Irma la Douce (1963)
Romance, Comedy • 2h 27m
Overview
When a naive policeman falls in love with a prostitute, he doesn’t want her seeing other men and creates an alter ego who’s to be her only customer.
Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Shirley MacLaine, Jack Lemmon, Lou Jacobi, Bruce Yarnell, Herschel Bernardi, Hope Holiday, Joan Shawlee, Grace Lee Whitney, Paul Dubov, Howard McNear, Cliff Osmond, Diki Lerner, Herb Jones, Ruth Earl, Jane Earl, Tura Satana, Lou Krugman, James Brown, Bill Bixby, John Alvin, Susan Woods, De De Young, Sheryl Deauville, Billy Beck, Jack Sahakian, James Caan
Director: Billy Wilder
Criterion 4K Blu-ray > Capelight/Kino Lorber which has heavy noise reduction and opening snare hit is missing, Capelight is slightly better encoded than Kino Lorber
Director: Billy Wilder
Criterion 4K Blu-ray > Capelight/Kino Lorber which has heavy noise reduction and opening snare hit is missing, Capelight is slightly better encoded than Kino Lorber
Director: Billy Wilder
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
Paramount 4K Blu-ray mono is different version of the Blu-ray mono from the same old 2000 DVD transfer.
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.
Director: Billy Wilder
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
Paramount 4K Blu-ray mono is different version of the Blu-ray mono from the same old 2000 DVD transfer.
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.
Director: Billy Wilder
Director: Billy Wilder
Director: Billy Wilder
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray is a fine release with no glaring encode issues, the new master is also fine but graded to look quite dim in HDR/DV. Unsure whether that's really respectful to the source
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray / Paramount EU Blu-ray
Old Warner Bros US release is inferior.
Director: Billy Wilder
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray is a fine release with no glaring encode issues, the new master is also fine but graded to look quite dim in HDR/DV. Unsure whether that's really respectful to the source
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray / Paramount EU Blu-ray
Old Warner Bros US release is inferior.
UK MoC Blu-ray has the better encoding
US Kino Lorber Blu-ray has inferior encoding and likely suffers from the Quicktime Gamma Bug see caps
MOC Blu-ray or MGM Laserdisc
Eureka MOC is far superior to Kino with also more printed booklet extras. The reconstruction work, transfer and extras date back to MGM's Laserdisc attempt. The LD master and materials were ported to the MGM DVD which in turn was paired with an updated HD master for the BDs. The film still cries out for a proper modern restoration and reconstruction attempt with the partially surviving cut sequences. The extras on LD also have PCM audio and one of the visuals in one of the cut episodes is more untouched which is censored for nudity on the modern versions. It's small but the particular element has been blurred on most versions today.
UK MoC Blu-ray has the better encoding
US Kino Lorber Blu-ray has inferior encoding and likely suffers from the Quicktime Gamma Bug see caps
MOC Blu-ray or MGM Laserdisc
Eureka MOC is far superior to Kino with also more printed booklet extras. The reconstruction work, transfer and extras date back to MGM's Laserdisc attempt. The LD master and materials were ported to the MGM DVD which in turn was paired with an updated HD master for the BDs. The film still cries out for a proper modern restoration and reconstruction attempt with the partially surviving cut sequences. The extras on LD also have PCM audio and one of the visuals in one of the cut episodes is more untouched which is censored for nudity on the modern versions. It's small but the particular element has been blurred on most versions today.
Director: Billy Wilder
Arrow 4K Blu-ray (transfer of the 1989 MGM LaserDisc, without problems plaguing Kino Lorber's release)
Arrow UHD is an update of the original 4K scan done for their BD. It is also visually far superior to the Kino version and adds Dolby Vision HDR. The Arrow UHD uses a new LD mono capture and has none of the issues or processing found in the Kino UHD which also used an LD mono capture and somehow mucked it up. Short of a brand new scan, the Arrow UHD is as good as it possibly can be.
