The Sun Shines Bright (1953)
Comedy, Drama • 1h 30m
Overview
With the election approaching, a judge in a Southern town at the turn of the 20th century is involved variously in revealing the real identity of a young woman, reliving his Civil War memories, and preventing the lynching of an African youth.
Director: John Ford
Cast: Charles Winninger, Arleen Whelan, John Russell, Stepin Fetchit, Russell Simpson, Ludwig Stössel, Francis Ford, Paul Hurst, Mitchell Lewis, Grant Withers, Milburn Stone, Dorothy Jordan, Elzie Emanuel, Henry O'Neill, Slim Pickens, James Kirkwood, Ernest Whitman, Trevor Bardette, Eve March, Hal Baylor, Jane Darwell, Ken Williams, Clarence Muse, Mae Marsh, Wilbur Mack, Jack Perrin, Patrick Wayne, Chuck Hayward
Director: John Ford
1988/1990 WB Hi-Fi VHS, crystal clear, albeit with some distortion in louder areas
The 4K Blu-ray reuses the same poor mastering used on the 2006 WB Blu-ray, only with a completely unnecessary bass cut and extra noise reduction.
Even putting resolution aside, the Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray has the best video. The old Blu-ray master and earlier DVD both had massive issues with colour.
That said, picture on the 4K Blu-ray isn't perfect, with strange posterized magenta glints and some instances of DNR: https://bsky.app/profile/dagscott.bsky.social/post/3leahavqi7k2l
Director: John Ford
1988/1990 WB Hi-Fi VHS, crystal clear, albeit with some distortion in louder areas
The 4K Blu-ray reuses the same poor mastering used on the 2006 WB Blu-ray, only with a completely unnecessary bass cut and extra noise reduction.
Even putting resolution aside, the Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray has the best video. The old Blu-ray master and earlier DVD both had massive issues with colour.
That said, picture on the 4K Blu-ray isn't perfect, with strange posterized magenta glints and some instances of DNR: https://bsky.app/profile/dagscott.bsky.social/post/3leahavqi7k2l
2022 Paramount Presents Blu-ray disc included in 4K Blu-ray set
2022 Paramount Presents Blu-ray disc included in 4K Blu-ray set, same master, but less bitrate starved.
The encode on the BD is preferable to the UHD. Same master, but less bitrate starved: https://x.com/SadHillDevan/status/1530057783885721607?s=20 and see caps
2022 Paramount Presents Blu-ray disc included in 4K Blu-ray set
2022 Paramount Presents Blu-ray disc included in 4K Blu-ray set, same master, but less bitrate starved.
The encode on the BD is preferable to the UHD. Same master, but less bitrate starved: https://x.com/SadHillDevan/status/1530057783885721607?s=20 and see caps
Director: John Ford
USA Paramount has the best video transfer with the least amount of artifacts: https://slow.pics/c/sjZ3mqF6
Olive Films Blu-ray and Eureka MoC Blu-ray are sourced from the same restoration and are both very good.
Apart from some mild attenuation, the audio is the same on all releases of the newest restoration and is relatively untampered with: https://slow.pics/c/bWF9EGuM
Director: John Ford
USA Paramount has the best video transfer with the least amount of artifacts: https://slow.pics/c/sjZ3mqF6
Olive Films Blu-ray and Eureka MoC Blu-ray are sourced from the same restoration and are both very good.
Apart from some mild attenuation, the audio is the same on all releases of the newest restoration and is relatively untampered with: https://slow.pics/c/bWF9EGuM
Director: John Ford
The audio on the Warner Archive Blu-ray is appalling. It starts to cutoff at around 6kHz to have nothing above 10kHz. The LaserDisc is much more full-frequency.
Director: John Ford
The audio on the Warner Archive Blu-ray is appalling. It starts to cutoff at around 6kHz to have nothing above 10kHz. The LaserDisc is much more full-frequency.
Director: John Ford
Director: John Ford
Director: John Ford
Director: John Ford
Director: John Ford
Director: John Ford
Director: John Ford
Warner Archive Blu-ray new restoration by Library of Congress and the Film Foundation
Director: John Ford
Warner Archive Blu-ray new restoration by Library of Congress and the Film Foundation
Director: John Ford
Warner Archive Blu-ray 4K restoration from original Technicolor negatives
Director: John Ford
Warner Archive Blu-ray 4K restoration from original Technicolor negatives
Director: Josef von Sternberg
Director: Josef von Sternberg
Director: Fritz Lang
1984 Giorgio Moroder restoration: MoC Blu-ray or Kino Lorber Blu-ray
2001 Murnau restoration: MoC 2-disc DVD set > Kino Lorber 1-disc Restored Authorized Edition DVD
2010 Murnau complete restoration: MoC Blu-ray > Kino Lorber Blu-ray
Director: Fritz Lang
1984 Giorgio Moroder restoration: MoC Blu-ray or Kino Lorber Blu-ray
2001 Murnau restoration: MoC 2-disc DVD set > Kino Lorber 1-disc Restored Authorized Edition DVD
2010 Murnau complete restoration: MoC Blu-ray > Kino Lorber Blu-ray
Director: F. W. Murnau
2006 Restoration: Eureka Blu-ray
1995 photochemical restoration: BFI Blu-ray that some may prefer
Eureka with Murnau institute restoration featuring score based on original score, BFI uses Photoplay restoration with James Bernard score
Both Eureka and BFI BDs are worthy of owning. Each restoration has unique positives and extras. The James Bernard score on the BFI is outstanding and the image tinting is different to how the Murnau institute official restoration was done. The Eureka MoC BD is stuffed with extras and remains one of the best-made BDs of all time. Whatever you do: AVOID THE Kino Lorber BD!!! It uses the same Murnau institute restoration but drops frames for the whole feature - thus it loses a significant portion of the film! This was never acknowledged or addressed. The Kino Lorber BD remains one of the worst BDs of all time for this reason.
