Flamingo Road (1949)
Drama, Romance • 1h 34m
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Joan Crawford, Zachary Scott, Sydney Greenstreet, David Brian, Gladys George, Virginia Huston, Fred Clark, Gertrude Michael, Alice White, Sam McDaniel, Tito Vuolo, Iris Adrian, Larry J. Blake, Dick Elliott, Morgan Farley, Roy Gordon, Fred Kelsey, Dale Robertson, Pat Gleason, Sunny Knight, William Bailey, Edward Biby, Carol Brewster, Frank Cady, Steve Carruthers, James Gonzalez, Jan Kayne, William H. O'Brien, Lina Romay, Charles Sherlock, Bert Stevens, Robert Strange, Pierre Watkin, M.A. Bogue, Paul Bradley, Ralph Brooks, Tristram Coffin, James Conaty, Russ Conway, Paul Cristo, James Flavin, John Gallaudet, Kay Garrett, Kenneth Gibson, Dick Gordon, William Haade, Sam Harris, Douglas Kennedy, Leslie Kimmell, Mike Lally, Thomas Martin, John McGuire, Sammy McKim, Garry Owen, Dick Ryan, Frank J. Scannell, Tom Stevenson
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 11 months ago
Overview
A stranded carnival dancer takes on a corrupt political boss when she marries into small-town society.
Director: Michael Curtiz
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Michael Curtiz
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Michael Curtiz
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
(caveat: has a slight error)
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
2008 WB Blu-ray (from a 2003 transfer)
(Still not great)
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
Director: Lloyd Bacon
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
More Drama on Blu-ray
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
BD LPCM 5.1
The DTS-HD on the UHD has been dynamically compressed, has had its center channel boosted, and surrounds lowered (typical modern nearfield mix for soundbars). Very different from the BD and DVD tracks. The BD LPCM is basically just a lossless version of the DTS and AC3 from the original DVD (the AC3 actually being the superior mix on that particular release).
Directors: Emeric Pressburger & Michael Powell
Imprint 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · filmalert101.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
FiM encode and none of the low-pass filtering present on the Criterion 4K, resulting in more detail and better handling of highlights on Imprint
Review, comparisons
All HD and 4K sources use the same 2009 restoration. Criterion's master (also used by Imprint) is a bit more rolled off, though the difference is minor.
Director: Tony Scott
The 70mm 6-track mix has a higher bitrate on the Paramount 1998 DVD, but is more limited than on the THX LaserDisc The Paramount 1998 DVD also has open matte versions in fullscreen 1.33:1 and widescreen 2.00:1 instead of the theatrical aspect ratio of 2.39:1, but the 2.00:1 widescreen presentation is non-anamorphic. The THX LaserDisc is available in both fullscreen 1.33:1 and widescreen 2.00:1 variants.
Director: Preston Sturges
No information on French Elephant Films Blu-ray
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Director: Martin Scorsese
Other releases have horrendous DNR
Director: Roman Polanski
Kino Lorber disc has audio pitch errors
Director: Roman Polanski
Director: Terrence Malick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Lovely underlying remaster by Criterion and Resillion but encode is sadly low-pass filtered by Pixelogic, and even then, the encode is still less than ideal. Still easily obliterates any prior disc release, but certainly wouldn't hurt to have a UK or German label take a crack at this same master.
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