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Posted: |
Jul 16, 2011 - 10:59 AM
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By: |
RoryR
(Member)
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Here's a direct link to the review of Twilight Time's Blu-ray:
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Egyptian-Blu-ray/23726/#Review
It pretty much confirms my own opinion of the picture quality.
"Encoded via AVC, in 1080p and 2.55:1, this is (rather incredibly) one of two HD masters evidently in the Fox vaults, this one from 2010 while a previous transfer is from 2005. According to Redman, this was handled by the same crew who oversaw the exemplary Blu-ray release of The Robe, and if the results aren't quite as staggering as they were with that film, they're still often awe inducing."
There's also an interesting comment about the sound.
"The Egyptian was originally released with the "wonder" of "directional, four track stereo," and those original stems have been quite artfully repurposed on this Blu-ray in a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. A film this huge has plenty of opportunity for immersion, and some may find The Egyptian a little lackluster in terms of consistently involving surround activity, but what's here sounds wonderful.
This reminds me of something I read in the book "Memo from Darryl F. Zanuck" published in 1993 which I've scanned and hopefully will be readable here. Seems this complaint about the lack of surround activity is an old one.
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Posted: |
Aug 14, 2011 - 10:02 AM
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By: |
joec
(Member)
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THE NYTs reviews THE EGYPTIAN DVD:
•
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August 5, 2011
Desert Tales, Centuries Apart
By DAVE KEHR
The Egyptian
It must have seemed to Michael Curtiz that he was returning to Square 1 when he was assigned to direct “The Egyptian,” the 1954 historical spectacular that 20th Century Fox intended as a showcase for the studio’s new and improved CinemaScope process. This Hungarian director, born Mano Kertesz Kaminer, was beckoned to Hollywood by Warner Brothers in 1926 on the basis of his staging of the Exodus in “Moon of Israel,” a Viennese production based on H. Rider Haggard’s historical romance. The American studio put him to work on “Noah’s Ark,” a biblical extravaganza produced and mostly written by an ambitious young executive named Darryl F. Zanuck.
Now, nearly three decades later, Zanuck was inviting him to leave Warner Brothers for 20th Century Fox, where Zanuck had become the pharaoh in charge of production. Biblical spectaculars were back in style — thanks in no small part to Fox’s first CinemaScope film, “The Robe” — and Zanuck wanted something in a similar vein, to keep the seats filled in the new widescreen theaters.
With nothing suitably scriptural at hand, Zanuck turned to a contemporary best seller by the Finnish author Mika Waltari. The story, which bears a distinct resemblance to “Moon of Israel,” is centered on a court physician, Sinuhe (faint, ineffectual Edmund Purdom), who befriends a forward-looking pharaoh (Michael Wilding). While the pharaoh is drawn into a monotheistic religion that suspiciously looks like a rough draft for Christianity, Sinuhe tries to cope with three women: a man-eating Babylonian courtesan (Zanuck’s protégé, Bella Darvi), the pharaoh’s power-hungry sister (Gene Tierney) and the innocent barmaid who really loves him (Jean Simmons).
Which is a long way of saying that the story behind the film is in many ways more complex and resonant than the one in it. Newly restored to the extra-wide aspect ratio (2.55:1) used in early ’Scope films, “The Egyptian” is being released in limited Blu-ray and DVD editions by Twilight Time, an independent company distributed by Screen Archives.
“The Egyptian” remains a handsome, enameled production, laid out with the lavish care to detail that the studios, profoundly shaken by television, would soon no longer be able to afford. This is an ancient Egypt that looks as sleek, hygienic and expansive as the fanciest shopping mall in Beverly Hills — stylish, but rather forbidding.
With films like “Casablanca,” “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and “Mildred Pierce,” Curtiz had long since established himself as one of Hollywood’s most accomplished visual stylists: a master of the delicate tonalities of black-and-white cinematography, a great choreographer of actors and camera movement who could create dazzling illusions of three-dimensionality just by tracking between the tables in a nightclub set.
But CinemaScope, which Curtiz encountered for the first time here, seemed to throw him completely off his game. The camera barely moves, the actors seem stiff and posed, the lighting is hot and flat. As a filmmaker Curtiz barely broke his stride with the coming of sound, but the widescreen format appeared to be one technological bridge too far for the old campaigner.
