They Drive by Night (1940)
Drama, Crime, Thriller • 1h 35m
Director: Raoul Walsh
Cast: George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Gale Page, Alan Hale, Roscoe Karns, Joyce Compton, John Litel, George Tobias, Henry O'Neill, Frank Faylen, Eddie Acuff, William Bendix, Lillian Yarbo, Dorothea Kent, Marie Blake, Vera Lewis, Charles Halton, Chet Brandenburg, Eddy Chandler, Richard Clayton, Eddie Fetherston, Pat Flaherty, John Hamilton, Bess Flowers, Brenda Fowler, John Ridgely, Jesse Graves, Mack Gray, William Haade, Howard Hickman, George Lloyd, Paul Hurst, Carl Harbaugh, Al Hill, J. Anthony Hughes, Claire James, Michael Jeffers, Mike Lally, Wilfred Lucas, Frank Mayo, Matt McHugh, Jack Mower, Pedro Regas, Ralph Sanford, Harry Semels, Charles Sherlock, Charles Sullivan, Dorothy Vaughan, Billy Wayne, Dick Wessel, Frank Wilcox, Tom Wilson, Charles C. Wilson, Norman Willis, Oscar 'Dutch' Hendrian, Alan Davis, Demetris Emanuel, Joe Devlin, Max Wagner, Jack Wise, Sol Gorss, Phyllis Hamilton, George Haywood, Edmund Mortimer, Cliff Saum, Don Turner
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 11 months ago
Overview
Joe and Paul Fabrini are Wildcat, or independent, truck drivers who have their own small one-truck business. The Fabrini boys constantly battle distributors, rivals and loan collectors, while trying to make a success of their transport company.
4K restoration from original technicolor negatives
Director: Raoul Walsh
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Raoul Walsh
Sources: moma.org (opens in a new tab)
New restoration by MoMA and Film Foundation https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/11558 no release yet
Director: Raoul Walsh
Director: Raoul Walsh
Director: Raoul Walsh
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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