BD 64 The Tarnished Angels

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swo17
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BD 64 The Tarnished Angels

#1 Post by swo17 » Sat Jul 06, 2013 1:29 pm

The Tarnished Angels

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One of legendary director Douglas Sirk's most cherished passion projects, this spectacular adaptation of William Faulkner's Pylon has risen in stature to become one of his most acclaimed films. Reuniting with his core creative team from oil tycoon saga Written on the Wind, Sirk this time examined the marginal lives and lost souls living one rung from the bottom with surpassing delicacy and artistry.

Rock Hudson stars as journalist Burke Devlin, fascinated by the sordid lives of a trio eking out a living in carnival circuit daredevil airshows — Roger Shumann (Robert Stack), former WWI fighter pilot, forced into races and parachute routines with the help of his wife LaVerne (Dorothy Malone), and faithful mechanic Jiggs (Jack Carson).

Evoking Depression-era New Orleans with glorious black-and-white CinemaScope photography, Sirk's spellbinding chronicle of personal obsession, romantic longing and irreconcilable desires now appears as one of the most extraordinary films to come out of 1950s Hollywood. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present The Tarnished Angels on Blu-ray for the first time.

SPECIAL BLU-RAY EDITION

• Beautiful new 1080p high-definition master
• Feature-length audio commentary by film critic Adrian Martin
Talk About the Business, a video interview with supporting actor William Schallert
Infernal Circle, a video interview with critic Bill Krohn
Acting with Douglas Sirk, a collection of archival interviews with Douglas Sirk, producer Albert Zugsmith and actors Rock Hudson, Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone
• Original theatrical trailer
• Isolated music & effects track
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf & hearing impaired on the feature
• 44-PAGE BOOKLET featuring writing on the film by Luc Moullet, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Tag Gallagher; a vintage report from the set at the time of production; interview excerpts with Douglas Sirk and William Faulkner; and rare archival imagery

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domino harvey
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Re: Forthcoming: The Tarnished Angels

#2 Post by domino harvey » Sat Jul 06, 2013 1:44 pm

Sweet! I already have it in that big R2 Sirk boxed set but I'd GLADLY upgrade to Blu for this one!

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hearthesilence
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Re: Forthcoming: The Tarnished Angels

#3 Post by hearthesilence » Sat Jul 06, 2013 4:18 pm

Excellent! Was debating over this one because there aren't any good DVDs here in the U.S. The best transfer I believe was a no-frills disc that's part of a UK/EU box set that I wasn't interested in, so an MoC reissue is very welcome.

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domino harvey
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Re: Forthcoming: The Tarnished Angels

#4 Post by domino harvey » Sat Jul 06, 2013 4:54 pm

It was released in the US in the Sirk TCM Vault set, but that set's only available as DVD-Rs now

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hearthesilence
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Re: Forthcoming: The Tarnished Angels

#5 Post by hearthesilence » Sat Jul 06, 2013 5:41 pm

I know, but I think the transfer on that set is supposedly pretty crummy.

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knives
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Re: Forthcoming: The Tarnished Angels

#6 Post by knives » Sat Jul 06, 2013 6:36 pm

hearthesilence wrote:I know, but I think the transfer on that set is supposedly pretty crummy.
No, the transfer is excellent. The initial issuing of the disc did not have the last eight minutes, but they changed that.

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Murdoch
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Re: Forthcoming: The Tarnished Angels

#7 Post by Murdoch » Sat Jul 06, 2013 8:56 pm

I believe the TCM release had slightly more information on the sides of the frame compared to the UK and Carlotta DVDs (although the difference was neglible). I held off on the previous releases since the import cost of the Carlotta was too much and I wasn't much interested in the other films of the Sirk box, so this will be a much appreciated upgrade and another notch in MoC's bedpost of great films rescued from region 1 DVD-R hell (see also Park Row).

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Cash Flagg
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Re: Forthcoming: The Tarnished Angels

#8 Post by Cash Flagg » Sat Jul 06, 2013 9:29 pm

Any possibility that MoC licensed the Adrian Martin commentary from the Australian disc?

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jsteffe
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Re: Forthcoming: The Tarnished Angels

#9 Post by jsteffe » Sun Jul 07, 2013 1:26 am

Murdoch wrote:I believe the TCM release had slightly more information on the sides of the frame compared to the UK and Carlotta DVDs (although the difference was neglible). I held off on the previous releases since the import cost of the Carlotta was too much and I wasn't much interested in the other films of the Sirk box, so this will be a much appreciated upgrade and another notch in MoC's bedpost of great films rescued from region 1 DVD-R hell (see also Park Row).
Going by the DVD Beaver comparisons at least, the TCM release has more information but the image is quite a bit softer. The Carlotta release has the best sharpness and contrast. The UK release is somewhere in the middle--it looks as if it has less detail than the French release, possibly due to a low-pass filter being applied? I'm glad I bought the French release early on. However, it's all a moot point if Masters of Cinema is releasing this on Blu-ray! Hope they continue to put out more Sirk in Blu...

