Ruth Clifford

19 films on Best Blurays4 in 4K13 in HD2 with no official release

Ruth Clifford (February 17, 1900 – November 30, 1998) was an American actress of leading roles in silent films, whose career lasted from silent days into the television era. Clifford got work as an extra and began her career at 15 at Universal, in fairly substantial roles. She received her first film credit for her work in Behind the Lines (1916). By her mid-twenties, she was playing leads and second leads, including the role of Abraham Lincoln's lost love, Ann Rutledge, in The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln (1924). But sound pictures found her roles diminishing, and throughout the next three decades she played smaller and smaller parts. She was a favorite of director John Ford (they played bridge together), who used her in eight films, but rarely in substantial roles. She was also, for a time, the voice of Walt Disney's Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck. Clifford's obituary in the Los Angeles Times noted that she "became a prime source for historians of the silent screen era".

Biography from Wikipedia via TMDB

By format

List

Wagon Master (1950)

Supporting role · Director: John Ford

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Japan IVC Blu-ray

She Married Her Boss (1935)

Small role · Director: Gregory La Cava

Video format: Only Unofficial Sources

Best Video:

Unofficial DVD

3.3

Leave Her to Heaven (1945)

Small role · Director: John M. Stahl

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Criterion Blu-ray has minimally better encoding than Twilight Time Blu-ray see caps

3.9

The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

Small role · Director: Rupert Julian

Best English-Friendly:

BFI Blu-ray or OOP fixed Image Entertainment Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

1925 silent version: BFI Blu-ray for HD reconstruction (complete 1925 print is lost)
1929 silent version: OOP fixed Image Entertainment Blu-ray

1930 sound version: 2003 Image Entertainment DVD (excellent transfer, but severely compromised by indiscriminate over-use of the restoration process)

3.7

The Quiet Man (1952)

Small role · Director: John Ford

Best English-Friendly & Video:

2023 Paramount Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

2023 Paramount Blu-ray or Eureka MoC Blu-ray

Additional Info:

USA Paramount has the best video transfer with the least amount of artifacts: https://slow.pics/c/sjZ3mqF6

Olive Films Blu-ray and Eureka MoC Blu-ray are sourced from the same restoration and are both very good.

Apart from some mild attenuation, the audio is the same on all releases of the newest restoration and is relatively untampered with: https://slow.pics/c/bWF9EGuM

The Searchers (1956)

Small role · Director: John Ford

4K · Solid

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray

Sources: bsky.app (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

1988/1990 WB Hi-Fi VHS

Audio Notes:

Crystal clear, albeit with some distortion in louder areas

The 4K Blu-ray reuses the same poor mastering used on the 2006 WB Blu-ray, only with a completely unnecessary bass cut and extra noise reduction.

Additional Info:

Even putting resolution aside, the Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray has the best video. The old Blu-ray master and earlier DVD both had massive issues with colour.

That said, picture on the 4K Blu-ray isn't perfect, with strange posterized magenta glints and some instances of DNR: https://bsky.app/profile/dagscott.bsky.social/post/3leahavqi7k2l

My Darling Clementine (1946)

Small role · Director: John Ford

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Arrow Blu-ray better encode than Criterion Blu-ray

4.1

3 Godfathers (1948)

Small role · Director: John Ford

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

3.6

The Cobweb (1955)

Small role · Director: Vincente Minnelli

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

3.4

Designing Woman (1957)

Small role · Director: Vincente Minnelli

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

3.4

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Small role · Director: Billy Wilder

4K · Solid

Best English-Friendly:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray or Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray. See caps
HDR/grading: nice, but some blown out
Encoding: inconsistent, smeared motion
DNR: inconsistent, frozen
Old Paramount Blu-ray is arguably a solid alternative choice

Best Audio:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray mono

Audio Notes:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray mono is different version of the Blu-ray mono from the same old 2000 DVD transfer.

Additional Info:

The 5.1 remix on the 4K Blu-ray is an appalling remix done by going wild with artificially generated stems from Park Road Post who were given the surviving mono to separate. The experience is jarring and fidelity to original mix in terms of level balance, directionality and impact is nonexistent. Not only does this sound painfully weird, but the Paramount mixers then did whatever they wanted in terms of LFE, sound pans and effect changes.
The original mono mix was not restored and still needs it badly. The 4K master is filled with frozen grain examples coming and going plus some HDR issues in addition to the usual Paramount problems. It is simultaneously better and worse than the Blu-ray master.

4.4