I just bought the Spanish DVD of Untamed, which is called in Spanish Caravana Hacia El Sur, which can be translated as Caravan (or Wagon Train) to the South.
I had heard this was a widescreen release, and so it is. The soundtrack is defaulted to a Spanish language version, but you can easily switch it to the original English. But that's as far as the good news goes.
Untamed was filmed in Cinemascope, so the proper aspect ratio is 2:55:1. The slightly bad news is that the DVD is 2:35:1, which means there still is a bit of information lost. But that's miniscule compared to what you lose with pan and scan, which cuts out half the picture. So 2:35:1 is more or less acceptable and we get a much better idea of the composition of the shots.
The REALLY bad news is that this transfer sucks so badly that Fox should be ashamed of itself for such an awful release. It's not enhanced for widescreen TVs, so the picture has to be zoomed out, and it looks only minimally better than some lousy bootleg. The picture is bleary, has very little detail, and overrun with artifacts of all kinds.
So... I'm still waiting for a decent release of Untamed, even though it's probably my least favorite Tyrone Power movie. ;) (The costume epic I REALLY want in an excellent transfer is King of the Khyber Rifles.)
But since Fox has virtually given up on releases of classics I'm not expecting Untamed, Khyber, or the rest of the unreleased films any time soon.
Wondering about Cinemascope? Go here for a terrific explanation about it, courtesy one of my favorite websites, the Widescreen Museum.
thanks for the (as usual :-)!) great info. Peachtree. Too bad about "Untamed" but at least, as you say it's a more complete letterbox transfer. I wonder why they didn't do it justice in regards to the picture quality, however? Can't imagine it's that tricky to get a decent print.
p.s. Got "North By Northwest" the other night and I can't stop watching the darned thing :-). The docs. were impressive as well. Had to chuckle as to how Ernest Lehman got a bit defensive in the commentary but let's face it, he's been more or less forgotten as one of the prime creative sources for this film, so any defensiveness is fully justified.
Again THANKS SOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH Adam :-)!!!!!!! You are too, too generous :-)! (Karamazov being mailed this week; it's not letterbox, however, I'm afraid.)
It's on Hulu. Not Letterbox but a pretty decent print if you've never seen the film. Don't know how many 30 second commercial interruptions are in it because I didn't watch it in it's entirety.The movie never held my attention, basically because I find Susan Hayward too much of a ham actor. She just looks like she's acting all the time. There's a little button for "continuous play", I don't know if that eliminates the 30 second commercials. Can't stop reading the LIFE magazines online, the old ads are such a trip.
At the moment there just isn't a decent version of Untamed (and several other Power movies) available. I bet there's a really nice print in the Fox vault somewhere. ;)
I suspect, though, that even on the really big screen (where a Cinemascope movie SHOULD be seen) it's pretty dull stuff.
Joanne, that's a positive on the North by Northwest. Maybe I'll get to it when I have some time off at Christmas, along with that massive Gone With the Wind box. ;)
What IS it with these 'definitive' releases every two to three years?! I thought we were GWTW-out with the previous 4-disc release. It had hours of extras...the fact that we're getting tons more, well...I dunno. (Maybe it's all the books they're including this time.) This and the Wizard of Oz, as you mention--it's as if they're running out of ideas as to what they release and they revert back to old habits.
If you do get the GWTW and fell like posting your opinion, I'd love to know what you think.
For what it's worth, I just got the 2-disc version of "Dr. Strangelove" and I've rarely seen such terrific extras. Wonderful, (and extensive) new docs (they even interview Robert McNamara extensively)--a faux set of interviews with Peter Sellers and George C. Scot--some of the best I've seen. If you're a fan of that film, it's well worth it.