Although Curtiz continued to work until 1961, he never seemed to recover his former assurance. Still, there are moments of beauty in his black-and-white Elvis Presley vehicle, “King Creole,” and it would be interesting to see “The Scarlet Hour” (1956), a film noir that, according to contemporary reviews, was shot with an experimental Japanese lens that allowed for extreme low-light conditions. But that’s another movie that seems to have vanished into the vaults (Paramount’s in this case), where far too much of American film history already resides. (Twilight Time, Blu-ray $39.95, DVD $19.95, not rated)
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Posted: |
Aug 14, 2011 - 11:48 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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40 bucks is way too high of a price point. 30 dollars is the tipping point for a single movie on Blu-Ray. Yes, Criterion Blu's do have a retail most times at around 40 dollars but can be found for much cheaper on Amazon. And I was able to pick up THE ROBE for 20 bucks on Blu when it was new. I love the guys at Twilight Time and SAE but 40 bucks? Really?! You're killing me!
I agree that the price is bothersome. But if Fox thought they could make a profit on a $20 general Blu-ray release for "The Egyptian" (ala "The Robe," "The Longest Day," "The Bible," and others), I'm sure they would have done so. In Twilight Times' defense, when compared to a typical $20 Warner MOD title, the Blu-ray "Egyptian" is, well, Blu-ray and not DVD; it's a pressed disc and not MOD; it has special features and is not barebones; and it has printed liner notes instead of an empty case.
Nevertheless, the question must be asked as to how Criterion can provide all of this on titles that they have been licensing from mainstream studios, yet sell their titles at a considerable discount on-line from their usual $40 list price. I wonder if this is just another case of Fox sticking it to the niche consumer because they can. Laserdisc owners will remember that Fox routinely had list prices for their discs that were well above what other studios charged. For example, for laserdiscs without any special features (commentary, documentaries, etc.) typically MGM/UA listed a single disc film for $35 and a 2-disc film (required for films longer than 2 hours) at $40. Fox would usually list single and double disc films at $40 and $50 respectively.
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The Egyptian Blu-ray is now sold out! It took two years, I suppose that's down to the $40 price tag. I wouldn't pay that for a disc now, but I'm glad I bought it, it does look stunning & I've loved this strange epic since I first saw it on our little b/w telly in the late fifties.
I just saw the Blu-Ray available on Amazon yesterday.
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Posted: |
Apr 26, 2013 - 10:14 AM
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By: |
Ed Lachmann
(Member)
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Firstly, I don't understand how anyone could call this an "awful" film. Makes one wonder just how this critic gauges just what a "good" film is. To me, it is an outstanding film, as was the novel by Mika Waltari. Want some truly "awful" films, try sitting through the past few decades best picture winners. Start with "Crash" or "Silence of the Lambs". The selling out of this title is really amazing in that blu-rays were concurrently and still are available of "The Egyptian", one from France and another from SoulMedia in Denmark. You can find them for sale right now at Amazon France and UK or in the states from DaaVeeDee. That this title was going for $40 from TT makes it even more interesting, for the foreign ones cost much less. How any serious classic film fan can do without a region free BD player is beyond me. We are lucky as soundtrack collectors in that dream releases seem to come regularly. Not so with blu-rays of beloved films. The Warner Archive BD releases are a turtle paced joke and Universal is MIA on almost all fronts. The idiots at Paramount give us a standard DVD only release of a 4K restoration of "Samson and Delilah". The bright spots are Twilight Time and, even more so, Olive. Count your blessings that you have a gorgeous CD of "One Eyed Jacks", "Land of the Pharaohs", "Story of Ruth", "Boy on a Dolphin" and "Best Years of Our Lives" (to name only a few) because you'll probably NEVER see them on blu-ray. What is remarkable is that one of three concurrent BD releases of the same film sells out while having the highest price tag in the TT catalogue. Maybe people really do want historical and/or biblical epics. Maybe the recent "Bible" series reaching #1 in blu-ray sales is a very good indicator of just that. Truth is that the quality of THAT series is a joke in comparison to "The Egyptian". Sadly, for companies like TT, bad cheesy modern horror will always outsell classic historical widescreen and that is what is REALLY "awful".
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"The Best Years of our lives" comes in Bluray near the end of this year.
And what is this I hear about "Silence of the lambs" being an awful film?
well, anyway, I guess each has his own taste..
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