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Topic: Has anyone run Dr. Zhivago?

Mike Schulz
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 122
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: May 2007

posted 12-28-2007 03:38 AM

Hello. I'm going to be running Dr. Zhivago(35mm) next week at my theatre and I have some questions for anybody that has run this show. We don't have the print yet so I'd like to get some information ahead of time to help me out.

Does it open with music before the studio logo (similar to Lawrence of Arabia) and if so, about how much time is there before the logo?

Is there an intermission and if so, does it lead back in with music?

Unfortunately I haven't had the pleasure to see this on the big screen yet and none of the operators I work with have seen or run it before either.

Any information about the presentation of this film would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike Schulz

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Monte L Fullmer
Film God

Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 12-28-2007 03:59 AM

I ran Zhivago back in '75 and it was a roadshow print with what you have asked requests on: the overture, the intermission music, but as for the duration of the music, I do believe it was either 2 to 3 minutes in length.

For Metrocolor, the color was fantastic - great photography. But ran it in mono even though I had a mag/optical print.

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Stephen Furley
Film God

Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002

posted 12-28-2007 04:28 AM

quote: Mike Schulz
Hello. I'm going to be running Dr. Zhivago(35mm) next week at my theatre and I have some questions for anybody that has run this show. We don't have the print yet so I'd like to get some information ahead of time to help me out.

Does it open with music before the studio logo (similar to Lawrence of Arabia) and if so, about how much time is there before the logo?

Yes, it starts with the overture music just printed on black film, there's nothing on screen, unlike West Side Story, for example. I haven't seen it for years, but I think it's probably about 2 minutes or so.

quote: Mike Schulz
Is there an intermission and if so, does it lead back in with music?

Yes, there is an intermission. The train is run off the main line into a siding to allow another train to pass. As this train, a very military-looking one, passes, the crowd call out 'Strelnikov!'; a woman says 'Yes, that's Strelnikov', and he is seen standing at the back of the train. That's the last scene of the first part.

There is no music during the intermission, but there is Entre'act music leading into the second part; this is shorter than the overture music.

quote: Mike Schulz
Unfortunately I haven't had the pleasure to see this on the big screen yet and none of the operators I work with have seen or run it before either.

Any information about the presentation of this film would be much appreciated.

I've never seen it on 35mm; I've seen the 70mm blow-up twice, and I have the Laserdisc of it. Of course, it's possible that the 35mm version is different to those that I've seen, that new prints are different to the original ones, or that parts of your print could be missing; you really do need to run this before the show, if you possibly can.

The original sound mix for 35mm was 4-channel mag, and mono optical. I don't know what's on the new prints I assume they're stereo optical, which can reproduce the same channels as the original mag, but I don't know if they have digital, and if so, whether the sound has been re-mixed for stereo surrounds, which the original release formats didn't have.

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Rick Raskin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1100
From: Manassas Virginia
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 12-28-2007 08:05 AM

After the music the second act starts with the sound of screaming train whistles over black picture. After a moment the picture comes on with the expanding entrance of a tunnel as the train emerges. On some presentations management called for skipping the intermission. In a changeover house you could overlay the screaming whistles track from the incoming reel just after the woman says "That's Strelnikov" and keep the picture of the receding train from the outbound reel. Then changeover to the inbound picture just as the tunnel opening expands and the train emerges.

When I ran 35mm prints in the late 60s the overture music was missing but the entr'acte was intact. No telling what is on a print today.

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Mike Schulz
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 122
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: May 2007

posted 12-28-2007 11:06 AM

Thanks guys. I will have the print in time to inspect all of the reels, but might only have the chance to run one or two reels before the big show. I will make sure I find the intermission reels to try and time the music so I can mark my changeover.

I'm not sure when the last time they struck new roadshow prints, but there is no way it will be from the 70s [Smile]

Anyways, thanks for the info guys, I really appreciate it.

-Mike

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 12-28-2007 12:34 PM

Mike, please let us know how it turns out. You can also post detailed information about your print on the Feature Info & Trailer Attachments forum here. Posting contact information is helpful too; I assume you are getting this directly from MGM Classics, but let us know. Especially useful is if the title has had new stereo prints struck with either SR, SRD or DTS tracks.

Up until the last time I ran it, in the mid-90s, you either played it in 4trk mag (we did) or mono. Nowadays it is not quite so bad because you can, as we have done a number of times, play the music portions that are easily obtained from a DVD version when that material is missing from the print.

If your print has all the Overture, Intermission title, Entracte and Exit music intact, to the art house folk here, getting a complete print with those elements is like gold. In early days one would tremble opening the cans of a Roadshow title, wondering if you were going to get a complete print or one that was hacked up by the [bs]

houses so they could eliminate any vestige of Roadshow presentation.