Director: F. W. Murnau
2006 Restoration: Eureka Blu-ray
1995 photochemical restoration: BFI Blu-ray that some may prefer
Eureka with Murnau institute restoration featuring score based on original score, BFI uses Photoplay restoration with James Bernard score
Both Eureka and BFI BDs are worthy of owning. Each restoration has unique positives and extras. The James Bernard score on the BFI is outstanding and the image tinting is different to how the Murnau institute official restoration was done. The Eureka MoC BD is stuffed with extras and remains one of the best-made BDs of all time. Whatever you do: AVOID THE Kino Lorber BD!!! It uses the same Murnau institute restoration but drops frames for the whole feature - thus it loses a significant portion of the film! This was never acknowledged or addressed. The Kino Lorber BD remains one of the worst BDs of all time for this reason.
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Eureka MoC Blu-ray, see caps
MoC is sourced from an earlier scan, but still looks more detailed than the later 4K restoration released by Kadokawa in Japan, which has some black crush and DNR. French Capricci disc is sourced from the same scan as MoC but with much worse encoding and wrong levels.
1991 Daiei LaserDisc
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Eureka MoC Blu-ray, see caps
MoC is sourced from an earlier scan, but still looks more detailed than the later 4K restoration released by Kadokawa in Japan, which has some black crush and DNR. French Capricci disc is sourced from the same scan as MoC but with much worse encoding and wrong levels.
1991 Daiei LaserDisc
Director: James Whale
MoC 4K Blu-ray. Here are some screenshots that include the Cohen Blu-ray and the poor Germany 4K with terrible fake HDR. David’s DV grade is way more subtle and doesn’t blow out the highlights
Director: James Whale
MoC 4K Blu-ray. Here are some screenshots that include the Cohen Blu-ray and the poor Germany 4K with terrible fake HDR. David’s DV grade is way more subtle and doesn’t blow out the highlights
Director: Elaine May
Cinématographe 4K Blu-ray
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.
Olive Films Blu-ray / Masters of Cinema Blu-ray
Cinématographe has unnecessary noise gating not present on the previous releases.
Director: Elaine May
Cinématographe 4K Blu-ray
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.
Olive Films Blu-ray / Masters of Cinema Blu-ray
Cinématographe has unnecessary noise gating not present on the previous releases.
Director: Oliver Stone
Twilight Time Blu-ray or MGM NTSC DVD for the original mono mix
Shout! Factory 4K only has a stereo downmix (which sounds muffled, as do the surround tracks)
Twilight Time Blu-ray has the mono track with seemingly the best fidelity, but its dynamic range has been heavily compressed
MoC UK Blu-ray has a proper dynamics and good fidelity, but bizzarely, everything is repeated after a few miliseconds, rendering echoey and metallic
MGM NTSC DVD has been denoised and has had a strong EQ applied and sounds muffled as a result, but it retains proper dynamics
Koch Media DE BD had poor dynamics and wrong pitch
Perhaps the digital JP LD would be better.
Director: Oliver Stone
Twilight Time Blu-ray or MGM NTSC DVD for the original mono mix
Shout! Factory 4K only has a stereo downmix (which sounds muffled, as do the surround tracks)
Twilight Time Blu-ray has the mono track with seemingly the best fidelity, but its dynamic range has been heavily compressed
MoC UK Blu-ray has a proper dynamics and good fidelity, but bizzarely, everything is repeated after a few miliseconds, rendering echoey and metallic
MGM NTSC DVD has been denoised and has had a strong EQ applied and sounds muffled as a result, but it retains proper dynamics
Koch Media DE BD had poor dynamics and wrong pitch
Perhaps the digital JP LD would be better.
Director: Mario Bava
Original Italian/English dubs: UK Masters of Cinema 4K Blu-ray
Export English dub: Paramount LaserDisc
MoC ported the export dub from LaserDisc, but used a low quality transfer, with poor lossy encoding.
MST3K version: Vol XXXIX DVD / episode 1013: series finale of the original show.
Director: Mario Bava
Original Italian/English dubs: UK Masters of Cinema 4K Blu-ray
Export English dub: Paramount LaserDisc
MoC ported the export dub from LaserDisc, but used a low quality transfer, with poor lossy encoding.
MST3K version: Vol XXXIX DVD / episode 1013: series finale of the original show.
BFI 4K Blu-ray is significantly better than older Blu-ray however the HDR grade is questionable as it introduces black crushes, see nic's review and caps
For Blu-rays, Germany StudioCanal Blu-ray > MoC Blu-ray see caps
BFI 4K Blu-ray
All disc sourced from the 4K restoration use the same solid audio track. Older DVD releases are from a higher generation source with less detail and more hiss.
BFI 4K Blu-ray is significantly better than older Blu-ray however the HDR grade is questionable as it introduces black crushes, see nic's review and caps
For Blu-rays, Germany StudioCanal Blu-ray > MoC Blu-ray see caps
BFI 4K Blu-ray
All disc sourced from the 4K restoration use the same solid audio track. Older DVD releases are from a higher generation source with less detail and more hiss.
More Comedy on Blu-ray
Director: Steven Shainberg
Director: Steven Shainberg
Director: Rob Reiner
Director: Rob Reiner
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Director: Rob Reiner
Director: Rob Reiner
Director: Michael Gordon
Director: Michael Gordon
Director: Melville Shavelson
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 6K master from Paramount
Director: Melville Shavelson
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 6K master from Paramount
Director: Richard Bartlett
Director: Richard Bartlett
Director: H. C. Potter
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 2K restoration
Director: H. C. Potter
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 2K restoration
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