Mario Gauci
19-07-2002, 16:50
I noticed that King Vidor’s DUEL IN THE SUN (1946) and Alfred Hitchcock’s THE PARADINE CASE (1947) are both available on R2 DVD from Play.com at only GBP 5.99 each. Whereas Anchor Bay released bare-bones editions on R1, these Prism Leisure Corp. discs have a few interesting extras:
DUEL IN THE SUN [ROADSHOW EDITION]:
· Trailer
· Popular Tag, 1947
· Widescreen Tag, 1954
· Biographies - Jennifer Jones, Gregory Peck, Joseph Cotten, Lionel Barrymore, David O. Selznick, King Vidor
· Comments from Martin Scorsese and Gregory Peck
Actually there are 5 trailers in all, including the 1947 and 1954 “tags”. Another error in the details given by Play.com, or rather the packaging, is that the running time is only 129 mins. whereas, on the DVD Reviewer site, it is given as 138 mins. which would make it the proper PAL equivalent to Anchor Bay’s R1 edition, which runs for 144 mins.! At least I hope it’s an error, so I really wish that someone would confirm that the film is indeed the full-length “Roadshow” version.
Unfortunately, the “Comments” appear to be only a few pages of text, but I guess it’s better than nothing - and it certainly is interesting to have first-hand knowledge of what Peck himself thought of the film, as well as Scorsese, a lifelong champion of this epic David O. Selznick production.
THE PARADINE CASE:
· Cast Biographies
· Quotes and Trivia
· Photo Gallery
· Film Trivia, Awards and Taglines
· A Conversation with Hitchcock
· An Interview with Film Critic Kim Newman
· Hitchcock Biography
The film itself is not high profile Hitchcock but, at this price, it’s very much a no-brainer. What I am worried about, actually, is the quality of the print and the transfer. Is there anybody who already owns the DVD who would like to give his opinion of it? I could not find any reviews of this disc on the Internet!
Criterion released a batch of Hitchcock titles in superb Special Editions (including three which had already been put out, bare-bones, by Anchor Bay!), but I don’t see them tackling THE PARADINE CASE, somehow. As I said, it’s one of Hitch’s few failures: maybe the director lost interest when he couldn't get the leads he had really wanted - Laurence Olivier, Greta Garbo and Robert Newton instead of Gregory Peck, Alida Valli and Louis Jourdan! Still, being a Hitchcock film, it cannot fail to have its interesting qualities: a splendid cast of superb character actors, David O. Selznick’s customarily meticulous production (he also penned the rather verbose script) and excellent camerawork and lighting by one of the cinema’s top Directors of Photography, Lee Garmes.
I know that the released version (116 mins.) is cut; in fact, it was originally 132 mins. long. Whether the missing footage exists anymore I cannot say: I certainly never heard or read of any attempt to restore it – as was the case with Hitchcock’s TOPAZ (1969) for the DVD release – though, obviously, it would be great if this could be done!
DUEL IN THE SUN [ROADSHOW EDITION]:
· Trailer
· Popular Tag, 1947
· Widescreen Tag, 1954
· Biographies - Jennifer Jones, Gregory Peck, Joseph Cotten, Lionel Barrymore, David O. Selznick, King Vidor
· Comments from Martin Scorsese and Gregory Peck
Actually there are 5 trailers in all, including the 1947 and 1954 “tags”. Another error in the details given by Play.com, or rather the packaging, is that the running time is only 129 mins. whereas, on the DVD Reviewer site, it is given as 138 mins. which would make it the proper PAL equivalent to Anchor Bay’s R1 edition, which runs for 144 mins.! At least I hope it’s an error, so I really wish that someone would confirm that the film is indeed the full-length “Roadshow” version.
Unfortunately, the “Comments” appear to be only a few pages of text, but I guess it’s better than nothing - and it certainly is interesting to have first-hand knowledge of what Peck himself thought of the film, as well as Scorsese, a lifelong champion of this epic David O. Selznick production.
THE PARADINE CASE:
· Cast Biographies
· Quotes and Trivia
· Photo Gallery
· Film Trivia, Awards and Taglines
· A Conversation with Hitchcock
· An Interview with Film Critic Kim Newman
· Hitchcock Biography
The film itself is not high profile Hitchcock but, at this price, it’s very much a no-brainer. What I am worried about, actually, is the quality of the print and the transfer. Is there anybody who already owns the DVD who would like to give his opinion of it? I could not find any reviews of this disc on the Internet!
Criterion released a batch of Hitchcock titles in superb Special Editions (including three which had already been put out, bare-bones, by Anchor Bay!), but I don’t see them tackling THE PARADINE CASE, somehow. As I said, it’s one of Hitch’s few failures: maybe the director lost interest when he couldn't get the leads he had really wanted - Laurence Olivier, Greta Garbo and Robert Newton instead of Gregory Peck, Alida Valli and Louis Jourdan! Still, being a Hitchcock film, it cannot fail to have its interesting qualities: a splendid cast of superb character actors, David O. Selznick’s customarily meticulous production (he also penned the rather verbose script) and excellent camerawork and lighting by one of the cinema’s top Directors of Photography, Lee Garmes.
I know that the released version (116 mins.) is cut; in fact, it was originally 132 mins. long. Whether the missing footage exists anymore I cannot say: I certainly never heard or read of any attempt to restore it – as was the case with Hitchcock’s TOPAZ (1969) for the DVD release – though, obviously, it would be great if this could be done!