Roadshow elements to these scumsuckers evidently is akin to throwing holy water on a vampire. The minute the grind houses see Roadshow elements, they grab their splicers with their cold, dead hands and splice it off -- then they DON'T splice it back on when returning the print. May wooden stakes be driven through their rotting hearts and they burn in bowels of hell where they came from whilst for all eternity their gonnads are whacked with a baseball bat everytime a Roadshow print plays without its Intermission. [thumbsup]

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Michael Coate
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1904
From: Los Angeles, California
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 12-28-2007 01:22 PM

quote: Frank Angel
Especially useful is if the title has had new stereo prints struck with either SR, SRD or DTS tracks.

(Some) prints from the film's 30th anniversary re-release in 1995 were in DTS.

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Sam D. Chavez
Film God

Posts: 2153
From: Martinez, CA USA
Registered: Aug 2003

posted 12-28-2007 02:43 PM

I'm with Frank on that last paragraph as I had the pleasure of running this film first run in 4 track Mag with all the roadshow footage.

I later had the displeasure of being ordered to run this same print in the garbage house in the back. These consoles had a very early Christie automation where the cue detector was a magnetized pickup similar to the magnetos found in a lawn mower engine. (It needed ferrous metal cues to trigger).

I protested to no effect and at the end of the run there was almost no sound on the mag tracks.

I hope Syufy and not I end up in Franks version of the Bowels of Hell.

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Stephen Furley
Film God

Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002

posted 12-28-2007 03:03 PM

Dr. Zhivage was serialised on BBC Radio 4 a few weeks ago, and O saw the book on display in W H Smiths at about the same time. I wondered why; it seems that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the original publication of the book in English translation.

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Richard P. May
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 243
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Jan 2006

posted 12-28-2007 04:33 PM

Commenting on Mike's note about "some" of the 1995 prints being DTS: All of them have the DTS track, as long as WB's distribution dept. can supply the discs. The DTS sound is very impressive.
If you only have time to run some of the print, be sure you check reels 1 and (I think) 6, to be sure the overture and intermission music is there.
I checked a couple of prints for an Academy run a while back. One of them had the music removed by some #(%&% theater, while the other was in perfect and complete condition.
Your booker should discuss this with WB's Classic department, and request that you get a proper print. Otherwise, you might just get the first one off the shelf.

RPM

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Mike Schulz
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 122
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: May 2007

posted 12-28-2007 08:28 PM

The print came in today and it is one of the newer ones from Warner Bros. I've inspected 6 of the reels so far and it seems to be in pretty good shape. It is complete with all of the overture music as the lead-in and also the intermission card. The print has timecode on it for DTS but the discs were not present in the cans which I was informed today that they should always be in the cans no matter what venue the film is playing at.

It is too bad that my theatre doesn't have DTS installed because I would love to hear the 6-channel mix they did for it. I offered to install a unit in the rack for the show but they thought it would be too much of a hassle just for one show.

Thankfully a nice projectionist at one of the previous venues the print was at had taped an instruction sheet to the inside of the cans with all of the information I needed.

I will definitely let you guys know how things went with my show. I'll be running it on the 2nd.

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Christopher Seo
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 530
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-12-2008 12:21 PM

This is a little late for Mike's show, but I should add that the 35mm DTS print I ran of "Zhivago" had an A-type optical track. I think the credits listed "DTS Stereo".

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Mike Heenan
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1896
From: Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 01-12-2008 01:48 PM

Make sure you let WB know the discs weren't in the can, they seem pretty anal about that (at least in my experience).

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System Notices
Forum Watchdog / Soup Nazi

Posts: 215

Registered: Apr 2004

posted 01-24-2011 08:56 PM

It has been 1108 days since the last post.

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Manny Knowles
"What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???"

Posts: 4247
From: Bloomington, IN, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 01-24-2011 08:56 PM

Yuck - my print was pretty beat up.

Overture missing footage at start
Footage missing from ends of reels - over 3 feet in one instance
All reels were splicy - Reel 3 has a 5' stretch with 14 splices in it [Eek!]

Heads and tails dirty and badly scratched (and shoe polished)

[puke]

It did have the DTS discs, though. [thumbsup]

Discs 1A and 1B cover Act One (Reels 1-8)
Disc 2A (one disc only) covers Act Two (Reels 9-12)

MUSIC:
Overture is stated as 4min 33sec
Intermission card is short (End of Reel 8)
Entre' Acte appears at Start of Reel 9 and is stated as 2min 6sec

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