The Thin Man (1934)
Comedy, Mystery, Crime • 1h 31m
Director: W.S. Van Dyke
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan, Nat Pendleton, Minna Gombell, Henry Wadsworth, Porter Hall, William Henry, Edward Ellis, Edward Brophy, Cyril Thornton, Cesar Romero, Harold Huber, Natalie Moorhead, Will Aubrey, William Augustin, Polly Bailey, Arthur Belasco, Brooks Benedict, Tui Bow, Raymond Brown, Ruth Channing, Jack Cheatham, Clay Clement, Dorothy Compton, Nick Copeland, John Dunsmuir, Pat Flaherty, Bess Flowers, Douglas Fowley, Christian J. Frank, Kay Garrett, Kenneth Gibson, Dick Gordon, Creighton Hale, Sherry Hall, Edward Hearn, Robert Homans, John Irwin, Thomas E. Jackson, Sydney Jarvis, Tiny Jones, Kenner G. Kemp, John Larkin, Dixie Laughton, Walter Long, Fred Malatesta, Hans Moebus, William H. O'Brien, Frank O'Connor, Henry Otho, Garry Owen, Lee Phelps, Alexander Pollard, Albert Pollet, Bob Reeves, Bert Roach, Rolfe Sedan, Gertrude Short, Lee Shumway, Skippy, Pietro Sosso, Ben Taggart, Phil Tead, George Templeton, Harry Tenbrook, Huey White, Leo White, Charles Williams
Best video release
Warner Archive Blu-ray, 4k scan
About the film
A husband and wife detective team takes on the search for a missing inventor and almost get killed for their efforts.
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Director: Anthony Mann
Criterion 4K Blu-ray, Universal 2008 DVD
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
2008 Universal DVD mono
The mono on the Criterion is severely filtered resulting in it sounding incredibly muffled. It is nearly as filtered as the 2003 original Universal DVD which had extreme filtering and sounds horribly thin. The 2008 DVD remaster and original LaserDisc analog mastering are mostly left alone. The original LD master is from a worn element but otherwise sounds very natural. The 2008 DVD is the highest quality version we have without the heavy filtering and the defects of the LD master. It isn't perfect but easily the best of the main four sources by a dramatic margin.
The existing 4K SDR restoration looks excellent, but the Criterion extras are limited and disappointing. The classic Stewart interview commentary from the LD is ported over but given a new mastering. Compared to past releases it has been very slightly noise reduced.
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Criterion 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray
1991 Orion LaserDisc vs 2024 Arrow 4K Blu-ray vs Criterion
Three masterings of the original Dolby Stereo SR mix exist: the original Orion video releases, the Criterion (which is from their LD) and the Arrow. All three are excellent with slight mastering differences between them. The original Orion still is probably the one with the most fidelity, the Criterion is the cleanest with a kind of warm feel to it and the Arrow has a bit of both aspects. The Arrow mastering has a tiny almost imperceptible bit of audio bleeding into the surround that isn't on the Criterion. Each has their own pluses and minuses but you can't go wrong with any of them. Whatever you do though: DO NOT WATCH WITH THE 5.1 REMIX. It is another MGM botch job that fundamentally alters the impact of many scenes. It is vastly inferior to the original mix in every way.
Director: Richard Brooks
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
4K restoration from safety preservation elements
Director: Elaine May
Cinématographe 4K Blu-ray > MoC > Olive Films. From nicolas:
The master is good but it’s not that big an upgrade from the Olive Films disc and Vinegar Syndrome’ encode has some blocky highlights. A shame that they didn’t hire David Mackenzie here.
Cinématographe has unnecessary noise gating not present on the previous releases.
Director: Sidney Lumet
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
1.85:1: Kino Lorber 4K / Capelight 4K
1.66:1: Criterion 4K but low pass filtered
Comparison between the 4Ks, Criterion on the AR choice
Other discs have unnecessary filtering and sound worse, the difference isn't substantial but audible
Director: Dennis Hopper
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Flicker Alley 4K confirmed for 2027 https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24404584&postcount=1
MoC audio is better https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=225532&page=3
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Included in the Complete Kubrick box set with FiM encode of the same master from the Universal release without the filtering.
DTS:X mix on Universal 4K Blu-ray most closely approximates original surround mix
Criterion DVD and Universal 4K Blu-ray has additional features not found on the Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Director: Sam Peckinpah
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