Director: Billy Wilder
Arrow 4K Blu-ray (transfer of the 1989 MGM LaserDisc, without problems plaguing Kino Lorber's release)
Arrow UHD is an update of the original 4K scan done for their BD. It is also visually far superior to the Kino version and adds Dolby Vision HDR. The Arrow UHD uses a new LD mono capture and has none of the issues or processing found in the Kino UHD which also used an LD mono capture and somehow mucked it up. Short of a brand new scan, the Arrow UHD is as good as it possibly can be.
Director: Billy Wilder
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray disappointing
Kino UHD has frozen grain and other artifacts from a Paramount master with the usual lackluster Kino encoding.
Director: Billy Wilder
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray disappointing
Kino UHD has frozen grain and other artifacts from a Paramount master with the usual lackluster Kino encoding.
Director: Billy Wilder
Germany Plaion Blu-ray has better encoding and Kino Lorber Blu-ray likely suffers from the Quicktime Gamma Bug, see caps
Director: Billy Wilder
Germany Plaion Blu-ray has better encoding and Kino Lorber Blu-ray likely suffers from the Quicktime Gamma Bug, see caps
Director: Billy Wilder
Germany Plaion Blu-ray has the best encoding, and both MoC and Kino Lorber Blu-ray have Quicktime Gamma Bug see caps
For encoding, Plaion > MoC > Kino Lorber
Director: Billy Wilder
Germany Plaion Blu-ray has the best encoding, and both MoC and Kino Lorber Blu-ray have Quicktime Gamma Bug see caps
For encoding, Plaion > MoC > Kino Lorber
Director: Billy Wilder
Director: Billy Wilder
Director: Rob Reiner
The initial release of the Capelight 4K mediabook had some playback issues with Dolby Vision on Panasonic devices due to an encoding error, the HDR10 apparently works fine, see Capelight’s official response here.
Director: Rob Reiner
The initial release of the Capelight 4K mediabook had some playback issues with Dolby Vision on Panasonic devices due to an encoding error, the HDR10 apparently works fine, see Capelight’s official response here.
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray (damage removed, improved color/HDR, and best audio) or Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray (best compression but no damage removal and LaserDisc audio from Arrow)
Arrow UK /Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber US 4K Blu-ray, see caps
Arrow has done additional cleanup work removing nearly all the damage in the transfer. They have massaged the color timing and HDR to try and improve what they could. The Capelight may have better encoding but it does not have these improvements. The Arrow encoding is solid and in motion there are no issues whatsoever. The Kino Lorber release has the damage and other issues plus frequent noise due to the lesser encoding.
Some scenes in the Arrow transfer are better, some are better in the Capelight.
Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Image Entertainment LaserDisc
(Arrow is a port of the LaserDisc track, see spectrograms) This track has the best fidelity of any release but does have some channel bleeding baked in. The 2017 2.0 on the Arrow and Shout! Factory Blu-rays was the Dolby Stereo original mix without channel bleeding but that had heavy noise reduction resulting in a very flat and underwhelming presentation. The surround winds up being lessened as well due to the processing. It's a tough choice between the two but the Image LaserDisc audio wins out because it hasn't been messed with and the impact is so unrestrained that no other version hits in the same way.
Capelight and old Arrow Blu-ray included the original stereo mix, but with excessive noise reduction rendering it much less detailed. Kino Lorber only included a painfully defective 2.0 track sourced from somewhere with limited fidelity, volume spikes and screechy high end which frequently ruins the music. The 5.1 remix on most modern release is a processed version that does not sound as good as it once did.
The best and most accurate of the 5.1 mixes is the original version from the 2003 Special Edition DVD in lossy AC3 form.
The best source for the commentaries are from the 2003 Special Edition DVD.
