The Iron Mistress (1952)
History, Drama, Action, Western, Romance • 1h 50m
Director: Gordon Douglas
Cast: Alan Ladd, Virginia Mayo, Joseph Calleia, Phyllis Kirk, Alf Kjellin, Douglas Dick, Anthony Caruso, Nedrick Young, George Voskovec, Richard Carlyle, Robert Emhardt, Don Beddoe, Harold Gordon, Jay Novello, Nick Dennis, Sarah Selby, Dick Paxton, George J. Lewis, Edward Colmans, Gordon Nelson, Daria Massey, Leon Alton, John Alvin, Ernest Anderson, Walter Bacon, Salvador Baguez, Richard Bartell, John Barton, Madge Blake, Oliver Blake, Eugene Borden, Chet Brandenburg, Harry Brown, Morgan Brown, Ivan Browning, Argentina Brunetti, Morris Buchanan, Peter Camlin, Fred Cavens, Charlita, Ann Codee, Jean Del Val, Stanley Fraser, Jack Carr, Tom Coleman, Gayle Kellogg, Alberto Morin, Hal Taggart
Compare the discs
About the film
In this biopic, Jim Bowie goes to New Orleans, where he falls for Judalon and befriends her brother, Narcisse. Soon, Jim is forced to avenge Narcisse's murder, but Judalon takes up with another man. Jim eventually has another romantic interlude with Judalon and is forced to kill one of her suitors in self-defense. Jim leaves town, and falls for the daughter of a Texas politician, but his entanglement with Judalon continues to bedevil him.
- Alternative Titles
- The Iron Mistress
Director: Gordon Douglas
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · catalog.afi.com (opens in a new tab) · archive.org (opens in a new tab) · +1 more
SF is in 1.66 aspect ratio. Whether this is the intended ratio or a compromise isn't clear.
American Film Institute's catalog and Variety's contemporary review list it as 1.66, but other sources disagree.
Exhibitor's contemporary review lists it as 1.85, IMDB and an internal pre-production note from Warner Bros. list it as 1.75.
4K restoration of the original 3D left eye and right eye camera negatives
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Richard Brooks
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Vincent Sherman
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: George Pal
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Compton Bennett
4K restoration from original technicolor negatives
Director: Jack Conway
4K restoration from safety preservation elements
4K restoration from safety preservation elements
More History on Blu-ray
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: David Lean
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
The 5.1 on Sony 4K Blu-ray is from the 1989 70mm mix. The original is 4-track. not on the disc.
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
US Criterion 4K Blu-ray > UK MoC 4K Blu-ray > Australia Imprint > US Kino Lorber better encoding
The MoC, Criterion and Imprint UHDs were encoded by FiM making all 3 very close. The higher bitrate helped in deciding and some luck; however Criterion is the most consistent one of all 3. Imprint has some scenes with more splotchy grain while MoC is quite close to Criterion but has some more blocking in dark scenes (e.g.: comp #27). With Criterion’s superior audio, it ensures complete consistency.
From cbc: "I'm personally quite fond of the restored track on Eureka's 4K Blu-ray. It does have spots with objectively worse fidelity, but for the most part, it sounds a lot more natural and less shrill, particularly dialogue. It seems to be a new mixdown of stems. Technically a remix, so not everyone's cup of tea, but it's not revisionist like most new movie mixes tend to be"
Both Imprint (included in their set) and Capelight (on its own/individually) offer remastered BDs. All other BDs, including the one included in The Complete Kubrick, are sourced from the same older master from around 2010.
Director: Masaaki Yuasa
Director: David Lean
Director: Martin Scorsese
Other releases have horrendous DNR
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Director: Miloš Forman
Theatrical: WB 4K Blu-ray
Extended: Warner Bros Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray: Huge improvement in colors and detail. The restoration was done by the Academy instead of WB MPI which explains that there’s no grain management or issues with colors. They also accessed the original credit optical and scanned that one instead of recreating them digitally
Theatrical: WB 4K Blu-ray, according to Saentz, the 5.0 is a recreation of the original and subsequently 70mm mix from original elements.
StudioCanal Blu-ray
StudioCanal was overseen and approved by Nicolas Roeg and has a more filmic color grade than the Warner Archive Blu-Ray.
Edit history
Every recommendation follows the same method — how these calls are made.