Blonde Venus (1932)
Drama • 1h 33m
Director: Josef von Sternberg
Cast: Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall, Cary Grant, Dickie Moore, Gene Morgan, Rita La Roy, Robert Emmett O'Connor, Sidney Toler, Morgan Wallace, Al Bridge, Marcelle Corday, Cecil Cunningham, Sterling Holloway, Hattie McDaniel, Dennis O'Keefe, Dewey Robinson, Bess Flowers, Francis Sayles, Glen Cavender, Émile Chautard, Clifford Dempsey, Charles Gemora, Robert Graves, Elsa Janssen, Bessie Lyle, Charles Morton, Evelyn Preer, Gertrude Short, Pat Somerset, Larry Steers, Kent Taylor, Jerry Tucker, Lloyd Whitlock, James Kilgannon, Mary Gordon, Harold Berquist, Mildred Washington, Oscar Smith
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 10 months ago
Overview
In an effort to be able to afford expensive treatment for her gravely ill American husband, a retired German entertainer returns to the cabaret as Blonde Venus and catches the eye of a wealthy politician.
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: Frank Capra
Director: William Dieterle
Director: David Butler
Video format: Only Unofficial Sources
Sources: archive.org (opens in a new tab)
The DVD isn't an official one, and according to a user review on Amazon:
This DVD comes from Archive.org, where the movie can be viewed for free. The original source, comes from the Fox Movie Channel
Director: Josef von Sternberg
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Josef von Sternberg
Sources: DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
MoC slightly better than Kino Lorber http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film6/blu-ray_reviews_76/anatahan_blu-ray.htm
Director: Josef von Sternberg
Director: Josef von Sternberg
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab) · DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
All very old restoration, but Kino Lorber > Germany Universum > MoC. Kino Lorber Germany Blu-ray has more noise reduction while English version's noise reduction is kept at minimum. MoC has very week encoding and crushed blacks.
Sources:
caps-a-holic on MoC vs Germany
DVDBeaver on Kino Lorber vs MoC
2001 Kino Lorber DVD or 2003 Eureka DVD
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Josef von Sternberg
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
Indicator Blu-ray has better encoding than Criterion Blu-ray, both 4K restoration, see DVDBeaver caps
No caps on France Elephant Films Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Alan Clarke
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
The 88 Films 4K Blu-ray is disappointing. Indicator Blu-ray > 88 Films Blu-ray. From nicolas:
Fine master, solid HDR but very poorly encoded with strong blocking artifacts in normal areas and clipped highlights that bring Criterion’s Walkabout to mind. Their Blu-ray is slightly better overall but then again still not as good as FiM’s encode for Indicator.
Director: Vincent Sherman
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
> Kino Lorber see DVDBeaver
Indicator is using a different restoration from earlier Kino Lorber Blu-ray and it has much better contrast and slightly better grain resolution
Director: John M. Stahl
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Indicator Blu-ray is encoded by FiM and likely better than Kino Lorber Blu-ray
Director: Fritz Lang
Sources: DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
Indicator Blu-ray is superior to Kino Lorber transfer see caps. 2K restoration
Director: Bertrand Blier
The older Studio Canal disc has incorrect pitch - 0.7 semitones lower than it should be. As their PAL DVD release was pitched correctly despite running at 25 FPS, it's likely they just took that master and slowed it down without accounting for that.
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