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray (damage removed, improved color/HDR, and best audio) or Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray (best compression but no damage removal and LaserDisc audio from Arrow)
Arrow UK /Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber US 4K Blu-ray, see caps
Arrow has done additional cleanup work removing nearly all the damage in the transfer. They have massaged the color timing and HDR to try and improve what they could. The Capelight may have better encoding but it does not have these improvements. The Arrow encoding is solid and in motion there are no issues whatsoever. The Kino Lorber release has the damage and other issues plus frequent noise due to the lesser encoding.
Some scenes in the Arrow transfer are better, some are better in the Capelight.
Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Image Entertainment LaserDisc
(Arrow is a port of the LaserDisc track, see spectrograms) This track has the best fidelity of any release but does have some channel bleeding baked in. The 2017 2.0 on the Arrow and Shout! Factory Blu-rays was the Dolby Stereo original mix without channel bleeding but that had heavy noise reduction resulting in a very flat and underwhelming presentation. The surround winds up being lessened as well due to the processing. It's a tough choice between the two but the Image LaserDisc audio wins out because it hasn't been messed with and the impact is so unrestrained that no other version hits in the same way.
Capelight and old Arrow Blu-ray included the original stereo mix, but with excessive noise reduction rendering it much less detailed. Kino Lorber only included a painfully defective 2.0 track sourced from somewhere with limited fidelity, volume spikes and screechy high end which frequently ruins the music. The 5.1 remix on most modern release is a processed version that does not sound as good as it once did.
The best and most accurate of the 5.1 mixes is the original version from the 2003 Special Edition DVD in lossy AC3 form.
The best source for the commentaries are from the 2003 Special Edition DVD.
Kino Lorber Philo Vance Collection Blu-ray
Kino Lorber Philo Vance Collection Blu-ray
Kino Lorber Philo Vance Collection Blu-ray
Kino Lorber Philo Vance Collection Blu-ray
Director: Arthur Dong
Director: Arthur Dong
Director: Arthur Dong
Director: Arthur Dong
Director: Lou Breslow
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 2K restoration
Director: Lou Breslow
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 2K restoration
Director: Howard Hughes
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 2K restoration
Director: Howard Hughes
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 2K restoration
Director: Stuart Heisler
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 2K restoration
Director: Stuart Heisler
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 2K restoration
More Romance on Blu-ray
Director: George Cukor
Director: George Cukor
Director: William A. Seiter
Director: William A. Seiter
Director: Henry Koster
Director: Henry Koster
Director: David Lynch
Censored US version: Shout! Factory or Twilight Time Blu-ray
Uncensored version: old DVD
2026 Criterion 4K Blu-ray, confirmed to be uncut
Censored US version: Shout! Factory or Twilight Time Blu-ray
Uncensored version: old DVD
Director: David Lynch
Censored US version: Shout! Factory or Twilight Time Blu-ray
Uncensored version: old DVD
2026 Criterion 4K Blu-ray, confirmed to be uncut
Censored US version: Shout! Factory or Twilight Time Blu-ray
Uncensored version: old DVD
Director: Vincent Sherman
Director: Vincent Sherman
Director: Roy Andersson
Director: Roy Andersson
UK Entertainment in Video Blu-ray
Japan GAGA 4K Blu-ray is worse
UK Entertainment in Video Blu-ray
Japan GAGA 4K Blu-ray is worse
Director: Richard Linklater
Director: Richard Linklater
Director: Richard Linklater
Director: Richard Linklater
Criterion Blu-ray uses the same transfer as Sony but the encoding is slightly worse than Sony and barely noticeable see caps
Germany StudioCanal Blu-ray in viewing looks very similar to both the Criterion and Sony caps, but no side by side comparison available
Germany StudioCanal Blu-ray is part of a 3-film box set like the Criterion
Director: Richard Linklater
Criterion Blu-ray uses the same transfer as Sony but the encoding is slightly worse than Sony and barely noticeable see caps
Germany StudioCanal Blu-ray in viewing looks very similar to both the Criterion and Sony caps, but no side by side comparison available
Germany StudioCanal Blu-ray is part of a 3-film box set like the Criterion
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