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Re: Forthcoming: The Tarnished Angels

#10 Post by David M. » Sun Jul 07, 2013 1:32 pm

Going by the DVD Beaver comparisons at least, the TCM release has more information but the image is quite a bit softer. The Carlotta release has the best sharpness and contrast. The UK release is somewhere in the middle--it looks as if it has less detail than the French release, possibly due to a low-pass filter being applied?
It could be lowpass filtering, but it could also be down to the screen grab (as has happened before). The only way to know for sure would be to get both discs and screen grab both using DGindex or similar.

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hearthesilence
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Re: Forthcoming: The Tarnished Angels

#11 Post by hearthesilence » Sun Jul 07, 2013 1:41 pm

The softness is what I was referring to. It's tough making this work on DVD - 2.35:1 in crisp black & white, it should be seen projected from a good 35mm print - but TCM (or whoever mastered it in the U.S.) should've been able to do much better. Hope the MoC release is a Blu-Ray release, it really needs the resolution.

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swo17
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Re: Forthcoming: The Tarnished Angels

#12 Post by swo17 » Mon Jul 08, 2013 10:38 am

Announced for August, Blu-ray only.
MoC Twitter wrote:Replete with a ton of extras.

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manicsounds
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Re: BD 64 The Tarnished Angels

#13 Post by manicsounds » Mon Jul 08, 2013 11:51 am

The French DVD extras will probably be a given, I wonder if MoC can dig up some other vintage stuff, or new stuff.

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eerik
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Re: BD 64 The Tarnished Angels

#14 Post by eerik » Tue Jul 09, 2013 12:39 pm

  • Beautiful new 1080p high-definition master
  • Feature-length audio commentary by film critic Adrian Martin
  • Talk About the Business, an interview with supporting actor William Schallert
  • Infernal Circle, an interview with critic Bill Krohn
  • Acting with Douglas Sirk, a collection of archival interviews with Douglas Sirk, producer Albert Zugsmith and actors Rock Hudson, Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • Isolated music & effects track
  • Optional English subtitles for the deaf & hearing impaired on the feature
  • 40-PAGE BOOKLET featuring the words of Douglas Sirk, vintage reportage from the film set, rare imagery, and more!

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domino harvey
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Re: BD 64 The Tarnished Angels

#15 Post by domino harvey » Tue Jul 09, 2013 1:06 pm

Awesome, so glad labels in other regions are starting to catch on to the great work Adrian Martin's done for Madman

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manicsounds
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Re: BD 64 The Tarnished Angels

#16 Post by manicsounds » Wed Jul 17, 2013 11:16 am

I'm sure he's not getting paid any extra for licensing.

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manicsounds
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Re: BD 64 The Tarnished Angels

#17 Post by manicsounds » Thu Jul 25, 2013 8:29 am


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RossyG
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Re: BD 64 The Tarnished Angels

#18 Post by RossyG » Thu Jul 25, 2013 11:15 am

Three weeks from announcement to first review. They certainly didn't hang around with this title.

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domino harvey
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Re: BD 64 The Tarnished Angels

#19 Post by domino harvey » Thu Jul 25, 2013 11:17 am

Did that reviewer actually possess the Blu-ray? There's no comments at all on any of the extras and all the talk about the image could have been lifted wholesale from the sale-sheet info, with the quality guessed

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RossyG
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Re: BD 64 The Tarnished Angels

#20 Post by RossyG » Thu Jul 25, 2013 11:25 am

Hard to say, although at times it does seem like a regurgitation of the press release...

MoC: "with glorious black-and-white CinemaScope photography"

Reviewer: "The glorious black and white Cinemascope image..."

MoC: "Beautiful new 1080p high-definition master"

Reviewer: "...beautifully restored new AVC encoded 1080p High Definition master..."

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MichaelB
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Re: BD 64 The Tarnished Angels

#21 Post by MichaelB » Thu Jul 25, 2013 11:34 am

For the record, my review copy turned up in the post yesterday - and I daresay they were sent out in one big batch.

So if I'd been minded, I could have reviewed the whole thing and written it up for online publication this morning - although I agree that it doesn't look like a particularly in-depth examination.

Adamg11
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Re: BD 64 The Tarnished Angels

#22 Post by Adamg11 » Thu Jul 25, 2013 12:35 pm

Yes, I received it yesterday morning and got it watched and reviewed straight away! Didn't even look at the press release. Just wanted to get the review up as soon as possible. I know it is only short, however, I'll get a more thorough examination of the film and extras up soon!

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manicsounds
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Re: BD 64 The Tarnished Angels

#23 Post by manicsounds » Tue Jul 30, 2013 6:26 am


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kingofthejungle
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Re: BD 64 The Tarnished Angels

#24 Post by kingofthejungle » Tue Jul 30, 2013 9:39 am

Wow. That looks amazing. MOC has really been working miracles to get these great HD transfers out of Universal. Now if only they could get their hands on some Sternberg...

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manicsounds
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Re: BD 64 The Tarnished Angels

#25 Post by manicsounds » Tue Jul 30, 2013 9:56 am

kingofthejungle wrote:Now if only they could get their hands on some Sternberg...
I'm guessing "The Blue Angel" doesn't count since you're thinking of the Paramount via Universal titles?

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