Strike Up the Band (1940)
Comedy, Music, Romance • 2h
Director: Busby Berkeley
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, June Preisser, William Tracy, Larry Nunn, Paul Whiteman, Margaret Early, Ann Shoemaker, Francis Pierlot, Virginia Brissac, George Lessey, Enid Bennett, Howard Hickman, Sarah Edwards, Milton Kibbee, Helen Jerome Eddy, Jack Albertson, Joe Yule, Lowden Adams, Richard Allen, Eddie Buzard, Elliott Carpenter, Don Castle, Maxine Cook, Vondell Darr, Joe Devlin, Mary Jo Ellis, Roland Got, Lois James, Louise La Planche, Linda Leighton, Lois Lindsay, Margaret Marquis, Mickey Martin, Harry McCrillis, Sidney Miller, Jack Mulhall, Wallace Musselwhite, Sherrie Overton, Dick Paxton, Henry Rackin, Naida Reynolds, Henry Roquemore, Virginia Sale, Helen Seamon, Myron Speth, Leonard Sues, Victoria Vinton, Billy Wayne, Douglas Wilson
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 11 months ago
Overview
Jimmy and Mary get a group of kids together to play in a school orchestra. A huge contest between schools is coming up and they have a hard time raising money to go to Chicago for the contest.
Director: Morton DaCosta
Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray Nov 24th
TV series
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative for all episodes
Director: John Ford
Sources: ibb.co (opens in a new tab)
Warner Archive Blu-ray is 4K restoration from nitrate projection elements
Germany Filmjuwelen Blu-ray is AI upscaled https://ibb.co/album/mCJ7RQ
Director: Norman Taurog
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Delbert Mann
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
More Comedy on Blu-ray
Director: Bruce Robinson
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray has stronger encode than Criterion
Director: Olivier Assayas
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Encoding is clunky on both Arrow and Criterion BDs but Arrow at least included the original stereo mix in addition to the 5.1 remix, while Criterion only included the 5.1 remix.
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Garson Kanin
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Only Streaming has 1080p
Director: Preston Sturges
No information on French Elephant Films Blu-ray
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Director: Tommy O'Haver
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Eureka UK are considering doing a 4K and actively exploring the possibility: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24363810&postcount=264
Wonderful underlying remaster by Criterion and Resillion, but NexSpec encode has clipped highlights with the occasional blockiness. The Criterion Blu-Ray, sourced from their 4K remaster, ironically makes for a more consistent and overall pleasing experience.
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