Restorations Judged An (Un)Cut Above Original-Form Classics Gain Following
Posted by By ifvc at 21 April, at 14 : 15 PM Print
New York – The video industry and its home consumer audience has matured to the point where classic films are being demanded and, when possible, supplied in their original forms. And while restoration of such product via remastering from pristine prints at original film lengths can be a painstaking and pricey proposition, it is proving a worthwhile one for an increasing segment of buyers and renters.
“It gives film lovers, historians, and students the opportunity to see a classic film in its uncut, original form,” says Bahman Maghsoudlou, a film scholar and owner of two International Film & Video Center video stores in New York. “Such a version may not have been available for a long time, even in a cinema house. Whatever [studios] have to spend to put it out, they can get their money back, because there’s a growing awareness in the marketplace through film and video magazines and critics, that this product is now available.”
Such restored videocassette films as The Wild Bunch, The Man Who Fell To Earth, Napoleon, Lost Horizon, and A Star Is Born are singled out by Maghsoudlou as titles that are especially appreciated by his discerning clientele. For their part, suppliers also recognize the merit in restoring a beloved classic, even if only for a knowing few.
“A lot of times, the general public doesn’t know the difference between an uncut original and what they usually get on video,” says George Feltenstein, director of programming for MGM/UA Home Video. “A perfect example is Mr. Skeffington, a 1944 film starring Bette Davis. It was originally 147 minutes long, then Jack Warner cut 20 minutes after the first week of release and they were never seen again. Nobody would even know about it unless you were a diehard film buff or a Bette Davis fan. In fact, when we scheduled the video for release, 90 people came back saying [the missing footage] didn’t exist. But we finally found a virgin master nitrate, and home video became the first place where you could see the whole version.”
While the above is an admittedly obscure example, when MGM/UA re-released remastered James Bond titles (including original trailers and Pink Panther cartoons), letters came in thanking the company for the quality upgrades and new material. “The general public knows differences better than we give them credit for,” says Feltenstein.
As Feltenstein notes, film restoration for home video involves both reconstructing an edited film to its original running time and finding the optimal source material. This includes the audio track, as well as the best original film negative. For instance, for MGM/UA’s just restored video version of I Could Go On Singing, Judy Garland’s last film role (1966-British), the original magnetic audio track couldn’t be found. “We had a beautiful negative and couldn’t release it with just the optical [sound] track, because there was a lot of singing and it wasn’t the best,” says Feltenstein. “But at least we found the original [magnetic] music tracks in Italy, so we combined them with a digital mix of the optical track of the dialog. Now the songs sound 10 times better, with no significant aural loss when switching to dialog.”
MCA Home Video’s just-issued Coconuts (1929), starring the Marx Brothers, also needed heavy sound restoration. According to the label’s VP of technical operations, Michael Fitzgerald, the early talkie’s available soundtrack was in “awful shape,” having been duped from various sources as its original nitrate print deteriorated. “We polled film archives around the world to find new soundtrack material,” says Fitzgerald. “Using the ‘no-noise’ digital system, we created a computerized digital soundtrack reducing considerably the clicks, pops, and background surface noises.”
New technology was also used to restore the color scenes to Howard Hughes’ 1930 film Hell’s Angels, starring Jean Harlow. Fitzgerald says that digital paintbox effects were needed in addition to restoring two original technicolor sequences and hand-tinted dogfight scenes. While all this was done for pay cable exhibition, he says the final product may come out on cassette, following previous MCA Home Video restorations like Frankenstein and Dracula.
Several studios show major restoration projects on their upcoming release schedules. MGM/UA’s The Wizard Of Oz and Gone With The Wind, due in August and September, respectively, are, not surprisingly, the label’s most important restorations ever. According to Feltenstein, Oz was transferred directly from a mint original technicolor archival show print, with cleaned-up sound in its original mono form instead of phony stereo. Outtakes and supplemental material will be included at the end of the tape. Gone With The Wind will be a transfer from a restored negative of the original camera element colored exactly as it was in 1939. The mono soundtrack is from the original nitrate.
On a similarly grand note, RCA/Columbia is readying the restored movie version of Lawrence Of Arabia for fall release (see story, page 54). VP of programming Larry Estes says that the company is also kicking around the idea of restoring scenes to The Last Picture Show to match the 16mm prints he screened in college.
Eric Doctorow, senior VP/GM of Paramount Home Video, reports a new digital remastering of The Ten Commandments from a pristine master that will supplant previous versions in the marketplace. Meanwhile, an ongoing release program of unreleased classic films from the catalog, in the best form we can, is currently being formulated.
It should be noted that videodisk versions of videocassette releases often involve both additional material and even higher quality. Remastering for laserdisk is a whole other thing, says Feltenstein. “We’re now doing digital video [mastering] because when you go on disk it has to be the best it can be.” At MCA Home Video, adds Fitzgerald, videodisks, because of their random access capability, allow inclusion of the alternate endings sometimes filmed for Hitchcock titles and other films.
Significantly, film restorations for home video are promoted as such on packaging and in advertising, though Doctorow notes that at Paramount such promotion is generally via trade announcements, so as not to give consumers of previous versions a bad impression of the earlier product. For a retailer like Maghsoudlou, who feels that restored titles now make up as much as 5% of his business, in-store promotion is a responsibility. “Classic films that come out in video in a short form aren’t valid as art,” says Maghsoudlou. “We always make sure that when people buy or rent classics, they know when an original version is available. And we encourage them to get the complete version.” Maghsoudlou adds that video suppliers help themselves by restoring classics, which offer greater collectibility appeal than older versions and also add to a label’s stature in the marketplace.
Billboard, July 1989
