About the film
While traveling home from Vegas, an amorous lounge singer named Dino gets conned by a local mechanic/songwriter into staying in town for the night. The mechanic's songwriting partner, Orville, offers Dino his home for overnight lodging and enlists a local waitress/call girl to pose as his wife in order to placate Dino's urges.
Director: Billy Wilder
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
(transfer of the 1989 MGM LaserDisc, without problems plaguing Kino Lorber's release)
Arrow UHD is an update of the original 4K scan done for their BD. It is also visually far superior to the Kino version and adds Dolby Vision HDR. The Arrow UHD uses a new LD mono capture and has none of the issues or processing found in the Kino UHD which also used an LD mono capture and somehow mucked it up. Short of a brand new scan, the Arrow UHD is as good as it possibly can be.
Director: Billy Wilder
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Paramount 4K Blu-ray. See caps
HDR/grading: nice, but some blown out
Encoding: inconsistent, smeared motion
DNR: inconsistent, frozen
Old Paramount Blu-ray is arguably a solid alternative choice
Paramount 4K Blu-ray mono
Paramount 4K Blu-ray mono is different version of the Blu-ray mono from the same old 2000 DVD transfer.
The 5.1 remix on the 4K Blu-ray is an appalling remix done by going wild with artificially generated stems from Park Road Post who were given the surviving mono to separate. The experience is jarring and fidelity to original mix in terms of level balance, directionality and impact is nonexistent. Not only does this sound painfully weird, but the Paramount mixers then did whatever they wanted in terms of LFE, sound pans and effect changes.
The original mono mix was not restored and still needs it badly. The 4K master is filled with frozen grain examples coming and going plus some HDR issues in addition to the usual Paramount problems. It is simultaneously better and worse than the Blu-ray master.
Director: Billy Wilder
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Criterion 4K Blu-ray > Capelight/Kino Lorber which has heavy noise reduction and opening snare hit is missing, Capelight is slightly better encoded than Kino Lorber
But still a bit overly noise-managed.
1984 CBS/Fox Hi-Fi VHS maybe better?
Director: Billy Wilder
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
1991 MCA LaserDisc
Director: Billy Wilder
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray is a fine release with no glaring encode issues, the new master is also fine but graded to look quite dim in HDR/DV. Unsure whether that's really respectful to the source
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray / Paramount EU Blu-ray
Old Warner Bros US release is inferior.
Director: Billy Wilder
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
UK MoC Blu-ray has the better encoding
US Kino Lorber Blu-ray has inferior encoding and likely suffers from the Quicktime Gamma Bug see caps
MOC Blu-ray or MGM Laserdisc
Eureka MOC is far superior to Kino with also more printed booklet extras. The reconstruction work, transfer and extras date back to MGM's Laserdisc attempt. The LD master and materials were ported to the MGM DVD which in turn was paired with an updated HD master for the BDs. The film still cries out for a proper modern restoration and reconstruction attempt with the partially surviving cut sequences. The extras on LD also have PCM audio and one of the visuals in one of the cut episodes is more untouched which is censored for nudity on the modern versions. It's small but the particular element has been blurred on most versions today.
Director: Billy Wilder
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray disappointing
Kino UHD has frozen grain and other artifacts from a Paramount master with the usual lackluster Kino encoding.
Director: Billy Wilder
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
Germany Plaion Blu-ray has better encoding and Kino Lorber Blu-ray likely suffers from the Quicktime Gamma Bug, see caps
Director: Billy Wilder
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Germany Plaion Blu-ray has the best encoding, and both MoC and Kino Lorber Blu-ray have Quicktime Gamma Bug see caps
For encoding, Plaion > MoC > Kino Lorber
Director: Elaine May
Cinématographe 4K Blu-ray > MoC > Olive Films. From nicolas:
The master is good but it’s not that big an upgrade from the Olive Films disc and Vinegar Syndrome’ encode has some blocky highlights. A shame that they didn’t hire David Mackenzie here.
Cinématographe has unnecessary noise gating not present on the previous releases.
Video format: HD Streaming
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Amazon US HD Streaming is from the 2018 UCLA restoration. Olive Films Blu-ray is from an older scan and quite rough. caps
Olive Films Blu-ray is again rough, with distortion, crackle and other issues, but sounds much more natural. With some EQ the restored track can be significantly improved
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
2017 Olive Films Signature Blu-ray
The Jokers 4K Blu-ray
(Jokers 4K Blu-ray has forced France subs)
The Jokers 4K Blu-ray has raised black levels/gamma issue, good when fixed
1992 Republic Pictures LaserDisc
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray or 2018 Olive Films/BFI or 2012 Olive Films/Italy Sinister Films Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
All three are not ideal.
All three are not ideal.
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has frozen grain, sharpening, lots of debris, and handles lesser materials. The supposed non-Superscope version is false advertising. It merely reveals more picture information.
1992 Republic Pictures LaserDisc PCM Mono
Criterion LaserDisc has exclusive commentary. Olive Films Signature Blu-ray and BFI Blu-ray each have exclusive extras. Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has exclusive commentary.
Director: André de Toth
Sources: cinema.ucla.edu (opens in a new tab)
New UCLA restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Dave Fleischer
Olive Films Betty Boop: The Essential Collection: Volume 4 Blu-ray
More Comedy on Blu-ray
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Jack Conway
4K restoration from safety preservation elements
4K restoration from safety preservation elements
Director: Jack Conway
4K restoration from safety preservation elements
Director: William Dieterle
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
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