Putney Swope (1969)
Comedy • 1h 25m
Director: Robert Downey Sr.
Cast: Arnold Johnson, Stan Gottlieb, Allen Garfield, Archie Russell, Ramon Gordon, Bert Lawrence, Joe Madden, Antonio Fargas, Laura Greene, Allan Arbus, Pepi Hermine, Ruth Hermine, Shelley Plimpton, Elżbieta Czyżewska, Peter Maloney, David Kirk, Don George, Buddy Butler, Vincent Hamill, Tom Odachi, Robert Staats, Alan Abel, Sol Brawerman, Steven Ben Israel, Luise Heath, Anthony Chisholm, George Morgan, Lawrence Wolf, Peter Benson, Chuck Green, Ching Yeh, Spunky-Funk Johnson, Joe Fields, Norman Schreiber, Barbara Clarke Chisolm, Catherine Lojacono, Johnjohn Robinson, Charles Carlton Buffum, Ron Palombo, Geegee Brown, Vance Amaker, Al Green, Chuck Ender, Walter Jones, Khaula Bakr, Melvia Marshall, Annette Marshall, Andrea Marshall, Laraaji, Eric Krupnik, Abdul Hakeim, Jesse McDonald, C. Robert Scott, Leopoldo Mandeville, Vince Morgan Jr., Al Browne, Marie Claire, Eileen Peterson, William H. Boesen, Carol Farber, Cerves McNeill, Carolyn Cardwell, Paul Storob, Jeff Lord, Tom Boya, Major Cole, David Butts, Franklin Scott, Paul Alladice, Exit, Ronnie Dyson, Paulette Marron, Delilah, Carol Hobbs, Birgitta, Grania, Marco Heiblim, Larry Greenfield, Lloyd Kagin, Perry Gewirtz, Herbert Kerr, Hal Schochet, Fred Hirschhorn, George Marshall, Donald Lev, Donald Breitman, Don Calfa, Marlene Clark, Robert Downey Sr., Mama Lu Parks, David Downing, Bob Larkin, Annette Larkins, Wendy Appel
About the film
Swope—the only black man on the executive board of an advertising firm—is accidentally put in charge after the death of the chairman.
- Featured Lists
- National Film Registry
Year of Induction: 2016
- Alternative Titles
- Putney Swope - The Truth and Soul Movie
Director: Richard Brooks
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Criterion 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray
1991 Orion LaserDisc vs 2024 Arrow 4K Blu-ray
4K restoration from safety preservation elements
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.
Director: Sidney Lumet
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
1.85:1: Kino Lorber 4K / Capelight 4K
1.66:1: Criterion 4K but low pass filtered
Comparison between the 4Ks, Criterion on the AR choice
Other discs have unnecessary filtering and sound worse, the difference isn't substantial but audible
Director: Dennis Hopper
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Flicker Alley 4K confirmed for 2027 https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24404584&postcount=1
MoC audio is better https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=225532&page=3
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: Sam Peckinpah
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
WB 4K
Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab)
An undeniably significant improvement from the BD yet still severely flawed. See DFIC's review.
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)
Indicator Blu-ray > 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
More Comedy on Blu-ray
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Jack Conway
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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