources, and some bits were never meant to be seen.
]]>Re: the new, non-Laserdisc scenes – You can spot what’s new to this release by the condition. Anything that’s audio only is obvious, as well as any spots where the audio cuts out or the colour (sourced from the Laserdisc scan) goes away.
]]>EDIT: Sorry for that one; The Blu-ray screenshot; http://i.imgur.com/pFqSa1j.jpg
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